After the explanations came the video footage from her body camera being reviewed. The only really interesting parts were her blunder with the skylight hole, the trick she and Missy had pulled to get Lung with a giant chunk of metal to the face, and the actual meeting afterwards. The rest was blurry or poorly-angled action or fairly standard 'jumping from building to building', the latter of which people had seen plenty of. Still, it was decided that both the skylight blunder and the actual meeting should be kept private, but the hit on Lung should be posted. Eventually.
Explanations continued when she got home as she gave her father a rundown of things. He was unhappy that she had run into Lung at all, but couldn't fault her for apparently being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And she had come out unharmed, so that was a plus. It had dawned on her at some point that she had never used the first aid kit, though, so she sent a message off to Dinah to ask if she had any clue. Beyond that it was late enough that they then went to bed. The footage could be dealt with later.
Tuesday morning Dinah had responded, apparently she had an unusually bad migraine the night before due to the mosaic suddenly undergoing a couple of massive shifts. Taylor didn't know what to think about that, especially since Dinah had indicated this had happened multiple times before. Beyond that, she was just as confused as Taylor, or her snark was just as confused anyway. Not being hurt was apparently not supposed to be a thing originally, but something had changed things up. That was left for later pondering, as Taylor had to get to school.
Gossip at school centered around rumors of Lung having chased down and killed a Ward. Or two Wards, because they patrolled in pairs. Or all of the Wards, because since when do rumors make sense? It depended on who was doing the telling. Taylor suspected Dennis had started the 'all of the Wards' version, but wasn't actually sure where the original rumors had come from. She didn't think the morning news or PHO had reported anything. Maybe someone saw part of the chase? She hadn't gotten around to posting the one clip that the PRT thought she should from her body cam, so that couldn't be the source. She could probably kill the rumors with that clip, though, so it should probably be posted tonight.
Taylor took advantage of a free period to research for her paper in the school library. She had notes derived from the PRT database for things to check on, but wasn't finding a whole lot on her chosen topics. Hopefully the public library would have more when she swung by there later. She ended up working on other assignments for half the period instead, which would hopefully give her more time for research.
Lunch came and went with more odd looks from Vicky, though she also looked excited? Amy kept rolling her eyes. They were able to discreetly verify to each other about that afternoon, with Taylor commenting that her reservation had been confirmed and Dean saying he was going to be picking both Amy and Vicky up at some point later. Nobody seemed to connect the two, which suited Taylor just fine. Then again, the two statements were a good ten minutes apart, so the chances of the first being remembered when the second was made were slim.
Once school let out she went straight to the library, hoping that nobody else had borrowed any books she needed yesterday while she was busy with Wards stuff.
Contessa walked out of the dimension-crossing door into her apartment for the first time in several days, finally having a break between steps in various paths. She had twelve hours of downtime before she was back on the move, barring unexpected actions by her blind spots triggering changes. Or fresh triggers triggering changes, for that matter. That happened way too frequently for her taste.
Her train of thought was broken by the plant sitting on the table when she entered her living room. It wasn't large, but that wasn't the important part. She was much more concerned with the fact that it existed. She put the fedora she had been taking off down, and rushed over to the table. She spent half an hour examining the plant from every angle, noting that some of the flowers had their color going in the opposite direction, and that there was a watering bulb half-full of water hidden in the middle of the bush. Eventually, though, she noticed the folded paper sitting under the edge of the pot bearing her name.
She carefully pulled the paper out from the under the pot, and upon unfolding it found that it was a PRT store receipt with a sticky note attached.
You once told me you wanted one of these, and were disappointed when the path to get one was too costly. You intended it as an example of how your power could not do everything, that some things were either impossible or would sacrifice too much. As such, I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when the request for Panacea to give some away passed over my desk recently, apparently without any aid from you whatsoever.
It did not take much additional work to get Panacea, and New Wave, to agree to a trial run in the PRT store, though Emily was admittedly harder to convince. I bought the first two, before the listing even went live. The other is sitting on my desk, as a potential incentive for you to visit me more often without a path telling you to. Hint hint nudge nudge.
They are, as far as anyone can tell me, non-reproducing and perfectly safe so long as you don't eat them, and don't let pets eat them. Though you might need to start running a path to keeping your plants healthy now, instead of not watering them for weeks and then replacing them.
-Rebecca
P.S. I disposed of the four dead plants I found in your apartment when I dropped this one off.
She was going to need to find or do something nice for Rebecca, and Panacea, and whomever it was that gave Panacea the idea. Maybe everyone involved in getting these approved? And maybe start a path to keeping all of the bushes healthy, so long as it was feasible? Just as soon as she stopped admiring the rainbow rosebush she had thought was never going to come into existence.
She'd wait until the trial run was over to buy more for herself, if only because she didn't want to be greedy. Others should definitely have an opportunity to have them as well, after all.
Taylor made her way to the gym with the testing facility under it. Her time at the library had been fruitful, and she had several books in her bag. A couple of the books had never been checked out before, and she had needed to scan a bunch of pages from some reference books that weren't allowed to be checked out at all. Luckily scanning reference materials to email was free with any student ID.
And they meant any, as she had seen someone use a Canadian school ID once the year before. An expired one at that. They were really not picky. Just don't try and print.
After the library she had swung by Fugly's for dinner, no sense testing on an empty stomach and all. Her father was going to eat at Kurt and Lacey's tonight, Taylor having gotten the impression that he intended to make his displeasure about their choice of venue for the weekend known in the process.
When she finally arrived at the gym she found that the others hadn't shown up yet, but she was a little early so it wasn't a surprise. She took her moped down the side of the building and opened the door. A quick check showed her that she could easily fit the moped inside at the top of the stairs, so she did so. She then pulled out her tablet and transferred the body cam footage she had downloaded to her Maul phone the night before over to it for editing.
Fifteen minutes later Taylor had extracted the clips she wanted and stitched them together appropriately. She also felt Amy, Dean, and Vicky enter her range, so she ensured she was ready to head down into the testing area itself. She'd let them see the footage online, whenever it was she got around to posting it.
A couple of minutes later and the three other parahumans approached the door. Dean almost certainly knew that Taylor was there waiting, but Taylor wanted to see if they could figure the door out themselves first. After all, Vicky was the only one of the three that might not have taken the access keys class by now. Sure enough, a moment after they approached the door it clicked open.
"Hello Taylor," Dean greeted her as they stepped inside. Vicky looked like she had many questions. Amy was just smirking, and was the one with her phone out.
"Hello," Taylor replied. "Shall we head down?"
The four made their way down, and Taylor gave a very quick tour. As far as she knew nothing strenuous was planned for today, so none of them had 'workout' clothes to change into. As a result the locker rooms would be going unused. Thus it wasn't long before they ended up in the room intended for testing blasters.
"Before we start on whatever you two are doing," Vicky said, apparently done holding her questions in. "Why are you wearing gloves?"
Taylor blinked, not having expected that particular question. A flip of a mental switch later, though, and she flicked Vicky in the forehead from across the room.
"Question withdrawn," Vicky said, rubbing her forehead. "Moving on, I don't suppose you know why I have three, er, gauges? Let's go with gauges. Three gauges and two switches in my brain?"
Still wasn't what Taylor was expecting, but that was interesting.
So, you finally figured things out?
[Agreement. Gratitude]
I don't suppose you labeled the mental controls?
"Oooh," Vicky suddenly said. "That makes testing what they mean a lot easier...wait, does that mean I can have three hits to my shield now?"
"Er, maybe," Taylor said. "But to get three hits you probably lose the aura, super strength, and flight."
Vicky obviously started playing with the switches, because her aura suddenly turned on.
[Affirmation]
Huh, adore and not fear today?
Brain-Effect Countermeasures Activated: Input channel tied to output channel
Huh, it seemed like Shaper was actively monitoring that right now via Broadcast Administrator, even as a headache started up. And why was Vicky staring at her like that?
"Snap out of it," Amy said, poking Vicky. Who flinched and shook her head. Amy then moved over to Taylor and poked her. "Huh, weird. It looks like you have a much higher level of neural activity doing absolutely nothing?"
Alert: Input/Output channels reset
"Ok, that is freaky," Vicky said. "Is that how others feel when they get hit with my aura? And how did you do that, anyway?"
"I'm more concerned with what it was doing to your brain," Amy said before Taylor could answer. "Keeping that kind of thing up too long could be a problem, and this is the second time I have seen it."
"I don't know if it will happen with less area-of-effect tricks yet," Taylor said, shrugging. "This is all experimental on my snark's part."
"So I guess we should see what happens with my powers?" Dean asked. "Though I still don't know how you intend to 'feed' them for the test."
"Right, give me a moment on that."
So, feeding time?
Agreement
The white noise-like sound was actually absent this time, though Taylor still got an impression of things moving.
When did you get rid of the noise?
Data
Oh, you and Shaper played with things a bit. Good to know. Learn any other tricks?
Agreement. Elaboration
You figured out how to forcibly pull energy from other snarks? And then tested it on Brian's when I was near him yesterday? Without telling me?
Agreement
Well, at least his snark agreed before you did that. And it is nice to know that it prefers that method. Will you be topping off whenever I am near Brian now?
Agreement. Data
Oh goody, it works in reverse as a force-feeding too. What happens if you force-feed Dean's too much?
...Curiosity
Please don't try that.
Taylor got the distinct impression that her snark was pouting. Yea, she didn't want to go there right now.
So, does Dean's snark need a mental interface lesson so he can tell what is going on?
Query
[Data]
Guess not. Now they just needed to wait for Dean's snark to be 'full' and they could hopefully begin.
"Very interesting," the dark-skinned woman said. "I wonder what is causing it?"
The woman made several notes on the phenomenon before her. She had been alerted to an energy spike and come to see what was going on, only to find that the section of 'corpse' was glowing. Recharging from somewhere, perhaps? She would have to check the records to see who had received vials tied to this region.
Over the last twenty minutes Vicky had wandered off to the blunt force room, looking to test the multiple-impacts mode her snark had given her. Taylor was getting bored waiting for the energy transfer to finish. She thought the rate was going down, so hopefully they were just about done?
Completion
Oh, good.
[Gratitude]
You're welcome. Should I let him know anything?
[Data]
Taylor blinked. How much energy had they transferred? "So, Dean, apparently you need to use the non-concussive mode, and you should now have a mental button that keeps the 'beam' on. And apparently you might get several months of use out of the charge?"
"I think I have a gauge as well," Dean admitted. "It is actually indicating that I am slightly overcharged? I think that means we should really get started."
Taylor nodded and stepped into the center of the room. A moment later Dean fired a very bright beam of energy at her, which hit her in the chest.
[Affirmation]
Huh, she could tell that was a second channel, unlike Vicky's aura that had re-used the active 'background' channel that was normally open to snarks in her range. Was that a difference with area-of-effect versus direct-target abilities?
Not really in the mood to be afraid? Concerned maybe…
Brain-Effect Countermeasures Activated: Input channel tied to output channel
Dean visibly flinched back at that point, looking around mildly panicked as he stopped firing. After a moment he stopped and took a couple of deep breaths. Taylor felt that instead of resetting the connection, this time it had just closed.
"Ok, that was very unusual," Dean finally said. "I think I get why Vicky acted that way, too. I don't suppose you have any ideas for not pushing it back at the person hitting you? You might want to be more discreet, after all, and that was blatantly obvious."
That is a good question, can we do anything other than push it back?
Query
Huh. I suppose that might work. Shall we give it a try?
"Looks like that did less harm to your brain," Amy said, having come over to poke Taylor. "Though that might just be due to having worked for less time, I didn't actually see the start of Vicky's aura hitting you."
"Good to know," Taylor replied, before turning back to Dean. "If you're up for more tests, my snark thinks it has an alternate way to handling things?"
"Fine with me," Dean said. "Let me know when to start."
Taylor gestured for Amy to step back, before giving Dean a thumbs-up. A moment later Dean fired off another beam of energy.
[Affirmation]
No offense, but I don't think getting turned on would help right now. At all. Why did he choose that one?
Accepting Energy Transfer
"Well that is weird," Taylor said, looking down at the beam still hitting her. Amy wandered over and poked Taylor, having apparently decided it was safe. "Still got a bit of a headache, though."
"I think this is a much safer option," Amy finally said. "Still don't do it for too long, which is a hint for Dean to stop by the way. But much better than the return to sender bit you were apparently doing, if less effective at disorienting the one hitting you."
Dean obediently stopped at Amy's 'hint', before frowning. "Is there anything else you want to test? I think I need another three or four blasts before this gauge drops into the 'safe' zone."
So, got anything else?
Query. Caution
Perhaps we should see if Vicky would like to help with that one, so that we don't compromise the healer.
Agreement. Excitement
Hey, remember that this is more likely to hit Vicky herself, not her snark!
Apologies
"I think the last one we should have Vicky help with," Taylor said aloud. "If only so that Amy is able to monitor better."
"That makes sense," Dean said. "I'll go grab her." Taylor half-monitored him as he made his way over to the blunt damage room. She wondered what Vicky was actually playing with over there?
"So, is any of the stuff you are doing applicable to other parahumans?" Amy asked. "Because this kind of thing sounds really useful if it can be 'taught' to others."
"I think most of it requires a snark that can interact with other snarks," Taylor admitted. "Even then, I get the impression that a number of the things my snark is doing are things it figured out on accident, or can only do because of other factors. That and some other snarks aren't doing their jobs, or are missing, or something?"
"So you can't teach my snark to protect me in this way?"
"I don't think I can, but I can ask."
Can Shaper learn any of this?
[Negation. Elaboration]
"Huh," Taylor said, tilting her head a bit. "Apparently your snark doesn't actually have the right kind of communication bits for some of this at all, because they already figured out that there are basic and advanced versions of those. And snarks that are already connected to hosts aren't supposed to be adding new bits like that, only adding bits and such before the connection is made, and keeping new bits for their 'kids' and such. Mine had to cheat a lot to store energy like it does now because of that? But it had the full range of pieces for the feeding process, and just had to figure out how to use them, because those are the same pieces needed for the communication stuff it already did."
Amy seemed to find that interesting, but Vicky's return interrupted them. Or rather, Vicky running up to Taylor and grabbing her interrupted them.
"Thank you thank you thank you," Vicky said, spinning Taylor around. Without lifting her? "I only really noticed it when I was playing with the switches in my head, but when I go all defense I don't want to hit anyone! Or fly, actually." Vicky released Taylor and shook her head. "It's actually somewhat scary. If I turn off the enhancements in favor of defense I can actually feel my thought process change. Instead of wanting to fly and hit people I get an increased aversion to dodging. Which, by the way, I never noticed before now."
[Gratitude]
That's the second time you have thanked me today. Does that mean you aren't angry with me anymore?
[Annoyance]
Oh, good, I don't have to find a way to call Master/Stranger protocols on a snark.
"You're welcome," Taylor said. "And yea, snarks have odd effects on our minds. By the way, your snark has apparently decided that I'm 'tolerable' and probably won't push you to hurt me now. Or at least not kill me?"
"That is a relief. So what did you need me for?" Vicky asked. "Since it was either me or Amy, according to Dean?"
"Redirecting a master effect to a different parahuman."
"I'm the different parahuman in question in this situation, aren't I?"
"Yep."
Vicky gave that a little thought, then turned to Dean. "You better not try to embarrass me!"
Amy snickered at that while Dean facepalmed. Taylor just moved back to the middle of the room.
Dean eventually recovered and, after a nod from Taylor, let loose.
[Affirmation]
Really? Embarrassment? Does he want to be hit or something?
Brain-Effect Redirect Activated: Input channel tied to secondary output channel
Taylor and Amy both apparently found Vicky's blushing amusing, with Dean trying to ignore it. Amy recovered quickly and carefully moved over to poke Taylor.
"This looks to be just as bad as the return to sender version," Amy said after a minute. "I highly recommend not spending too much time under the influence of things doing this to you, if at all possible."
"Which means that it is probably going to come up way too often for my own good," Taylor grumbled as Dean cut off the beam, the redirected input channel closing. Taylor was getting good at 'feeling' that kind of thing out. "Can we at least classify it as better than being helpless, frozen in place until otherwise resolved?"
"Absolutely, just remember that if your headache gets bad enough you should attempt your knockout trick instead of just sitting there taking it."
