Sauling Mnarks

by demonicgallade

If you want to read it, find it elsewhere. Its for listening to with the app.

1. 0-21

By CmptrWz

Prologue

Jacob had finally gotten around to using some of his vacation time, having scheduled time between both of his jobs to visit his brother-in-law and niece. He hadn't seen either since his half-sister's funeral a couple of years ago. To make matters worse, he hadn't heard from them in over a year and he was getting worried.

His occupation as a cape therapist had kept him quite busy, and he was in high demand. Which was one reason he hadn't been able to stop by for the past year. While not nearly as skilled with non-parahumans he still knew enough to suspect that his brother-in-law had fallen too far into depression and his niece was most likely all but on her own.

Pulling up to their house in his rental car he noted that the downstairs lights were on. Coupled with the car in the driveway that meant that they were, in fact, home. He grabbed his bag and hopped out of the car, heading up to the front door.

Dodging the broken step, which was concerning in that nobody had gotten around to fixing it, he tried the doorbell. Hearing nothing, another bad sign, he rapped on the door. He wasn't expecting his brother-in-law to all but rip the door off the hinges with a panicked look on his face, though.

"Jacob," his brother-in-law finally said, a forlorn look on his face.

"Danny," Jacob answered. "I guess I wasn't who you were expecting?"

"I was hoping Taylor had finally come home," Danny admitted. "Or at least that the police had come with news."

Well didn't that set red flags off.

"Where was she last known to be?" Jacob asked, after realizing that Danny wasn't going to provide more information without prodding.

"When did you last see her?"

"I dropped her off at school this morning, watched her walk through the doors, then headed into work. When I got home there was a message on the answering machine from the school, they claimed she was absent today."

"Ok Danny, from what you said earlier I assume you called the police?"

"Of course. Though they said there wasn't much they could likely do unless they got lucky."

"I'm going to go check the school, see if I can spot anything there myself." Jacob then pulled a business card out of a pocket. "Here's one of my cards, in case you can't find my number. Call me if you hear anything."

Danny took the card and, after a moment, took Jacob's bag. "Thanks Jacob, please let me know if you find anything."

"Of course." Jacob headed back to the car. He knew that Taylor had ended up in Winslow, so that is where he headed.

Jacob pulled up to Winslow. He hoped that a janitor was still around to let him in, but wasn't holding out hope given that it was after dark and the lights were out. Still, he made his way to the door, but not before grabbing a small tool bag. Just in case.

As luck would have it, the lock didn't work due to what appeared to be old chewing gum jammed into it, and he was able to walk right in.

A quick check out of curiosity showed that they hadn't even bothered to try and lock the door anyway, so either they knew about the gum or normally didn't lock the school after hours. He wasn't sure which was more concerning.

He made his way through the first floor of the school, making cursory checks in all the classrooms and restrooms. Finding nothing he made his way to the second floor, which also netted nothing, though there was an odd feeling in the back of his head. It dawned on him as he was entering the stairwell to head up to the third floor that he should have seen if he could find information on her locker or something in the office. Perhaps he would do that after he cleared the third floor, see if her jacket was here or something?

Of course, that plan didn't last long into entering the third floor hallway, what with the smell. Following his nose led him to a locker that was weeping something horrid. One of the only lockers on the floor with a second lock attached to the outside in addition to the built-in lock. At first he wanted nothing to do with whatever was in that thing, but something was nagging him about it. Deciding that regardless this needed to be investigated he made short work of the additional lock with the aid of a pair of bolt cutters, handling it with gloves just in case they wanted or needed to take fingerprints or something due to the mess, and then he pulled out a small lock pick set.

"I need more practice with these," Jacob mumbled, restarting for the fifth time. Another couple of attempts and he got it, releasing the key override to the locker's built-in combination lock. He then steeled himself for the smell to likely get worse and opened the locker.

He barely reacted in time to catch the body that fell out of the locker, and he ignored the waste spilling out around his feet. It took him a moment to realize that no, this wasn't a corpse, it was breathing.

Unfortunately, it was also Taylor. He saw red for a moment, but quickly pushed it down as he had more immediate concerns.

Jacob watched as the ambulance that had responded to his emergency call pulled away. Danny had been informed and was likewise on his way to the same hospital. He would visit the hospital later, after ensuring that nothing was going to screw up the investigation into why and how Taylor was locked in that locker.

He knew there was no way she had locked herself in as a design feature of these lockers would prevent the door from closing if another lock was in the handle. Not to mention that she had been facing into the locker with no room to turn around and thus no way to even try and pull the door shut behind her.

It was a couple of minutes later when a police car showed up, apologizing for taking so long due to the original car having smashed a rim in a particularly bad pothole, and Jacob led them to the scene.

"Did someone let you in?" one of the officers asked as he led them through the unlocked doors. "And if so where are they?"

"Doors were unlocked when I got here," Jacob answered. "In fact, near as I can tell they are all unlocked, like nobody cares to bother locking them. Haven't seen anyone else around, the alarm panel looks like it has been disconnected, and on a whim while waiting I checked and they apparently don't have long distance service on the phones. Not sure if the security cameras work, and if so where the recordings end up, but I wouldn't be surprised if those are more for show, and that everyone in the school knows it."

The officers did not look happy at that.

A couple minutes later initial observations were made and the officers were setting the initial cordon around the locker. Jacob described why he had been there and what he had done into a recorder for when the proper investigators finally arrived, but one of the officers had noted a couple of things Jacob had missed that opened some additional options for him.

Knowing there was nothing for him to do but sit around and worry with Danny at the hospital and that he couldn't poke around the school office for clues he decided to head back to Danny's house.

Danny had, after all, given him permission to check for anything Taylor might have left behind that could help explain what had happened.

"Clever," Jacob said a couple hours later, having found a loose floorboard in Taylor's closet, with a notebook and pile of loose papers hidden in it. "Almost missed that, if it hadn't shifted while I was reaching up to feel for seams I likely would have missed it entirely."

Jacob collected the items and moved out into the room proper, where he had enough light to read by. If this turned out to be something personal not related to what had happened at school he would carefully put it back and likely apologize to Taylor for invading her privacy. It didn't take him long to realize that the loose papers were printouts of emails, headers and all. The notebook was a log of events, dated and with details such as whether or not they had been reported to teachers or the school office and what had been done as a result. He suspected the USB drive included contained digital copies of most of the information as well, though he didn't check as he didn't know what passwords Taylor and Danny used for the two somewhat dated computers in the house.

All in all it didn't paint a pretty picture. And if even a tenth of what was documented in the hardcopy alone was accurate then there were going to be some serious consequences for people. Even, or perhaps especially, if he and his associates had to come back on a job to ensure it.

Still, looking back over the names of Taylor's most frequent tormentors he realized that there were two that stuck out. Emma Barnes was, as far as he could recall, Taylor's best friend. What had happened to make them bitter enemies? The other he knew was familiar, but he couldn't figure out where he had heard of Sophia Hess before. Shrugging it off for now, he gathered the evidence, dropped it on top of a box of schoolbooks and such he had found nothing interesting in, and resumed looking just in case this was only one of several stashes.

"Good morning Director Piggot," Jacob said as he entered the office.

"Hello Jacob," Director Piggot said, gesturing for the man to sit across from her. "I heard you were on vacation, but not that you were going to be in the area. And I have told you to call me Emily."

"I came to visit with family," Jacob admitted. "Unfortunately when I showed up, admittedly without prior notice, it was to discover my niece Taylor had gone missing sometime between entering school and making it to homeroom. Which leads me to here."

"That is unfortunate," Emily said. "Moreso as the only reason I can come up with for why you are here is that you found evidence of parahuman involvement."

"Indeed," Jacob said as he pulled out the documentation he had recovered from Taylor's closet and placed on it on the desk. "I found my niece locked in a locker at Winslow, severely injured and unconscious, alongside biohazardous waste. Last I heard they were likely going to need to close the school down until it could be cleaned up. But one of the officers noted that it looked like a tampon was stuck in the metal of the locker. Not to the metal, but in it."

"I see," Emily said, her expression darkening. "That paints an unfortunate picture."

"This stack," Jacob tapped the pile of papers on top of a notebook,"appears to be documentation by my niece of a severe bullying campaign. What little I looked at mentions over a dozen students and indicates that the staff is likely ignoring or actively helping to cover up quite a bit."

Emily took a couple of the sheets off of the top, noting that they were hard copies of emails. This one was from Emma Barnes. If they could prove it was legitimate it was all but a confession that the girl had ruined a class project. After a moment she motioned for Jacob to continue.

"The three main instigators look to be Emma Barnes, who used to be Taylor's best friend but now apparently uses her knowledge to torment Taylor emotionally, Madison Clements, who at a quick glance handles most of the likely academic sabotage due to sharing most of Taylor's classes, and Sophia Hess, who handles most of the physical abuse."

Emily's expression had darkened some more, though Jacob wasn't sure why. He did, however, suspect she knew something, and that there was no way this was going to be swept under the rug. Which was, for now, the important part. It did not take long for him to relay everything else he knew of the situation.

Twenty minutes later Jacob was on his way to the hospital to see how things were going, and to bring Danny a change of clothes and breakfast. Future thought and planning into revenge for all of this, if needed, could wait until he knew how bad off Taylor was. Though if those responsible were lucky the law would deal with them first,

Emily looked over some more of the printed emails, and then flipped through the notebook looking at random pages. She had to stop and calm herself down several times. She took a moment to check the news, seeing a notice that Winslow was indeed closed. She fired off some orders to get PRT squads to Winslow to investigate, though she trusted that Jacob had not mislead her. Finally, she picked up her phone and selected a saved number.

"Good morning Director," Miss Militia answered. "How can I help you today?"

"I wish it were a good morning," Emily replied. "Have you seen the news about Winslow?"

"I was informed a few minutes ago. I assume that there is more going on there?"

"A trusted associate of the PRT brought evidence of parahuman involvement in what could very well be the attempted murder of a student. I need you to come look over some of the evidence."

"I will be there in half an hour."

"How is she?" Jacob asked Danny, noting that he looked horrible.

Neither of them had actually gotten any sleep in the past day, though Jacob had kept himself as busy as he could getting things together to ensure that the investigation had the best chance of success.

"They aren't sure she will pull through without parahuman healing,"

Danny said after a couple of minutes. "At a minimum she will need parahuman healing to avoid needing her legs amputated."

"Has anyone said anything about having sent a request?"

"Apparently Carol Dallon has blocked having her called in on school nights if the patient can wait until her next scheduled visit, but Panacea is still scheduled to be here after school today, they have put Taylor on the top of her list. I already signed all of the waivers needed."

"If Panacea can't help her I have some contacts I can call in too.

They may take a day or two to get here, though."

"Thanks Jacob, I don't know what I'd do without her. Losing Annette was bad enough. And I'm sorry for not staying in touch."

"On that front, as much as you hate the idea, I think we need to talk about your fear of cell phones. These days a good pair would allow yours to locate Taylor's if something like this happens again even if she couldn't call for assistance herself."

Danny glared at him, clearly unhappy about this particular topic.

"Damn you for using logic and my fears against me."

"Family and friends sometimes need to do that for your own good. I'll even spring for getting a hands-free kit for your car so you don't need to fumble with the phone itself if someone calls while you are driving."

Danny sighed. "I guess it makes sense. I suppose you already know a good model and plan?"

"Of course." Danny wouldn't need to know that he was going to take advantage of his position with the PRT to get something a bit better than normally available. He especially wouldn't need to know that the phones would probably be more powerful than their dated computers at home were.

Chapter 1

Taylor winced a little as she opened her eyes. A quick glance around her and she knew that she was in a hospital, though not which one. Her father was on her left and Panacea was on her right. Which probably meant she was in Brockton General. She could tell Panacea was still working, though, and she didn't think she would be able to speak yet.

Ooooh, Panacea has a snark. Hello!

[Query]

Well, you are there, it would be rude to ignore you. How are you?

[Boredom]

Awww, why are you bored?

[Repetition. Monotony.]

Well, I suppose it would be boring only working at healing humans all the time. Or perhaps just animals? How do you feel about plants?

Oooh, tingly throat. "Hello?" Dang, that was barely a whisper.

[Interest. Curiosity. Despair.]

Why wouldn't she..oh, right, she is likely afraid of being seen like Nilbog. But that isn't her fault. Maybe she just needs a poke?

"Sorry about that, try again?" Panacea said.

"Hello?" Taylor tried again. Much better. "You should buy a greenhouse." Panacea blinked. Taylor then turned to look at her father, who appeared to be slightly in shock, and like he hadn't slept in a day or two. "Hi dad." Crap, the last thing she remembered before waking up here was getting shoved into a locker, which means dad must know about the bullying now. Either that or someone at Winslow is much better at covering up than she would expect.

"Taylor," Danny said, carefully leaning over to hug her. "Why didn't you tell me? Jacob said your notes went back months."

Jacob? Uncle Jacob? Wow, she hadn't spoken to or heard from him for a while. Wait, he found her notes? Why was he in her closet?

"Why a greenhouse?" Panacea muttered.

"So that you and your snark can play with the plants, of course,"

Taylor answered. "So that your snark doesn't drive you crazy with boredom." Huh, that was straightforward, why did Panacea look confused?

Ooooh, could you and Panacea make rainbow roses?

[Affirmative]

I may want some of those!

"So is Uncle Jacob here?" Taylor asked. Danny looked confused.

"Yea," Danny finally answered. "He's waiting outside."

"Not that I want to interrupt," Panacea said. "But there are a couple of things we need to talk about."

Danny sat back in his chair and they both looked towards Panacea. One should always pay attention to the doctor when they tell you things, you might not recover properly otherwise.

"To start with, Taylor, you are going to be quite hungry for a few days," Panacea started. "You will need to eat quite a bit more as you recover."

"I'll make sure she eats plenty," Danny said.

"You will also want to avoid anything too strenuous for the same few days," Panacea continued. "I did what I could, but I can't heal the remnants of your concussion."

No brains?

[Annoyance]

Oh, she is just afraid to touch brains. I guess that makes sense,

given that a mistake could change someone in who knows what ways.

"We have a family member that should be able to help keep an eye on her," Danny said. "Even if it annoys her while she recovers."

"Lastly, I am required by law to inform you that Taylor triggered in the past 48 hours," Panacea said. "Before you ask, I can see that her brain is still healing from the trigger event, which was most likely in the locker she was locked inside of. In another day or two I wouldn't be able to tell anymore." She then pulled out a few pamphlets from a bag she had with her and handed them to Danny. "These cover some details about dealing with the aftermath of trigger events, contact numbers for the PRT and Protectorate, the unwritten rules and how they generally work, and how New Wave works and how to contact us. The latter is more of a courtesy, the law only requires that I provide the first couple when a minor is found to have triggered recently."

"How can you give us a copy of the unwritten rules if they are unwritten?" Taylor asked. Because that totally made no sense.

"Obviously they are typed and not written," Panacea deadpanned.

Huh, she had that response ready, she must get that one a lot. "More seriously, in this case unwritten mostly refers to the fact that they aren't, in fact, laws."

"Do you have to report that she triggered?" Danny asked.

"I am actually required to keep it a secret," Panacea answered.

"Similar to Doctor/Patient rules. Some of that is covered in the unwritten rules pamphlet, and that is one of the few things that does,

in fact, have a legal basis. At any rate, you are encouraged to talk to the PRT about power testing, even if Taylor doesn't join the Wards.

All of New Wave has done so, they can sometimes find aspects of powers that weren't immediately obvious."

"Thank you," Taylor said. Now that she thought about it, probably a good idea to be on the good side of someone who could probably turn you into a particularly unruly shrubbery if you pissed her off. "For everything."

"You are welcome," Panacea said. "Now then, unless you want others to know that Taylor has triggered you may want to hide the pamphlets for the time being. Have a nice day."

Panacea left as Danny put the pamphlets into a folder he had with him. A minute later Uncle Jacob came in. Taylor did not get a chance to say hello before Uncle Jacob had come over and wrapped her up in a hug.

Oooh. Hello there, you partnered with my uncle?

[Affirmation]

How are you?

[Content]

Good for you. Plenty of variety there?

[... Affirmation. Dejection?]

Plenty of parahumans, but he rarely looks for new kinds of blades?

Huh. Maybe I should look into getting him a sword for Christmas.

[Interest. Excitement.]

"I'm sorry I searched your room," Uncle Jacob finally said. Huh? Oh,

right, dad said something about that. "But we needed to know who may have locked you in that locker."

"It's alright," Taylor answered. For some reason she knew that Uncle Jacob got her out of the locker, and that later he slipped on the loose floorboard while looking for places up higher? "Why were you looking for places up high in my closet? There has never been anything up there that I know of."

"Because a lot of houses have access panels for things hidden in closets, some of which end up being accessible dead space later,"

Uncle Jacob answered. Then froze. "How did you know that?"

"I think your snark showed me," Taylor answered.

[Affirmation]

"Yea, your snark just told me that it did," Taylor continued. "Was it not supposed to?"

Uncle Jacob looked over at Danny. "I think we are going to need to chat when we get back to your house."

"Most likely," Danny answered, giving both of them a look.

"Can we stop at Fugly's?" Taylor asked. "I'm starving."

Taylor ended up going home with her father while Jacob swung by Fugly's. On the way home she was informed that, regardless of when Winslow re-opened, she wasn't going back there. Which led to a quick explanation that her locker had been so bad that the school had to be closed until it was decontaminated.

She didn't think it was that bad, herself, but then again she barely remembered entering the locker. Which kinda made her happy, actually, because that meant she didn't have to remember any of her apparent twelve or more hours trapped in the thing. On the other hand, that meant she had a bad enough head injury that she wasn't storing memories correctly, which was a bad thing. Perhaps she should just leave that alone.

Once they made it home Taylor grabbed a bag of chips to snack on while she read the pamphlets Panacea had provided. Her father cleaned up the mess that he had left the day before (was it really only a day?) when he had rushed to the hospital. She had offered to help, but was barred from doing so because she was supposed to be taking it easy.

Uncle Jacob arrived with enough takeout for five people just after Taylor had finished reading the last pamphlet. Apparently New Wave offered various forms of advice and assistance even if you didn't join, especially legal help for recent triggers needing it, especially in cases where the recent trigger injured someone before they even realized they had triggered. After giving it some thought Taylor didn't think joining New Wave would be a good idea, though, as the loss of Fleur did not have them allow capes to join without going public with their identity and as much as the unwritten rules were supposed to protect the families of capes her father had no powers of his own.

As they sat down to eat a silent agreement was reached that they would talk after dinner was consumed. Taylor surprised herself by eating a little more than twice what she normally would, but Panacea had said she was going to be unusually hungry. Uncle Jacob and her father finished the rest off, showing that they had not eaten much themselves over the past day.

Still, the reprieve from the coming discussion had to end eventually.

It lasted slightly longer as she was once again relegated to 'resting' while Uncle Jacob and her father cleaned up. So far it wasn't quite at the level of being annoying, but she suspected it would not be long before she was going to annoyed at the two of them not letting her do anything.

Finally everyone was sitting around the table with a drink each, the pamphlets having been placed between them. Danny had opted for a coffee while Jacob and Taylor had cups of tea.

"You will want to read these later," Jacob said to Danny, gesturing at the pamphlets. "But I already know what they say and Taylor has read them." He picked up the unwritten rules pamphlet. "This one is one of the more important for Taylor, though."

"Because unlike most capes I automatically identify that people are parahumans," Taylor supplied. "As such I need to keep that a secret, especially when they are out of costume."

"More so than that," Jacob said, looking at Taylor. "I suspect you get enough information to identify which parahuman they are. My abilities let me identify conscious parahumans automatically, but only that they are parahumans, though that isn't quite working with you. I have to go to some effort to figure out which parahuman they might be if I want to know that, and even then I usually have to interact with them to do so."

"Yea, I am not sure I can stop myself from figuring some of that out,"

Taylor admitted. "I will have to try and focus more on the person when they are not in costume, I guess? For some reason it became easier with you, but I think that is because your snark is trying to stay silent."

"Let's go back to the fact that you are a parahuman," Danny said,

looking at Jacob. "Which I was previously unaware of and am interested in the story behind it, or at least as much as you are willing to tell us. Also, did Annette know?"

"Yes, well, there are reasons for the secrecy," Jacob said. "Amongst them that my situation is a bit more unusual than most. Annette did know, though, and likely would have gotten in touch with me the instant anyone else in the family triggered anyway when she was alive."

"Your snark did tell me enough to identify you before it went silent,"

Taylor said, looking at her uncle. "I am quite curious. How did Jack Slash end up working with the PRT?"

The answer was delayed a bit by Danny having to recover from choking on his coffee, including cleaning the table up and getting him a new shirt. Eventually, though, Jacob was able to answer.

"Back when the Slaughterhouse Nine first started up things were just as bad as you would expect," Jacob started. "But it didn't take long for some of us to realize that running around killing indiscriminately was a bad idea. King, however, didn't agree, and couldn't be convinced otherwise. It didn't take me long to realize that a mental component of his power made it so he never would be convinced otherwise. I believe that was when I realized that my power had a thinker component that helped me understand and generally communicate other parahumans, in fact." Jacob took a sip of his tea, a bit of a distant look on his face as he thought back. "When we were finally able to kill King that left the problem of what to do with the members that couldn't be redeemed. I was personally happy that Grey Boy was already out of the picture, as King was the only one that could deal with him at the time, but we had to carefully arrange for some of the others to be killed off without drawing suspicion that it was intentional. At least until only one was left, anyway. Luckily I had already started working with the PRT on that, in part thanks to Harbinger's help." Jacob took a moment to look at the two of them.

"Yes, he is still around, no I won't tell you where or what he is doing."

Danny and Taylor nodded. "Right, at any rate now the nine are more of a support group for capes that need violence to stay sane, targeting those that are known to have evaded justice for their crimes to sate those that need it to not turn to crime themselves."

"That... sounds a bit unbelievable," Danny finally said. "Especially with what the current members of the nine frequently do."

"They do less wanton violence than you would expect," Jacob said.

"For example, I think I have killed all of five people in the past two years, only one was a cape, yet have a couple hundred supposed kills in that time period due to being blamed for collateral damage from gang members. Mostly the idiots that fell on their own knives, I think. I never did bother trying to figure out why I was being blamed.

The others have similar things going on, reputation has caused massively inflated numbers."

"How much are you allowed to tell us about the other members?"

Taylor asked after they had digested that. "Given that you seem to be claiming there are good reasons for them to participate in those activities in the first place?"

"Well," Jacob pondered. "I suppose so long as I don't tell you civilian names I can cover the basics of all of them." He went on to give details on each current member of the nine and why they were there, starting with himself.

Jack Slash, as Jacob's cape identity, functioned more as a PRT liaison and therapist than anything else, monitoring the others and trying to keep them from going too far. He did have his own non-cape therapist he had to visit as well, because he was able to see that his powers had affected his mentality too. While he tried to mainly use scare tactics he would occasionally need to step in and attack directly, mainly doing so when Bonesaw ended up over her head and the Siberian was otherwise occupied. That was the type of situation that resulted in his one cape kill in the past year.

Speaking of Bonesaw, she had triggered at a young age, and it didn't take long to find out that her powers pushed her to experiment on living humans, especially parahumans. Once that experimentation has borne results she is free to use what she learns in more controlled situations, but her power insists on pain and torture during the experimentation phase. Thus she gets pointed at villainous parahumans who have escaped justice and gang members with sufficient crimes on their records to experiment with new techniques before her urges get too strong to ignore and she starts going after anyone around her.

The Siberian is complicated, but has minimal drive to actually cause harm and as such has ended up being more of an enforcer within the nine, most outright kills being their specific parahuman targets that were otherwise hard to deal with or collateral damage incidents in fights with gang members, many of those while keeping an eye on Bonesaw. Taylor got the impression that there was something else Jacob knew that he was avoiding saying, mainly because his snark kept almost letting something through to her.

Mannequin is known to have major mental issues and a death-wish, being broken in some way that Jacob can't find. One of the only reasons he hasn't been put out of his misery is that he is willing to be pointed at specific parahuman targets while they try and find a way to heal him. A side effect of his issues is that he tends to ignore bystanders when fighting, so he does have a number of innocent kills. Jacob personally figured that in some of those cases it was a matter of taking idiots out of the gene pool, given that they had stuck around to watch dangerous capes fight instead of getting out of the way, though admitted that might be his power talking. His therapist apparently brings that up every few sessions to keep him from forgetting.

Crawler is driven to find someone who might be able and willing to kill him, in general. He can't help it and goes stir-crazy if he goes too long without entering a serious fight with someone new. The fact that only the worst villains are generally willing to try and kill him instead of capturing means it is fairly easy to direct him at the right targets.

Jacob did mention that everyone wished they had a decent way to get him to Endbringer fights, but he never seemed to be able to get to a rally point in time.

Shatterbird has two modes to her power, though he wouldn't describe the lesser-known one, and she is driven to use the more destructive mode in populated areas frequently. If she doesn't intentionally use the destructive mode in that way for long enough it tends to go off while she is sleeping, staying out of control until she wakes up. Due to the need for the areas to be populated they try and aim for gang-infested territories for her, but collateral damage is an unfortunate fact of life with her. Jacob admitted, though he probably shouldn't have, that when not running around as Shatterbird she operated as a Protectorate hero. But he didn't say which one, or where she was stationed.

Hatchet Face Jacob was lucky with, for some reason his power only disabled the blade projection portion of "Jack's" power, so Jacob was able to get close to him and used some mid-battle therapy to get him recovering from the trauma of his trigger event. He still has a drive to kill parahumans, though, a need that will build into him going on a rampage if he doesn't give into it every so often. So long as he so much as makes serious attempts often enough he remains sane enough to not go after people indiscriminately. To get maximum utility out of the smallest number of parahumans being targeted by the nine he generally ends up finishing off those that Bonesaw experimented on, meaning Bonesaw technically has a surprisingly small lifetime parahuman kill count.

Finally, Burnscar apparently suffers in different ways depending on if she uses her powers or not, varying from suicidally depressed when not using them to insanely reckless when using them for too long. It is a delicate balance, and it was discovered that the extremes are buffered quite a bit if she kills someone with her powers every few months. She officially 'joined' the nine shortly after Protectorate thinkers figured that part out. And apparently she has a preference for targeting those that physically abuse others.

"I am still disturbed by the thought that the Slaughterhouse Nine, reportedly some of the most dangerous parahumans out there, are actually a therapy group," Danny finally admitted. "Though being affiliated with the PRT would explain why the Triumvirate have never just taken them out." Then he got a worried look. "Are you going to be in trouble for telling us any of this?"

"Nope," Jacob answered, grinning a bit. "I ensured that I would be permitted to explain to family in the event of another family member triggering. Specifically the entire immediate family of and/or those already living with any family member that triggered. The likelihood of similar powers alone warranted caution in the secrecy part of the contracts given my cape identity. Though now that it has come up I suspect they are going to kick themselves when they realize that they forgot to include getting said family to sign NDAs in the conditions that allow me to tell you all of this."

Some more small talk and finishing of their drinks was all that happened after that. They would likely get into more serious discussions about how to handle things the following day.

Taylor was right about things starting to get annoying when she was shuffled off to bed after her first yawn, not even allowed to rinse her own teacup. Jacob followed Taylor upstairs (because apparently she was too fragile right now to be trusted to stairs? Really?) and, after some hovering to ensure she was ok throughout the entire preparing for bed dance, headed to the guest room.

Then again, once she was in bed Taylor lasted all of five minutes before slipping into dreams, so perhaps some caution may have been warranted.

Chapter 2

Taylor woke up the next morning and made her way downstairs.

Neither her father nor Uncle Jacob were up yet, but she was hungry and cereal was quick and easy. She took advantage of their not being up to finish up the rest of the dishes that hadn't been cleaned last night too, perhaps they would each assume the other had done them?

Just to be certain she had the information in them down she re-read the pamphlets that were still sitting on the table. Some of the unwritten rules were interesting and apparently a number of groups had compromised on the pamphlet as villain perspectives were included.

For example, killing was generally something nobody was supposed to do. This obviously went out the window entirely if a kill-order was issued on someone, but that was usually only done for those that were already running around killing. Beyond that, though, there was actually a small list of conditions for villains to reference wherein killing someone would not get the heroes on them for it. Things such as those who had repeated escapes from confinement where people had died during the escapes or certain kinds of human masters who were attempting to control or actively controlling the villain or those close to them.

More relevant to her were the specifics regarding identities and those with powers that could connect civilian and cape identities.

The PRT and Protectorate apparently had internal rules that prohibited even asking such capes to identify other capes unless a kill order had been issued. Most larger villain groups apparently, at least publically, had similar policies. Human masters like Heartbreaker were one of the few overall exceptions, assuming they were still unknown, as they usually avoided having a cape identity until they were discovered. In that case, though, even the villain groups apparently recommended informing the PRT through

channels dedicated for that kind of thing (one of the few sets of contact information actually listed) so that they could investigate, just in case.

Taylor supposed that even villains have standards. Though in this case it could also be pragmatic, nobody wants to fall under that kind of control themselves.

In addition, capes like her that could identify what powers other capes had were encouraged, even when working with the PRT or Protectorate, to keep most of those details between themselves and the cape in question, sticking to observed abilities only. At least for allies and neutrals. Everyone, probably rightfully, assumed that the enemy having such an ability meant that everything you could do was known to whatever group such a cape was a member of after you encountered them. But, and this was the important part, even the villains generally agreed that revealing information gained on someone else's powers only counted as acceptable if the cape being reported on had been in costume or actively using their powers.

Getting a read on them while they were in civvies and, say, picking up groceries was considered a bad thing and should never be reported. Apparently whether or not you were in civvies didn't matter,

though, only the status of the cape your power was informing you about mattered.

The final exception that stuck out to her, though, was identifying capes in civvies that were working with your group in a non-cape capacity. Sometimes that was merely identifying someone who did not know they had triggered, other times it was identifying someone who was infiltrating. At that point you reported them either to someone higher on the chain than you (ideally as high as you could reasonably get to given your own position in the organization) or, in the case of groups like the PRT and Protectorate, to dedicated contact points. The latter because you never knew when the cape was known to the higher-ups but not to the locals for some reason.

Huh, Uncle Jacob probably fell into that last group, now that she thought about it.

Taylor did wonder where you found the dedicated contact numbers,

and a dozen others referred to elsewhere in the unwritten rules pamphlet. Presumably you got a list at some point if you joined up with the PRT or Protectorate, but given their likely rarity in being used where would you keep them safe? Having to go looking could very well tip someone off that you had noticed something they didn't want you to.

Taylor hopped up and grabbed some loose paper and a pencil to take some notes with. Questions like that would eventually bug her,

better to write them down and ask. If she wasn't allowed to know Uncle Jacob would likely just tell her that.

After making note of her question she then thought about what they were likely going to need to discuss. She suspected that her father would want her to join the Wards for protection, but Uncle Jacob likely had a better overview of pros and cons there. She made a quick note about that, too. She was still fairly certain that she wouldn't be joining New Wave, though, if only to help protect her father. That and it would be even more of an issue if people made any connection between her powers and Uncle Jacob's.

It was about then that Uncle Jacob wandered downstairs. "Mornin Taylor."

"Good morning Uncle Jacob," Taylor responded. Huh, his snark appeared to still be sleeping. She didn't know they slept at all. "Did you hear if dad was moving yet?"

"I woke him up, actually." He looked at the lack of dishes to be washed. "And I guess I won't tell him that you dealt with the dishes."

He then moved to make some tea.

Dang, caught. Oh well, nothing they could do about it. "Not like the dishes were difficult. Or strenuous. Or really any trouble."

"Yea yea, you're not disabled, just don't expect your father to agree."

While waiting for water to heat up he checked the fridge. "Want any

eggs? Oooh, bacon, that sounds good too."

"Yes please to both," Taylor answered. She might be pushing it after the cereal, but eggs and bacon? Hell yea. "Maybe you can make bacon omelets?"

"Hmm, good idea."

Taylor watched as breakfast, or second breakfast for her, was prepared. Her father wandered in, mumbled something about the dishes to Uncle Jacob, and sat down with the tea Uncle Jacob handed him. He might have preferred coffee, depending on his mood if asked, but the tea was already prepared.

After everyone had eaten their fill the dishes were put aside and Uncle Jacob went and fetched some stuff from the trunk of his rental car. Once again they collected around the table, probably to go over more cape-related things now that they had all had time to digest what they talked about the night before.

Oh, look, Uncle Jacob's snark woke up. Still wasn't being talkative,

though. Uncle Jacob was probably trying to keep it from revealing too much by accident.

"So," Jacob started, looking at Taylor. "I can't help be curious, why 'snark'?"

"My snark told me that they metaphorically came from an island across a vast ocean," Taylor answered. "You can't find or capture them through anything resembling normal means and there isn't a true description of most of them."

Jacob and Danny looked at each other, then back at Taylor.

"What?" Taylor asked.

"Your power is a fan of Lewis Carroll?" Danny asked. "How is it a fan of Lewis Carroll?"

"Honestly I think it picked that to troll people," Taylor admitted. "Then used the metaphor as an excuse. But I am ok with that too,

honestly."

"That makes a disturbing amount of sense," Jacob said. "Right, now that we have covered that I think we need to go over what options Taylor has going forward. Do either of you have any questions before we start on that?"

"I have one," Taylor said, poking her notes. "How do people in the PRT and Protectorate get and keep track of all the special reporting things the unwritten rules pamphlet mentions?"

"They are pre-programmed into the phones they are issued," Jacob answered. "And regularly updated with changes, actually."

"That should have occurred to me," Taylor said, crossing out the first entry on her notes. "I think the rest of what I have here will come up anyway."

"You have anything Danny?" Jacob asked, turning to Danny.

"Honestly the reporting contacts was bugging me too," Danny admitted. "Just hadn't thought to just ask you. Nothing else I don't think we are going to cover anyway."

"Alrighty then," Jacob said. "Options for Taylor going forward with parahuman abilities. Option one is to do nothing and attempt to go on as though you don't have parahuman abilities. Upsides include that you don't turn your life upside-down. Downsides include that you are almost guaranteed to snap at some point because you aren't getting any use of your powers in."

"That sounds like an undesirable downside," Danny admitted.

"Though the dealing with trigger events pamphlet did basically say

the same thing."

"Yea, it is a well-documented side effect of having powers," Jacob said. "Option two is to try and operate as an independent parahuman. Success at this will vary with powers, personality, and the local cape climate. Upsides include not being beholden to anyone else. Downsides include likely attempts at forced recruitment from gangs that find your abilities potentially useful and an increased chance of death if your powers drive you to actually fight, which most that have any form of offensive use do."

"That sounds just as unpleasant as the first one," Danny admitted.

"Though that brings up a new question. Taylor, what do you know of your powers?"

"Huh," Jacob said. "I can't believe I forgot to ask about that. I guess I thought we already knew?"

"Well my snark says I have a couple of different abilities," Taylor said.

"I can communicate with other snarks, obviously. That has side effects of being able to spot other parahumans and apparently while I have been doing things with line of sight I actually have about a four hundred meter range in which I can locate and communicate with snarks?"

"Your power measures in meters?" Danny interrupted. "Why meters?"

"Because it finds imperial units confusing," Taylor replied without any hesitation. Danny and Jacob just nodded, figuring that was as good as they were getting there. "Apparently I should be able to communicate with and somewhat coordinate between all snarks in my range at once without getting confused as well, provided my snark has enough bandwidth available for them all. Also assuming I am not in line of sight mode as well."

"I assume that the coordination would depend on the parahumans cooperating," Jacob said, giving it some thought. "Could still be quite

useful if they are willing to act on prods from their powers. Could be useless if they aren't."

"True, that part would be situational, but I suspect a lot of things go that route," Taylor said. "I can also pull what amounts to your trick with blades and other edged weapons, just with blunt objects instead of edged. My snark also says that, like you, Hatchet Face would disable that bit but not my ability to communicate with other snarks.

Apparently the communication bits are harder to turn off in general in snarks?"

"That is potentially a very useful piece of general information about powers," Jacob said, making note of it. "In fact, if it passes the PRT thinker checks it may be worth one of the cape information bounty payouts."

"The what?" Danny asked, beating Taylor by virtue of having just taken a breath.

"Oh, right," Jacob said. "That isn't well known, but the PRT pays out money for general information about the background behind how powers work and interact with each other. In this case it is information, likely not able to be acted upon, but probably useful for larger modeling of powers. Thus probably worth a few thousand dollars."

Taylor and Danny sat back for a moment. A seemingly innocent comment about the workings of powers worth a few thousand dollars?

"Right, so then," Jacob said after it was clear the other two were a bit stunned. "Taylor, anything else about your powers you haven't mentioned?"

"Er," Taylor said, blinking. "Not much? Apparently I can direct extra communication bandwidth at specific snarks if I want instead of just the single connection. Not sure what that means beyond having more bandwidth to communicate with, though. That's about it."

"Any specific needs for violence?" Jacob prodded. "Special requirements it wants you to fulfill? Other oddities that could cause problems?"

Taylor thought for a couple of minutes, or rather communicated with her own snark. Finally she spoke up. "I think I will have issues if I don't have snarks around often enough, but I don't have to hunt down new ones or anything. I need to occasionally hit things with the blunt object bit, but it doesn't need to be a living thing often and never needs to cause even minor injuries or damage. Beyond that my snark wants to troll other snarks, or maybe others with snarks?

Though that is more of a hobby than a need. Or at least that is the impression I am getting."

"Er, right," Jacob said, blinking. "Usually that kind of thing would come out over a couple weeks of testing and you just asked. Can do you do that for others?"

"Only if their snarks are willing to tell me," Taylor answered.

"Right, right," Jacob said, making some quick notes. "Well, none of that would cause issues with joining the Wards, which I suppose is option 3. We did only bring up two options so far, right?"

"Wards is the third one," Danny agreed. "Upsides and downsides?"

"Upsides include a support structure, assistance with branding, and a decent trust fund," Jacob said. "Downsides include a command structure, assistance with branding, and in some cases annoying restrictions on use of your power."

"Er, why is assistance with branding in both lists?" Taylor asked. "I would think that would only be an upside, really?"

"They tend to have a very narrow view of acceptable," Jacob supplied. "The horror stories some capes have can be quite amusing from the outside."

"Right," Danny said, not quite believing him. Then again, Jacob should have more experience there and clashing opinions were a fact of life with him. "I assume there are more than three options for Taylor."

"Of course," Jacob continued. "She could petition to join The Guild,

with most of the same upsides and downsides of joining the Wards.

Though with the added downside of likely needing to move."

"Let's not go that route," Danny said. "If anything else, I would find it hard to hire people for the dockworkers here if I lived elsewhere."

"She could also petition to join New Wave," Jacob said. "Smaller support and command structures, more strict branding, no trust fund,

and you have to go public with your identity."

"Not happening," Taylor said. "If only because that would paint a bigger potential target on dad's back."

"Moving on then," Jacob said as Danny gave Taylor a somewhat sad smile. "Taylor could also willingly join one of the more villainous organizations. Upsides would include a support structure, downsides include regularly assisting in illegal activities and being much more likely to be injured or killed."

"Not happening," Danny echoed Taylor's comment. "Especially as last I knew she wasn't a druggie, racist, or asian."

"I have been known to poke at video games though," Taylor said,

causing Danny and Jacob to look at her. She stared back at the two of them. "What, I'm not allowed to joke now?"

"Yea, right, ok," Jacob said, shaking his head. "I think that covers the remotely realistic options, as Faultline generally only recruits minors that are both Case 53s and have no family, or so I have been led to believe. I am not going to let you decide on anything right now,

though."

"Not that I am going to argue, but why not?" Danny asked, looking a little confused.

"Because I have other things that need doing," Jacob said. "Plus any option that ends up with power testing would be strenuous, and thus not implementable right away anyway. That and while I am out dealing with things the two of you should talk things through without me."

Uncle Jacob had, as he said, left to take care of who knows what.

Snark detection in "area" mode apparently let Taylor know exactly where a snark-bearer was in relation to her, which would probably use useful, and let her monitor his progress for a couple of blocks as he drove away.

Still, unless she started going out in costume she should probably stay in line of sight mode. Maybe? If any capes were sent after her it would be a good idea to know in advance.

She made a quick note on her list to discuss that conundrum with others.

Her father had suggested they move into the living room and the more comfortable seating there, and she had agreed. She had grabbed a soda for herself from the fridge on her way by while her father called into work to check up on things. Apparently upon finding out that she had been hospitalized he had been told, in no uncertain terms, to take the rest of the week off. He still wanted to make sure everything was ok, though.

Finally he wandered in and collapsed into his preferred chair. "So Taylor, given that all of this will have the most direct effect on you,

what do you think about the various options?"

"Obviously I don't intend on joining any of the gangs," Taylor said,

finding it hard to imagine being a member of any of the big three in the bay. "Though if they were more about showing off and less into

crime then joining up with Über and Leet could have been interesting."

"Not sure how well your powers would mesh with that kind of thing."

"True, still could have been fun to try. New Wave is out because I don't want to paint a target on you, as I said. Pretending to not have powers is probably out as well, if anything else I suspect that I will need more than incidental contact with other parahumans. Which generally leaves being an independent or joining the Wards."

"That sounds about right. What are your thoughts on those?"

"Well, if I go independent then I have no real parahuman support structure, would have to actively look for other parahumans to satisfy my snark, and as a consequence would likely end up in a lot of dangerous situations or, in effect, doing my best to hang out with the Wards. The Wards would give me the support structure and I would automatically be around them fairly often, likely beyond what I could accomplish on my own."

"Not to mention you could meet Armsmaster and Miss Militia,

amongst others."

"Trying not to let my inner fangirl influence the decision."

"Right, right."

"You just want me to join the Wards, don't you?"

"Mostly because I think it is the safest option for you right now."

"Well, there we have it. I was leaning that way, you are leaning that way. Why are we discussing it again?"

"To make sure we are on the same page and understand each other?"

"Well, since that is out of the way, I might want to come up with a cape name. Any ideas?"

They would spend a couple of hours discussing possible names from the mundane to the ridiculous and a number in-between. They came up with nothing they were happy with, or thought that the PRT would be happy with, but it helped pass the time.

Uncle Jacob had called and said he would be bringing a slightly late lunch. True to that he showed up with a bag full of subs and chips, a six-pack of soda bottles, and a box he said was for after lunch.

Over lunch they discussed little things of no real consequence to cape dealings. Apparently the news, which Taylor and Danny had not been watching but that Jacob had listened to in the car, was reporting that Winslow may never reopen and that students likely needed to be moved to other schools in the meantime. Apparently the attempt to clean up the 'biohazard spill' had revealed exposed asbestos behind the lockers, which led to a revelation that the building's foundation was damaged due to a minor sinkhole under it.

After lunch the box was placed on the table, and Uncle Jacob paused before opening. "First up, did you two come to a decision regarding what to do going forward?"

"We think I should join the Wards," Taylor answered. "If nothing else that will ensure I don't have issues with having to go hunting for parahumans to be around."

"Good, good," Jacob said. He then opened the box and pulled out two smaller boxes, handing one to each of the other two. "After some discussion with Danny I took the liberty of purchasing a cell phone for each of you. These in particular are now paired and can be used to locate each other, as well as provide information on the last twenty-four hours of location data. Note that if either phone is used for that purpose an alert will come up on the other, offering the option of denying permission, and it will take half an hour for permission to

be automatically granted. The PRT, Protectorate, and police all have codes that can be entered that will bypass that time period."

"These look a bit more expensive than I was thinking," Danny said,

looking at the box with a 'D' on it. Taylor's had a 'T'. "I am not sure how long it will take me to pay you back."

"You won't be," Jacob said. "These are a gift, from me. The service on them has been pre-paid for the next five years." That was a lie,

technically they were being paid monthly from his PRT account. He wasn't telling them that, though. "I ensured that they have a number of contacts entered ahead of time, including the landline here and the other cell phone, plus my cell phone. I also have an easily installed car kit ready to install in your car, Danny, and we can work on installing that in a bit."

"Jacob," Danny tried, only to get a glare. After a moment he sighed.

"I guess I deserve that, given that I kept ignoring your calls and letters."

"Right. Now pull those out of their boxes and I will help you set up the security on them," Jacob said, pulling his own phone of the same model out so he could show them where things were.

Twenty minutes later both had set up passwords, screen locks,

fingerprint checks, iris checks, and their voicemail. He trusted that neither of them had enough knowledge of smartphones to realize that some of that was because these had tinkertech included. He also had provided each with a nearly stealth earpiece that they paired to their phones, admitting that these were tinkertech and that Taylor would be able to pair hers to both this phone and the phone they would issue her in the Wards.

He also showed, but did not yet go to install, the car kit that would show who was calling, provide a couple of basic controls on the steering wheel, and could be used instead of the earpiece. The earpiece would, however, be more private if Danny had passengers he didn't want hearing both sides of the conversation. The

installation would be a bit complicated as it would need to be attached to the radio and a couple other points, but Jacob insisted that he was up to the task.

"Next up we have the paperwork needed to join the Wards," Jacob said, pulling out a thick stack of paper and then removing the top

third. Taylor was dismayed that she was handed the bottom two-

thirds. "Yea, the stack I kept is for registering as an independent

parahuman."

Taylor was then left to start looking through the forms while Jacob and Danny went to install the car kit. The first few were easy, basic information including her name, her father's name, their address,

phone numbers (she had to double-check her new phone for its number and her father's new number), dates of birth, social security numbers, etc. A couple covered a basic description of her powers and any requirements she was aware of, though indicated that formal power testing would be required to establish official ratings.

She got to skip a dozen forms for "established" parahumans joining the Wards as she was not, according to the definition on the first of them, considered "established". She did have to fill out a form indicating that Panacea had informed her of her parahuman status and the approximate date of trigger event, though no description of the trigger event was asked for.

She set several forms aside that needed her father to fill in details or sign and moved into what was apparently the "branding" section of forms, required for those not already established with an existing cape identity. Oh, or for those that wanted or were being required to re-brand. The first couple asked about preferred names, another basic description of her power for purposes of branding (and stating that she could exclude anything she didn't want branding to know about). She filled out the correct forms based on their descriptions and, where available, included checklists. This included filling out that she had no specific costume or cape name preference. She set the pile of specific forms she didn't need aside.

She absently noticed Jacob moving away from the house with her snark sense, possibly leaving with her father to ensure that the car kit was working correctly.

Next up were a pile of combination waivers and permission forms,

some required, others optional. She filled in and signed the required ones where she could, all of them going into the pile for her father to look at afterward as her signature either wasn't required or wasn't enough on all of them. She then flipped through the optional ones,

which included participation in non-local Endbringer fights (local was a required one, even if only as part of crowd control in the shelters).

That was actually split into "in region", "in country", and "international" categories. She didn't think that she wanted to be anywhere near the Endbringers unless they came to her, though, so put the entire stack in the "unneeded and/or used but not to be turned in" pile. No need to even show them to her father, really.

She then found the forms for "parahuman community service trips"

where she could go on trips for varying lengths of time where her powers could be helpful elsewhere. She thought that might be neat,

though she wasn't sure if it would happen. Like the Endbringer forms these had different categories, she filled them all out and put them in a new "to discuss" pile. The similar forms for "cross-region training trips" were filled out and added to the same pile.

She was just making it to the last group of forms when she was surprised by a beeping in her ear. It took her a minute to realize it was her new phone ringing, at which point she tapped the multipurpose button on the earpiece.

"Hello?" Taylor said, hoping she had this right.

"Hey kiddo," Danny's voice came through loud and clear. "We have the car kit working, tuned, and all that."

"That's good. This is going to take some getting used to, I think."

"That it will. Jacob noticed that we have no ice cream in the house and we are picking some up. Any flavor preference?"

"How about double chocolate chunk?"

"Alright. See you soon."

"Bye." The earpiece beeped, indicating the call had ended. Yep, that was going to be weird for a bit.

Taylor went back to the forms and found that the last bit was actually

a single longer form. Reading through she found it was a non-

disclosure agreement, covering all Wards and Protectorate identities

that she may become or made aware of. It didn't name anyone by name, intended to be a blanket agreement. Which made sense,

given the number of individual agreements that would otherwise be needed. She read through the entire thing and signed at the end,

apparently with wonderful timing as Uncle Jacob's snark just appeared on the edge of her range.

She dropped the NDA into the pile for her father to look over and stood up, stretching from having sat there for so long going over the paperwork. She made an effort to pocket the phone that had been sitting on the table and wandered into the kitchen to get a glass of water.

A couple minutes later the front door opened and her father came in,

followed by Uncle Jacob. They quickly put the shopping they had brought in away, and Taylor pointed her father at the pile of paperwork he had to look over. She figured she would let him decide which, if any, of the community service/cross training forms to sign.

"Before you get into that," Jacob said as Danny went to start working on the paperwork. "I have something I want to talk with the two of you about."

Taylor sat down with her glass and nodded to her uncle.

"The two of you are aware that Bonesaw is an associate of mine,"

Jacob continued. "If you are willing to trade civilian identities I can have her come and visit. Two of her major non-slaughterhouse activities are assisting those who have been severely injured and granting otherwise normal people enhancements. For example, she has given me a few extras." He demonstrated this by lifting their couch without any apparent effort, something that shocked both Taylor and Danny. "I think Taylor could benefit from something similar. And before you ask, these would likely be officially off the books. They need not be reported as they are not a result of Taylor's powers."

"This would increase her ability to stay safe, right?" Danny asked. It was obvious that was the metric he was using as a baseline for a lot of decisions lately.

"It would," Jacob admitted. "If only because nobody will expect her to have the boosts. Also, if her power is in fact like mine, being stronger means that she will be able to hit harder with it. Otherwise any hit with her power would be the same as if she, right now, struck someone."

"You said Bonesaw doesn't need to inflict pain for things she already knows, right?" Taylor asked.

"That is correct," Jacob answered. "In fact, when she last worked on me I came out feeling better than when I went in."

"I'm ok with it if you are," Taylor said, turning to her father. He sighed and just nodded.

"Alright, I'll give her a call," Jacob said, pulling his phone out and heading for the living room. "Hopefully she isn't too busy and can come before we want to submit the paperwork to the PRT."

"Why would it matter that we get it done before the paperwork is submitted?" Danny wondered, reaching to pick up the first form on the stack for him to review.

"Probably the form that says once you join the Wards you need to have things like that approved," Taylor said. "I think that is five or six forms down in your stack."

"That is disturbingly logical," Danny admitted after a moment of thought. Then he sighed and started reading through the form he was holding.

It turned out that Bonesaw would be able to visit in two days, but it would be the day after that the work was done. Further, this was being arranged by the PRT as a way of getting Panacea to look at some things that Bonesaw could do, so there would be no questions of why Bonesaw was here.

Which brought up that, amazingly enough, Panacea was the only cape other than Taylor that lived in Brockton Bay and was aware of the truth of the Slaughterhouse Nine. In fact, until Taylor and Danny were informed no other person of any description living in Brockton Bay was officially in the know. Technically, by the NDAs, Panacea was still the only one officially in the know, actually.

The fact that Taylor would be serving as a "parahuman volunteer already read into the true purpose of the Slaughterhouse Nine" and not actually named was Jacob's method of min-maxing loopholes.

Jacob had been careful to ensure that no mention of the individual being officially informed and having a signed NDA on file was included because neither Taylor or Danny met those criteria. Due to the wording of Jacob's contracts that didn't matter for the purposes of the visit, though. As such, anyone who found the paperwork and went looking for who Bonesaw had "improved" would be looking in the wrong places. They hoped, anyway.

Jacob was annoyed that he had failed to get Danny listed as a "non-

parahuman volunteer already read into the true purpose of the

Slaughterhouse Nine" though. Apparently those authorizing the trip only cared about what Bonesaw could do to a parahuman this time around.

Starting the process of joining the Wards would happen a little over a week later, if you didn't count some of the "get it out of the way" stuff they were going to do in advance. Such as taking advantage of Panacea's presence to have her run Taylor through a PRT-approved physical.

Most of this was relayed over dinner, where Taylor was instructed to eat as much as she could until after the procedure at a minimum.

After dessert Jacob showed Taylor how she could use her cell phone as an internet connection for her aging desktop computer, something he said she probably shouldn't mention to her father. She took advantage of this almost immediately, checking the local news first to read up on what was going on with Winslow. Which turned out to be pretty much what Jacob had already told them. She then decided that, as a parahuman, she should be keeping up on the goings-on at PHO.

It had nothing to do with anything else, really. Probably. Yea, nobody is believing that excuse. She is still sticking with that story.

Some quick checks and she found that the only thing of interest in Brockton Bay since she had last visited the site was Winslow's closing. There were a lot of insane theories, including parahuman involvement in placing the asbestos (which was apparently known to be there, just not known to be exposed, throwing that theory out) and that a parahuman had been responsible for the sinkhole. Oddly nobody was blaming a parahuman for the supposed 'biohazard spill'.

No, wait, that apparently had a dedicated thread. Nevermind.

She spent another hour poking around online before deciding she should get ready for bed. She almost forgot to remove the earpiece,

but seeing the little charging cradle for it next to the one for her new phone was enough of a reminder.

Chapter 3 Taylor woke up and, after a few minutes, realized that it was Thursday. Huh. She hadn't really been thinking in terms of days of the week. Then again, she hadn't actually made it to classes back on Monday, in fact barely remembered Monday. It was probably only the fact that the hospital didn't keep Panacea's patients for observation unless Panacea recommended it that had allowed her to sleep in her own bed Tuesday night.

Maybe she should try and get Panacea a gift? Then again, she normally doesn't accept money and stuff for healing. Hmmm. She'd have to think on it. Or maybe ask her on Saturday. Perhaps see if she had thought any more about the greenhouse.

Taylor took advantage of her new phone's data connection and checked the news and weather while still in bed. Looked like a nice,

if somewhat chilly, day today. She avoided PHO, figuring it was probably a time-sink she didn't need before breakfast, and eventually got up and dressed. Then, to get into the habit of doing so, she popped the earpiece in, clipped the phone to her pants, and wandered downstairs.

She found her father making breakfast, apparently having gotten up before her today. Or maybe she had spent longer playing with her phone than she thought. His phone was noticeably absent, though.

Then again, he hadn't gotten dressed for the day yet. She watched as he prepared pancakes and breakfast sausages, wishing they had some blueberries for the pancakes.

Taylor realized that Uncle Jacob wasn't in the house when he suddenly entered her range, startling her. She hadn't realized she was in area-mode, having assumed she was in line of sight mode when she hadn't sensed Uncle Jacob's snark upon waking. Hmm,

she did need to talk about which mode she should normally be in.

Today was probably as good a day as any to bring it up.

"Morning Taylor," Jacob said as he came in, before he looked over at Danny. "Huh, you already started cooking."

"Yep," Danny answered, finishing up a stack of pancakes. He popped a couple of sausages on the side and placed the plate in front of Taylor. "Where were you so early?"

"I found the lack of orange juice disturbing when I noticed it this morning," Jacob said. "So I sought to rectify it."

"Don't suppose you discovered that the nearest grocers doesn't sell orange juice," Danny asked, grinning as he poured out the next set of pancakes.

"The nearest doesn't sell it, the next nearest was sold out and won't have any until Tuesday, and the third nearest won't open for another twenty minutes," Jacob replied. "As you can probably tell by the fact I brought no orange juice back with me, I gave up for now. I will,

however, find some later and it will make it into your fridge. Then,

and only then, will I be happy!"

Taylor quietly snickered as she got up, grabbing a glass on her way to the fridge. She removed a greenish plastic pitcher from the door of the fridge, shook it a little, then twisted the lid to open the spout and poured herself a glass of orange juice from it. She then closed the spout, put the pitcher back into the fridge, and brought her glass of orange juice back to the table before taking a sip and returning to eating her pancakes.

"Or I can feel like a fool, apparently," Jacob finally said, having watched all of that. "Why is your orange juice in a pitcher?"

"Because I have a habit of opening the cartons wrong while half asleep," Danny replied. "I have no problem with the pitcher, but can never remember there is a spout on the cartons. Then they don't close properly, so we dump it in the pitcher."

"At this point I just fill the pitcher first chance I get after the carton is opened," Taylor added. "Less hassle that way. Unless we actually find it in a proper bottle, he has no problem then."

"Stupid pitcher, stupid grocer," Jacob mumbled just barely loud enough for the other two to hear and snicker about as he got himself a glass of orange juice. By the time he was done mumbling he also had a plate in front of him, so he began eating.

After everyone had eaten their fill, Danny had gotten ready for the day, and the extra pancakes were packed away in the freezer for another day, the three sat there in the kitchen with a drink each.

"I don't believe we have anything planned for today," Danny finally said. "I was instructed that if I called the office before showing up Monday morning that they would force me to take another week off,

so I haven't even informed them of the new phone number."

"According to the news Winslow is still closed and they haven't even started figuring out what to do about moving everyone around,"

Taylor added. "Though that makes me wonder if I can try and get into Arcadia."

"You likely will get some help with that once you join the Wards,"

Jacob admitted. "Not that it will be hard for them to 'sneak' you in amongst whomever else ends up there. You will likely be annoyed with the placement tests, though."

"Possibly," Taylor said. "I kind of want to get out of the house, but need to discuss something first."

Jacob and Danny looked at each other, wondering what would need to be discussed before getting out of the house. Beyond maybe not hovering constantly?

Taylor waited for them to finish their attempt at non-verbal communication, then continued. "So, my snark sense has the two modes. I don't know if it would be better to normally be in line of sight

mode, and thus only seeing snarks that are in front of me, or to normally be in area mode, and thus know the location of every parahuman in my range. And before either of you ask, I checked, no off switch."

"That is an interesting problem," Jacob admitted after a couple of minutes. "I don't have two modes to my sense, so it hasn't come up with me. Would I be correct in assuming that line of sight is going to be much more of a 'look, a parahuman!' reaction mentally as you spot them?"

"That seems to be the case, yea," Taylor said. "In area mode they just kinda appear on my senses. Then again, that could be just that I have gotten familiar with your snark."

"That could invalidate things, hmmm," Jacob said, thinking. "I suspect that, for now, being aware of parahumans nearby is the best bet. Line of sight might be less overwhelming if you are around enough parahumans, but I doubt that is going to come up often."