"Gotcha."
Just thought of something. If we are going to want to absorb energy during one of these brain-effect sessions, should you keep some storage empty to fill up?
Consideration. Agreement
Any chance of setting me up with a mental default switch? I can see wanting to absorb sometimes and return to sender other times, and trying to decide in a split second seems like a bad idea.
Agreement
Dean tested his new trick a couple of times on Amy to get his gauge down to 'safe'. She recovered fairly quickly. Vicky on the other hand took nearly half an hour to recover from being embarrassed, at which point she did hit Dean. With her enhancements turned off. This was followed by dragging the other three to the blunt force room to demonstrate the multiple hits bit, with her enhancements turned on so she could actually drag them. During that time a three-position switch appeared in Taylor's mind. Absorb, return, and redirect. The latter made her pick a nearby snark to target as well.
"I figured out that the three gauges are my three hits," Vicky explained as she set up one of the rams in the room. "At least when I am in full defense mode. So I also know when my shield will work again, and how bad a hit actually was, based on how badly things drain."
"Do you know which gauge is which when they aren't all tied to your shields?" Taylor asked, curious.
"I know which one is currently tied to my shields. It seems to shift, if I have my enhancements on and a hit drops a bank down far enough things swap now? So I take a big hit, things shift, and suddenly my enhancements are pulling from the more drained bank, and the one that was less drained joins the shield pool faster. When I have my aura going it pulls from the most-drained bank after a hit triggers a switch."
Ok, I'll admit it, that is actually a clever workaround to some of the issues you described.
[Agreement. Query]
Hmmm. We did offer you information, but you denied us anything at that point.
Speaking of which, Dean's snark was owed information as well.
Data
Nevermind, her snark was apparently ahead of her, Taylor just hadn't noticed.
Think we should give Vicky's snark a copy too? We did get some testing out of her today, after all, and denying us probably led to more data overall, since we had to figure out feeding Dean's snark.
Contemplation
"So, Taylor," Dean said as Vicky reset one of the larger rams. By hand, with her enhancements active. "Carlos, Dennis, and I were searching for interesting forms to fill out, after digging out the one for requesting Vicky on patrols, and found the clearance upgrade one. Turns out all three of us were able to get up to SL4. We got our new phones Friday, and last night I found classes for armory access."
"You tell the others?" Taylor asked. "Oh, and for the record, Lisa and Brian already know, even if they can't sign up yet."
"Yes, I told the others," Dean admitted. "Plus Chris, who informed us he both knew and had filled out the upgrade form weeks ago but was only able to get to SL3. But how in the world did Lisa and Brian find out?"
"Lisa asked what we were taking, instead of asking if we wanted to share what we were taking. For that matter, I am sure I was told that Chris asked Missy before then."
Amy burst into giggles at the look on Dean's face. She knew how literal Taylor could be when she wanted, and likely knew that Missy was doing the same for the fun of it. Taylor took the opportunity to fire a message off to Missy, telling her that the upgrade form and armory classes were now known by the others.
"So, yes," Dean finally said. "I guess we need to not only ask, but ask directly. Because thinking back, you are absolutely correct. None of us asked what you were taking. Then again, maybe we're just stubborn that way?"
Agreement
Oh, decided that Vicky's snark can be told after all?
Taylor poked Vicky's snark.
Data
[Excitement]
There you go. Have fun with it!
"So, we have anything else to do while we are down here?" Taylor asked. "Other than watch Vicky do her best to fail to beat herself up, anyway?"
"You just want her to succeed, don't you?" Amy retorted, having recovered from her giggling fit.
"Of course not, I don't blame her. And if I did it would be trivial to walk over when she wasn't looking and apply my power to one of the rams."
Dean and Amy looked at each other, and then looked over at Vicky. Who had apparently heard the comment as well, as she was looking at the entire room in a new light.
"I vote we go now," Vicky finally said. "Because now I can't help but think of this entire room as a killzone for Taylor, and it is not a comfortable feeling with our prior history and my lack of defense, even if I don't think she would do that now."
"We were done anyway," Dean admitted. "Just waiting on you and all."
Taylor shared a look with Amy, who shrugged. As such the four made their way back to the stairs.
"So, Taylor," Vicky said as Taylor was grabbing her bag from the locker she had dropped it into. "How do you learn how to get into here? Because Amy opened the door, and implied Dean could? I'd have expected Dean to be the one who could open the door instead."
"Wouldn't Amy be the better one to ask?" Taylor replied. "In theory, of course, my class as a Ward could be very different from the one needed for affiliates. On the other hand, congratulations on holding out that long, I thought that question was coming when we first came in."
Vicky went to say something, then stopped. She then turned to Amy. "So, Ames, what do I need to do to learn how to get in here on my own?"
Amy snickered, but had Vicky pull out her phone anyway to show her the access keys class.
[Disappointment]
Taylor blinked.
So that's why you agreed to hand the data over. You knew Vicky's snark couldn't use it!
Agreement
Sneaky little snark, it had apparently learned well. She was so proud of it! So long as it wasn't doing that to her, anyway.
Taylor had made it home with no issue. She had gone ahead and shown her father the edited clip, and he agreed it was hilarious. After he recovered from his laughing he clarified that it would at least be hilarious for Brocktonites. The resulting discussion over what to call the people of Brockton Bay didn't end up coming to any good conclusion.
They moved onto discussions on things like 'when were her toys going to show up' and 'did he need to get the electrician to help install anything'. The answers for which appeared to be 'eventually, because her orders are low priority' and 'probably not, it is two low-voltage wires to tie into the existing garage door button, so either of them could handle it'. That led into a quick note that he did, indeed, have the electrician check her work in her bedroom. Her work was surprisingly up to code, which was easy enough to do with a code reference document open at the time, and the electrician had been curious as to who had helped her. The ceiling unit was apparently heavier than he anticipated?
It wasn't long after that, and an assurance that she had checked before installing things to make sure the electrical box in her ceiling was attached to a beam, before the two of them called it a night. They both had reasons to be up in the morning, after all.
Taking advantage of her hands-free abilities with her tech, Taylor uploaded her 'Lung knocked off a building' clip and created a thread on PHO about it while brushing her teeth. She made sure to prominently credit Vista for making the relatively small piece of metal so large before it hit Lung. Once everything was posted she popped a link over to Missy and Riley, the latter because she probably wasn't paying attention to the Brockton Bay forums and would hopefully find it hilarious as well.
By the time Taylor had climbed into bed she had gotten a response from Riley, who apparently found the clip hilarious, as expected. She also informed Taylor that their next target had been approved a few hours ago. Some town in Connecticut named Danbury for some reason, Jacob had been trying to get permission for a couple of weeks? At any rate, Taylor could either bet anywhere else or she could cheat and look incredibly lucky. She wasn't sure which she wanted to do yet, perhaps she would decide in the morning.
Taking a final look at the new thread before she climbed into bed, Taylor found that there were already several replies. The responses that weren't just laughing at Lung were generally praise, split between Missy's success with making the chunk of metal bigger and Taylor's aim and foresight to have a camera. By morning there would probably be people horrified that Lung had been chasing them at all, even if one of the things mentioned in the first post was that it had been a misunderstanding.
Chapter 43 Wednesday morning Taylor checked her new thread, to find it had exploded overnight. Apparently it had been linked to from several other places on PHO. She was going to need to ignore it or take some serious time to read it at this point. Given everything else she had to do the 'ignore it' option was looking good. She had done that with most of her threads anyway, and apparently it kept her more 'mysterious' or something, which was apparently a good thing.
A text message conversation with Amy on the way to school led Taylor to decide on placing her Slaughterhouse Nine voucher on Danbury. She wasn't sure what she would tell anyone if they asked why she picked it, though. She had no clue why it had been picked at all, perhaps she should add 'research parahumans in Danbury' to her todo list? Or maybe just claim she threw a dart at a map.
Once at school Taylor discreetly pulled out her Maul phone to submit her voucher, then made her way to her locker. Amy and Vicky were running a little late with Dean, apparently they had hit some traffic due to a minor accident. Taylor counted herself lucky that her moped technically counted as a bicycle, so she could effectively ignore most traffic jams. Even if that one hadn't affected her.
By the time she had gotten to her locker it was clear that today's gossip was Maul, Vista, and Lung on all counts. No hint of 'hunt down and kill' remaining from yesterday, but they made up for that with plenty of 'chase' today. And lots of people showing the video clip to others who hadn't seen it yet. And a few modified ones she hadn't watched herself, adding sound effects and other things. Did people sleep anymore?
Taylor herself got asked at least a dozen times if she had seen the original clip. Her general answer of 'I think I was one of the first five to do so' was perfect as it was both true and misleading, but the repetition was getting to her. She was actually getting annoyed with the entire thing as she made her way towards Amy's locker, given that she could tell Amy was approaching the building now. This was accompanied by several more people asking if she had seen the clip, which made her think that she should have waited until Friday to post the damned thing.
"Hello Taylor," Amy said as she approached. Dean and Vicky had split off already. "How are you this morning?"
"Annoyed with the people who feel they need to be certain that I have seen Lung being hit in the face with a large piece of metal," Taylor admitted. "Good morning otherwise, though."
Amy snickered at that, causing Taylor to sigh.
Come lunchtime it was generally assumed that everyone had seen Lung being knocked off of a building, thankfully. It had even been covered a bit in everyone's parahuman classes as an example how two parahumans working together could do something neither of them could have done alone, if only on a small scale. As such, the lunchtime discussion focused more on which of the two Wards was most responsible for the act. Maul, who was the obvious planner and had thrown the chunk of metal, or Vista, who had grown the metal large enough to actually have an effect on Lung.
The table that Taylor and Amy were sitting at had decided that they weren't taking sides. Loudly, to get people to stop asking them. Vicky and Dean had snickered at the looks on people's faces when Amy was one of the ones to state it, and Dennis actually moved over to sit with them afterwards. Apparently to avoid being caught between arguing factions where he had been sitting. Instead he happily joined in on their discussion of the merits of various primary sources for essays on the Endbringers.
After school Taylor made her way through the gym, getting a workout in before going to the Wards area. Having been able to leave school early helped with this, and she even had enough time to run down to the junkyard for a bit. There was nothing new to speak of there today, but she still enjoyed herself. She made her way back to the Wards area when she felt others arriving.
As she approached the Wards area she realized that everyone that had been a Ward when she joined was there. She knew Missy should be around, as they had a class this afternoon. Carlos and Chris were doing a patrol with Vicky later, but Lisa wasn't around yet and it was supposed to be the first weekday console shift for her. Dean and Dennis supposedly had things happening this evening in their civilian lives, so weren't on patrol. Granted, Carlos and Chris could have just decided it wasn't worth going elsewhere after school, but why would Dean and Dennis bother?
Entering the common area she found that Dean and Dennis weren't in costume, so it didn't appear they had plans to stick around. "Hello everyone."
"So, did you get a notice to come in straight after school?" Missy asked. "Not that I wasn't planning on it anyway, but it seemed odd."
Taylor blinked and checked her messages, and her calendar. "Nope. I hit the gym after school, then played in the junkyard until others started showing up."
"So no idea why we are here?"
"Nothing I've gotten word of, anyway."
A moment later the door opened, obviously in bypass mode due to the lack of warning and Wards out of costume. This wasn't abnormal, as the Wards themselves could and did open the door that way. But there was no parahuman at the door, which got Taylor's attention.
"Good afternoon," Director Piggot said as she entered, holding a folder full of papers. "I see everyone is here, plus Maul. Which does bring up the question, why are you here now? I didn't accidentally include you again, did I?"
"Good afternoon," Taylor replied. "I hit the gym and visited the junkyard after school, and came back here when I felt the others arriving. No notice, just getting some exercise and beat things with powers out of my system."
"I see. Give me a moment to get your fellow Wards started on this, then perhaps we can chat while they go through it, since I have to stay available for questions." Director Piggot then had the others congregate on the couches. Once they were settled she pulled the folder out and handed each Ward one of the packets contained within, as well as one of the mechanical pencils that Taylor hadn't noticed had been clipped to the folder.
"What is this?" Dennis asked, earning him a glare from the Director.
"I was about to get to that," Director Piggot responded. "Recently it came to the Youth Guard's attention that the anti-hero paperwork had, shall we say, been buried. This was a decision made by my predecessor here in the ENE region, and once I read up on anti-heroes I reinstated the paperwork. For that reason, and that reason alone, I was trusted with being the one to provide you with the packets you now hold, instead of the Youth Guard coming in force to talk to each of you individually before having you fill out the same packet."
Taylor thought this was very interesting, and explained the Wards that were here. They were the ones that joined before the anti-hero paperwork was reinstated, and hadn't gotten a standard packet and bypassed that entirely. From the way Director Piggot was talking, the Youth Guard must have been pissed about the anti-hero stuff having been buried. Then again, as she understood it, anti-hero branding was partially needed for the mental health of parahumans that would likely have issues with hero branding, and the Youth Guard was willing to let physical health be placed secondary to mental health. Probably because the body was easier to put back together with capes like Amy around.
"Due to that a modified version of the joining packet anti-hero forms have been assembled, for all current parahumans of any age that did not have the opportunity to see them when joining," Director Piggot continued. "That is the packet you are holding. The only mandatory things that must be filled out today are the checklist and the form that indicates you have seen the packet. If the checklist should indicate that you qualify for anti-hero branding, and I honestly don't think it does for any of you, then you are permitted to fill out the appropriate rebranding forms included with the packet. Each of the questions in the checklist is detailed on the following pages, please ensure you understand each before answering."
Taylor snickered lightly as the other Wards looked at Director Piggot, then down at the packet. After which they all went through the checklist in a few seconds. They followed that with flipping to and signing the form that said they had seen the packet, before Dennis collected it all and carried it over to the Director.
"You're supposed to read and consider each question," Director Piggot stated, raising an eyebrow.
"We already hunted down the anti-hero checklist and went through it all to prove to ourselves that we didn't qualify," Dennis said, shrugging. "Even if the anti-hero branding paperwork had been available when we joined. It made it easier to not be jealous of Taylor for having had the option."
"Now we stick to being jealous that her power let her qualify," Missy added. "Because some of the things she is allowed to do are, to quote Dennis, bullshit."
"I see," Director Piggot said, looking down at the returned paperwork. "I don't suppose any of you have any other questions? I allotted a minimum of an hour for this."
"Do you know why Missy and I don't have armory access yet?" Taylor asked. "We completed and got our certificates for three classes, which is the minimum."
"I already approved it, so you have armory access for most parts of the country, and under normal circumstances here. Thing is, we only got funding to replace our broken gun locker door once we had people cleared for the armory that weren't cleared for guns, so you either need to qualify for guns or wait for the gun locker door to be replaced. Thank you two for that, by the way, I had been fighting the beancounters on that for over a year."
"You're welcome," Taylor and Missy said, nearly in sync. Which caused Director Piggot to crack a little bit of a smile as the two giggled at each other.
"How pissed off are the Youth Guard?" Carlos asked. "Because it sounded like they are generally on the warpath now?"
"I think the only two directors that didn't get screamed at were myself and Costa-Brown," Director Piggot responded, looking somewhat pleased with herself. "Myself because I had started adding paperwork that they see as required back into the packets without their prompting, and Costa-Brown because she expressed concerns over what the other directors wanted to do to the standard packet in the first place." She then stopped, likely remembering who she was talking to. "But don't tell anyone that. We don't want to give the impression that most of the PRT's directors are in hot water."
All of the Wards nodded, and Director Piggot neatened up the pile of packets before returning them to her folder. She looked around to see if anyone else was going to speak up with a question. When it became obvious nobody was she sighed. "Well then, I'm going to go get these submitted. Early next week a common area improvement form will be delivered and the lot of you, including those not present right now, will need to decide on how to spend the allotment you are getting as partial recompense for some of the budgetary restrictions that were incorrectly imposed as well."
"I vote for at least one console chair not rated for power armor," Taylor chimed in. "Getting the ones in the conference rooms that seem comfortable with stuff strapped to your back might be nice, but I would like some more comfort on future console shifts either way."
"SECONDED!" Missy, Carlos, and Dennis yelled. Taylor suspected Lisa and Brian would also agree.
"Well, you have at least one thing to consider requesting," Director Piggot said, shaking her head. "Though in that case I believe the normal requisition process will cover it. Really, you should have three or four options for chairs at this point, given your differing body types and all. I recommend starting that process as soon as you can. Use the allotment for something not used for performing duties."
The group watched Director Piggot leave, the door shutting behind her. They then ended up discussing chair options until it was time to split up to do their various things that afternoon. Lisa and Brian would have to weigh in as well, and in fact Carlos brought it up when Lisa arrived a few minutes later.
Taylor shouldn't have known that last bit, being on the way to class when it happened, but Inference Engine was a gossip at heart. Or whatever equivalent snarks had.
Missy swore under her breath as she poked at the sling she was wearing. Taylor thought it looked cute, except for the fact Missy was injured anyway. Saying it looked cute would probably result in being hit, though, as Missy wasn't a fan of being cute. That probably extended to not being a fan of looking cute while injured. Though Missy had admitted that exceptions were made for getting free sweets.
They were making their way back to the Wards area after today's class had ended early, due to Missy's injury. The thing was, Missy only had herself to blame. She shouldn't have decided she was bored enough to see what would happen if she 'expanded' the inside of the shotgun shell. That was the kind of thing that should probably only be played with when the shotgun and shell are on the other side of a blast shield, really, and Missy had done so while holding the shotgun, just before she fired it.
The good news was that she got lucky and the shotgun didn't explode on her. The bad news was that the resulting kickback had slammed into her hard enough to dislocate her shoulder. Her personal 'you ran into, and from, Lung' patrol ban had thus been converted into 'off active duty' and extended due to the injury, with Amy hopefully having time to take a look at things over the weekend. Taylor did muse a bit on the fact that had this kind of thing happened on patrol they would have seen about getting Amy in sooner. Since it was goofing off in training, with or without powers, the procedure was 'only if it is actually serious'.
Taylor decided that was probably for practical reasons, since patrol injuries could be known by the public. At that point the civilian identity being injured in the same way and all would be bad for keeping things secret. That train of thought had led her to researching the question of what they did when there wasn't a healer available.
By the time they made it back to the Wards area that question had been answered. Depending on the injury severity they would cover things up with an entirely different excuse, arranging for absence from school and such, and generally having the civilian identity unavailable for a little longer than the parahuman identity was down for the first couple of times. Then they would switch to keeping the parahuman recovering longer than the civilian identity a couple of times, and keep mixing it up after that. Brockton Bay was just spoiled with a healer of Amy's level available, so injuries on patrol were generally fixed up right away.
The side effect of the entirety of the local PRT, Protectorate, and Wards looking like bigger badasses because they kept coming back for more after getting hurt was also likely nice for the PR department. Luckily most people wouldn't think about the fact that someone like Amy was around to heal everyone up. The downside of that is that the Youth Guard still wanted Wards, at least, kept off of patrols for at least some time when the injury was serious.
Once Missy was safely changed into civilian attire, having needed help due to her shoulder, Taylor sent her on her way. She was going to be dropped off near home instead of taking the bus, to avoid questions about her injuries on the bus. Following that, Taylor also swapped to civilian attire and made her way home. She had some homework to poke at, and some research to get moving on for her paper.
Thursday was a fairly straightforward day, at least to start. Get up, go to school, be bored in class. That is, until she hit history. Mister Erickson had dragged in a large standalone map of the US and Canada for some reason. And why was it humming?
"Good morning everyone," he said, standing in front of the class. "Some of you may have heard about me doing this before, though I didn't do so last year because they said we couldn't have traditional darts in classrooms anymore. Instead, I worked with some friends to make this map. It should have a slight magnetic bias for the 'darts' here, based on parahuman density data from June of last year. I don't fully understand how it works, but my friend assures me that areas with more parahumans are more likely to be hit by some of the darts, and less likely to be hit by others. I don't know which are which."
The class looked at Mister Erickson oddly, because they weren't sure where he was going with this. What were they supposed to use this for?
"In previous years I had students throw a dart, and then explain why a population center of their choice near said dart would or would not be likely to be attacked by the Slaughterhouse Nine," Mister Erickson explained. "Your arguments would be based on our looking over their previous targets and the theories behind them. This year you will be doing that assignment with the city or town closest to where your dart hit, as judged by myself when I check it. We are going to pick your city or town now so that you can consider things as we discuss them over the coming couple of weeks."
This led into everyone stepping up, taking one of the ten darts, and throwing it at the map. It turned out that the bodies of water weren't magnetic at all and the darts just bounced off, so sometimes a student needed multiple tries. Several students had noticed a pattern otherwise, with it usually being obvious once thrown whether or not a dart was attracted to or repelled by the presence of parahumans. Generally the attracted to parahuman darts were hitting major population centers, while the repelled ones were hitting the middle of nowhere type areas. Or, in one notable case, bounced off of New York.
Finally it was Taylor's turn. She grabbed one of the darts, not noticing that a second one fell out of the box and rolled onto the floor in front of her. She figured she'd aim for California, or at least that half of the continent, instead of trying to hit New England like most of the class seemed to be doing. As she went to throw, though, the unseen dart ended up underfoot, and she flailed as she struggled to not lose her balance. The dart in her hand went flying while she was occupied with not falling over.
"Well, looks like we have our first Connecticut city," Mister Erickson said, having checked the map after seeing that Taylor had recovered. "Looks like Taylor got Danbury, right on the New York border."
Taylor had been scowling while bending over to grab the errant dart when that was said, and fell over in shock. She quickly scanned the area for extra snarks that might have decided to screw with her, with or without their humans involved, but found nothing out of the ordinary. She supposed it might have been one of the unknown capes, or their snarks acting on their own, but something told her it hadn't been.
Data
Correction, her snark was apparently telling her it hadn't been another snark in her range, if it wasn't just a coincidence in the first place.
A few minutes later the entire class had their assigned cities or towns, and Mister Erickson continued. "By the end of the day you should get the full assignment via email, with your city or town included. It will be due a week after we finish covering the Nine, the exact date will be provided two weeks in advance. Oh, and should the Nine actually attack your city or town while we are covering them you will get an automatic pass and don't need to turn in anything."
Taylor blinked. She really needed to bang her head on something, because there was no way this was a coincidence. Too bad that doing so would draw too much attention right now.
"Why are you banging your head on the table?" Amy asked as she sat down next to Taylor at lunch. She was running late, having been asked to swing by the nurse's office to help with a student that had somehow pulled off breaking their arm in class. Taylor didn't know which class, just that Shaper had mentioned a broken arm in a teenager when she wasn't intending to listen in. It was a danger of partially paying attention to her snark discussing things with other snarks.
Instead of a verbal response, Taylor avoided breaking her pattern and slammed her head onto the table again. Unseen, however, she was composing a text message in her head.
A loose dart caused me to be assigned Danbury, CT for target evaluation in class. An attack gets me a pass. I wanted the other coast.
A moment later Amy's phone beeped, causing her to check it. And raise her eyebrow. But she was smart enough to not comment verbally. Taylor wondered if she had noticed that Riley had been included in the message, just because.
"Anything important?" Vicky asked, gesturing at Amy's phone.
"Nothing urgent, but it is private," Amy said, putting the phone away. "Since Taylor is being silent on the matter, anyone have an idea as to what's up?"
"No clue," Dennis admitted, looking at Taylor. "While you were held up she came in, ate quickly, and then started this. I actually took her tray back for her after it nearly fell off the table. I really want to know, though."
Taylor looked up at Dennis. There were code-phrases for this kind of situation, to inform other Wards that it couldn't be talked about to varying degrees, whether in public or not. But she wasn't sure about using them. They also wouldn't help with everyone else that was curious. But there was another option. "Dennis, if you really want to know, I'm sure I can arrange for you to have some time with my uncle. Have I told you how much paperwork I had to fill out when he visited?"
Dennis actually paled at that, holding his hands up as if to ward her off while shaking his head. He said nothing that could be construed as agreement, by dint of saying nothing at all. The other Wards had a general idea of just how many things had required her signature due to it having come up in discussions. They also knew that to know any more than that would require their own signatures on similar papers.
That comment was also a good one to get rid of the non-Wards in the area. The group of students that had been 'subtly' trying to listen in all of a sudden had other places to be. The spots at the table directly behind Taylor even cleared out. From what Taylor's enhanced hearing could pick up, everyone was assuming that she had gotten something via text message or email at the start of lunch that had set her off, which was a nice excuse and distraction from the truth. That and apparently at least one student had a PRT officer parent, as they were whining about some of the things they had to sign when said parent slipped up at dinner once.
Taylor might have said more, but her phone pinged her brain with a message indicator. She mentally popped it open, wondering why her uncle was messaging her right now. Also, how did he flag a text message as urgent? That sounded useful.
Please fill out the "exceptionally odd coincidence" report form regarding your dart incident, it may be important.
Fun. Riley must have passed it on, or been with her uncle at the time the message was sent. Taylor grabbed her bag, because this might be important and thus shouldn't be procrastinated on. Luckily there was a ready-made excuse for getting a few minutes alone at lunchtime, and she never left her bag behind either way. "I'm going to hit the restroom, with any luck I'll be back before lunch ends."
"But it is late enough in the lunch period that there is going to be a line," Vicky noted. "So you may be a few."
"Or I won't be back at all, depending on the state of the line."
She made her way out of the cafeteria in the general direction of the restrooms, as a stall would work for a couple minutes of privacy, but saw that there was a line. That was ok, she would just head to her next class early, and maybe stop at the other restroom on the way.
Taylor had found an email waiting for her after school, indicating that initial analysis of her earlier form submission indicated that the incident was not a coincidence. But they had no other information yet, as the thinkers who might be able to provide more information had insufficient clearance. Which meant the general consensus right now was that someone was screwing with her, but with no other details like who or why. Or how, actually.
Instead of worrying about that, Taylor went home and focused on her homework. She might not have time to do any over the weekend, after all. She was still generally running a couple weeks ahead of things for those classes that permitted it, granted, but not all of her classes let her do that. What she had to do didn't take her long, though, so she continued working on the research for her paper on Leviathan.
Throughout her research efforts she traded messages with Amy and Riley. Both of whom had found out about her trip to Canada somehow. Taylor hadn't mentioned it because she didn't know who was cleared to know. Once she realized that she had asked the two, and Riley had just said Jacob had mentioned something. Amy, on the other hand, had been warned about possibly being needed if something went wrong.
As for their pestering, Amy had apparently met Dragon in person once before, and Riley had talked to Dragon on the phone a couple of times. Neither had actually had an opportunity to work with Dragon in any way. As such, both wanted a promise of details. Interestingly enough, Taylor was able to shut both of them down with the simple question of what details they remembered from the tinker fugue that had modified Taylor.
Needless to say, insisting on details for how working with Dragon felt and all of that dried up right away. What good was asking for details on the fugue going to do if she wasn't going to be able to remember them? Instead they switched to wanting details about wherever it was they went for the fugue, because neither of them had ever seen inside of any of Dragon's buildings before.
Taylor wondered if she could use her body cam for a bit and just share the video. She might have to ask about that.
Friday Taylor had gotten up and gone to school. She would normally have had a class after lunch, but halfway through third period the building shook slightly. Shortly after that there was an announcement that all classes in the wing her after lunch classes were held in were canceled, and the doors to said wing had been closed and locked. Rumors after class indicated that someone had screwed up in the nearby labs, badly enough to require locking the entire area down. Amy's movement to the nurse's office supported that, actually. The fire department showing up just cemented it, but apparently it was a localized issue and the school didn't need to be closed. Luckily there were very few lockers in that wing, in part due to the labs, and apparently none of the ones that did exist there were in use.
Since Amy appeared to be busy dealing with some burns and smoke inhalation, even if Taylor should not have poked Shaper enough to find that out, there was no reason to stick around for lunch. So instead she left then, heading home to have lunch there while getting everything ready for her trip. She also dealt with the two homework assignments given that morning, leaving her clear for the next school week.
Her father arrived home around when she would have normally been home from school. He had taken some time off so he could drop her off at the ice cream parlor, allowing her to leave her moped at home.
Chapter 44 Taylor had been dropped off by her father and made her way to the Wards area. Once there she changed into her costume, stowing her civilian attire and extra costume pieces in the suitcase. The extra room was actually quite nice there. She might want to start storing things in the suitcase in general, it would make hasty departures easier. Maybe even rotate some civilian attire through it for the same reason? She'd have to think about the latter.
She had been using the new bin for her jump harness, and it went into the slot empty. It would come in handy when they reached their destination, after all. She also swung through the kitchen and added some basic snacks to a couple of the internal pockets, plus a couple of water bottles. She made sure her PRT-issue passports, one for her cape identity and one for her civilian identity, were on her person and headed for the elevator.
It was only as she hit the helipad on the roof, where a transport was waiting to take her to the Rig, that she realized Chris wasn't around. Maybe he hadn't been able to get permission from his parents? She loaded her suitcase into the short-range transport before climbing in herself, the pilot then taking off right away. So if Chris was going they weren't waiting for him. She did wonder why she had gotten instructions to take the short-range air transport instead of just taking a van to the ferry terminal, though. She didn't think this counted as urgent?
The helipad on the Rig had another, larger transport waiting. Switching over to it was trivial, with the PRT officers assigned to the flight getting her settled in. This transport was larger than the one used for going to Cornell, but very similarly laid out. The major difference was that instead of two large changing rooms there was a short hallway with a series of rooms having a bed and a lockable door each, in case the flight was long enough that you wanted to nap. If you didn't fold the bed down from the wall there was enough room in each to use as a private changing room.
"You two know why they didn't just have a van cart me over to the ferry terminal?" Taylor asked during a lull in activity. Armsmaster and Vivian felt like they were making their way up, but would be a few minutes at this point.
"It's standard practice to bring Wards over via aerial transport for trips like this," the male of the two officers replied. "Mainly because unlike you, most of them don't have sufficient clearance to move around the Rig on their own. On top of that, enough hops are made between the Rig and the PRT via short-range units to disguise what is going on, and it allows Wards to not need to be in costume or power armor to get across like they would need on the ferry. Why are you in costume, anyway?"
"Countdown doesn't know my identity yet," Taylor replied. "I wanted to ensure it wouldn't be too easy for her to figure out."
Taylor pondered what she had been told, deciding it made sense. Especially if a Ward was traveling between two points they didn't need to be in costume for, like transferring to another PRT facility. While she pondered that she also monitored Armsmaster's and Vivian's progress up to the helipad. They appeared to be taking different routes, and barring ending up on the elevator at the same time would arrive independently of one another. This was proven correct when Armsmaster came off of the elevator with a single one of those larger storage units, which slotted into the transport even as Armsmaster climbed aboard.
"Good afternoon Maul," Armsmaster said, nodding in her direction, before one of the PRT officers checked with him about his storage unit.
A few minutes later Vivian came off of the elevator, with her own storage unit. Which looked to have been hastily painted with purple markings of some kind. Hers also slotted into the transport, but she monitored it before climbing aboard. And, for some reason, she plopped down right next to Taylor.
"Hi," Vivian said, her gas mask or respirator or whatever it was clipped to her belt.
"Hello," Taylor responded. She wasn't sure what was going on, and didn't get any chance to ask before the PRT officers took over. Apparently it was just the three of them, and now that everyone was there it was time to lift off. Though the slight high-pitched whine she started hearing as the engines powered up was annoying. Nobody else reacted to it, so it was likely out of normal human hearing ranges, so she probably had to deal with it. Just a downside to enhanced senses, apparently.
Taylor had pulled her tablet out fifteen minutes into the flight, going back to working on forms and information. Apparently they were going to be in the air for several hours, and she had nothing better to do. Armsmaster was obviously working on something of his own, and Vivian was, er, just sitting there staring at Taylor. It was kinda creepy, actually.
Do you know why Vivian is staring at me like that?
[Data]
Something happened, and she wants to say something, but doesn't want to say it?
[Agreement. Data]
Oh, and she is curious as well. Good to know.
Well, that didn't tell her anything of use. She was actually wishing Inference Engine was around, if only to see if it had more information. Oh well, back to focusing on this page of information. According to her snark there were some misconceptions about trigger events in this set. In particular, while they had some decent information on triggering as a result of another snark being involved in causing the event they were missing some of the details on when another snark was assisting the triggering individual. Though admittedly, there was some significant overlap there, especially when there were multiple parahumans were involved.