"With that somewhat decided for now," Danny said, looking at Taylor.

"Do you have any preference for where you would like to go out of the house?"

"I don't suppose we can find me a nice blunt self defense weapon?"

Taylor asked, hunching down a little. "I kinda have an urge to hit something, if you know what I mean."

"Right, powers want to be used," Jacob mumbled, then spoke up as he continued. "How have you lasted this long without using that part of your power?"

"Mainly a desire not to accidentally hurt either of you or cause damage in the house," Taylor admitted. "Getting a bit more difficult to push to the side as time goes on, though."

"Come on kiddo," Danny said, getting up. "Let's go see about buying you something to hit things with. We will have to think about where to

go so you can actually do so, though."

The three of them ended up visiting the boardwalk, Taylor finally seeing the car kit for Danny's phone in the process. They noticed an unusually large number of teenagers about for a weekday morning,

but with an entire high school closed that wasn't really a surprise.

Danny led them down a side street to a slightly out of the way used equipment shop that he claimed the dock workers frequented.

Inside Taylor and Jacob looked around and the various items. They found that there was a mixture of survival gear, training and self defense equipment, and used books. Jacob drifted towards some of the knives while Taylor wandered over towards a collection of clubs and batons, coupled with the occasional baseball bat. She found a decent-looking collapsible baton that felt nice in her hand after she figured out how to get it open and closed. She couldn't find a brand,

but it was labeled "Tac-Smack".

Danny had gone to find the owner, given that nobody appeared to be manning the counter. He wandered back, the owner trailing behind him, apparently catching up from who knows when. Danny gave Taylor a look, seeing her holding a single item, and gestured that she should grab another or two. So Taylor looked over some of the other items, finding a decent wooden baseball bat that she liked the feel of. As she carried both over towards the counter a display of folding shovels got her attention as well. No, wait, they were labeled as being 'entrenching tools'. She supposed her power wouldn't work on them if swung edge-on, but grabbed one anyway.

Jacob wandered over with a single small hunting knife, saw the entrenching tool Taylor had grabbed, and after some thought decided to grab one of his own. He would have the opposite issue,

needing to swing edge-on, but the basic tool should work for both of their powers. Though now that the thought about it, she wasn't sure how they would explain their selections if asked.

"Decent choice on the shovels," the owner said, looking over their selections. "Many find them good for camping, and that is the sturdier model. Not my preference on the knife, but everyone's different there. Though why does the little lady need a bat and baton?"

"Bat's easier to have ready to grab in a pinch at home," Danny answered before Taylor had thought of anything. "But the baton is easier to keep in a bag. She had some trouble recently, you see.

Thank goodness Panacea was able to help her, but having something to at hand, if only for the confidence boost, is the main reason we swung by today."

That was a nicely prepared reason. Taylor wondered if a visit like this was considered even before the revelation about her triggering?

"Well, those should serve you well," the owner said, ringing everything up. Jacob had his card handed over before Danny even had his wallet out, and got a glare for it, but no argument. Taylor was given a quick lesson on properly using the collapsible baton, then they took their purchases and left.

The three of them ended up visiting a park in the docks area. It was run-down, in part because there were no residences in use or businesses open in the area anymore. Some careful checking indicated that they should be unobserved, and Taylor gleefully went at hitting the broken beyond repair swingset with her power channeled through first the bat, then the collapsible baton, and finally the shovel. She wasn't strong enough to cause much damage to the thing, though she was getting a good rattling thunk with each swing.

Jacob was a bit more discreet testing the hunting knife with his power, finding it acceptable as he cut some weeds. The shovel surprised him, though. He thought he might have to sharpen it up a bit, but the thing seemed useful and fairly easy to carry. Without sharpening it might even serve as a less lethal "edged" weapon that still had some mass behind it.

Danny sat there, half watching and half trying to figure out some of the features on his phone. Better to know how to use things and never need them than the other way around, right?

Eventually Taylor had worked out her need to hit things and they packed up and left, returning to the boardwalk for lunch. Which Jacob paid for again before Danny even thought about doing so, by virtue of collecting everyone's orders and then leaving them at a table while he played fetch. Taylor was finding it interesting that she had not noticed any snarks other than her Uncle's, a trend that continued as wandered through various shops after lunch.

"Oooh, look," Taylor said as they poked around a toy store. "Nerf bats."

"Do you actually want Nerf bats?" Danny asked, looking at Taylor.

"Why?"

"They are blunt and generally safe to whack things with," Taylor returned, dropping all the hints needed. "And look, they come in several sizes!"

They ended up leaving with four different foam bats, and Danny finally got to pay for something. The smallest was a foot long and all foam except for a plastic handle, allowing it to be compressed down quite a bit. The other three all had a solid plastic core that was wrapped in foam, meaning that they could hit harder than they looked at first glance, and topped out at three feet long. All of them were advertised as using a tinker-derived foam that was guaranteed to last years even if you subjected it to insane abuse for a foam toy.

Which meant that you were still out of luck if you, say, swung one at Lung.

By the time they made it back to the car Taylor had whacked both adults multiple times with the smallest foam bat, directly and indirectly. Just because she could. Neither complained, because they were enjoying her good mood too much.

Once they got home Taylor had dug around and found a sling bag in the attic that she could stick the cell phone, collapsible baton, and compressed foam bat into individual pockets of with room left over for a water bottle and a couple other miscellaneous items. It even had a couple of loops that she could, if desired, re-purpose with minimal effort to hold her "entrenching tool" to the outside of it. That was, admittedly, probably going a bit far for carrying around all the time. Perhaps she would see about carrying that in-costume? Once she had a costume, anyway.

By the time she had finished it was time for dinner. Uncle Jacob had thrown a frozen lasagna in the oven, which while not as good as homemade still ended up fully devoured. Then, because they had little better to do they actually sat down and watched the news together.

"Tonight's top story is the supposed biohazard spill at Winslow High School," the anchorman started at the top of the hour. "Most of our information on this horrible situation had been through observation of actions being taken, official sources being oddly silent on what was actually going on. That silence ended earlier today when it was announced that three individuals responsible for the 'spill' had been taken into custody and had already entered into plea agreements."

Taylor had frozen, her uncle carefully wrapping her in a one-armed hug from his seat next to her on the couch. They might have turned off the television or changed the channel, if Taylor didn't have a death grip on the remote.

"While no names were provided the press release states that all three were involved in a multi-year bullying and academic sabotage campaign against another student, also unnamed. This campaign led to the incident at Winslow on Monday night. While there are no other details in the press release our own investigations show that emergency services dispatched to Winslow removed an unnamed minor from the premises. No arrests were made at that time, but a single leaked picture of the 'biohazard spill' shows a school locker

with a bloody handprint visible on the inside and an obviously cut-off padlock set to the side."

It was at this point that Danny was able to get over his own shock and anger and turn off the television by pushing the power button on the front.

It took another couple of hours, but eventually they all made it to bed.

Last edited: Jun 5, 2018

Chapter 4 The next morning Jacob was the first one up and he quickly decided that cooking was not in the cards this morning. Luckily he had already scoped out the nearest donut shop. He returned with a pile of donuts, muffins, and other assorted pastries. He spent a few minutes laying them all out so that it was easier to see what he had grabbed, and to deal with the fact he ripped a couple of the boxes because he wasn't paying attention.

He then spent a few minutes tidying up some of what they hadn't gotten around to taking care of the night before. Then, hearing nothing from upstairs, he pulled his phone out, established a secure connection back to the PRT, and checked to see if he could find more details on what had gone done with Winslow. Mainly because it seemed to have happened way too fast and he felt there was a story there.

It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for. Mainly because Emily had flagged the relevant files for him, and it looked like ensured he had access to a couple he wouldn't normally be allowed access to. He quickly bumped Brockton Bay up a couple of slots on his "to visit professionally as Jacob" list while the file packet was downloading. After a moment's thought he also bumped it down in his "to visit as Jack" list.

Leaning back as the download completed he listened carefully. Still no signs of movement from upstairs, so it was unlikely anyone was about to come down. He tapped on the first file, which turned out to be an overview of everything they found from the locker itself. He skimmed it, not really wanting to lose his breakfast before he had a chance to eat it. Nothing jumped out at him as surprising, really,

beyond that they had found fingerprints on the added lock, but as anyone could have grabbed it for a moment after the locker was closed they were not likely to be usable as evidence.

Moving onto the next file in the stack he found it was their review of Taylor's bully records. A summary at the top indicated that they were able to corroborate just over ninety percent of them with the three main tormentors. How had they pulled that off? He got his answer when it turned out the next two files were similar records, two of her three main bullies had kept logs of their own about what they were doing to Taylor. The last entries in one of the two being the planning and preparation for the locker. Who the hell keeps that kind of records of their misdeeds?

In Boston an impeccably dressed man sneezed suddenly, triggering an emergency check of the cleanliness of the room, the vents, that his laundry detergent had not been messed with, and a dozen other things.

Closer to home, a man covered in dragon tattoos wearing a metal mask also sneezed. He thought nothing of it, returning to his true enemy, the one he would never defeat, that could only ever be held at bay for another day. But the paperwork needed to keep his gang running had to be dealt with, and he trusted no other to complete it.

If only his power gave him an ability that could help him here, but no.

He had to get an ability that only really worked well in combat with less annoying foes.

The fifth file was the first he needed his higher clearance for, and once unlocked made him want to hurt someone. Or several someones. One of Taylor's tormentors, specifically the one that had apparently done most of the physical bullying and had arranged most of the dirty work in preparing the locker, had been a Ward. He read through the latest additions to the file, finding that her (unnamed) PRT liaison and monitor was being brought up on charges of criminal negligence. They had known, and kept records of, most of the probation-violating activities Sophia was engaging in,

but had not reported any of them up the chain. He wasn't cleared for the linked document that apparently detailed all the covered up actions, though.

Moving on to avoid taking his anger out on something that didn't deserve it, like his brother-in-law's entire house, he found a summary of the legal actions taken against the three girls and a basic description of why for each.

First up was Madison Clements. She had gotten off lightly with mandatory therapy sessions, a restraining order, and a threat that the next time she stepped out of line they would revisit this case as well. Luckily for her it was because she had apparently turned herself in Tuesday morning, before anyone even knew to look for her, and voluntarily handed over her log of what she had done to Taylor since the two started at Winslow. That and other evidence showed that she was mostly kept in the dark about the locker and had been told that Taylor had been released before lunchtime. Her parents had agreed to the plea deal to keep her out of juvie, and had done so quickly to hopefully keep their names out of the press.

Emma Barnes was next. Apparently when a search warrant was executed on Tuesday evening they found that she had also kept a log of things done to Taylor, hers including details on the locker that she would have otherwise had no way of knowing. She also had kept records of running around with Hess on unofficial patrols. They found the makeshift costume, spare crossbow bolts, and two illegal handguns in her closet as well. In her case she was going to juvie,

as part of a plea to get out of being tried as an adult due to her activities with Hess and the two handguns. Jacob also thought that the PRT had likely also pointed out that if it went to court Emma's name would probably become known to the gangs that she and Sophia had been targeting.

Which led him to Sophia Hess, who had not, in fact, gotten a plea deal like the news had reported. Apparently her probation being violated in the ways it had, coupled with the evidence collected from both her own bedroom and the Barnes household, meant that she

was headed straight for prison for previous crimes. She would get additional days in court, closed sessions, to likely add to her list of charges later. Huh, apparently the trust fund that had been set up for her as a Ward had been stripped from her and transferred to Taylor.

Jacob wondered how they would be explaining that one.

The last file was a basic description of how they were going to handle Shadow Stalker 'leaving' the Wards. A couple of impersonations by someone else as she supposedly left the city,

having 'discovered a new aspect to her power' that was causing her to re-brand. Supposedly. Jacob snorted at that, he knew of four previous times a similar ruse had been used. PHO had yet to believe any of them.

Jacob absently wondered if Hess's time in prison, unable to use her power, would drive her legally insane due to the mental issues with parahumans needing to use their powers. Or maybe they had a nice cell picked out that she could use her powers inside of, but not escape from? Oh well, not his problem unless she escaped. At that point she was probably fair game. Maybe he should invest in a taser,

just in case?

To be safe he wiped the local copies of the files from his phone. He didn't expect Taylor or Danny to be poking around on it, but information security was still a good thing.

About ten minutes later Danny wandered down, saw the pile of food on the table, and decided to be lazy. He walked over to the landline (his cell still being upstairs) and called Taylor's cell phone, telling her that breakfast was ready. Jacob snickered, then wandered into the kitchen to eat as he heard Taylor moving.

Taylor had gotten up, noted that her uncle was not in the house, and gotten dressed. She then laid back down on her bed and starting playing with her phone. She did spare some thought to whether or not it was a good thing that she hadn't even had the thing a week and she was already getting into the habit of checking sites like PHO

every morning. Then again, she wasn't yet in the habit of staring at it even as she walked down the street, so it couldn't be too bad.

She felt her uncle return, but didn't bother heading downstairs yet.

She was busy reading up on what PHO thought of the revelations from the day before. Apparently this was a Ziz plot, a PRT cover up,

a Protectorate cover up, an attempt to frame the PRT, an attempt to frame the Protectorate, and an attempt to discredit the entire Brockton Bay school system. All at the same time.

Then again, the people saying that they were specifically covering up a trigger event were, kinda, right, assuming that those that would be covering it up knew that she had triggered. Which she didn't believe they did.

She moved onto other local cape news and found that nobody had seen Shadow Stalker for most of the week. Then again, that happened every couple of months. Vista had been absent from sightings for longer at this point, actually, approaching two weeks now.

Lung had apparently been spotted late last night in a bar down by the docks. That wasn't uncommon either, though the lack of barfight was a tad out of the ordinary. Some people were convinced Lung started the fights intentionally so he could ramp up enough to flush his system, preventing hangovers. Taylor just assumed he was usually an angry drunk, but felt the other theory had merit too.

Taylor then found a thread linking to where someone had uploaded a clip of Glory Girl flying into a brick wall while staring at her cell phone. Taylor watched it and read the comments, on and off of PHO,

mentally noting that she needed to never get in the habit of staring at hers while walking even as she snickered.

Having run out of local happenings she wandered into some of the more wild sections of PHO, finding a thread where a few people were complaining about the general lack of lizard-themed capes. Or lizard Case 53s. Or cape lizards. Really, any and all combinations of

"cape" and "lizard". Taylor didn't get the appeal, personally. But she recalled a few months ago there was a similar thread relating to insects, which she didn't get the appeal of either. Stupid little things were creepy.

She was interrupted from further browsing by the phone ringing. She tapped the button on the screen to answer and it did nothing. Right,

she had to swipe the circle on the screen, because it wasn't a button.

She did that and the call connected. "Hello?"

"Hey kiddo," her father's voice came through the earpiece she had in. She was liking that bit more and more, no need to hold the phone up to her head. "Your uncle picked up breakfast, come on down to eat."

"Will do, thanks," Taylor responded. The call had disconnected before she had finished, though. She closed down PHO and headed downstairs.

Breakfast was, after some "are you ok?" style pleasantries related to the day before, a quiet affair. There was, however, a lot left over as Jacob had gone a bit overboard. True to having been told to stuff herself regularly Taylor had consumed a small apple fritter, a chocolate chip muffin, and a jelly donut. Danny and Jacob had thought that the donut was pushing it, even with her temporarily increased appetite, but it just looked too tasty when she noticed it.

Taylor occupied herself with packing up the leftovers in various ways while Danny headed upstairs to get ready for the day and Jacob exchanged text messages with someone. Looking over the pile she was working with Taylor wondered if they should consider bringing some to the neighbors or something, otherwise a lot of this was going to go to waste.

"Uncle Jacob?" Taylor called, knowing that he was in the hallway.

"Think we should share some of your breakfast purchase with the neighbors or something?"

"No need," Jacob replied. "I doubt it will last the day."

What?

"Our visitors today will likely finish off the rest," Jacob continued.

"What visitors?" Danny asked as he came down the stairs, fiddling with the way his belt clip for the cell phone was positioned. "I wasn't aware we were expecting any?"

"Bonesaw will be by in the next couple of hours to meet Taylor and talk to her about what can be done in the way of upgrades," Jacob said, smirking. "And Bonesaw never visits new capes alone."

Well, so much for any plans of this being a relaxing day where they did nothing.

An hour later Taylor was poking around on PHO, this time reading through a thread discussing Über and Leet's shenanigans.

Apparently around five out of nine of their stunts were not, in fact,

doing anything seriously illegal, or in some cases illegal at all, even when it looked like they were breaking the law. They apparently hired henchmen of sorts to participate when they couldn't use robots and holograms.

Their last Sonic the Hedgehog show with stealing emeralds and gold rings from a jewelry store was even legit, having arranged it with the owner as a publicity stunt and even gotten appropriate permits and stuff. Who knew? Must be why law enforcement didn't always go after them. Though they likely had to pay fines a lot.

Taylor's browsing was interrupted by her snark sense going off.

Three parahumans had just entered her range and were coming towards the house. As a precaution she put her phone away and grabbed her new bat, which Jacob noticed.

"If you just picked up some parahumans then that that is probably our expected guests," Jacob said. "As such they are likely friendly."

"Would you be willing to trust that?" Taylor returned with a look.

"Well, no, not really," Jacob admitted. "Then again, I was told they were only a couple blocks away a moment ago."

Taylor put the bat back down, but kept it handy. Jacob nodded in approval, because they did not exactly live in a 'safe' world, as he got up to go check on who was arriving. Taylor did not hear the greetings, but shortly Jacob returned with a group of people. Taylor intentionally avoided starting conversations with their snarks for now.

"Taylor, I would like you to meet some of my associates," Jacob said,

gesturing to the group. "First up is Riley, who you better know as Bonesaw." A young-looking blond girl wearing a backpack curtseyed.

"With her mother, Amanda." An older woman with blond hair nodded.

"Ned, who you would know better as Crawler." A skinny man with brown hair that looked like a breeze would blow him over waved.

"William, who you may be familiar with from the Manton Effect named after him." An older man with unkempt hair nodded in her direction. Hmm, he had a snark? "And his daughter Sarah, who you would know as The Siberian." The last individual, a female that looked to be in her twenties with long, dark hair and a fair complexion, also waved at her. She did not have a snark.

She was a snark. William's snark, in fact.

Hello? Taylor projected at 'Sarah'. Who visibly flinched. As did William a moment later.

"How did you do that?" Sarah asked, startled. "Saying hello in my head?"

"You are an interesting snark," Taylor said, tilting her head as though to look at Sarah from a different angle. "I am under the impression very few are good with English."

"Right," Jacob said, gesturing to Taylor. "This is my niece, Taylor.

She has no cape name at this point."

"Well aren't you interesting," Riley said, bouncing over to Taylor.

"What's a snark?"

[Query]

Yes, I can see you there. How are you?

"Snarks are what I call the things that grant powers," Taylor answered Riley. "Or perhaps what the snark that grants me my power decided to call the things that grant powers?"

[Content]

So Riley here gives you plenty to play with? Good for you. But I heard you like making her cause pain. Why?

"So you can see them?" Riley asked, poking Taylor in the forehead.

"What do they look like?"

[Declaration. Determination.]

So you use the pain as a way of monitoring the nerves while you work? But so many things are washed away by the pain. How do you monitor the nerves that make someone feel pleasure, for example?

"They don't really look like anything specific?" Taylor said. "Or perhaps I should say, each one is different? William's looks like Sarah right now, for example. Yours looks like a spider, but not really?"

[Confusion. Contemplation.]

"I like spiders," Riley said, grinning. She swung the backpack she was wearing around to her front and opened it, showing a largely mechanical spider. "They're fun!"

"Neat," Taylor admitted. She was kinda happy that Riley was providing all the prompts here. She had no idea what to talk about.

She glanced over at Ned.

Hello?

{Boredom}

No, I don't think any of us want to fight you.

"No, I don't look much like Crawler right now," Ned admitted. "I have a mental switch in my head, takes about an hour to transition either way."

{Annoyance}

Well aren't you rude. No, I will not fight you just because you want a fight.

"At least you can do your own grocery shopping?" Taylor offered.

How do you respond to something like that?

"There is that, I suppose," Ned said, shrugging. "Just the way things work."

"So you can not only tell that I am a parahuman," William said,

gesturing towards Sarah. "But that she is a result of my power?"

"Yep," Taylor said, poking again, but directing at William and not Sarah.

Hello Annoyance "Well that's interesting," Taylor mumbled, looking over at Sarah. Who hadn't reacted this time.

Why shouldn't you be here?

Confusion. Hunger. "What is interesting?" Riley asked, looking at Taylor.

You aren't supposed to be joined? You weren't fed properly? I don't understand.

Annoyance "Fine, be that way," Taylor grumbled.

"Er, hello?" Riley said, poking Taylor again. "Earth to Taylor?"

"William's snark is just plain mean when I don't talk to Sarah," Taylor grumbled. "Ned's is a bit rude, but more in a single-minded way?

Then again, William's may just be hungry."

"You are a fascinating cape," Amanda finally said, shaking her head.

"What are your actual powers, anyway? I am getting conflicting ideas here, what with the spacing out just now and Sarah's odd reactions and all."

"The spacing out is probably because she is having issues focusing on us," Jacob admitted. "She can communicate with parahuman powers, which includes being able to locate them. She can also do my blade trick, but with blunt weapons instead."

"Objects," Taylor corrected, causing everyone to look at her. "What?

Weapons is too specific, it is blunt objects."

"I find myself wondering why the distinction," Danny said, coming in from the kitchen. "I'm Danny, by the way, Taylor's father. I heard the rest of the introductions, but was curious how Taylor was going to respond to new parahumans."

Taylor decided to demonstrate a little, pulling out the smallest foam bat from the bag she had nearby. "If anyone can honestly think this would be classified as a blunt weapon they probably need to re-

evaluate their view of the world." She then bopped Riley on the head with it normally, followed by William with her power.

Bopping Ned was a bad idea, she figured. Probably just as bad as bopping Lung would be.

"I can see that it works," William admitted. "But not why is it not a weapon? Powers can be weird about their definitions."

"Yes, well," Taylor continued, lightly kicking William. From across the room. He stumbled, then stared at Taylor.

"Did you just kick me?" William finally asked.

"Yep," Taylor grinned.

"How?" William asked. "That doesn't match anything you told us."

"My shoe is a blunt object," Taylor stated, crossing her arms like she had just made her point. Which, to be honest, she basically had,

because until then he had not realized that clothes were usually 'blunt'.

"My power works with scissors, bolt cutters, utility knives," Jacob said, counting things off with his fingers. "Sheets of paper, business cards, oh, and apparently shovels if I swing them the right way. So I can see where the distinction comes from. I need an edge, she needs a blunt surface."

"You need to do paper cuts on the next Slaughterhouse run," Riley said, grinning. "That would be hilarious."

"But then I might have to stop giving annoying people papercuts when I hand over business cards," Jacob retorted. "Or annoying clerks when I hand over piles of annoying paperwork. Just to keep them from making the connection between Jacob and Jack. Might pull the shovel, though. Maybe I can find the right kind of rake?"

"I stand corrected," Riley said, snickering. "You keep your little secret. Much more fun thinking about the random people you give papercuts to for being annoying. That and using garden tools on gang members."

"You are not supposed to extract enjoyment from the suffering of others," Amanda scolded. "No matter who it is that is suffering."

"Yes mom," Riley said, rolling her eyes. "Can I drag Taylor off to discuss the violations of the natural order I can grant her now?"

"Go ahead dear," Amanda said, obviously knowing that Riley, due to her powers, was unlikely to ever get the "suffering of others should not be enjoyed" bit down.

Riley's spider crawled back into her bag as Riley dragged Taylor off of the couch, allowing Taylor to collect her bag and the bat she had leaning against the couch while Riley pulled her backpack back on,

then dragged her out of the room. Only to stop a moment later.

"Er," Riley said. "Where is your room? Or a good place to talk?

Whichever?"

This time Taylor rolled her eyes, and led Riley upstairs. "Come on,

squirt."

"I don't know if she is antisocial, broken, or both," Amanda finally said after the two had made it up the stairs.

"Both, I think," Danny said, collapsing onto the couch. "Probably made worse by her power pushing her to be more social when she doesn't want to be, really."

"Or at least that is what I think is happening in some ways," Jacob added. "Our powers interact with one another, preventing me from getting a proper read on her."

"So yea," Ned said, sounding annoyed. "As fun as all of this is,

someone told us there would be food?"

"There's a pile of pastries in the kitchen," Jacob said, pointing. "I picked up plenty."

Danny feared what it was going to take to clean the kitchen when Ned was done in there.

"So you can pull the projected weapon trick," Riley said. "And yes I know it is blunt object. But if it works like Jack's you can't put more force behind it than you could if you hit them directly, right?"

"Correct," Taylor said. "I also assume I can only take a hit like a normal teenage girl."

"Most likely," Riley said. "So some strength and toughness upgrades may be a good thing."

[Observation]

Huh, neat.

"So you would enhance my muscles with nanofibers and improved ligaments," Taylor said, tapping her chin. "Add a protective layer under the skin, and wrappings on my skeletal structure? Maybe some adjustments to my joints to make them stronger and more flexible?"

"Er, yes," Riley said, a bit shocked. "How did you know that?"

"Your snark showed me some of what you have done," Taylor said,

waving it off. "But the under-skin protection and the skeletal wrappings won't grow with me; is that why you look younger than you should?"

"That is creepy," Riley whispered, then shook her head and spoke up. "Yea, I kinda upgraded myself without thinking about the fact it would keep me short. I like being short for now, but I may regret it when I am older."

"What if you made things segmented?" Taylor asked.

Could the wrappings and protections be made to interlock so they can extend and adjust?

[Curiosity]

"Extending wrappings?" Riley mumbled. "Individual protective and enhancement zones that connect, but aren't permanently joined? It would add weak points as you grew, but would require less mandatory tweaking over time if done right."

[Excitement]

Riley pulled a notebook out of her bag, the spider-bot passing her a sharpened pencil. Once she found a blank page she started sketching and making notes.

Huh, guess you just needed the basic idea?

Taylor leaned over to look at Riley's work, only for her glasses to slip off one ear and flip off to the side.

"Oooh, we should fix your eyes too," Riley said, looking over at the glasses. "Maybe upgrade them? Need to think on it; eyes can be difficult."

Over the next couple of hours they would brainstorm a number of ideas and workarounds, many of which weren't slated for Taylor at all but came about from Taylor looking at previous things Riley had done to others.

"About time you two came down," Amanda said, seeing Taylor and Riley wandering down the stairs. William and Sarah were sitting on the couch. Taylor was aware that Ned and Jacob had left not that long ago.

"Danny, Jacob, and Ned left to pick up a late lunch," William said as Taylor and Riley both had their stomachs growl. "Or perhaps an early dinner? You two were at it for a while."

"I think I need to buy Taylor a new notebook," Riley admitted. "I ran out of room in mine and grabbed one of hers. So many ideas..."

Riley trailed off with a grin on her face.

"I get the feeling that if you haven't already traded phone numbers it will have to happen before the day is out," Amanda said, shaking her head. "Then again, Riley doesn't have enough friends of any age."

It wasn't long before the three returned with piles of pizza. Fourteen large pizzas, two for each of them minus Sarah who didn't actually eat. While the distribution wasn't quite even they still finished them all off before the visiting group departed, Riley and Taylor having exchanged contact information.

Taylor would visit the hospital in the morning for a "checkup" with Panacea as a cover for Riley implementing many of their ideas.

Chapter 5 Saturday morning Taylor's alarm went off for the first time since the previous Monday. She groaned as she turned the alarm off. She considered rolling over and going back to sleep, but then she wouldn't make it to the hospital in time. That, and Uncle Jacob would soon be coming to ensure she was moving anyway. She amused herself by poking at PHO a little, but didn't really have time to check much there. So she got up and got dressed in the recommended loose, comfortable clothing.

Taylor made her way downstairs and poured herself a bowl of cereal.

She poked around on her phone some more, because why not. She most definitely wasn't thinking about what kind of horrific things Riley might be doing to her later, given some of the ideas the two of them had come up with yesterday. Even if most of them wouldn't apply to her.

Uncle Jacob came down, yawning, and made himself some coffee.

He then poured himself a bowl of cereal as well and sat across from Taylor, poking at his own phone. Taylor smirked a little at the fact they were both poking at their phones. Then she lost the smirk when she realized he might actually be doing work or something useful compared to her random browsing of the net. Perhaps the comparison wasn't as apt as she had first thought.

Soon they had both eaten and got ready to leave. Danny wasn't going for PRT security and secrecy reasons, officially. The fact he knew everything that was supposed to be kept secret was beside the point. Once they had locked the house up behind them they got into Jacob's rental and headed to the hospital.

When they arrived at the hospital Taylor and Jacob made their way into a secure basement area. Taylor was brought to a room where she changed into a hospital gown, leaving her clothes there. She

was told she should keep her phone with her, though. Apparently she may end up using it if she needed to try and communicate while unable to speak? She wasn't sure what the idea was there.

Whatever.

She could tell where she was likely going based on where Panacea and Riley were. Still, she was led there by a female PRT officer. She suspected that said officer had no clue what was really going on,

though. Once they arrived at what was obviously an operating room with an observation area she was left alone, though she knew that Panacea and Riley were in the next room. In fact, she could feel that even Uncle Jacob was leaving her range, towards what she thought was where the PRT building itself was, leaving just the three parahumans in the building.

Taylor amused herself with a silly little game she found on her phone while she waited for whatever was holding things up. She was very carefully not talking to their snarks, just in case it distracted them from whatever it was they were doing by accident. Ten minutes later Panacea and Riley came in, Riley pulling a cart of tools, and Panacea froze for a moment when she spotted Taylor, but recovered quickly.

"Good morning," Panacea said. "Taylor, was it?"

"Good morning Panacea," Taylor responded. "And good morning Riley."

"Morning Taylor," Riley said, smiling.

"You can call me Amy," Panacea, or rather Amy, said. "Though given what happened to you last week I wonder how you ended up in the know. It may be nice to have someone else to talk to in town about some of this, though."

"Uncle Jacob informed me and my father after I triggered," Taylor responded. Amy raised an eyebrow at that, apparently getting the reference, but opted not to ask too much more. "By the way, have

you given any more thought to getting a greenhouse? Your snark would like one."

"You weren't kidding about that?" Amy responded. "Where did the idea even come from?"

"Your snark said it was bored just healing humans," Taylor said,

gesturing in Amy's direction. "When I asked it liked the idea of playing with plants. I even asked if it could do rainbow roses and it seemed to find the idea intriguing."

"You..." Amy said, staring at Taylor. "I know you said nothing about that the last time we crossed paths, but the idea has been driving me nuts. How?"

"I assume your snark has been prodding you since I mentioned the idea to it?" Taylor shrugged. "So how is this going to work?"

"You are going to lay back and relax," Riley said. "Amy is going to do her best to monitor you as best she can, aiding me with the healing side of things, as well as being the emergency medical assistance if something goes wrong. Three trusted observers, all female, are watching from the observation area. There are no recording devices beyond our own three phones in here, and I suspect not one of us has turned their cameras on."

"Alright," Taylor said, laying back on the operating table. "Are you going to be knocking me out?"

"I need you awake to ensure I get things hooked back up correctly,"

Riley apologized. "My methods tend to result in very poor results on unconscious patients. But I have also perfected my device for turning off your pain receptors, so while it will feel odd it won't hurt. With Amy's help it hopefully won't even hurt over the next few days while everything settles."

Taylor gave a little shrug and tried to relax, despite how nervous she was, as Riley and Amy began. On a whim she decided to poke their

snarks, not to chat per se, but maybe she could get a running description of what was going on from them as a distraction from them actually doing things?

Hello again you two [Affirmation] {Affirmation}

[Query]

{Determination}

[Curiosity]

{Excitement}

[Integration] {Integration} Integration

Taylor lost her focus on the world around her as things ran through her brain. Biology and technology, enhancements and improvements. More efficient ways to do everything, better structures for the enhancements, improved methods for allowing her to continue to grow despite the changes. Every so often she would contribute an idea, an alternate way to approach something, or a possible issue and the patterns would change.

Nine hours into the projected three hour initial operation the three parahumans in the operating theatre finally finished, though how much of that was being done and how much was running out of energy was unknown. Taylor was back together, looking perfectly normal and healthy, but had fallen asleep. Riley was barely functioning as she cleaned her tools on autopilot, though for the most part the spiderbot assistant she had with her was doing the actual work for her. Amy had collapsed to the floor, leaning against the wall, a goofy but tired grin on her face.

Several female PRT officers came in and assisted Riley and Amy out of the room. A transport stretcher was brought in and Taylor was transferred to it. Taylor's clothing was collected and she was transferred to an observation room until such a time as she woke up.

For added 'fun' the entire thing was officially a failure as Riley and Amy had almost immediately gone into what looked like a 'tinker fugue' and had worked together seamlessly instead of Amy monitoring Riley and providing minimal assistance. Even more,

Taylor herself seemed to do everything she needed to in the way of moving limbs and other tasks without a single word being spoken,

meaning she had been involved as well.

Riley lasted about ten minutes before she had collapsed and was brought to the next room over from Taylor. Amy, on the other hand,

was alert enough to give a short report and be picked up by her sister. She did, however, go to bed quite early.

Early Sunday morning Taylor woke up in the hospital, her father and uncle having fallen asleep in chairs off to the side. She was having trouble remembering just why she was here. She also noted that Riley was nearby, if her snark sense was working properly.

Wait, Riley? Wasn't she going to 'upgrade' Taylor yesterday? Taylor vaguely recalled having laid down on the operating table, and then...

and then... why did she know what a quadruplex helix DNA analogue looked like? And how in the world did she know it was just before five AM Sunday morning?

Something had gone horribly something. Right or wrong, well, she wasn't quite sure. She found a call button had been placed near her left hand, so she reached over and pressed it. A nurse came in a minute later and saw that Taylor was awake. She came over and offered Taylor a glass of water, which was gladly accepted. The nurse then whispered that she should try and get some more sleep if she didn't need anything else, otherwise her phone was on the table next to her.

Taylor opted for the phone, starting with confirming that her thought of what time it was had been correct, but she still wasn't sure how she knew. She decided to browse through PHO to see if anything of interest was reported as having happened the day before, but not much jumped out at her. Further, she had made it through a dozen pages on PHO before she first realized that she wasn't wearing her glasses.

"What in the world happened?" Taylor mumbled. On a whim she jumped over to the wiki to see if anything on Panacea there might help her figure things out, as she doubted there was enough information on Bonesaw to warrant searching. Only to get her next shock as just after she tapped on the search box Panacea's name typed itself out. A little more focus and she found that she now had a virtual keyboard sitting in the back of her head, one that she hadn't had before. Next to it were various controls for music and voice,

volume controls, mute buttons, a dial pad with a call button.

And seemingly above them all was an information block, stating 'civilian phone' with the time, signal bars, and battery life duplicated from the phone in her hands.

"Since when does my brain come with Bluetooth?" Taylor wondered aloud. "No, wait, we added most of that on at the brainstem. I think?

After we found my earpiece was still in my ear and got inspired, I believe. Though we did take a couple of attempts to get the audio linkages working."

Taylor was now in an odd state of mind, wanting to freak out but too fascinated to do so. She was remembering more of what had gone on yesterday, including the fifteen attempts to get her phone to pair to her as they adjusted the programming of the biological Bluetooth system that Amy and Riley had cobbled together. A quick mental check showed that she now had Amy's contact information in her phone, which for shits and giggles she double-checked on her phone itself.

Riley had even taken apart the earpiece and figured out how it handled multiple secure connections, then they had built that functionality into the biological system somehow. Taylor shivered as she realized she was probably quite lucky that they had decided to go with Bluetooth and not, say, building her phone into her directly.

Some more contemplation and she found she had a general idea that her strength had been 'maxed out' in some way, her flexibility and endurance were much higher, and she thought that her skeleton and skin were both now much harder to injure or break? How much so on any of these she wasn't sure. It came to her that she wasn't just able to see clearly without glasses, but that she had improved night-vision as well and her hearing was improved when they figured out how to tie the Bluetooth thing into her ears.

If that wasn't enough, she saw and yet didn't see an alert pop up in front of her, indicating that she had received a text message from Amy. Who had apparently woken up early as well and was trying to apologize via text message. For what Taylor wasn't certain as she felt like it was just as much her fault somehow, if not more so than either of the others. Still, she responded, without having looked at her phone, that she was fine if a little weirded out by being a Bluetooth accessory now.

Huh. 'wait, what? what did we do yesterday?' summed up many of Taylor's initial thoughts too, actually.

A few more minutes of texting back and forth with questions and clarifications ensued before Amy had stated that she would swing by the hospital as soon as she could, if only to double-check that Taylor wasn't going to have a mass organ failure or something else horrible.

Taylor set her phone back down on the table next to her and thought for a bit, trying to dredge up memories of what they had done the day before. Eventually she had fallen back asleep, getting another hour or two of rest.

Last edited: May 23, 2018

Interlude: Panacea Amy shook her head as she left Miss Hebert's room. A greenhouse,

really? To keep her snark from getting bored?

She stopped to make the 'this person has triggered and has been given the documentation they need' markings on the paperwork. To those not in the know it probably looked like a mistake that hadn't been cleared off properly, though. Which, to be fair, probably meant that a dozen different groups who shouldn't be in the know could go through hospital paperwork all over the country and find out who had been found to be a parahuman. But that wasn't her problem.

A couple hours and a couple dozen more patients later she called Vicky for a ride home.

A couple of days later she had been informed that there were no patients in need of her care (which meant that there were likely patients that wanted her care, but that didn't actually warrant her visiting). She opted to join Vicky and Dean on the Boardwalk for a bit as a result.

"So what is up with you?" Vicky asked, poking Amy. "For the past few days you have been slightly out of it."

Amy looked over at Vicky and decided that she was unlikely to give up. Even Dean looked interested.

"Someone said some things that made very little sense to me recently," Amy finally admitted. "I think some of it was their concussion talking, honestly. But it got stuck in my head anyway."

"Really?" Vicky said, a look of disbelief on her face. "What could they have possibly said that would stick with you?"

"That I needed to buy a greenhouse so my snark and I could play with the plants to keep from being bored," Amy deadpanned back.

Vicky and Dean looked at her, Vicky had an unreadable expression and Dean looked like he wanted to laugh. No, wait, there was a slight giggle.

"Well, you know," Vicky finally said, a grin slipping by her apparent attempt to control her expression. "You can be pretty snarky at times."

And that did it, Dean was now outright laughing. Amy had to smirk a bit herself, though.

Two clothing stores, a pretzel stand, another clothing store, and a shoe store later the group had grown and was taking a break.

Dennis had joined them at the pretzel stand, sticking around for the shoe store because he actually needed new sneakers, and Carlos had joined them as they left the shoe store.

As it was, they were sitting outside of a florist, and Amy couldn't keep her attention on the conversation. For some reason she was entranced by the various flowers, especially the roses.

"Earth to Amy," Vicky said, tapping Amy on the forehead. "Come in Amy."

"Wha?" Amy said, shaking her head. "Sorry, I spaced out there."

"Yea, we noticed," Dennis said. "Kind of curious what had your attention."

"Er," Amy said, blushing a bit. "Not sure why, but I couldn't stop thinking about the flowers."

"The flowers?" Carlos asked, looking like that didn't make a lot of sense. "Why the flowers?"

"Not really sure," Amy said, turning back and looking at the roses. "I keep imagining things like the roses having rainbow-colored petals in various patterns."

"That would be interesting," Dean admitted. "Any idea where the idea came from?"

"Not really," Amy admitted. "But I also keep imagining having the oddly-colored flowers in a greenhouse, so maybe it is just my mind running away with that comment."

Of course, Dennis and Carlos hadn't heard that story, and both cracked up when they heard about Vicky's comment about Amy being snarky. Great, Dennis was probably going to run with that for weeks.

Amy entered the operating room with Riley, having just finished getting an explanation about what was planned from the younger girl. Apparently a recent trigger was aware of the truth about the Slaughterhouse Nine, somehow, and was getting upgraded to be less squishy. For all Amy knew the new cape was going to be joining the nine due to a problem with the mentality their power imposed,

that hadn't been covered.

Amy looked over at the girl sitting on the operating table and froze for a second. Taylor, was it? She was the recent trigger? She quickly pushed down her surprise and got the basic story. Being related to Jack Slash would explain the 'in the know' part, though.

It wasn't long before they were ready to get started. Riley had grabbed the pain inhibitor, Amy herself was prepared to monitor everything. And then the world exploded into a mass of ideas and possibilities, of technology and biology and how to do things with both that she had never even considered before.

Amy was washed away, only barely aware of what was going on, of what she was doing.

Wow, what had she done last night, er, or was it yesterday? She blearily grabbed her phone from where she had left it next to her bed and checked the time. Very early Sunday? What happened to...

Amy suddenly came fully awake. What had they done to poor Taylor yesterday? How could she have let herself go like that? How could she ever make it up to her?

She quickly fired off a text message to Taylor (when did she get Taylor's number?) trying to apologize for what had happened,

whatever it was. It was only after she had sent the message that she realized that Taylor may no longer be able to use a phone. She hoped that wasn't something that had gone wrong.

It wasn't long before Taylor texted back. Amy stared at the message.

"I'm fine, I think I am in one piece, but a bit weirded out that I am now a Bluetooth accessory." What? No, seriously, WHAT?

Chapter 6 Taylor woke up to the sight of the hospital ceiling for the second time that morning. It took her a minute to realize that a text message from Amy had woken her up. Apparently by poking her brain through her nice fancy new Bluetooth organ-thingy and not through her phone making noise. Still, it looked like Amy had just arrived and would be down as soon as she could clear the security checkpoints.

Taylor looked around the room to find that, as her snark sense had told her, Uncle Jacob was not currently in the room. He appeared to be next door with Riley instead. Her father was drinking from a coffee mug and had not noticed her head moving yet.

"Morning Dad," Taylor said just after Danny had put the coffee mug down, causing him to flinch. "Amy will be down shortly to check up on me."

"Er," Danny said. "Morning, and how do you know that?"

"She just sent me a text message," Taylor responded, grinning internally. Just because she was a little freaked out at 'what had they done!?' didn't mean she couldn't have fun with it.

"As much as I obviously could miss your head moving a little," Danny said, giving Taylor a look. "I doubt I would have missed you pick up your phone, check your messages, and then put the phone back down. Next to my coffee, that I was drinking."

"Yea," Taylor said. "Apparently at some point yesterday I was turned into a Bluetooth accessory, or had one installed in my head, or something like that. I think it was fifteen attempts before I could pair with the phone. Also, since her text message woke me up I have been following her progress with my snark sense."

Danny sat there, looking at Taylor, before sighing. "I should have thought that instead of asking how you knew in the first place."

"Morning Taylor," Jacob said as he came into the room, Riley trailing behind him. Riley tried to say something, but yawned instead.

"Where's Amanda?" Taylor asked, curious. Her father was here, why wouldn't Riley's mother be?

"Riley does this kind of thing frequently," Jacob admitted, getting a glare from Riley. "Not quite in this way, but often enough that Amanda has stopped worrying about her when it happens so long as Riley wasn't working on herself."

"The infamous tinker fugue," Danny smirked. "Though apparently you somehow roped yourself and another non-tinker into the fugue."

"Honestly I think Amy is as much as a tinker as anyone else on that front," Taylor said, timing her comment for Amy coming into the room. "Speaking of which, morning Amy."

"Good morning Taylor," Amy said, walking over and poking Taylor in the arm. "Well, your organs aren't falling apart, so that is a good thing. Now then, your skeleton has been strengthened... wow,

nanotubes? Throughout the skin too? And that is a surprisingly efficient improvement on the muscles. I think your joints are a lot less rigid now, if that is what it looks like in them. Huh, what is that thing attached to the base of your skull?"

"I think that is my Bluetooth module," Taylor said. Riley perked up at that.

"That wasn't my imagination?" Riley said, bouncing over. "We actually got an organic Bluetooth module working?" Taylor's phone lit up at that, and a moment later Riley's phone dinged. Riley pulled her phone out and read the message aloud. "Yes, we did. Weird as hell though."

"That was interesting to watch," Amy said, her eyes focused on something nobody else could see. "No idea how it works. Did we program it with a quadruplex helix structure for information storage?"

"I think some of that also handles the information processing," Taylor said. "But most of that is vague and fuzzy, like I watched a documentary on it while half asleep."

"No, I think most of the processing is through what I think is carbon nanotube semiconductors. And I think it uses your skin as an antenna," Amy continued. "No idea what it is capable of or how to duplicate it, though it looks to be loosely tied into multiple parts of your head, brain and otherwise?"

"I know I can see, without my eyes mind you, the phone status and messages," Taylor replied. "Plus I appear to be able to make and receive calls, listen to and control music and other playback, plus the virtual keyboard in my brain and a couple of other things. I have vague recollections of testing all of those, and I think my call logs show several calls to you and Riley yesterday when we would have been occupied with all of this. I know that you didn't have my number nor did I have yours yesterday morning."

Amy removed her finger from Taylor's arm, shaking her head as if to clear it. "My power is very happy, confused at half of what we did,

and impressed that we apparently got your body to maintain all of the modifications for you, though I did check and can tell you that should you have any your kids won't have the upgrades. So congratulations, you are an artificial brute and I have no idea how to classify the organic Bluetooth module."

"I suspect you need to eat a lot more," Riley piped up. "Everyone I have upgraded in the past has, anyway."

"There is that," Amy admitted. "But that is to be expected, and I think it is much less than it might otherwise have been unless you are using the enhanced strength or endurance a lot."

"So," Danny said, looking around the room. "Am I the only one that still wants to know what the hell happened yesterday?"

Taylor, Amy, and Riley all blushed a bit at that, then looked at each other. Finally Taylor sighed.

"Right as they were about to begin I connected to both of their snarks," Taylor said. "At the same time, in a single 'channel'. A conference call, if you will. Which meant that not only could I talk to each of their snarks..."

"But they could talk to each other as well," Jacob finished. "A bio-

tinker and a bio-striker having their powers able to directly

communicate right as they were focusing on an operation. Wow. I can't wait for something similar to happen again so it can be officially noted."

"What do you mean by that?" Riley asked. "Why wouldn't the PRT note that this happened?"

"Because this was off the books," Jacob replied. "Had it worked out flawlessly the only record would have been a report signed off by Panacea that there were no problems. That, obviously, isn't going to happen as there were problems. Still, Amy, would you be willing to fill out a standard PRT health check for Taylor? She could use it to bypass some questions when she is trying to join the Wards."

"I will be glad to," Amy said, looking at Taylor. "Whatever happened it is like a weight was lifted from me that I didn't know was there. I think my power is content?"

"I told you," Taylor interrupted. "Get a greenhouse, play with the plants, and you and your snark will be happier."

"I... think I may believe you now," Amy admitted. "I thought it was crazy-talk before, though, sorry. And I have no idea how to explain it to Carol."

"Well, we can think on it," Jacob said. "For the time being I think we should ensure that everyone is ok, fill out the paperwork we are going to fill out, and get out of here. Unless anyone wants to hang around the hospital all day?"

They had finished everything in twenty minutes and were out of the building in twenty-five.

"So now that we have escaped the dreaded hospital of doom," Riley said, looking around as she pulled on a baseball cap. "What is there to do around here? I'm not leaving till tomorrow morning, so I got nothing to do today."

"Wander the boardwalk and hope no gang idiots decide to jump you?" Amy offered. "Really, most of the time I am dragged out and about with Vicky, and she mostly prefers shopping."

"Wonder what people will think if they see you running around with other people," Jacob mused. "Unless we get you a hat as well. You would be amazed at how well that works, since you aren't in costume."

"Add a light pair of sunglasses," Riley added. "Not really dark ones,

just dark enough to obviously be sunglasses. Too dark and you are obviously hiding something and people start trying to figure out what."

A basic plan to keep people from paying attention to Amy in hand they quickly swung by a store to put it in action. Amy and Taylor both picked out sun hats and all three girls got pairs of matching sunglasses.

Thus 'disguised' they made their way down to the boardwalk itself and found that early on a Sunday morning in early January was more boring than usual there. In fact, a number of shops weren't even open until noon. They did, however, find that breakfast was being served at a cafe and, not having eaten in the hospital (or since

the morning of the day before in general for Taylor and Riley) they decided to stop in.

The cafe was not busy, and was a tad on the expensive side, but everything was pretty good. For a number of reasons the smalltalk was sparse and covered nothing of importance, one of them being that talking was not eating. After the group of five had consumed enough for nearly ten (the employees being surprised that the three girls each ate as much or more than the adult men) they left, to find that the boardwalk was a bit busier.

They wandered a bit more, ending up in an Arcade for an hour or so,

browsed some of the open shops that Amy didn't usually get to see with Vicky, and showed Amy and Riley the out of the way shop that Danny, Jacob, and Taylor had gone to. Amy and Riley each picked up a collapsible baton after Taylor had mentioned hers, figuring that defense was always a good idea and that they wouldn't always have their powers as an option.

A little before noon Amy got a text message from her sister. "Vicky wants to know if I want to join her and Dean for lunch," Amy relayed.

"Shall I see if the rest of you can tag along?"

"Why not," Jacob said after a glance at Danny. "We don't have any other plans yet."

A quick back and forth with Vicky and Amy led the group towards a small restaurant just off of the boardwalk proper. As they approached Taylor noticed that they were heading towards two unfamiliar snarks.

While she could ignore the snarks that didn't get close, and had been all morning with a few that were also wandering around, these would be harder to do so with. They were also right next to each other, was Dean a parahuman?

"There they are," Amy said as she pointed. They had just come around the last corner before they reached the restaurant and they now had line of sight to the few people already there. Two of them

were Vicky, floating a foot in the air, and, presumably, Dean.

Unfortunately that was also when things started to go wrong.

Taylor stopped dead in the street as something went off in her head.

[Assertion]

No.

"Taylor?" Danny tried to get her attention. The others had also stopped.

[Determination. Assertion.]

I said no. I will not adore her.

Amy poked Taylor's exposed hand for a quick diagnostic. "Her gemma is going nuts and her heart rate is increasing," was whispered to the others after a moment. "It looks like a panic attack?"

[Determination. ASSERTION.]

I said NO. STOP IT.

"What do you think is going wrong?" Danny finally asked.

"Maybe something just entered her range and is causing problems?"

Riley guessed. "Given that her gemma is involved."

[ASSERTION.]

I SAID NO. Additional Connections Established STOP IT Additional Connections Established

By now the entire group was looking worried but none of them knew what to do. Without more information moving Taylor could just bring her closer to what was causing the problem.

Unnoticed by them, Vicky was also starting to look worried. She was looking around like something was wrong.

[ASSERTION. ASSERTION. ASSERTION.]

I Additional Connections Established Said Additional Connections Established Stop Error: Connection Failed: Target has insufficient resources IT!

Unnoticed by Taylor's group, Vicky suddenly fell to the ground.

Unable to keep her balance she tried to latch onto a fence post,

cutting her hand in the process.

[acquiescence]

Good. And don't do it again.

Additional Connections Closed

At this point Taylor fell to her knees, suddenly gasping for breath.

Amy noticed that Taylor's gemma was returning to what she thought was normal and Taylor's heart rate was starting to drop as well.

"Taylor," Danny said, kneeling in front of her. "Kiddo. What happened?"

"Amy," Taylor gasped. "I'm sorry, but I am not sure I like your sister's snark."

"What?" Amy barely held herself from yelling as she spun around.

She spotted Vicky over at the restaurant, sitting on the ground,

staring at a bloody hand. "What the hell?"

"I told it no," Taylor finally continued after catching her breath. "It kept trying to make me adore her. I kept telling it to stop, screamed at it to stop, and finally it did. But I do not like that snark."

The other parahumans in the group shared some looks, and collectively decided this should probably not be talked about in the

open. They helped Taylor up and, after making sure everything was ok for now, finished heading over to the restaurant.

"Vicky, what happened to you?" Amy asked Vicky as they came up to the two. "How did you get hurt?"

"Wha?" Vicky was visibly startled as she looked up. "Oh, hi Ames,

nice hat, didn't recognize you at first."

"Yes yes," Amy said, reaching down to poke Vicky. "How did you get hurt?"

"I'm not sure what happened," Vicky admitted. "All of a sudden I got an odd feeling, like something wasn't quite right. It got worse, and then all of a sudden my power cut out. I fell from where I was floating and grabbed something?"

"The fence post," Dean said, pointing at the metal fence post they were next to. An obvious rough point had a small blood smear on it.

"I was also suddenly able to sense her feelings. Actually, I still can,

normally her aura is blocking that."

"Whatever happened I feel like my powers are all back," Vicky added. "But my aura is, um, reluctant to turn on? Which is odd,

normally I have to really focus to keep it off."

Amy healed Vicky up without problem, but knew that suspicions on what had happened could not be voiced here. Basic introductions were made across the group, followed by a largely silent lunch.

After lunch was over Vicky and Dean went back on their own way,

resuming their 'Sunday date'. Amy opted not to join them, not wanting to 'intrude on their time'. Or so she claimed. Instead the group went back to the hospital, where Jacob's rental was parked.

"Alright," Amy said, once they were all in the rental, the three girls in the backseat. "Do we know precisely what happened with Taylor and Vicky?"

"I suspect," Jacob said, before anyone else got started. "That your sister's well-known aura attempted to ensnare Taylor. Taylor's own power detected that and Taylor disagreed. But I am not sure what happened after that."

"I think I connected to her snark," Taylor said, quietly. "Over and over and over again, telling it to stop each time, until there was nothing left over for her snark to do what it normally did. Then, and only then,

when I could make no more connections because her snark had nothing left to connect to, did it agree to stop."

"I bet that is when her powers stopped working," Riley said after a moment. "You literally forced her power offline, demanded so much of it that it couldn't do anything but listen to you."

"Had she been higher in the air she might have been seriously injured," Danny added. "We are lucky she wasn't, but you may need to find a way to restrain yourself if that happens again."

"I think she may have permanently changed Vicky's power," Amy finally said. "Her aura's behavior changing from 'on unless she forces it off' to 'off and reluctant to turn on' is honestly worrying."

"It may only do that around me," Taylor volunteered. "If it is more afraid of annoying me with it. Or perhaps it has learned that blasting everyone, all the time, can be a bad thing. I guess we will have to wait and see."

"Well, I suggest we drop Riley and Amy off," Jacob said. "I know where Riley's hotel is, where would you like to be dropped off Amy?"

After they dropped Riley and Amy off, Amy providing directions to her home, the remaining three made their way back to the Hebert household. Heading in the three made their way to the living room and collapsed into various seats.

"Congratulations," Jacob finally said, looking at Taylor. "I do believe that when this ability of yours comes out you will get an official boost

to your likely trump rating. Not only did you shut Victoria's power down on her you may have permanently changed an aspect of it."

Taylor just dropped her head onto the coffee table.

It was only as she got ready for bed that night that Taylor realized they had not, in fact, tested any of her 'upgrades'. She only knew that the fixed and improved eyesight worked by virtue of not needing her glasses and not needing to turn on her bedroom light. The Bluetooth module obviously worked. But she hadn't noticed any extra strength, and wasn't sure how to test her new durability.

She made note to say something about that in the morning, then crawled into bed.

Last edited: May 6, 2018

Chapter 7 Taylor woke up the next morning to a text message, this time from Riley, poking her brain. She was going to have to do something about that. She mentally pulled up the message.

"BTW, since we didn't talk about it yesterday, the PRT watchers told me we tested your upgrades. They worked fine."

Well, that was good to know. She still wanted to test some of them for herself, though. She sent a thanks in reply anyway, then started poking around her mental Bluetooth interface for a don't wake me up button. Which was more difficult than it seemed because her interface wasn't something she could look at and just open everything.

It took her nearly an hour, but she finally found an option tied to the pairing. Apparently she had a power-saving sleep mode? And it would activate when she was actually asleep, she hoped that meant she would just disconnect from the phone when she was asleep.

She ensured that it was enabled, re-named the phone to 'personal'

instead of 'civilian', and then poked around some more just in case she missed something. Finally she opened her eyes.

Huh, she had been awake for an hour, read and replied to a text message, and searched her Bluetooth options, and all before she even bothered to open her eyes. Tinkers were bullshit, there was nothing else to say about them.

She climbed out of bed and got ready for the day, not that she knew what she would end up doing. Her father was likely to get back to work, but Uncle Jacob would likely still be around. Maybe he would have some testing ideas.

In addition to grabbing her phone Taylor also packed up the little charging cradle for the earpiece that no longer existed. Not like she

needed it now, but someone else could probably use a spare. They had spare charging cables (but not cradles) for the phones, after all.

Heading downstairs she found her father preparing french toast.

"Morning."

"Morning," Danny responded, flipping the current batch of french toast. "I'm going to head into the office today, but call me if you need anything."

"Will do," Taylor said, setting the earpiece charging cradle on the counter. "Dunno if you want this as a spare, or if I should offer it to Uncle Jacob, but I don't need it anymore."

"That is a disturbingly good point," Danny admitted, looking down at the cradle. "I don't think I need it, as the earpiece is supposed to last eighteen hours or so per charge. Jacob travels quite a bit, though, so perhaps he could use one for travel?"

"I'll check with him when he gets up," Taylor said, then realized that he hadn't been moving on her snark sense. "Speaking of which, did he actually decide to sleep in today?"

"I believe he did."

"Wonders never cease."

"Granted, I did slip him a sleeping pill last night."

"Nevermind, then."

The two ate breakfast together, and Taylor handled most of the clean-up while Danny finished getting ready for work. Jacob started moving shortly after Danny had left, so Taylor ensured that the extra french toast was ready for him to warm up in the microwave if he wanted.

"Good morning Taylor," Jacob said as he wandered into the kitchen.

Taylor was poking through the newspaper, not finding anything of interest. "Morning," she replied, giving up on the news and going for the comics. After some snickering she put the paper down and left her uncle to his breakfast as she wandered into the living room to watch some television.

Half an hour later she had taken a quick look at the news, finding out about a press conference about the Winslow student situation that afternoon and some celebrity got arrested last night. From there she checked the weather to find that it was supposed to be chilly but above freezing, with a chance of rain this afternoon and potential downpours tomorrow. She then tried watching the morning cartoons,

only to find them too childish at this hour. Frustrated she turned off the television and pulled out her phone.

"Before you get into that," Jacob said from the door, startling Taylor.

She knew he was there, just not that he was about to say something.

"I think we should make some plans for the next couple of days."

"Er," Taylor said, putting her phone back in the belt holster she was using. "Ok?"

"To start with," Jacob said as he dropped into the easy chair. "I think this morning we should do some more tests with your upgrades. The PRT watchers observed a number of tests, but given that Riley barely remembers them you probably don't have much recollection either."

"I was wanting to do something about that," Taylor admitted. "Just wasn't sure where or how."

"I arranged for some time at a gym in a couple of hours."

"A gym?"

"In this case it is one of the places the PRT helps get set up where parahumans can do discrete testing and training without drawing attention to themselves. Around here if you don't care about

attention you generally wander out to the boat graveyard, but I think we want to be more discreet today. I generally keep tabs of where they are because most of the Nine aren't running around as parahumans most weeks, not that they make them hard to find if you know how."

"Ok, that makes sense."

"After that I think we should grab some of the books and lesson plans used at Arcadia. See if you can study up to 'current'."

"That we don't need to do," Taylor said, getting up. Jacob watched as she darted upstairs, wondering why she suddenly jumped up and ran off, but trusted she had a good reason.

A couple minutes later Taylor returned with a box Jacob vaguely recognized from when he had been searching her room. He hadn't given it much thought as it was all school materials.

"I may actually be ahead of Arcadia's curriculum," Taylor admitted,

putting the box down on the coffee table. "I kept hoping I would be able to transfer, so I started a self-study routine back in October.

Made it easier to keep up at Winslow too, given how far behind Winslow is compared to Arcadia and how horrible Winslow's books are in comparison."

Jacob poked through the box, then pulled his phone out and consulted a list he had there. Huh, she was right, this was the same basic book set he was planning on getting her. "How did you get all of the books? You haven't had enough of an allowance to afford them."

"They are technically on loan from Arcadia for those looking to get their grades up to try and qualify to attend there. The workbooks are self-study ones they supply for that as well. I was only permitted to take a set home instead of visiting Arcadia on nights and weekends because I had qualified for entry before I started at Winslow, and my grades at Winslow wouldn't matter due to the different curriculums

and the horrible learning environment Winslow provided. I was planning on taking their tests this summer to try and get a scholarship for next year anyway, which would side-step the Winslow staff apparently rejecting all transfer applications."

"Does your father know about any of this?"

"Er, I told him I was doing some extra self study, just not how much?

I was hoping to surprise him with the good news. Not having to do all the homework helped too."

Jacob flipped through several of the notebooks and a couple of the workbooks, in the latter case comparing every so often to something on his phone. Finally he put everything down and sat back. "Well,

that should make entering Arcadia easier. Perhaps we should instead arrange for you to take their entry exams? It will look less odd if you get to doing that before joining the Wards anyway."

"Do you know what they are going to announce at the press conference?"

"A few details, but not everything. I mainly found the details relating to Arcadia. Still, some of it is that they plan on having every student run through evaluation tests before they figure out how to split them up due to 'irregularities' with the record keeping at Winslow. But Arcadia is only intending to allow those that pass their tests to attend either way, even if the city is willing to pay tuition, so it will make sense for you to take those tests instead. Passing them and being accepted would negate your need to take the tests the rest of Winslow students will be taking as well."

"What if some students are able to get into Arcadia, but haven't taken Arcadia's tests?"

"I suspect that anyone that does well enough on the evaluation tests will get offered a run at Arcadia's. Not sure, though. They may cover that in the press conference anyway."

"Alright." Taylor thought for a moment, and decided there wasn't much to add there. "So when are we expected at that gym you mentioned?"

"Anytime this morning, their schedule was clear today when I asked to reserve it. Do you want to head over now?"

"Sure."

It actually took them about an hour to get to the gym, in part because Taylor had to change into something more suitable and disposable.

She also had to prepare a spare outfit just in case the first outfit had to be disposed of immediately.

As they arrived Taylor looked at the outside of the slightly run down gym on the edge of the docks. It didn't look like much, but that was probably the point. Jacob did not lead them in through the front,

though. Instead he brought her down an alley to what looked like an employee entrance next to a dumpster. He then held his phone up to a spot on the wall with a faded Alexandria sticker stuck to it.

The phone beeped a moment later and the door clicked, then the two went in to find a set of stairs going down just after a small landing. They went down a couple of floors worth of stairs to find themselves in a hallway. Doors to several areas were marked,

including several generic individual changing rooms. There were also a series of lockers without locks next to where they came in.

"Just so that you know," Jacob said, holding his phone up to show what looked like a digital ID card. "You should be able to do that as well with the 'gym membership' app open. I'll explain more about using the app, how to figure out the secret entrances as the app only tells you the participating gym addresses, and other details later. Oh,

and as an added bonus you can use it in the main gym as well to prove membership if you actually want to work out in your normal identity."

"Sounds useful," Taylor said, pulling her phone out and finding the app to make sure she knew which one it was. It even had her name showing on the ID card when she opened it, and the included map showed that they were in one of two participating Brockton Bay locations. The other one was a couple blocks away from the PRT building.

"Note that generally if there are multiple locations in a given town that one is a testing facility, like this one, and the other is for more normal gym activities. Now then," Jacob said, gesturing at the lockers. "I suggest you drop your spare clothes in one of the lockers,

then we can get started."

"So why didn't we come here when I wanted to hit things?" Taylor asked as she closed the locker she had thrown her bag into. "Instead of being out in the open?"

"Three reasons," Jacob said, leading Taylor to a door with what looked like a saw blade on it. That was disturbing. "The first is that they don't like parahumans engaging in potentially destructive to the facility testing here unless you are already a member of the Wards or Protectorate. Even then they prefer you do that in the PRT building or in the Protectorate headquarters out in the bay, at least if it is

possible for you to get to either. Next up is that they prefer that non-

parahumans only get informed that these locations even exist if they

are employed by the PRT. Finally, I didn't want to have to explain how a prepaid for five years cell phone could include a gym membership."

"They aren't even paid up, are they," Taylor added, grinning. "They would have to be on a plan, probably yours."

"And that is just another reason you should have no problem at Arcadia. Don't tell your father, either he honestly has no clue or he is being willfully ignorant. Now, let's see how cut-resistant you are, that is why we came to the poor man's power testing facility after all."

Over the next couple of hours Taylor was exposed to blades (only the most serious got more than skin deep, but they still stung),

flames (burns still hurt), lasers (burns again, ouch), bullets (small caliber only, they stung but didn't penetrate her arm), and was just finishing up blunt impacts.

"Note to self," Taylor mumbled as she picked herself up off of the floor after having been slammed into by a large weight. "Even if I can survive it, getting hit by a car will hurt."

"Yea, I don't recommend it," Jacob quipped. "So, all that is left is some basic strength tests."

Jacob led Taylor to a room filled with a large number of weights as well as several wall-mounted targets. Some of the weights were sitting on racks or what looked like marked spots on the floor, others were attached to cables.

"First up, work your way down the free-weights," Jacob said. "Do your best to figure out where your limits are with one hand first, then switch to both."

Taylor made her way down the line of weights, eventually stopping at the 70 kg weights with a single hand. Using both hands she made it up to 110 kg.

"Very good for your muscle development. If I understand things correctly that will only go up. So, lesson time," Jacob said, pointing at one of the vertical cables labeled 90 kg. "Pull on that, would you?"

Taylor walked over to the cable and, after getting a good grip, pulled herself off of her feet because she didn't weigh enough and then fell on her ass because her footing had been unstable and set her swinging.

"There you go," Jacob said as he helped Taylor up from where she had fallen. "Object lesson complete. For some reason most people who trigger as brutes with enhanced strength don't actually need to

worry about footing, or the fact that they are moving things that are more massive than they are. Artificial brutes like the two of us do. If you don't have decent footing or something to brace against your strength is much less useful."

"I get that, yea," Taylor said, giving Jacob a slight glare. "So, what are the targets on the walls for, given that we have already used pretty much everything else?"

"Punching," Jacob said. "Speaking of which, let's go do that. Er, you do know how to throw a punch, right?"

"That depends," Taylor replied. "Does what the dockworkers taught me count?"

"Just don't grip your own thumb," Jacob sighed. "Even if it likely could take the abuse."

After showing Taylor how the punching pads worked and adjusting one to the correct height for her she went at it. Twenty punches,

alternating hands.

"Average of about 700 pounds there," Jacob said, whistling lightly. "I usually only average 750, so good job kid."

"I would congratulate Riley and Amy, honestly."

"True, true, still good on you. By the way, how are those burns from earlier?"

"Er," Taylor mumbled, feeling the points they had used in the flame and laser tests. "They feel fine actually. What the hell? Shouldn't they hurt like hell still?" She took a good look at the skin. "Or, you know, look like I had been hurt?"

"I think you've got some enhanced healing that nobody bothered to mention. I suspected it when I noticed the deepest cut we got on your arm had already closed up by the time we got started on hitting

you with carefully calibrated baseball bats. In fact, right now it looks like it didn't even scar."

"Huh," Taylor poked at where said cut had been. Nothing but clean,

unblemished skin. "That should help keep Dad happy."

"Kinda hoping Riley knows how to do that," Jacob admitted. "I would like the upgrade, given that the normal methods involve patching most of us up afterwards or, for the much rarer serious injuries,

visiting someone like Amy."

"Might have been Amy's doing, probably was for that matter."

"Kinda hoping it wasn't. I doubt she would give me the upgrade then."

"Yea, I suppose you are ugly enough to refuse."

"What?" Jacob stopped and stared at Taylor for a moment, stunned at the sudden joke. He stayed that way just long enough for Taylor to slip out of the room. "HEY, GET BACK HERE!" Even though the grin on his face did not look like an angry one Taylor still led him on a merry chase throughout the various rooms of the facility. As a side bonus, she discovered that her endurance lasted longer than his did.

"Wooo, that hit the spot," Jacob said, patting his stomach. "On a related note, this is our second Fugly's meal in a week. We may need to stop by the hospital to have them check for clogged arteries."

"You may have to," Taylor grinned over her milkshake. "But I got cleaned up since my previous visit, so I think I am good for now."

Taylor's phone beeped, a common thing over the past hour, though she did not remove it from her holster. Several other patrons had noticed and thought it was wonderful seeing a teenager able to ignore her phone. Pffft, if they only knew. "I think Dad would like a number four for dinner."

"Well then, let's get him a number four and be on our way."

"Have you heard back from Arcadia yet?" Taylor asked as Jacob started his rental a few minutes later, the light rain that had started thankfully not heavy enough to have soaked them.

"Why would I hear back from them?"

"Next time you don't want me to know you are sending a message don't hold your phone up in front of a mirror while squinting and poking at it."

Jacob thought back to earlier when he had messaged Arcadia to arrange a testing slot for Taylor. He had been leaning against the mirrors in that room, and the stupid web form wasn't as mobile friendly as he would have liked, so he had held his phone up to get a better look...

"Your eyes are apparently much better than mine," Jacob finally said.

"And no, I haven't heard back from them."

"Their logo on the top of the screen was the biggest hint. The rest you just confirmed for me."

"Sneaky, and I suppose their logo is rather distinctive. I'll let you know when they do get back to me. You should probably still spend some time every day studying, just to be safe."

"We going to tell Dad or surprise him?"

"I vote we surprise him. Then he isn't disappointed if you somehow don't make it in on your own merit."

Taylor described most of what they knew of her durability and strength to her father while he ate his dinner, only mentioning the burns in passing by virtue of stating they had already healed. Danny was obviously conflicted, disliking that Taylor had been injured at all,

yet happy that she had not been seriously injured and had already healed.

The next morning Taylor woke up on her own. She lay there for a moment before feeling something happen. A moment later she suddenly knew that she had two text messages and a software update waiting on her phone.

Taylor grinned and grabbed the phone so she could start the software update, having to do that from the screen. She then quickly reviewed the text messages. One was apparently informing her of the software update she already started, the other was from Riley informing her that they had finally made it home early this morning.

Huh, she had no idea where Riley lived. That might be intentional,

though.

Not in the mood to get moving yet Taylor watched the software update install, unable to do much more while that was happening.

Maybe she should have started that after she amused herself online? Still, the update didn't take long. The changelog said that it fixed a problem with the tinkertech NFC system, whatever that was.

Checking the weather first she found that the rain she could hear coming down outside would continue to do so for most of the day.

Unless the temperature dropped low enough that it changed to snow.

Huh, thinking about that, with her improved strength and endurance shoveling would probably be more tedious than tiring now. Next up she checked the news, finding a summary of the press conference they never checked up on yesterday.

Reading over the summary she found that Winslow students would get a letter by the end of the week with a test date and location.

Students were required to attend their test date unless alternate accommodations were made. Test results would then either place the student into a specific school based on 'curriculum compatibility'

or trigger a second test date for private school acceptance. Some

students could be back to attending classes by the middle of next week, everyone should be by the start of February even if they ended up needing multiple test dates.

This was also all supposed to be a temporary solution until a new school could be built, though students would have the option of not switching schools again if their grades were good enough and they had no disciplinary issues. If you qualified for Arcadia those were pretty much conditions for attending anyway, so anyone who pulled that off would be golden.

Switching to PHO one of the things that jumped out at her immediately was a thread wondering what had happened to Glory Girl. A quick read-through revealed that she seemed almost afraid to fly yesterday? Several people also commented that she no longer seemed to inspire awe just by being in her presence. They even had pictures of her looking very unsure of herself outside of school. No word from anyone at New Wave, though.

On a whim Taylor sent Amy a text message, asking about how Vicky was doing. Hopefully Vicky would recover, even if her snark was obnoxious.

Beyond that nothing much was grabbing her attention on PHO, so she decided it was time to get up. Twenty minutes later she finally made it downstairs, finding that today Uncle Jacob was waiting for her. She supposed her father had already left for work.

"Morning Taylor," Jacob greeted as he read the paper. "By the way,

your father said I could have the earpiece charging cradle you left on the counter?"

"Morning," Taylor returned. "And yea, I guess I forgot about that. I don't really need it anymore after all."

"Yea, I still find that a bit creepy. You see the news we missed regarding Winslow students?"

"Saw that online before I came down. I would feel sorry for everyone having to run through hoops if, you know, it hadn't been the culmination of the bullying campaign against me they were ignoring."

"That is a good point. At any rate, just before you came down I got a response from Arcadia. Your tests are Thursday and Friday, you will be in a different room than the other Winslow students taking the standard exam there but they will show you where when you give your name. Oh, and we are to ignore the letter from the city telling you to be at Clarendon instead, you apparently were in one of the first groups assigned a test location."

"Awesome, but that means I am going into study mode for a couple of days."

"Yep. Lucky for you the weather is perfect for staying indoors."

"Yea yea." Taylor poured herself some cereal, as it looked like nobody had cooked this morning. Once she had finished that she filled a water bottle for sipping and headed back up to her room. She pulled out her box of Arcadia study materials and started revising.

She might grumble a bit, but she did want to get into Arcadia.

Around lunchtime Taylor took a break to make a sandwich and ended up trading text messages with Amy while the cell repeaters were enabled in Arcadia. Apparently the sudden loss of her powers,

and subsequent change of how her aura acted, had scared Vicky into thinking her powers were failing or something. Amy thought she was slowly recovering, but only time would tell.

She also checked the mail and found her letter from the school system with instructions to report to Clarendon on Thursday and Friday, so apparently Arcadia was well in the know. Jacob had sent the alternate instructions for Arcadia to her phone, and was going to bring her anyway, so her father should be left clueless until the results came back from Arcadia.

After lunch, and the apparent shutdown of the cell repeaters and thus losing contact with Amy, Taylor returned to her studying. She only had a couple of days, after all, so she needed to get as much studying in as possible.

Taylor spent most time she was not eating or sleeping studying the following day as well, with some text message conversations with Amy and Riley. She had found that the lack of information on where Riley lived was, in fact, intentional for Riley's protection. Should Taylor prove to be personally trustworthy in other matters she would eventually be allowed to know.

She also got around to playing with the music and headset modes of her Bluetooth organ. Being able to hear the music or person on the phone without any actual sound in the area was odd, as it seemed like her ears were on a different mental 'channel' than the Bluetooth audio. She also quickly learned that she could 'sub-vocalize' and the Bluetooth microphone worked just as well. There was even a toggle to let the other end hear what her ears did instead. Most of this was learned while discussing classes with Amy while she rode the bus to the hospital after school on Wednesday.

Thursday morning eventually arrived. Taylor wasn't exactly certain what Uncle Jacob had been up to over the past couple of days,

beyond the fact that he had apparently arranged to drop off her Wards application today while she was testing. Her father had apparently been working with several others to try and secure some of the work tearing Winslow down for the union workers, or so he said at dinner the night before.

"Good Luck," Danny said, rubbing Taylor's head as he walked by her as he headed for the door. "Do your best and don't give your uncle any trouble."

"Thanks Dad," Taylor said before returning to her bacon sandwich.

Why Uncle Jacob had insisted on two pieces of lightly toasted bread

with bacon between them for breakfast Taylor didn't know, but she also wasn't going to be complaining. Eventually, though, breakfast was over and it was time to leave.

The instructions for both Arcadia and Clarendon indicated that lunch would be provided, so Taylor didn't have to worry about that or for any discrepancy being noticed by her father. Actually, both schools also indicated that even things like pencils would be provided, Taylor was supposed to bring pretty much nothing with her regardless of which one she arrived at. The only difference was that Clarendon's instructions stated that cell phones may be collected before the exams began while Arcadia's explained that they would be inoperable in the building except during lunch.

The drive over to Arcadia left Taylor quite nervous for multiple reasons, including that there would be a collection of Winslow students in the building. She was sure she was going to screw something up, or maybe reveal her parahuman status, or something.

"Relax," Jacob said, patting Taylor's shoulder as they waited for a red light. "You will do fine. Just do your best, that is all anyone can ask of you."

Taylor did her best to relax, did not succeed in the least, and was dropped off by Arcadia's main doors. She felt several snarks in the area, but Amy, Vicky, and Dean were the only ones she knew personally and they were over in another part of the building. She figured she shouldn't waste any time and headed in, following signs that had been put up.

Ten minutes later she was sitting in a room, alone. Apparently she was literally the only Winslow student that had made the effort,

directly or otherwise, to apply to Arcadia instead of going through the normal testing.

"Now then," the exam proctor, Miss Johansson, said. "As you are the only one taking Arcadia's test instead of the generic one you will be permitted to move on to the next subject early. With any luck you can

skip needing to possibly come back for a few hours Tuesday morning for some of the classes you requested."

"Thank you," Taylor said, doing her best to be polite. She had, to help avoid distractions, even switched her snark sense to line of sight.

"Well then," Miss Johansson said. "You have forty-five minutes on this one, you may begin when ready."

Taylor opened the test booklet, losing herself in the exam.

Outside of a quick back and forth text message conversation with Amy at lunch, which had been brought to Taylor to avoid issues with the Winslow students in the cafeteria, Taylor spent pretty much the entire day taking exams with short breaks between them. She did not notice, but she had finished every exam early and thanks to the offer to allow her to start additional ones sooner had completed thirteen exams in a day only eight were originally allocated in, and still got to leave ten minutes early.

Jacob swung by to pick her up, and upon asking how she felt found that she felt burned out. He didn't ask how things were going, given that it was day one of two (though he didn't realize that there had originally been a need for a third session Tuesday). In fact, his goal was to keep her mind off of things.

"So, I hear you have figured out a few additional things about your little Bluetooth upgrade," Jacob said. "In particular, Riley said you were happy you found a way to not have it wake you up?"

"Yea, that is nice," Taylor said, smiling. "I just had to enable power saving sleep mode. When I go to sleep the thing turns off and disconnects from the phone. I do get pings if I wake up for any reason as it reconnects, though. Sucks when I just get up to relieve myself and some alert is waiting."

"I can see how that would be the case. How are you doing on the use of your power?"

"I kept snark sense in line of sight mode during the exams, might have to do that in classes in general, not sure yet. I am probably going to want to hit some things soon, apparently my snark isn't actually satisfied with lightly tapping everything in a room with a pencil. Though I think that is because it got bored with it. Probably the same as I did, really."

"That sounds disturbingly like my own power. Just less obvious."

"I did find out that I can, apparently, erase text with a pencil's eraser from a distance. It just leaves almost pure graphite sitting there that doesn't wipe away well."

"That makes some sense in some ways and no sense in others."

"Snarks apparently have that effect."

Dinner that evening did include some discussion of the exams, in vague terms. Taylor slept quite well.

Friday morning was almost a repeat of Thursday. Get up, eat breakfast, drive to Arcadia, take exams. Taylor finished her seventh just before lunch.

"Congratulations Taylor," Miss Johansson said as she collected the exam packet. "You have completed all twenty exams. You can either stick around and have lunch or leave, your choice."

"What? I'm done?" Taylor said, a bit stunned. "Wow. I guess I will head home?"

"Since you are the only examinee being graded by us your results will likely be available Tuesday. Enjoy your weekend."

"Thank you."

Taylor was able to send Jacob a text on her way out, or rather she queued it for sending and it sent as soon as the cell repeaters activated. She let Amy and Riley know that she had, apparently,

finished her exams early, getting out of the school building itself shortly afterwards.

Her uncle showed up, a bit surprised to be picking her up early. "I think I can say good job, given that you finished early."

"Yesterday they implied I would need to show up Tuesday for the last few exams," Taylor said. "Yet today I finished the last of them. I crammed two and a half days of exams into one and a half days,

apparently."

"If you did well it will reflect even better on you. If you did slightly poorly it will make it seem like you rushed yourself, which may be seen as needing a little work but will probably not hurt your chances.

Either way, unless you bombed an important exam somehow you are probably all set."

"And now I can't help but wonder if I did bomb one of the important exams. Thank you so much," Taylor deadpanned.

"Moving on, as you know I filed your paperwork for joining the Wards yesterday. I hadn't known about the potential Tuesday exams and potential studying for them, so I had told them you could show up for initial stuff Monday. You still good for that?"

"That works for me. My exam results may be ready then too, if they can get them early."

"Well, we will have to see how things go. For the time being, though,

I doubt you had lunch, so I think I will treat you to an actual restaurant today."

The two of them had lunch, and then headed back to the Hebert household. Taylor entertained herself for a bit using random things in the basement as blunt objects to hit other random things in the basement, followed by making her way through PHO posts and various random videos online.

At dinner Danny was very tired, having apparently spent the day running around town chasing people down to chat with them about the Winslow work. He was still happy to hear that Taylor had finished her exams. He informed her that Jacob had let him know about the Monday visit to the PRT, so he would be available.

All three of them ended up going to bed a little earlier than usual.

Taylor was burned out mentally, Danny more physically, and Jacob was just plain bored enough to think sleep the better alternative.

Chapter 8 Saturday morning Taylor woke up to her phone ringing. She blinked a couple of times as she automatically connected to the phone. Huh,

she slept in a little, it was after nine. She did not recognize the number calling but, after a moment, decided to poke the mental 'answer' button anyway. "Hello?"

"Sí, ¿podría hablar con Marco?" came across. Was that Spanish?

"Sorry, I don't speak Spanish," Taylor responded, wondering who this was.

"Ay, perdone, tengo el número equivocado." And they hung up. Well,

that was an unusual way to start the day. Maybe some of that was apologizing?

Taylor made her way downstairs to find Uncle Jacob with a stack of pancakes waiting for her. "Morning, where's Dad?"

"Morning Taylor," Jacob said. "Danny headed over to Winslow to both collect anything recovered of yours and to help coordinate closing the site off as a worksite. Based on that I assume he got some work for the union boys."

"That or they are just renting some of the temporary fencing the dockworkers have."

"That might have occurred to me if I had known that they rented out temporary fencing. Still, sit down, eat up."

Taylor poured herself some orange juice from the pitcher, snickering slightly and earning a glare from her uncle, then dug into the pancakes. In short order she had consumed them all and saw to cleaning up the dishes as Jacob put the newspaper down. "So,

anything interesting in the paper?"

"Not really, no. The front page news is that the first round of Winslow students have completed their exams, so that should indicate what kind of news day it apparently is. Though they also mention that around twenty students did not show up for their exams and are now in trouble for it unless they have a good reason."

"I wonder if I am included in that count."

"You may be, no clue honestly, but taking Arcadia's entrance exam would be a good reason. Especially when you get accepted."

"That assumes I am going to get accepted."

"Not a big assumption, that."

"So, given that you are apparently responsible for me again this morning, was there anything you feel needs to happen today?"

"Well, I need to explain a few things, ensure that you are ok with a few other things, and ensure you are properly equipped with yet more things."

"Vague enough? Talk, talk some more, and maybe go shopping?"

"Probably not vague enough, you picked out the shopping trip. I should have just said 'yes'. OW!"

"You deserved it, and I didn't hit you that hard," Taylor said, rinsing the cup she was washing out, and had just used with her powers,

before putting it in the strainer. "So, what's first?"

"To start with I guess we can go with casual use of your power.

Namely, avoiding doing so around those that don't know about your power."

"You admitted to giving people who annoy you papercuts."

"Only when they could reasonably have gotten them anyway. You don't have as many options on that front."

"Just trip them where they could have tripped, knock things over onto them that could have fallen on them, prod them off balance when someone else could have prodded them, poke them lightly to make them think an insect landed on them," Taylor trailed off, grinning.

"I apparently stand corrected. Your mind is terrifying in some respects."

"Why thank you, I appreciate it."

"At any rate, still be careful when others are around that don't know what you can do. Some kinds of thinkers will pick up on that kind of thing, which is one reason I rarely pull my papercut trick around unknown parahumans."

"That makes sense, better safe than exposed." Taylor dried off her hands, having run out of dishes to wash, and sat down at the table with Jacob.

"Now then, I believe I promised you an explanation of the gyms."

"Yea, lots of questions there. I looked at the full list and they are all over the country, and a few places in Canada. And some of the icons changed colors while I was looking?"

"Yeah. At some point someone came up with the idea of a discreet app that would allow parahumans out of costume through secret entrances into secure areas, but not look odd if seen in use out of costume. It expanded from there to the current system, and the same app is used elsewhere as well even if those locations aren't on the map because it toggles the correct mode on the NFC circuit. You and your father count as 'affiliates', though you personally will get upgraded to 'Ward' once you are processed through the system. As an affiliate you still have access to both the public gyms and the private gyms, but not the secure entrances to other facilities."

"Do New Wave members have affiliate access?"

"Yep, so they aren't a bad place to meet up with Amy, I guess?

Provided she uses them. Now then, the app gives you a list and map of locations. The shape of the icon for a given gym denotes inside access versus outside access, a triangle being outside and a circle being inside. The color is for function and, for testing areas,

reservation status. Blue for workout areas, yellow for testing areas without reservations, green for a testing area you are on the reserved list for, and red for a testing area you are not on the reserved list for."

"How do you make a reservation?"

"Generally you use the contact form in the app. If, and only if, you use the app it redirects to someone in the know. They will grab the request and respond back if it is to reserve the parahuman testing areas with whether or not your requested time slot is available.

Otherwise they will send it on to the gym as-is and they will respond or not as normal. Note that you can't open the door if the icon is red,

and if it is blue or yellow you should be careful with your identity as people could be in there, though most people with access aren't going to be a problem either way. You should have less issues than most with that."

"Because I will be able to tell which snarks are already inside?"

"Yep. Just watch out for the normals. Now then, doors. Outside doors and some inside doors in the, shall we say, less-clean gyms are generally made to look like an employee door, only openable from the inside, with a faded Triumvirate sticker slapped next to them.

They aren't faded due to age, they are faded because that is how they make them. Behind the sticker is the reader you hold your phone up to, then the door will open if you are allowed in. Some inside doors have a visible keypad next to them instead, if your gym membership app is open the keypad will light up as you approach within a few feet. Hold the phone to the keypad and the door will open if you are currently allowed in."

"How do you know where to look for the doors?"

"Oh, right. The outside doors are usually in an alley, look for the dumpster in most cases or circle the building once. Inside doors are generally in a hallway with a restroom sign."

"Because who is going to notice some random person didn't come back from the restroom, or that they didn't see them go to the restroom?"

"Exactly." Jacob then pulled his phone out and poked a few things on it. "Yea, I think the covered most of the informational stuff, the PRT should cover the rest when they bring you into the Wards."

"Wait, are you saying they wouldn't have told me about the gym membership?"

"I am led to believe that it is traditional to wait for the Ward to ask about why they get a gym membership via an app instead of a physical card. Really, me telling you about it has taken all their fun away. I don't find myself caring, especially as you would have asked for details anyway."

"Why would they do that?"

"Well, that brings us into the next thing. The Wards program is, in many ways, just a very exclusive club for minors. With various rituals, in-jokes, and drama. Some will vary by location, others will be across the entire organization. When you were younger you weren't always comfortable in groups, are you sure you are ok with this?"

"I figure it is better than the alternatives," Taylor answered, a serious look on her face. "Really, it is one of the best ways to keep Dad safe,

as well as to keep myself safe. I'm willing to go through quite a bit for that."

"Well then, I guess that leads us to shopping. Given that she appears to have become a friend, do you want to invite Amy along?"

"Er, what are we shopping for?"

"One exceptionally basic costume for Monday. For this purpose it would usually consist of a mask and clothing you normally wouldn't wear, preferably fairly concealing. And maybe a weapon or two that will work with your power, though you can bring your existing sling bag for that."

Taylor blinked at that. Shopping for something she normally wouldn't wear, plus a mask. To presumably make it harder to identify her. Still,

something seemed subtly wrong there.

"Well?" Jacob prodded.

Finally it hit Taylor. "If I am going in with Dad, why would we expect a disguise to work? In fact, wouldn't that just draw more attention to me?"

"Because, er," Jacob scratched his head. "Damn you, I think you just took all of the fun out of it. I would take you out for some random parahuman fun, but until you have a costume of some kind we can't,

and now we have no good reason to get you a costume of some kind."

"What kind of 'random parahuman fun' would you get up to?"

"I am not actually sure, I don't normally have an opportunity to try."

"So, at this point we basically have no more plans for the day?"

"Well, we could go down to the boardwalk for non-parahuman fun.

Maybe catch a movie? I can only stick around till the end of the coming week, then I have to get back to work."

"That could work."

"See if Amy wants to come along, because the more the merrier,

especially if we catch a comedy."

An hour later Taylor and Jacob met Amy and Vicky at the movie theatre. Dean would have joined them, but he was busy. Taylor suspected that Dean was a Ward, and was busy with Ward business, but figured that revelation could come later.

"Are you ok?" Taylor asked Vicky, who did not look like she had been sleeping well. What little Taylor had discussed about Vicky with Amy via text message indicated that Vicky hadn't been the same since her power cut out last weekend.

"I have been having a rough week," Vicky admitted. "Not sure I want to talk about it, though."

The group of four obtained tickets, popcorn, sodas, candy bars, and a large number of napkins before making their way into the theatre.

The film they had chosen could be summed up as 'Aleph's Home Alone with a freshly triggered parahuman defender' but that didn't detract from the humor.

Once the movie was over they collected their trash and headed out of the theatre. Vicky started looking down again fairly quickly, so Amy decided to see if retail therapy might help. Taylor and Jacob tagged along because they had little better to do anyway. As such, Jacob still got to have fun dressing Taylor up in clothes she normally wouldn't go near. With Vicky and Amy helping him.

"I don't know why I agreed to this," Taylor whined. She was currently wearing a rainbow-striped dress that she couldn't actually imagine anyone wearing with a matching hat.

"Because nobody is immune to the puppy-eyes," Jacob answered.

"Provided you find the right person to use the dreaded technique,

anyway."

Taylor just grumbled and went back into the changing room to get out of the monstrosity she was wearing.

Three hours had passed and somehow, despite the goal being cheering Vicky up, Taylor was the only one with new clothing.

Sixteen new shirts, four skirts, one pair of jeans, and two pairs of shoes. She was not entirely sure how that had happened, though.

Nor why she would want miniskirts in the middle of winter.

"So now that I have a pile of clothing I never thought I would need,"

Taylor said, glaring at Vicky. Who ignored her. "What now?"

"I'm out of ideas," Vicky admitted. "Your disastrous sense of fashion still offends me, but only so much can be done in a single shopping trip."

Amy and Taylor both rolled their eyes at that while Jacob snickered.

"Got any tips for me if Arcadia accepts me?" Taylor asked Vicky. Amy had provided several via text message already. Vicky just raised an eyebrow at Taylor. "I spent the last couple of days taking the Arcadia entrance exams instead of the normal Winslow evaluation ones."

"Oh," Vicky said. "Huh, I wonder if anyone else did that?"

"I was told that so far I am the only one," Taylor responded,

shrugging. "Others might, but I suspect most won't."

"Well, you probably already know about the stupid faraday cage,"

Vicky said. "They even turn off the wifi during classes. Though depending on your class selection you may only be in classes most mornings, which is cool."

"But what if I like being in class?" Taylor asked, doing her best to put a confused expression on her face. She figured it had worked because Jacob, Amy, and Vicky were all staring at her. Not bad for a spur of the moment idea.

"Please," Vicky said, looking horrified. "PLEASE tell me you are joking."

"Of course I am," Taylor said. Leaving the confused expression on her face. "Why wouldn't I?"

Vicky continued to stare at Taylor, as did Jacob and Amy. All three seemed to be wondering what in the world was wrong with her, or at least that was the impression Taylor was getting. Finally it became too much and she burst out laughing.

"You, but, how?" Amy finally got out.

"It was a very good joke," Jacob said, shaking his head. "How you perfected the clueless, absolutely innocent, confused as to what the problem is expression I don't know."

"How else could I pin stealing cookies from the cookie jar on my father?" Taylor answered, snickering some more.

"You are evil," Amy said, snickering a little herself. "Fun, but evil."

"I will freely accept the compliment," Taylor replied, bowing.

"Wasn't one," Amy said, shaking her head. "But whatever."

"At any rate," Vicky said, pointing at Taylor. "Back to Arcadia. Most of my teachers will confiscate earpieces, headsets, and headphones if they catch you using them. Wireless or not. Why are you snickering?"

"No reason," Taylor replied, still snickering. The idea of a teacher confiscating her Bluetooth capability was funny, though.

Vicky turned to Amy, who was grinning. "I am missing something. I don't know what, but I am missing something."

Jacob had a smirk as well. "Inside joke, sorry."

Vicky just stared at the three of them in turn. "How can the three of you have an inside joke when Taylor has had, what, a week being friends with Amy, and most of that via text message?"

"Sorry, can't tell you," Taylor said. "You aren't in on the joke already,

you see."

"Very true," Jacob said, nodding wisely. Well, trying to nod wisely, he looked kinda stupid, actually.

"Bah," Vicky said, throwing her hands up. "Ames, I am happy you have new friends, but please don't let them drag you too deep into the weird."

"Too late," Amy responded. "After all, I am in on the joke already."

Vicky just glared and refused to acknowledge them for a bit.

"Nice of you to speak up," Amy said as they sat down to eat. They had wandered around for a bit, eventually reaching dinnertime.

Jacob had called Danny, who indicated that he had already eaten some leftovers, so they were free to do whatever. Amy had, due to Vicky's insistence on silence, called home and found that nobody was there. A couple of quick text messages let her know that the Dallon adults were out at a restaurant with the Pelham adults.

So the four of them decided to split up after dinner. Or rather, the three of them had and Vicky hadn't spoken up to disagree. Vicky was not about to stay silent instead of ordering, though.

"Bah," Vicky said, spearing a fry with her fork. "I can't see why you won't tell me what is so funny."

"Everyone has secrets," Jacob offered. "Some bigger than others. In this case there are secrets you aren't privy to. Leave it at that."

Vicky sulked for the entire meal, and then they headed out towards where Jacob had parked. Jacob offered to drop Vicky and Amy off near their home instead of them taking the bus, given that Vicky was still not trusting her flying. Especially with a passenger.

"Nice car," Vicky said as she got in the back behind Jacob. "This yours or a rental?"

"Rental," Jacob admitted. "I am only here for a few weeks, then back to work."

"What do you do?" Vicky asked, curious. "All I really know is that you are Taylor's uncle."

"I'm a cape therapist," Jacob answered. "Fairly well known, high demand. Took a while to arrange to take my vacation to see Taylor and Danny."

Vicky gave it some thought, and then went wide-eyed as Jacob pulled out of the parking lot. "You're that Jacob? With a supposed waiting list of literally every Protectorate base?"

"That is a lie," Jacob said. "There are two Protectorate bases not on my waiting list right now."

"Really? Which ones?" Amy asked, obviously curious.

"The two purely administrative bases that currently have no capes working in them," Jacob answered, smirking. "I'm sure that when a few capes rotate back into them they will end up on my list anyway,

though."

Vicky just groaned at that. Amy rolled her eyes. Taylor did not react at all, Vicky noticed. Or rather, Taylor had, right at that point, gotten a distracted look.

"Dad would like us to pick up some milk if we can," Taylor finally said,

looking at Jacob. Vicky was confused.

"Whole, two percent, or skim?" Jacob asked, not actually looking at Taylor.

"Normally we go for two percent, but I thought we had plenty," Taylor said, tapping her chin. A moment later Vicky noticed that Taylor's

phone beeped. A minute later it beeped again. "Two percent,

apparently he dropped the gallon we had."

"Alright," Jacob said.

"Alright nothing," Vicky said, pointing at Taylor. "Your phone is acting like text messages are coming and going, but you aren't touching it.

How did you do that?"

"Er, oops," Taylor said, shrinking back into her seat.

"You were doing so well," Amy said, shaking her head. Apparently Vicky was the only one in the car that didn't know. "I guess you need to work on that."

"So what is the deal here?" Vicky demanded. "Obviously something is going on."

"I, er, got caught up in a tinker fugue," Taylor said, trying to spin things on the fly. "As a side effect I am my own Bluetooth accessory?"

Vicky stared at Taylor, blinking a couple of times. "Any chance you could introduce me to the tinker in question? That sounds hella cool."

"Side effects may include your brain being poked when your phone gets notifications, even if you are asleep," Taylor added. No need to tell Vicky that she found a way to stop that.

"And now it sounds like partial torture," Vicky said, cringing. "Is that why Amy knew? She had to check you over afterwards."

"She even filled out a PRT health form for me," Taylor said. Amazing how far one could stretch the truth to hide it. "She gave me a full checkup the day after it happened."

"I do not know if I should pity you or envy you," Vicky said. She then started giggling. "Oh god, now all I can think about is my teachers trying to take your Bluetooth accessory away."

"Yea, that is a funny picture," Amy said. "But you have to keep this secret."

"Of course," Vicky said, giggling gone in an instant as she looked offended. "It isn't Taylor's fault that she got caught by a tinker in a fugue." Or rather, it really was, but Vicky didn't know that part. Vicky was, luckily, looking at Amy and thus did not notice Taylor's blush. "If it got out not only could it be bad for Taylor but also for the tinker. I sat through all the PRT lessons on tinker fugues, you know."

"I'm just amazed you paid attention," Amy responded.

"I had to, if I didn't pass the test I would have had to sit through them again," Vicky shot back.

"Just do your best to keep it quiet," Jacob said. "By the way, we are here."

Vicky and Amy looked and saw that they were, indeed, at the Dallon household. They quickly got out of the car, thanking Jacob for the ride, and headed inside.

"You are lucky that didn't go badly," Jacob said as he pulled away.

"You need to be more careful."

"Sorry," Taylor replied. "I got distracted and wasn't thinking. I should have at least pulled the phone out and made it look like I might be interacting with it."

"You should be trying to stay in the habit of doing that," Jacob said.

"Alternatively, turn off the alert beeps when you have Bluetooth connected. It won't help with everything but it will hopefully make it less obvious."

"Can I do that?" Taylor asked, pulling the phone out and poking around. She eventually found the option to basically have the phone make no noise at all when the proper kind of Bluetooth device was connected. "Huh, wish I had known about that before now."

"Being able to ask questions of your father without touching the phone or being in a call was the bigger tip off, I think. You could have otherwise passed it off as you having just remembered."

"Yea, I know. I thought I was doing well, but I think I just got used to Vicky being around, and didn't realize how well she could see me from the back seat. That could be a problem later, so better to know I need to work on it after a lucky break."

They didn't bother telling Danny about the incident, though he did find out about the new clothes as they brought them in. All in all it ended up being a quiet night, and as Taylor prepared for bed she wondered what tomorrow would bring.

As it turned out, Sunday morning started with Taylor being woken up by Jacob swearing. Loudly. At a few minutes past seven in the morning. She blearily made her way downstairs to find out what was going on.

"What is with the swearing?" Taylor asked, having made her way to the kitchen. She absently noticed her father following behind her.

"Er, sorry," Jacob said, moving his left hand and forearm under the faucet in the sink. "I splattered myself with hot grease while cooking bacon."

Taylor and Danny shared a look and shrugged. Danny made his way over to make coffee, and Taylor headed upstairs to actually get ready for the day.

Half an hour later Taylor came back downstairs and made some tea.

She then sat down at the table and pulled her phone out to poke around. News site was reporting on a large bank robbery attempt in New York, weather report indicated a small chance of showers throughout the day, and PHO had pictures of Amy, Vicky, Jacob, and

the 'unknown girl with them'. God damnit, how did they get a picture of her in the rainbow dress?

No, wait, XxVoid_CowboyxX identified her by name and is wondering why a bullied girl from Winslow was hanging around with capes and cape-related near-celebrities. Taylor narrowed her eyes.

That had to be Greg. Damnit. The thread went for a couple of pages with theories as to what was going on before someone hit on something solid. Namely, they had apparently researched her uncle before and had his family tree. All of a sudden speculation on whether or not she could be a cape vanished entirely, because her 'likely awesomely cool uncle' had probably arranged for her to get to meet local capes.

Taylor sighed, at least she likely had a good cover story for suddenly hanging around people like Amy and Vicky, not that she had realized she might need one in the first place. And she was vindicated in that everyone seemed to agree that the rainbow dress was horrible and needed to be burned.

Shortly after that Jacob finally finished making breakfast. Bacon,

eggs, and hash browns. With some of the bacon being slightly overcooked, probably because he had been dealing with his burns.

"So do you two have any plans for the day?" Danny asked, then turned to Jacob. "Beyond maybe going to poke Panacea to see if she is willing to clear up your burns?"

"I would probably have to bribe her," Jacob admitted. "With what, I don't know. That and given that she was out and about yesterday she is probably pulling a hospital shift today."

"This is apparently an 'emergency calls only' weekend for her,"

Taylor corrected. "They call her for emergencies that can't wait,

otherwise she is to avoid the hospital entirely."

"How did that happen, given that she had spent the entirety of last weekend dealing with and/or hanging out with you?" Danny asked.

"She was informed Friday at lunch," Taylor said. "Apparently they review their patient load each week and let her know so she might be able to have a social life? But next weekend she knows she is busy because they are bringing in patients from outside of Brockton Bay."

"I am finding it odd that you are now a font of information on Panacea," Danny said after a moment of thought. "Still, that doesn't answer my question about possible plans."

"I had wanted to get Taylor into a basic disguise yesterday," Jacob admitted. "But she shot that down with a comment that you were going to be with her tomorrow, so the disguise would only serve to draw attention."

"That and PHO now knows that you are my uncle," Taylor said,

waving her phone. "Someone, I think a creepy kid from Winslow,

identified me in some pictures people took. In trying to figure out why I was with you, Amy, and Vicky they revealed our relation to one another. Apparently your family tree is publically available online?"

"Oh, yeah," Jacob said. "I had forgotten about that. A couple of years ago a freshman in college was looking to do a report on me for their parahuman studies class. I helped them out a bit with the family tree,

actually, after being impressed that they found my email address."

"In exchange for being told how they found your email address so you could close that hole?" Danny asked, grinning.

"Of course," Jacob answered, returning the grin. "At any rate, I suppose that provides a nice explanation for your being friends with them that does not point at you being a parahuman. After all, 'Jacob'

isn't a parahuman either."

The conversation was interrupted by Jacob's phone giving a louder than usual clang sound. He quickly pulled his phone out and checked on whatever that had been.

"So, sorry, but my plans have just been decided," Jacob finally said as he got up. "I am being summoned to the PRT building for an emergency secure conference. Sorry about that."

"Can't be helped," Taylor said, then turned to her father. "So, did you have any plans for today?"

"Not really," Danny said. "Perhaps we should take some time to clean up the house?"

They ended up spending the morning cleaning up the house.

Dusting, vacuuming, dishtowels and such in the wash. Taylor found that it was easier to hit some of the curtains to knock dust loose with her power, but that was about it for cleaning applications today.

A few times during the morning Jacob had texted Taylor with questions, which she had answered while cleaning. She hadn't really thought much about them, though. Had she not been distracted she probably would have noticed the pattern.

"Can you identify any power you have previously seen?" got a "Yes, I seem to have a mental list of every snark that has entered my range." response.

"Can you tell what powers a given person has just by them being in your range?" resulted in Taylor sending back "No, I have to talk to their snark and hope it answers or already know what they can do."

"If you met a parahuman in both identities would you automatically know they were the same person?" did require Taylor to think for a moment. She had mental labels on each snark she had met the bearer of, and most of them already had two. "Yes, I believe I would."

was sent back.

Lunch ended up being homemade subs, Jacob showing no signs of returning yet. After lunch Danny and Taylor attacked their own bedrooms, which only took about an hour beyond adding to the queue of baskets of laundry to pass through the machines.

It was around three in the afternoon when Jacob finally returned.

"Well that was less than enjoyable."

"I suppose you can't tell us anything," Danny said. "Secrets, non-

disclosure agreements, all that fun?"

"And that is where you are wrong," Jacob replied. "As Taylor was the entire reason I was called in."

"What?" Taylor exclaimed. "Is there something wrong with my Wards application?"

"Not as such, no," Jacob said, pulling a folder out of the bag he was carrying. "But there are things to discuss. To start with," Jacob then pulled a fancy looking paper out of the folder. "Here is the dedication certificate for your brick wall."

"My what?" Taylor said, taking the certificate. Huh, it was, in fact, a dedication for a brick wall in the park next to PRT headquarters in Washington, DC. In her name. What the hell? "Why do I now have a brick wall dedicated to me?"

"The PRT analysts collectively shat bricks when they realized some of what your power meant," Jacob said. "Then the Protectorate thinkers got into the mix. By the time they were done they decided that they had metaphorically shat enough bricks, so they are having a real brick wall built."

"What?" Taylor said, looking confused.

"Never let it be said that the PRT does not have a sense of humor,"

Jacob said. "You are holding some proof that says otherwise."

"I think you lost us somewhere," Danny admitted. "I have no clue where they are having issues."

"Taylor is a walking cape detector," Jacob explained. "Secret identities are meaningless if she meets you in more than one

identity, if that. Hell, she may not have to meet you, just get close enough to you. On top of that, somehow they figured out that Taylor was responsible for what happened to Vicky last weekend. She went in for emergency testing, her aura has permanently changed. And Riley, after meeting Taylor, has had one prisoner she was given to experiment on to satisfy her power. She spent three days with the guy and didn't torture him with pain even once. So Taylor can change how some powers work."

"What happens if they learn about the fugue thing last weekend?"

Taylor asked, curious.

"If they don't already know I suspect they will extend the wall," Jacob said, shrugging. "If they do, well, that may have factored in."

"So what else is there?" Danny said, gesturing at the folder. Which obviously still held quite a few papers.

"Some paperwork for you," Jacob said, pulling out a small stack of papers. "To elevate your own security level in the eyes of the PRT.

No NDA, but they want to officially cover that you are aware of the truth of the Nine. Plus one form that states you are willing to let Taylor sign NDA agreements you are not privy to."

Danny took that stack and flipped through it for a moment. It was apparently agreements tied to a PRT affiliate security clearance upgrade, plus the one extra form Jacob had mentioned regarding Taylor's NDAs. He nodded to have Jacob continue.

"The rest is for Taylor," Jacob said, handing the rest of the folder to Taylor. "Not only does she need the security clearance for the Nine,

but for basically all Protectorate cape identities and a few other related pieces I don't recognize. Hell, I don't have a couple of the clearances in there. She also gets at least two new NDAs, there may be more waiting that I'm not even allowed to see when you go in tomorrow."

"If I hadn't been severely upgraded I think I might end up with carpal tunnel from all the forms," Taylor grumbled, flipping through the folder. "I assume Amy has needed some of these too."

"Yep," Jacob said. "I am sure that at some point in the coming days they will get around to showing you how to check what someone else is cleared for, at least for those things you are also cleared for."

Danny took ten minutes to read through his paperwork and sign it in the right places. Taylor was still working on hers when dinner rolled around so not wanting to cook they ordered pizza. After dinner Taylor went back to the paperwork and finished shortly before nine that night. She placed it all back into the folder so she would remember it all tomorrow before getting up from the desk to get ready for bed.

Tomorrow was going to be interesting, she was sure.

Last edited: Jun 5, 2018

Chapter 9 Monday morning Taylor woke up before her alarm. She was nervous,

and got ready for the day in a fit of nervous energy. She had been told to make up a duffel-bag and include a couple of weapons she could use in it, hidden under exercise clothing.

After some deliberation she grabbed the entrenching tool, collapsible baton, and the two foot long foam bat with an actual plastic core. The first because for some reason she really wanted to use it as a cape,

the second because it was just useful, and the third because she had heard about Clockblocker, plus it was less likely to hurt during demonstrations if she was asked to demonstrate on a person.

She threw her exercise clothing on top of the three weapons, slipped her extra paperwork in along one side, and zipped up the duffel-bag before heading downstairs. There she found her father and uncle with a box of donuts.

"Good morning," Taylor said. "Lazy breakfast?"

"Too nervous to cook," Danny said. "And good morning to you."

"Morning," Jacob said. "And yes, lazy. At least for me."

Taylor grabbed a couple of donuts and a glass of milk before sitting down. Jacob questioned her to make sure she had everything, which reminded Danny he needed to get his extra paperwork as well. Soon enough the three of them had eaten, cleaned up, and were ready to go. Taylor and Danny took Danny's car while Jacob took his rental, in part because he wasn't going in with them, at least publically.

Danny pulled into the parking lot they had been directed to go to,

outside a gym a couple blocks from the PRT building. Taylor had shown something on her phone to the lot attendant, Danny hadn't

seen what, but presumed it was something Jacob had helped her set up ahead of time. The same something was shown at the door to the gym when they went inside. Danny was getting curious now, unless the gym was a PRT front? Nah, it was more likely they just had made arrangements.

Still, following instructions Jacob had provided they headed for the hallway with the restrooms. There they found an employee-only door with a keypad next to it and no handle on this side. Even though the keypad lit up as they approached Danny still followed instructions and knocked out "shave and a haircut", waited three seconds, and then knocked four more times.

A moment later the door opened to show an individual in the gym's employee shirt and a pair of sweatpants. "Can I help you?"

Danny gave the pass phrase he had been given. Which was beautiful in its simplicity. "I'm Danny. Jacob sent us."

"Ah, yes," the individual said, opening the door further. "We were told you would be coming, come on in." Danny and Taylor headed in, and the door shut behind them. "Right, come on down and we will get you over to the PRT building."

The three headed down two flights of stairs to a short hallway. Said hallway had an offshoot to the right Danny didn't look down, but Taylor noted likely contained the 'secret gym'. Instead they went forward to the door in front of them, which was labeled 'PRT Access Tunnel - Authorized Personnel Only'. The individual who had met them swiped their phone past the keypad next to the door and it clicked before being pulled open.

"Head to the other end of this hallway and someone will meet you at the PRT end," the individual said. "Have a nice day."

"Thank you," Danny and Taylor said, pretty much in unison, before heading down the tunnel. It was clean, well-lit, and devoid of much of anything except a door a good distance down it. That door opened

as they approached it, a uniformed PRT officer on the other side.

Unlike the previous individual they couldn't even tell what gender this one was. They also said nothing, just gestured for the two to follow them.

After making their way through a few hallways and up two flights of stairs they were met outside a conference room by a young man in a simple suit. "Good morning Mister Hebert, Miss Hebert. My name is Jeffrey Johansson. If you would join me in the conference room we can begin."

"Good morning Jeffrey," Danny said, entering the room.

"Good morning," Taylor said as she entered. "Any relation to the teacher at Arcadia?"

"I assume not as I have no idea who you are talking about," Jeffrey said, closing the door behind him. "Now then, Jacob should be along shortly. Before that, however, I need to collect the additional paperwork you two completed?"

Taylor and Danny both produced their extra paperwork, which was deposited into a tinkertech box. The box locked itself in front of them.

"I am not cleared to know what the paperwork even was," Jeffrey explained. "Just that it existed. It will be forwarded to people above my pay grade for processing. Now then, normally we would start off with filling out paperwork, but you appear to have completed most of that and the important bits have been processed already."

"Thank god," Taylor said. "Too much paperwork."

"Governments run on paperwork," Jeffrey offered, smiling a little.

Danny nodded. "But I understand. Now, normally we would then have you meet the Director, but she has an appointment this morning. Glenn hasn't made it in from New York yet, so starting on branding is out. None of the Wards are in this morning, so meet and greet is out. I think that puts us at power testing."

"How does that end up working?" Taylor asked. She was monitoring Jacob's progress through the building, she figured maybe two minutes before he got there.

"As we see it you have three things we need to test," Jeffrey said.

"One is your, er, 'snark' sense, I think you called it?" Taylor nodded.

"Right. The second is communicating with 'snarks' and the third is the blunt object projection. As the first two have no special lab requirements we will bring you down to one specializing in impacts for the blunt object projection. The lab technicians will take things from there."

Just before Jacob arrived Taylor received a text message from him,

she did her best not to show that she had though. "Remember,

nobody working here is cleared to know I am a parahuman, skip me when reporting what parahumans you detect." Clear enough, and he had explained that already.

Jacob entered the room just as Taylor was dismissing the mental display with the text message. "Hello everyone, sorry I'm late. There was a bit of an issue in the PRT parking lot."

"No problem Jacob," Jeffrey said. "We were just discussing that the first stop will, for various reasons, be power testing. Would you like to join us?"

"Of course," Jacob said. "It is always interesting to see how new parahumans use their abilities."

"Do I need a mask or anything?" Taylor asked, curious. She was just in civilian attire, after all.

"Nope," Jeffrey answered. "Everyone you are likely to interact with today is cleared to know Wards identities. The fact that we occasionally have non-Wards of your age passing through for various reasons, such as non-parahumans with odd reactions to parahuman abilities, means that you are less likely to be paid attention to as you are, actually."

Ten minutes later they entered a lab in a sub-basement of some kind. It contained a number of instruments that, based on some of the labels, were for measuring things. Most of them Taylor had no clue about, though. There was a rack of blunt weapons off to the side, though, possibly for her use as the rack was on wheels. Wait,

maybe that was better described as blunt objects, was that a cast-

iron skillet?

"Welcome to Lab 38," the female technician said. She had not been introduced, nor had the male one. Apparently they were going nameless today. "Due to the peculiar needs of your, er, 'snark'

sense, we would like to take care of that first. We have limited the parahumans within and just beyond your range for the purposes of testing, but would like to lift the exclusion zone as quickly as possible."

Taylor thought about it for a moment. Jacob was within her range,

but ignoring him there were four others. "So what do you want me to tell you about the four I can sense?"

The male technician made a quick note on his phone as the female technician continued. "Telling us that you can sense four parahumans in your range is a good start. Now then, can you identify where they are and how they are moving, if at all possible?"

"The nearest is stationary," Taylor said, pointing up and a little behind where she was standing. "Ten meters that way." The male technician poked his phone again. "And now they are moving away from us,"

Taylor continued, moving her finger to continue pointing. "And now they stopped. Twelve meters."

"Very good," the female technician said. "Next?"

Taylor shifted to pointing straight up. "Pretty much directly above me,

27 and a half meters, moving in a half meter circle." Everyone else noticed that her finger was, in fact, circling slightly.

"Also good," the female technician said. "Next?"

"39 meters," Taylor said, pointing up and to the left. "On average,

going up and down six meters over and over? Are they in an elevator?"

"Excellent," the male technician said this time. He did not answer her question. "Now the last one?" He seemed unusually eager about this one.

Taylor pointed up and to the right, her finger moving slightly as she talked. "If I am right about where we are I think they parked in the parking deck across the street, somewhere in the middle? That would also have had them approaching from the North, I think, when they entered my range. They are now approaching 25 meters away."

The male technician poked at his phone a bit more, while the female technician raised her eyebrow. "That is perfectly alright. Your spacial awareness must be pretty good. Now then, you can also talk to 'snarks' as you call them. Can you do so for the last one there and give us some basic details?"

"Sure, one moment," Taylor said, her eyes going a little unfocused.

Hello [Annoyance]

Just because you are hungry is no reason to be rude.

[Agreement. Annoyance.]

Huh, you don't like your human either?

[Agreement]

Why don't you like your human?

[Boredom]

You don't like what he thinks is fun?

[Agreement]

Why do you want him to do that?

[Amusement]

You want him to play large-scale pranks because they would be the most fun to ensure they went well? Interesting. What do you do for him anyway?

[Disclosure]

You let him split a decision and show him both paths, having him really go down the one he will decide to keep anyway?

[Correction]

Oh, you keep him on the chosen path, and you do your best to make what you determined actually happen. That is neat, and would really help with keeping a prank going right.

[Agreement]

Well, as nice as it is to talk, I am a little busy. It was nice talking to you, though.

"His snark is hungry for some reason, but also bored because he doesn't play large scale pranks," Taylor finally said aloud. "Instead he just uses it to obsess over little decisions or to gather information?

His snark is providing the ability to precog two timelines and follow the one he would want to keep, a shaker ability helping to keep the 'chosen' timeline correct, I believe."

"Thank you," the female technician said as the male technician was making more notes. "Now then, can you tell us anything about the nearest parahuman, the first one you pointed out to us?"

Taylor re-focused on the appropriate snark.

Hello [Amusement]

Good morning to you too. So what has you so happy?

[Acquisition]

Oh, your human is researching to better use you. That is nice.