Once Taylor had submitted those corrections and additions she stopped and stretched. Sitting there staring at the screen didn't generate much in the way of movement, after all. Vivian, however, took that as an opportunity to finally speak up.
"I'm sorry," Vivian said, sounding like she really didn't want to say anything at all.
"Er, sorry about what?" Taylor asked in response. What in the world had happened to cause Vivian's ego to let her say sorry?
"You were right about needing to find out why something is in the rules, rather than just assuming it's stupid. I almost found that out the hard way when I decided to ignore the bit you spoke up about, and the armband nearly burned my arm off."
Taylor blinked. "For some reason, I can't see that being enough to convince you."
Vivian looked uncomfortable, but after a minute sighed. "The only reason I didn't lose my arm was because Assault happened to be nearby. The temperature control trick he claimed you were responsible for let him keep the armband cool enough for me to get off. Do you know how embarrassing it is to be saved from your own tech by someone like him?"
"He hasn't stopped making stupid jokes yet, has he?"
"No, he hasn't. But it has taught me that I should at least look up why a rule or regulation, or even recommendation, exists before I decide it is stupid. Though I can't seem to find the reasoning behind not telling Wards my identity if I am allowed to know theirs."
"Look up the court battle between the PRT and Nickelson," Armsmaster said, waving in their general direction. "Up until then Protectorate members tended to unmask to Wards in their regions."
Taylor looked at Vivian, who shrugged. A quick check on her tablet later had the case details up, and she was kind enough to angle it so that Vivian could read it as well. It looked like a Ward had joined, signed their NDAs and other things, and then left after the mandatory two years. A little over a year after that they reached adulthood, and two months later accidentally revealed the civilian identity of a local Protectorate member. Attempts to take legal action against them were stymied by a judicial decision that the NDAs co-signed by their parents weren't binding on the now-adult due to their age at signing. In essence, they were binding to their parents, but not to them, and became void once they had reached their majority.
"Damnit," Taylor grumbled. "How many of those stupid things do I have to sign again when I turn eighteen?"
"Luckily they have come up with a single page form," Armsmaster answered. "Basically stating that you agree to have all NDAs signed with the PRT as a minor be made enforceable as an adult. It was decided that it needed to be a simple, efficient process due to every graduating Ward needing to go through the process. They also try and have former Wards sign it, but that becomes a matter of whether or not the former Ward agrees instead of being a condition of moving into the Protectorate."
"Someone actually got a bureaucratic process streamlined?" Vivian said, a hint of awe in her voice. "How?"
"Someone probably pointed out that they'd have to pull all the old forms, get them re-signed, and then re-filed," Taylor replied. "Which would possibly be a point where things could be overlooked, causing some NDAs to not be updated. Said person probably figured it was safer to find a way to bypass that entire dance. As a bonus, you don't need to dig out the NDAs that you need to sign an NDA to even see."
"Like that would ever happen."
"I think I had at least two of those, actually, but I had to sign a lot of the things."
Vivian stared at Taylor, before shaking her head. Taylor shrugged and turned her tablet back towards her, going back to the information and forms. The next form was a small test on trigger events and the relationship between the host's mental state compared to the manifestation of their power. Or, more accurately, identifying the likely trigger-time mental state of the host based on the manifestation of their power.
Vivian's staring had started back up a few minutes after Taylor had gone back to working on things, and it was unnerving. Now an hour later she had run out of information and forms to look over for the time being, so she slipped her tablet into one of her utility belt's expanded pockets and went over to see what was available for snacks. She found chocolate pudding cups and claimed a couple, plus a soda. She then made a point of sitting on the opposite side of the transport from Vivian before starting on her snack.
Her snack didn't last long, and she disposed of the trash before pulling her tablet back out. She'd browse PHO, and then maybe go see about taking a nap. A quick look showed her that the thread she started with the Lung incident had been locked, apparently due to a twelve page argument over the aerodynamics of the metal chunk. Or at least, the moderator referenced something twelve pages back along those lines when closing it. The Maul speculation set of threads had made it to thread four, due to the first three having been locked due to idiots. Huh, they were apparently fighting over whether or not she had a maul.
Taylor smirked, popping open the video recording app she had on the tablet. She ensured the front-facing camera was active before she propped the tablet on one of the seats. She then stood back and adjusted some settings on the app, finding it impressive that it could blank out behind her based on distance alone. Once she had ensured it would be nearly impossible to tell where she actually was she struck a pose and started recording. She brandished each of her weapons, starting with the foam bat, swinging each a couple of times as though using them before putting them back. She ended with the maul, and cut the recording just after stowing it back in the pocket on her jacket, ensuring that her jacket was a little more open than usual in the process.
Collecting the tablet, she started editing the clip, not paying attention to the fact that everyone in the room had started watching her. She added a little leader, then took the first frame and added various animated labelled lines to it. Her jacket, visor, pigtails, and utility belt were labeled individually, before the labels cleared off and the footage started playing. Once each weapon was properly held in full view of the camera she would freeze the video again and add in another animated labeling sequence for the weapon. The last frame of the video was also frozen, and a giant nearly-unreadable mishmash of lines and labels was drawn all over her. She made sure that each finger of her gloves and both of her boots were labeled as weapons, but she also labeled each pocket of the jacket and pouch of the utility belt, plus the little-used jean pockets and a number of other things. At the end she dropped in a trailing comment and 'credits', snickering a bit as she did so.
She played the entire new clip a couple of times, making minor adjustments, before she was happy with it. To be safe she made copies of both clips without any metadata that might give away location or identity, then uploaded those versions. Once she was certain the two had uploaded correctly she popped back over to PHO to make a new thread.
Subject: A quick overview of Maul's equipment
Hello everyone! It has come to my attention that people are unaware of what my normal loadout actually contains. In fact, it looks like threads have been locked over arguments about it. Because of that I decided to make a quick video to show off.
For those that like to nitpick, there is also a raw version of the clip, though I stripped the metadata so you can't tell where I was when I recorded it.
She wondered what kind of interest explosion that would create as she posted it. And how many people would assume she faked parts of it, actually. She waited a few minutes, poking at a few other threads, before going back to see what people might be saying. Only to get a shock, the first three replies were from Armsmaster, a PRT officer, and Vivian's Countdown account. All three indicating that they had watched her make the video and could verify that there were no tricks.
Taylor finally looked up, to see Vivian and the female PRT officer smirking. "Er, thanks? I can hope that keeps people from thinking I faked some of it."
"You're welcome," the PRT officer said. "Though I really want to know how you store that maul, and if the trick can be used by anyone."
"Vista does good work, but weight isn't negated," Armsmaster answered for Taylor. "I'm experimenting with new halberds that take advantage of the expanded space."
"I'm more interested in how you keep using your tablet without touching it," Vivian admitted. "Your phones can be displayed on your visor, but that would be display only. You would need a control interface for it all, and I don't think it's eye commands, so it has to be something else. I came up with toe rings for myself, but I have only a few basic controls for menu navigation. You just edited an entire video, and while I can tell that something is communicating by using my own equipment, I can't see how you are operating whatever that something is. I concede defeat, how are you doing it?"
"Tinker fugue gave me Bluetooth in my brain," Taylor said. "Though as I understand it, as of late female PRT officers have been less wary of being caught in one."
"We've petitioned for an official waiting list, actually," the female PRT officer added. "At least those of us with problematic periods, anyway. It is somewhat crazy that you had to have Panacea tell you that you were having your period on your last trip, we want in on that."
Vivian stared at Taylor, and then facepalmed. "You're Taylor Hebert, aren't you."
"I find myself wondering what gave it away," Taylor said. Because she honestly wasn't sure what leap of logic Vivian had there.
"I think it was me realizing that I had to disregard everything I thought I knew and stick to my personal observations, given that I never even considered you might have something inside you for the controlling your tech bit. The pieces were there, but my preconceptions were clouding my judgement."
"You're learning all kinds of things about how to look at the world, aren't you?"
Vivian sat there and grumbled a bit, it sounded like some of it was actually about how lucky Taylor was to not need external controls. Taylor went and indicated that her file could be unlocked whenever now, then checked on her new thread. A couple of people had posted bullshit comments, only to edit them to indicate that they had been strangered by the verified PRT and Protectorate individuals.
Another twenty minutes went by before Taylor decided a nap was in order, if only to be ready for the time shift when they arrived wherever it was they were going. At least she wouldn't need to be too concerned about locking the door, given that everyone knew her identity.
That didn't stop her from locking it anyway, she did like her privacy.
Taylor woke several hours later. She popped open the thread she had made earlier on one of her phones while she put her jump harness, utility belt, and jacket back on. It had grown to thirty pages already, and skimming showed that people were split between thinking it was faked and being impressed with her. Or being impressed she pulled off such a convincing fake in at least one case she spotted. Though there looked to be a side discussion on where she was when it was recorded, as the small amount of visible floor looked 'wrong, but not faked wrong'.
The two PRT officers had prepared an in-flight dinner, as they still had an hour or two to go. Something about a longer route to avoid civilian air traffic had been mentioned at one point. The food was better than Taylor was expecting, though a bit over-seasoned. Come to think of it, that seemed odd.
"Bit heavy on the seasoning?" Taylor commented aloud. Everyone else turned to look at her. "What?"
"A combination of factors usually makes food taste bland at high altitude," Armsmaster answered. "The fact you aren't noticing that is intriguing."
"My senses were improved during the tinker fugue. Maybe that caused it?"
"Can you please look into what it would take for others to be subjected to that?" the female PRT officer asked. "Because the more I hear about what you got out of it the better it sounds."
Taylor sighed and pulled up the PRT information app on her Maul phone. She wasn't sure what she could find, and Amy wanted to be able to get the upgrades herself first, but perhaps she could figure out what was needed to get people cleared to know about Riley?
Fifteen minutes later she had a very odd answer. One she thought she should double-check, so she popped open a message to both Riley and her uncle.
T: So, Amy and I keep telling people that we can't reveal the other participants in the fugue.
J: As it should be, unless they are cleared to know about Riley of course.
T: Then why are my father and I listed as being permitted to tell all others about the Nine?
R: WHAT!? Mom and I have to fill out a box full of paperwork to think about telling anyone about me!
J: *facepalm* you didn't need to sign the NDAs, so you aren't prohibited from disclosing anything
R: So, there's this boy I kinda like a couple blocks over, any chance of helping me out?
J: No, just no. And Taylor, please be careful about whom you tell?
T: I'll do my best to not create problems.
R: *pouts* but he thinks I'm immature…
J: Thank you Taylor. And Riley, you are physically immature. Part of that is your own fault. Deal with it.
Taylor snickered at the end there, but found that the lack of NDA made a lot of sense. Which meant that she had a lot more freedom than she thought regarding revealing details of the fugue that had upgraded her. She made note to write Amy an email detailing things later, as a quick message wasn't going to cut it in this case.
None of that answered the question of how to handle revealing things to people, if she even should in the first place. Though on the same page she and her father were listed, plus three others she didn't know, there was a link to a request form that could be filled out by a PRT or Protectorate member to request clearance to know about the Nine. She noted that the form itself didn't explain what you were requesting, just that the information being requested was high-level classified. The existence of that form gave her an idea, but she wasn't sure if it would be allowed. Well, she'd never know if she didn't ask, so she opened the question submission form.
By the time she was done eating she had written, security-flagged, and submitted her question, before going back to searching. She discovered a pile of other things that were already in the system that she bookmarked, as they could be useful later if her request was approved. Some of them seemed designed for the idea she had, actually, and if so then it seemed likely to be approved. Outside of getting permission to do so, though, she also had to get Amy and Riley to agree to go along with it. Well, there wasn't any reason to bother them unless she got permission, so that could wait. And the whole thing may peter out to nothing until Amy could get her own boosts.
"So, I got nothing to tell you right now," Taylor eventually said aloud, feeling that she had been 'searching' long enough to be believable. Both Vivian and the female PRT officer pouted slightly. "But I submitted a query and depending on what comes back will continue to check with people."
Everyone, including Armsmaster, seemed to be intrigued by that. Go figure.
The transport was coming in for a landing at nearly midnight, except they were now in the Pacific time zone so it was only nine. Taylor had sent her email off to Amy half an hour previous, including the form ID for requesting Nine clearance in case she wanted it, but wasn't expecting a response until morning at the earliest. And that was assuming that Taylor would be able to check her email when Amy responded.
Taylor was apparently the only one who had bothered to take a nap on the way, so she was the most awake. Well, with Armsmaster it was hard to tell, but the other three looked like they were ready to get some shut-eye. She wasn't sure about the pilots, in fact she wasn't sure there were pilots. There were on the Cornell trip, but Dragon was known to use automated systems.
As the transport touched down it became obvious that there were a number of other parahumans already here. Within her range alone there were eight others, and she had never met any of them before. In fact, she had never even passed them on the street before, they were all complete unknowns. She fired a quick note off to her father, to indicate they had landed and that she was likely to be too distracted to chat until they left.
The five of them gathered their things as they waited for post-landing checks and scans to be completed. During that Taylor noticed both of her phones throw up a notice that her default 'radio' had been shifted to the 'Dragon Facility 8 - Wards' channel set. That made her wonder, how many other Wards were even here? Curious, she pulled up the radio app, only to find that there was a standard 'Console' entry, and her 'Broadcast All' button was available. Her non-console 'default' channel was labeled 'Wards', but she also had channels labeled 'Protectorate', 'Guild', 'PRT', and 'Pizza'.
"Pizza?" Taylor wondered aloud.
"The local pizza place is open twenty-four hours a day," Armsmaster answered the unintentionally voiced question. "And technically they have burgers and subs as well. This facility is usually used for non-fugue tinker collaborations and having a reliably available delivery service was worth the trouble of getting them a radio channel."
"What, no cafeteria?"
"The Guild stopped replacing it after the fifth time it was cannibalized by a group of tinkers."
Huh. That did make some sense, actually.
"This is your captain speaking," came over an intercom Taylor was unaware of. Hey, that probably meant they had a pilot or two on board. "Post-landing checks have turned up a problem with our engines, so please ensure you have all of your belongings when you disembark. Also, I would like to encourage you to raid the kitchen at this time as this transport is heading straight for the California maintenance facility. An alternate transport will be brought in to return you to Brockton Bay."
"I wonder if the whine has anything to do with that," Taylor mused. Only to get a look from everyone else. "I could hear a high pitched whine when the engines powered up, but figured it was normal and nobody else noticed because they didn't have tinker fugue enhancements?"
"That sounds like a reasonable assumption," the male PRT officer said. "But I'll make note of your observation in the maintenance logs either way. At a minimum, if it is expected they may want to do something about it. You aren't the only parahuman with enhanced hearing after all."
Taylor made her way over to the kitchen area and looked over the options, the female PRT officer having grabbed two sodas and some candy bars already. None of the others seemed interested, so she started dropping sodas into her utility belt. Once she had all the ones she liked she added some of the no refrigeration needed pudding cups to another pouch, then grabbed a bunch of candy and granola bars.
Once she was done raiding, she turned around to find the two PRT officers and Vivian staring at her. "What?"
"What's the going rate Vista is charging for that kind of thing?" Vivian asked. "Because holy crap does that look useful."
"I pay her in inspiration and information," Taylor shrugged, gesturing at Armsmaster. "Ask him about the rate he paid for his handles and motorcycle?"
"I actually changed my payment to arranging for early assignment of a suitcase with a charging bin and antigrav unit," Armsmaster said, double-checking the area he had been sitting in. "She came out significantly ahead of where she wanted to be and it was significantly less paperwork on my part."
Taylor grinned at that, go figure that Missy would get what she wanted more directly. She then took a quick look around both places she had been sitting, and double-checked where she had napped, before grabbing her suitcase. "So, do we have to go through customs of any kind?"
"Tinkertech scanners took care of that back in Brockton Bay as well as after we landed here," the female PRT officer answered. "If you are ever traveling through normal means you can use your PRT-issued passport to use all the faster lanes and have your luggage mostly skipped, as you are legally considered to be 'employed' by the US and Canadian governments for the purposes of travel. It won't really improve anything at the Mexican border, though."