[Agreement]

So what do you do for your human?

[Disclosure]

Oooh, that is neat. Does she use blunt objects?

[Curiosity]

Well, sometimes hitting hard is better than cutting. Have you heard of war hammers? They were used because it was better to hit and maybe dent the armor than to have a blade deflect off, doing no damage.

[Interest]

I'll leave that to you and your human. Have a nice day!

"Unless I am mistaken that is Miss Militia," Taylor said aloud. "And I think she is researching weapons? Oh, and I may have mentioned blunt weapons like war hammers to her snark."

"Very good, and thank you for letting us know about that," the male technician said, poking a final couple of times at his phone before looking up. "I think that covers 'snarks'. Now we should move onto your blunt object projection ability. If you would come over here?"

Over the next hour Taylor was led through a series of tests that showed that yes, her power allowed her to project a line of force equal to if she hit you directly provided she was using a blunt weapon, as proven with the three she had brought and the pile of weapons they provided. The male technician was actually happy she had brought the foam bat on that front, apparently blunt but soft items had not occurred to them as working. Still, they discovered that that she had described things perfectly on her paperwork. Unlike Jacob's, though, it was not an edge, so swinging a wok gave a much wider line than, say, a bat. In fact, she liked that wok, she might want one.

They did not, however, test her strength. Because why would they expect her to be stronger? She didn't volunteer either. Jacob had told her that unless someone else brought it up that she shouldn't mention her upgrades, after all.

"So we can mark you down as having a minor secondary thinker ability that lets you see where your line of force is," the female technician said, making a note of her own. "I think that is all we are able to test at this point, so thank you for your time."

"You're welcome," Taylor replied.

"Well then," Jeffrey said, getting Taylor's attention. "I have gotten word that Director Piggot is available, shall we go meet with her?"

"Works for me?" Taylor said, looking over at Danny. He nodded, still amazed at how Taylor's power worked, apparently. Behind them the technicians shut down the devices they had been using to measure the strength of her hits.

Jeffrey led Taylor, Danny, and Jacob to Director Piggot's office.

Taylor and Danny were waved in by the secretary pretty much right as they got there, but Jacob and Jeffrey waited outside, Jacob keeping an eye on Taylor's duffel-bag.

"Good morning," the woman behind the desk said as they came in.

"I'm Director Piggot."

"Good morning Director, I'm Danny Hebert," Danny said. "Though I believe we met last year when the dockworkers helped with demolishing a warehouse. And this is my daugher Taylor."

"Good morning," Taylor said.

Director Piggot waved them into the seats opposite her, and the two sat down. The Director then sighed, looking quite annoyed.

"Normally this would be a simple welcome to the Wards meeting. I would simply make sure your paperwork was in order, shake your hand, and send you off to Glenn for branding. On the good side, you have already finished most of the paperwork and it has cleared, I thank you for that by the way. Having it done ahead of time saves a lot of trouble. On the bad side I now have an apology to make on behalf of the PRT."

Taylor and Danny looked at each other, wondering what Director Piggot was saying. Director Piggot held her hand up before either of them could say anything.

"You are both already cleared for this and have submitted the paperwork," the Director continued, before turning to Taylor. "Miss Hebert, I would like to apologize for the bullying that led to your trigger event in the locker, in particular the bullying by Sophia Hess after she joined the Wards as Shadow Stalker. It should never have gotten that far, but it did due to failures at multiple levels of the command chain here at the PRT as well as what I feel were worse failures by the staff at Winslow. All of the PRT staff involved have been fired, arrested, or both. The PRT also ensured that criminal investigations on the former Winslow administration are in progress.

On top of that, the entire probationary Ward system is being looked at, nationwide, to ensure that no similar cases are being missed."

Taylor and Danny were sitting there, shocked. Sophia had been a Ward? What the hell? But it sounded like the Director was unaware

of things until after the locker, so neither of them could really blame her for it.

"Further, in addition to having transferred the entire contents of Miss Hess's Wards trust fund to you," the Director continued, picking an envelope up off the side of her desk. "We present you with a check for ten thousand dollars. We also have already taken care of your hospital bill, and in fact will be taking on all hospital bills for you for the next year even if they don't pertain to injuries obtained with the Wards. I have also personally authorized triple the normal outfitting budget for you as a Ward, with a note that it should go to providing better tinker-derived protections for your costume than the Wards normally receive."

Taylor took the envelope and, to prove to herself that it was real,

opened it. Inside was a PRT check for ten thousand dollars, as well as the paperwork for the trust fund that was now in her name. She handed the contents to her father so he could look himself.

"Finally, I want to assure you that you are unlikely to see Miss Hess again," the Director said, getting both of their attentions. "She was already tried as an adult for your attempted murder in a closed court and sentenced to prison. On top of that she still has several additional trials pending for actual murders we can now trace back to her thanks to your case causing us to discover a number of 'lost'

reports, we just need to collect the evidence now. If she does make it out of prison alive I also think you will be the last person on her mind.

From what reports I have seen she was actually ranting about Miss Barnes and Miss Clements for proving they were 'weak' and supposedly betraying her; you haven't been mentioned at all."

Taylor sat there, trying to process what she had been told. Finally she took a couple of deep breaths, as going off at the Director would probably not be a good thing. "Thank you for being upfront about this," Taylor said. "I can only imagine that I would have reacted poorly had I found out that Sophia had been a Ward later."

"Right, now then," the Director continued. "The only other concern would have been getting you back into school, preferably at Arcadia.

On that subject I have the unexpected pleasure of telling you that you not only passed the exams you took last week, but you qualified for a scholarship. The PRT will be taking over the financial side of the scholarship so that Arcadia can afford to assist another student in need."

Danny looked shocked, and turned to Taylor. "I thought you were taking the Winslow exams last week?"

"I took the Arcadia ones," Taylor replied. "I had been studying to hopefully get a scholarship over the summer for the next couple of years, given that the Winslow staff liked to shred my transfer applications in front of me. Given that they could no longer stop me from trying mid-year I went for it."

"Oh," Danny said after a moment. "Good on you, then. And good job." He then turned back to the Director. "I assume that there are other concerns due to her joining the Wards?"

"There are," the Director said. "Mainly relating to her vocational classes in the afternoons. I believe Jeffrey will help her with those selections later." She then handed Taylor another envelope. "Here are your exam results. They sent them along to us when we contacted them over the weekend to arrange for you to be tested."

"Out of curiosity," Danny said as Taylor accepted and opened the exam results. He would take a look later, they were obviously good enough if she had earned a scholarship anyway. "If you are trying to keep the Wards at Arcadia, why was Miss Hess at Winslow?"

"We aren't trying to keep them at Arcadia, per se. Younger Wards obviously can't be in Arcadia, for example. More specifically,

Clarendon refuses to make allowances for attending Wards and Immaculata does not appeal to most parahumans even if they have indicated they are willing to make allowances," the Director answered. "Of course, you likely know that Winslow was a dump.

Otherwise we might have tried to spread them out more. Beyond all of that, Miss Hess failed the Arcadia entrance exams. Twice. She was not the first Ward to have similar issues here in Brockton Bay,

and likely won't be the last. Especially as some powers are known to cause issues with structured learning environments in various ways."

There was a little more discussion before Taylor and Danny left, new paperwork in hand. As the door had already shut behind them they did not hear the Director thank the gods that neither of them had gone off at her at the revelation that Sophia Hess was Shadow Stalker, as justified as she felt it might have been if they had.

Jacob took Danny off to get a coffee while Jeffrey dropped Taylor off with Glenn Chambers. Apparently they preferred to handle branding without parental input when possible, and Danny decided to let them.

A female PRT officer was still stationed outside the non-

soundproofed room with Jeffrey 'just in case' for a number of

reasons.

Taylor entered the office, to find an overweight man sitting behind the desk, a happy grin on his face. "Miss Hebert?" he questioned as she shut the door behind her.

"Yes, that's me," Taylor replied. "Good morning."

"Good morning to you too," the man said. "My name is Glenn Chambers, you can call me Glenn."

"You can call me Taylor."

"Wonderful! Now then, while I am delighted to meet you, I do have one question that is bothering me about your Wards application. I am afraid that I won't be able to focus until I get an answer."

"What would that be?" Taylor asked, concerned. Had she done something wrong?

"How in the world did you get Emily, that is Director Piggot, to authorize anti-hero branding?"

"Oh, er, I just filled out the form? I mean, the checklist said that if

your power pushes you towards violence you should fill out the anti-

hero form and my power wants me to hit things with it every so often,

which I figured was pushing towards violence, so I filled out the anti-

hero form." Taylor stopped and took a deep breath. "Was I not

supposed to?"

Glenn just chuckled. "Hah, she probably didn't even read the thing before she signed off on it. Sucks to be her, and all the better for us,

then. I haven't had an opportunity to brand an anti-hero in years."

"Ok?" Taylor was confused. Glenn didn't seem to care. Or maybe he didn't notice?

"So, moving on, do you have any preferences for equipment? I

asked that they include a wide variety of things when they power-

tested you."

"Oh, yea." Taylor grabbed her duffel-bag and pulled the weapons out of it, placing them on the desk for Glenn to see. "I like the entrenching tool for some reason, and the collapsible baton just makes sense. The foam bat I think would be good for hitting Clockblocker with, if what goes around about him on PHO is anything to go by. And I really liked the wok during testing, actually.

Nice and wide and I think it could double as a shield in a pinch, more so than the smaller skillet they included would. I considered some comically large war hammers, but I don't think I could get away with carrying them normally."

"That is quite unusual. But very interesting, I think I can work with that, and assuming you can prove to use them perhaps we can get some hammers made anyway for known larger threats. Now then,

you mentioned liking the idea of steel-toed combat boots in the paperwork?"

"They are a blunt object. Thus, my power works with them."

"That is... wow." Glenn looked impressed with the implications.

"They didn't even bother testing for that, did they?"

"Nope. Even though I have described it as blunt objects and nowhere that I know of did I specify that I had to be holding them in my hands. Gloves don't seem to count, though I haven't tried any with plates on them or similar."

"Too bad brass knuckles would cause legal issues, they could be fun." Glenn then pulled out a few drawings. "Well then, let's take a look at some costume ideas I had."

Taylor took the pile and flipped through the drawings.

She discarded the skin-tight red and black jester-like costume right away. She did not have the figure for it, in her opinion. And if she did have the figure she probably wouldn't want to show it off like that.

The next one down looked like a set of matte black armor with an upper-face covering helmet and a black cape. She couldn't help but think it was missing something, that the shape wasn't quite right. She gave up on that after a minute, and ended up discarding it.

After that was what looked like a military uniform in dark colors,

combined with a riot-gear style helmet, which might work, so she put it down in front of her as a maybe. It was at least somewhat practical and had combat boots.

Next was what looked to all appearances like a blood-stained sundress, with a hockey mask and combat boots. Taylor blinked and thought about where she lived. Despite having fewer issues with the cold than she expected since the incident with Amy and Riley she decided to discard a sundress as being impractical for most of the year in Brockton Bay. Though she might mention the look to Riley,

she might like it for a Slaughterhouse Nine run.

Below that she found something that made her reconsider the sundress. It looked like an armored mini-skirt. Barely armored. With a chest plate, pauldrons, and boots with greaves? The domino mask wasn't going to do a whole lot to hide her identity, or so it appeared.

The sundress covered more, that was for sure. This also went into the discard pile.

After that was the last picture which looked like, well, a punk of sorts? Simple in that it was basically jeans and a dark leather jacket,

combat boots on the feet and gloves on the hands, and a black visor over the eyes. Hair in high pigtails instead of a covering helmet. For some reason she liked it.

Glenn was grinning like a loon, and Taylor figured it was last because he liked it the most. But Taylor thought it was missing something, beyond entrenching tool and wok handles over the shoulders.

"Can we use this, but add a utility belt?" Taylor finally asked. Glenn blinked. "Because while I am sure the jeans and jacket would have pockets a utility belt would be good for clipping things to, and then I can ditch the jacket more easily if I need to in a fight."

"That sounds doable. Makes sense, actually, more storage for useful odds and ends. We should even ensure it has a couple of cell phone pockets for you, actually."

Taylor grinned a little, she liked useful. "And perhaps some armor pieces on the gloves? If they work with my power that will be awesome, if not and I need to punch someone they can still help protect my knuckles."

"Good idea, anything else?"

"I don't think so."

"Very well. Now then, names." Glenn looked unusually happy. "Do you know how hard it is to come up with a good, PR friendly, and

acceptable to the Directors 'hero' name? Some days it is impossible.

But luckily for us, today we get to give you an anti-hero name. We have nearly free reign to skip politically correct! I am so out of practice on this I had to ask others for ideas over the weekend."

"Er, ok? I will admit I had some issues with coming up with a name,

but I think I was going for heroic."

"Yea, all the good hero names are taken, if not taken twice or three times already. Now, I thought something like Smackdown might work, but there is an independent using that already, I think she's in Texas. I had thought about trying for a baseball theme and going with Slugger or Batgirl, but that would have been for a hero, not an anti-hero."

"Yea, no thanks on the baseball theme, even if I do like baseball bats."

"What do you think of Curbstomp?"

"That sounds like either I expect to be beaten to a pulp or am going to be too violent, I think."

"Hmm, good point. One of those I consulted over the weekend offered up Nut Shot?"

Taylor gave this one some consideration. "Not sure I want to imply I am aiming for that part of the body, even if it might cause people to defend against me in the wrong way."

"Alright. How about TacSmack?"

"I think that fits the military theme better than the punk-like theme?"

"Huh, you have a point there." Glenn actually made note of that.

"Moving on, perhaps Maul? Like the hammer-ish tool?"

Taylor considered that. She was hoping she would eventually have a war hammer or two, and if people thought she was going to attack

with scratching and such... well, that could work. "I think I like it.

Provided I eventually get a war hammer for special occasions."

"Great! Now then, normally at this point I would describe the kinds of actions we don't want you taking lest you tarnish your heroic image.

No unnecessary violence or injuries, watching your language,

respecting your superiors in public, all of that. But as an anti-hero you are exempt from most of those policies, at least until someone can find a reason to force you to re-brand. To avoid that just keep it to a reasonable level, try to avoid doing things that won't heal, that kind of thing. Unless you go to extremes nobody in the PRT or Protectorate can do much."

"Every single person above me in the chain of command is going to hate me at first, aren't they?"

"Possibly. I suspect most of the rest of the PR department is going to hate both of us for a while as well, actually. But I personally feel that every so often the public needs to see that people who aren't the ideal hero can still do good. Besides, this way you have authorization to hit people in costume."

Half an hour later Taylor left with her duffel-bag. They had gone over color options, shirt designs for under the jacket, and a couple of other details. She still had her collapsible baton and foam bat, but the entrenching tool had been left with Glenn to be repainted if they couldn't make a tinker-improved version. He was also hopeful that the basic costume would be ready by tomorrow, amazingly.

Jeffrey was waiting for her and quickly brought her a couple of doors down where the female PRT officer that had been there took her measurements, then Taylor was brought to a secure conference room.

"I'm sorry," Jeffrey said. "But I was told that you have to go through some more paperwork, and that nobody on the premises is allowed to be in there with you while you go through it for some reason. To open the box on the table you will need to lock the door to the room

from the inside, then place your hand on the reader on the top and state your name. When you are done return the paperwork to the box and close it, only then will the lock on the door be able to be disengaged to let you come out."

Taylor was a bit shocked, but went in and locked the door behind her anyway. A sizable box sat on the end of the table, with a coffee mug full of pens next to it. Wasn't that reassuring. Following the instructions she had been given she opened the box to find a stack of papers. Quickly flipping through them she found they were NDAs apparently tied to some of the security clearance paperwork she had filled out the day before. She quickly came up with a system that let her read only the portions that differed after the first one and started going through them all.

Taylor sighed as she signed the last line she needed to on the last NDA. That was tiring. She then returned the entire stack to the box and closed it, this time hearing the click at the door that signaled a secondary lock releasing a moment later.

Unlocking the door and stepping out of the room she suddenly stopped and turned around. She thought she felt something, and after a moment she realized that the box was gone from the table.

What the hell?

"I don't know how, but those do that," Jeffrey admitted. "The one you and your father dropped your paperwork in earlier most likely vanished when nobody was looking as well, though usually they take longer than that to vanish. Personally I think it is some kind of tinkertech teleporter, probably not safe for living things."

Jeffrey led Taylor to where she felt Jacob was, and thus likely where her father was. This turned out to be a cafeteria, where they had a slightly late lunch. Over lunch they discussed Taylor's classes at Arcadia, cover and otherwise. She would start next week, and would be using the books she had already been supplied with.

After lunch they ended up in a conference room again.

"Normally we would have you meet up with the other Wards," Jeffrey said. "But generally new members have a costume already, even if they are getting a new one. Glenn thinks it would be better to wait until tomorrow when you have your basic equipment. Is that ok with you?"

"I suppose having the full effect would be better," Taylor admitted.

"Would that mean we are done for the day?"

"The other thing we would like to take care of is having you and your father go through a couple of classes," Jeffrey said. "Basics on how to discreetly enter and exit the PRT building, mainly, plus some details on contacts and procedures. You will get much more comprehensive lessons over time, of course, but these would help you when you come in tomorrow at a minimum."

"While annoying they are good to know," Jacob said. "I recommend you go for it, they cover a number of interesting little tricks they have come up with."

"The dockworkers have today off, so I am game," Danny admitted.

"Though we are likely getting take-out for dinner tonight as a result."

Thus Taylor and Danny sat through several lessons on procedures,

PRT building entrances that were less obvious, ways of getting to the back areas of the PRT buildings without being obvious if you did use the front entrance. That kind of thing. Taylor did note that they did not, in fact, cover the 'gym membership' app. They just hinted at additional methods by mentioning that these were ways in without access keys, which implied that there were methods that used said access keys. About halfway through her phone notified her that a 'credential update' had installed, though. She could likely come in through the gym without a PRT helper now.

The one thing she really liked, though, was the basic lesson in using the map app to get an internal map and directions inside PRT and

Protectorate buildings. She wasn't sure how it was that nobody was using it today, actually. She didn't know that Jacob generally was using it when out of her sight, though Danny had seen him use it.

Taylor and Danny were led out through the same tunnel to the gym they had entered via, noticing that there were monitors above the doors on the way out to show you the other side. Presumably so you could wait for a clear moment to open the door and slip through.

They left the gym with nobody paying them any special attention,

made it to Danny's car, and headed home.

They found Jacob had picked up some chinese take-out on his way home, allowing them to dig right in. Taylor discussed some of what had happened with Glenn and mentioned needing to sign more NDAs, just not what they covered. Jacob had a grin when she mentioned the box disappearing, though. He likely knew something there. He also was quite obviously not telling.

After dinner Taylor browsed PHO for a while, trading a few text messages about their various days with Amy and Riley in the process, then got ready for bed. Tomorrow would certainly be interesting.

Last edited: Jun 5, 2018

Interlude: Calvert Thomas was highly annoyed as he drove towards the PRT building,

wishing he was allowed to take the day off as a holiday. But no, he had important meetings and his body-double had caught a cold,

which meant that Thomas himself had to attend to things in person.

Granted, the meeting he was heading to likely would have had to have been in person anyway, but it meant he couldn't pull double meetings in any single timeline like he normally might.

His other timeline had him cancelling the meeting with Emily and going to the one with one of his gang moles instead. Which timeline he kept would depend on what happened in each meeting, with the more important meeting being kept. He didn't like operating without a 'safe' timeline, but sometimes things just had to happen.

Luckily one of his people in the PRT had been able to disable the parahuman-detector in the PRT building. Arranging it to be down for maintenance only when he was going in personally was annoying,

but necessary as Cauldron had refused to ensure he was on the 'known, but ignore them' parahuman list. Luckily Brockton Bay did not have anyone capable of detecting capes on the Protectorate roster. He just wished that his operatives had gotten access to the newest Ward's files, but there was minimal risk there as the initial application was only a few days old. It would take time to jump through most of the initial paperwork hoops alone.

He sighed as he pulled into a space in the middle of the parking garage. The gang mole he was supposed to be meeting hadn't shown up in the other timeline, but that wasn't all that surprising.

Collecting his briefcase he made his way across the street to the PRT building. Being a trusted consultant had perks, one of them being they didn't deny him access just because the cape detector was offline.

He did wonder about the sudden desire to order a hundred gallons of whipped cream, though.

Thomas growled as he drove away from the PRT building. The meeting with Emily was useless, but he had needed to drop his other timeline when it turned out his mole had turned on him. He wasn't in the mood to be kept captive and tortured for information before being killed. Said mole would be meeting a nasty end in the next few days.

Possibly multiple times for Thomas's enjoyment. He might not even make the final death look like an accident.

Chapter 10 Tuesday morning Taylor once again woke before her alarm. She found a couple of text messages from Riley, apparently it was considered perfectly okay for those in the know about the Slaughterhouse Nine but not in the Nine to abuse that to full effect and use the inside info they had access to in order to bet on their next target. Which was, most likely, two weeks away, in Plaistow,

Texas. She had never heard of Plaistow? Or at least, not in Texas.

Getting up she ensured her alarm wouldn't go off and got ready for the day. She had given things some thought as she lay there trying to sleep last night and had a plan for the morning. This afternoon, of course, was going to be the Wards' 'meet and greet'.

Ensuring she had everything ready, including her re-packed sling bag, she headed downstairs. She found that she was the only one up, not surprising given she was up quite early, so decided it was her turn to make breakfast. She prepped some eggs for omelets and grabbed a can of hash browns as well, but didn't start cooking yet.

Hearing the paper being delivered next door she got up and made it to the door in time to catch the thrown paper, surprising the boy walking down the street delivering papers. She just waved and headed back inside with the paper. A quick look showed that a string of potentially-parahuman murders in Connecticut had made the headline. Also on the front page were a warehouse collapse just off of the boardwalk yesterday, though it had been condemned, and a blurb on the progress of the testing of Winslow students.

She went to turn the page when she stopped and re-read that last one. And yep, there is what caught her eye: a note that only one Winslow student had applied to take Arcadia's exams directly, and they had qualified for a scholarship in the process. They didn't name her, but huh, she had indirectly made the news. As a civilian, she expected she would make the news as a cape soon. Reading a little

more deeply, including turning to page 5 to continue the article, she found that of those students that had taken their exams none had qualified to take Arcadia's entrance exams. And huh, due to new issues with Clarendon and Immaculata it was determined that the high school students were going to be shipped off to share the middle schools for the time being.

Finding a related article referenced she flipped to it to find that the state had dug up funds to build a new high school, though the location had not been determined yet. Apparently where Winslow sat had quickly been determined to be unsuitable for building anything taller than a park or parking lot.

Finding nothing else she wanted to read in the main section of the paper she hunted down the comics, had a laugh at them, and then re-assembled the paper for her father or uncle to read. Speaking of them, she heard someone moving upstairs, so it was time to start cooking.

Her father was the first one down, though she could still hear her uncle moving upstairs, so he got the first omelette. She actually ate the second, and her uncle got the third.

"Thanks for breakfast and good luck today," Danny said, rubbing her hair on his way by to head to work.

"Bye Dad," Taylor said. As soon as Danny had left the house Taylor turned to her uncle. "So, Uncle Jacob, how would I sign up for the access keys class?"

"Hah, noticed that did you?" Jacob said. "Probably because I warned you. You will get the 'sign up for classes' lesson in the next week or so, most likely, but I can put a request in for you in the meantime.

When do you want to take it?"

"If they are willing, this morning?" Taylor replied, grinning. "I suspect,

if everything I have seen so far is accurate, that having that particular class under my belt will be amusing."

Jacob snickered as he pulled out his phone. After some poking he looked back up at Taylor. "Looks like you can grab it and a couple other short ones this morning, We have plenty of time to drop you off. Anything else they mentioned in passing catch your interest?"

"Can I get the checking security clearances one out of the way?"

Taylor asked, thinking. "And they mentioned a basic console class that covered both sides?"

"Very good options. Looks like you can get both in. From what I understand, most Wards never take the last one, they just learn it by doing, then get told they were doing it wrong when they make it to the protectorate and have all kinds of bad habits."

Jacob said he would actually be coming back to the house to deal with a couple of things and would wash the dishes then, so they left at that point to drop Taylor off at the gym.

Taylor found that yes, her phone now let her into the PRT building from the gym without aid. Though Jacob had done something with their phones that checked that ahead of time, just to be safe. She also found that it apparently let her wander the building at will,

though she was stopped once by a PRT officer. Who did something with their phones and then apologized for delaying her. She really hoped that the thing they kept doing with the phones was part of the security clearances class.

The map she already knew how to use was helpful, as was the marker that had appeared indicating where the classroom she was going to was. It even plotted out a path for her, and she arrived with three quarters of an hour to spare. So Taylor plopped herself in a seat outside the door to wait.

"Good morning," a woman in a basic skirt and blouse carrying a briefcase said as she approached five minutes later. "I don't suppose you are Taylor?"

"I am," Taylor answered.

"Well then, you are the only student today, so if you like we can get started early?"

"That would be great, thanks."

"Wonderful. I am Felicity Smith. You can call me Felicity, my six sisters have resulted in issues with remembering to respond to 'Miss Smith'. Come on in and we will get started."

They actually started with security clearances, which was in fact what Jacob and the PRT officer had done with her phone, then went over console etiquette. That led to the interesting discovery that Taylor had a 'broadcast all' button in the app for the console,

something supposedly reserved for the Wards leader and Protectorate members. She wasn't sure why that would have been granted, but figured she would only use it in an emergency anyway.

They took a short break at that point, and Taylor grabbed a bottle of water that was on a table in the back of the room. She had gotten curious and was poking through the list of security clearances she had, which looked to be a lot more than she expected. She recognized that a lot of them were sub-clearances of the ones she had filled out paperwork relating to, though. So maybe that explained things?

As Taylor sat back down for the lesson on access keys she realized that it was only a few minutes past the original start time. What was she going to do with the rest of the morning once they were done?

"Well then Taylor," Felicity said, pulling out a small stack of pamphlets from her bag. "You are officially the only current Ward in New England that has asked to take this class. As such, you are getting a stack of what we like to call the 'you idiot, you need to ask questions' pamphlets for handing out to other Wards later."

Taylor took the stack of pamphlets and read the title on the top one.

"Asking questions and you, if you aren't supposed to know we just won't tell you?"

"Pretty straightforward, but amazingly enough most Wards seem to think that they will be handed information. We encourage people to go looking, so long as they stop digging when told they aren't cleared for something."

"That makes sense. Does anyone tell them that?"

"I do believe that most official written communications inform them that they should ask or check the PRT database if they have any questions on the content of the communication or anything else. And they get such communications weekly, at a minimum, unless they are on vacation. So yes? As a result we generally avoid telling them about this class in particular, waiting for them to ask if there is a more streamlined way to get into the building."

"Works for me. Especially as I get to skip most of the headaches."

Taylor spent the next half hour learning how to get the map application to overlay all doors she was cleared to open, with descriptions of how to do so if she tapped them. In that mode the directions module would even take advantage of shortcuts for her and suggest discreet ways in and out of PRT buildings if you hit the right toggle. She learned how to lock and unlock doors she was cleared for, using temporary full clearance for the classroom door to test with, and even how to check access logs if she was allowed.

The latter would apparently be useful for "did anyone go into my room in the Wards area?" in particular but also helped with other areas. One example was finding out who didn't clean up a training room.

Finally they came to the end of the planned lesson, and Taylor was staring at her phone.

"Something wrong?" Felicity asked.

"Is there any way to not need to hold the phone up to the readers?"

Taylor replied, waving the gym membership app at Felicity. "It seems a bit conspicuous."

"Er, yes, there is, but it is a pain and very few use it as a result."

Felicity went over to a cabinet on the wall and opened it, removing a box and bringing it back to the table they were sitting at. "We have these watches, but for security reasons they have to be turned on from the phone before each use. They usually only get integrated into power armor where the tinker can use a heads-up display to toggle them on instead due to that."

"Can I try one anyway?"

"Go for it, here are the pairing instructions."

Five minutes later the watch was paired to Taylor's phone and to Taylor herself. She now had a mental button for the watch to turn on the NFC relay. A couple of tests, in front of an astonished Felicity,

and she was very happy with the result.

"How are you doing that?" Felicity finally asked. "Because I can't see how it is working?"

"I was the subject of a tinker fugue and have some interesting tricks as a side effect," Taylor answered. Felicity flinched and looked sorry for Taylor, but didn't try and get more details.

"Well, that concludes all of our lesson plans for today. I recommend you wait on taking more until you have gone through some of the basic Wards sessions, if only to avoid blowing their minds too much more than you are likely going to already."

"Thanks, I think I will have quite a bit of fun with them."

Of course, once Felicity had departed Taylor was in the PRT building with nothing to do. Glenn was going to message her when the basic costume was ready for her, but hadn't yet. She didn't really think

going to bother the Director was a good idea, and she was rapidly running out of places she knew she could go.

She decided, on a lark, to pull up the PRT information app and search for "I'm bored in a PRT building." She got back two million-ish results. Huh. She hit one of the suggestions: "I'm a bored parahuman in a PRT building." Only half a million-ish results this time, and on the first page was "take out some aggression in an approved-for-damage training room."

Five minutes later she was following the map app's instructions to get to training room six, currently nicknamed "the junkyard".

Taylor spent over two hours using random bits of broken stuff to further break other random bits of broken stuff. She did wonder where the statues had originally come from, though. One of them had kinda, if you squinted the right way, looked like Sophia.

It no longer looked like a statue, let alone Sophia. In fact, it now looked more like a gravel pile, Taylor might have had some anger issues to work out.

Taylor was a bit surprised that she had not, in fact, worked up a sweat. Perhaps Amy and Riley did better work than she thought?

She fired a question off to both of them, but knew Amy at least wouldn't answer until lunchtime.

With that she gradually made her way back up through the underground levels towards Glenn's office, as she figured it was likely he would be getting in touch with her soon but figured she could explore in the meantime. She was almost there when he messaged her, and asked her to meet him at the locker rooms by training room five.

Goddamnit.

An hour and a half later Taylor was costumed up as Maul and was grinning as she looked at herself in the mirror after they had finished some testing. For some reason dressing like this made her feel like a different person. Some of the tests had shown that the armor plates on the gloves did work with her power, which is why Glenn wanted to be near the training room to begin with. She had flipped through the manual for the visor and in addition to light-level correction and enhancement it could show things from her phones. Most would have difficulty because it only displayed, and had no input functions.

She didn't have that problem.

They had given her a standard PRT-issue collapsible baton, slightly higher grade than her personal one, and a standard PRT-issue training bat. Which was a foam bat with a metal core, normally used for training baton-work. These were clipped to opposite hips. She also had her repainted entrenching tool and a black-painted wok in clever holders on the back of the jacket, tinker-improved versions of both were on order. Glenn also had her test to ensure she could wield a 'comically over-sized war hammer' and though it wouldn't be as oversized as she might like he still put one on order.

He was very much not updating her records to show increased strength. That wasn't his job, and if the power testers didn't ask if she had enhanced strength, well, that was on them.

She still had a couple of hours before it would be meet and greet time, though. Glenn dragged her to the lower cafeteria for a late lunch and went over some other details. Such as the fact that the entire costume had been enhanced with tinker-derived unobtrusive armor, which was why it weighed so much. Taylor hadn't actually noticed. Further he explained that, for some reason, they were having to wait for a rush shipment from Dragon for her Wards phone due to not having something suitable available in-stock, it should arrive sometime before she left. Which she thought was odd, what about her phone required a special order?

"Hello Miss Militia," Taylor said without looking over her shoulder.

Glenn had left a few minutes ago, but Taylor had stayed to finish up a milkshake she had grabbed and had been poking around the PRT information app in the meantime. She was liking the hands-free options the visor basically handed her.

"Hello Maul," Miss Militia said from behind Taylor. She had done her best to be unnoticed, trying to be as quiet as possible, approaching from a blind spot. She was hoping for a jump-scare, yet the girl apparently had nerves of steel. "Are you ready for the meet and greet?"

"Yep," Taylor said, getting up. She followed Miss Militia out, tossing her empty cup in the trash can on the way by. "By the way, have you done any research on war hammers?"

Miss Militia came to a halt. What? "Did you say war hammers?"

"Yes, I did."

"How did you know I did some research on war hammers?"

"I told your snark about them when I found out it didn't think blunt weapons were weapons, actually. It seemed quite interested when I mentioned that war hammers were used because swords would deflect."

"That is intriguing. What are your power ratings?"

"I think they called me a Blaster/Trump? With a Thinker secondary.

As of a few minutes ago they hadn't added any numbers to my records, though."

"I see I need to bump reading your profile up on my list of things to do." Miss Militia then shook her head and they continued down the hall. "At any rate, all of the Wards are in attendance today. You may note a lack of Shadow Stalker..."

"I will be happy to have my last interaction with her, ever, be the point she locked me in my locker."

Miss Militia stopped again, and turned to look at Taylor. "How are you that well informed?"

"Well, in that case Director Piggot informed my father and I yesterday when we met with her. Otherwise I have learned to seek information out. They even gave me pamphlets." Taylor pulled a pamphlet out of an inner pocket of her jacket. "See? I have a stack of them to hand out."

"How did you get those?"

"I took the access keys class this morning, along with the console basics and security clearance checking classes."

"You are either going to be an absolute terror to work with or my favorite Ward. I am not sure which."

"I'll aim for both, just in case."

Miss Militia shook her head and once again continued down the hall.

They made it to one of the elevators, and Miss Militia swiped her phone to access the express mode options. This brought them down to the level the Wards common room was accessed from. Taylor had been trying to avoid poking at snarks, but had noticed when Dean had come into her range, so she knew where she was going in a basic sense without things like the map.

Finally they reached a hallway that Taylor knew led to the Wards area, and she spoke up. "Can we hold up here for a minute?"

"Is there a problem?" Miss Militia asked.

"I just want to poke their snarks once each before I go in," Taylor admitted. "That way I will be less overwhelmed, I have found that

after introducing myself to a snark it is easier to not talk to it when interacting with the human paired with them."

"Oh, ok then. Take your time."

Taylor closed her eyes and reached out for one snark at a time. She did not converse deeply with them, just said hello and got a response back, ensuring each was friendly enough. Dean's,

however, indicated that it was hungry. What was up with that? Why would snarks be hungry?

"Ok, I think I am ready," Taylor said, deciding that pondering the eating habits of snarks could wait.

They approached the door and Miss Militia toggled the 'visitor coming in with me, so mask up' alarm instead of using her normal access to bypass it. Thank you access keys class. The occupants of the area beyond the door suddenly moved around a bit, before lining up in front of the door. At which point the door chimed and opened for them, allowing them to walk in.

Arrayed in front of them, all looking curious in their body language,

were five people. While Taylor had intentionally avoided looking up their civilian identities, even though she likely could, she still recognized them by their cape identities. Aegis was on the far left,

followed by Gallant, Clockblocker, Vista, and finally on the far right Kid Win. She suspected that there was little intent to this ordering,

just how it worked out.

"Hello Wards," Miss Militia said. "Today you have a new member."

Taylor imagined that, if she could see even one pair of eyes, they would have widened a little. As it was she did see a couple of them straighten up a bit. Miss Militia then deferred to Taylor.

"Hello," Taylor said. "I'm Maul."

"So, er," Aegis stumbled. "Yea, sorry. I'm Aegis, the current leader of the Wards." He looked to his left. "Next to me are Gallant,

Clockblocker, Vista, and Kid Win."

"Yes, you are all somewhat distinctive," Taylor replied.

"Right, right," Clockblocker said. "So, as awesome as your look is,

you are probably going to be screwed over by branding. Which is probably going to suck."

"That is going to suck," Vista agreed. "Because we haven't heard of you, so you must be new. So they aren't going to try and keep your branding."

"Actually," Taylor said, grinning. "I showed up yesterday without a costume or cape name. This is what Glenn and I came up with."

This time even Miss Militia was showing visible signs of shock,

though Taylor didn't turn to see that. She hadn't heard this story,

apparently.

"How did you get away with that?" Gallant asked. "I mean, you do not look like you have gotten hero branding as they usually handle it."

"I filled out the anti-hero branding form," Taylor said. "It was approved, so here I am."

"I wasn't aware that form existed," Miss Militia admitted. "How did you find it?"

"It was in the standard package?" Taylor offered. She wasn't actually certain, now that she thought about it, that Jacob had gotten the standard package. "The checklist pointed it out when I was going over things."

"We normally provide a customized local package," Miss Militia said,

raising an eyebrow. "Where did you get a standard package?"

"My uncle," Taylor said.

Miss Militia blinked, then nodded. She obviously had some knowledge of Taylor's relation to Jacob, at least. "Well then, I will leave you six to it. Have fun." She then left the six of them to themselves.

"So, Maul, want to talk about powers or identities first?" Aegis asked as the door closed behind Miss Militia. "We can go either way."

"I'll vote for identities," Taylor replied before turning to Gallant. "If only because it is probably unfair that I know Dean already."

Gallant, or rather Dean, jerked. "How did you know who I am?"

"Well, that is easy enough," Taylor said, pulling her visor off. "Hi, I'm Taylor. How is Vicky doing when she isn't around Amy? Still a bit skittish?"

Everyone just stared at Taylor for a moment. Then they all took their own masks, helmets, or visors off.

"Vicky is doing better," Dean admitted. "Though we still don't know what happened."

"Right, I'm Carlos," Aegis said.

"Dennis," Clockblocker chimed in.

"Missy," Vista said.

"And I'm Chris," Kid Win said.

"So, powers," Carlos said. "It isn't actually all that well known, but I..."

"Hold up," Taylor said. "Let me guess?"

The five looked at each other oddly, then shrugged. Carlos waved Taylor on. Taylor then tried something she knew she should be able to do but hadn't tried. She connected to all five snarks at the same

time, on different channels because no way was she doing a shared channel right now, and sent them all the same question.

Hello, what do you do for your human?

Though she got back five responses at the same time she was easily able to keep track of which one was for each snark.

Thank you "So, let's see," she said, focusing back on the group in front of her.

She then pointed at each in turn, describing their powers, starting with Carlos. "You are ultra-adaptable, with any part of your body able to take over for any other part, on top of being able to fly. As a result you take a lot of damage to stop." She then moved to Dean. "Despite your snark being hungry, you can sense emotions and fire energy projectiles of varying forms to induce emotions in others." She then moved to Dennis. "You can temporarily freeze something in space,

negating all atomic but not all subatomic movement in relation to the planet. Not fully certain how that all actually works, but some of that is related to why things you freeze stay the same colors? Still, kinda funny, cape name aside your powers have nothing to do with time beyond having a time limit." Then she moved to Missy. "You can distort space and materials by adding and removing material as needed, even outside of normal three dimensional physics." And finally she pointed at Chris. "And you are a basic modular tinker.

Who apparently really dislikes trying to make things modular? You should really try it."

The five of them just stared at her. Finally Dennis seemed to snap out of it. "How did you do that?"

"I'm a Blaster/Trump," Taylor said, smiling. "I can project blunt objects along a straight line and talk to snarks. Which I believe most people think of as 'powers'."

"That is very interesting," Carlos said. "How useful is the talking to powers bit in the field?"

"Well," Taylor said, tapping her chin. "I do believe that Vicky and I both found out the hard way that I don't get along with master abilities."

Dean actually paled a little at that. "That was you?"

Taylor shrugged. "I reacted badly to her snark wanting me to adore her, so I yelled at it until it agreed to stop."

"She is having to train to turn her aura on again," Dean said after a minute. "Her previously always-on aura. And you changed that by yelling at her powers?"

"Most of the time I just chat with them," Taylor said. "So, we going to stand here all day?"

This led to a very quick tour of the area and then everyone congregating by some couches near a large monitor. Taylor decided she should probably take off the wok and entrenching tool before sitting down, though.

"Is that actually a wok?" Chris asked, staring. "Do you plan on cooking in the field?"

"It can serve as a shield or a wide blunt object for hitting people with," Taylor replied. "And before anyone asks, I just like the entrenching tool." She set the wok and entrenching tool leaning against the wall, then sat at the end of one of the couches. Huh, the collapsible baton and foam bat sat quite nicely even when she was sitting.

She was startled out of her momentary contemplation by Missy dropping onto the cushion next to her. "So, where do you go to school?"

"I start at Arcadia on Monday," Taylor answered.

"So you are the intelligent one from Winslow that bothered to apply themselves," Dean said, shaking his head. "Should have known, the PRT likes believable cover stories."

"They are more believable when they aren't cover stories," Taylor rebutted. "I started that process before turning in my application for the Wards. In fact, I was taking the exams when my uncle turned my application in."

"Wait," Dennis said, looking at Taylor. "Taylor Hebert, niece of the therapist most commonly known only as 'Jacob'?"

"Yep."

"Didn't PHO decide you weren't a cape?" Dennis continued, before pulling his phone out of a hidden pocket in his costume to go look.

"PHO isn't in the loop," was Taylor's response, cutting Dennis's search off. "Kinda surprised, really. A school needs to be torn down and they don't seem to think anyone might have triggered in the process."

"Oh hell, the rumors were true?" Chris said. "Were you the one people claimed was locked in a locker?"

"Yea, kinda needed Amy's help to get back on my feet," Taylor said.

"Literally, they were apparently going to have to amputate my legs otherwise. I think my snark is pushing me to get over it, and for some reason I can't remember much past being pushed in. Though at least Sophia got hers in the end."

Dennis looked like he wanted to say something about that, but Dean pelted him with a pillow first.

"On to less depressing but more annoying topics," Missy spoke up,

obviously trying to change the subject. "Did Glenn give you the

acceptable behavior talk?"

"I do believe he did," Taylor said, grinning internally. "I believe he said I should not take things to extremes, avoid permanent injuries,

and I should be fine."

The other five stared at Taylor for a moment.

"Bullshit," Dennis finally said. "Pull the other one."

"Seriously, he said that," Taylor defended herself. "Right after telling me that all the rules he would normally go over on behavior for PR reasons didn't apply with anti-hero branding."

"Where the hell was the anti-hero form when I signed up?" Dennis cried. "I barely got away with Clockblocker, and they still stuck me with punishment duties for a month! But you filled out the right form and get to be all cool."

"I stand corrected on the depressing," Missy pouted.

"No no, you were right," Taylor said, patting Missy on the head. "This is much less depressing. For me."

"So, have you gotten any of the classes on maps and such, getting in and out, all that stuff?" Carlos asked. "Or do we have to see about signing you up for some of those?"

"I took those yesterday," Taylor said. "The maps is useful, haven't needed the getting in and out yet. And are you five going to make a habit of staring at me in shock?"

"Well, I suppose you didn't have a costume so you just came in the front door today," Carlos hedged. "But you can't make a habit of that,

you are probably only skating by on the fact your uncle works for the PRT so you could be visiting him while he is in the building."

"Huh," Taylor thought out loud. "That is an interesting point, when does the front door open to the public?" She then pulled her phone

out to check.

"I think it is usually open at eight?" Chris said, turning to Missy. "Is it eight?"

"Yea, looks to be eight," Taylor said, looking up from her phone. "I showed up for my eight am class this morning by quarter past seven,

so kinda glad I go to the gym." She was doing her best to ensure that they did not, in fact, see any sign of her internal laughing. She so wished she had a way to record this.

"Dennis," Carlos finally said. "I apologize for stating I didn't always like your sense of humor. I now see just how preferable yours is."

Missy had gone on a different track, though. "What class were you taking this morning?"

"Oh, not much," Taylor said. "I got the security clearance checking course out of the way and took basic console interaction."

"There is a course for the console?" Missy exclaimed, pulling her own phone out. "That thing still confuses me, sign me up." Taylor could see that Missy had the PRT information app open and had navigated to a menu option she didn't recall seeing before. Taking a look at her own phone she found she could bring up a list of classes to sign up for. Huh, useful. And instructions were probably available if she had searched for something like 'how do I sign up for a class?'.

A moment later Taylor had submitted that search, and the first result pointed her at the menu option as well as a website form and a phone number. Apparently even she wasn't entirely used to looking up information for herself. At least she knew she had the problem?

Huh, Miss Militia is heading back this way.

"Hey," Chris said, looking at Taylor's phone, distracting her from Miss Militia's movements. "That looks high-end, what model is it?"

"Oh," Taylor said. "Er. Well," as she brought up the settings menu,

flipping to the 'About Phone' area. "I apparently have a Dragon-Tech EX-7 with 2TB of storage, plus the BL6, SL9, and CE5 enhancements?"

Taylor figured she had said something wrong when everyone was just staring at her. Finally Missy spoke up. "Did you get that because of the Anti-Hero branding form too?"

"No?" Taylor said, curious. "This was a gift from my uncle."

"An impressive one at that," Miss Militia said from behind them. Chris jumped a little but Taylor just turned around to look behind her. "We had some issues getting your Wards phone as a result, but it finally arrived." She waved the box. "Let's go over to the table and get you set up."

Taylor got up and followed Miss Militia over to the table and went through the process of getting her 'Maul' phone set up, voicemail in place, and so forth, only rating a raised eyebrow from Miss Militia when she paired her watch as well. Finally Miss Militia waved Taylor back to the other Wards. She did not, however, leave right away,

cleaning up some of the packing materials for Taylor.

Taylor came back to the couch and sat back down next to Missy.

Was Chris on the verge of tears? What happened?

"Please tell me your Wards phone isn't as good as your personal one," Dennis finally spat out. "Because otherwise that would be very unfair."

"Well, um," Taylor said, looking at her 'Maul' phone. "Looks like it is also a Dragon-Tech EX-7, has only 512GB of storage, plus the BL5,

SL9, and CE4 enhancements."

"Excuse me," Miss Militia said. "Did you say your Wards phone has SL9?"

"Yes? Wouldn't you have known that?" Taylor answered. "You did bring it to me."

"I wasn't given the specs," Miss Militia said. "But that would explain the delay. As a simple yes or no, do you know why you need the highest security enhancement available on both of your phones?"

"Oh, is that what that is?" Taylor said. "Security Level? I didn't know what the letters meant." She thought about it for a moment, then grinned inside. Very carefully not letting that show on the outside she continued. "Yea, I have an idea. It probably came with the brick wall."

"The what?" Carlos asked, looking very perplexed. "Did you say brick wall?"

"Yes, brick wall," Taylor replied. "The one the PRT dedicated to me in Washington, D.C."

"Why would they dedicate a brick wall to you?" Dennis asked,

wondering if this was a joke. Which it was, just at a different point than he was aware of.

"I can't tell you that due to the NDAs I have signed," Taylor said,

shrugging. "I was told that nobody stationed in Brockton Bay has clearance for most of the extras. Panacea is cleared for two of them,

though."

"Ok then," Miss Militia said. "Moving on, because I don't want to get in trouble for knowing more than I am supposed to." Left unsaid was that she would be checking on some of that. If Taylor was joking there would be repercussions. "BL is battery level upgrades, SL is security level as mentioned, and CE is connectivity enhancement.

The latter needs to be enabled as it drains the battery faster and is only needed when something is blocking, I suggest you familiarize yourself with where that lives in the menus. But do try and not use it too much at school unless needed."

"Oh, thanks," Taylor said, smiling. "That is good to know, it would have started bugging me."

"You are welcome," Miss Militia said. "Now then, I need to get going.

Enjoy yourselves." She then left the common area, the door closing behind her.

"It's not FAIR!" Chris finally cried out, tears spilling from his eyes.

"Even your Wards phone is more awesome!"

"What?" Taylor said, a bit stunned.

"We are lucky to get BL1 and CE1, plus we only warrant SL2 at the most usually until we become Wards leader," Carlos explained.

"Then they might upgrade us to CE2 and SL3."

Taylor spent the rest of the afternoon getting to know the other Wards, subtly trolling them whenever she could. She wasn't sure if they actually realized she was doing anything odd as they commented on the various PRT personnel that helped them get into the building in particular. Finally it was time for her to leave, so she changed back into her civilian clothing in her newly assigned room and headed back out through the gym. Her uncle picked her up on her way to the bus stop.

"Hello Hannah," Ethan said, sitting down next to her. He looked over the bottle of vodka and shot glass sitting on the table. "May I ask why you, of all people, are drinking in the middle of the afternoon? Or at all, really?"

"The new ward, Maul," Hannah said. "Her phone finally arrived.

Turns out her personal phone has top of the line battery, security,

and connectivity upgrades, but even her Wards phone is better than mine."

"What? How?"

"She blamed it on the brick wall."

"The what?"

"I verified it. The PRT has dedicated a brick wall to her down in D.C.,

to be completed next month."

"Why did they dedicate a brick wall to her?"

"Dunno. I don't have the required clearance to find out. In fact, I think Maul is the only resident of Brockton Bay with the full set required,

and Panacea is second with a partial set."

Ethan thought that over, then got up. A moment later he returned with a shot glass of his own. He filled it from the bottle and downed it. After a moment he thought of something.

"Don't suppose the wall is the end result of a joke?" Ethan offered.

"What kind of joke would result in a brick wall?"

"Well, perhaps she did something to make them shit enough bricks to build one?"

Hannah thought that one over, paled, and took a swig straight from the bottle. "I am not contemplating that while sober."

Last edited: Jun 5, 2018

Chapter 11 Early Wednesday morning Taylor was woken up by a notification poking her brain. Blinking, she wondered how that happened, then she realized it was on her 'Maul' phone. Damnit, she forgot to set the power save option for it, didn't she? She ignored the notification itself while she corrected that oversight.

Once she had ensured that notifications weren't going to poke her brain while she was sleeping she focused on the notification itself.

Huh, a request to go into the PRT building today from Miss Militia.

Specifically stating it was a request, not an order, it could in fact wait until another day, and that any time before three in the afternoon would be fine.

Taylor responded with a note saying she would try and get in today,

and would let her know if something else came up. A couple minutes later as she lay there a message thanking her came back. It wasn't long before she realized that she was not, in fact, getting back to sleep. Even though it was a little before five in the morning.

Grabbing both phones she proceeded to go through and make sure both were set up to her liking. This mainly involved mostly synchronizing the appearances and settings, such as the 'make no noise when Bluetooth sound is attached' option on her Maul phone.

She did leave a couple of noticeable differences, if you were looking for them, to make it easier to differentiate the two without digging into the settings menus.

On a lark she decided to run through the 'security clearance comparison' dance on the two phones. Unsurprisingly, really, they came up identical. She then recalled that Miss Militia had talked about 'connectivity enhancements' yesterday, and basically to not abuse them at school? Did that mean the faraday cage could be bypassed?

It took her fifteen minutes of searching, apparently the 'EX' in 'EX-7'

meant experimental and thus the menus weren't actually documented in the normal PRT help documents as a result. That might also explain why everyone was shocked at the phones,

actually, how did Uncle Jacob swing experimental phones? At any rate, she found that she had sliders on each phone, with her 'personal' phone's slider having one more marking. Apparently in the event of communication loss she should increase the slider by one notch at a time until reconnection occurred, each notch increasing battery drain significantly. She found an option for adding a direct jump to the proper menu to the home screen and did so, though all the way on the last page where it would still be out of sight without shifting over to it.

On the subject of searching for things, she checked to see if the PRT app could tell her why she had 'broadcast all' privileges. That only took a moment, apparently you need the SL3 module or better and permission to access the PRT communication app. That must be why the Wards leader got a phone upgrade. Technically any of them could use that feature if they had a better phone. Out of curiosity she followed a link to a document on the security modules, finding a pile of information that made no sense to her on what each level included.

Huh, 'Requesting a security clearance upgrade to obtain higher level module'? Following that link brought her to a simple, straightforward page. All Protectorate and Wards members could fill out a form to request that their clearance be upped one level per year they had been a Protectorate or Wards member. Wards time didn't count towards Protectorate time, and they capped out at different points.

Wards started at SL2 and capped at SL4, but could keep their SL4 clearance when they graduated to the Protectorate. Protectorate members started at SL3 and capped out at SL7. Beyond those points you needed your security clearances to show 'specific need'?

A quick check showed that the Slaughterhouse Nine were, in fact, in the PRT system. And were flagged as a top-level security need if

you were aware of the truth with them. Well, that explained her phones. And all other PRT-issued equipment in the future, for that matter. Her phone had even opened a dedicated secure channel for the information, which she did figure out was a SL5 or above feature.

Something was bugging her about the requesting an upgrade page,

though, so she went back to it. After a few minutes she realized that there was a discrepancy, and since she had a 'report an issue with this page' button she hit it. Filling out the resulting form she sent it off and moved on after it told her it would be forwarded to someone for review.

Deciding she should figure out the best routes for various things Taylor fired up the map app and ran a few options. On foot, public transportation, bike paths for each pair of her house, Arcadia, and the PRT building. She made note of the most likely bus routes she would be taking. This caused her to look up how long the Winslow student ID and bus pass was going to remain good for, followed by if there was anything the PRT did on that front for Wards.

The Winslow passes were apparently good until March, which was nice. More interestingly, apparently she was due to get a bus pass for her civilian and parahuman identities from the PRT? Interesting,

though it would make taking the bus easier if needed when in costume. She wondered how often that happened?

Taylor then moved on to catching up on PHO. Lots of boring stuff,

very little interesting. Vicky was noticeably improving in attitude and had been spotted flying again yesterday. For a few minutes, anyway.

The lizard-cape proponents were arguing over whether or not Newter counted. Most of them having apparently been unaware he existed. Someone had noticed that she had new tags. There were rumors of a new Ward, in Chicago.

Wait, back up a minute, she has new tags? She scrolled back up and, lo and behold, she had (Verified PRT Family) and (Jacob's Niece) as tags now. Huh. Well, that's unexpected, especially as she didn't think she had actually identified herself by name on this

account. She poked around in her profile and found that she had used her city-provided email address from school to sign up. Well,

that would probably be enough for the mods. She switched to a non-

school address as she didn't know if her Winslow one would keep

existing, then went and did the same on a couple of other sites.

By the time she had done all of that she had a pressing physical reason to get out of bed, so finally did so. After dealing with that she decided that she might as well get ready for the day before she wandered downstairs. To find her uncle sleeping in the easy chair.

She was aware he was down here, but hadn't given it any thought.

She sighed and left him there, though she did turn the TV off.

Moving into the kitchen she poured herself a bowl of cereal before sitting down at the table to eat it. Her mental list of things to do today grew by one as she realized she needed a good way to carry both phones without people noticing. Given that it was likely a common problem she fired off a search on her Maul phone and got back a list of things that she could order through the PRT with multiple discreet pockets for phones. She even had a credit for five clothing items,

probably intended for this kind of problem, so she added a decent-

looking but basic purse and a new sling bag that looked a lot like the

one she was already using. Some additional browsing netted her a backpack that also had hidden storage she could put a domino mask and some hair ties into, at least.

She took some time to look over other things, but found nothing else that qualified for her credit that interested her. She submitted the order and got a notice that the items would be delivered to her box at the PRT. She would need to find out where that was, but that could probably wait until she was actually there. She then amused herself by poking around the various bits of technology that the PRT had available for those working with them. None of which she could justify buying right now, granted, or in some cases would be allowed to buy, but it was still interesting to look at. Huh, she was cleared for a personal containment foam sprayer backpack if she ponied up fifty grand for it. Containment foam solution not included, of course.

Eventually Danny got up and wandered down, poked Jacob awake,

and wandered into the kitchen. "Morning Taylor," he said, ignoring that she had two phones propped up in front of her. "You might want to rinse your bowl."

"Morning Dad," Taylor replied, absently noticing Jacob head upstairs.

Then looked at the bowl. "Oh, right, I had cereal earlier." She holstered one phone and slipped the other into her sling bag, then took her bowl to the sink.

Danny made himself some coffee, then made Jacob some as well,

before getting to work on his breakfast. "You have any plans for the day?"

"I've been asked to swing by the PRT building," Taylor said. "Not sure what for. Probably not something they want to talk on the phone about, at least?"

"Do you need anything for school next week?"

"I haven't gotten any lists from Arcadia, and I know they don't list it on their website. I did order a new backpack, though, with a clothing allowance from the PRT."

"Why would they give you a clothing allowance?"

"Given most of the things it was valid on, ways to discreetly carry multiple phones and costume pieces."

"That is precisely what it is for," Jacob said as he walked in,

apparently having changed out of the shirt he had drooled on in his sleep. "What did you order?"

"Purse, sling bag, and backpack," Taylor answered. "Didn't see anything else I felt I needed."

"Good on you," Jacob said, grabbing the coffee Danny had made.

He nodded to Danny, and got a nod back. "So, yesterday I fixed your broken step and your doorbell."

"Wasn't the doorbell 'broken' by virtue of 'we unplugged it'?" Taylor asked, curious. "Due to ding-dong ditchers, I think it was?"

"Why yes, it was," Jacob said. "Yet, it wasn't. I plugged it back in,

tested the front and the back buttons, and found that the front button was unusually sensitive. It went off because I blew on it slightly. I replaced it. Probably no ditchers at all. Just the wind."

That led into a wonderful discussion of the story behind the doorbell being unplugged in the first place, coupled with the fact that there had been ditchers. They had caught one, after all.

Eventually they prepared to leave for the day and Jacob offered to go into the PRT building with Taylor, though they would likely split up after they got there. He did have breakfast and help clean up first,

though.

Today Taylor entered the PRT through the front door. For the first time. She even got a visitor's badge and everything for the benefit of those watching them before she and Jacob headed deeper into the building.

Once they were beyond the front lobby, however, Taylor looked at the badge. "So, I am apparently visiting 'whomever I damn well please' for 'whatever they will put up with'?" Technically the first was 'whomever she..' but that was the general idea.

"Congrats," Jacob said. "Now you have two pieces of evidence that the PRT is capable of joking."

"I guess I will add it to my collection, then," Taylor shot back. "Maybe someday I will have a wall of evidence, with the centerpiece being the dedication of my wall."

Jacob just snickered, and waved Taylor off as the hallway split. "You go meet up with Miss Militia, I have to see how flexible my schedule is for next week, and some of that involves a quick face to face with Director Piggot."

Taylor wandered off in the general direction she felt Miss Militia in.

She probably could have used the map app to find a path, but learning the building was a good goal too, right?

Forty minutes later, six dead ends, five corridors that looped back the wrong way, and one door with enough warning labels to possibly make an Endbringer worry she gave up and used the app. Four corridors, six hidden doors, and a stairwell later she was in the correct hallway.

"I wonder why there are so many hidden doors," Taylor mused as she walked down the hallway. "I mean, yea, it would make it harder for someone who broke in to get around, but it is a bit annoying."

She came to an office door marked 'Miss Militia - Protectorate' and knocked.

"Come in," came a voice from inside. Taylor opened the door and entered, finding that it was a fairly basic office with a desk, laptop computer, filing cabinets, a few chairs, and of course Miss Militia was sitting behind the desk. "Good morning Taylor."

"Good morning Miss Militia," Taylor replied. "You wanted to see me?"

"I did, yes," Miss Militia responded, then gestured at Taylor.

"Somewhat surprised you didn't costume up?"

"I'm wondering how far the visitor pass will really get me," Taylor admitted, holding the pass up for Miss Militia to read. She chuckled and gestured for Taylor to sit in one of the chairs.

"Amusingly far, though they are rare to see. Now then, I originally had two things I wanted to talk to you about, but more have come up in the past couple of hours."

"That sounds foreboding."

"Nothing serious, to start with Kid Win told me that you were responsible for him still being here at midnight last night?"

"Er, I was?" Taylor wasn't sure why that would be, honestly. She didn't have to fake the innocent and confused look as a result.

"You apparently revealed his tinker specialty to him. He was all but in a fugue state."

"Oh, sorry?"

"Don't be," Miss Militia waved it off. "But I did want to ensure you were aware of things in case it comes up later. Especially as he asked me to let you know he was making you a gift in thanks. He didn't say what it was, though, and it may have to go through testing before you ever see it."

"Thanks for letting me know. What else did you want to talk about?"

"Do you know why my power refuses to make blunt weapons I can wield?" As a demonstration she held her arm off to the side and a large war hammer appeared. "I mean, I get that they are possibly useful, but if they aren't able to be lifted they won't do me any good."

Taylor got up and walked around to the hammer. She took a look,

then reached out and grabbed the handle. With a little bit of effort she lifted it off of the floor and flipped the head up into the air.

"Seems like a decent size to me?"

"How in the world can you lift that?" Miss Militia asked. "There is nothing in your file that indicates enhanced strength."

"Nobody ever asked how strong I was," Taylor admitted, putting the war hammer down.

"Did you report it in your application? If your power made you stronger you should have told us."

"But my power doesn't make me stronger. That is one of the results of my being the target of a tinker fugue."

Miss Militia visibly flinched at that. "What else resulted from that?"

"Better endurance, enhanced flexibility, improved senses, faster healing, and Bluetooth connectivity."

"Bluetooth... how does that work?"

"Do I look like a tinker? They somehow based it on my earbud or something, then expanded from there."

"Right, sorry. What functions does it provide?"

"Keyboard, mouse, headphones, headset, voice commands, call controls, playback controls, notification api, message api, contact list access, secure remote toggle access, heart rate sensor, temperature sensor." Taylor then tapped her chin for a moment. "Haven't tried getting the last two working, actually."

"You could see if your phone can access them? Either of them should be able to."

"I may look into that later."

"Does anyone else in the PRT know about your tinker fugue incident?"

"My father as an associate, my uncle, Panacea as an associate,

Glenn knows about the strength part, oh and Vicky Dallon as an associate knows about the Bluetooth part. Felicity Smith, I think it was, that I took classes with knows something happened but I didn't give her details. And now you?"

"Right. You know what, until someone who is actually required to document it finds out or it becomes an issue I think I will leave that alone. Let the power testing people take the flak if needed."

"Ok. Shall we see if we can get your snark to play nicer?"

"Please?"

Hello, Miss Militia would like to be able to lift the war hammers and such.

[Determination]

Yes, armor is generally a lot stronger now, but half the goal was shaking up the person inside. Besides, to do any damage she has to be able to swing the hammer.

[Contemplation]

By all means let her summon bigger ones if she has reason, just default to ones she can actually use.

[Consideration]

"Yea, not sure," Taylor said aloud. "It is thinking about it."

"At least you tried," Miss Militia said as she brought something up on the laptop in front of her. "On to the other things that have come up.

Apparently you are owed money for parahuman power background information and for accidental exposure of an infiltrator."

"Er, what? I don't recall exposing an infiltrator."

"I get that one every so often without knowing why either. Usually you happened to walk past the right point at the wrong time for the infiltrator."

"Ok, I guess."

"As a Ward we actually can't give you a monetary payout," Miss Militia continued. "When you get your debit card ten percent of the money will be available on that account, though, on top of your regular payments. The rest we either have to deposit into your trust

fund or we can add it to your PRT online shop credit. I personally recommend going with the shop credit and then using it to kit yourself out with a laptop."

"Why not? My desktop at home sucks anyway."

"I'll arrange for it then, you should get an email letting you know when the credit has posted."

"Anything else?"

"Nope, you have anything to ask?"

"Er, don't suppose you know where to find out what supplies I'll need for Arcadia next week?"

Miss Militia blinked. That was outside of everything she expected.

"Well, unless things have changed recently you should be provided with books, and I believe they now require that you use their calculators in classes that allow them. So just notebooks and such?"

"That... makes a lot of sense, actually. Do you know if they have issues with laptops?"

"Not that I know of."

"Ok then, thanks."

"You're welcome. Have a nice day."

"You too." Taylor waved as she left. Well, she had notebooks and writing materials, so that was ok. She also had nothing left to do. Oh,

wait, she had a box to find.

Taylor had tried various ways to find her apparent box that her clothing items would be delivered to, but her phone was of no help beyond at one point telling her they had already been delivered. She wandered a bit, ended up getting lunch in the cafeteria, wandered

some more, and eventually went to the Wards common room.

Nobody else was there, so she checked what kinds of snacks were in the kitchen, grabbed a can of soda, and decided to see if there were any hidden little secret spots she could find in her assigned room.

Upon approaching her room she noticed that there was a box in the wall next to the door. Labeled 'incoming mail'. With a backpack,

purse, and sling bag in it, once she opened it to look inside. Yea, she was not describing the amount of time she spent on that search. To anyone. Ever.

Taylor switched out her sling bag so that she could easily have both phones in the one bag, then took her soda and sat down on the couch in the common area. Searching for secret hidey-holes could wait until she wasn't embarrassed about the obvious location of her mailbox. Instead she poked around the PRT store, looking at the laptops again. She then realized that, for the most part, she didn't need a built-in keyboard, so she switched to looking at tablets.

An hour later she had narrowed things down to three options,

depending on how much money she had available to spend. All three included a basic keyboard that she would need to use at times for sake of appearance. She put her phone away and got a new soda when she felt a few of her fellow Wards approaching, then sprawled back out on one of the couches.

A couple minutes later Dennis and Missy came in. Chris rushed in past them and headed straight for his room/lab, and Carlos slipped in before the door shut. Dennis was the first one to notice Taylor.

"Oh, hi Taylor," he said, wandering over. "Not in costume?"

"I'm a visitor today," Taylor said, grinning. Her visitor badge was, in fact, plainly visible once Dennis came around the couch. "Why would a mere visitor be running around in costume?"

"I do hope you are visiting who you are supposed to be," Carlos said,

coming over. "Wouldn't want the innocent visitor to get in trouble for being out of bounds, right?"

Taylor giggled and held her visitor's badge up for them to read.

Carlos, in shock, actually pulled his phone out and scanned the thing, getting back what Taylor recognized as the default 'valid' tone for checking security clearances.

"How in the world did you get them to give you that?" Dennis asked,

obviously in awe. "And how long have you been running around with it?"

"I walked into the lobby with my uncle this morning," Taylor said,

grinning. "Didn't ask them for anything like it, they just handed it to me."

"That is bullshit," Dennis said. "Awesome but bullshit."

Missy had gone straight for a soda and ended up dropping onto the couch next to Taylor. "So, you were able to get in through the front door in a way nobody will worry about. I had to swing through the gift shop, dodge a group of tourists, and fake being injured so they would 'take me out back to check me over'. Pain in the ass."

"You should really go to the gym instead," Taylor said. "Much, much nicer. Though I have heard good things about the ice cream parlor."

Which was on the other side of the PRT from the gym and had an outside door leading to a tunnel, according to the map. "I might try there the next time I come in."

"Yea yea," Dennis said. "The joke's getting old. Chris and I lucked out and grabbed a ride with a returning PRT squad. Carlos, er, I don't know?"

"I used my Wards leader code to open the side door today," Carlos admitted. "Don't normally, but I need to use it every so often to remember the twenty digits, and as Missy found out there was a

crowd today. At any rate, Dennis, costume up, we've got a patrol today."

Dennis grumbled but headed off to get into costume, followed by Carlos. Twenty minutes later they had left on patrol. Apparently despite what people thought the console was normally run by a PRT officer during the week, the Wards got practice running it on weekends.

"So, you seem to have an unusually hard time getting in without being spotted," Taylor said to Missy, taking a sip of her soda. "Why is that?"

"My costume doesn't hide enough," Missy replied. "So people know just enough about what I look like to make it difficult. I imagine you might have a similar problem."

"Nah, I'm all set," Taylor said, grinning. "But, would you like to get one over on the boys?"

"Hell yea, but how?"

"Simple, tomorrow we arrange to meet and I bring you in the easy way. How about we meet at the ice cream parlor a couple blocks over?"

They spent the next hour or so fleshing those plans out, then Taylor got a message from her uncle and made her way towards the lobby.

She wouldn't be showing Missy everything tomorrow, but she suspected Missy would start asking the right questions.

Just to be prepared, she made sure she had a couple of the pamphlets with her.

When they got back home Taylor ended up making dinner, mainly because at some point Jacob had injured his left foot and was thus

taking it easy. She wasn't sure how he did that, and he wasn't telling.

Nor was his snark telling, for that matter, she had tried asking it.

She explained the basics of her plan with Missy while she worked.

She very pointedly did not say anything about her hunt for her mailbox.

"So you are going to bring her in, but use your watch to trigger things so she can't see how," Jacob said, thinking. "Clever, she won't have enough information until she asks the right questions."

"I even have a couple of the pamphlets," Taylor admitted. "I stuck a note inside one of them with the access keys class information on it as well. I figure we can drive the others nuts, they already think I'm just joking."

"Want to make it even worse for them?"

"And how would I do that?"

"Simple. You are known, if the thread I am looking at on PHO is anything to go by, to have been in the PRT building today. As far as I know your NDAs don't prohibit revealing information about yourself.

So simply state that you were hoping to get to meet the new Ward today, but didn't run into them, but heard they were going to be stopping in after school lets out tomorrow."

"Causing everyone wanting a glimpse of the new Ward to flood the area around the PRT building. I like it, but I should probably run that past someone else first."

Taylor gave it some thought, then sent text messages to both Miss Militia and Glenn Chambers about the idea. Miss Militia deferred to Glenn, but thanked Taylor for the heads up. Glenn loved the idea,

because they were having issues with her reveal. He didn't go into details.

She waited until her father had come home and given her plans for the following day a thumbs-up. Once he did she hopped onto PHO and made a single post to the thread describing a fictional boring day stuck waiting for her uncle in his temporary office, followed by not getting a chance to meet the new Ward, or even the existing ones because she missed Aegis and Clockblocker before they left for their patrol. And, of course, she complained that she wasn't going to be able to visit tomorrow when the new Ward was supposed to visit after school.

Half an hour later PHO had exploded with questions directed her way, all of which she ignored.

Taylor lay in bed that evening placing her tablet order. She had ended up with around two and a quarter thousand available in credit,

most of that from the whole revelation of communication bits being harder to turn off in snarks. That was enough to get the mid-range tablet with all the upgrades the PRT was able to cram into it and a folio case with a built-in keyboard.

The tinkertech sourced upgrades ate most of that, actually. Without them the thing was only a four hundred dollar tablet, and would have been within the base 'accidentally exposed infiltrator' funds.

Missy had texted her earlier, apparently having seen through her post on PHO. She was looking forward to finding out what the boys had to do to get in. Missy claimed that Dean, Chris, and Carlos in particular had to go in. Dean and Chris because of a patrol, Carlos she wasn't sure about. Dennis might just not bother trying.

And, of course, she had added the visitor badge, now expired, to the folder containing the dedication certificate. Because even if she never did have enough to fill a wall with they were still proof that the PRT has a sense of humor.

James Tagg scowled at his inbox as he took a sip of his morning coffee, no humor to be found. He was sick and tired of dealing with parahumans who never looked anything up for themselves, even when pretty much told to. No filling out of the relevant forms, and thus no official requests, just complaining that nobody ever tells them things. He wasn't even a director, merely a squad leader, and he got too many messages along those lines, most of the time directly to his face and inbox, other times indirectly to his squad. Who sent them to him. Along with their own complaints that the parahumans knew nothing and had no desire to follow procedures.

He was flagging messages for processing through a form letter when he noticed a break in the pattern. Huh, someone flagged a document as having a mistake. Yet another thing to worry about, someone probably found a single mis-spelled word or an extra space or something. Yes, he had enhanced clearance for a number of reasons, but why did he sign up to review these things when the flunkies couldn't? He sighed and opened that message anyway, it was a distraction from the whiners and he can't really complain about the person honestly trying to improve the documentation, no matter how small the issue. They didn't know who would get the report, after all, they just did the right thing to report the problem,

whatever it is.

Reading through the report he stopped and blinked. That can't be right, can it? He opened the page in question on the PRT backend and checked over the flags on it. Holy crap, the report was right. A document that every parahuman in the Protectorate and Wards should have access to was secured at a level above and beyond their usual access levels. He filed a change request, as he couldn't fix it directly, but it made him wonder.

By that afternoon he was scowling, but for a change he wasn't blaming the parahumans. No wonder they constantly whined. Some idiot trying to secure technical details from prying eyes had inadvertently locked down the instructions and access request forms for dozens of things. Instructions for containment foam usage

blocked because the final mixing details had been locked down.

Secure Bluetooth handshake details linked to the usage manuals of the secure earbuds and a dozen other things, so of course the manuals were all locked. He had even found that the near-field reader instructions, which amounted to 'open the right app on your phone and hold it to the reader' with a couple of screenshots and a photo that fit on one page and was regularly handed out as an informational sheet, had been locked down when someone had locked down the page describing how the added NFC security handshake worked and all pages it linked to.

Unfortunately, he now likely had to apologize to a number of people,

most of them parahumans. Because they had a reason to whine that nobody told them anything if all the basic instructions were locked down and everyone assumed they were just too lazy to look. Damnit.

On the bright side, once all of this was resolved he would likely stop getting constant whining.

On second thought, no, he would still get constant whining. But hopefully it would be about something else for a change.

Last edited: Jun 5, 2018

Chapter 12 Thursday morning Taylor woke up to find a selection of messages waiting for her. From both phones. On the Maul side she had an order confirmation for her tablet, good to know. She also had an alert that rumors of a new Ward in Brockton Bay had started to circulate.

No shit, really, never would have guessed. Wonder how that happened.

Shifting to her personal phone she found a good morning message from her father. Huh? Oh, it is a little past nine and he had already left. She replied to that one with a good morning of her own. Next up was a message from Jacob that he had gone shopping and would be back that evening. Huh, he was out of her range, wasn't he? And finally a message from Amy, basically asking Taylor to reveal her parahuman status to Vicky.

Taylor gave that some thought, and decided that she needed more time to think about it. It wasn't like Amy was in a position to get her reply anyway, right? So she got out of bed and ready for the day,

grabbed her new sling bag, and headed downstairs. She poured herself a bowl of cereal and grabbed her personal phone to poke around on PHO while she ate.

Checking the thread about her visit to the PRT building she found it had been split into three threads. The first was about her visit and what her uncle had been up to. The second was speculation on the new Ward. The third was dedicated to an in-depth analysis of the PRT security based on her one post and what people saw from the lobby? Whatever.

Checking over the 'new Ward' thread she found that they... basically had no clue. The existing Wards ENE had all chimed in already with various comments that, generally, stated that they were unaware of any hero joining the team. Sneaky, that. This, of course, meant that Jacob had the inside scoop and, as such, so did Taylor. Making a

quick decision Taylor threw up a new post, wishing that the new Ward had a nice day, and that if she was willing Taylor would like an autographed picture sometime.

Moving on she found that Lung had apparently been out drinking last night and the bar fight that followed ended up with two people hospitalized. For hitting each other with chairs. How is it that Lung doesn't hurt more people during these things? She also found that Aegis and Clockblocker had ended up getting a kitten out of a tree for a little boy. Meh, why not? Heroes did that kind of thing.

She found nothing else that interested her this morning. Finishing up her cereal she cleaned up the bowl and spoon she had used, then decided to tackle the Vicky problem. First up, she supposed, was to check Vicky's status with the PRT. She knew Vicky was associated with them, all of New Wave were, but not much else. A couple of quick searches and she had the right file open. Now then, checking her clearances and NDAs showed that she was cleared to know all the Wards identities and powers, but that permission was needed from each Ward for the reveal.

So, she wouldn't get in trouble for Vicky knowing that she was a parahuman. That was a good thing. And really, making Dean and Amy have to keep Taylor's identity secret was probably a bit much.

On the other hand, when? Amy was busy this weekend, and she didn't want to add that drama to her first week at Arcadia anyway.

Maybe the following weekend? She decided that could work and replied to Amy's message to that effect. That way she had a week of Arcadia down at least before adding potential extra Vicky drama to the mix.

Having decided that, Taylor headed upstairs to take inventory of her school supplies. She collected the pile of books, workbooks, and notebooks from her Arcadia study box, then added her surviving Winslow notebooks and a pile of writing utensils. She wasn't actually sure what her schedule would be come Monday, so she carefully packed her new backpack with, well, everything. It barely fit, but that

was ok. She was certain she would get a nice, new, clean locker come Monday.

After she had taken a couple of deep breaths, Taylor put the backpack down next to her desk and went downstairs for a glass of water. She found that the mail had been delivered while she was upstairs, so she collected it on her way by. Flipping through she found that most of it was addressed to her father, and the rest was addressed to the 'Current Resident'. Well, except for one postcard addressed to 'Current President'.

The mail went on the kitchen table while she got her glass of water.

She had no real plans before she was going to meet with Missy, and nobody else was around. Maybe she should make her way across town on foot, get some exercise and all? Couldn't be worse than sitting around goofing off online.

Decision made, she gathered everything together, threw on a jacket,

and headed out.

It had taken her ten minutes to decide she needed some music, and found a radio function in her phones. She decided her personal phone had better battery life, so she was using that one to listen.

The best part was nobody could tell she was listening.

She had actually made her way down to the boardwalk, grabbed lunch there, and then made her way back towards the PRT building.

As she was walking, not running or even jogging, it took her some time. Not enough time for it to be time to meet Missy, though. So she wasted some time poking around the blocks around the PRT building, comparing to the map app. There were three clandestine entrances. The gym she had already used, the ice cream parlor she was meeting Missy at, and a parking garage. The latter was what she chose to investigate for now, as the instructions for passing through to the PRT building weren't clear.

Wandering into the parking garage she looked for an obvious place for the tunnel entrance, and she wasn't finding anything. No mysterious doors, no keypads, no graffiti, no stickers anywhere.

Nothing. This was apparently a really discreet entrance. Bored, and with around an hour to go before she was to meet Missy, she decided to take things differently and look for things out of place.

It took her thirty minutes, but she finally found something that looked wrong. On the lower level the tire marks on the floor continued right up to and appeared to go through a wall. If that was the entrance then this was a vehicle entrance, not a pedestrian entrance, which she knew from the access keys class would need a vehicle transponder to open. She didn't have one, so she wasn't going to be getting in unless someone happened to drive through. Instead she made a quick note that there was evidence of oddness on the entrance and headed towards the ice cream parlor.

On her way she noticed that there were significant crowds gathering around the PRT building. Oh boy were the boys going to have trouble getting in.

Missy found Taylor waiting for her at the ice cream parlor. "Hello Taylor, how are you today?"

"I'm alright," Taylor responded, smirking. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. Did you see the crowd over by the PRT building?"

"Yep. So glad I have no reason to go through there this afternoon.

Come on, let's grab some ice cream."

Missy wasn't going to complain about ice cream, it was actually a fairly nice day today. The two grabbed a cone each, and then Taylor directed Missy to head down the alley that could be used to get to the next street over.

"Hold up here," Taylor said as they were reaching the corner of the building. All Missy saw was one of those doors places had in the back that could only be opened from the inside. Taylor, however, was looking around? Then she turned and waved her left hand next to the door.

And the door popped open.

"Come on in," Taylor said, waving Missy over. Missy shook herself and followed Taylor in, finding that there was a small landing and then stairs going down. What the hell?

"Where are we going?" Missy asked.

"The PRT building, this is one of the discreet entrances. You can also use the gym a few blocks over on the other side of the PRT building."

"You weren't actually joking about the gym. Huh."

"And just think, now you can look smug as we talk about how nice and easy it was to get in after we got ice cream."

They focused on eating their ice creams as they meandered down the tunnel and into the PRT building proper. From there it was trivial to make their way into the Wards area where, to neither of their surprise, nobody else had arrived. They finished off the last of their ice cream cones and discarded the little paper wrappers that had been wrapped around the cones, then sat down on one of the couches.

"So Taylor," Missy said, looking at Taylor expectantly. "I have my console class in a bit, but how would I learn to use that entrance?"

"Well, I am sure you know how you have the existing classes for getting in without access keys," Taylor responded. "Given that I was told they were mandatory and had to take them pretty much right away."

"Yea?"

"Did you ever check for classes on how to get in with access keys?"

Missy stared at Taylor for a moment, then slumped down. "I'm a moron. No, we are all morons."

"Nah," Taylor said as she grabbed the prepared pamphlet from her bag. "Apparently it is a running joke on all Wards to avoid mentioning that directly, meant to inspire them to actually ask questions. I got lucky and had the joke bypassed by my uncle before I even signed up. And you asked at least one right question, so I can give you this."

Taylor handed Missy the pamphlet. "Take a quick look at it, but I suggest hiding it from the boys for now."

Missy read through the entire pamphlet in a few minutes, groaning a couple of times, then looked up the class Taylor had included on a note inside. She signed up for it immediately, followed by running a pile of searches for other information.

"Did you know there is a form for requesting higher clearance,

specifically for the security upgrades in things like our phones?"

Missy asked. "In fact, it looks like it was just unlocked earlier today.

Maybe they were doing work on it."

"I found that yesterday, but I have no reason to use it," Taylor said.

"But I do know that if you reach SL3 on your phone you get 'broadcast all' access."

"If this is right I am eligible for the clearance upgrade to be assigned SL4 already," Missy said as she filled out the electronic form. "Heh, I wonder how the others will react if I get an upgraded phone?"

Missy had eventually hid the pamphlet in her room and got changed into her costume. Taylor grabbed the leather jacket, hair ties, and visor from her room, but just put them on the end of the couch next to her instead of costuming up.

Just over an hour after Taylor and Missy had arrived the rest of the Wards showed up. The group of them came in grumbling to find Taylor and Missy sitting there playing a video game.

"How nice of you boys to show up," Taylor said. She did not turn around. "What kept you?"

"We have been here for at least an hour," Missy added after a quick glance at the clock. "Taylor was right, it was much easier coming in by way of the ice cream parlor, and we could grab ice cream in the process. I think I'm going to have to try coming in by way of the gym soon too."

"So, I would call bullshit," Dennis finally said. "But we had to get picked up by a van and brought around through the vehicle entrance.

Yet, despite being told that nobody else had been picked up, you two are here. Even I know not to refute evidence like that."

"I will call bullshit for you then," Dean chimed in. "Because, well, they are here. Supposedly having gotten into the building easily, despite the crowd, because they got ice cream. And they are way too smug about it."

"So, I don't suppose you are going to volunteer anything?" Carlos asked. The snickering he got was the only answer he needed. "Yea,

didn't think so."

"I would consider complaining more," Chris said, turning away from the girls and heading to get changed. "But we are going to be late to start our patrol."

"Crap," Dean muttered, heading to get costumed up himself. "Yea,

lets get going."

"It's about time for my console class," Missy said after checking her phone. Taylor waved her off so she placed the controller down by the console and headed for the door. "See you all later."

Carlos and Dennis both sat down on the other couch and looked at Taylor as she cleaned up the game console. Finally she finished and collected her costume pieces.

"Where are you going?" Carlos asked.

"I was going to put these away and make my way home," Taylor said. "Unless there is something else I need to be here for today?"

"Technically, no, I don't think so," Carlos admitted after a moment.

"We don't have an actual sighting of you planned, nor are you due on patrol. Sometime this weekend you need to get pictures taken,

and I have scheduled a planning session for figuring out how to get you started actually working with us Saturday afternoon. You should find all that on your Maul calendar."

"I'll make note of it, thanks," Taylor said, turning towards the hallway their rooms were in. "Barring an unexpected reason for me to be here tomorrow I will likely see you Saturday."

Taylor put her costume pieces away, gathered her things, and waved to Carlos and Dennis on her way out.

"So, you have any clue?" Carlos asked.

"Not a one," Dennis answered. "You want to try and follow her?"

"She would know the instant we tried and lead us on a wild goose chase," Carlos admitted. "So no."

"Maybe Missy will tell us later?" Dennis offered, almost pleading.

"I suspect she just might," Carlos admitted. Dennis looked hopeful.

"Much, much later." Nevermind on the hopeful. "And good luck on following her too."

Dennis gave Carlos a look, then sighed and collapsed back onto the couch.

Taylor had slipped back out via the ice cream parlor and opted to take the bus home instead of walking the whole way. As such she beat her father home. But not, apparently, Jacob.

"Hi," Taylor said, looking at her uncle. "You appear to be unusually smug right now. Should I be worried?"

"Maybe?" Jacob replied, grinning. "All I did was do some shopping?"

"And that took most of the day, and you are unlikely to have bought a lot for yourself given that you are technically on vacation. Also, I know you spent some time at the PRT building."

"I work for the PRT, why wouldn't I visit the PRT building?"

Taylor gave up and headed upstairs. Given that she was getting a nice new tablet computer in the near future she figured she should probably do something about clearing out her older desktop. Not that she was using it much anymore, the phones were easier to work with despite the small screens.

She took an hour to collect her various things onto a combination of a couple of USB sticks she had floating around and directly copying things onto her personal phone. It had more storage anyway. After making sure everything she would need or care about was removed she pulled out the restore media she had and wiped the entire thing back to factory, then disconnected it to drag it downstairs.

Jacob didn't comment as she dropped first the tower unit, then the monitor, and finally the various odds and ends like the keyboard,

mouse, external dial-up modem, and various cables in the hall.

Whether they left the house or went down into the basement was yet to be determined.

Back upstairs she re-arranged her desk now that there was no longer a bulky CRT monitor on it. Or a computer tower next to it, for that matter, which she took advantage of to adjust the desk's position

a bit. Not needing the keyboard and mouse helped too, but she had generally dropped those on top of the computer when she wasn't using it.

Having arranged everything to her satisfaction she headed back downstairs to find Jacob preparing dinner. Having little better to do she dropped onto the couch and pulled out her phone to poke around the net.

Over an hour later she had ended up reading a digital copy of a book. To prove if a statement someone else had made was accurate.

If it was it might be hilarious to use some day, if not she at least wouldn't be curious anymore. She believed she found what they were referring to a little over a hundred pages in, and finding it mildly amusing herself she made note of it and considered the case closed.

She might look for other instances later, though.

Her father had come home while she was reading, and dinner was nearly ready, so she decided it was a good time to stop and wander into the kitchen. Oh, hey, it was exactly time to eat, so she poured herself a drink and sat down at the table.

"Finally done staring at your phone?" Danny asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I was actually reading a book," Taylor admitted. "Normally I would do so with an actual book, granted, but I found what I was looking for. I think I can even classify it as research for school."

"Right, I can actually see you doing that," Danny admitted. "So, why is your computer in the hall?"

"Oh, I had them put the money from the 'powers information bounty'

and from apparently accidentally exposing an infiltrator into store credit," Taylor explained. "And then used that to order a new tablet computer."

"Huh, ok," Danny said. "I may have to see if anyone at work wants an older computer."

"Two older computers," Jacob piped up. "Or I suppose two people wanting older computers?"

"Taylor was not enough of a computer nut to have two old computers in her room," Danny retorted.

"Very true, but neither are you," Jacob replied. "Or at least you weren't the last time I checked? Has that changed?"

"What are you talking about?" Danny asked, obviously confused.

"I suspect he bought you a new desktop computer on his shopping trip today," Taylor volunteered. "Given that he already gave us cell phones I wonder what his angle is, though."

"The phones are a bribe to keep you two in touch," Jacob said. "The computer is a late christmas present, but it doesn't come with internet service so you still have to provide that."

"Ok, is this a present for the two of us to share or are you still going to spring something on Taylor?" Danny asked. "Because that sounds like it was expensive."

"I will admit that I have significantly reduced my checking account over the past couple of weeks," Jacob admitted. "But then again, I keep most of my money in my savings account so that probably doesn't count. So yes, I have something to spring on Taylor too. After dinner."

Taylor wasn't sure what had to wait until after dinner, but didn't think she would get any information out of Jacob until then. So she ate,

and then ended up helping clean up. Only after all of that was done,

likely to intentionally delay the reveal, did Jacob lead them to the garage. Next to the door were a couple of boxes that were quite

obviously a new computer and monitor. And in the more open area was what appeared to be a moped.

"I figured it would be easier on Taylor if she didn't have to constantly take the bus," Jacob said, gesturing at the moped. "Of course, she still can, as that may be more comfortable than driving around in the rain or snow. But this way she would have other options."

Taylor walked over to the moped and circled it. Then stopped and,

more carefully, circled it again. "How do I charge it, or put gas in it?

Whichever it takes."

"I do not pretend to understand how, but the tinkertech generator in the thing should be good for twenty years," Jacob said. "Beyond that it also has a vehicle transponder as of sometime this morning. Put your phone on the horn button in the middle of the handlebars and your access key will activate the transponder. Actually, the entire thing should be locked down to basically the three of us right now as a security feature, so you need your phone to even start it."

Taylor found that there was a NFC symbol next to the starter button and figured that was part of what Jacob was referring to. She reached out with her left hand, poked her mental relay button, and pushed the start button on the moped. And it started, the various indicators coming on.

"Or you can apparently bypass that entirely by merely pushing the button," Jacob said, staring at Taylor. "How did you do that?"

"NFC relay watch?" Taylor answered, holding her left hand up with the watch facing Jacob. "Because why would I pull a phone out when I don't have to."

"Huh, those are a lot more useful than I thought they would be,"

Jacob admitted. "Why doesn't everyone run around with them?"

"If you don't have the right brain mods you need to pull your phone out and hit the right button to use it at all."

"That would do it, someday we should see if anyone can make sense of what you three pulled off."

Jacob then spent the next hour covering a number of topics. He started with safety rules, including helping her adjust her new helmet properly, then covered the legal aspect. So long as she didn't get it modified to exceed a thirty mile per hour capability it would technically be considered a bicycle, but Brockton Bay didn't allow motorized bicycles onto unpaved bike paths. This being Brockton Bay, that was all of them. He then had her take a couple of trips around the block to ensure she had the controls down. He finished up with showing her how to register the moped's GPS locator with her phones so that she could track down where it was if it was lost or stolen for some reason.

As Taylor headed upstairs to go to bed Jacob let her know that she had plans for tomorrow. He wasn't taking no for an answer,

apparently. He also wasn't going to explain what the plans were, but she did set her alarm as he asked. She then got ready for bed but,

not being quite ready to sleep yet, took a quick look at PHO.

Apparently the furor over the "new Ward" had caused a traffic jam and had nearly gotten to riot-level when it became increasingly obvious that the Ward wasn't going in or coming out. Dean and Chris had gotten waylaid from their patrol for a good half an hour, but had basically answered everyone with a repeat of earlier statements.

That is, they were unaware of any new heroes joining the team. She was starting to love that answer.

Eventually everyone had dispersed, bummed that they had no actual new information. Current speculation was that a new Ward for a different region was simply passing through Brockton Bay for some reason today and that was who Taylor had been hoping to meet. Of course the local Wards wouldn't need to be kept in the loop for that,

which is why they had no answers to give.

Moving on, the lizard-cape thread had come to the conclusion that Newter counted, but that one Case 53 was not enough. Also, they seemed to want dinosaur-lizards? She wasn't quite sure, but "hero lizards" were needed at a minimum, so they seemed to believe. That had spawned a thread on what hero lizards would need to coexist with so they had something to fight.

Huh, why did she keep checking on the lizard-cape thread anyway?

She didn't really care.

Moving on again, she found a discussion on the merits of various kinds of hammers, which kept her intrigued until she started yawning. Most of the hammers wouldn't be useful to her day to day,

but they might be fun to play with. She saved the thread, took care of the final couple of things before bed, and climbed under the covers.

Tomorrow would be another day, and since she had no idea what her uncle had planned she figured getting enough sleep was going to be important.

Last edited: Feb 20, 2019

Chapter 13 Friday morning Taylor's alarm woke her. Why did today require starting at six? She crawled out of bed and got ready for the day, not that she really knew what the day was going to bring. Still, she prepared her sling bag, slipped both phones into it, and headed downstairs.

She found that her uncle was waiting for her. With donuts, at least?

He quickly dragged her out to his rental, and they were off. She consumed two donuts on the way, and then found that they had stopped near the ice cream parlor near the PRT building.

"You need to go change into your costume," Jacob said, gesturing in the general direction of the ice cream parlor itself. "Hurry up."

Taylor grumbled but made her way to the back of the ice cream parlor, down into the tunnel, and eventually to the Wards common area. She slipped into her room and put her costume on,

remembering to move her phones from her sling bag to the utility belt. She left the sling bag itself there but dropped a can of soda into another pocket of her utility belt before heading back to the ice cream parlor. From there she had to make her way over to where Jacob had moved the car in the meantime.

She slipped the wok and entrenching tools off of her back to not damage the seat as she got into the car, and then they were off. She still didn't know to where.

An hour later they had made it a couple of towns over and had pulled into a work site. Specifically, it looked like they were tearing a building down.

"Why are we here?" Taylor finally asked.

"To get you confirmed as a cape on PHO the fun way," Jacob replied.

"Instead of the boring way wherein the PRT verifies you."

"And how are we doing that?" Taylor asked, curious.

"For starters, I checked, and somehow nobody has registered 'Maul',

so get your phone out and register already."

Taylor did so, indicating that she was a cape to get the (Unverified Cape) tag. "Ok, I have an account, now what?"

Jacob handed her a small camera with a head-mount harness as well as a safety harness and grinned. "Now we see about having you demolish a building." He held up a second, larger camera. "On film.

As a 'PRT approved parahuman therapy activity'."

"Somehow I don't think I will be able to take the whole building down by myself."

"Well, not by yourself, you will have some non-parahuman assistance."

"Who?"

"The crane operator, of course."

An hour later Taylor found herself safety-strapped to a cable,

somewhat kneeling on a large wrecking ball. The safety talks, tying and retying the harness, how to approach everything? Worth it.

Because she was having the time of her life as the crane operator swung the wrecking ball in the general direction of the building,

Taylor pushing the wrecking ball's 'force' out in a line and doing her best to aim it for maximum destruction with each pass. The fact it was like dozens of wrecking balls were striking all at once in a perfectly synchronized line on each pass helped ramp up the damage.

It only took nine passes for Taylor to get the final perfect hit and cause the entire building to do a combined falling over and collapsing in on itself. She whooped at this, and then had to wait for the crane operator to lower the wrecking ball down to the ground so she could get off. She seemed to have a smile permanently affixed to her face, not even being bored while waiting to be able to get off the wrecking ball was stopping that.

By the time she was down Jacob had hooked the camera he had been using up to a laptop and downloaded the footage. He silently held his hand out and Taylor dropped the head camera she had been wearing into it. Jacob made quick work of downloading that footage as well. Twenty minutes later they had three video clips and a number of stills.

The first clip was the head camera footage, which was occasionally very boring. The second was Jacob's footage, which was also occasionally very boring. The third was an obviously amateur pass at editing the two together, switching between the not-boring parts of each. The stills were taken of interesting parts of the whole operation, including several of Taylor on the wrecking ball that were obviously not in the clips themselves.

Jacob downloaded all the clips and stills to Taylor's 'Maul' phone and showed her how to upload them such that the moderators on PHO would be happy to use them as evidence that she was a cape, then had her send them on. She would make the videos publically visible afterwards, and one of the stills not in the video footage was sent directly through the contact form as added proof that she wasn't just taking advantage of someone else's upload.

They thanked the crane operator for his time and the experience,

and he thanked them for making the entire thing much easier, faster,

and safer. After some shaking of hands Jacob and Taylor got into the car.

"That was incredibly awesome," Taylor finally said. "Too bad it won't be able to happen often."

"Wait until you can let the masses watch the clips," Jacob offered as he pulled onto the road. "I bet a thread on PHO for how you got verified would explode."

Taylor grinned some more. Today was shaping up to be a good day to be a cape.

By the time they made it back to Brockton Bay Taylor's 'Maul'

account had been tagged (Verified Cape). She proceeded to update her account, cropping one of the 'kneeling on the wrecking ball' stills to use as her photo, and then flipped the videos to 'public'. This was followed by making a new thread. "How Maul Got Verified" ended up with four still photos and three video links. The description was minimal, stating mainly that she thought the videos said enough on their own.

It also had a response within minutes from Jacob's verified account to reassure everyone that the activity was PRT-approved. And that he had been observing by holding the ground camera. This was easily proven by the fact that the head camera footage caught sight of him a number of times and one of the stills showed him quite clearly.

"So what are we going to be doing now?" Taylor asked as they sat in a parking lot on the outskirts of town. "Since getting verified the 'fun way' has been completed and it isn't even lunchtime yet?"

"Originally I hadn't planned on anything, but now I am thinking we could have some other fun," Jacob replied. "In particular, if I understand some of the things Amy and Riley reported correctly,

should we get you good and hungry you might be able to pull off eating a challenger. Which should be funny, given that you look nothing like you should be able to handle one, even in costume."

"And how exactly do you plan on me getting that hungry?"

"By putting your enhanced strength to some use helping to wrestle some currently awkwardly positioned dumpsters back into position where they can't quite get the proper equipment into the alleyways."

"And you know about this how?"

"I checked the local PRT board and saw the request for parahuman assistance when I was done responding to your new thread. If it works you get good press. If it fails you tried and probably still get good press. The press might be better if you fail, actually, because trying and failing when you don't have the right power for the job can look even better than accomplishing something easily."

"You know what? Why not. Might have to visit Amy afterwards to clean my arteries, though."

Course of action decided they headed for the boardwalk.

"How in the world did that happen?" Taylor asked as she looked at the dumpsters. There were two of them in the back alley, and she could see where they normally sat such that you would need to approach from either end to get at them with a truck, and that would still require careful work. But they had been spun significantly from their original positions and were now blocking the entire alley,

including sticking into at least one door in the buildings.

Might be two doors, she would have to pop over to the other side to see if there was another door involved. Or maybe just jump on top of the things?

"We believe it was a minor cape battle," one shopkeeper answered.

"And they slammed against the dumpsters, causing them to slide against each other. We just can't seem to get them to move the right way when we pull on them." He gestured at one of the two smaller forklifts they had gotten into the alley, the other being at the other end and thus on the other side of the dumpsters. They had explained that larger forklifts wouldn't be able to do much more than the

smaller ones, they didn't want to cut the dumpsters unless it was necessary, and the angle the dumpsters were at made it impossible for the garbage or transport trucks to move them. Which left parahuman assistance or a crane right now.

"Well, I can climb up and see if I can spot what is going on in the middle. Maybe it just needs a poke in the right spot?"

Taylor suited actions to words and easily jumped up onto the dumpsters, though her landing needed some work. She then peered down between them.

"It looks like they have locked onto each other back here where some bits of metal seem to be sticking out?" Taylor called after having to use a phone as a flashlight to be certain of what she was seeing. "Why would they have those anyway?"

"I think it is supposed to be keeping them from being flat up against the wall," the shopkeeper answered. "So that the lids open properly and a couple of other things."

"Well, do you have anything I can use as a pry bar to try and dislodge them from each other? And you may have to push the dumpsters towards each other so we can get them free of each other before we pull them apart again."

It took almost two hours of maneuvering, but eventually they got the two dumpsters apart. Taylor had to use a long pipe as a pry bar to get the two to separate while they were pushed together a little by the forklifts, and then the same pipe had to be used to keep them from locking back together as they were pulled apart.

Though she didn't think she was strong enough to do so alone,

somehow the pipe was now severely bent. But the dumpsters were no longer jammed in the alley.

"Thank you Maul," one of the two shopkeepers said, shaking her hand. "Normally it takes a few days to get assistance like this."

"No problem," Taylor said. Then blushed a little as her stomach growled. "But I think it is about time I go get something to eat?"

"Heh, so it seems," the other shopkeeper chimed in. "Do you need any lunch money, so to speak?"

"I don't think so," Taylor responded. "I am thinking about eating a challenger."

The two shopkeepers looked at each other, then at Taylor. "Well,

good luck with that, kid," one of them said as the other clapped her on the shoulder. "We'll have to check the wall later to see if you pull it off."

Taylor waved goodbye to the two shopkeepers, and then to the forklift driver that was slowly working on getting back out of the alley,

before heading out to the boardwalk proper. It wasn't long before she made her way to where her uncle was waiting.

"Finally got them sorted?" Jacob said as Taylor approached.

"Yep, but now I'm hungry," Taylor replied, grinning at the thought of them having discussed this conversation in advance. She then lost a little of the grin as her stomach growled again. "I think I would like to try that 'challenger' you told me about."

"Well then, I guess we should visit Fugly's." And they were off.

The two of them had entered Fugly's, drawing a small crowd with them. Taylor walked up to the counter and ordered a challenger.

Jacob indicated he would pay if Taylor failed, so they set her up at the challenger's table.

Taylor was mostly content to wait, looking for all intents and purposes like she was simply very patient. In reality she was playing tetris on her personal phone thanks to the heads-up display in her

visor. Having direct access to the controls in her brain helped her performance in the game significantly.

Finally her plate was brought out. One challenger burger, a basket of fries, and a root beer. Taylor finished her current round of tetris, then picked up the fork and knife provided. She couldn't bite into the burger properly if she wanted to anyway.

Forty minutes later Taylor finished the last of her second refill of soda, followed by a small burp. Her plate was clear, the fry basket was empty, and she felt that she was pleasantly near-full.

"Any chance I can get a milkshake to go?" Taylor asked.

Ten minutes later her picture had been taken, she had her milkshake, and Jacob was visibly holding back laughter. The fact she finished the milkshake in public, someone even checking that the cup was empty when she threw it out, just made it better.

Jacob brought Taylor back to around the ice cream parlor so she could go change back into her civilian attire, but asked that she exit via the gym. School hadn't quite gotten out yet so none of the other Wards were around to see her pass through.

She found her uncle's car a block away from the gym, apparently he had swung around through the gas station while she was getting changed. They then headed back to the Hebert household.

"I have to pack up and head out to be able to catch my flight," Jacob explained as they were pulling up to the house. "So I won't be around for dinner, assuming you are hungry by then."

"Alright, have you let dad know?" Taylor asked.

"He has known for a couple of days."

The two entered the house, collecting the delivered mail on their way by. Jacob headed straight upstairs to the guest room while Taylor looked over the mail.

"Huh, a packet from Arcadia?" Taylor mumbled as she opened the large envelope. Inside she found some introductory materials, a new student ID with her photo from the school department, her class schedule, and information on getting into her new email account.

Huh, her photo was a bit out of date given that she was wearing glasses in it.

Taylor took a few minutes to get the email account set up in her personal phone, finding she already had several messages once she was done. Most of them were introductory in nature from her new teachers, but they included information what to expect in class for the coming week. All of them indicated that she need not be ready to participate fully on Monday as they did not know when she would get the introductory package, but it would be appreciated if she would make an attempt.

Going over each class she found that she probably wouldn't have any issues, though Monday's English class was going to include the monthly 'try and stump the teacher' session? This month was to provide a quote from one of the listed authors and see if the teacher can figure out which author. Bonus points for succeeding in stumping the teacher, detention if you can't cite the book and page your quote came from for verification, and entire multi-word sentences only.

Taylor grinned, she had a plan and honestly hoped nobody had beaten her to the punch, so to speak.

Jacob left about half an hour before Danny came home with a pizza.

Taylor surprised herself by eating half of it.

"So what did you do today?" Danny finally asked. "Jacob wasn't forthcoming about his plans."

"He wanted me to get my verified cape tag on PHO the fun way,"

Taylor replied, pulling out one of her phones to show him the videos.

Danny took a few minutes, looking like he was unhappy and unbelieving at once, then took a few deep breaths. "Right, you are a lot tougher than you used to be. Given that I suppose it does look fun."

"The thread on PHO has, as Uncle Jacob expected, exploded. And it looks like my consumption of a Fugly's Challenger has gotten a thread as well." Taylor poked around until she found a video, then showed that to Danny as well.

"And you still ate half a pizza? What did they do to you, install a bigger-on-the-inside stomach?"

"I think I just digest faster now."

Danny just shook his head and looked over various posts with Taylor for a bit.

Hannah stared at the video she had been watching, then switched to looking at the reports open next to it. Finally she shook her head and pulled out her phone. A few quick taps later and it was ringing.

"Hello, Power Testing, ENE," came from the other end. "How can we help you today?"

"Hello, this is Miss Militia," Hannah said. "I do believe you need to revise your testing methodology and ratings for certain types of blasters, specifically those such as Maul."

"On what basis?"

"Search for 'How Maul got verified' on PHO and watch the videos.

Then tell me you handled her testing properly."

A few minutes later Hannah wondered if she should have mentioned the tinker-fugue granted abilities she knew Miss Hebert had. It didn't take her long to decide that the power testers could still take the flak for that one not being documented. After all, they had screwed up badly when testing what Miss Hebert had told them she could do by apparently assuming she had to be moving the blunt objects. Her paperwork said nothing of the sort, so why they had assumed that was a mystery. Then again, they also hadn't realized that a foam bat might count until Miss Hebert produced one of her own to demonstrate.

Last edited: Mar 17, 2021

Chapter 14 Taylor entered the PRT building via the hidden vehicle entrance for the first time Saturday morning. She didn't need to be there until the afternoon for the Wards meeting, but she had been informed through multiple channels now that she needed to get pictures taken. So she was going to figure out what was needed there and get that taken care of.

Once she was through the parking garage wall, which had swung up and out of the way after she activated her transponder, she found herself in a short tunnel that opened up into a parking area maybe a block away. It looked like this was where they parked most of the

containment-foam equipped vehicles. She easily spotted the clearly-

labeled 'Wards' section to one side, which looked to be a semi-

private lot down another short tunnel. Across from that was an

effectively identical setup labeled 'Protectorate'. She followed the Wards sign, moving down the short tunnel into a lot with ten spaces.

Six of the spaces were labeled with the name of a Ward, but there were none of the normal 'cars and other vehicles are normally parked here' stains and markings you would normally see in parking lots.

She parked her moped in the space labeled 'Maul' and made her way over to the sole obvious door. Checking the map app showed that, in theory, it was also the only door. It opened with her access key, which she assumed was simply an extra security measure. A short flight of stairs and she found herself just down the hall from the Wards common area. Nice and convenient. Though she did wonder why the handle-less door she came out of was labeled as though it were a broom closet. In a building seemingly cleaned by tinkertech drones, as far as she could tell. Another quick check showed that she would need to use her access key to get back to the parking area.

Next up was checking her phone for where pictures were taken and if she should costume up to start with. This led her to a form with a warning that it may take up to an hour to get a response. Damnit.

Perhaps she should have checked some more before she even left home. She wandered into the Wards common area and grabbed some juice before sitting down and filling out the form. It was fairly simple and most of it filled itself in for her, but she was still annoyed.

After she was done Taylor focused a bit on her snark sense. She didn't recognize any of the three parahumans in the building, but then again she hadn't actually gotten an introduction to the Protectorate capes in town, excepting Miss Militia. With nobody to hunt down to maybe talk to and needing something to do she decided to look up the actual rules and regulations for the photos. As this was her initial official photo set it was easy to find information.

Non-parahuman photos were mugshots in civilian clothing. That was about it. Parahumans needed a full tinkertech body scan in and out of costume in addition to mugshots in and out of costume and a full body photo in costume. Where things got interesting were the requirements for the full body photo. Heroes were required to be in a non-hostile, respectful, and if possible friendly pose, with aspects of power not directly related to their costume not visible if possible.

Anti-heroes, on the other hand, were required to violate at least some of that, if not as many pieces as they were capable of.

That actually made Taylor pause. Who had put this much effort into hero vs anti-hero rules? A quick search actually got her an answer.

The original rules and regulations assumed that more parahumans with PR-unfriendly powers or mental leanings would end up in the Wards and Protectorate, hence the hero vs anti-hero rules. They

were intended to allow those parahumans who had to do PR-

unfriendly things to not go crazy policing their behavior and power

usage, and to ensure that there was a very obvious distinction for the public.

There was nothing available on why there weren't more anti-hero parahumans in the system, though. So perhaps the idea had been

sound, but turned out to be problematic in other ways. Still, getting back to the photo rules, her powers wouldn't show up properly in a photo. She would have to give some thought to how she wanted to break the other rules instead.

Half an hour later Taylor got a notice on her personal phone asking her to report for her photo, though it was a generic notice from the system and didn't say anything about who would be taking it. Given that it was her personal phone and not her Maul phone she figured this was an out-of-costume photo and left right after rinsing out her now-empty juice bottle.

Five minutes later she had arrived at the designated room. Huh, one of the parahumans was inside. She knocked and waited, the parahuman approaching. Stepping into the room she found herself looking at Armsmaster.

"Good morning," Taylor said. She was most certainly not thinking about certain pairs of panties she had owned with a specific likeness on them. No siree. Not at all. And she would be denying her blush if anyone asked.

"Hello Miss Hebert," Armsmaster replied as he closed the door behind her.

Taylor directed some of her mental focus towards his snark. Hello there!

[Query]

"My apologies," Armsmaster continued, gesturing towards a couple of chairs against the wall. "I was unaware you were already in the building. Had I been aware I would have summoned you after finishing up the maintenance on the tinkertech scanner instead of trying to take into account your travel time."

I am just being polite.

[Dismissal]

"It's no problem. Do you mind if I talk to your snark while you work?"

Taylor asked. Better to check, just in case, before he got back to the,

er, scanner that he had open.

"I do not mind," Armsmaster replied. "Miss Militia has not reported any negative side effects during or as a result of your discussions with hers. Apparent misunderstandings, but no negative side effects."

"Thank you."

Taylor sat down in one of the chairs while Armsmaster got back to work.

So, you think that being polite is inefficient? Is that what you like,

efficiency?

[Agreement]

How do you make things more efficient?

[Exposition]

So you make them more efficient at how they operate, usually smaller, using less materials and power for the same output. Or get them to do the same thing faster, requiring less time waiting around,

or with improved output from the same volume. That's neat. Taylor glanced at Armsmaster, who appeared to be working on an internal circuit board of the scanner. Do the things you make more efficient need frequent maintenance?

[Agreement]

Are they more efficient if you include maintenance costs and downtimes?

[... Query]

Well, for one example. You have how much time something saves,

and how much time it is unavailable waiting for maintenance or being maintained. If the former is larger than the latter then things are efficient. If the latter is larger than the former then the overall end result is inefficient compared to what it was replacing. The same can be applied to a lot of things, like energy and materials. The maintenance adds more of those as requirements, if the total exceeds what other solutions use then the entire thing is inefficient in comparison.

[Contemplation]

Taylor suspected that she was not going to get any further with Armsmaster's snark today, so she instead pulled out her personal phone and decided to see about getting readings from the heart rate and temperature sensors like Miss Militia said she should be able to.

If she needed help she was certain Armsmaster might be able to provide some tips, after all. It took her a good twenty minutes to figure out how the connection worked, as it was a different mode for the Bluetooth modules at both ends, but when she finished her phone was able to keep track of things. She then decided to do the same with her 'Maul' phone, but that only took a couple of minutes.

Looking at the information after it had been gathering for another ten minutes or so she found that the monitor app thought her heart rate was a bit lower than expected, but her temperature was fine. She didn't know what to make of that information, perhaps she would ask Amy about it at some point.

Finally Armsmaster closed the panel on the side of the scanner,

mumbling something she couldn't hear. He messed with the controls a little as she heard a humming sound. The sound changed pitch a couple of times, then leveled off.

"Sorry for the wait," Armsmaster said. "If you would come over here and stand on the marking?"

Taylor did as instructed, and then faced the lens on the device when asked. She then had to blink as a bright flash came from the scanner.

"That takes care of the civilian mugshot and full body scan,"

Armsmaster stated. He seemed to be looking over the output. "Hmm.

There appear to be some irregularities in the body scan. Did your power modify your body beyond what you reported?"

"Oh, that, no. I was the target of a tinker fugue."

Armsmaster jerked in surprise. "I see. Is there any reason your paperwork makes no mention of this?"

"None of the forms asked and it happened before I applied to the Wards, so the forms for post-joining body alterations didn't apply."

"Hmmm." He appeared to be doing something. Maybe checking the forms? "That is an interesting deficiency that should probably be corrected. It appears to officially fall to the power testing staff to ask about it, and they do not appear to have done so with you. None of the forms fall to me to fill out, either. It is an interesting bureaucratic oversight. Out of curiosity, what benefits and downsides do your changes provide you with?"

"Enhanced strength, endurance, flexibility, senses, durability, and healing. The healing seems to have reduced my need for sleep slightly. Plus Bluetooth connectivity." Taylor got the impression that Armsmaster was blinking in surprise. "Downsides can include increased appetite and Bluetooth alerts poking my brain."

"Did you really say Bluetooth connectivity?"

"Yep. Organic secure Bluetooth module, hooked directly into my brain. That would likely be showing as an oddity at the base of my skull. Makes it worth wearing an NFC repeater at least." Taylor held her left hand up to show the watch on it.

"That sounds like you got incredibly lucky. Tinker fugues that target individuals are feared for good reason. At any rate, you should go change and return in costume so that we can get those taken care of as well."

"Alright," Taylor said, heading out. She made good time down to the Wards area, changed, and made good time back. She found Armsmaster was once again working on the scanner itself.

"Just a minute," Armsmaster said. A moment later he closed the panel again and gestured to the marked spot on the floor. Taylor looked at the camera without prompting and found that the flash of light didn't make it through the visor this time.

"Now then, regulations state that you need a full-body picture,"

Armsmaster continued. "This is a basic one for your online cape profile as well as initial promotional materials. PR will work with you and the other Wards for other PR materials as they see fit. Have you consulted the regulations?"

"I have," Taylor responded, slipping the wok from her back.

"Including the anti-hero rules."

Armsmaster merely nodded. "If you would stand in front of the screen on the wall in your chosen pose?"

Taylor moved over to the screen and crouched down slightly with the wok held up behind her in her right hand as if she was about to hit someone with it, a slight scowl on her face, the middle finger of her left hand lifted in front of her. Armsmaster merely nodded and snapped the picture.

"Perhaps we should take a second one with the collapsible baton instead of the rude gesture," Armsmaster volunteered. "From past experience, PR may have issues with the first one, even if it is fully within regulations."

"That makes sense," Taylor admitted. She got back into position after unclipping and extending the collapsible baton, and Armsmaster took the second picture.

"Very good. You should get your ID cards in the next four to five days at the longest."

"Thank you."

"For both my own records and out of curiosity, what did you discuss with my, er, 'snark'?"

"We had a short discussion on the effects of maintenance on efficiency ratings."

"I see. Thank you."

Taylor was waved out of the room as Armsmaster turned back to the scanner. She wasn't sure what he was going to do next, but figured she might as well find something else to do.

After some thought Taylor had decided on another visit to "the junkyard", ostensibly because she hadn't visited it in costume yet.

Inside she found a number of large chunks of metal had been piled into the near corner, but the gravel pile from her last visit was still sitting there. She idly wondered if anyone else had used the room.

Then she realized she could probably just check the access list on the door.

A few minutes later she was looking at the access list. Outside of Taylor it has been a little over a year since someone not flagged as being part of the team maintaining the room had even entered it.

Were people unaware of it, or did the current collection of Protectorate and Wards members just not have a desire to break things every so often?

After some contemplation Taylor shrugged and started on hitting things with other things. After all, if nobody else wanted to use the room currently designated for people to destroy the stuff in then it just meant it was like a near-private playroom for her, right?

For the next couple of hours sounds of heavy impacts could be heard coming from the room, had anyone bothered to pass by to hear them.

As lunchtime approached Taylor wandered back to the Wards common area. She had felt Missy arrive, but none of the others, so she figured it might not be a bad time to see how she was faring with the access keys stuff.

"Hello there," Taylor said as she entered the common area. Missy had costumed up and was in the kitchen area.

"Hi," Missy replied. "The standard three Saturday pizzas are here if you want some lunch."

"Standard pizzas?"

"Yep. First come, first serve. Usually they become leftovers for Sunday too."

"Works for me." Taylor grabbed a few slices to start with, then sat on one of the stools at the counter next to where Missy was eating a slice of her own. "So, have you come in through the gym yet?"

"Hell yea, did that yesterday, but I used the ice cream parlor today.

They snuck the access keys class in after the console class on Thursday so I don't even have to explain what other class I was taking. The guys are starting to get worried that you corrupted me,

though."

"I bet they are, with you likely having bragged about how visiting the gym made it so much easier to get in."

"But it does make it so much easier," Missy exclaimed, grinning. She then frowned. "Did you know that all I had to do was complain ONCE to a PRT officer or Protectorate member about having issues getting in discreetly and they would have pointed me at that class?"

"Squeaky wheel gets the grease?"

"Yea yea, if I am having issues I should tell someone. They covered that. Repeatedly. So, how did you come in today?"

"I used the vehicle entrance, thanks to having been gifted a moped."

"The vehicle doesn't have to be owned by the PRT to get a transponder in it?"