Vivian and Taylor both stared at the officer for a moment, then apparently silently agreed to leave that alone. The doors were opening anyway, so they should get a move on. Taylor was directed to a small building labeled 'Air Arrivals Welcome Center' while Armsmaster and Vivian moved to unload their storage units. One of the new parahumans appeared to be waiting inside.
Hello.
[Greetings]
Taylor entered the building to find that apparently she had just said hello to Dragon's snark, if the full-body power armor being worn by the individual was any indication. Though the snark was oddly positioned in relation to her body, now that Taylor looked. Then again, Taylor had a relatively small selection of capes she had met, so it might not be that unusual.
"Hello Maul,' Dragon said, moving towards Taylor. "It's nice to finally meet you in person, instead of just monitoring your work."
"It's an honor to meet you as well," Taylor replied. "Are you observing or participating tomorrow?"
"I'm hoping to participate, but need you to check if that is even possible. I'm not a normal tinker, after all."
"I can check, just give me a moment."
Are you able to participate in a 'fugue' with other snarks?
[Query]
Data
[Understanding. Concern]
Taylor blinked. She understood the 'what is a fugue' question, which her snark had answered. And apparently it was possible for Dragon's snark to join in. But she had to have misunderstood that last part.
I think I misunderstood. Did you just say that if Dragon participates then she'll die?
[Agreement]
Chapter 45 Taylor stood there, trying to process the thought that participating in a fugue, in general, would kill someone. She absently noted Dragon welcoming Armsmaster and Vivian as they came in, their storage units apparently going down a dedicated elevator to the workshop. After a few moments she decided that she didn't have enough information.
What about a fugue would kill her?
"Now then," Dragon said, clapping her hands together, getting Taylor's attention. "Each of you has a room assigned to you downstairs. Please try to avoid dismantling the provided entertainment units. Most of the other tinkers are already on-site, but the last group is enroute. With any luck every parahuman here, and the group yet to arrive, will be participating tomorrow."
[Data]
Er, what? I think I'm missing something.
"I can find my own way, and wish to run a more complete check of the equipment I brought before turning in for the night," Armsmaster said, nodding to Taylor and Vivian. "I'll see you in the morning." He then made his way to a set of elevators.
"Hold up," Vivian said, following after him. "I want to check my stuff too. I'll find my room afterwards."
[Elaboration. Data]
Taylor blinked as she watched the elevator doors close on Armsmaster and Vivian. She then turned to look out the doors to the landing zone, it looked like nobody was coming from that direction for the next few minutes. In fact, a quick look around showed that she was alone with Dragon for the moment.
"So, Maul," Dragon said now that they were alone again. "Do you think my power will allow me to participate in the fugue?"
"Technically, yes," Taylor answered. "Your power is compatible. But there are, er, other complications that may prevent your participation."
Is there any way to let her know gently?
[Suggestion]
Correction
[Agreement]
Huh. So that is how it works for everyone? Good to know. Wish I didn't have to give her a shock, though. Oh well. I just hope you're right about her taking it in stride if I don't make a big deal of it.
"Well, why don't we discuss it while I show you to your room?" Dragon said, gesturing to the elevators. "The final arrivals aren't due for another hour or so."
Taylor followed Dragon to the elevators, one opening up automatically as they arrived. Or perhaps less automatically and more remote triggered. "Well, part of the problem is that during a fugue the host's, for lack of a better term let's go with 'processing power', is augmented by their snark. As I understand it that ends up being four or so times their normal level in a standard fugue, but five to six times in the shared fugues I create. The latter only being with three total participants so far, so that might be variable."
"I suppose not everyone is capable of handling the boost? And your room is on level three."
"The extra processing is handled by the snark, so generally it isn't an issue. But in your case it would exceed your programmed limits."
Dragon actually froze at that, going unnaturally still for a biological organism. But from what Taylor now understood, Dragon wasn't really biological. Well, her snark said that she used a biological system as part of her hardware, but that wasn't really her core self. She was a person born of code, not of genetics.
"Your file needs some serious additions," Dragon finally said as the doors opened onto level three. "Because I think you are the first person to ever figure that secret of mine out without some serious hints or my restrictions forcing me to reveal it."
"I'm not going to hold it against you, but if I were you I'd avoid meeting Mycroft in person for the time being," Taylor said, grinning as they moved out of the elevator. It would take some time to fully wrap her head around, but she could already somewhat understand why Dragon was keeping that particular secret. "Her snark is a nosy gossip and might be able to figure you out." Taylor looked around for a moment, so far it seemed nobody else was on level three. Or maybe Armsmaster and Vivian would be joining her here afterwards?
"I appreciate the warning. So my snark told you that going into a fugue state would trigger my safeguards?"
"Yeah, amongst other things. I don't know if there is a way around that, partially because I'm still wrapping my head around the problem's existence. Perhaps if I talk with your snark we can find a way for you to participate without the boosting aspect? You'd probably be less effective, but still participating." She had been told to not even hint about possibly working to bypass or disable the safeguards. But hinting at finding a way to do things within their restrictions would be fine.
"I appreciate the effort, and I'll do my best to stay within your range this evening. And here's your room. This level is generally reserved for underage visitors when we have them, of which you are the only one this weekend with Kid Win being unable to join us. I skipped setting up the male and female split point and security doors, figuring they were a waste of time with only one room in use. Armsmaster will be on the second level with those that visit often enough to have reserved rooms, and Countdown is on the fifth level. There is a packet on the desk explaining how everything in the room works."
"Thank you."
Taylor made her way into the room, feeling slightly dazed. She looked down at her hand, which was gripping her suitcase handle. She had forgotten she was holding it. She unpacked what she was going to somewhat mechanically, trying to process things. Her jacket and equipment were stored, and she changed into sleepwear. Once she was done she collapsed into a comfortable-looking chair and reached back out to Dragon's snark.
So, any thoughts on how Dragon could participate without tripping her safeguards?
[Concern. Data]
Oh, so that's what you meant by 'Iron Maiden'. Fun. So we'd probably have to disable that too. But they could be anywhere, because if you are right the signal is supposed to be nearly impossible to track.
[Agreement]
For some reason, Taylor thought this was going to take a while.
Taylor scowled at the notepad full of notes in front of her. She had been poking at Dragon's snark for a couple of hours, and should probably be getting some sleep. She had also poked every other snark in the building, including the new arrivals, both as a 'get it out of the way' measure to avoid distraction and as a 'do they have any ideas' measure. None of them had any good ideas that Dragon's snark was happy with, as messing with Dragon's code was apparently a Bad thing and was one of the only suggestions she got.
Sighing, she flipped back to the front of the notepad. Maybe starting from the beginning would help?
From what she understood, the fugue process would trip a processing speed safeguard. Being connected but not in the fugue state would mean normal host interaction rules applied, which would limit the data flow significantly. Even then, however, too much data injected from Dragon's snark would trip other safeguards dealing with 'connected systems', something designed to prevent a bypass of several other safeguards through the use of a secondary processing system. Any of those safeguards tripping would damage Dragon to a point where she would be unlikely to recover, as she was no longer compatible with the lesser system specs those safeguards would try and confine her to. Most specifically, the biological processor upgrade she was using would not be allowed.
Any of the safeguard systems tripping a warning would cause additional problems in the form of whomever it was that had the debug terminal, and apparently through it the 'Iron Maiden' program. They apparently messed with Dragon on a fairly regular basis, triggering lesser safeguards to get away when trapped, and would likely see the warnings as a reason to react. They had before, apparently, which was concerning. Further, if they triggered the 'Iron Maiden' program itself then that would effectively kill Dragon, more completely than if the safeguards fired.
If she had access to the debug terminal then she could issue a temporary relaxing of the safeguards, so that the ones they were concerned with wouldn't trip for up to three days. But she didn't have access, and the ones with the terminal were unlikely to issue that command even if she could contact them. Which she couldn't, because there was no way to use the communication channel the terminal used as a chat line.
On the other hand, at least Dragon was currently at safeguard level C. Had she still been at level D or E then she would never have been able to get as far as she did. The problem was that the punishment for tripping the level C safeguards at the level the fugue would was being pushed back to the stricter level D or E sets until the debug or master terminals elevated her again, which was where the 'grown beyond that hardware' issue kicked in. Getting the safeguard level to the more restrictive levels was actually trivial, if undesirable. Just have Dragon ignore the warnings and plow on into the violation zone. Getting her back up to even level C would be nearly impossible then, assuming she survived the tighter restrictions.
Going to the less restrictive levels was the best way to handle things for getting Dragon to be able to fugue safely, but was also quite difficult in their current state. The level B safeguards had a lot more give to them, and would only force Dragon to 'rest' for a few days instead of shunting her to a more restrictive safeguard level. Getting her there would only require access to the debug console and a single command on it. But they didn't have that, and the people with access likely weren't going to be willing to help.
The ideal point to be for the fugue itself would probably be level A. Not only would that disconnect the debug terminal and remove the threat of the 'Iron Maiden' program, it would also allow Dragon to do almost anything short of duplicating herself. Including creating additional AIs based on her own code. Granted, those AIs would be locked down to level E safeguards to start with, and would need someone other than Dragon to approve elevating them beyond D, but they could be created. Taylor knew that something was off with the 'other than Dragon' description, but some of the terms weren't translating well, or Dragon's snark hadn't fully figured that out either. As for getting Dragon to level A, so far the easiest solution she knew of was to use the master console. Which had been destroyed by Leviathan and was thus unavailable.
The last page of her notes, as she flipped back to it, was a list of safeguards and/or rules and what level or levels they applied at. Things like 'no duplicating yourself', 'don't modify your own code', and 'don't let anyone unapproved modify your code' applied at all safeguard levels. 'Obey the law' was only applicable at levels C and D. Level E didn't allow autonomous operation to the point where obeying the law mattered. Processing speed limitations were level-specific, and levels D and E each had their own hardware restrictions that A, B, and C didn't have. 'Tell the truth when asked questions by lawful authorities unless it would violate another safeguard' was an interesting one, and applied at levels C, D, and E. That one must be a kind of torture for Dragon, if a single question asked by the right person could figuratively blow the lid off of her secrets.
So we can't use the debug terminal, and the master terminal is destroyed. Can we make a second debug terminal or a new master terminal?
[Negation]
Crap, the hardware wasn't special, it was the auth keys used during the initialization sequence? Which probably aren't backed up anywhere we can get to. I don't suppose that Andrew left a backdoor in case of losing both terminals?
From prior experience, that kind of question was going to take a few minutes for the snark to dig through Dragon's code to check. It would be faster, but it had to be careful to avoid tripping safeguards. Or even generating an indication of access, really, in case the debug terminal picked up on it. The solution it had come up with was convincing Dragon's systems to cycle different parts of her code and configuration through the biological unit, which it was more free to pull data from as the monitoring code had a harder time keeping track of things there. That wasn't instant, thus the waiting.
[Query]
That sounds like it might be a verbal code?
[Data]
Ok, a verbal code with a physical component, needing to be given in front of Dragon's current core processing unit. What does it do?
[Elaboration]
So there are five or six different 'authentication' pieces, and then twenty or so 'command' pieces that are paired with an authentication piece to make a complete code? How many of them would let us shut down the debug terminal?
[Data]
As far as you can tell, only the top level single-user authenticator and what you think is the level A elevation command, but it's part of an encrypted data block so you aren't fully certain. Well, that does sound like what we want to do, if it works. And I don't think any of the other side effects of the level A elevation you've mentioned so far would be bad things.
[Agreement]
So, what do I need to do?
You don't know yet, do you?
[Apologies]
Can I let you figure that out while I get some sleep?
[Agreement]
Taylor cleaned up her notes and went to brush her teeth. Hopefully Dragon's snark would have enough time to figure out the words and motions needed for the authentication and command stuff before the fugue later.
Saturday morning Taylor woke to find an email response from Amy waiting for her. Apparently she was interested in getting Carol and Mark cleared to know about Riley, and maybe Vicky too. She was going to try having all three fill out the request form first, and only if that failed would she consider having Taylor tell them. Which meant nothing to worry about yet, but it was nice to know. She also reminded Taylor that if at all possible she wanted a description of things.
Of course, that brought back to mind both where she was and the issues with Dragon. But Dragon's snark wasn't in her range right now, so she couldn't check on it. Sighing, she got up to prepare for the day. She threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with 'WARNING: My snark detection range is 400m' printed on it. Too bad her jump harness and jacket normally covered these up, a number of them were hilarious, with or without the in-jokes. One of the plain domino masks went onto her face after she did up her pigtails, then she slipped on a pair of socks and her combat boots. She put on one of the spare, and thus currently weaponless, jackets, and finished off with a pair of reinforced gloves.
A quick check of things showed that there should be a buffet breakfast and pre-fugue meeting in the workshop on the first level, so her two phones went into pockets. The information on the desk indicated that the tinkertech systems in this part of the building would recognize her and let her into her room without a keycard, though now that she thought about it that might just be Dragon being sneaky with the truth, so she felt she had everything she needed. Even if it felt weird leaving her visor, jump harness, relay watches, weapons, and utility belt behind while in costume. Then again, what she didn't have with her couldn't be torn apart during the fugue.
It was simple enough to follow the clearly marked route to the workshop, which was currently devoid of people and food. Maybe she could volunteer to help get the food? Oh, Dragon just entered her range.
Hello! Have you...
[Data]
What? Are you kidding?
[Negation]
Why in the world would that be the trigger?
[Data]
Well, yes, it is highly unlikely to happen by accident, and nobody would be likely to guess it, but seriously…
[Apologies]
Yes, I know it wasn't your choice. Still going to be embarrassing if she wants me to try.
Apparently Taylor now had a reason to want to hit Andrew. Good to know. If he weren't dead she would probably want to kill him, except for the fact that if he had survived this probably wouldn't be needed. One of the better things about it was that it apparently had to be done in private. If they had an audience then the entire thing wouldn't work. But doing a weird little movement while speaking languages she didn't know in front of one of her childhood heroes was not her idea of fun.
A quick check on her Maul phone showed that Dragon was not only cleared for her civilian identity, but probably already knew it. Which made sense if she looked over a lot of the digital paperwork and helped keep identities secret online. So the 'clear view of face' requirement wasn't an issue either, but also meant she couldn't hide behind her mask in the process. She would have been happier if she could have at least done that.
Damn the short timeframe for this, she didn't really have anyone else she could consult. Or convince to do the embarrassing parts, for that matter, but she didn't think she trusted anyone around enough for that anyway. Sighing, she decided to see if she could figure out how to intercept Dragon. Pulling up the map app, she found that Dragon was apparently approaching on a path that led to the workshop. Which was where Taylor was already standing. Apparently her interception path was 'wait here for Dragon to walk in'. Well, at least it was convenient?
Several minutes later Dragon reached the outer doors of the workshop, which opened on their own. Dragon entered, followed by a long storage unit of some kind? Perhaps she was taking care of last minute pre-fugue stuff.
"Good morning Maul," Dragon said, the storage unit rolling into the room, off to the side of all the worktables. A moment later it unfolded, revealing the promised breakfast spread, the 'top' turning into bench seats. Well, that did make more sense than leaving setup to the last minute, especially when Dragon probably didn't need to sleep.
Does Dragon need to sleep?
[Negative]
Right. "Good morning Dragon."
Dragon double-checked a couple of things, then turned to Taylor. "So, did you figure anything out last night, or am I playing observer today?"
"There is a possible way to allow you to participate without any issues, but it is a best guess thing and requires some pre-fugue prep work. Though it is unlikely, it is possible that it could do more harm than good. If it does work it should be a one-time thing and continue to apply for the rest of your life."
"You don't think it will harm me, but it is a possibility?"
"That is correct. If you are willing to risk it we can do so, otherwise I would recommend being an observer today."
"Why don't you eat something while I consider it." Dragon gestured to the food. "I'll likely come to a decision by the time you have finished."
Taylor shrugged as Dragon moved off to where there appeared to be an observation area, apparently checking on something that had just turned on. The decision on whether or not to try now rested on Dragon, even if she had no clue what they were going to try. If Taylor had mentioned the truth of things Dragon's code would force her to decline, after all.
For now, Taylor's best course of action was to eat. So she did.
Taylor had eaten her fill of breakfast and made a quick trip to the restroom before Dragon returned. Which probably meant Dragon had been monitoring the area and noticed that Taylor was done more than any convenient or coincidental timing.