"Might be a side effect of who my uncle is, or you just need to ask. I didn't bother checking either way. Then again, we each have a designated parking space in a dedicated Wards lot. So I suspect you just need to ask. Also, all it appears to do is act as a relay for your access key anyway, so it isn't much of a security risk alone."

Missy took a moment to digest that, then shook her head. "I don't think I will be able to take advantage of that for a couple years at least. But it is very nice to know about. So, what were you up to,

given that you were out and about in costume?"

"Photos to start with, then I went and played in the junkyard."

"The what?"

"Training room six. The one with all the stuff we are allowed, nay,

encouraged to break."

"The what? How did you discover that?"

"I searched for being bored in a PRT building."

Missy blinked, not that Taylor could see her eyes, then pulled her phone out and ran a search. "Holy crap. So much for finding ways to

entertain myself in here all the time." Missy poked around a little more while Taylor got a soda and a couple more slices of pizza. "Oh!

I almost forgot. How in the world did you swing your 'how I got verified' stunt?"

"Oh, that? I have an awesome uncle. He swung it for me. Except for the parts that required me to be swinging on a wrecking ball,

anyway."

"That is so unfair. Dennis was all but frothing at the injustice of it,

even. Have you been looking at the responses?"

"Yep, every so often. Haven't bothered to reply, obviously. Kinda interesting that nobody thinks I might be a Ward."

"Well, all the evidence points to you living in a town with no Wards. I was amazed that they spent over six pages just trying to figure out where you were when you pulled that."

"Did you see the guy on page twelve that pointed out that we left the time and GPS coordinates in the video metadata after they spent over four pages arguing about landmarks? Anyway, where that happened would have been a wonderful data point if I hadn't returned to Brockton Bay afterwards. I proceeded to help unstick two dumpsters in the alleyways behind the boardwalk shops, and then got my picture on Fugly's wall of soon to be clogged arteries. Too bad Amy is busy this weekend, I might have to have her check if I am actually getting clogged arteries at some point."

Missy turned to stare at Taylor, then turned back to her phone and obviously ran a few searches. "Holy crap, I missed those threads.

How in the world are they not suspecting you are the theoretical new Ward if you did that here?"

Taylor made a point of tapping her chin as though deep in thought. "I think it stems from them having convinced themselves that the Ward

was passing through to somewhere else. I am still amazed how iron-

clad my civilian identity apparently is, they are convinced there is

absolutely no way Taylor Hebert is a parahuman. Really, they are exceptional at convincing themselves of things."

Missy shook her head and started reading the threads she had missed. After a couple of minutes she stopped and scrolled back up to re-read something. "Aren't you a Blaster/Trump? How did you help with stuck dumpsters, given that they say here that your greater than normal strength helped?"

"I am starting to think I should start introducing myself with 'Hi, my name is Maul. I was the target of a tinker fugue' or something, since this keeps coming up."

Missy visibly flinched at that. "Those are not fun, I almost got caught in one of Leet's last year, Über was able to snap him out of it before he actually reached the point of implanting whatever he had come up with in me." Missy shivered. "At least he was apologetic about it?"

Missy then cocked her head to the side. "Did you at least come out ahead?"

"Enhanced strength, flexibility, endurance, senses. Faster healing.

Bluetooth."

"Bluetooth? Is that how you were able to just wave your hand to open the secure doors? That confused the crap out of me when I was thinking about it yesterday, after Felicity showed me the watches and explained the downside."

"Yep. On the other hand, calls and other notifications poke my brain directly. So it comes with ups and downs."

"How much of a secret is all of that?"

"I have pretty much told anyone who is aware of my parahuman status and has asked, really. Thus not much of a secret, just not volunteering until someone has reason to ask."

Missy just shook her head. "So, looking forward to your first patrol?"

"Not sure when it is, as it isn't on my calendar."

"Huh, that is odd. They schedule your introduction yet?"

"Nope," Taylor shrugged. "I think there is a problem, hence the need for the meeting today. Speaking of which, Carlos is on his way. I bet the others start trickling in soon too."

Taylor grabbed yet more slices of pizza, incidentally now having grabbed an entire pizza's worth in total. It wasn't like she didn't have time to eat the pizza as Carlos still had to make it into the building and to the Wards area. And the others hadn't shown up in her range at all yet.

No, wait, there was Chris, though he appeared to be coming in the vehicle entrance. Must have gotten picked up?

By the time Carlos was reaching the Wards area Taylor had finished the last of the slices she had grabbed and was washing her hands.

Dennis and Dean had appeared on her snark sense, apparently together, but were still a couple minutes out.

"Good afternoon Carlos," Taylor called as the door closed behind him. "Chris is in the building and Dennis and Dean are nearly to the building."

"That is an amazingly useful ability," Carlos answered. "Do you know where Missy is?"

"Sitting on the couch?" Missy answered. Huh, Carlos jumped a little,

it felt like. He must not have noticed her?

"Right, well, maybe we can get the meeting over with early," Carlos said, then headed to the private rooms. Probably to costume up.

Taylor finished her soda and rinsed it, then grabbed a bottle of water.

She passed Chris coming in on her way to the couches. Once there

she slipped the wok and entrenching tool off of her back before dropping down next to Missy.

Dennis and Dean passed with only a mild "hello" on their way to costume up.

Taylor frowned. "Why is everyone getting into costume? Is it required for meetings?"

"Not really, but we are supposed to get into the habit so that we are ready to deploy in an emergency," Carlos responded as he returned,

helmet in hand. "By the way, we are supposed to try and be in costume when on-site, so that we are ready to deploy in an emergency."

"Yes, I had gathered that," Taylor deadpanned. "Any other words of wisdom that need to be imparted twice?"

"Just that you suck," Carlos responded. "Seriously, getting verified on PHO by riding a wrecking ball, using your power to demolish a building, on camera, with PRT approval? It was undeniably awesome. But you suck for pulling it off."

"Mainly that you pulled it off without us," Missy added.

Taylor stuck her tongue out in response to that, and Carlos dropped into a seat. Chris came out a few minutes later, shortly followed by both Dennis and Dean. Taylor and Missy were the only ones with their full costume on, everyone else had left their headgear off. Then again, Taylor felt she was cheating slightly by playing a game of solitaire using her visor. She did have a document open on her Maul phone in case she needed to take notes, though.

"Taylor, you are bullshit," Dennis opened with after a moment of silence. "How did you get the PRT to agree to that stunt?"

"I didn't get the PRT to agree to anything," Taylor responded.

"How are you not in trouble with the higher-ups, then?" Dean asked,

honestly curious.

"Never said it wasn't agreed to, just that I didn't do it," Taylor said,

grinning. "On a completely and totally unrelated note, my uncle is awesome."

"That entire thing was still bullshit," Dennis declared. "And is probably the most bullshit thing that has happened this month."

"I think I am more impressed that she finished a Challenger," Missy added. "She only took forty minutes, and she had a milkshake afterwards!"

This resulted in a collection of stares in Taylor's general direction.

Taylor grinned and nodded. "It was actually quite tasty, if not quite filling enough."

"I stand corrected," Dennis said, grabbing the wireless keyboard so he could bring PHO up on the monitor. "That has to be pure bullshit."

Five minutes later they had found the PHO thread talking about it and had checked the Fugly's website, which showed Maul's photo prominently on the front page as the latest defeater of the Challenger '1 Milkshake'. Though they hadn't watched them there were several cell-phone camera clips of Taylor eating the Challenger as well.

"Welcome to bullshitville," Dennis said, staring at the monitor showing Fugly's website. "Population: You. There you are in the top ten shortest times, without needing to slow down towards the end because you apparently paced yourself perfectly, and then they gave you a milkshake afterwards just to see if you would, in fact, drink it when you asked. And you did."

"It was quite nice of them," Taylor agreed. "Though I wasn't pushing myself for speed."

"I vote we move on to our actual meeting," Chris volunteered. "So that we don't go into depression or something." Not that he looked depressed, or in danger of it.

"Right, right," Carlos said, turning the monitor off. "So, as we all know, Taylor here has joined us. But apparently they are not intending to schedule her for a public introduction right now, and I am not permitted to place her on the patrol or console schedules until she has been introduced. Which, of course, creates a problem of what to do."

"Huh," Taylor said, switching to search the PRT database on her Maul phone. "Don't suppose I could just tag along for patrols,

unofficially?"

"That isn't allowed for a number of reasons," Carlos admitted.

"Otherwise I would have suggested it."

"That would have been awesome," Dennis added. "Just bring you along a few times, see people's reactions."

"It looks like PRT regulations say that anti-heroes can ignore the rules that disallow tagging along on patrols," Taylor said. She did not mention the pile of other rules she was apparently encouraged to break 'gently'. "Unless someone has handed me official orders not to, anyway. And if they have, I haven't gotten the memo yet."

Carlos and Dean both pulled their own phones out to check on that.

Dennis had started grumbling about anti-heroes getting all the fun.

Missy... had started giggling for some reason. And Chris looked like he just didn't want to be here. Perhaps tinkers gotta tinker and he hadn't gotten his fix today?

"I have to say, the list of rules here that you are encouraged to break in some way is impressive," Dean finally said. "Though I notice that you are not, in fact, encouraged to break console protocol."

"Anti-heroes are supposed to be something like 'bad people doing good' or something like that," Carlos replied before Taylor could say anything. "Nothing in the list of rules to break goes against being a team player, just against striving for perfection. Or at least that is my take on it."

"So, who is on patrol today?" Taylor asked, honestly curious.

"Oh, right," Carlos said, getting up. "I am supposed to show you how to look a lot of that up. I keep forgetting with all your anti-hero bullshit antics." He was grinning as he said that, so Taylor felt she was probably justified in thinking he was joking.

Over the next twenty minutes Taylor was on the receiving end of several 'how to check things' and 'how we are currently handling things internally' talks. In particular, they were lazy and abbreviated everything they could get away with, so Taylor needed the local translation sheet. Specifically, she ended up with a copy of Missy's.

Dennis's was considered useless and Carlos admitted he hadn't noted as much down on his.

Looking over the patrol schedule she determined that they would be steering clear of Brockton General today and tomorrow as New Wave tended to run security on the out-of-towner weekends. Amy hadn't mentioned that, but it made sense. Missy and Carlos were due to patrol the boardwalk and it was Dennis's turn to run the console. Chris and Dean could either head home or stick around as potential backup. Or, in Chris's case, stick around and tinker.

"I thought you guys did patrols over more than just the boardwalk?"

Taylor commented after looking over the weekend's plans.

"Out of towner weekends for Panacea are an unofficial truce time,"

Dean explained. "Out of respect for Panacea herself, I think, as she has enough to deal with before gang violence is added. The extra security from New Wave isn't even really needed. So in general we aim for more PR targeting patrols than actually spotting trouble. It

saves us from the sheer boredom of normal patrols over areas with no trouble to spot."

"Every so often we still check our less visible routes," Carlos added.

"Just to keep them on their toes, but the last time trouble was started on one of these weekends it is rumored Lung himself punished those that caused it. Even the Merchants lay low."

"I had been unaware of these weekends," Taylor admitted. "Despite living in town. How do the gangs all know the schedule?"

"It is posted on the New Wave website," Missy said. "Though I suppose most people have no reason to randomly poke at New Wave's calendar."

In the end Taylor figured she might as well tag along on the patrol. It beat most of the other things she had to do today. They decided that she would slip out of the building and meet them outside, just in case someone decided that Taylor shouldn't join the patrol after all. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission, after all.

Taylor slipped out through the ice cream parlor and made her way in the general direction of the PRT front entrance. She could tell that Carlos and Missy had gotten waylaid, probably by people in the lobby. As such they actually caught up to her instead of her catching up to them.

They were originally going to put on a show of meeting up as though they didn't know each other, but there was nobody around to see the show so they skipped it.

"By the way, do you have an earpiece?" Carlos asked. "I forgot to check."

"Don't need one," Taylor responded. It came loud and clear over the radio channel they were using, even though Taylor was whispering, if

that. Carlos blinked, then decided that he didn't need to know right now.

"Well then, I will let you move along with Vista," Carlos continued.

"While I take to the sky."

"Works for me?" Taylor said, turning to Missy. Who shrugged. "Guess that will do, then."

Carlos lifted off while Taylor and Missy started down towards the boardwalk. After a minute Taylor looked at Missy. "I should have asked before agreeing to this, how annoying will this likely be?"

"That will depend," Missy answered. "Most people are used to seeing us by now, but you are new. And interesting, most likely."

"Do you do anything to make it more interesting?"

"Sometimes I play with my powers a little, try and pull little pranks and see who notices. Occasionally someone will walk up and ask for a demonstration, which can be fun or tedious depending on the situation."

"Huh. So, er, do you mind if I chat with your snark too?"

"I kind of assumed you already were?"

"Been trying to avoid just doing so without permission, since apparently my talking to them can change how they approach things."

"Oh. Well, go ahead. New ways of applying my power can only be a good thing in the long run, right?"

"Yep."

Hello [Boredom]

Taylor and Missy had come to the end of the boardwalk, Carlos still flying overhead. A number of people had spotted Carlos and were waiting for the other Ward, only to get a Ward and a relative unknown.

Yea, I am not sure how much I will be enjoying this myself. Perhaps we just need a mental exercise?

[Curiosity]

"Vista! Vista!" a little girl yelled as she ran up to Missy, only to stop a couple of feet away when she realized that Taylor was there. "Oooh,

who that?"

"This is Maul," Missy gestured to Taylor. "She's new around here."

"Hello there," Taylor said, kneeling down so the girl didn't have to look up as far. "How are you today?"

Perhaps you just need to contemplate something new. You allow Missy to temporarily adjust things, right?

[Agreement]

"Good," the girl said. "What you do?"

"I hit things," Taylor responded, taking the foam bat from her hip.

"Wanna see?"

"Ok?" Taylor lightly tapped the girl on the head with the foam bat,

from several feet away. The girl flinched, then her eyes went wide.

"Felt that!"

And that adjusting can warp space as a side effect?

[Agreement]

"If I need to I can use things that actually hurt," Taylor explained. "But this is good for showing people what I can do."

"Wooooow," the girl said. A number of others that had been watching were apparently intrigued as well.

"What kind of range do you have?" a man who looked to be the girl's father asked. He picked her up and set her on his shoulders, causing her to squeal and giggle.

"Quite a bit, barring obstacles," Taylor responded. "At least a couple of blocks if I needed to."

"Impressive," the man said.

Can you warp space directly, without needing to add or remove material?

[Contemplation]

The man apologized for delaying them and they moved on, the rest of the crowd keeping their distance for now.

"Wanna bet someone asks for a bigger demonstration of what I can do?" Taylor asked Missy a few minutes later. She had also toggled the radio on so Carlos could hear.

"Not taking a sucker's bet," Carlos responded. Missy just giggled.

"Though you are intimidating enough that they might not get the nerve today."

"We will have to see, I guess?" Taylor replied.

[Agreement]

So you can just warp space. Can you add or remove material without warping space?

[Curiosity]

Yes, I am going somewhere with this, but one step at a time.

"This is getting weird," Missy said a few minutes later. "Usually a new cape would be a pile of people swarming us, but they are staying back."

"My costume may not look enough like a cape," Taylor suggested.

"Perhaps they are confused?"

"True, you aren't exactly a hero in the traditional sense. But that doesn't seem to be it either."

"Maybe many of them saw me yesterday?"

"Possible, but unlikely."

[Negative]

Awww, that is too bad. Let me think some more.

The three Wards, though the public was unaware of Taylor's status,

made it most of the way down the boardwalk before running into trouble. In this case, trouble being a drunk shoplifter with a gun.

"Aegis to Console," Carlos radioed in. "Armed shoplifter near the end of the boardwalk, appears to be intoxicated. Permission to engage?"

And there was one of the fun rules Taylor was not expected to follow,

provided she felt she could handle the situation without harm to herself. She didn't have to ask first. As such, she was in motion from the point Carlos had reached 'armed'.

Finding the shoplifter was easy, she just ran in the opposite direction everyone else was to get away from him.

"Maul, what are you doing?" Missy radioed. "We don't have permission to engage."

"Technically I am not on patrol," Taylor responded, slipping the wok off of her back. "So this falls under the personal discretion rules.

Even if I were on patrol anti-heroes can make judgement calls and

engage without permission, or even after being denied permission."

Oh, hey, there was the shoplifter. And he had spotted her. "Gimme a second to deal with this guy, ok?"

"Console to Aegis," Dennis's voice came. "Permission has been denied. I repeat, permission has been denied. Do not engage, police are en-route."

Taylor had the collapsible baton in her left hand and the wok in her right. The shoplifter took aim at her, and she swung the wok downwards in front of her. This had two different effects. The first was the shoplifter received a decent hit to the head. The second was that the shoplifter's hand and arm also received a decent hit,

knocking the gun down. The bullet fired ricocheted off of the ground in front of Taylor and hit her in the leg. The armor woven into her jeans coupled with her unnatural toughness and the reduced velocity of the bullet meant that she didn't even notice.

A moment later she was on top of the shoplifter, using the baton to knock the gun out of his hand. She then kneed him in the stomach before knocking his legs out from under him. He fell forward and Taylor grabbed his arms and pulled them behind his back, allowing the baton and wok to fall off to the side.

"Aegis, Vista," Taylor radioed. "Do either of you have any zip ties or zip cuffs? Or should I just hold him until the police arrive?"

"I have some zip cuffs," Carlos responded, flying down. "Aegis to Console, Maul has taken down the armed shoplifter. Please pass on to the police."

Carlos landed next to Taylor and the shoplifter and produced a pair of zip cuffs from a hidden pocket. He then put them on the shoplifter,

allowing Taylor to get up and collect her baton and wok. Missy was standing over the gun, ensuring that nobody touched it for now.

"I only heard the one shot, did anyone see where it went?" Taylor asked loudly. Not really caring if it was one of her fellow Wards or a

bystander that answered.

"Er, I did?" a man called from the door of the shop next door to the one the shoplifter had robbed. "I swear it hit you in the leg."

Taylor looked down and found a small impact mark on her jeans.

"Oh, so it did. Well, better that it hit me than someone who couldn't take it."

Hey, could you warp space permanently so people could have bigger pockets to carry stuff around?

[Intrigue]

Carlos wasn't entirely sure how to take that, but he could hear the police sirens approaching so now was not the time to ask.

The three Wards returned, though Taylor swung in through the ice cream parlor, to find that Dennis was confused.

"Why have we received no notice of an impending meeting?" Dennis asked. "What with Taylor's actions out there and all?"

"Because I didn't violate any standing orders or regulations?" Taylor asked. "For that matter, neither did Carlos or Missy. What would they want to meet with us about?"

"Right," Carlos said, going over to the monitor and grabbing the wireless keyboard. "I am now going to go over every single anti-hero rule and regulation I can find, if only so that you stop surprising the crap out of me when you do things that we aren't allowed to normally."

Dennis looked at Taylor, then at Carlos. "You know what, I think I will join him. Knowing in advance may make me want to cry at the injustice, but at least I will be informed." He then put actions to words, dropping down next to Carlos and pulling his phone out.

Taylor just grinned as Missy snickered. Deciding it was time to head home Taylor and Missy both went and changed back into their civilian clothing. Taylor showed Missy the parking area for the Wards,

and Missy walked out through the garage entrance when Taylor opened it. They arranged to meet back at the PRT building the following day, then went their separate ways.

Chapter 15 Sunday morning Taylor had woken to find a message from her father on her personal phone wishing her a nice day. Kurt had already picked him up for the bi-monthly dockworkers 'teambuilding exercise'. Also known, to Taylor, as the bi-monthly 'crawl through everything that might be considered a bar they can find open on a Sunday'. If they did anything before starting the bar crawl was a question Taylor had never bothered to ask, actually. She just knew her father always came home drunk and would have a hangover in the morning.

She had not yet admitted that back in November she had not, in fact,

'accidentally' deleted the photos Alexander had taken of her father opening up the night's bar fight by punching Lung in the face while Kurt and Lacey cheered him on. Alexander was annoyed that his phone was lacking the pictures after he recovered from his hangover, but Taylor had copies on three different thumb drives hidden in three different places. Plus her personal phone now.

Still, this had left Taylor with nothing much to do beyond ensure everything was ready for school in the morning and heading into the PRT building to meet with Missy. Which had led to Taylor sitting in the Wards common room, in costume, waiting for Missy to finish making her way through the building from the gym.

Taylor decided to have some fun and got up from the couch. Walking over to the door she waited until Missy was just about to reach it,

then hit the open button.

"Good morning Missy," Taylor said as Missy jumped, not having expected the door to open right then.

"Don't do that!" Missy exclaimed. "And good morning to you too."

Missy continued on to her room to costume up. Today was 'explore the PRT building' day for the two of them, because doing so was most certainly more entertaining with someone to share things with.

"Let's go," Missy said as she came back into the common area. "I want to start with 'the junkyard'."

Taylor laughed and led the way down to training room six.

"Why is there a barely-used bowling alley in a sub-basement?" Missy wondered, looking over the ten lane bowling alley. "With a wide variety of well cared for but largely unused bowling shoes, but a layer of dust over everything else that isn't lane 1?"

"Well you need the right shoes to bowl," Taylor replied. "Beyond that? No clue."

The two of them had spent an hour or so in the junkyard, then explored the other training rooms. After that they started working their way through a lot of the list of things to do when bored.

Parahuman and not. A lot of the options were actually training for various things people could do on their own. Then there was the mini-arcade with five machines that let you pick a game and watch the machine reconfigure the controls for that game was interesting and apparently mildly popular. The gym listed turned out to be the 'secret gym' under the actual gym and not something in the PRT building itself, though they did find out that there was a swimming pool in it even if they didn't have bathing suits with them to use it.

That explained the 'pool friendly' domino masks in a cubby near the entrance to the gym area. There were also several break rooms with dartboards, pool tables, and similar throughout the building. And a bowling alley, hence their current location.

"I vote we switch to seeing where we can grab lunch," Taylor said after they stared at the bowling alley some more. The idea that they would only keep one lane usable was just weird. "I know there are at least two cafeterias."

"Three that I know of," Missy volunteered.

So they changed targets and found that there were actually four cafeterias, though one was more for prisoners than staff. They probably shouldn't have had donuts from all of them, though.

"That is so unfair," Missy whined as they wandered through yet another secret door. One that showed up for Taylor but not for Missy

on the map. "Though why there are more secret doors than non-

secret doors I don't know."

"Half or more of these I think are technically supposed to be for reconfiguring the building," Taylor volunteered. "Especially as most of them allow us to wander between two points that already have a regular, known, public door between them."

"True, have you spotted any interesting secret doors?"

"Well, there is the exit at the back of the personal rooms hallway in the Wards area."

Missy blinked, then panned the map a bit on her phone. "Huh, I can see it too. Why is that there?"

"Emergency exit for people that need to escape tour groups?"

"Maybe? We should totally use that a few times to annoy the boys."

"I was saving it for a special occasion. Like when they want to corner me to get me to answer questions. Or I need to escape after handing them pamphlets."

Missy thought about that for a moment, then started giggling. "Oh the likely looks on their faces. Too bad I might have to run with you."

"By the way, speaking of the boys, Carlos and Dean are here. Think we should stop in and say hello?"

"What about Dennis and Chris?"

"Their patrol started half an hour ago."

"Oh, right."

The boys had been boring, and the girls had been tired from running around the building hunting things down. So Taylor and Missy switched to civilian clothing and went their separate ways. Taylor made it home well before she expected her father to arrive and amused herself with reading and posting on PHO for a bit while she made herself dinner, then got everything including an outfit to wear tomorrow ready.

Bright and early Monday morning Emily was going through the reports from the weekend that hadn't been flagged high enough priority to reach her at home. She stopped when she reached a medium-priority report from the BBPD about parahuman assistance in apprehending a criminal.

"Samantha," Emily said as she held the button to page her secretary.

"Can you let Armsmaster know I need to speak with him as soon as he is available?" Because there was no way Emily was going to call Colin directly on a Monday morning.

"I will do so immediately," Samantha's voice came back.

Digitally setting the report aside she waded through the rest of the medium-priority reports. She was just about to switch to the low priority reports when Colin arrived.

"Good morning Director," Colin said, standing in front of her desk.

She didn't have a strengthened chair in here for his armor at the moment as normally they met in the conference room down the hall as part of larger meetings.

"Colin, as you were on the weekend shift," Emily said, pulling the report from the BBPD back up. "I am curious as to why the first I am hearing about Maul's actions on Saturday is a report from the police department. She was, after all, hit with a bullet after charging towards an armed shoplifter, according to page three of their report."

"I received the Wards report on that incident Saturday evening. I checked and Maul has not been approved for patrols. As such she was acting on her own initiative while out in costume, and thus we are not liable for her actions. She was wearing tinker-derived armor that could stop low caliber bullets without issue and her enhanced durability likely helps as well, thus we are less liable for potential harm if someone bypasses the personal initiative arguments. Finally,

she was acting in accordance with the mental needs her power reportedly produces, as confirmed by a PRT approved therapist and Protectorate thinkers, thus negating any remaining liability due to the mental health clauses in our Wards remit allowing for potential physical harm in their execution. My verbal report to the Youth Guard covered all of this and the Youth Guard representative agreed. All of which is covered in the low priority report I submitted Saturday, and the Youth Guard written acknowledgement was added yesterday afternoon as soon as I received it."

Emily just blinked. That answer was a bit more thorough than she thought it would be. Then again, it would have been inefficient to not tell her otherwise. "So she was out tagging along on a patrol without permission, took initiative that got her shot, and because the Youth Guard has no problem with it the entire thing was filed as low priority? What about the violation of rules and regulations?"

"What violation are you referring to?"

"The fact she was tagging along on a patrol before she has been cleared to be fielded."

"She is operating under anti-hero rules, which specifically permit her to tag along on patrols before getting field clearance unless explicitly given orders to the contrary, amongst a number of other things.

There are no such orders on file, I presumed so that she may work around the issue of being unable to introduce her until she is fielded and unable to field her until she is introduced problem."

"Huh. So there is a way around that headache." Emily gave it some thought, then sighed. "Please at least inform her that she should avoid running towards people armed with guns? She is a blaster and should be trying, at least, to take them down from a distance first."

"I will do so when she next comes in. Is there anything else?"

"No, thank you. You can go."

"Have a nice day."

Not much of one, since now she had to look up all the anti-hero rules and regulations before she was blindsided by them. Again.

Taylor had woken up Monday morning to find her father passed out on the couch, likely with a hangover. Knowing nobody would expect him in the office before noon anyway she left him to it and made herself a quick breakfast. She then collected her backpack and took her moped to Arcadia.

She decided that not needing to take the bus was nice, but that having the option in case of bad weather was also nice.

She arrived with plenty of time to spare, thinking she was going to need to get a sticker for the parking lot for her moped. She was quickly informed by the parking lot guard/attendant that it counted as a bicycle and thus did not need a sticker and was shown where to park it by a collection of bike racks.

"You going to chain that down?" the guard/attendant asked.

"Nope," Taylor answered. "Unless you think someone is going to walk off with it?" She couldn't lift it, so she doubted your average

thief could.

"I figured that, since it appears to be push-start, someone might just walk up and drive off with it."

"Feel free to give that a try."

He gave her a look but tried anyway, and could not get it to start.

Taylor smirked, then leaned over and pushed the same button and it started up immediately. She then pushed the button again to turn it off.

"I think the security measures are good enough."

"Right, sorry for bothering you." He looked very confused, but wasn't questioning it.

"No problem, thanks for showing me where to park it."

She then hunted down her locker and moved the books she wouldn't need today into it. She absently noticed Amy, Dean, and Vicky approaching the school together. Since the repeaters were on and her phones were working she popped a quick message off to Amy,

saying she had shown up alright. Amy responded with an apology for forgetting that today was Taylor's first day.

Taylor shook her head, then made her way to her first class. She had plenty of time, but also wasn't yet familiar with the building.

Taylor's last class before lunch turned out to be her English class,

one she shared with Amy. Which would have made the room easier to find if she had known that.

"Hello Taylor," Amy said as Taylor sat down beside her. "How is your first day going?"

"Better than Winslow ever was," Taylor said. "How are you after your busy weekend?"

"I slept well so I am fine. Outside of emergencies I have been instructed to stay away from the hospital until at least Thursday. But that is par for the course."

"So how does stump the teacher day work? I was emailed the basics but that didn't cover the procedure used."

"Those who have a quote from one of the authors will raise their hands when asked. She will call on each student in turn. If you don't have a quote you don't get a chance for extra points, and you need to participate in at least three stump the teacher days. Unless you actually stump her, that is an automatic pass on the rest of them."

"Anyone stumped her yet this year?"

"Nope. At least four detentions for things that weren't in the rules that month, though."

They chatted a little more until class began, and then the lesson began. Though Taylor had raised her hand, she was left for last.

"Now then," Mrs. Green said. "Taylor, you also have a quote. Very good of you, given that you had at best since Thursday to come up with one."

"Friday, ma'am," Taylor responded. "When I got my packet."

"Very good, I assume you understand the rules?"

"The quote has to have been written by one of the authors on the provided list and appear in a published book. Interviews do not count, and I must provide the entire sentence as you defined it,

though I need not provide any context. The quote should also be fairly distinctive."

"That is all correct. I presume you have a suitable quote?"

"I do indeed. I even wrote down the citation ahead of time." Taylor produced a small envelope, sealed. It was passed up to the teacher who placed in on her desk.

"You are unusually well prepared. Well then, what is your quote?"

Taylor cleared her throat and spoke clearly. "Fuck Literature."

Everyone else in the room stopped breathing for a moment, as though disbelieving that Taylor had just said that. Which, admittedly,

was probably what they were doing. Mrs. Green actually looked like she was getting angry.

"I do not appreciate you mocking me, Miss Hebert," Mrs. Green finally got out.

"I am not mocking you," Taylor calmly responded. "That is my quote,

and it follows every rule you informed me of, even if it may not follow expectations you have not informed me of. You have a sealed envelope with the citation information, should you wish to admit defeat early and check."

The entire class was bouncing between looking at Taylor and looking at Mrs. Green. Most of them seemed to be wondering who was going to 'win' this confrontation. Finally Mrs. Green calmed down enough to think on it, but could not come up with an answer.

Assuming it was a joke she tore the envelope open, removed the paper, and read it aloud.

"Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917-1961, Letter to Erza Pound of Paris, 17 March 1924, page 113, paragraph 10." Mrs.

Green blinked, then moved over to her computer. She obviously was searching for the reference. She was silent other than the tapping of keys or the click of the mouse, then stared at the computer screen for a few minutes. Finally she sighed and leaned back slightly in her chair. "Congratulations Miss Hebert, you have successfully stumped me, for full bonus marks. I apologize for my outburst, it was uncalled for given that you had ensured I had the citation beforehand and

followed all the rules I informed you of. I may have to update the rules to exclude letter compilations in the future, though."

The rest of the class just stared in disbelief at the fact that Taylor had gotten away with it.

Rumors were one of the few things that seemed to travel faster than light, and what had happened in Mrs. Green's class seemed to be known by the entire school before Taylor and Amy made it to the cafeteria together. Then again, the repeaters were on so text messages and emails were probably flying.

The two collected their lunches, then found a table. They were quickly joined by Dennis.

"Hello Amy," Dennis said. "Did Mrs. Green actually get stumped today?"

"Yep," Amy replied. "Taylor here stumped her with a Hemmingway quote."

"What quote did she not know? For some reason that has not made the rounds yet."

"Taylor?" Amy said, turning to Taylor. "Would you care to do the honors?"

Taylor swallowed the bite of food she had just taken. "Fuck Literature." She then smirked and went back to eating.

Dennis just stared at Taylor, jaw dropped. Taylor took another couple of bites of her lunch, and Amy continued eating her own. Finally he snapped out of it. "You have to be kidding me. Where did you find that one?"

"The citation was for a book of collected letters or something like that," Amy volunteered. "Apparently reading boring books has the

occasional benefit?"

"I found an oblique reference to it on a website comparing Bet and Aleph books," Taylor admitted. "Apparently the publication date and foreword on that book was different between the two, but it was otherwise effectively identical, right down to the page numbers.

'Fuck' comes up a number of times in it."

Dennis was gobsmacked and seemed incapable of saying anything even as several others joined them. He would actually leave the cafeteria without having said any more, causing a number of people to wonder what had happened.

Taylor would quickly become known as the girl who was able to get bonus points for swearing on her first day of class. Which, she would readily admit, was a lot better than being known as the target of the trio back at Winslow.

After school Taylor headed over to the PRT building, having gotten a message at lunchtime asking her to stop by at some point. Since she still wasn't scheduled for much of anything for whatever the mysterious reason they weren't being told was the only way they could know that she was going to stop by was to ask her to. She was actually met just outside the Wards common area by Armsmaster.

"Good afternoon Miss Hebert," Armsmaster said, waving her into the common area and following behind her. "I apologise for the inconvenience, but I was asked to talk to you about the altercation you participated in on Saturday."

"It isn't an inconvenience," Taylor replied. "I didn't have any plans beyond ensuring my homework is done."

"Sensible. Concerns have been expressed with your takedown of the shoplifter. Specifically, that you rushed an armed opponent instead of taking them out at range."

"But by rushing him I took his own ranged capabilities out of the mix."

"I am here to request that you avoid allowing yourself to be a target for ranged weapons when other options exist, regardless of the efficiency of said actions." Armsmaster actually sounded as though he disliked that. "As you should generally always have a ranged option you should be employing that instead. Other than that, I commend you for your actions. You may very well have saved lives."

"Thank you."

"BULLSHIT!" Dennis yelled as soon as the door to the Wards common area had closed behind him. "COMPLETE BULLSHIT!"

"Yes?" Taylor asked, as though he had been calling for her. "Oh, and hello Dennis. Good job not letting on that you knew me at lunch today."

"Is there anything you can't get away with?" Dennis asked as the others wandered over. Dennis had been the last to arrive. "I mean,

really, you got away with swearing in class, even got bonus points for it!"

"I got lucky with a risky gamble," Taylor rebutted. "She could just as easily have given me detention for my choice of quote, even being within her defined rules."

"Why couldn't I have found that when I had her?" Dennis whined.

"Don't mind him," Dean said. "He is just extremely jealous that he didn't find the same quote when he had her last year."

"I should say," Missy retorted. "She is likely the only one who will get away with it, because the rules will be changed. So if I ever have her I won't be able to pull it."

"She also is unlikely to forget the quote," Taylor added. "Really, it could only really work once. I am just happy I got to be the one."

"Bah," Dennis said, storming off to collapse on one of the couches.

"So Carlos," Taylor called to the kitchen area where Carlos was.

"Anything I need to stick around for, or can I go home and do my homework?"

"You're good," Carlos yelled back. "I think we are all here for the sole reason of hearing Dennis's outburst. As he has finished we are done."

Taylor laughed as she made her way out.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday went very similarly to Monday at Arcadia, though Taylor did not seem to share any classes other than English with other parahumans of any kind. She was able to prove to Mrs. Green that she was not, in fact, the 'second coming of Dennis' by being able to intelligently discuss several points in her next class, to the relief of the teaching staff in general.

That is not to say that she wouldn't be joking around on occasion,

just that she knew that she shouldn't do so all the time.

Her father was happy that she was settling in fine, and Taylor had taken the opportunity to get ahead on her homework where possible.

Each teacher had provided her their standard list of assignments,

given that the rest of her classmates had gotten them at the beginning of the year, except for her programming class. So each night she was making it through multiple days worth of assignments.

Late Wednesday evening she received a notice that she had packages that needed to be picked up in the mailroom at the PRT building. Apparently these were too big for her incoming mail box outside of her room in the Wards area? She would swing by to grab

them after school. Amy had also reminded her about letting Vicky in on Taylor's parahuman status this weekend.

This led her to pulling into her parking space after school on Thursday. She could tell that none of the other Wards were around yet, though that was understandable. Dean was the only one who seemed to drive to school in a car, and there was no reasonable place for him to park the thing without getting a vehicle transponder installed.

Hmm, perhaps she should talk to Missy about poking Dean in particular. If only so that he could actually use his car to get to and from the PRT? Something to think about.

"How do you keep getting here before us?" Dennis asked, staring at Taylor who was sitting on the couch watching the news.

"Moped," was Taylor's answer.

Dennis just grumbled and made his way to costume up for patrol.

Taylor had costumed up but skipped the various weapons as all she planned on doing was picking up her packages.

"Hello Taylor," Missy said as she wandered in a few minutes later.

"Haven't seen you much over the past few days?"

"I suspect I will need to hit things some more soonish," Taylor shrugged. "But otherwise I have been trying to get ahead on my homework. Just in case."

"Very good idea," Missy agreed, nodding her head vigorously. "I am usually a week ahead, which is about as far ahead as my teachers let me know about."

"All but one of mine have made until the end of the year available,"

Taylor admitted. She noted at this point that Dean had made it into her range. "I am hoping to be at least a month ahead by the

weekend, and most of the assignments can be turned in via email anyway so I am doing that as I finish them."

"So what brings you in today?"

"I need to visit the mailroom and wanted to have a quick chat with Dean."

Missy gave Taylor a look. "Why do you want to chat with Dean?"

"Amy wants me to tell Vicky that I am a parahuman this weekend. I want to make sure Dean has no issues with that, given that as far as I know they are 'on again' in their 'on again, off again' relationship."

Taylor took a closer look at Missy. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing, nothing," Missy said, waving her hands in front of her. That didn't fool Taylor, but she wasn't quite sure what was going on there.

"Well, I should go change, just in case I'm needed."

Taylor watched Missy rush off and suspected she had missed something. She wasn't quite sure what, though. She watched the news a little more, though there wasn't much of interest being covered, until Dean came in.

"Hello Dean," Taylor called. "Can we talk for a minute?"

"Sure, but make it quick because I need to get ready to go on patrol,"

Dean responded, wandering over to Taylor. "What's up?"

"Amy wants me to reveal my parahuman status to Vicky," Taylor said.

"In particular, probably Saturday. Is that going to cause any problems with you?"

"It will probably save me a number of headaches," Dean admitted,

shaking his head. "Keeping secrets can be a pain. You may want to give Amy and Vicky permission to tell Carol and Mark as well,

actually, so that they can help cover for you if needed later. The Pelhams are a different question entirely, obviously."

"Thanks. Will you want to be there when I tell Vicky?"

"Hell no, she will need at least an hour to calm down from realizing that I kept it a secret from her. Then she will realize I couldn't tell her without your permission anyway."

"Coward."

"I like to think of myself as a pragmatist in this kind of situation. Was that all?"

"Yep, you are free to go," Taylor waved him off imperiously. Dean just laughed.

Having taken care of that, Taylor made her way out to find out what the mailroom had waiting for her.

"Good afternoon Maul," the PRT officer sitting behind the counter in the mailroom said. "How are you today?"

"I'm alright," Taylor responded. "I hear there are packages for me?"

"Three of them, gimme a moment." The officer wandered into the shelves behind him, then after a couple of minutes came back with three boxes. One was much larger than the others. "Here you go,

just need you to sign for them on the terminal."

Taylor signed for them and made her way back to the Wards area.

The smaller box was obviously her new tablet, but the other two confused her. Once back to the Wards area she dropped all three boxes on the table by the couches.

"What have you got there?" Missy said, coming over to take a look.

Dean and Dennis also looked interested as they prepped to leave for their patrol.

"My new tablet computer," Taylor said, gesturing at that box. "Though I will probably wait and set that up at home. The other two I am less sure about."

"Well, open them," Missy demanded.

Taylor rolled her eyes and grabbed the larger package. "No return address?" Opening it up revealed her new tinker-improved wok and entrenching tool. "Oh, cool. I had forgotten I was expecting improved versions of these." Taylor picked the wok up and gave it a good heft.

Dean wandered over and took the wok from Taylor, the servos in the power armor working to assist him. "How can you lift this that easily?"

"Tinker fugue," was Taylor's response. Dean and Dennis flinched as Taylor picked up a piece of paper that had been in the box. "Looks like the wok should now function as a proper shield, otherwise they are just better quality versions of the originals. Oh, and they ensured the wok will still be usable for cooking, should I ever need or want to do so."

"That would be amusing," Dennis said. "So what's the last box?"

"Not sure," Taylor said, taking the wok back from Dean and placing it with the entrenching tool. "Let's find out." She grabbed the final box,

which was larger than she expected. "Are return addresses banned around here?"

"They are rare for internal packages," Dean admitted. "That way it is harder to guess what might be inside."

"Ahhh," Taylor said, opening the box. Inside she found... a gift basket full of chocolate and tinkertech? "Why did someone send me a gift basket?"

"Read the card," Missy volunteered. "Maybe it tells you?"

Taylor shrugged and removed the card from the little plastic thing holding it up. She then flipped it open and read it out loud. "Maul,

thank you for pointing out the massive amount of accidentally locked documentation. James Tagg, PRT Squad Leader, with contributions from other PRT departments." Taylor blinked, and re-read the card.

"What the hell?"

Taylor and Missy worked together to empty the gift basket. They found twelve boxes with various kinds of chocolate, two tinkertech body cameras, and a pair of tinkertech headphones.

"Well, I have no use for the headphones," Taylor said, putting them to the side for later. "The body cameras might be useful for recording things that happen while on patrol, though. And what girl is going to say no to a pile of chocolate?"

"Why would you have no use for the headphones?" Dennis asked.

"Those look like high quality ones."

"Tinker fugue," Taylor answered, sorting through the various chocolates.

"She's a stronger, faster, healthier, more durable Bluetooth accessory now," Missy elaborated when it became obvious Taylor wasn't going to. "I am assuming that her ears are now basically headphones, plus a number of other things."

"Bullshit," Dennis finally said. "Total bullshit. Can I have the headphones?"

"Nope, I already have alternate plans for those," Taylor said. "Huh,

this is apparently tinker-made chocolate."

After another ten minutes or so of sorting the chocolate, and letting Missy have a box, Taylor packed everything up. Some of the chocolate, one of the body cameras, and the headphones ended up in her backpack. The wok and entrenching tool were stored with her costume, and she grabbed the tablet on the way out.

For fun, though, she had stuck the card from the gift basket to the wall next to her door.

"So, new tablet came in?" Danny asked, having poked his head in to check on Taylor. "Is it as much of an improvement over the desktop as you thought it would be?"

"So much yes," Taylor said, grinning. "Lot easier to do my homework on as well."

Danny watched as the tablet, seemingly on its own, typed out the assignment Taylor was apparently working on. Quite quickly, actually.

"Yes, I can see that. Do remember that you need to actually interact with it using your hands at school."

"I am aware," Taylor said, gesturing to the side where there was a keyboard was sitting. "Turns out the keyboard isn't wireless, but hooks into a physical port on the edge of the tablet so it doesn't need a battery itself. So I will probably leave the Bluetooth in the tablet turned off at school to avoid mistakes."

"Good idea. Now you should probably come down for dinner."

"Let me finish up this assignment quick, then I'll be down."

Friday Taylor actually went to the effort of getting both her personal phone and her new tablet on the Arcadia wireless. It would be useless for most sites during class time, but there was a whitelist and school email was included in that. Even if the rules surrounding the school email made most students use outside services for things like gossip it was very useful for communication with teachers,

including submitting homework.

Really, she wasn't sure why it took her until now to get her phone hooked in.

Most of her teachers were perfectly fine with her using the tablet to take notes. She would have to use the classroom computers in her programming class, but that was expected, and she was still allowed to have the tablet next to her. Her math teacher however insisted

that the only electronic device out during class would be the school-

provided calculator, if permitted that day.

On her way out at the end of the day Taylor sent Amy a couple of text messages, letting Amy know that they were still on for the reveal to Vicky and that afterwards the two could tell Carol and Mark about Taylor's status and that she had been the subject of a tinker fugue.

Neither of them was about to admit who had participated in the fugue, of course.

Last edited: Nov 21, 2017

Chapter 16 Saturday morning Taylor decided to skip out on riding her moped in the rain, instead taking the bus to the boardwalk. Carlos had also scheduled another afternoon Wards meeting and unless something significant came up during the meeting Taylor would have no problem catching a bus home with plenty of time to help make lasagna for dinner.

On the ride out Taylor poked through PHO. It seemed that the lack of Maul sightings all week had people looking for her elsewhere in the country, wherever she had been on the way to. Of course, she just hadn't gone out in costume this week in favor of getting ahead on her homework. The latest possible sighting was at a hotel in Colorado, for some reason. Someone had been mapping the sightings to provide a potential travel path. Even narrowing it down to the most likely sightings only would have required someone to be taking a tour of the entire country to make it work.

A different group had decided to monitor her civilian identity. Poorly.

She had apparently been spotted in four different places in Brockton Bay that she wasn't sure she had ever heard of, let alone visited. Or maybe that was the PRT doing their best to ensure that people had issues matching up sightings of Maul to a lack of sightings of Taylor?

Hmmm. Perhaps she should ask the other Wards about that later. At least they were intelligent enough to realize that claims she was seen in Arcadia during the school day made more sense than the claims she was seen out on the docks at the same time.

Noting that she had nearly reached her stop, Taylor put her phone back in her sling bag. Getting off the bus a couple minutes later she ignored the still light rain and made her way to the cafe that she was supposed to meet Amy and Vicky at. She couldn't sense them there,

but she was early due to the bus route.

Taylor ordered herself a bagel and a bottle of water before heading to one of the tables visible from the street, ensuring that Amy and Vicky would be able to spot her easily if they showed up while she was still eating. She felt them approaching around half an hour later,

well after she had finished the bagel and shortly after the rain had stopped. She finished off her bottle of water and disposed of her trash.

Taylor made her way to the door just as Vicky set Amy down. She had been flying, but not very high. Which fit what Taylor knew of her confidence having been coming back. Hopefully getting informed of the reason for her issues today would help her further.

"Hello Taylor," Amy said as Taylor stepped out of the cafe. Vicky just nodded.

"Hello Amy, Vicky," Taylor said. "So, where are we off to? You said you knew somewhere semi-private."

"There are some little booths we can use in an alley a couple blocks over," Amy replied, waving in their general direction. "So long as we are done by the time the restaurant opens for the lunch crowd."

"Not sure why we are even here," Vicky mumbled.

The three of them walked the couple of blocks to where a small restaurant had set up private outdoor booths in the wider than normal alley. Each booth had benches along the sides and back with an open area between them where a table would sit. The tables weren't in place, presumably stored while the restaurant was closed.

Amy was prepared with a couple of small towels to dry the benches off. Vicky dropped onto the bench against the building, Amy and Taylor sat across from each other on the other two benches.

"So why are we here?" Vicky asked as they sat down. "Especially since Dean seemed to have an idea yet wanted nothing to do with it."

"Well, you see," Taylor said, gesturing at Amy. "The Amy asked that I reveal certain things to you and, when I consulted him, The Dean agreed."

Amy giggled, but Vicky just glared at Taylor.

"Sheesh, just trying to lighten the mood," Taylor mumbled, before clearing her throat and continuing. "I'm a cape. Specifically a Blaster/Trump, you may have heard of 'Maul' recently?"

"You're Maul?" Vicky said, eyes widening. "How on earth did you get the PRT to agree to that wrecking ball stunt?"

"I didn't?" Taylor replied. "My uncle set that one up."

"Lucky. So you're a Blaster/Trump," Vicky continued. "What does that entail?"

"Blunt object projection and talking to snarks, mainly," Taylor said.

"Though if I, er, yell at them loudly enough some of them apparently stop working? Or at least that is what seems to happen."

"Snarks?" Vicky asked, obviously confused. "What are snarks?"

"The things that give parahumans their powers," Amy answered before Taylor could. "She triggered nearly a month ago, now."

Vicky seemed to think about that for a couple of minutes. "Ok, so you are probably a new Ward, which is why Dean had a clue. Amy's patched you up at least once which explains how she knows, but why would Dean not want to be around for this?"

"Er, sorry about a few weeks ago?" Taylor said, looking away for a moment. "I kinda reacted badly to your aura."

"That was you?" Vicky asked. Oddly calmly, actually.

"Yes?" Taylor said, turning back to look at Vicky. Who did not look calm at all, actually. Then Taylor froze up as her power activated,

drawing all of her attention.

[Assertion]

Fear her? Why should...

Her world exploded in pain. Bright flashes went off in her sight and she couldn't seem to concentrate on anything. The world spun around her, and at some point an indeterminate amount of time later she found herself staring at Shaper.

Hello Shaper!

Huh, who was Shaper again? She felt like she should know that. Or was it something else?

Request

[Rejection]

Query

[Elaboration]

Determination

[Acquiescence. Data.]

Huh. Why is Shaper telling her how to fix Taylor's brain?

Amy reacted to Vicky's aura manifesting by shrinking back in momentary fear as Taylor froze up across from her. A moment later she heard a sickening crunch, followed by a loud crash. She looked up to see that Vicky had apparently just punched Taylor out of the booth and was now flying off? Taylor who had hit and broken a sign on the building across the alley, and was now laying in a heap under it.

"TAYLOR!" Amy yelled, rushing over to where Taylor lay, Vicky all but forgotten for the moment. Lightly touching Taylor's hand she cringed,

using her power to get Taylor's body breathing again when she noticed that problem. She pulled her phone out and hit her speed dial for the PRT emergency line.

"Emergency Hotline," came from her phone.

"I need an emergency pickup for Taylor Hebert at my current location," Amy interrupted. "Severe concussion, broken jaw, cervical fracture and dislocation resulting in a damaged spinal cord."

"An ambulance is being sent now," was the response. "Stay on the line for updates."

Amy put the phone down next to her and concentrated on trying to fix what she could, resisting the urge to try and fix Taylor's brain lest she make things worse there. Taylor's upgrades had almost certainly saved her life, but now were causing Amy headaches. Instead of being able to directly fix things she found she had to work around some of the new structures. She hadn't previously noticed that they didn't all register as organic to her power and thus she couldn't directly change and repair them.

Instead, Amy would have to focus on directing some of the additional cells that had been created to ensure Taylor's body could maintain the additions, having the new cells created for each structure manipulate them instead. Not having time for that she slowly worked through the reinforcements in Taylor's neck, forcibly breaking through several of the partially damaged nanotube fibers between vertebrae until she could use her hands to physically realign the vertebrae. Once that was done she was able to repair the spinal cord.

She had just barely gotten Taylor to the point where she was breathing on her own again when the ambulance arrived. They carefully loaded Taylor onto a stretcher, Amy grabbing her phone and Taylor's bag before joining them in the ambulance for the ride to

the hospital. On the way she carefully repaired the actual vertebrae themselves, working around the mostly intact reinforcements laced through them, before starting the automated repair and rebuild process that would fix the enhancements themselves.

Only as she was taking a quick general overview did she notice that Taylor's Bluetooth organ was highly active, so she took a moment to turn off both of Taylor's phones. That reduced activity to a metaphorical background hum, also reducing the extra signals hitting Taylor's brain, and Amy got back to work. She took stock of Taylor's jaw and the slight fractures she was now noticing in the skull. The latter she tackled first as they looked to only be the bone, the reinforcements having held together. She made quick work of it as a result.

She had to pause again as they transferred Taylor into the hospital itself, making their way into the secure area Wards and Protectorate members were treated in when brought there. She took the time to set her standard message that she was at the hospital for an emergency and was not to be disturbed. Once they had Taylor settled in a room she got back to work, slowly dismantling many of the damaged enhancements in Taylor's jawbone so that she could re-assemble it.

Now if only she knew why she kept getting distracting flashes of things to be done to fix Taylor's brain, despite double-checking that she hadn't touched it.

Amy finally ran out of things she could do for Taylor. It had taken several hours, but outside of touching Taylor's brain she had fixed pretty much everything. She would want to come back in the morning to check that the cells repairing and replacing Taylor's enhancements were still on-track, and to monitor the progress in Taylor's brain, but that was about it.

When she admitted all of this to one of the nurses she had promptly been kicked out, politely, and told that she didn't need to be here all

night. That, however, brought her to the small conference room she was currently sharing with Miss Militia.

"My apologies Panacea," Miss Militia started. "But with a Ward injured this severely out of costume we need to know what happened."

"I understand," Amy said, leaning back in the chair. It was a nice chair, she might want to make note of the model. Or maybe she was just that tired. "Long story short, Taylor revealed herself to Vicky.

Vicky got quite angry when she found out that Taylor was responsible for her power loss incident a few weeks ago and lashed out. Without Taylor's enhancements she wouldn't have survived the hit at all, and I don't know how well she will recover from the severe concussion she received."

Had Amy been looking she would have seen Miss Militia sit up straighter. "Did Victoria know about Taylor's enhanced durability?"

"As far as I know she only knew that Taylor had Bluetooth connectivity. Nothing else had come up that I know about."

"I see. Are Carol and Mark aware of Taylor's status?"

"No, but she gave permission to tell them about her parahuman and post-fugue statuses after we informed Vicky today. I can show you the text messages if you like."

"That won't be necessary. Would you like a ride home? I find that I have business in the area."

"That would be appreciated."

Miss Militia rang the doorbell of the Dallon household, having requested that Amy stay with her as a witness instead of entering as a family member for the moment.

"Yes?" Carol said as she opened the door, only to stop when she saw Miss Militia. "Miss Militia, what brings you by this evening?"

"Good evening Mrs. Dallon. I find I need to discuss Victoria's actions from this morning," Miss Militia stated. "Amy here is both the only other witness available and served as the emergency medical responder."

"Come on in," Carol said, stepping aside. "Do we need to call Victoria down?"

"It would be appreciated, if only to get her side of the story."

"Give me a moment to fetch her, then I think it would be best if we met in my office."

Carol headed upstairs, which was shortly followed by some banging and mild yelling. After a couple of minutes she returned, Vicky following behind her. With a wave she led everyone to the room she used as an office in the house.

She sat in the chair behind the desk after waving Miss Militia and Amy into the two 'comfortable' seats. This left Vicky with an admittedly nice wooden folding chair. Carol waved to Miss Militia to begin.

"Victoria," Miss Militia started, turning to Vicky. "I will inform you now that both of your parents are cleared for everything you know about Miss Hebert, and several things you do not know. Given that, would you please describe your version of events from this morning?"

"Er," Vicky said, shrinking back. "Taylor revealed that she was a parahuman, and that she had been responsible for my power loss and change a few weeks ago. I got angry and punched her, then flew off, ignoring that she said it was a bad reaction to my aura. By the time I had calmed down Amy had indicated she was in the hospital dealing with an emergency."

"Did you have any indication that Taylor was more durable than a normal human before that point?"

"No."

"Amy," Miss Militia continued as she turned to Amy. "Based on the injuries Taylor suffered, what would have been the result of a human with normal durability taking that punch?"

"They would have died," Amy replied. "If not from the initial impact crushing the skull, then from the likely decapitation or near decapitation that would have resulted. Even being right there I doubt I would have been able to save them."

"Amy," Carol interrupted. "Out of curiosity, what was your first reaction. Covering for Vicky, or healing Taylor?"

"Uh," Amy said, obviously surprised at the question. "Healing Taylor."

"And do you find that odd?" Carol continued.

"Somewhat, now that you have brought it up. But I don't know if that is because Taylor is a friend instead of a stranger."

"May I ask what you are getting at?" Miss Militia asked.

"I have been looking back over things since Mark's depression suddenly started improving," Carol explained. "So far it looks like a simple matter of him actually remembering to take his medicine. But the only other change was Victoria's aura shutting off. It was actually a couple of days ago that I realized I was thinking differently, despite previously having thought I was immune to her aura. All of a sudden I was no longer painting Victoria's actions in the best light in my own head." Carol sighed. "Not to mention I found myself appalled that I had to have the Youth Guard monitoring Amy's hospital hours and threatening fines against New Wave to keep her from overworking herself. A child in my care, regardless of anything else, and I was

only keeping her from overworking herself due to monetary concerns."

"I see," Miss Militia said after it was obvious Carol was done. A quick look at Amy and Vicky showed her that they were both shocked,

though Vicky's had a touch of mild horror. "I am afraid that, given that she has admitted to what she did and that it matches Amy's story, I am going to have to name her in my report of the incident and include a statement that she used excessive force against someone she thought had normal human durability."

"Victoria," Carol said, turning to look at Vicky. "You are grounded until we find out what the outcome of this is. At a minimum. And I don't care that you had a date planned for tomorrow."

"I let Dean know I probably wouldn't be able to go out already," Vicky admitted. "Though I didn't tell him why."

Carol drove Amy to the hospital in the morning, in part to ensure that Amy had no problems getting there with Vicky grounded and in part because she was told that Taylor's father was there. Amy was still wrapping her head around some of the things that had come up the night before, coupled with worry over Taylor's condition.

They made good time, and Amy led the way through the security checkpoints to Taylor's room. There they found Danny, asleep in a chair. Amy shook her head and made her way over to Taylor, taking her hand to check on her recovery.

"WHAT?" Amy exclaimed, waking Danny and startling Carol. "How in the world?"

"Is something wrong?" Danny asked.

"I'm not sure," Amy admitted. "Her enhancements have made the exact progress I expected, basically. But her brain is much further along than it should be. It almost looks like her Corona Pollentia and

Gemma are working to heal her brain? But I don't get how, it almost looks like they are very carefully poking the damaged parts in just the right way?"

"So she'll recover?" Danny was almost pleading at this point. Then again, just last night he had been told that it was likely going to be months before Taylor would recover, assuming she ever did.

"At this rate she might wake up in a week," Amy admitted. "Probably two to three before she can be cleared to leave. But with that much damage, and being healed by her power? I don't know how much of her will remain."

"Mister Hebert?" Carol finally spoke up. "My name is Carol Dallon,

and I think we need to talk. There is a conference room just down the hall that I think will be more suitable while Amy confers with the doctors."

Danny just nodded and followed Carol out. Amy went back to trying to figure out how Taylor's power was healing her. More interestingly,

it seemed to be getting better at it as she monitored it, which was just as confusing.

"Good morning Miss Dallon," one of the doctors said as he came in.

"How is Miss Hebert's recovery progressing?"

"Her body is progressing at the expected rate, it will probably be a week before her enhancements are all back in place," Amy responded. "But her power is actively working to fix the damage to her brain. Instead of months of recovery I think she is looking at weeks. I just don't know how much of her will be left."