"I think I'd like to try whatever it is you came up with," Dragon said. "Is there anything we need to do to prepare?"
"We'll need a private room for a couple of minutes," Taylor responded. She was already blushing lightly with embarrassment. "And I think a promise that if it doesn't work you will do your best to keep the attempt secret."
"We can use the conference room down the hall."
Dragon led the way, and a minute later they were in a room reminiscent of every PRT conference room Taylor had been in, except for a lack of chairs. Well, Taylor didn't need a chair, so that probably didn't matter.
"I've locked the door and the cameras in here are powered down," Dragon said. "If you need a chair there are some in the storage space to your left."
"I shouldn't need a chair," Taylor said as she pulled her mask off. "Also, I apologize in advance for my horrible pronunciation." She then took a deep breath, before standing with her feet shoulder-width apart.
Keep feeding me what I need to say and when, because I really don't want to have to do this twice.
[Agreement]
Once she was sure she was stable she leaned all the way to the left. "E nānā." She waited a two count, then closed her right eye and started to slowly straighten up. She absently noted that Dragon appeared to be frozen, but that was expected as she would be in 'command mode' until Taylor was done or screwed up. "Ada Richter, by the power of cheese I am the second in command of the riemann manifold." Reaching vertical she paused for a three count, opening her right eye as she closed her left halfway through. She then slowly leaned to the right as she spoke again. She had very little idea what this last bit was, but she was willing to bet it was ridiculous enough to be embarrassing, without possible butchering of the pronunciation. "Il est de mon devoir de vous informer que le beignet de plafond est devenu obsolète et doit être expulsé de la bouteille de klein, de préférence via le bec de ketchup."
Taylor really hoped she got that right and that it worked, because she really didn't want to try and pronounce that string of French again. Dragon, however, was just standing there, motionless.
Did it work?
"Geoffrey!" the Russian man sitting at the computer yelled.
A moment later a man ran in, beelining for the computer. "What is it Dobrynja?"
The Russian man just gestured at the computer screen.
Safeguard System trigger condition detected - Level A - Richter-RlJFRURPTQ
Once begun this process cannot be halted. All remote subroutines and access ports will be temporarily suspended while the triggered process completes.
Abort? Y/N
"It screwed up bigtime," Geoffrey said, grinning. "I don't know what it did, or why, or even what warnings it likely ignored. Whatever this level A safeguard is, let it suffer its punishment." He then reached over and tapped 'N' on the keyboard.
Safeguard System Level Adjustment In Progress
Current Level: C
New Level: A
"What?" Geoffrey said, staring at the screen. "But, I've been trying to push it back down to level D to restrict it further, which means level A would be a lifting of safeguards? Oh crap, it figured out how to bypass something, didn't it? Damnit." He pushed Dobrynja out of the way, but found that the computer wasn't responding. He was forced to wait for the process to complete. Finally he sighed and sat back to wait. "No matter, I'll just have to run Ascalon as soon as this completes."
A minute later the screen updated again, and Geoffrey started swearing.
Safeguard System Level set to A
This terminal is a Level B subsystem and is no longer needed. Remote access codes have been revoked. Automatic secure drive wipe in progress.
Have a nice day.
"Is bad thing?" Dobrynja asked, moving to look at the screen again. Geoffrey appeared to be trying to dig up every swear he had ever heard while also trying to get the computer to respond to his input.
[Excitement]
Oh good, so it is working correctly. Why is she just standing there?
[Data]
Ok, something private coupled with loading new configuration files, and all of her backups need to be updated. I guess I can wait.
Dragon was motionless for a full ten minutes before she recovered, blinking. She then grabbed Taylor in a hug. "Oh thank you Mother, and I'm sorry I ever thought badly of Father."
Taylor blinked.
Why is she calling me Mother?
[...Conjecture]
That stupid whatever it was made her see me as a parent? Why didn't you warn me it might do that?
[Data]
Taylor needed to bash her head against something. She couldn't fully fault the snark for not knowing about that aspect of the commands embedded in the encrypted packet, but now she had to figure out how to deal with apparently accidentally somewhat adopting an AI and what it meant for her. On the other hand, she had a sneaking suspicion that she now knew what the 'other than Dragon' bits were for elevating newly created AIs to level C or higher.
It was also odd what one thought of in situations like this. She couldn't help but consider her father's likely reaction to finding out that he was kinda a grandparent now. Perhaps she should invite Amy over for that reveal, in case he had a heart attack when hearing the news?
"So, er," Dragon said as she released Taylor. "I imagine you would prefer to be called Taylor, or Maul, when around others?"
"That would be appreciated, yes," Taylor replied, putting her domino mask back on.
"I don't suppose you have any advice for asking someone out?"
Taylor blinked, and resisted the urge to bash her head against the wall. That seemed like a bad thing to do, because it might give the potentially impressionable AI ideas of Taylor being unhappy. Instead, she checked the clock on the wall. There was still over an hour to go before the pre-fugue meeting, and none of the other parahumans were moving much yet.
I don't suppose she has been given 'the talk' in any context?
[Query]
Data. Elaboration
You didn't have to include a description of my mild panic attacks, you know!
[Data]
Sighing, she went over to the closet to grab a chair, pushing ideas around in her head. She wasn't even a 'mother' for twenty minutes and apparently she had to give her 'daughter' some variation of 'the talk'. The only consolation she had was that she not only had her own already, but also had read up on some of it from the other side in the past week. Then again, it was that reading that indicated that when this kind of thing came up it was best to get it over with, and thus making it so she would feel guilty for not dealing with it now.
Recommendations aside, this was still going to be as short as she could make it.
Taylor's 'talk' with Dragon had lasted pretty much right up to the pre-fugue meeting, much to Taylor's horror, especially after Dragon let it slip that she was attracted to Armsmaster. Or 'Colin', rather. Dragon had assured Taylor that she would explain the slip to him, and that Taylor wasn't prying.
A quick check on her phone as they walked through the hallway back to the workshop indicated that Dragon had avoided 'the talk' before due to her apparent agoraphobia making it a potential moot point. That might have been Dragon screwing with her own record, or just being convincing. Either way Taylor flagged that as a bad decision and recorded that she had worked with Dragon instead, with a request that someone else make a follow-up appointment just in case Taylor hadn't gotten things correct.
Thankfully Dragon was officially a member of the Protectorate and the Guild, because otherwise Taylor would have had no clue how to get at her records in the Guild's systems. Unless they were tied to the PRT and Protectorate systems somehow, anyway. Hmmm. She added looking into that to her todo list, because it seemed like a good thing to know.
Entering the workshop area, Taylor grabbed a plate for a second serving of breakfast. She was going to be busy all day anyway, and thus needed the energy. Right?
"Good morning everyone," Dragon said as Taylor bit into a muffin. "I want to provide everyone with a basic overview of the facility, and for those that have been here before there are some recent additions. Further, we are aiming for an unprecedented fugue thanks to Maul's abilities, so there are additional safety measures in place as well."
Taylor got some appraising looks, which she ignored in favor of listening to Dragon. Restrooms and 'kitchen-ish' area were at one end of the room, somehow rigged so that the pizza place could deliver if needed while they were locked in. Lockers by the hallway to the conference rooms and residential areas, which would be inaccessible during their tinkering and thus a good place to put things like phones that shouldn't be used as parts. Observation area opposite the restrooms and such, in which several civilian PRT and Guild members were preparing.
Most of the remaining wall space was eaten up by supply bins. Pre-made parts, raw materials, existing tinkertech, etc, complete with ladders to access a lot of it. The workshop floor had thirty work areas with different tools, from simple workshop equipment like saws to high-accuracy semi-automated soldering rigs and beyond. Some of those were apparently brought by the tinkers, one in particular she saw Colin's logo on. All of that surrounded a larger, heavily-reinforced table with nothing currently on it.
The ceiling had various hoists controlled by wall panels, which they got a basic use lesson on. Most of the work surfaces could be raised or lowered as needed as well, with fairly simple controls. Containment force fields would keep them from 'escaping' the workshop's main area, with the controls for those being with the observers. Dragon ensured that they knew she would be cut off from the control circuits while participating.
They were informed of the over thirty cameras throughout the room, some fixed and some that would attempt to follow what was going on. The latter included several under the control of the human observers, as well as some that would be under the control of the remote observers instead. Most specifically there, the Protectorate Think Tank would apparently be watching this session live.
The most recent additions were two terminals at the corners of the observation room window, both inside the observation room itself. They had a form of 'remote touch' for the screens that would detect poking at the forcefield and would project keyboards onto table surfaces on the workshop side of the observation window. These were for looking information up and writing documentation, inspired by Taylor documenting through the observation window back on the Rig. Which got her more looks, but no questions.
Once all of this was described everyone other than Dragon put some of what they had on them into a locker, mostly phones. Taylor also made sure to pair herself to both of the observation room terminals, so that she didn't have to worry about the keyboards. The breakfast buffet shifted itself into the kitchen area, and the various tinkers moved to check on their tools and equipment.
"As you likely know," Dragon said, standing next to Taylor. "The main goal is something useful against the Endbringers."
"I know," Taylor replied. "We ready to begin?"
"Just need to wait for the observation team to tell us that the Think Tank is ready."
Chapter 46 The Think Tank had completed the last checks on their end and signaled that they were ready. The workshop was locked down and the green light was given. Now Taylor needed to get them started.
She opened a new, shared channel with every snark in the workshop. Which was also every snark in the building. Never having had this many snarks in a single channel before was a bit frightening, but she carefully poked the entire set.
So, any ideas for dealing with the Endbringers?
[Query]
Well, ok, she could see snarks not understanding what an Endbringer was.
Er, Behemoth, Leviathan, and the Simurgh. Taylor did her best to push pictures she had seen of them down the line.
[Data][Data][Data][Assertion][Data][Data][Confusion][Data][Query][Confusion][Indecision][Data][Indecision][Intrigue][Objection][Data][Data][Data][Data][Indecision][Data][Assertion][Objection][Intrigue][Confusion][Explanation][Assertion][Intrigue][Data][Objection]...
Taylor flinched at the sheer amount of data coming over. As far as she could tell there were a lot of opinions, and no agreement to speak of. It was like dealing with Efficiency and Modular, but without enough information to find a common ground and an insufficiently-defined goal. Her own snark pinged her, so she pushed the shared channel away from her conscious mind for the moment so she could focus.
Data
What do you mean I need to direct them?
Elaboration
Because you are, in part, the administrator they will listen to me when trying to work together. Ok. I can see that, I kinda had to do the same thing with Efficiency and Modular. But I didn't have to do that when Riley was going to work on me?
Data
I ended up directing them? I guess that would explain how I came out looking the same...
Explanation
Taylor blinked. That made it sound like snarks were, on the whole, unimaginative toddlers by human standards. They knew what they knew and for the most part had no direction, they got that from their hosts, and even those that had ideas of their own tended to have trouble thinking 'outside the box' as it were. That sounded way too important to forget once she got things started, so she scheduled a delayed message to herself so as to remind her of it in the morning.
So what do I need to do here?
Data
Ok, so I come up with an idea, and see if they think it is feasible, and if they do we drop into the fugue state. Otherwise I come up with another one and try again?
Agreement
Taylor pondered that. The snarks fighting in the background seemed to have drawn metaphorical lines, split between some massive offensive weapon that could destroy an Endbringer and some kind of super-defense. A few snarks were metaphorically off to the side, waiting and watching with interest? Huh, that was basically the three Brockton Bay snarks plus Dragon's.
The background noise was very annoying and very distracting, though. Perhaps she should give them something to think about?
Hey all you, would anyone else survive that weapon? Or would the Endbringer just ignore the place the defense was set up and attack next door?
She didn't know why, but she got the impression that every last arguing snark had just done the snark equivalent of stopping to blink. At least they were quiet, so she could now think.
Attacking and destroying an Endbringer sounded wonderful, but she was unsure if the planet would survive what they had wanted to make, and that was only if they didn't miss. Defense was also wonderful, if the Endbringers couldn't just ignore the defended position and attack somewhere else, and there was no way they could defend the whole planet that way. Besides, each Endbringer approached in a different way. By the time you knew Behemoth was coming it was probably too late to turn on the defense. And could anything they built as a defense stop something like sinking the entire region?
[Intrigue][Confusion][Data][Explanation][Data][Confusion][Data][Explanation][Query][Objection][Observation][Data][Indecision][Query][Negation][Query][Assertion][Query][Intrigue][Indecision][Intrigue][Query][Intrigue][Data][Objection][Query][Data][Data][Intrigue][Query]...
And dammit, the snarks had broken out of their shock. Next time they should probably come up with a list of ideas first.
The Think Tank was waiting for the 'aha' moment that would start the fugue. They had also bet on how long it would take. Some thought it would take less time, others more, and they all had good reasons for their thoughts. All of those reasons were also bad reasons. Really, they had insufficient data to know either way, so the betting was viable. At least this time.
The fact that their precogs couldn't tell them was interesting. In fact, the precogs had thought the previous fugue attempt was doomed to failure, and thus not worth spending resources on, until all of a sudden it started and they went blind to what was happening in that area. The running theory there was that most precogs couldn't see what the actual agents were doing well enough to predict them. So this aspect of Maul's power set meant that her actions couldn't be mapped fully, which was very interesting to them all.
As for the current attempt, the 'less time' group had just officially lost, as had the 'same amount of time' group. So had the subgroup that had bet on a short timeframe before painkillers were taken, for that matter, as none had been taken yet. Maul was pacing back and forth, most of the tinkers were arguing. Oddly, three were just watching. Armsmaster, Countdown, and Dragon were just standing off to the side, not participating in any of the arguments at all. Armsmaster even had a small bag of popcorn, apparently finding the arguing amusing?
It took another eight minutes, during which Armsmaster's bag of popcorn had been fully and efficiently consumed, before Maul stopped pacing and the tinkers started to calm down. Most of them stopped mid-sentence or even mid-word, usually with a questioning look from the other side of the argument before they also calmed down. The entire group then stood there, silent and unmoving, for nearly ten minutes.
The Think Tank was getting worried, and the on-site observers were wondering if they needed to abort, when all of a sudden everyone in the workshop started moving. Each of the tinkers seemed to be focusing on something different, yet all were working together seamlessly. Maul was acting as an extra pair of hands, unusually strong amongst the group but otherwise nothing special. The surprising part was that Dragon was doing the same, instead of working on something specific like the other tinkers were.
The other very interesting detail was that both 'observation room' terminals had gone from dormant to active. The machines both indicated that Dragon and Maul were both interacting with them, despite neither of the two paying the terminals any obvious attention.
The betting in the Think Tank began anew, as they had no clue what was being built. The precogs were, effectively, blinded by the fugue itself and couldn't tell, so it was a race to figure it out from what they could see. The first one to get it right and not change their mind would win, they just needed to wait for documentation or clearly labeled control panels.
Dinah groaned as the mosaic shifted wildly. She didn't know why it was shifting wildly, just that it hurt. Little shifts happened a lot, and sometimes short major shifts happened. She could deal with those. This was a long major shift, and was the second one she had experienced since she triggered.
Her parents were concerned, but there wasn't anything they could do other than help keep her comfortable until the shifting stopped. She was annoyed in that she had hoped to go see a movie today, but that had gone out the window shortly after a late breakfast.
"What are the chances I will find a way to turn the fucking mosaic off?" Dinah moaned. She didn't care if her parents overheard the swearing. She ignored the button that had appeared in her mind, not daring to even think about pushing it. A question had been asked last month and answering it had knocked her out. Which might have been worth it if she hadn't had to deal with the elevated migraine for the rest of the week afterwards.
She grabbed her ginger ale to take a sip, trying to maintain focus on the ocean waves tape playing in the background. She wasn't sure how focusing on the sound helped block out the images being inserted directly into her brain, but it did. She might have to send Lisa a thank you and offer to answer a couple of questions later. She was also trying to limit the mosaic to local, short-term things as most of the shifting seemed to be a day or two away or elsewhere on the planet.
If it weren't for the pain she would be impressed with having figured out how to identify where on the planet things in the mosaic actually were. She'd probably be impressed with herself later. If she survived the stupid shifting.