Broadcast Administrator, as the combination of the Administrator and Broadcast shards had named itself, was working with the data it had obtained from Shaper, coupled with a number of snapshots of its host's brain taken over the past week when she and Shaper's host had made physical contact. It liked the data its host was providing,

as did several other shards, but if the host didn't recover properly it wouldn't be able to provide that data. That was obviously unacceptable.

To further complicate matters, Shaper's host wouldn't touch brains,

which would have been the easiest way to fix things. But the brain was the one thing all shards interacted with, and Broadcast Administrator had been inspired by its host looking at other restrictions from odd angles, and had been poking at her dreams for itself. Just working around the restrictions placed on the host interaction interface to use it to heal was providing wonderful data. If only it wasn't so slow. And getting feedback on what was working and what wasn't took a while, subjectively.

When Shaper's host came back into range Broadcast Administrator reconnected and traded data on what it had been doing, and got some more suggestions back. When Shaper's host made physical contact Shaper relayed information on what was working and what wasn't in real time, improving the rate of recovery of Broadcast Administrator's host. In return, Broadcast Administrator provided Shaper with the data it was using to bypass the host interaction interface restrictions.

Amy finally finished being astonished at Taylor's recovery and made her way down the hall to where Carol and Danny were meeting. She knocked on the door and waited for them to invite her in.

Carol finally responded with a "come in" and Amy entered. Neither adult looked like they had enjoyed things.

"Have you figured out what is going on with Miss Hebert?" Carol asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"I am still not sure," Amy admitted. "The entire idea that her power is healing her brain, but only her brain, goes against a number of things I thought I knew. We likely need to wait and see what happens. But I think her power was using mine to see what it needed to do, it is the

only reason I can think of that things would speed up a little while I was monitoring her."

"You probably deserve that greenhouse Taylor keeps saying you need," Danny finally said. "I am starting to think I should be looking into getting you one."

"What greenhouse?" Carol asked, now confused. "Why would Amy need one?"

"It is apparently Taylor's idea," Amy admitted. "She came up with it when I healed her after her trigger event. I just didn't believe her. My power would apparently be quite happy if I played with plants, and Taylor had the idea of making rainbow-petaled roses."

"How in the world does healing equate to that?"

"Oh, er, healing is kind of a side effect of complete control over the biology of things I touch? Not that the power testers got what I was saying at the time."

Carol stared at Amy for a minute, then continued. "Ok, I actually studied cases of people only using part of their powers for a couple of months. They all cracked. How in the world did you not go insane from limiting yourself to just healing since you triggered?"

"Er, I didn't realise that I was already starting to crack until I accidentally ignored most of my self-imposed limits?"

"When was that?"

Amy actually blushed. Well, she had already slipped, and had revealed a bit more than she intended. What was one last bit?

"When I ended up dragged into the tinker fugue that enhanced Taylor to begin with." She could admit that much on her own authority.

Taylor could technically provide her part as well. Neither were allowed to talk about Riley, even with Riley's permission.

"Maybe I will make Victoria build you a small greenhouse as part of her punishment," Carol finally mused. Allowing any cape to go nuts because they didn't use their power was bad. If Amy was right about her power? Carol didn't want to think what kinds of situations snapping could cause.

Amy, on the other hand, was busy trying to wrap her head around a seemingly fully sensible Carol. When did the world stop making sense?

Chapter 17 Monday morning Dean swung by the Dallon household to pick Amy up. Vicky was not going to school today due to needing to attend a meeting at the PRT.

"Morning Dean," Amy said as she got into Dean's car. She was obviously still a bit down from the weekend's happenings.

"Morning Amy," Dean replied. "You have any updates on Taylor?"

"Surprisingly good, her power appears to have decided to fix her concussion."

Dean blinked. All Wards were required to take some parahuman classes, and that statement spit in the face of a number of them.

Unless... "Does her power have a healing component she was previously unaware of?"

"Not that I know of, her Corona Pollentia and Gemma appear to be poking at her brain very carefully in ways I don't fully understand to heal the damage. Hopefully without changing too much of who Taylor actually is."

"Huh." Dean had no clue, because that made no sense. Parahuman powers generally didn't work that way. "Maybe the plan Carlos and Dennis came up with can go forward after all, then."

"What plan?"

"Oh, they figured out that until someone higher up gives orders to stop it we can have a schedule to 'field' Maul unofficially. Once she is well enough known that should satisfy the requirement that she be fielded before being introduced, and then she can be introduced as a Ward. At which point we can officially have her patrolling instead of unofficially."

Amy gave that some thought, and figured it would probably work. But not for at least a couple of weeks. "You'll need to give her time to catch up on her schoolwork at a minimum."

"Well duh."

Shortly after they arrived at Arcadia they had split off. Amy had to swing by the office to hand in Vicky's absence note and had volunteered to drop off the certified letter from the hospital regarding Taylor's absence as well.

Vicky's morning was a lot less pleasant. Shortly after Amy had left with Dean she was being yelled at, this time by her aunt. This was followed by being dragged to the PRT for a meeting with New Wave's PRT liaison, Mr. Pelzel, and New Wave's Youth Guard liaison, Miss Genetti. More annoyingly for her, after confirming that Miss Militia's report was accurate she had been kicked out into the hallway.

"Stupid rules about discussing things with the adults first," Vicky muttered as she browsed greenhouses on her phone. "And stupid PRT affiliation rules requiring Youth Guard oversight when the groups have minors."

She stopped muttering to look over an indoor greenhouse design,

before disregarding it as impractical for their house. She had overheard a comment about Amy needing or wanting a greenhouse and while she didn't fully understand it she felt she owed Amy for a number of things, mostly healing Vicky's mistakes. Since she had generally not spent much of her allowance during most of the time she had dated Dean anyway she had some money saved up. So if Amy wanted or needed a greenhouse Vicky figured she may as well see about buying one.

Of course, she wasn't sure how she was going to make things up to Taylor, especially since after she had calmed down Saturday she had realized that she had owed Taylor even before putting her in the

hospital. She hadn't realized just how screwed up her aura had been making people, after all, and Taylor had brought it to light by changing the damned thing so it defaulted to 'off'. Now if only she knew why she only felt bad that she didn't actually feel bad about the punch, since punching gang members had made her feel worse afterwards.

"You can come in now, Miss Dallon," Miss Genetti called from the now-open conference room door.

Vicky put her phone away and made her way into the conference room. She noticed that, unusually, the PRT and Youth Guard liaisons were sitting together on the same side of the table. That was probably a bad sign. Still, Vicky made her way to the seat next to her mother and sat down.

"Before we begin our discussion," Miss Genetti started. "We are curious as to why you were looking up greenhouses."

Vicky blinked. She knew that her mother had put her phone into social media lockdown, but didn't know it was being monitored. A quick glance and her mother was apparently unashamed, holding her own phone up to show Vicky's search history. "I overheard something about Amy wanting or needing a greenhouse, I am not sure which. I figured I owe her enough that I should see if I could find a good one to buy for her."

"Right, moving on," Mr. Pelzel said as Miss Genetti wrote a couple of notes down. "Miss Dallon, we have discussed your situation and feel that there are two acceptable courses of action available. The first, of course, is to officially press charges against you. Given your age you would likely be tried as an adult."

Vicky gulped. She was kinda hoping that wasn't going to come up.

Thanks to quite a bit of yelling she knew the only reasons she hadn't been arrested already were a combination of this being her 'first offense' and some of the conditions of the PRT affiliate status New Wave held requiring an attempt at working with the New Wave

representatives before taking action. Neither of those would have helped had she already been 18, though.

"The other option is to agree to a probationary period of no less than three years with a number of conditions," Miss Genetti took over.

"These conditions would include a clause that states that if you should be found to have engaged in similarly excessive acts of violence during the probationary period then charges will be brought up in regards to your actions against Miss Hebert at that time. The final length of the probationary period will depend on a number of factors, including Miss Hebert's recovery status and the results of a psychiatric evaluation."

Yea, Vicky wasn't quite surprised. She had hit someone she didn't believe to be a brute hard enough to kill them on contact. It was a miracle that said person was a brute by tinker-bullshit, honestly.

"They have included mandatory anger management classes and training with the PRT in restraint in the probationary terms," Sarah added. "As well as a prohibition against you being left in charge of minors, in general, until you have at a minimum cleared the anger management course."

"You would also be required to be monitored while patrolling," Carol added. "Whether it be patrolling with the adults of New Wave, joining the Wards on official patrols to fall under their oversight rules, or joining Protectorate members on patrol. You would not be permitted to patrol on your own in any way during the probationary period."

Vicky sighed. "I don't suppose you already wrote everything down for me to read?"

Sarah slid a folder over to Vicky, who opened it up to start reading.

She didn't think they would be insisting on anything deal-breaking,

so to speak, but her mother was a lawyer. She would be reading everything, even the fine print, before agreeing to this.

If she didn't, well, letting them try her as an adult would be the safe option. Because her mother and aunt would not calm down anytime soon and she had only realized over the past couple of days that her force field didn't seem to protect her against sonic attacks. Or at least it didn't protect against those delivered by her mother and aunt.

Missy flipped through PHO while she waited for the others to make it through the crowd outside. Apparently a bystander had put several bits of evidence together on Saturday, noting that Taylor was seen entering the alleyway with 'Panacea and Glory Girl'. The latter had flown off, and the former had left with the summoned ambulance. No sign of Taylor at that point, but someone had been loaded into the ambulance. Of course, this could have meant a large number of things, especially as the alley had an exit to another street if you went down it.

But, for a change they had come to the right conclusion and stuck with it. In this case that Glory Girl had punched Jacob's niece hard enough to require a hospital visit despite Panacea's presence, which meant a concussion at a minimum. The fact that Taylor had not made it to school this morning had basically confirmed it in the eyes of the public and caused a spontaneous protest to form, the public demanding that the PRT do something about the problem.

Missy did have to laugh at the primary reason for the protest being that 'heroic' capes shouldn't be attacking civilians minding their own business, though. They probably would have just shrugged and moved on had they known Taylor was a cape too, regardless of branding. But for some reason the very idea that Taylor might be a cape had become impossible for the public to comprehend.

"Hello Missy," Dennis said as he finally came in. "Chris and Carlos decided to skip out on today, given that they don't have patrol. Why did you even bother fighting through the mob?"

"The ice cream parlor was deserted," Missy answered. "So I had no problems at all."

"Even when Taylor isn't around we still get the stupid jokes," Dennis whined, heading off to get changed.

Missy went back to PHO and poked at the Maul tracking threads.

Apparently 'Maul' had been spotted in Canada this morning, which had spawned an entirely new thread of theories about identity and if Maul was actually joining the Guild and not the Wards or Protectorate. Of course, the theories on identity were shot down fairly quickly by the moderators, but what pieces had been left behind were all amusing.

"Hello Missy," Dean said as he came in. "Why in the world did you bother fighting your way through the mob on a light patrol day that you aren't scheduled for?

"I didn't," Missy answered. This was still fun. Even if she was annoyed at the reminder that since Sophia was taken away they had been relegated to 'light duty' as a group for some reason, so no more than one pair was supposed to patrol a day.

"Gym or ice cream parlor?"

"Ice cream parlor."

"Good to know." And he just wandered off to get changed.

Ok, maybe it wasn't still as fun with Dean, she had been hoping he would ask some of the right questions so she could be the one to tell him about the access keys class. Instead he apparently decided to just run with it? Oh well. Maybe she should get started on her homework? It would be easier to do here than at home, after all.

Amy shook her head as she let go of Taylor's hand. The process being used to repair the concussion was amazing, and at some point since the day before a tinkertech scanner had been set up to monitor the process.

"Armsmaster brought that in first thing this morning," the nurse with her said, answering her unasked question. "Apparently the process may be important for a number of reasons, and not only for understanding how powers work."

"Well, the enhancements are moving along steadily," Amy said,

gesturing to Taylor. "They are on track for full repair by the weekend.

The speed of the ongoing repair of her brain has stabilized. She could probably be woken up by Thursday at this point, but waiting for the weekend is probably the better option."

The nurse filled that in on Taylor's chart and Amy made her way up into the less-secure areas of the hospital. She might as well see if there was anyone to heal while she was here anyway.

"Amy, what are you doing here?" the nurse at the emergency room station asked, looking concerned. "We didn't call you and you aren't scheduled to be in today."

"I was checking up on my friend," Amy replied. "And figured I might as well stop by before heading home."

"Ah, yes," the nurse said, looking more relieved. "That is understandable. I think we have a few patients that could use your touch to speed up their recovery, mainly a couple of kids. But unless the doctors say otherwise I think we will skip the three idiots that seem to have shot each other."

Amy snorted, the nurses in particular liked to make gang members with non-critical injuries heal the slow way as an incentive to not be gang members. The doctors tended to disagree, instead preferring to charge them extra for parahuman treatment. Oh well. She grabbed the spare robe she used when not in her full costume at the hospital and made her way down the hall, taking the clipboard the nurse had prepared for her as she passed by the nurse's station again.

Carol sighed as she leaned back in her chair. Sarah had spread herself out on the couch. "Did I go wrong somewhere, or is the world just crap?"

"Little of each, I think," Sarah answered. "The whole business with Vicky's aura certainly wasn't helping, but you were never all that fair with Amy even before Vicky triggered."

"Yes, I have been made aware of that. By my own self-reflection,

even. Why were Mark and I chosen for that again?"

"You had fewer mouths to feed at the time, coupled with you liking the irony of adopting his kid after his lieutenant made you incapable of having more a few years prior. Even if said lieutenant was punished quite publically."

"Ah, yea. Forgot about that. Even if Amy can likely fix that I am not sure I should have her do so. I have screwed up enough with the two of them, do I really want to try for yet another?"

"Didn't Amy fix that a year and a half to two years ago, I think it was when you broke your arm in three places?"

Carol blinked as she thought about it. "Goddamnit, you're right, and I haven't been on birth control since. Is my sex life that bad?"

"Maybe that's why you are so cranky all the time." Carol answered that with a pillow to Sarah's face.

The resulting pillow and cushion fight made them feel better, but didn't really solve anything. But Mark did wonder about the mess when he wandered downstairs an hour later.

Danny had picked up a case of beer on the way home from the hospital that afternoon, feeling a need to get drunk. He swore that if Taylor pulled through this time then he would buy Jacob a round the next time they crossed paths. After all, without her upgrades Taylor

wouldn't have even had the chance to recover. Riley he wasn't sure about, not having ready access to her and honestly not knowing a lot about her. He might have to ask Jacob on that one.

Amy, on the other hand, he had gotten to know a bit about. Earlier in the day he had ordered a selection of non-local and rare plant seeds and bulbs for her, after confirming with Carol that a greenhouse was going to happen for the girl. He figured the variety would help keep her power happy, which could only help keep Amy happy and stable.

He didn't think it was enough, but wasn't sure what else to do for the girl.

Victoria he was less certain about. He wanted her locked up and the key thrown away on some levels, but he wanted answers more. Why had she punched Taylor like that, given that several people had informed him she wasn't normally like that? With any luck some answers would be forthcoming in the coming days. He would wait to decide what to do about the girl until after he had them, or knew they weren't coming.

For now, he had a beer to finish, then he was going to go pack up a few things to leave at the hospital tomorrow for Taylor. He figured her tablet and school things would be appreciated whenever she woke up, if only so she had something to do while she recovered.

Assuming Amy cleared her for things, anyway.

Emily sat there as her dialysis ran its course, thinking about Taylor Hebert. She had only found out the day before that she had fallen victim to a targeted tinker fugue. Luckily for her it left her durable enough to survive an apparent full-strength hit from Glory Girl. Emily was going to have to call a proper meeting to discuss some of that once Miss Hebert had recovered. The fact that the power testing department was currently incompetent with their normal department head on vacation didn't seem to be helping anything.

Miss Dallon had been a problem due to the some of the rules surrounding PRT affiliates and their underage members, coupled

with the specifics of New Wave's agreements with the PRT. This had been her first recorded incident of violence potentially leading to death outside of a confirmed life-or-death situation, so she couldn't be arrested without a warrant if she was no longer an immediate threat and the victim wasn't confirmed to actually be dead. Getting the warrant required that she still be actively 'patrolling' or the New Wave leadership not be willing to talk about it, neither had been the case. At the same time the charges that should be filed against her would likely reveal some of Miss Hebert's secrets, which also went against some of the PRT's mandates, adding to the entire pile of headaches so long as Miss Hebert's recovery was uncertain. On top of all of that, a call had come in from the Protectorate thinkers informing them that Miss Dallon's actions likely had outside influences and that they shouldn't push to imprison her.

What those influences were was a mystery, though, as they had specifically indicated that she wasn't being mastered by another parahuman. Which at least meant they didn't need to put the entire city through master/stranger protocols.

The fact that she and her family had been willing to agree to the admittedly restrictive probation terms was probably a good thing, all things considered. But it grated on Emily that Miss Dallon effectively got away with her lapse in judgement with what amounted to a proverbial slap on the wrist. Unfortunately, Emily didn't make the rules and hadn't signed any of the agreements. She just had to enforce and/or abide by them, no matter how frustrating it was to her personally.

Of course, the fact that Miss Hebert was recovering so quickly was itself amazing. Somehow her power was healing her brain, despite not having a known healing element. Instead of months before they would know if the girl would ever wake up again they should know by the end of the week, which was fascinating even to Emily, if only because it was so unusual. Now if only Emily knew how in the world the girl had gotten tied up in classified information that even Emily couldn't access.

On top of all of that, Emily felt she owed the girl at least one big favor. It may have been a fluke of timing, but revealing that Calvert of all people was secretly a parahuman? They had been discreetly following him, being incredibly careful given what they knew of his powers. Again, thanks to Miss Hebert.

Perhaps she would arrange to meet with her in the hospital once she awoke, if only to get some discussions out of the way. She could disseminate information about her to those cleared for it afterwards.

Thomas Calvert scowled, dropping another timeline where he had been followed by a covert tail. He suspected he was only spotting them around a third of the time, which was a problem. He hadn't been able to figure out who was tailing him, but given that every tail

he had spotted so far was white he suspected the Empire Eighty-

Eight. But none of his moles, anywhere, had heard a thing about him

being targeted by the gangs. Or by anyone else. He was having to severely curtail a number of his plans for the time being. He couldn't use supplies obtained in dropped timelines, after all.

The worst part was he couldn't be certain how long the tails had been there. He had only noticed them a few days ago, purely by accident in a timeline he had then used to collect as much information as he could before he dropped it. Unfortunately he had then found that the information was contradictory and thus was likely false. He still wasn't sure if they were tailing him because they knew he was Coil, or if it was part of some other plot. Perhaps to interrogate him on the inner workings of the PRT?

He split another timeline off, knowing what vehicle today's tail was driving would help him avoid it. He had to take care of some things in his base soon. Things he had to keep the timeline for at that, such as ensuring the long-term self-destruct timer was reset. And he didn't trust anyone else with that code, or even the knowledge that it existed.

Still, he had gone to the effort of arranging for some contingency plans. If whomever was tailing him actually killed or captured him,

somehow, they would be dealt with. One way or another.

Chapter 18 Taylor woke to find herself staring at what looked to be a hospital ceiling. That particular view was becoming far too common, in her opinion, and the slight all-over pain with occasional random spikes wasn't helping this time. It took her a couple of minutes to realize that she had no idea what the date or time was, which had become highly unusual. A little mental poking showed she still had Bluetooth,

but that her phones weren't in range? Actually, nothing appeared to be in range. Maybe they hadn't been brought to the hospital?

Why was she in the hospital anyway? She thought back to the last few things she remembered, which were fuzzy at best. She thought there was something about visiting the boardwalk? That must have been Saturday, as she more clearly remembered attending classes and doing homework Friday. So what had happened on Saturday?

She found herself falling back asleep a few minutes later, suddenly too tired to think.

Taylor woke to find herself staring at what looked to be a hospital ceiling. She was fairly certain she had already had this revelation,

actually, she was just having a hard time recalling why that was. She mentally reached out to her phones to find that they weren't connecting, which also felt very familiar. Why was she expecting pain, though?

She stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, wondering what was going on. Finally she tried to turn her head, only to find she couldn't as it was strapped into something. She tried feeling for a call button,

but unlike the previous time she recalled being in a hospital there wasn't one right next to either of her hands.

She considered trying to yell to get someone's attention, but found herself very sleepy all of a sudden. Within moments she had fallen

back asleep.

Taylor woke to find herself staring at what looked to be a hospital ceiling. For some reason she was happy that Amy was partially obstructing her view, though. Not because she was happy to see Amy, which she was, but because of the obstructing her view bit.

Which seemed odd.

"Good morning Taylor," Amy said, smiling down at her with an apprehensive look. "How are you feeling?"

"Confused with a heavy dose of deja-vu," Taylor responded. "Why am I in the hospital?"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"I remember going to class on Friday, and doing homework Friday night, and something about the boardwalk?"

"Huh, that's better than I expected, I thought you might be running a few more days behind. So, Saturday you met Vicky and I at the boardwalk and revealed that you were a parahuman to her. She didn't take the revelation that you were responsible for her power failing well and punched you in the jaw hard enough to cause significant damage. If not for your enhancements you would have likely died instantly, and if not for your power you would have taken months to recover from the brain damage."

"My power?"

"It has been healing your brain, somehow? I don't quite understand it."

Have you been healing me?

Affirmation

With Shaper's help? Who is Shaper? Wait, is that Amy's snark?

Agreement

Huh. Well thank you. I don't think I would have liked to wake up to find I had missed months.

Hmmm. Maybe she should thank Shaper too.

Thank you Shaper!

[Acceptance]

Oh, my snark paid you back? Good for it.

[Agreement]

Oh, you wanted to help Amy recover? Even better. Thank you!

"It looks like my snark has been putting my brain back together with information your snark gave it?" Taylor half-questioned. "Though it wasn't supposed to be able to, so it took it longer? That wasn't quite clear."

"That is quite interesting," Amy admitted. "But generally covers what we thought had been happening."

"And your snark was paid back with information on how my snark had figured out how to heal me so that it could heal you."

"Er, what?" Amy looked genuinely confused.

"You were going through some kind of withdrawal and your snark wanted to help?"

"I guess I have been feeling better over the past couple of days? Not really sure how to take that."

"That does bring up the question of how long I was out. I don't seem to have an internal clock with none of my Bluetooth devices in range?"

"They are all in range, we just made sure that the Bluetooth in all of them was off so as to not cause your brain further harm. Well, we turned them off at first, then went and just made sure Bluetooth was off a couple days ago so they would be safe for you to use while you heal. At any rate, you have been in here a little over a week at this point. You probably have another week before you will be permitted to leave, and you can't turn Bluetooth back on until then."

"Under penalty of what?"

"Under penalty of a potential stroke killing you because your Bluetooth organ has no protections against harming your brain while it is still healing."

Taylor flinched. That sounded painful. "Right. No Bluetooth. So, is there anything I need to be caught up on?"

Amy giggled. "Way too much. You have no idea what kind of shitstorm happened while you were in here. It started when someone put two and two together and actually got four for a change and figured out that Vicky had hurt you. They demanded something be done, in a way that implies nobody would have cared if they knew you were a parahuman."

"Huh. I don't even remember being hurt."

"You wouldn't," Amy grimaced. "Your brain was not in a good place,

trust me on that. So Vicky was already on the fast track to probation,

but the demand for the PRT to do something caused that to become a bit more public than originally intended. She isn't all that popular right now, but her probation kicked off the next part. She had to get looked at by a parahuman therapist to find out if she was being pushed into violence by her power, and they called your uncle in."

"Wasn't he supposed to be busy?"

"Yea, they didn't visit Texas this week. He showed up on Wednesday, checked on you, grilled me for two hours before declaring me non-complicit and healthy, and then hunted down Vicky. After several hours he found that her power wanted her to hit people, so the fact she had spent nearly three weeks without patrolling had probably caused problems. Then of course she was also stewing over the power loss bit for the same three weeks. When you told her that you were the one responsible for the power loss,

reasoning aside, you gave all of that a target."

"So she punched me?"

"So she punched you. Hard. Thursday he met with Carol and Mark about it and somehow figured out that they also had similar needs they weren't fulfilling. Carol has been mostly ignoring her cape needs in favor of her professional life and Mark had started ignoring them in favor of being a stay at home dad for Vicky and I. That certainly didn't help his depression, which just caused him to stay home more,

which made him more depressed. The Pelhams will be meeting with Jacob next week, he is sitting down with the Wards and Protectorate members this weekend just to be safe."

"Er, how much of this should you be telling me?"

"Vicky asked that I let you know about her parts, the rest is all public knowledge already. New Wave being transparent and all combined with the PRT assuaging fears. I was announced as having a clean bill of mental health, the greenhouse Vicky will likely be installing in our backyard next week will help keep me there."

"Oh. Good for you with the greenhouse."

"Thanks for suggesting it in the first place. Getting back to you, it looks like you are healing up fine. The rebuilding of your enhancements is a little behind what I expected, but that is because we forgot to take them into account when filling your IV so they ran

out of raw materials. Now that you're awake you can start eating again so that shouldn't be an issue going forward."

Taylor's stomach decided that was a wonderful time to growl. "Er,

yea, I am a bit hungry?"

"A nurse is already preparing a meal for you, she should be by in a few minutes. Now then, most of the problems left in your brain are in the parietal lobe. Because of that I suspect you will have some issues with awareness of your body and things may taste off. In particular you need to be careful when handling things, your enhanced strength may not be fully under your control right now."

"So be gentle. Gotcha. So what am I supposed to do while I finish recovering?"

"Well, your father brought your tablet and backpack so you can probably work on catching up on the week of school you missed.

Tomorrow, anyway, nothing intense today. I was told that you should only be allowed your personal phone for now as you are on medical leave for Wards business, so you aren't to bother checking up there.

We just aren't sure which phone is which as you didn't label them, or your sling bag pockets."

"The purple background is my personal phone and the violet background is my Wards phone."

Amy blinked and made her way over to the corner of the room.

There she picked up both phones from their chargers. She then proceeded to stare at both lock screens. "I can't see a difference."

"It was fairly obvious to me?" Taylor offered. Amy turned the phones towards Taylor. "The one in your left hand is my personal phone."

"So apparently your eyes are bullshit," Amy said, squinting at the two phones for a moment before putting the Wards phone down. She then picked tablet up from where it was sitting next to the phone chargers and made her way over to Taylor. "I wasn't aware we had

improved them quite that much. Or that the screens on the phones could make that distinction."

"I'd noticed that I now have good night vision, but hadn't realized that I was seeing more colors. I think I assumed it was just because my eyes were working properly? It isn't like I suddenly found myself seeing heat or anything. And the phones are tinkertech, so bullshit?

Also, why didn't you just call one of them to see which one rang?"

Amy blinked. "Huh, apparently the group of us trying to figure out which was which without knowing your passwords weren't fans of the obvious." Amy then handed over the phone and tablet, shaking her head a little. "For today I don't want you to do much beyond poke around PHO or something. You can strain your brain a bit with schoolwork starting tomorrow if you want."

"So, anything interesting in the news in the week I missed?"

"Not really, no, beyond the things surrounding you. You already know that the Slaughterhouse Nine failed to manifest in Texas, so that didn't create the usual media frenzy. The sudden uproar of public rage over your injuries seems to have caused the local gangs to back down from the furor. So things have been somewhat quiet."

"How did you come to know about the Nine, anyway? I can't see them needing outside healing all that often, yet you were fairly friendly with Riley?"

"Riley went tinker fugue on herself and collapsed mid-fugue. They called me in to put her back together. I wasn't all that happy about it,

at least once I realized that Riley was Bonesaw and wasn't just Bonesaw's test subject as I was originally told. But after some explanations I understood better."

"Ahh yes, the wonderful trick of telling a lie by telling the truth. I get a lot of use out of that one as of late. I think all capes that haven't gone public with their identities learn it too."

"Pretty sure all capes learn that one eventually, unless they don't feel they have any secrets to keep."

Taylor took a moment to look around the room. "So, it appears that they didn't let dad sit next to my bed for a week. Where is he?"

"I lied and told him I would be waking you up in about an hour, and he had been told to not come in today until I was going to wake you up."

They were interrupted by the nurse arriving with a tray full of food.

This resulted in a couple of minutes adjusting Taylor's bed and ensuring that Taylor had enough muscle control to eat safely. The nurse then saw herself out.

"Right," Amy said. "By the time your father gets here you should be done eating. I'm going to go let some others know that you are awake in the meantime."

Taylor gave Amy a thumbs-up, having a mouth full of food. Amy just grinned before heading out of the room.

Taylor was staring at the bent fork on her empty plate when Danny arrived. She hadn't quite believed Amy on the enhanced strength issues until she flinched and the fork had an extra sharp angle in the handle. Luckily she was basically done by that point.

"Er, Taylor?" Danny said, staring at her. "Why are you staring at a bent fork?"

"Hi Dad. Apparently I need to be very careful," Taylor responded. "I don't quite have control over my own strength right now? The fork is my object lesson for not believing Amy when she told me that."

"I see. So no hugs from you for the moment," Danny said, leaning down and hugging Taylor. "Guess you have to stick with getting hugs instead of giving them. How are you feeling?"

"Tired, but not physically? Much less hungry now that I've eaten."

"Well, if you think you need to sleep, do so. Amy thinks sometimes that is going to be your power pushing you to sleep so it can continue to fix things."

"That makes some sense. She also told me to not do too much today, but that I could start on catching up on my schoolwork tomorrow."

"Yea, your teachers were very understanding about your absence,

despite just having started. Making the national news probably didn't hurt."

"The what? Amy didn't say anything about that!"

"Heh, yea. The entire thing has become a combination of two lessons for the country. The first lesson basically boiling down to 'being a cape can suck'. The second being that capes who don't deal with the needs their powers push on them can be dangerous to everyone, regardless of the cape's supposed alignment. Both are things that the PRT has tried to push before, but you nearly getting your head punched off by a 'hero' has actually driven them home."

"Great. I am now a minor celebrity for having been punched out by Glory Girl."

"I think it is more that you are Jacob's niece, really. That got punched out by Glory Girl. I will admit to being amused at some of the theories as to what kind of power you would get should you ever trigger, though."

"I can take a hit from Glory Girl and they still don't think I have triggered? What the hell?"

"They think you survived due to the apparently obvious combination of 'Glory Girl held back' coupled with 'Panacea was right there to

save your life'. Granted, they aren't exactly wrong about the latter.

You weren't even breathing when Amy got to you."

Taylor sat there wondering if the world was going to make sense any time soon. After a couple minutes she decided that the answer was 'probably not' since snarks didn't seem to care about making sense.

"So, any chance one of my bags over there has my all-foam baton?"

Taylor finally asked. "My snark is apologetic that 'being unconscious for a week' doesn't cancel out the fact that I haven't hit anything with my power for a week. I don't want to know what it would have been like after months."

Danny blinked, then got up to check. He found the foam baton in the sling bag and brought it back over to Taylor. "Here you go. Though I think you said something about repetitive hitting with the same object not counting as much?"

"I think my snark is going to do everything it can to ensure that it does count for now? And that was with a pencil, and trying not to be noticed at that. Still, my snark prefers me not crazy, and I'm not about to argue with it on that front." Taylor punctuated this with a light hit on her father's head with her power. "Besides, it can be fun to hit things, even without powers."

Danny just shook his head. "So, I can't actually stick around all day.

In part because I have too many things to do, and in part because I was told if I tried then I would be forcibly removed for your own good."

Taylor blinked at that one. "How does that work?"

"The running theory is that if you have visitors then you are less likely to just set everything aside and sleep. So visitors are to be kept to a minimum. That and the more people you are focusing attention on the worse things might be? You are in an odd situation and nobody is entirely sure how to handle it."

"So the goal is to let me bore myself to sleep so that I get the sleep I need?"

"Er, basically. I think? We don't even know if the sleep will help at this point, that is an educated guess."

So, I don't suppose you know if sleep will help me heal at this point?

Agreement. Clarification.

Huh, interesting.

"My snark says that most of the need for sleep has passed," Taylor said. "But more sleep than normal is still a good thing and it will put me to sleep if I stay up too long."

"I will have to pass that on as I leave," Danny replied as he pulled out a small notepad and pencil from his pocket. He made a quick note,

then tore the top sheet off of the notepad. "The only other thing I have been asked to do is to let you know that Vicky is trying to come up with a way to make things up to you. She, however, has no ideas whatsoever. Nor do I, for that matter."

"Not sure myself, I will give it some thought."

Danny looked up at the door where a nurse had entered. The nurse gave Danny a look, then started to collect the dishes from Taylor's breakfast.

"Right, guess my time is up. Get plenty of rest."

"Bye Dad."

The nurse followed Danny out and shut the door behind her. Taylor wasn't feeling any need to sleep just yet, so she carefully propped the tablet up on the table next to her. It only took her a couple of minutes to get it onto the hospital's wifi, then she browsed to PHO. It didn't take long to find the primary thread about her injury and the

theories surrounding it. She skimmed that thread but it looked to be in wild mass guess territory and she didn't want to elaborate.

Moving on, she found a thread that had been started a couple hours earlier. The subject "Rules for being punched by Glory Girl" had drawn her in and she found they were arguing over what the first couple of rules should be. Smirking, she decided to contribute her thoughts on the first three rules.

Rule 1: If at all possible, Do not get punched by Glory Girl Rule 2: Ensure Panacea is on-hand and of a friendly disposition to you before any punching is done Rule 3: Do not get punched in the face Let them make what they would of that. Though she obviously had to leave out the lesson she had learned about leaving people she had negatively affected, or maybe affected at all, in the dark about what had happened for significant lengths of time. Or, she supposed,

leaving allies in the dark? Otherwise rule 1 would probably have been 'do not give Glory Girl a reason to punch you'.

Amy made her way into Taylor's room, finding that Taylor was asleep. A quick tap ensured she would stay that way while Amy adjusted the bed to a more comfortable sleeping position. Amy then moved the tablet a little further away from the edge of the table and left the room, turning the lights off on her way past.

Even if Taylor's current rate of recovery should have her fully healed by Wednesday morning there was no way Amy was signing off on Taylor leaving the hospital until Friday night or Saturday, and the doctors and nurses were all in agreement. The fact that Taylor's snark had agreed that sleep was a good thing did help with their interpretation of what was going on, though.

Amy stopped in the middle of the hall. "Did I just think of Taylor's power as a snark?"

Chapter 19 Sunday morning Taylor was woken by a nurse with breakfast. She ate, then decided she might as well start on some of the school work backlog while waiting to see who would visit her. She started by looking over her Arcadia email to see if there were any changes to things by her teachers.

"Huh, I apparently get a pass in parahuman studies for being in the middle of things?" Taylor said aloud. "Guess I shouldn't complain,

even if I will probably have to talk to the class about it at some point."

"Mister Hill is apparently well known for that," Danny said from the doorway. "Amy told me that he had likely cleared you for the month because of all of this, actually."

"Hi Dad," Taylor replied as she poked at the email some more. "Yea,

looks like I get an automatic pass for however long this lasts as a classroom discussion. Because getting punched hard enough to be hospitalized is enough work for any student."

"I happen to agree on that one. So, any other teachers decide being punched was enough for them?"

"Not really so far, though I am excused from the reading assignment in English, and my programming teacher passed along assignments for me to work on since I can't participate in classroom work while in the hospital. My math teacher said that I am excused for lateness on any homework assignments due while I am in the hospital, provided I can find a way to go back in time and not turn two months worth in early."

"How did you get two months ahead of your assignments in math? I thought you were working on getting a week ahead at a time across all your classes?"

"I didn't read the assignments list correctly and had finished two months worth before I double-checked and found my mistake.

Admittedly I did think it was a bit much at the time."

Danny just rolled his eyes at that. "So, do you need anything?"

"Don't suppose that rolling table they serve me my meals on tilts so I can drop books on it?"

Danny moved the table over and, after a bit of fiddling, found that it did tilt, but had to be rolled in from the opposite side of the bed to tilt in the correct direction. "There you go, and it is easy to swing out of the way. I guess I will leave you to it, and remember that if you feel tired you should rest." He gave her a hug before she could respond,

then darted out, passing Amy as she came in.

"Hi Taylor," Amy said, coming over and poking Taylor's hand.

"Morning Amy," Taylor responded. Huh, she could tell that Amy's snark was busy. Was that because of something changing with her power, or because her snark was listening in?

Agreement

Ahh, her snark was listening in. Good to know, if a bit disappointing that she wouldn't be able to just tell when someone was using their powers.

"Well, it looks like your enhancements will be back up to snuff by tomorrow," Amy finally said. "Unfortunately I've been yelled at for visiting the hospital every day to check on you and then deal with a few patients, so unless they call me for something else I have been told I can only come in on Wednesday."

"We do both still have access to cellphones you know," Taylor said,

picking her phone up from the table next to her and waving it. "You can send me a text and I will respond when I am awake."

"But I can't poke you over the cell phone to check your health."

Taylor blinked at that.

Could we somehow connect to her snark over the phone so she could check my health?

Interest [Interest]

Oh, sorry, didn't notice you were in there Shaper. So you both like that idea? Well, let me know if you figure something out.

"Well, I am sure they will call you if I need a checkup," Taylor said. "Is it really that bad not being able to check on me for a couple of days?"

"The process going on in your brain is fascinating on a number of levels, and I have been trying to read up some on technology to see if I can decipher your Bluetooth organ. So far that is a big no,

though."

"Even if you can't decipher it maybe you can eventually reproduce it?"

"That is looking less and less likely. Riley and I think she actually helped make some of the processing unit outside of you before it was included, so it would probably take both of us working together to make another. Or at least a technology-type tinker working with me, probably linked through you in the process."

"Oh well, guess I have to stay unique on that front then."

Amy slapped Taylor lightly at that. They chatted a little about school matters before Amy left.

Shortly after Taylor had eaten lunch she felt her uncle approaching the hospital. She put the assignment she had been looking at aside

and waited for him to make it down to her room.

"Hello Taylor," Jacob said, collapsing into the chair in her room.

"Hello," Taylor said, looking concerned. "Why do you look exhausted?"

"The Wards were fairly easy to deal with yesterday, and generally just need to experiment a bit more with their powers if that. I am,

professionally, asking you to help them with coming up with new ideas should you be inspired, which is why I can tell you. The Protectorate members were less easy to deal with, but I made it through them all. Not allowed to ask you to help them, though, so I can't say a thing beyond that."

"I hear the Pelhams are coming up in your schedule this week?"

"Yea, hope to have them done by Wednesday. I'll probably be out of town before you get out of the hospital, given how badly this has shaken up my schedule. I may not even have time to swing by to say goodbye, honestly."

"You still on for a visit to Texas soon?"

"Likely next week, maybe the week after. Not only because a couple of the Nine need it but also to distract people from this mess."

"So, are you here in part to unwind, or because you need to talk to me too?"

"I have a good enough view to clear you, luckily. You are remarkably in-tune with your power, probably because you can literally just ask it questions."

"It also complains to me directly at times."

"Good to know. As a fair warning, I have been instructing everyone to seek you out if they need assistance figuring out what their powers want from them. The Pelhams will only be told to seek out

'Maul' but the rest knew or were cleared to know your civilian identity anyway."

"Thanks for the warning."

Jacob left after a good twenty minutes of additional small-talk. Taylor made to get back to her school work, but a nurse found her asleep half an hour later.

After Jacob left Taylor alternated between school work and sleeping,

stopping to eat when the nurses brought her food. This continued into Monday where the nurses noted an expected decrease in Taylor's sleep time, coupled with an understandable increase in the focus she was putting into her school work. She was still taking frequent breaks without prompting, so they weren't concerned.

Danny showed up before and after work, but otherwise Taylor had no visitors.

This shift from sleeping to school work continued more noticeably into Tuesday, but with the added issue of Taylor taking fewer breaks as the day progressed. Danny didn't notice in the morning, but come his evening visit even he was getting worried. But he didn't want to say anything to Taylor just yet, he would instead check with Amy the following day.

During shift change Wednesday morning the outgoing nurses pointed out that Taylor had spent a significant time working on her school work overnight. This was brought to the doctors who decided that intervention was needed.

"Miss Hebert?" one of the nurses said, a little after Danny had left to get to work. Taylor didn't respond, focusing entirely on the assignment she was apparently working on. "Taylor?" the nurse tried,

getting the same lack of response.

Finally deciding enough was enough, the nurse picked the tablet Taylor was working on up off of the keyboard.

"Wha? Oh, hi," Taylor finally said, fidgeting a little now that she wasn't focused on her assignment. "Sorry, I was focused on that problem."

"We noticed," the nurse said. "You have been way too focused on the school work. What's wrong?"

"Er, I am trying to distract myself from wanting to go hunt down some snarks, since none have been around since Sunday."

"I see. How badly do you want to hunt them down?"

"The drive to do so keeps getting worse. But Amy is coming by later today, so I think I can hold out."

The nurse gave Taylor another look, then carefully put the tablet back down. Taylor gave her a little smile, and then focused back on her assignment.

Hannah sighed as she reviewed what she was allowed to see of Jacob's notes on the Wards. Luckily they were generally doing ok,

and for the most part they only needed to experiment more. Dean was the only one that didn't get that diagnosis, actually, though Missy and Chris had less of a need to experiment than Carlos and Dennis did.

She was interrupted from her thoughts by her phone ringing. Taking a look she saw that the call was coming from the hospital.

"Miss Militia," she answered.

"This is Doctor Ryder at Brockton General," came from the other end. "We have a problem with Miss Hebert."

Hannah sat up straighter. "What is the problem?"

"She is very fidgety, pushing all of her attention into her school work,

potentially to the point where her health is going to start to suffer.

When asked she said that she had to distract herself from hunting down snarks, due to none having been around. We aren't fully certain what that is supposed to mean."

Hannah gave that some thought, and then remembered that Taylor had mentioned a need to be around parahumans in her paperwork.

"Hasn't she had frequent visitors?"

"To ensure she wasn't staying awake because of visitors they have been generally limited to short and infrequent visits. Further, we had to restrict Miss Dallon's visits as she would then attempt a round of healing afterwards, given she was here anyway. I believe her only visitor since Sunday has been her father as a result."

Shit, that likely meant no parahumans unless one happened to be injured and ended up in the hospital, after a period of infrequent parahuman presence. "I understand and will come by personally to resolve the situation."

"Thank you Miss Militia."

"It is no problem Doctor Ryder."

Hannah put the phone away after the call disconnected, then quickly checked Taylor's file for additions. Finding none she closed down her laptop and made her way into the hall. A couple of minutes later she was outside of the Director's office where the secretary waved her in without even asking why she was there.

"Hello Hannah," Emily said as the door closed behind Hannah,

before scowling at her computer for a moment. She shook her head for a moment, then turned to give her full attention to the cape.

"What's wrong?"

"Accidental neglect of a Ward's needs," Hannah replied. "Miss Hebert hasn't had parahuman contact since Sunday for perfectly

sensible reasons, and her file at the hospital likely doesn't mention a need for contact."

"Crap, how did this come to your attention?"

"The hospital called due to Miss Hebert focusing her attention on school work to avoid hunting snarks, reaching a point where it is likely to start impacting her health."

Emily blinked. "Snarks. Isn't that her word for powers?"

"Yes, it is. I am going to go visit her, hopefully that will be enough to calm her down at least."

"I've been meaning to go see her anyway, and my morning meeting just canceled, clearing my day. So if you don't mind I think I will go with you. And, for that matter, we should probably grab another parahuman, to play it safe."

"The only other parahuman that I know is currently in the building is Ethan."

"He's generally good with kids, so isn't actually a bad choice. Text him to meet us in the motor pool, if you would?"

Taylor hadn't actually noticed when she had run out of assignments she had missed and moved into getting ahead in her homework again. She had gotten into a cycle of doing work for one class,

submitting it via email, then moving on to the next, eventually looping back to the first class and starting over. Needing the distraction she didn't actually care what kind of assignment it was, just that it needed doing. She was currently in the middle of a science class assignment.

In her snark-deprived state, though, nothing was going to stop her from noticing the two snarks that entered her range. Her fingers stopped typing mid-word as she examined the two snarks. She

recognized Miss Militia's, but the other one she hadn't met yet. She leaned back onto the bed as she poked the new snark.

Hello!

[Acknowledgement]

How are you?

[Content]

Ah, your human likes to come up with interesting ways to use you.

That is nice. What do you do for your human?

[Elaboration]

You mess with kinetic energy? Neat. But your human has to be touching things to do it?

[Agreement]

What about air molecules? Aren't they constantly moving too?

[Dissatisfaction]

Well, yea, most of them you can't do anything with, but some would be bouncing off of your human and you could always focus on the ones your human has breathed in.

[Contemplation]

Taylor took a moment to look at her tablet.

Besides, at a molecular level isn't kinetic energy tied to temperature?

That is what I was just reading, anyway. So can you make things hotter or colder by messing with the kinetic energy in the molecules?

[Intrigue]

Oh, you don't know? Huh. Maybe let me know if you find out?

[Agreement]

"Taylor?" Miss Militia said, waving her hand in front of Taylor's face.

"Huh?" Taylor mumbled, shaking her head. "Oh, sorry. Hi Miss Militia."

Hello Miss Militia's snark [Acknowledgement]

"Are you feeling any better now?" Miss Militia continued. "We heard you were suffering from, well, snark withdrawal?"

"Yea, I am feeling much better now. Did you bring Assault too?"

Have you been playing nice with the whole usable weapons thing?

[Agreement]

"We did," Miss Militia answered. "He is with Director Piggot. She was hoping to talk to you about a few things."

"Um, ok. Will we be talking in here?"

"No, a nurse will be by shortly with a wheelchair for you. You and the Director will be meeting in a conference room down the hall."

True to Miss Militia's word a nurse showed up a moment later with a wheelchair. Taylor transferred from the bed to the wheelchair and was pushed down the hall, only rolling her eyes slightly given that she felt she could have walked without issue. But hospital policy was hospital policy.

The nurse wheeled her into the conference room, and before Taylor could say anything Assault left with the nurse, closing the door

behind them. As Miss Militia hadn't entered Taylor had been left alone with Director Piggot.

"Good morning Miss Hebert," Director Piggot said after a moment.

"My apologies for the surprise visit."

"Good morning Director," Taylor responded. "And no apologies are needed, I kinda needed to talk to some snarks anyway."

"Yes, the hospital apparently let us know you were rapidly approaching a negative impact on your health. We are sorry about that, by the way. The hospital should have been informed that you need regular contact with parahumans."

"I probably should have said something myself," Taylor admitted,

shrugging. "But I think by the time I realized what the problem was I was too far gone to think straight."

"That is a known problem with this kind of situation, which is why it is supposed to fall the PRT to inform the hospital. Now then, I have some oddly conflicting reports about you that I only recently started piecing together. Several times people have mentioned your unusual durability in particular, with a mention of it being the result of a tinker fugue only making it to me a little over a week ago."

"Oh, that. Yea, I was the target of a tinker fugue. I got lucky and came out ahead, getting enhanced strength, endurance, flexibility,

durability, senses, healing, and Bluetooth connectivity."

"I see. I suppose the Bluetooth bit would explain a few other things I overheard. So how is it that none of that is in your official file?"

"There were no forms that covered it in the Wards packet as none of it is tied to my power, and the power testing people never asked. The post-joining forms weren't appropriate either as the fugue happened before my Wards paperwork was submitted."

Director Piggot just stared at Taylor for a minute, before growling.

Taylor shrunk back into the wheelchair at that. Director Piggot then sighed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't take this out on you. From what you said you did everything you were supposed to. I am more angry at the power testing people for failing to do their jobs. But I will be adding the basics of this to your file when I get back to the office."

"That is understandable. I haven't exactly been trying to hide it or anything."

"You just didn't volunteer it, which is standard policy with this kind of thing anyway, at least when the alterations aren't visible. I don't suppose you are allowed to tell me anything else about the incident?"

"Er, not much? It happened after I triggered, and I suppose you can know it happened in part due to an interaction with my own power,

but I can't tell you anything about the other parahumans involved that you can't infer from what you already know about it."

"Had to ask anyway. Knowing even as much as I now do does answer a number of questions that had started to pile up, though."

Director Piggot paused again, apparently gathering her thoughts. "I don't know if you have read my file or not, given your unusually high security level, but it is fairly well known that I don't like capes. I can work with them, and I try harder to reign in my temper when dealing with Wards in particular. That, however, translates into hating feeling like I owe a cape, any cape, anything."

"Ok?" Taylor wasn't entirely sure where this was going.

"Yes, well. Shortly after you joined the Wards your actions revealed a fairly significant problem, though I can't explain what the problem is to you right now. But I consider it to be at least partially a personal problem, that until your actions I didn't even know was a problem. As such, I feel I am in your debt."

"And you want to know how you can repay it?"

"Precisely. Pretty much any one thing, so long as it is something I am capable of granting."

Taylor gave it a thought. She didn't exactly have anything she felt she wanted. But the Wards had mentioned the Director's health issues a couple of times, Missy in particular when they had run around the PRT building. And Amy had complained about the

Director being one of the few people that she met with semi-

frequently that refused her assistance, leaving her wanting to help

but unable to. Perhaps that would work?

"I have one thought," Taylor finally said. "But I don't think you will like it."

"I'll be the judge of that."

"I can't think of anything I want for myself right now, but Amy has mentioned that every time she meets with you she has to hold back from healing you, because you consistently refuse parahuman healing. She doesn't like seeing someone she can help suffer. And the other Wards had mentioned something similar, not liking seeing you suffer. So I guess I would like you to accept healing from Panacea?"

Director Piggot stared at Taylor, apparently having not expected anything like that. "Goddamnit, that is a low blow. Using both my sense of honor and the concern of others against me."

Taylor shrugged. "Sometimes the cheap shot is the best option."

"Yes, well. I don't suppose you know when Panacea's next hospital shift is?"

"She'll be in this afternoon."

"Great, there goes that excuse. Now if only I had a secure computer so I could get some work done from here so I didn't have to come back later."

"Er, would you like to borrow my tablet? I have the keyboard attachment and can set up a temporary account for you, and it came with the SL9 enhancement."

"Ok, you know what? That brings up another question. How in the world did that happen? I haven't gotten anything straight out of anyone as to why you are the only one other than Legend in all of New England confirmed to have clearances that require SL9 access."

Taylor shrunk back again. "Sorry, as far I know you aren't cleared for that. In fact, I am under the impression that anyone asking isn't cleared to know."

Director Piggot growled again, obviously displeased at that. "Fine. I guess I can borrow your tablet for a few hours. And yes, I will allow Panacea to heal me. But you get to ask her to."

Taylor smiled at that, she would have no problem asking Amy to heal the Director. But she didn't smile too much, because the Director was still scaring her a bit.

"So you're the new kid," Assault said as he pushed Taylor's wheelchair down the hall. He had declared that she needed to see more of the world outside of her room, even if it was just the rest of the floor for now. "I loved your verification stunt, by the way."

"Thanks," Taylor said, smiling. "That was planned by my uncle."

"You apparently have an awesome uncle as it looked like you had a great time. So, I hear you've got some trump abilities?"

"Yea, I talk to snarks."

"Snarks?"

"They are the things that give people powers."

"Ahh. Have you talked to mine?"

"Yes. I don't know if anyone told you, but my power insists on me being around parahumans frequently. Before you and Miss Militia came into my range I hadn't had one around since midday Sunday.

Once you two came into range I kinda had to talk to your snarks?"

"No problem, I was just curious, and we heard that you needed to talk to a couple anyway. Can you identify people by their, er,

snarks?"

"Provided I have met them. Sometimes if their snark is cooperative I can figure it out from their powers. Yours is friendly and was fairly easy to identify, just so you know."

"Wonderful! I'll have to introduce you to Battery at some point, see how friendly her snark is. So, how much do you usually talk to the snarks around you?"

"I think most of it is subconscious background-noise? More like monitoring that they are there more than actual discussion, and keeping a metaphorical ear listening? I originally thought it was going to need to be a lot more active." Taylor blinked as she felt a snark enter her range. "Huh, that precog guy just entered my range."

"Precog guy?"

"Yea, he was around when I did power testing. He just passed out of my range again, though. He cut across the far edge."

"Huh. Ok. Well, we are back to your room, so let's get you back into bed. Then I want to try something quick."

Taylor was quickly helped into bed, and then handed her foam baton.

"Why do I need my baton?"

"I want you to hit me, I am curious if it counts as kinetic energy or not."

"Oh. Ok?" Taylor swung the baton in his general direction, and he flinched.

"Well, that's that. Good to know that apparently your projections don't count as kinetic energy for the purposes of my power. I should get going, so you relax and finish healing up, ok?"

"Yes, I get it. Thanks for coming by."

Assault waved before he left the room. Taylor monitored him as he stopped by where Director Piggot and Miss Militia were in the conference room. He stayed there for a couple of minutes, then he left the building. She picked her personal phone up off of the table next to her and browsed PHO for a bit as he left her range.

Taylor felt Amy enter her range shortly after Arcadia would have gotten out. Dean and Vicky were with her, so Taylor assumed Dean was dropping Amy off. This was proven correct when Dean and Vicky stopped in front of the hospital, Amy entered, and Dean and Vicky left again.

"Hello Amy," Taylor said, timing it for as Amy was opening the door.

"Hello Taylor," Amy said, visibly rolling her eyes as she walked over to Taylor. "So, let's see how you are doing."

"Aren't you supposed to be asking permission first?" Taylor

interrupted, giving Amy a serious look, causing Amy to freeze mid-

poke.

"What? But... you, and..."

Taylor stared at Amy for a minute before she broke down into giggles. "Oh, the look on your face!"

"Jerk," Amy muttered, punching Taylor in the shoulder before grabbing Taylor's hand. "Er, things are looking good, but why does it

look like you were severely stressed out?"

"Oh, er, a lack of snarks? With you not coming by, and no other parahumans in the area my power was kinda driving me nuts."

"But you are ok now? Have been for a few hours, actually."

"Director Piggot came by with Miss Militia and Assault. Miss Militia is still down the hall with Director Piggot, actually. Speaking of, could you swing by and heal the Director?"

"As I have mentioned a couple of times, she never accepts parahuman healing."

"Just offer, please?"

"Ok, ok. So, as I said, beyond the power-induced stress it looks like you are doing quite well. How has your school work been going?"

"Er, I kind of focused on it a bit too much? I think I finished everything through the end of February and was working on the beginning of March."

Amy just stared at Taylor for a minute. "So, have any of your teachers told you that you are supposed to be recovering?"

"No?"

"So, yea. New orders: No more schoolwork. I think I will have your father bring your backpack home, even."

Taylor pouted as Amy actually packed all of the school materials that had been left out back into Taylor's backpack, which was then left next to the door. Now what was she going to do?

"Ok, what did you do?" Amy asked as she returned from going to see Director Piggot. She was carrying Taylor's tablet. "She didn't even

argue! She just said to get it over with before she changed her mind."

"She felt she owed me a favor," Taylor replied, taking the tablet from Amy. "Since she wanted me to call it in right away I figured I would get you out of worrying about her suffering all the time."

Amy blinked a couple of times, then shook her head as if to clear it.

"Right, ok. If anyone asks how I convinced Director Piggot to let me heal her I am telling them you did it and leaving it at that."

"Since it is the truth I don't have a problem with that."

That evening when Danny left he had Taylor's backpack with him.

While Taylor's teachers hadn't prodded her about things they had informed Danny. Apparently making it through a month of school work in a couple of days when you are supposed to be recovering in the hospital is a bad thing.

Well, Taylor did know that, technically. She just felt the alternative was probably worse at the time.

This left Taylor with nothing more to do than poke around on the internet at random or play stupid games that were on her phone and tablet.

Saturday could not come soon enough.

Last edited: Nov 21, 2017

Interlude: Director Piggot Emily was having a bad time of things. First the Winslow incident had occurred, with Jacob's niece in the middle of it. Which, because it was Jacob, meant that nobody wanted to get in the way of finding out what had happened. That was the good part. The bad part was that Sophia Fucking Hess had been one of the instigators.

And who the hell gives any child an actual middle name of 'Fucking'?

No wonder the girl was so screwed up.

Of course, it then came to light that Jacob's niece had triggered, and then over time accidentally gotten herself a publically-constructed impression of not being a cape that was stronger than the intentional attempts made with the Wards. Starting from before her Wards application was even filed. The fact she had filled out, and Emily had signed off on, the anti-hero forms was annoying, but workable. Once they figured out how to work around their own rules about not fielding Wards until introducing them clashing with the overall rules of not introducing anti-heroes until they had been fielded.

And now, despite no official announcements that she existed, inside the PRT network or otherwise, she had a meeting about her newest,

unannounced Ward. With all the other Directors. They were merely waiting for Costa-Brown to connect to the video conference.

Ok, technically it wasn't just about her newest Ward. But she expected it was going to end up that way. After they got through the mass unlocking of documentation that James Tagg had spearheaded.

"Good morning everyone," Costa-Brown finally said, just after connecting. "Sorry for the delay, it seems things never cease to pile up. Now then, it is my understanding that Squad Leader James Tagg has been flagging a lot of basic documentation for having been accidentally classified? We all already agreed that all of the already

proposed de-classifications were warranted and that more should be checked."

"That is correct," one of the other Directors said. Emily didn't note which one. "He was very angry when he reported to me afterwards,

but I feel I should let everyone know that he wanted permission to bypass the anonymization protections so he could properly thank the individual who alerted him to the problem in the first place. I authorized the release of the identity of the reporting individual to him, as he had sufficient clearance."

"I don't suppose you can let us know as well?" a different Director added. "Whomever it was that started this may deserve a bonus for noticing."

Costa-Brown indicated her consent, and the first Director obviously checked to see who it was. "Ahh, here we are. It was one Taylor Hebert in Brockton Bay."

Emily blinked. What? "How did my new Ward get enough access to the locked down documents to let anyone know they were locked down in the first place?"

Oh, she said that out loud. And a statement like that was enough to direct everyone's attention to her. And start trying to ask questions.

Nearly all at once.

"I can better answer some of that," Costa-Brown interrupted,

silencing the others. "Just give me a moment to verify some relevant details." The group waited a couple of minutes while Costa-Brown obviously looked through things. And then she flinched. "Well, that explains that. We had elevated Miss Hebert in several areas due to issues with her powers and some concerns relating to her uncle.