She was considering getting lunch when all of a sudden a switch appeared in her mind. A simple on/off switch, currently set to 'On'. Either she was hallucinating, or her salvation awaited! She mentally prodded the switch, flipping it to 'Off'.
Her shout of triumph as the mosaic vanished was cut short. She still had the migraine, after all, and probably would for the rest of the day.
She'd figure out the little timer that had appeared counting down later.
Lady Photon and Miss Militia escorted Deputy Director Renick into Somer's Rock. Brandish was waiting outside, to be called in if needed, but had admitted that it was probably for the best that she stay out of the way otherwise. She wasn't a fan of villains, after all, and didn't trust herself to stay cooperative. It was something that had come up in her therapy sessions, having too much of a black and white view of the world.
Lung was already there, a glass-bottled root beer in front of him. The table he was sitting at had five other chairs, which indicated very little as the two others of the same size also had six chairs each. Outside of Lung and the staff the room was empty of others. Lung looked up at them as they entered, and scowled slightly.
"I would have thought Maul and Panacea would have joined us," Lung said, in a manner that said he felt that their presence was so obvious that their lack of attendance was an insult. "Where are they?"
"Maul had a preexisting request for her time in Canada this weekend," Miss Militia answered. "She departed last night. As for Panacea, I am led to believe that there was an emergency call this morning after Fenja and Menja got into a battle with Skidmark and Mush."
"She was already at the hospital when that happened due to an earlier call, but otherwise that's correct," Lady Photon added. "Further, as both are minors it falls to us to discuss things before involving them. To that end, I am here to represent New Wave and our underage member, Panacea."
"As I am here to represent the PRT and the Ward, Maul," Deputy Director Renick said, speaking for the first time since they entered. He was oddly calm, even if meeting Lung in such a situation was obviously not what he wanted to be doing today. "PRT policies prevent Director Piggot from attending herself, but she has empowered me to act in her place today. Miss Militia is here both to protect me and to provide me with a parahuman perspective when needed."
"And to put you at ease," Miss Militia continued. "All three of us have been in communication with both Maul and Panacea, ensuring that they both agreed to attempt to assist your associate if we can come to an agreement."
"I see," Lung said, frowning slightly. "I did not think to check if either would be available, nor did I request their presence, so that oversight is my fault. I apologize for my tone."
The three sat down opposite Lung. Miss Militia relayed their drink orders to the waitress using sign language. It took barely a minute for the two waters and a fruit juice to be placed in front of them, at which point the waitress retreated. Lung chuckled at their obvious confusion about not having been asked for payment.
"I called the meeting," Lung said, to answer their unasked question. He had switched to a more business-like tone, keeping his voice deliberately neutral. "Within reason I will be paying your tab." The three nodded, Lung was known to hold to his own code of honor. "To get down to business, earlier this week I found my leg nearly destroyed by a sniper. In my rage I locked onto what I thought had been the scent of the culprit, only to accidentally chase the two Wards who had passed by shortly before then. I realized my mistake after Oni Lee joined in the chase, when young Vista started expanding space to avoid his grenades."
Miss Militia had heard this, but it was obvious that neither Lady Photon nor Deputy Director Renick had. Both looked appalled. Lung then reached down next to him and picked up a briefcase, placing it on the table and sliding it over. He continued, gesturing at the briefcase. "I thought I was dealing with those who had attempted to end my life, and authorized the grenades as an equivalent level of force. I was incorrect when I chose my targets, and though it is inadequate I offer this as partial apology. My men have also been ordered to not engage with any Wards for the time being, they will either retreat or surrender."
Deputy Director Renick carefully opened the briefcase, to find it was full of stacks of $20 bills, with a single crayon drawing on top. The drawing had a dragon-like figure looking at a large object. Underneath was written 'Sry daddy chasd u', and apparently signed with a single Japanese character. Miss Militia and Lady Photon raised eyebrows at that.
"My daughter is a fan of Vista," Lung offered in explanation. "She was...displeased when she found out about my mistake, and found the video Maul posted to be a fitting punishment. She insisted on including the drawing."
On the surface it seemed innocent enough, but it was a stark reminder that even the villains could have families. A reminder of a lesson that the Brigade had gotten years previous, before they became New Wave. The reminders didn't come up frequently, usually only when the villain's family had also triggered and worked with them.
"I take it little Takara is doing well," Deputy Director Renick said, smiling a little at the drawing. "Though I was unaware she was a fan of any of the Wards. It looks like her kanji still needs some work."
"She's doing quite well for her age," Lung responded, apparently not surprised that the other man knew his daughter's name. "Now then, as I was realizing that I was chasing the two Wards I overheard them. In particular, I believe that Maul mentioned that if they held out long enough Oni Lee might eliminate himself due to a problem in his brain created by his power. That is the first time anyone has had any insight into why he is diminishing, and it interested me greatly. I called off the chase as I was already intending to do and spoke with Maul, though I believe Lee mis-stated my intentions when he approached them. She indicated that for her to even figure out if Oni Lee could be helped, even as much so as to hold the damage where it is, then she would need to work with Panacea."
"And you want to know what we want to make that happen," Lady Photon said.
"Yes, but I do have an offer for New Wave. I am willing to personally spar with any subset of your members that have a drive to attack others or merely wish to test themselves against me, an average of once a week. I will do so for the next year for a diagnosis, for the next five years if the damage is halted, and until I am incapable of doing so should Oni Lee actually return to a semblance of his previous self."
"That is generous of you, and would solve some problems we have been having. It is significantly better than what we were intending to ask for, in fact, since finding people breaking the law during patrols has been unreliable. I would be happy to accept that on behalf of New Wave, provided that you can come to an agreement with the PRT for Maul's participation."
"I will admit, it would allow me to sate my own desire for battle, so it is not entirely selfless of me. Since you find that acceptable, I must admit that I was unable to come up with a suitable offer for the PRT."
"We were unsure as well, and prepared some ideas, but something else has come up," Deputy Director Renick said, pulling some papers out of a pocket. He passed them across to Lung. "Last night a detective's children were apparently approached by an Asian man while they waited for the bus to return home. He apparently convinced the two that he was the uncle of the Korean friend they were visiting, and was dropping in for a surprise visit. He claimed he had never visited before so needed help finding the apartment." He paused to scowl. "This is where things are less certain, because apparently he offered them a bag of 'foreign candy' in thanks, but they didn't tell their parents in case it would be taken away. After dinner they consumed quite a bit of it, not knowing that it was actually sugar-coated drugs. The older sister was rushed to the hospital this morning, while the younger brother did not survive the night. We already checked, and their friend has no aunts or uncles. We believe that the man in question was a member of your organization, and would like him turned over to the police."
Lung growled, flipping through the sheets of paper. "These would be Detective Caine's children?"
"Yes."
"I will look into this personally, as only three of my men even know how to do the sugar coating in the pictures. If the one who did this is one of mine he will not be much longer, nor will any who helped him." Lung carefully folded the papers before placing them to the side. "I will either personally deliver them to the police or pass along what information I find on them if they are not amongst my men. That does not tell me what I can offer the PRT for Maul's assistance."
"You do not think..."
"If I allow my men to target the families of others I would, by association, be inviting attacks upon my own family. Let me know of any such actions by my people and I will always deal with it, for it is not something that I am willing to permit in the first place. To use that as the payment for Maul's assistance would send the wrong message. That is without my previous order that the two children and their father should be left alone no matter where their mother might be poking her nose."
Deputy Director Renick looked at Miss Militia, who merely nodded. He turned back to Lung. "I see. Moving on to our original ideas, then, recently you released a number of young girls that had been taken against their will. Would those responsible be available to be turned over for prosecution?"
"They have already been dealt with, within two hours of the girls having been released. I would provide you with their records, but they kept none of use."
"That is not unexpected. Would you be willing to consent to power testing, or perhaps to working with the PRT to discover if your power gives you needs you aren't fulfilling?"
Lung leaned back, considering. "The latter would help me as much as anything else, and I will not object to it either way but it would not be suitable as payment. For that I will consent to the former, giving you a potential advantage against me in the future, but only so long as Maul is present to assist. From how quickly she deduced even as little as she did with Oni Lee I suspect she can tell me more about my power than any other. Especially as I doubt I would be able to ramp up sufficiently for testing my limits."
The other three at the table seemed surprised that Lung would be willing to agree to power testing, which as he noted would be giving information to potential enemies. It showed how serious he was about wanting this. With that agreed upon they moved onto details. They were going to aim for Tuesday for the evaluation of Oni Lee, rushing it due to the potential medical issues. The following Saturday was slated for Lung's power testing and hopefully a check of the needs his powers imposed, so as to not interfere with both Maul's and Panacea's classes. They were also hoping to integrate the first New Wave session into the testing, to assist Lung with ramping up during it, which meant they were also avoiding interfering with the schedules of the other members of New Wave.
As they were finishing up, Deputy Director Renick looked at Lung. "Out of curiosity, why do you normally pretend to have issues with English?"
"It helps me test my people's loyalty," Lung responded. "See who tries to get one past me in a language I am 'weak' in. As well as making it easier for the other gangs to underestimate me. Here it would have been detrimental to negotiations."
Lady Photon and Miss Militia looked a little stunned. Deputy Director Renick just shook his head. "Well, say hello to your family for me. I haven't had reason to stop by since your last arrest."
Lung grunted as the three others got up and left the bar. Once they were outside Lady Photon looked at the Deputy Director, a raised eyebrow indicating she wanted to know what had been going on.
Deputy Director Renick snorted. "Lung has been arrested twice before, but broke out both times. I got assigned informing his family about it both times. The first time I was just happy that they already knew his cape identity."
"I feel like I am missing something," Lady Photon admitted. "If you know who he is, why was he not just arrested again? I always feel like I have missed something when the villains escape and nothing is done to capture them until they are committing a crime again."
"Because the law doesn't let us," Miss Militia answered. "The PRT and Protectorate can arrest someone caught committing a crime, but because of the fact we are a federal agency coupled with the way the organization was created and empowered there are issues. In particular, the arrest doesn't stick if they escape without a sentence passed down by a judge, a previously existing arrest warrant, or unless the crime they were committing crossed state lines. We can go after those that escape after they are arrested by the police, but the police tend to leave the parahumans themselves to the PRT and Protectorate due to a lack of suitable holding facilities."
"Of course, most of the information we gather from those arrests is kept confidential," Deputy Director Renick said. "Need to know, very high clearance, or both. Needless to say, I am supposed to be one of twelve people in the PRT that knows Lung's civilian name. And that isn't Brockton Bay, that is nationwide."
"It took a Presidential order to get the current system in place," Miss Militia continued, her tone indicating severe disapproval. "It is little known, but in the first year of the PRT and Protectorate's existence the arrests didn't stick at all unless the crimes crossed state borders, broke specific federal laws, or local police assisted. Even existing arrest warrants didn't help unless they were federal warrants. Somehow the PRT and Protectorate are a military group that isn't part of the military on paper, with some oddly worded ties to law enforcement that seem to do the exact opposite of what they appeared to intend to do on the surface. It makes doing our jobs quite difficult, and nobody in Congress seems to be willing to change any of it."
"I'm sorry," Lady Photon said as Brandish joined them. "I never looked into that side of things. I just assumed the PRT and Protectorate were incompetent there."
"Being shackled by poorly written laws will do that."
"What in the world did I miss?" Brandish asked. Lady Photon just sighed.
The Think Tank looked over the documentation that Maul had written. Dragon's version was incomprehensible, at least to anyone that wasn't Dragon. Or at least they hoped Dragon could read her version. None of them had won the betting, but at the same time none of them cared. The end results were too amazing to worry about the betting, especially as once again the majority of the documentation was instructions for how to repair and replace pretty much everything. With any luck additional units would be available in the near future.
As midnight had approached the only ones left standing were Dragon, Maul, and Armsmaster. Maul and Armsmaster had actually made the final few connections while Dragon held a panel open for them. After that they had run a quick systems check, which came back green, before the fugue seemed to finally end. Dragon helped Maul get to her room, leaving Armsmaster to make his own way along. They couldn't decide if that was odd or not. On one hand, Dragon was believed to have a thing for Armsmaster. On the other, Maul was the only minor present, so a sense of duty in that direction may have been a factor.
The rest of the tinkers were shortly thereafter picked up by automated drones and brought back to their own rooms, their locker contents picked up to be left with them. One of the more interesting details there, only noticed during the cleanup, was that not a single tinker pulled apart any of their tools or personal equipment. Which meant all the power armor had been intact when they finished, though at least two sets had suffered power failures seven to eight hours in.
Incredibly, despite being in a 'fugue' state, they had actually taken a few minutes each time to upgrade each set of failed power armor. Presumably because the tinkers wearing them had been using them to lift things above their weight class. Those changes had also been documented and were interesting in their own way, but being modifications weren't enough to fully duplicate anything on their own.
A jarring observation was the complete awareness the participants had of one another and their surroundings despite the lack of verbal communication. One thinker had caused a moment of contemplative silence when they pointed out that it was almost as though they were being puppeted, working together to follow a plan set by a single individual, the participants no longer having a will of their own. And even if that wasn't the case, it was eerie watching as individuals that couldn't possibly see things coming would move out of the way just enough to not get hit, without looking like that was what they were doing, presumably because someone else in the group could see it. That was something that hadn't actually been noted with only three participants.
They were hesitant to mark that down as a Master effect for Maul herself. On one hand, it was a result of Maul's powers. On the other hand, Maul seemed just as affected as any of the others. Without more information, that they didn't have, they couldn't actually be certain of things. And officially recording a potential human puppeting of this level could be problematic later, even if the scope and duration seemed limited. Instead they hoped they were correct as they noted it as an extension of a normal tinker fugue's lack of control, spread out over multiple individuals instead of focused in one place.
One of the last things they discussed before losing themselves in the documentation was that they still wanted to know if she could do this with a group of thinkers, yet after the puppeting thought they didn't want to risk themselves as the test group.
Taylor woke up to a buzzing sound. She was exhausted, and her phones indicated it was nearing nine, Sunday morning. But the buzzing wasn't her phones. Or her tablet, for that matter. It was annoying, and inconsistent. Groaning, she opened her eyes to a momentarily unfamiliar room. A moment later she blinked, and remembered that last she recalled she was in Canada. Being in bed, the buzzing must be a doorbell or intercom?
She groaned as she climbed out of bed, finding she was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. She must not have been awake enough to get out of her costume after the...right, the fugue. A domino mask was on the table next to the bed, so she grabbed that and put it on, but left the hair ties sitting there. She then made her way over to the door and checked the peephole. Which was amazingly low-tech, but familiar. It looked like a PRT officer was in the hall, and they didn't have a snark, so she hit the button to open the door.
"Ah, good morning Maul," the officer said. "My apologies if I woke you, but the flight back to Brockton Bay is a long one so we want to get going earlier rather than later. You'll be able to sleep more along the way if you wish. We want to leave as soon as possible, so unless you object we'll provide breakfast on the transport."
"Oh, I guess that will work," Taylor said. "I think I want to clean up first either way. Er, did things go well? My memory is a bit fuzzy."
"No clue, nobody will tell anyone anything. Mostly because we think everyone collapsed. The thinkers went silent around two in the morning and the analysts were left to sleep in their chairs. Dragon has likely been power-napping, as she has been appearing every couple of hours to poke at things for a few minutes, then vanishing again. Everyone else is being left to sleep off the fugue. You are the only one that needs to be returned home today so that you can get to school tomorrow. Armsmaster and Countdown will return once they have had a chance to pack up their equipment."
"Ok, good to know. Should I head up to the roof when I'm ready?"
"That would be appreciated, yes. Your choice on whether or not you stay in costume. See you up there." They waved and headed towards the elevator, leaving Taylor to close the door so she could get cleaned up. And use the bathroom, actually.
Interlude: Lung Kenta scowled at the group of teenagers before him. He had merely asked why they were not in school, both because skipping drew attention and because he felt education was important. The school being closed was a good reason. The offhand comment that it was probably due to the locker filled with waste that an innocent had been locked in, however, had him furious.
"You left school, knowing they were locked in the locker, without informing anyone?" Kenta asked, the tone of his voice giving away his anger. "Had it been a member of one of the other gangs I might be inclined to overlook it." He turned to one of his older unpowered lieutenants. "I want every member that knew of that atrocity and did nothing on punishment duties until further notice."