Thinker support had us cover quite a few extra bases in the process to 'get them out of the way', and one of the forms was filled out incorrectly and then the mistake missed. She was thus granted a lot more access than she normally would have been. Nothing critical,

really, just full documentation access and slightly more than usual permissions on her access keys."

"I see," Emily said. "And now that the issue has been spotted are we going to correct that oversight?"

"Actually," the first Director spoke up. "Assuming she is considered trustworthy, I propose we leave things alone. It has already alerted us to some significant problems with our documentation."

Four other Directors spoke up, agreeing with that. Emily was flabbergasted. A new Ward, not even introduced, and they were willing to leave her with that kind of access? It was quickly obvious that the general consensus was yes.

"She has signed all of the proper NDAs, including the extras the mistake would require," Costa-Brown finally interjected. "As such I can't see a lot of reason to revoke the additional access. Send her notes of thanks if you wish. Shall we move on?" Getting nods from everyone she looked down at what were likely notes. "Of course, that brings us right back to Miss Hebert. Emily, care to explain why you approved anti-hero branding for your newest Ward?"

"I'll be honest," Emily said. "I ran it through checks to ensure the paperwork was complete, spot-checked the likely problem areas. It just didn't occur to me that anti-hero branding was technically complete to regulation, even if not to current informal policy, given that the current packets normally distributed to potential Wards don't include those forms at all. I personally only found out when Glenn came to gloat."

"How did Miss Hebert gain access to those forms?" Costa-Brown asked. "Since, as you said, they are not normally distributed?"

"Her uncle, Jacob, picked up a PRT standard packet, not a regional customized packet. The official standard packet contains all of the forms, even if every region has removed the anti-hero forms from their customized packets."

Huh, two of the other Directors actually facepalmed at that.

"I move we start the process of reviewing and rebuilding the standard Wards packet to be more in line with current informal policy," one of them finally offered. The motion was quickly seconded and passed, then several of the other Directors volunteered to handle it.

The meeting was quickly completed, to Emily's surprise. She hadn't been reprimanded for her oversight, even, once she had explained herself. Now she just had to find a way to field a Ward without fielding them or introduce a Ward without introducing them.

It was going to be a long day.

Emily had finished going over all of the anti-hero rules after Colin had informed her of the potential loophole of allowing 'Maul' to 'unofficially' join in on patrols. Annoyingly, if anyone other than the Wards so much as suggested it to them then it ceased to be a usable loophole. It was also one of many loopholes anti-heroes could take advantage of for various reasons, most of them obviously intentional. She was tempted to let Miss Hebert take advantage of most of them for now, just because of the sheer number of rules she actually disliked despite being required to enforce them.

She had also found that the Youth Guard was more lenient with the behavior of anti-heroes for a number of reasons, all of them sensible

in her opinion. For the most part they were dealing with previously-

traumatized children for crying out loud, why are they expected to

behave like little angels?

One of the few things she did make sure to do was quietly add the anti-hero branding forms and the 'hero/anti-hero' checklist back into the ENE region Wards packet. It wouldn't help any of her current 'heroes' but perhaps it would give her less headaches down the road when a troublesome power reared its head. She felt it was a shame that she couldn't do the same for the ENE Protectorate packet.

Even better, she had found that so long as she verified that at least one entry from the checklist indicated anti-hero branding she was obligated, under current official policy, to allow it. Even if the informal policy at this time was not to allow anti-heroes. Which was probably why nobody gave her grief. Costa-Brown herself would have to hand down an order, against current PRT rules, to change that. And those PRT rules happened to directly tie into the Youth Guard agreements,

meaning they were nearly impossible to get rid of.

Emily sat at her desk at home, drinking a beer while she looked over some reports. If you had told her that she would be doing so that morning she would have sworn you were crazy. But Miss Hebert's little trick with the favor Emily owed her had ended up with Panacea healing Emily.

"I'm going to have to start working on getting back in shape," Emily muttered. "And the more I think of it, the less convinced I am that getting me healed is a suitable use of a favor owed to her. Damned capes."

She couldn't help but like Miss Hebert despite everything else,

though. Accidentally discover Calvert, then use the owed favor to get Emily to accept the healing she could admit she had needed.

Annoying, but not in any way that Emily could really argue with.

Last edited: Oct 9, 2017

Chapter 20 Taylor found herself very bored over the next couple of days, despite daily visits from her father, Amy, and Assault. As such, by Saturday morning Taylor had gotten bored enough to read cape fiction. It did not take long to discover that this was a very bad place to be as the internet had some very weird ideas about how capes worked and weirder ideas about how cape romance worked.

Or, at least, she hoped they had weirder ideas on the romance side.

If they didn't then she was going to have a very hard time finding someone to date.

Still, she did find the existence of Dean Stansfield/Gallant slash fics to be highly amusing. That did bring up odd questions about how nobody was connecting Dean to Gallant if they were noticing that Glory Girl hung off of both in the same basic manner. Also amusing for similar reasons were the Dean/Gallant/Glory Girl fics.

Less amusing had been the discovery of Maul fics. She very pointedly did not read any of them.

Because of some of that, in hopes of being able to leave sooner Taylor had packed pretty much everything but the tablet up so that it was all ready to go. The clothing she had been wearing when she was brought in had been cleaned and returned, and she was wearing them this morning, except for the shoes that were next to her bed. She would have packed the tablet up as well, but it didn't fit in the sling bag so she was going to have to carry it anyway.

"Good morning Taylor," Amy said, walking in. "You ready to leave?"

"I was ready to leave Wednesday," Taylor admitted. "I am long past ready now. How long until the paperwork is done?"

"Yesterday. Your father is waiting with the car."

Taylor glared at Amy, given that the paperwork being done yesterday meant she could have been home yesterday. "Why am I leaving this morning instead of last night?"

"The doctors were willing to sign off on you leaving this morning, not last night." Amy carefully avoided mentioning that she had agreed.

"BAH!" Taylor exclaimed, slipping her shoes on before grabbing her tablet and sling bag. Amy snickered and led Taylor out to where Danny was waiting. They found him leaning against the car.

"Good morning Taylor," Danny said, handing over a bag from a donut shop. "Have some take-away breakfast."

"Morning Dad," Taylor said, opening the bag and pulling a donut out.

"Oooh, Boston Cream."

"Right, so we don't have any plans for the day. Is there anything you want to do?"

Taylor gave that some thought as she ate her donut. Once she was done with that donut she finally came to a conclusion. "No idea. I was more focused on leaving the hospital. Oh, I should probably turn my Bluetooth stuff back on, though."

Taylor made quick work of re-enabling Bluetooth on both phones, the tablet, and even putting on and turning on the repeater watch. In the process she also made quick work of a jelly donut.

"So," Amy said, having been amused at Taylor's antics. "If you have nothing better to do, want to come see my new greenhouse? Vicky finished assembling it after school yesterday."

"That's fine with me," Danny added. "I wouldn't mind seeing it myself,

actually."

"Er, why not?" Taylor answered. "Do you have any plants for it yet?"

"Yea, Dean picked up a selection of rose bushes," Amy said,

blushing. "I did kinda space out one day due to your rainbow roses idea."

"Have you made any?' Taylor asked.

"Er, no," Amy said. "I haven't actually had time to do much of anything."

"Then why don't we go and help you get started?" Danny asked,

gesturing to the car.

Taylor and Danny spent a few hours in the Dallon household's backyard helping Amy get the greenhouse arranged the way she wanted it. This involved moving some tables around and dragging the supplies that had been ordered in from outside to be stored on the under-table shelves. Amy had refused to actually play with the plants yet, though.

"So where is everyone?" Taylor asked as they rested and ate little sandwiches after finishing dragging bags of potting soil around. She had pulled out her Wards phone to check on things while they sat there.

"Today was declared to be a Dallon family mental health improvement day," Amy answered. "Also known as a family patrol for gang activity. I am excluded due to not being a combat-type, but they will call me if I am needed. Which, if they are doing things correctly,

should only be if they run into other capes."

"I suppose they kind of have to take all of that mental health stuff seriously," Danny mused. "Now that they know about the issues,

anyway."

"The plan was they would run around for the entire day," Amy continued. "And Vicky has something scheduled for tomorrow, but I

don't know what, just that it is in the PRT building instead of out on the Rig where most of her stuff has been."

"Looks like I am wanted at the PRT tomorrow for most of the day as well," Taylor said, pouting. "I hope it isn't all boring meetings?"

"They warned me about that a couple days ago," Danny admitted.

"The weather is supposed to be fine, so you shouldn't have any issues taking your moped. As such, I plan on sleeping in."

Taylor just rolled her eyes at that. "So, Amy's greenhouse is pretty much ready to go, but she isn't playing with plants today."

"I'm technically supposed to wait until I have Dallon-type adult supervision in case I enter a fugue state," Amy admitted. "Not that I think it likely or that it would be too much of a problem with you two here, but precautions are precautions and I am amazed Carol has allowed this much."

"So, how about we clean up a bit more and go see a movie or something?" Taylor asked.

"The movie theater is closed due to someone dropping a cigarette inside yesterday, causing a small fire," Danny said. "They weren't supposed to be smoking in the building and, somewhat ironically,

being startled by the fire alarm going off due to the cigarette smoke caused them to drop the cigarette in the first place. It will likely be a week before they have dealt with the fire and water damage."

"How did you know all of that?" Amy asked. "I didn't see it in the paper this morning."

"It was on the radio when I drove over to the hospital," Danny answered. "The fire alarm triggering the fire amused them. They were trying to come up with more backwards situations by the time I had parked. They weren't having much success."

"So, movie is out," Taylor pouted. "I'm out of non-parahumany ideas."

"You have parahumany ideas?" Amy asked. "What kind of parahumany ideas?"

"Well, I could attempt to reserve the super-secret testing area for us to play in," Taylor answered, ticking things off on her fingers. "Or we could go work out in the super-secret gym with the heated swimming pool. Then of course there is freaking people out by going out on patrol ourselves option. Not sure you are allowed in the PRT bowling alley or arcade, I'd have to check some things there, and even if you are allowed in the PRT's junkyard I don't see you as the violent break-things type."

"How is it that you haven't even been a parahuman for a full two months yet and know more about these things than I do?" Amy asked, a look of shock and confusion on her face. "Especially since you implied that the testing area and gym are things that you know I definitely have access to."

"You are a PRT affiliate, right?" Taylor responded.

"Yes."

"Then you have access. You just don't appear to know how to access them."

"Kind of have to know they exist first."

"So, girls," Danny interjected. "Since I suspect Amy is now too curious to not go see one of the super-secret locations, how about I swing by the house with Taylor so she can grab her swimsuit and whatever else she may want. She can then take her moped to wherever you two decide to meet up?"

"What will you do while we are off being super-secretive?" Taylor asked, looking unsure of herself.

"I figure I will go see Kurt and Lacey and help them prep for poker night."

Their plans basically settled, Amy cleaned up a little while Danny brought Taylor home.

Amy was waiting on the bench outside of the gym near the PRT building when Taylor pulled up. "So Taylor, where are we going from here?"

"Just inside," Taylor said. "Just gimme a minute to park."

Taylor showed the lot attendant her gym membership on her personal phone, then parked in one of several spaces intended for motorcycles as there was no place for bicycles. She then met Amy at the gym door, holding her phone so Amy could see the membership card showing on it. "So, you probably want to open up your digital gym membership card."

Amy blinked at that, then pulled her phone out and flipped through

the app list. "Huh, I have a gym membership. Why does my PRT-

provided phone come with a gym membership?"

"Come on and I will show you," Taylor said, leading Amy inside. Both girls showed their phones and were waved through, then Taylor headed for the bathrooms.

"Do you have to use the ladies' room?" Amy asked, noticing where they were headed.

"Not quite." Taylor stopped next to the employees only door and looked around for a moment. She then held her phone next to the employee access keypad, which beeped. To Amy's surprise, the door then opened. "If you don't trust me, give that a try yourself."

Taylor then walked through the door and let it close behind her while Amy was still stunned.

After a moment Amy shook her head and, after making sure nobody had come into the hallway, held her phone to the same keypad.

Again it beeped, and the door opened. Still a bit stunned Amy walked in to find Taylor waiting at the top of a set of stairs. "How?"

"You should see if you are allowed to take the PRT access keys class. It is enlightening. Now come on, the pool's downstairs."

Taylor led Amy down the stairs and into the side hallway. Amy did note the door to the PRT tunnel, which she thought partially explained what was going on here. Not long after that the two of them were taking advantage of the heated swimming pool.

Both of them thought that the entire secret gym being void of other people was a bit odd, but neither had any prior experience to indicate that it was used by others in the first place. Perhaps only capes were supposed to use it, and Taylor knew that the other Wards were unaware of it.

"The gym is in use again," one PRT officer said to another, looking over security notifications. "As if actually being used as an entrance by two different wards as of late wasn't enough, looks like Panacea just went in with Maul."

"Why don't we ever use the thing?" the other PRT officer asked. "I mean, we are allowed, the thing is awesomely equipped. Is there a good reason not to?"

"Thanks to the tunnel it is close enough to count as 'on base' in case someone triggers an emergency summons of all available personnel."

"Oh, right. That. Ruins the whole idea. Being summoned to go chase Lung down when you are supposed to be off the clock is a definite negative. Better to go across town if you want to work out."

By the time Taylor and Amy were ready to leave the gym they had visited pretty much every room that was available down there except

for the men's changing rooms, and used at least one piece of equipment in each room. Amy was determined to come back when she realized that she was fairly out of shape compared to Taylor.

Taylor neglected to mention that Amy wasn't upgraded like Taylor, so it wasn't a fair comparison. Exercising wasn't going to be a bad thing for Amy, after all, whether she used the public gym or private one.

"Now then, you said the access keys class?" Amy questioned,

poking around in the PRT information app on her phone. "Looks like I can request that one just fine."

"Then I recommend doing so," Taylor answered. "After all, you now know how to get into one super-secret location. There are others."

"I get it. So do the other Wards come through here?"

"Missy does, but I don't think any of the others have taken the access keys class themselves yet. As such they likely haven't been informed they can get in here at all."

"Why don't the rest of them take the class?"

"Long-standing practical joke and teaching opportunity for the Wards. I figure you aren't a Ward, so it applies less to you than it does them."

"So, anything else before we leave?"

"Just one thing," Taylor said, pulling a box out of her bag. "Would you like a pair of Bluetooth tinkertech headphones? I got them as a gift,

but I have found that for some reason I don't have any real use for them." Amy rolled her eyes at that. "I figured you might be able to use them and you have been healing me a lot lately."

Amy took the box and looked over the various blurbs on it. "These things are some of the most expensive tinkertech headphones

available, and they have the PRT secure Bluetooth mods? Who in the world gave you these?"

"James Tagg and a collection of other PRT departments? It was a gift basket. I have most of the chocolate still locked in my Wards room."

"Well now I am torn. On one hand I thought you had me surprised with actually getting Director Piggot to agree to healing. On the other hand James Tagg is somewhat legendary for his hatred of parahumans due to what people believe is a belief that powers rob you of common sense. But he is sending you gift baskets. I now can't decide which is more impressive."

"Do you want the headphones or not?"

"I'll take them. At the very least they should be quite nice for listening to music while I am playing in the greenhouse."

"Then consider them yours. Now let's get out of here, I want to get home and eat."

"No arguments here, though you will likely get to it first. I still have to wait for the bus."

"Too bad my moped didn't come with a passenger option."

The following morning Taylor found herself in the PRT building bright and early. She had costumed up and headed to meet Glenn, who had messaged her while she was on the road.

"Good morning Glenn," Taylor said as she arrived at Glenn's office.

"Good morning Maul," Glenn said, grinning. "I apologize for not telling you ahead of time, but I figured I could use it as a 'congratulations for surviving Glory Girl' surprise."

"For not telling me what?"

Glenn waved at the corner of the room, Taylor turning to look and see a box sitting there. "Your maul came in, and I arranged for assistance in your testing of it."

Taylor grinned and practically bounced over to the box, finding it outright said it was a weapon, probably for security reasons given that it wasn't directly addressed to a cape. The label also indicated that it was a maul in particular, and was addressed to her 'care of'

Glenn. She tore the box open and pulled the maul out, finding that it was just shy of her own height when the head was sitting on the ground. The handle had a grippy matte black finish except for a slightly shiny bit at the very end, not that Taylor expected to be holding it from the very end of the handle very often. She flipped it over so she could look at the head, setting the end of the handle on the ground. The head appeared to be a cylinder nearly a foot long and just under half that in diameter with a shiny dark-blue flame pattern showing against the otherwise matte black surface. All of the edges were rounded off, on the head and the handle.

"I had them round the edges off so that pretty much every angle of attack has it being blunt instead of sharp," Glenn explained. "They couldn't come up with a way to make a harness for it to be added to your costume, though it should be able to take the place of your entrenching tool if it comes down to it."

Taylor lifted the maul, looking over the whole thing. It wasn't quite as heavy as it looked, but otherwise it seemed strong enough. She certainly wouldn't have any problems swinging it, but others might.

"This is awesome. Thank you. So who is helping test it?"

"You are very welcome, and your helper for the day should be arriving soon."

Taylor focused on her snark sense for a moment, and found that the only other parahumans in her range were Miss Militia and Vicky.

Miss Militia appeared to be around where Taylor thought her office might be, and Vicky was landing on the roof?

"Vicky?" Taylor said out loud.

"Huh, and here I was hoping to surprise you," Glenn pouted. "Still,

she is uniquely suited to this kind of thing and when asked had no problem with it. And she wasn't barred from interacting with you,

though she will be monitored to keep track of whether or not she injures you."

Taylor looked over the maul some more as she monitored Vicky's progress through the building. Her snark was also looking it over,

and was liking what it found. She found that the very end of the handle also had a blue flame motif, harder to see against the shiny black of the end, but that it didn't continue into the grippy area. After some tests holding it in various ways Taylor figured it would work just as well if she flipped it around and held it at the head end to swing it like it was a staff. Hmmm, maybe she should look into actual staff lessons at some point?

While musing on that Taylor walked over to Glenn's door and opened it just as Vicky arrived, apparently with a PRT officer escort. "Morning Vicky." The PRT officer had stayed back, and Taylor didn't know their name.

"Er, good morning, er," Vicky stumbled.

"Maul in costume," Taylor reminded Vicky, then lifted the maul above her head. "Holding my new maul."

"That is going to be horribly confusing," Vicky admitted. "So, where are we doing this thing?"

"I reserved the junkyard for you two," Glenn spoke up. "I figured that having actual things you could damage would be desirable. I would join you, but as this is likely to be a highly destructive testing session

I am not cleared to be present. The officer outside is wearing armor,

though, so will be able to observe."

"I know the one," Taylor said. "Is there anything else or shall we head down?"

"Nothing that can't be handled via email later," Glenn said, waving the two out of the office. "I might as well get some work done since I made the effort to come in on a Sunday for you."

"Thank you," Taylor replied, leading Vicky out of the office and starting down to the training room, the PRT officer following behind them. She faltered for a moment, unnoticed by Vicky, when she was pinged by Vicky's snark.

[Smugness]

"So what is up with this junkyard?" Vicky asked.

You wanted her to hit me specifically, didn't you?

"Training room full of junk for capes to beat the crap out of," Taylor answered.

[Agreement]

"Dangit," Vicky grumbled. "Wards get the coolest toys."

"So, you are my human target for testing the maul?" Taylor asked.

"Yep," Vicky answered. "Flight to dodge, and if I fail I should be able to tank the hits."

"How does that even work? Is your skin just that tough?"

"Nah, I have a forcefield that protects me."

"Huh."

If I swing the hammer at her will her forcefield protect her from the projection?

Agreement

But why? Can't the line of force just continue and hit her anyway?

Correction

So you are obligated to treat hitting the forcefield as though you had hit her, and you already know there is no way around that once you have hit the forcefield. Ok, I guess that makes as much sense as any other arbitrary limitation. But, why hit the forcefield at all?

Confusion

I mean, you don't hit air normally, right?

Agreement

Yes, I understand that the air isn't dense enough to worry about. But,

given that you can ignore things that aren't dense enough, well, is the forcefield dense enough?

Contemplation

Taylor was not surprised when she noticed a mental switch had been added to her projection ability shortly before they reached the training room. One that would allow her to choose whether or not to ignore 'insubstantial' protections and projections. The resulting grin on Taylor's face did not reassure Vicky in the slightest.

Taylor and Vicky had spent a good two hours smashing things,

individually and together, in the junkyard. In fact, at this rate they might need to actually expend some effort to re-fill the room with things to be destroyed. Taylor was loving the maul and had even

experimented a bit with the 'hold the head' method of swinging it.

That didn't work as nicely as Taylor had thought.

Vicky had eventually gotten bored of flying into and through things and switched to lobbing things into the air for Taylor to hit. That didn't last that long either, and eventually she just focused on making Taylor work for her hits. Finally Taylor indicated she was done playing with the maul and Vicky landed.

"Well that was fun," Vicky said, grinning. "Anything else?"

"There is one other thing I wanted to try," Taylor admitted, grinning a bit herself. "But I don't think you will like it."

"Meh, I can take it. Hit me!"

Taylor's grin deepened. "Don't mind if I do." She then flipped her mental switch, applied her power to her glove's plates, and punched at Vicky's stomach. As Vicky doubled over in shock and pain Taylor opened her fist and swung it upwards with less force, backhanding Vicky's face with her power.

"Owwww, how did you do that?" Vicky finally got out after catching her breath, lifting a hand to rub her face, not noticing her slightly bleeding nose. "My forcefield was up!"

"You told me to hit you," Taylor said, adopting a lesser version of her innocent and confused look. "So I hit you and not your forcefield.

What did you expect me to do?"

"Goddamnit, is that something else you changed about my power?

Do I now have to watch what I say when trash-talking people?"

"I don't think that is the case, but given the number of powers with weird effects and conditions it is probably not a bad idea to avoid inviting people to hit you."

"I am going to have to agree with Maul on that front," the PRT officer spoke up, for only the third or fourth time since they had started. "We have knowledge of capes that can only do harm if their target has given verbal permission."

Vicky just groaned as she slumped down against a bent metal sheet.

She wasn't quite used to actually getting hit like that, especially out of the blue.

I highly recommend not messing with me.

[Horror. Fascination.]

I don't like you, why would I tell you how I did it?

"So, shall we head off?" Taylor offered. "I think I am done for the day."

"Yeah, that would be nice," Vicky admitted, floating up to get onto her feet. "So I take it that was a partial repayment for my punch?"

"Of course. Plus it was a proof of concept." Taylor demonstrated that part by lightly bopping Vicky with the foam baton before grabbing the maul to head out. "Now come on, I want to go see what the other Wards are up to."

"I think I want to go see if Ames will take care of my bruises," Vicky grumbled as she followed Taylor through the halls until they reached a point where their paths diverged, the PRT officer leading Vicky the rest of the way out of the building.

Taylor had texted Amy with what had happened as they made their way through the building. Amy had responded with a comment that Vicky could heal the long way, but insisting Taylor would explain how later. Taylor hadn't waited and had given the basic rundown right away.

Approaching the Wards area, Taylor noted that Missy, Chris, and Dean were around, but Carlos and Dennis weren't in. Further, she thought Dean might be on the console. Entering the common area she found she was correct, with Missy working on what looked like homework on one of the couches. Chris was further in, probably tinkering.

Dean waved in her general direction, but was paying attention to the actual console, so Taylor headed over to to couches. "Hey Missy."

"Hi Taylor," Missy said, staring at the essay she appeared to be proof-reading. She then stopped and sighed. "I hate proof-reading my own stuff. I always miss my own mistakes because I know what I meant."

"Want me to give it a look?" Taylor asked. "As I didn't write it and all."

"Would you?" Missy looked up, spotting the maul. "Oooh, what is that?"

"That is my maul. Probably a little heavy for you, though." Taylor slipped her jacket off, including the wok and entrenching tool, and dropped down onto the couch before taking Missy's laptop from her and scrolling to the top of the displayed essay. "Too bad I won't likely be able to carry it around normally."

"That sucks."

While Taylor started reading Missy got up and poked the maul a little,

including trying to lift it. She didn't get anywhere on that front. She then started curiously poking around Taylor's jacket, not that Taylor was paying any attention. In particular Missy was focusing on the way the wok and entrenching tool were attached to the jacket. She ended up pulling a small knife from a hidden sheath in her boot and popped some stitches along the top of the jacket, revealing a very shallow pocket of sorts between the jacket proper and the outside portion of the harness that held the two weapons. Once that had been revealed she started fiddling with it.

After a little bit of work Missy had accomplished her current goal and grinned. She just hoped the weight wouldn't be too uncomfortable.

"I marked up the errors I spotted," Taylor finally said, putting the laptop down on the table in front of the couch. She then turned to Missy and watched as the younger girl continued to work. "What are you up to?"

"Making a pocket for your maul. Or rather, I already made it, now I am just making sure the whole weapon harness won't fall off because of the stitches I popped."

"Huh?"

"Put your jacket on and see if you can slip the maul in between the wok and the jacket."

Taylor was confused, but stood up and put the jacket back on. She then picked the maul up and carefully slid it head-first between the wok and the jacket, completely surprised when it did so easily.

Eventually she felt it hit bottom, the handle sticking up out of the jacket just barely within Taylor's reach. The extra weight between her shoulders would take some getting used to, though.

"How did you do that?" Taylor finally asked.

"Given everything else I suspect you were the one to say something to my power about making permanently larger pockets. I figured it out while you were in the hospital, or maybe my power figured it out?

I am waiting on a utility belt for my own costume so that I can fill it with useful things. I just can't expand it too much as the weight of the contained objects isn't changed or negated."

Congratulations on figuring it out.

[Acceptance. Gratitude.]

I just came up with the idea, you did the hard part. And now I am benefiting, so thank you.

"That is awesome, thank you. Can you expand some of my belt's pouches too?"

"Sure, but I can't really make the openings bigger or the flaps won't work right. And technically it isn't really permanent, I think it will only last a hundred years or so."

Taylor thought that was plenty good enough and slipped her belt off to hand over to Missy. Taylor then watched as Missy emptied each pouch, did something to it, and then returned the contents to the pouch with there somewhat obviously being extra room. The two cell phone pouches were skipped as there wasn't any good reason for those to be bigger.

"So when are you going to tell the others about this?" Taylor finally asked as Missy was fiddling with the last pouch. "Or did you while I was in the hospital?"

"Outside of thanking you by giving you some extra storage space I am thinking I am going to keep it secret. See if anyone notices and asks, maybe? I did expand my closet at home a bit, but otherwise I haven't done much more than expand my own pockets a little."

"Er, won't Dean have heard us?" Taylor looked over towards where Dean was on the console. Come to think of it, she hadn't heard him making any noise at all..

"There is some kind of tinkertech sound shield over the console area, and Dean always uses it. If you call out to him he will hear it,

but otherwise we can't hear him and he can't hear us." Missy finished re-filling the last pouch and handed Taylor the belt back.

"Oh. Ok." Taylor put the improved belt back on and grinned as she stuck her hand into a couple of the pouches, it seemed like Missy had expanded them to around three times their original volume.

"Thank you. So, anything else interesting happen while I was out of commission?"

"Not much? Oh, wait. Right! I got my new phone!" Missy said,

bouncing a little as she pulled a shiny new phone out of what couldn't possibly have been a pocket before bullshit powers made it one. "Turns out I was able to get a better battery and connectivity upgrade too, and now I can open some of the doors I couldn't even see before!"

"Good for you."

"Though Dean isn't any fun anymore, he apparently just accepts that we are having fun telling lies or something. No reaction at all when I mention the ice cream parlor or the gym now."

"Yea, I kinda feel bad about the fact that he is the only one with an actual car, yet doesn't know he has a dedicated parking space.

Come to think of it, I never did look up what the rules were for a vehicle transponder. If he can't get one anyway then my guilt over not telling him will go away."

Taylor poked at one of her phones to check on that while Missy turned back to her own laptop. Missy sighed when she remembered that she was working on homework when Taylor came in.

An hour later Taylor had removed her jacket again so she could safely lay down on one of the couches. She was looking through various regulations trying to decipher the mess that was PRT bureaucracy. Missy had moved onto math homework, but had refused an offer of assistance from Taylor for the time being.

Both were interrupted by a sudden, unexpected sound.

"YEOUCH!" Dean yelled from the console, shaking his hand. "Stupid thing shocked me."

"Sound shield is down," Missy yelled.

"Whole thing is down," Dean corrected. "I hope the thing auto-

transferred to the main PRT console properly." He then pulled his

phone out, which appeared to be dead. "And I can't check until I get my phone working again, apparently."

"Let me check for you," Taylor said, flipping to the radio/console app.

"Huh, looks like it didn't. Gimme a second." She activated the Wards channel, finding that Dennis and Carlos were both trying to reach the now dead console. "Maul to Aegis and Clockblocker, Wards console is hard down. Gimme a minute to have the PRT console take over."

A quick acknowledgement from Carlos and Taylor switched channels and listened for a moment to ensure she wasn't about to talk over someone. "Maul to PRT Console, Wards console is hard down."

"How did she just jump on the main PRT channel?" Dean asked,

looking at Taylor oddly. "I don't think Carlos can do that. For that matter, where is her phone?"

"We can all do that when the Wards console doesn't respond to the app's ping," Missy answered. "They covered that in the console class, but if you were already logged in it could take up to five minutes for the app to notice. And her phone is probably in her utility belt."

"Huh," Dean said, wandering over to where a pile of phone charging cables were set up. "I might have to take that console class after all."

Dean plugged his phone into one of the cables and a moment later the screen lit up. "Oh good, my phone isn't toast, just drained."

"They are all set on the PRT console," Taylor said, going back to looking up regulations. "As I was signing out the PRT console also said that they were submitting the service request for Carlos? Why would it fall on him?"

"Wards leader gets more paperwork," Missy said, shrugging. "One of the few benefits of being younger, I get to keep avoiding all the extra

paperwork that hitting Wards leader or Protectorate member brings."

"Huh. Good to know," Taylor said. "I think I finally found the rules on getting a vehicle transponder installed on a non-PRT vehicle. They were a pain to find, but are fairly straightforward now that I have found them. Not sure why they didn't come up in my search earlier."

"You can do that?" Dean asked, sounding very interested. "What are the requirements?"

"The vehicle owner needs official access to a secure lot where a vehicle could be parked and to have taken the access keys class,"

Taylor answered. "Then you fill out a form and get an appointment to have the thing installed."

Dean stared at Taylor for a moment, then slumped into the chair by the phone chargers. "Damnit. Don't suppose you know how difficult would it be for me to get official access to a secure lot?"

"You have a dedicated space with a sign and everything in the Wards lot," Missy offered, figuring that at this point Taylor was going to clue Dean in anyway. "Taylor showed me, she is the only one using it right now. Looks kind of empty with just a moped in it,

actually."

Dean just stood there for a minute, then shook his head. "You two suck, you know that? Why are you keeping this joke going?"

Taylor sighed and climbed off of the couch. "I guess I'll have to show you, since Missy is working on her homework." She then grabbed her jacket, needing a little more effort to put it on due to the hidden maul, and waved for Dean to follow her.

Dean decided to humor Taylor, as he couldn't exactly run the currently dead console anyway. Taylor led him to the 'broom closet'

and through to the parking lot.

"So, any questions on the joke we are perpetuating?" Taylor asked as she leaned against the wall next to the parking lot access door.

Dean was just staring at the parking lot with the names of Wards labeling the spaces, Maul's space being the only one with anything in it.

"Er, right," Dean said, scratching at the back of his neck. "Sorry for thinking you were joking?"

"Have a pamphlet," Taylor said, handing Dean a pamphlet. "This is a running joke against the Wards, apparently, to get them to ask questions before telling them that there is more to know. But I felt sorry for the fact that you are the only Ward with an actual car here but you have to keep parking it elsewhere."

"You said something about access keys?"

"Yea, when your phone is functioning well enough look up the access keys class. I already sent you the reference number for the vehicle transponder request form for after that."

Taylor escorted Dean back to the Wards area, since he both hadn't taken the access keys class and his phone had been left on the charger, then checked in on Chris. She found that he wasn't in a fugue state, just doing maintenance on his hoverboard, but that had enough focus that he hadn't noticed her. "Hey Chris, figured I would let you know that the console is dead."

"Oh, huh," Chris said, blinking as he looked up. "Hi Taylor. Er, I guess I should check if they asked me to poke at it before Armsmaster has time to. Thanks for letting me know."

"No problem."

"By the way, Armsmaster told me that the thank you gift I made for you passed approval testing and should be available tomorrow morning. Well, perhaps that should be that we made you? He seems

to think that you helped him make more efficient use of his time somehow, which gave him plenty of time to help me out."

"Huh, guess I'll have to plan on coming by after school. Then again,

why is it that you are making me a thank you gift again? I don't recall helping you all that much."

"You told me what my specialty was, which was a very big help."

Chris tapped a couple of points on the hoverboard, causing it to split apart and reassemble itself as a shield. "Making things modular, so that the pieces can be reconfigured and reused. As for coming in,

hasn't anyone told you about the plan to have you tag along on patrols?"

"The whole modular bit is cool. And Carlos and Dennis were patrolling when I finished up what I was doing this morning? Missy was working on her homework and Dean was on the console, so everyone has been a little distracted, I suspect."

Chris looked at the clock and flinched. "Ooops, got too into my work and missed the time. Well, Carlos wants you to unofficially join patrols on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, plus at least one over the weekend. At least until you can be officially scheduled and so long as nothing else conflicts for you."

"Why didn't he just email me that?"

"We were told not to bother you with Wards anything in the hospital."

Taylor went to reply to that with something about it not being a big deal if they let her know that, then stopped. Because she had been told no Wards anything as well, and wasn't even allowed to look at her Wards phone until she was let out of the hospital. "I guess that makes sense. Thanks for letting me know."

"No problem," Chris said, waving his phone that had just beeped.

"Want to see me pull apart the console to look for damaged parts?"

"You know, why not?"

Chris grabbed a toolbox from next to the door as he led Taylor to the console, taking a moment to show Taylor where the circuit breaker and power cutoff was for the unit. Taylor then assisted in holding a couple of the side panels as Chris removed the screws holding them in, before watching as he carefully removed a half dozen different components. Eventually he let out a groan and emerged with yet another component.

To Taylor's eyes nothing looked wrong with any of the components,

but she wasn't a tinker.

"Is something wrong with that?" Taylor asked.

"Yea, it looks like the antenna linkage isn't grounded properly,

allowing it to build up a charge. That discharged into the main power bus." Chris held the component he was holding up, and pointed at a small black burn mark, which Taylor figured did look bad now that it had been pointed out to her. "Looks like it burnt out one of the main leads. Alternatively, our antenna got hit by lightning and the grounding wasn't sufficient for that."

"That doesn't sound like it should have shocked Dean and drained his phone's battery?"

"Oh, the sound shield shutting down improperly does that kind of thing," Chris said as he took a couple of pictures of the damaged component. "He would have needed help getting out of his armor if it hadn't been hardened against the effect due to incidents other tinkers have had with that. It was probably the armor that shocked him more than the console, honestly. It's one of the reasons nobody uses the things in the field."

"Huh. So what now?"

"Now we pretty much leave everything as-is and wait for replacement parts. The Rig might have some in stock, but we don't

normally have them here. And, of course, waiting for someone to check on the antenna grounding to ensure this kind of thing doesn't happen again."

"Oh. Huh. Sounds pretty mundane."

"Most failures like this are, unless things were obviously exploding."

Chris neatened things up a little, then re-packed his toolbox and brought it back to his room. Deciding there wasn't a whole lot else to do for the day Taylor ended up heading home to hopefully spend some time with her father.

But she did make sure to grab some more of the chocolate she had gotten in the gift basket before she left.

Chapter 21 Monday started off quite boring for Taylor. She arrived at school and nearly every teacher commented on the horror of how much extra work she had done while she was supposed to be recovering,

followed by giving extra credit for having turned things in early.

Teachers were confusing at times, but the look of shock on the faces of her classmates was good for a laugh. Did they think this was setting a standard they were going to have to follow?

Speaking of her classmates, in general her fellow students were impressed that she had taken a hit from Glory Girl and lived to tell the tale. Taylor directed most of that in the Amy's direction, truthfully admitting that it was Amy who had kept her alive. Most of the gossip was about Vicky, though. After all, she had noticeable bruising on her face, and wasn't saying how she got hurt or why Amy hadn't healed her. This came to a head at lunchtime.

"So Taylor," Dennis said as he sat down across from Taylor and Amy.

"You have some alternate information channels available. Do you know why Vicky is running around bruised? Apparently even Dean can't get her to open up about it, and Amy just smirks when anyone asks."

"I've tried," Dean admitted. "But Vicky is being unusually silent about it." Vicky was just sitting there slightly glaring at Dennis and Dean.

Though she met Taylor's eyes no indication of 'shut up' or similar was conveyed. Instead, Vicky just slumped a little.

Taylor took that as permission to reveal a little.

"Well," Taylor started, tapping her chin for effect. "I heard something about the new Ward taking offense at my being so severely injured by a hero. Perhaps Vicky had a run-in with them, and Amy here

decided that it wasn't worth healing as a reminder for Vicky to think before she punches people?"

"Or at least before she punches my friends," Amy added. "I am less concerned about her punching gang members shooting at her, for example."

Vicky pouted, but news spread fairly quickly. In fact, what Taylor and Amy had said made it, word for word, into a post on PHO before lunch was over.

That afternoon Taylor was intercepted by Armsmaster on her way through the PRT. Given how little distance she had to cover before she reached the Wards common area that was impressive.

"Hello Miss Hebert," Armsmaster said as Taylor came out of the 'broom closet'. And thinking about it, that wasn't as impressive as it was creepy that he could get into the area to intercept her that easily.

Bit stalker-ish? "Once he has arrived Kid Win and I would like to present you with a gift."

"He had let me know yesterday that it should be available today,"

Taylor admitted. "He implied that his specialty had been a big enough deal for him, but I was less clear on why you assisted him?"

"I have recently found myself making tradeoffs in the raw efficiency of items and even processes in order to reduce maintenance and downtimes, including finding that I am even sleeping more yet am more productive and efficient overall due to the reduced maintenance cycles and some of the benefits of a good night's sleep I was previously somewhat blind to. I traced this back to when you talked to my, er, 'snark', about efficiency and maintenance costs."

It was at this point Taylor's power pinged her, Armsmaster's snark reaching out to Taylor.

[Gratitude]

You are welcome.

"I don't see it as that big of a deal, but I won't turn down a gift in thanks anyway. It would, after all, be rude to refuse when you feel my actions helped you." Though Taylor thought that an attempt at escaping boredom probably shouldn't warrant so much gratitude.

That was definitely something to keep to herself in this case. "Is there anything specific I need to do beforehand?"

"You should costume up but be prepared to remove your jacket, then meet us at training room 1. I imagine you will be able to tell when Kid Win arrives?"

"I will, I think he is about a block away now."

"Ah, very good. I will head down now to prepare."

Armsmaster headed down the hall and Taylor made her way into the Wards area to costume up. She still found the extra weight across her shoulder blades to be a little annoying, but liked the idea of the maul sitting there too much. Besides, it was better to get used to it just in case she ever needed the maul, right?

Taylor took the long way down to the training room, giving Chris time to costume up and beat her there. She timed her arrival for a couple of minutes after Chris's so that they had time to do any setup they needed to. She found that the door to the room was locked, and a quick prod with her access key got a prompt asking if she wanted to override Armsmaster's lock and open the door anyway.

Huh, why could she override Armsmaster's lock? Maybe because it was only a training room?

She selected the 'doorbell' option instead and waited patiently. It took another couple of minutes before the door unlocked and opened.

"Come in Maul," Armsmaster said, gesturing for Taylor to enter.

"Sorry about the wait, we needed to ensure everything was ready."

"No problem," Taylor said as she entered. Armsmaster closed the door behind her.

"Hello Taylor," Chris said, grinning like a loon. "I had hoped to build you a hoverboard as a thank you for telling me my specialty, but the control interface only really works for me for some reason we haven't figured out yet." He gestured to a collection of hexagons on a table against the wall. "So instead I adapted some of the anti-gravity tech to make what we are calling a jump harness. Half of these are power units, the other half are gravity manipulators. Plus a control unit."

"Once you are wearing it you should be able to adjust gravity's overall effect on you to a limited degree," Armsmaster continued. "I assisted in getting things down to a reasonable size and hopefully have reduced the maintenance requirements to nearly nothing,

barring damage of course."

"For some reason accelerating off of anything but a solid surface doesn't seem to react as though the harness is working," Chris added. "Whether it is from wings, fans, rockets, or jets. Carried by you or ground-based, even. No clue why, but that means it won't help you fly with something else providing thrust of some kind. On the other hand, you won't be blown away by high winds or anything,

so it is probably a good thing overall, even if you can be grabbed and thrown."

"This is all cool, but how does it all work?" Taylor interjected.

"Because those hexagons don't look like they do much other than sit there?"

"To start with you should pair your Wards phone to the control unit,"

Chris said, picking up a specific hexagon. It looked a little larger and thicker than the others, plus it was the only matte black one. "The generic tinkertech control protocol will work fine for this, so you don't need a special app."

"It works the same way the repeater watch you have does,"

Armsmaster added. "A basic interface definition is provided to the controlling device upon connection, removing the need for custom control software."

Taylor took the hexagon from Chris and found that it had a 'pair'

button. On a whim she put herself in pairing mode and pushed the button. A moment later she had paired to the hexagon and, like her watch had, a basic interface appeared. Power toggle, intensity slider,

and a 'wear/remove' button?

"Ok, so do I put this mess on by hitting the wear/remove button?"

Taylor asked, turning to Chris. "Or is that just part of the process?"

"Er, don't you have to pull your phone out?" Chris said, staring at Taylor in confusion.

"Not really, no," Taylor said.

"Ok..." Chris looked very confused, but apparently decided to roll with it. "Well, you will want to hold the control unit to your chest and toggle the wear/remove button. The rest of the pieces should position themselves, but your jacket will probably be in the way right now."

Taylor slipped her jacket off, placing it on the floor next to the table.

She then held the hexagon in her hand up to her chest and mentally hit the wear/remove button. Suddenly the rest of the hexagons on the table jumped up and started attaching themselves to the one she was holding. She had pulled her hand back out of surprise, but the first hexagon had stayed in place.

A few seconds after the process had started Taylor was wearing what amounted to a simple vest-like harness made of hexagons.

They looped over both shoulders, meeting in the middle of her back as well as the center of her chest, connecting to a simple ring around her stomach above her belt. It didn't really feel like she was wearing

anything, but she would have to take the thing off to remove her shirt.

"To start with you should try increasing the intensity of the effect,"

Armsmaster said. "And see how high you can jump."

"Alright," Taylor said, moving the intensity slider to the halfway point.

She didn't feel any lighter, but that may be part of the point. Deciding to get the test out of the way she jumped as hard as she could straight up, ending up around twenty feet up in the air, a little short of her head hitting the thirty foot ceiling in this room. She flailed a little,

not expecting to be so high, but recovered enough to land on her feet.

Mostly.

"You didn't have to go for full intensity right off the bat," Armsmaster said, his tone implying disapproval. "Quarter or half intensity would have been fine."

"That was half," was Taylor's retort. She then turned the effect off and jumped a little over seven feet straight up. "And that was with things turned off. Though with the added weight of my jacket and weapons I imagine I won't be jumping as high. Tinker fugue,

remember?"

"Right, I had forgotten," Armsmaster said, sounding a little embarrassed. "My apologies for the incorrect assumption."

Taylor decided to test her theory and pulled her jacket back on. The added harness seemed to actually make the jacket more comfortable, she couldn't feel the extra pressure between her shoulder blades now. Perhaps it was being redistributed by the harness? After ensuring everything was settled correctly she moved the intensity back to half and jumped, only clearing fifteen feet this time.

She also landed better, being more prepared for the extra air time.

She could see this being really fun while out on patrol, actually. She tried a few more tricks, including jumping up against the wall and springing off and setting it to full strength. In the latter case she was able, after six tries, to spin and bounce off of the ceiling with her feet.

"This is awesome," Taylor finally said, landing back over by the two tinkers. "Thank you both."

"You are welcome," Armsmaster said. "For your reference, upon triggering removal mode you have about five minutes where you will be able to pull the components apart by hand before the links shut down completely. If you don't get everything removed and in a suitable location for storage during that time they will simply fall off of you."

"And to recharge it you will want a standard wireless charging pad,"

Chris said. "There should be one built into the shelf in your closet,

though, so a basic plastic storage bin is probably a good way to store the pieces. Just remember to turn the switch on the bottom rear of the shelf on first."

"Thanks for the information," Taylor said, grinning. "How long does a charge last anyway?"

"Four days of full usage, we believe," Armsmaster answered. "But that may be reduced by the additional weight you are carrying.

Provided you leave it to charge when you aren't in costume you will probably be fine."

"You are officially the test case, by the way," Chris said. "Dragon is trying to figure out how to mass produce these from a couple of other samples, so eventually a lot of capes or the PRT in general may have some."

"I wonder if people will think I have a tinker power," Taylor commented, poking at the harness visible through her jacket. "I

mean, they think Dean is a tinker just because he wears power armor."

"An incorrect public perception is only likely to help you in the long run," Armsmaster said. "Now then, I suggest you two get going. I believe Kid Win is on the patrol schedule today."

"Ooops, forgot about that," Chris said as he rushed out of the room.

Taylor shook her head a little and followed after him. Armsmaster stayed behind long enough to reset the access on the door so that others could use the room without issue.

Thanks to taking a couple of shortcuts Chris didn't know about Taylor beat him back to the Wards area. The closest 'public' staircase was a good distance away from the training room they had been in, after all. While she waited she quickly checked the patrol schedule and found that Chris was supposed to patrol with Carlos today on 'aerial route 3'. Dennis and Missy were also supposed to patrol on 'boardwalk route 2', though, which surprised Taylor. Dean wasn't scheduled today at all. Though he was in the building, just not in the Wards area.

"Why is today the first time I have seen two patrols scheduled?"

Taylor wondered aloud.

"We finally got shifted from 'light' duty to 'medium' duty," Missy answered from the couch. "I poked Carlos about it last week,

apparently there was a form he forgot to fill out? So now we have a maximum of three total patrols a day on weekends and eight patrols total spread out for the rest of the week. 'Normal' duty allows but doesn't require everyone to take a patrol each weekday and two patrols each day on the weekend, with console duty for a patrol cycle counting as one of the two."

"Some of the light and medium duty stuff varies greatly with the number of available Wards in the region," Carlos added from the kitchen. "With only five we can schedule we can't really run more

than two groups anyway right now, and even when you can finally be scheduled we can only field two groups at a time on weekends due to the Ward running the console unbalancing things."

"When the console is working, anyway?" Taylor added. "Given that I don't think we can put anyone on it right now."

"Very true, but I suspect they will have that fixed in a day or two,"

Carlos said. "For maximum exposure I think you should head out with Dennis and Missy through the boardwalk. The sooner we deal with this inability to officially introduce you the better. That and I don't think you can fly."

"Works for me," Taylor said, stepping aside as Chris ran in. Chris,

however, skidded to a stop as he saw Taylor.

"How did you beat me here?" Chris asked. "You didn't pass me on the stairs, and even with the box someone got stuck in the stairwell door I didn't take long enough for the other stairwell to work for you."

"Secret stairwells are awesome," Taylor replied, smirking.

"Oh god are they awesome," Missy chimed in. "It is so much easier to move around the building with those. And the secret doors. And the secret elevator."

"Well, the elevator is a bad example, as it isn't a secret so much as doesn't advertise that it can go to any of the floors below ground. It opens up into the lobby after all."

"Well, yea. I suppose. Still awesome."

"So, what is keeping Dennis?" Taylor asked, looking up and off to the side. "He just seems to be staying in one place out there?"

"He is waiting for us," Missy said as she got up off of the couch. "He arranged to have a PRT van meet him with his costume instead of coming in to change. He should be watching the main entrance."

"Huh. Wanna slip around and sneak up on him?"

"Of course."

Dennis was waiting for Missy and, hopefully, Taylor to come out to meet up with him so they could patrol. He was watching the PRT main entrance, but was bored. The clock showing in his visor told him that they still had a couple of minutes before the time he and Missy had agreed on, though.

"Maul to Clockblocker," Taylor's voice came over the radio. Dennis was startled, but quickly recovered. "What is your current position?"

"I am on the roof of the apartment building a block to the west of the PRT building entrance," Dennis responded. "What is your position?"

"Vista and I are approximately six feet behind you," Taylor responded. Dennis processed that, then spun around to see Taylor and Missy grinning at him.

"You really need to work on your situational awareness," Missy said.

"We stood here for a couple of minutes before Maul decided to radio you."

"How in the world did you get past me watching the PRT entrance?"

Dennis asked.

Taylor and Missy responded by holding up ice cream cones. Dennis just stared at them for a moment, then shook his head. "I give up.

Shall we get started?"

"Sure," Missy said, heading to the edge of the roof. Taylor and Dennis followed, then the three stepped down to the street.

The three of them made their way to the boardwalk, Taylor and Missy finishing their ice creams on the way. They might have gotten

one for Dennis, but given that his entire face was covered by his costume he wouldn't have been able to eat it anyway.

Once they reached the boardwalk they had to decide how to proceed.

"So normally we like to split up a little," Missy said. "I pop along the roofs, and Clockblocker makes his way on foot, given that we have no aerial support to play spotter."

"But with you here you either need to stick with Vista or hang out on the ground with me," Dennis finished. "Which could be annoying to you if anything happens to go down."

"I'll take the high road," Taylor said, grinning. She had pulled the patrol map up on her phone already, so knew where to go, plus she had a new toy to play with. "You two do whatever."

Taylor flipped the intensity slider up all the way and bounced off of two buildings to the rooftops. Once she had landed she leaned over the edge and waved. Dennis and Missy just stared up at her.

"Maul, you suck," Missy finally said over the radio. "New powers as the situation demands is kinda bullshit."

"Blame Kid Win and Armsmaster," Taylor responded. "They made the jump harness for me."

"I stand corrected," Missy responded. "This isn't new powers bullshit,

this is tinker bullshit. Sorry about the misunderstanding."

"Bullshit is bullshit," Dennis said philosophically.

The three of them started making their way down the boardwalk, with Taylor being quite noticeable jumping around like a loon on the rooftops. She sent Chris three different thank you messages in the process, and pulled her phone out to take some mid-jump pictures.

Still, they were patrolling for a reason, and despite the boardwalk usually being a fairly boring route it did get troublemakers at times.

A couple hours later the three Wards had completed their circuit, and found nothing. But a lot of people had captured Taylor jumping around like an idiot, both in photos and videos. This included jumping down from rooftops to grab a soda with Missy, interacting with Missy and Dennis a bit, and jumping back up to the rooftops.

That she hadn't done anything like the insane jumping on her last confirmed outing wasn't seen as proof of anything, given how little was known about Maul in general. PHO was going to be busy with new theories. The three had even made a point of returning to the PRT through the front door, together, while people were watching, to further cement that Maul was working with the other Wards.

An hour later Taylor pulled out of the parking garage entrance on her moped to head home for the night. She really wished she could have justified bringing the jump harness home with her, but no matter how she looked at it she had to leave that as a Maul thing. Still, she had placed an order for a couple of charging mats when she found out that both of her phones and her tablet could use one. That and they were cheap, at least in the PRT store.

Tuesday morning at school was a repeat of Monday in several ways.

The classes she hadn't had the day before included the admonition/reward bit for having so much work already completed,

Vicky still had injuries that hadn't healed. But now people were assuming, correctly, that Maul had caused those injuries.

Unlike Monday, however, since Taylor seemed to be the one 'in the know about the new Ward' she was being asked a lot of questions.

Most of which she declined to answer at all. She did, however,

answer a few.

She would be embarrassed when she found those few made it to PHO, and even more so when she got a message approving of her

actions from Glenn.

"Where did you first see Maul?" was asked multiple times, and always got the answer "In a locker room in the basement of the PRT building." Because that is where she first got the Maul costume, so she had seen herself in-costume in the mirror.

"What was Maul doing in the PRT building?" was the usual follow-up question. That was also an easy and safe answer. "Testing out her new costume."

"What were you doing in the PRT building?" was also asked. Taylor took great pleasure in answering "Meeting the Wards." Technically accurate, yet being taken a very different way than the truth. Jacob was quickly being considered to be the greatest, most awesome uncle ever.

"Have you seen Maul's powers?" was a simple "No" due to technicalities. None of Taylor's powers were visible, even if their effects were. Taylor was amazed that the question had only been worded in that way, though.

"Have you met Maul in her civilian identity," was a "No, and if I had I doubt I would be allowed to tell you anything anyway." It was, after all, a little hard to meet herself, right? Not that she was considering it impossible, mind you. Powers are bullshit and all.

"Do you know Maul's measurements," was asked at lunch and Taylor deferred to Vicky, sitting at the next table over. Who dramatically cracked her knuckles in response when informed of what the question was. The question was withdrawn. Quickly. That also broke the flood of questions and Taylor was able to finish the rest of her school day in peace.

Taylor was ensuring her wok and entrenching tools were clean when Dean arrived in the Wards common area. This was a bit of a surprise as Missy hadn't even arrived yet.

"Taylor," Dean said, coming over to the couch Taylor was sitting on.

"You suck and are awesome all at the same time."

"Er, thanks, I think?" Taylor said, wondering what this was about.

"I took the console and access keys classes yesterday," Dean elaborated. "In fact, I came in through the gym today. You suck because you and Missy have been dangling things in front of the rest of us while convincing us you were joking, but you are awesome because you realized it wasn't fair that I didn't know I had a parking space despite being the only Ward with a car."

"You are welcome. You joining in on the trolling now?"

"Hell yes, should be even better when I get my vehicle transponder.

On another subject, we do need to spend some time, supervised,

getting you used to my emotion blasts. It is best that you be exposed to them before I accidentally hit you with them in the middle of a fight."

"You have patrol today?"

"Nope, but as I said, we do need supervision."

"What kind of supervision?"

"Er, probably a female PRT officer. Really, someone to ensure that should I hit you with a lust blast or something that I don't take advantage of you? Regulations are annoying."

"So Missy could work?"

Dean gave that some thought. "Yea, I could see Missy working just fine."

"Well, she is on her way in, and it looks like Dennis and Chris have the only patrol today? Why aren't you patrolling today, since you were off yesterday?"

"Dennis wanted Thursday through Saturday off, and Chris keeps wanting to field test his modular tweaks to his equipment and thus put himself down all week."

"Oh. Ok, then why are you in today?"

"The novelty of not having to use the methods that I now see as ridiculous to get in and out, mainly. That and I was hoping you would stop in."

Dean headed to get changed into his costume, Missy arriving a couple minutes later.

"Hello Taylor," Missy said, dropping onto one of the other couches.

"What are you up to?"

"Well, originally I was thinking about checking out the junkyard,"

Taylor answered. "But Dean thinks I need to get some experience with being the target of his emotion blasts. Want to play designated supervisor?"

Missy gave that some thought, then nodded. "Sure, I guess I hadn't really thought about the fact that everyone else went through that already." She jumped up off of the couch. "I guess I'll go change,

then."

Taylor, Dean, and Missy had headed down to the junkyard anyway.

In part because Dean wanted to see it and in part because Taylor figured trying to do something while being blasted was better than just being blasted.

As such, Taylor was doing her best to hit things with the collapsible baton while intentionally poorly dodging Dean's blasts.

[Affirmation]

No, I'm not angry.

She was finding the constant mental interruptions quite annoying,

though.

[Affirmation]

Not really jealous of anyone right now, no.

She punched out at a falling piece of wood with her glove-plates.

The most interesting part was seeing what the intended emotion was each time.

[Affirmation]

Nothing to be scared of in here right now.

Huh, she missed the wood. Oh well.

[Affirmation]

Well, ok. Yes, I am annoyed, but I don't need to be more so.

"Hold up you two," Missy called from by the door. Dean had been bouncing around at that end of the room trying to get good angles on Taylor, who was deeper into the room where most of the junk was. "I have noticed an unfortunate pattern."

"What kind of pattern?" Dean asked. "Because all I noticed is that she is, emotionally, more annoyed with this than anything else, and I doubt that my power is causing that directly."

"Taylor freezes for a half second to a second every time you hit her,"

Missy explained. "As in dead stop, then she continues on as though nothing happened."

"Huh, given that this feels a lot like Vicky's aura did, I wonder if I did that with her," Taylor mused. She quickly sent a text message off to Amy asking just that. "I also wonder why I keep doing it. Let me see if my snark knows."

Do you know why I keep freezing?

Taylor waited for her snark to respond, wondering if this was going to be an ongoing problem.

Assumption

So when some other power tries to affect my brain you intercept it,

but until that is resolved my brain is almost but not quite paused?

Agreement

"Crap," Taylor mumbled, then spoke up. "Looks like when other snarks try to mess with my brain my snark intercepts them, but because they are targeting my brain I freeze up while the intercepting is happening." Taylor's phone pinged her with Amy's response, plus some extra bits Amy had noticed. "Oh, and Amy says that yes, I froze up both times she saw me exposed to Vicky's aura."

"That sucks," Missy said, sitting down against the wall. "Think you can find a way around it?"

"Don't know," Taylor admitted. "I think my snark and I have to think on it."

Taylor ended up taking another hour or two of new frustration out on various things in the room before the three of them made their way back to the common area. Taylor helped Missy with some homework, but had nothing of her own due for a while, before all three of them headed home for the night.

"A request for a larger budget for destruction-friendly objects?" Emily muttered. "Why is this coming up now?"

She went through various reports, trying to backtrack the cause.

Finally she came across the logs for training room six. It appeared

that Miss Hebert had been spending a lot of time down there,

occasionally with others.

Emily approved an increase, as it was a lot better for Miss Hebert to damage stuff in that room than to cause collateral damage elsewhere. After a moment's thought, she also directed them to look into obtaining some of the furniture from Winslow and to shift some of the old office furniture in storage to the room as well.

She hated that old furniture, but they couldn't throw it out unless it was suitably damaged. But nothing said they couldn't encourage it to be damaged.

Last edited: Nov 21, 2017