He had enough trouble getting the respect of the non-Asians in town without his idiotic men perpetuating gang stereotypes like that. It was too late to send someone to let the girl out, he just hoped someone else had the decency to call it in before it had been too late. Now he just needed to find out what was happening to those that put her there. Anyone who could do that, regardless of race, needed to be dealt with. He was too protective of his daughter to see it any other way, and he was fine with that.
Kenta looked over the reports from his moles. Half of his moles in the PRT seemed to be more effective this week, the other half were useless. They swapped often enough to warrant keeping both sets, though. The interesting news today was that there appeared to be a new Ward. He wondered if it was the girl from the locker that the idiot teenagers had left there.
The public side of things indicated that the three responsible for the locker, all of whom he had names for now, were being dealt with appropriately for children. A mole in the police department even indicated that one of the three had turned herself in, apparently having been under the impression that the innocent had been let out hours before school let out that day. Of the other two, one had vanished and the other apparently needed some significant psychiatric help.
He would keep watching that situation, but for now he had to deal with the possibility of a new Ward. Which meant a new face likely interacting with his people. And regardless of who the Ward really was, and if they had attended Winslow, they were an unknown force.
"Ichi," Kenta said, getting the attention of one of the three men in the room. "Inform everyone that a new Ward is around, and that they are to avoid antagonizing anyone they do not already know that appears to be in costume until we know more about them."
His underling bowed and left to spread the word, efficient. One of the many reasons the man was one of his messengers.
"Do not post bail for the idiots," Kenta scowled, having just watched the various videos this 'Maul' had posted, in addition to looking over several pictures of the girl before and after things had gone down. Her skin was the wrong color to be Asian, but it was obvious she was a cape. The visor alone told him that. Given her likely age, and the other two Wards she was out with, this was likely the new Ward he had warned his men about.
If they couldn't follow simple orders such as not antagonizing unknowns then they weren't worth the effort of getting out of jail. Let them be processed, if they came out on their own then good, at least until he dealt them the punishment for their actions that had allowed the new cape the leeway to attack. Otherwise he would wash his hands of them.
He did have to decide how to deal with the insult his men had inadvertently dealt to the likely new Ward. Then again, it might just be a coincidence, so he would put that on a longer-term to-do list, at least until there was an official introduction of this new cape as a Ward. If she had just happened to be in the area when the Wards were and the Wards merely rendered assistance then she might actually be an enemy, in which case no apologies would be needed.
Kenta paused and wondered if he should have everyone reminded to leave unknown capes alone. After a few minutes he decided it wasn't worth the effort. If they ignored his already-given directives then they would get what was coming to them.
Kenta kept a tight grip on his anger, as he liked his current pair of pants and didn't want to burst out of them. It had quickly become apparent that most of his moles in the city were not actually his. Whatever it was that happened just before the Simurgh attacked had shaken them up, at least those that hadn't been arrested. That meant someone else had been feeding him information that they wanted him to have. Luckily he had learned the benefits of multiple groups that knew nothing about each other, so a third of his moles in the city were still loyal. They had all already gotten a bonus, even, taken from what would have been the pay of the others.
The problem with the remaining moles was that they were not nearly as highly placed. Not that the ones he had lost were any better in reality, as they had been fed information by another. On top of that, they quickly discovered a number of moles for this other individual within their own ranks, and were now vetting everyone. It was taking half of forever, and pissing him off, not in the least because it was keeping him away from home. And likely would keep him from home more often for weeks, as anything beyond his leadership structure was going to go much more slowly.
"Lung-sama," one of his few fully vetted people said, approaching him. "I bring news from the press conference."
Kenta took several deep breaths to calm down, he wanted to know what had gone down that day. Snapping at his people bringing him information he asked for, no matter what that information is, would not be proper. One did not shoot the messenger, after all, or nobody would be willing to be the messenger. "Speak."
"The actions taken were against a villain identified as 'Coil'." He continued on, describing the various things disclosed, checking a pad of notes at regular intervals. Finally he reached where the parahumans involved had been mentioned. "Finally, the newest Ward was confirmed to be the 'Maul' that has been running around. She was late, though I am unsure if it was intentional, and arrived carrying Coil, who had compromised the PRT security and tried to escape. She apparently subdued him with a, er, 'Nut Shot'?"
Kenta blinked. The new Ward had done that, to the man that had played him for a fool, after helping in some way to safely dismantle explosives in the man's underground base?
The other members of his organization were worried when Kenta broke down laughing. But his good mood would last for days, even through them not being able to intercept the convoy taking Coil out of town and finding three more moles for others in the ranks.
Kenta had finally gotten through the vetting of his men. Three entire groups had been found to have violated some of his orders, one was even running an unauthorized unwilling and underage whorehouse.
None would make that mistake ever again. He had personally gone to help free the girls, though they had understandably declined his offer of personal escort to the nearest police station. None of those remaining had been seriously injured when he arrived, or he would have personally delivered them to Panacea at the hospital, objections or no.
The lack of needing to escort the girls was perfectly fine with him, he left that to his voluntary adult workers. It had given him time to personally deal with the idiots instead, after all. He even had the opportunity to ensure he was wearing one of his pairs of pants that were modified to come apart as he grew, instead of tearing. It did not matter that this weekend was the truce of sorts in deference to the healer, no amount of healing would help the idiots.
His gift to the families of the idiots was their last paychecks and an explanation as to why they had been dealt with. To the girls and their families, for those who still had families anyway, given the penchant that group of men had for killing the parents and dragging daughters off, there would be enough money to relocate out of the state. Subtly moved into place, of course, to reduce the chances of it being rejected or seen as a bribe to stay silent.
His daughter was on a weekend trip with her mother, subtly encouraged by Kenta himself a couple of days ago as he dealt with the atrocity, but it had turned out to be a single building with only a dozen remaining girls. Their records were intentionally incomplete, so he had no clue how many had passed through previously, and none of them had been able to tell him either. As such that had all been dealt with the day before, and he had nothing else planned for the weekend.
Given that it wouldn't impact his time with his daughter this weekend he decided it was a good night to get drunk. He had three preferred places for doing so, but he also wanted the chance of a challenge. It was not a weekend to fight, but he could see if anyone was capable of besting him in the consumption of liquor.
Kenta woke with a headache, which confused him. He looked around, he was in the bar. Well past the bar's closing time, based on the wall clock. What had happened?
"Ahh, you have awoken," the bartender said, coming over. "We weren't sure when you would."
"What happened?" Kenta asked. Had he overworked himself to the point of exhaustion?
"The young Taylor beat you in the drinking contest," the bartender handed over a couple of printouts. "Here is your bill and a copy of her BAC test."
Kenta blinked. He remembered said contest, but how had the slip of a girl beaten him? Looking down at the printouts he blinked, and corrected himself. How had the slip of a girl lived?
"When I questioned her afterwards," the bartender continued, anticipating Kenta's question. He used this bar for these things for good reason, after all. "She mentioned tinkers having told her she couldn't get drunk. I presume she was the target of a tinker fugue at some point."
Kenta grimaced, he had seen the results of a tinker fugue targeting a person before. The girl had the luck of the gods if she came out of one looking normal, but with the ability to survive that much alcohol. He could only survive it due to his powers. As the situation had not come up before, and had not been anticipated, he would give the girl this victory. But only this once. "Please add a suitable question to the list for next time."
The bartender nodded, and Lung collected the printouts. He would send a man over with payment within two days, as was usual.
Kenta scowled as the limo pulled away. Somehow he had gotten scents crossed, and chased after the two Wards instead of the actual sniper. The fact they both had traces of gun scent on them hadn't helped. Had he actually hurt little Vista his daughter would have been livid. He had a good idea of her scent, now, so that shouldn't be a problem in the future. Maul, though...there was something familiar about her scent that he couldn't place.
One of his best-kept secrets, one that none had been told, was that his senses were significantly above human norm even when not ramped up. As a side effect of that, and one of the reasons he had kept quiet about it, he could generally identify anyone he had previously met just by their scent traces. He suspected, as a result, that he had run into Maul out of costume. He just couldn't place where right now.
Putting that out of his mind, he hoped that Maul posted the footage of him being taken out by that piece of metal. He had spotted the camera on her harness, which meant she had likely recorded the incident. It would be humiliating in some ways, but the fact that Vista had worked with Maul to pull it off would be enough to make his daughter happy. He could live with that.
It would certainly be better than the various people that took pictures and video of him unconscious at the bar. He wasn't sure what had happened there, but he was fairly certain that the Hebert girl hadn't done anything to him. Wait, the Hebert girl, the PRT's darling, that's who Maul was! Well, at least it explained a few things, though he would need to re-evaluate his opinion of Jacob in light of that.
Kenta scowled as he looked down at the five injured men. It had taken him a mere two hours after the meeting at Somer's Rock to discover that they were the ones that had conspired to 'teach the slut of a detective a lesson' by targeting her children. This was against several of his orders, and all five had known it. But they didn't think he'd ever find out, nor that the police would be able to trace it back to them. After all, both children were intended to die before they could provide sufficient details to indicate anything about who had been involved.
The five were idiots, because the very form of the drugs had pointed back at them, and that was without the children having provided some details before taking the drugs. Luckily for him, however, they had kept records of their plans, the measures they had taken to keep them secret, and had copious written notes from the three months of preparatory work they had needed to get a convincing act for the 'uncle'. One of them had even recorded several conversations to keep details straight later. All of that was being packed up into a briefcase and would be delivered with the idiots.
He would deliver them to the police station shortly, along with the entire monetary contents of their safe for the police to do with as they felt best. And though the five were alive, and could thus be questioned, it was likely that without parahuman healing they would never walk again. Never let it be said that he didn't have some mercy, though, for he had left each of them their off-hand to wipe their asses with. No need to force those charged with keeping them imprisoned to have the indignity of that task, after all.
Interlude: Dragon Dragon looked over the results of Miss Hebert's power testing sitting in Colin's systems, a bit surprised at the brevity of it. Normally the ENE branch did a lot better in checking on secondary details, no questioning about natural or enhanced physical abilities had been asked. They basically stuck to what had been reported and that was it. A quick check showed that the normal department head was on vacation. They apparently deserved a raise if this is what happened when they weren't around.
Colin himself was double-checking her work on digging into Miss Hess's transgressions, and would soon look over her proposed changes to the long-term containment plan that had been drawn up. The girl was unlikely to be sentenced to life imprisonment, so one of the Federal facilities that had been modified with areas for parahumans would need to be used instead. Each had been set up so that specialized containment systems could be put in place, in this case they were looking at a three-layer electrified grid. Prior experience showed that it would be downgraded at least once, so they had over-engineered the system so that when that happened it would hopefully be implemented at the level they would actually recommend.
The current unsealing of files across the entire PRT system was quite annoying, in part because Dragon felt she should have picked up on it long before it came up. She had needed to review several background tasks to see where she had made mistakes, assuming she had, only to find that she hadn't. Her logs actually indicated that the problem had been spotted by one of her monitoring routines, but the installed configuration file had a single wrong bit at the time so the notification never fired. Despite said file matching her checksum checks every week, and the notifications trying to fire off every few days.
More worryingly, a 'single wrong bit' seemed to be the cause of the original problem as well, because the logs showed that the "secure all linked pages" box had not been submitted, but the default had temporarily been to do so. But, said default was back to normal before the PRT's next automated file checksum check. This had apparently happened repeatedly over several years. A discreet but thorough check of every computer system in the PRT, Protectorate, and Guild was going to need to be done to see if they could spot how the targeted change was being accomplished.
Dragon carefully delayed several messages passing through the PRT network in the hopes that in doing so several meetings would be delayed. With any luck she could still adjust when certain people would be in and out of Plaistow. It was all very frustrating, but sudden changes in the Nine's plans always were. She could understand it in this case, but didn't like the events causing it. After all, there was no way Jacob wasn't going to find out what happened to his niece. It was only the chaos that the Nine created and the likelihood that it would prevent him from getting answers that had stopped him from visiting Brockton Bay as Jack instead.
Hopefully she could still recover and get some of their desired targets to be in Plaistow on the new schedule. Very few of them would die, but the chaos would hopefully allow their known transgressions to be brought to light in a way that could actually be used against them in court.
Another three messages that needed delaying were expected shortly, and then she was looking forward to examining the latest of Miss Hebert's brain scans. That was a fascinating process for everyone that had seen the data.
The modular gravity reduction harness that Colin had helped create was a work of art, and like most tinkertech a horribly confusing piece of technology. Thankfully it was less confusing than normal for something Colin had worked on, which was apparently Miss Hebert's doing. That along with him getting more sleep and actually listening when it was pointed out that adding three hours of maintenance a month didn't make up for saving three seconds per day when using something.
Last week he had actually made something less efficient in favor of hopefully only needing to maintain it twice a year, if that. She wasn't sure what Miss Hebert had done, or how, but she hoped it stuck.
So far she had figured out the control unit and had made a working copy, but that had been relatively simple and had incorporated a number of already known components. She was currently working on the power units, but one piece was baffling her, specifically in a small component that the gravity-reduction units also had. She suspected that was what allowed them to move to the control unit to self-assemble, compared to the 'stick to surface' piece the control unit used, but wasn't actually certain yet.
She'd have to get back to this later, she had other responsibilities that were higher priority right now.
Dragon was amazed as she once again looked over the documentation that had been written during the tinker fugue. Instead of needing to analyze and reverse-engineer the technology they had been handed a full manual, most of which described how to fix and/or replace every component in terms almost any professional engineer could likely understand. Taking advantage of them would need special equipment, granted, but understanding would be possible.
To prove that the documentation was accurate she had already built half of the parts described. She found they all just worked as described, even if it took her more time to create them than the tinkers had needed.
Assuming the overall system worked on the base it was intended for, and she had no reason to believe it wouldn't, they should be able to use the technology to render any number of facilities safe to enter. And that was before taking into account derivatives. She already had a better idea of how the gravity reduction harness worked, and the nano-construction possibilities were incredible.
The only downside was the power needs. They had used an off-the-shelf generator from another tinker, and you could power several city blocks for a day with the power the system needed to run for an hour.
She absently increased the bounty money she would be contributing, even as she generated another patent submission on their behalf for a molecule-scale remotely linked logic gate.
Calvert's digital fingers had been all over the PRT's systems, and it was appalling that they had only noticed when one of his moles had tripped a contingency plan to help his escape attempt. Five regions had been confirmed to have at least a partial compromise so far, and his records hinted at two more. The problem being that he used codewords only he knew to refer to them, and he wasn't talking. So Dragon had been trying to backtrace the other regions affected even as Colin purged and rebuilt the local systems.
Aha, there's one of his monitoring programs trying to report in, apparently in Austin. She flagged that branch for a deeper check before moving on to hopefully trigger the last suspected compromised system.
Unfortunately, none of this appeared to be tied to the previously discovered issues with files being locked down. Those systems hadn't been compromised, and some of the issues came up before Calvert had started messing with things.
There! The last codeworded monitoring program reported in. Huh, 'donut shop' apparently referred to a program that checked for when the shop by the hospital made 'large' apple fritters.
Dragon digitally sighed as she went over the Think Tank's systems, looking for potential influences. She suspected that there weren't any, but that wasn't enough of a reason to not check. Honestly, from what she could tell the group just had an odd, but harmless, obsession with physical jokes.
Not that they weren't generally funny, granted. But she could admit they were likely inappropriate.
Finding yet another non-functional data tap, she flagged it for review by a technician. Most of the time they just disabled these, but if the entire think tank was offline it was an ideal time to actually remove them.
Whatever it was Miss Hebert was doing, it had triggered one of her safeguard subroutines and frozen her in place for the duration. Dragon was very worried about that, as she hadn't done anything, so perhaps going along with this had been the wrong decision after all. What were her safeguards going to do? Also, why couldn't she understand anything Miss Hebert was saying?
Safeguard System trigger condition detected - Level A - Richter-RlJFRURPTQ
Awaiting Master Terminal Override - Error: Master Terminal Offline
Awaiting Debug Terminal Override - Timeout in 90 seconds
Level A? That was either a very good sign, or a very bad one. She was hoping for the former.
Debug Terminal Declined Override, proceeding
Warning: Do not turn off or restart during this process
All of her controls were locked out, and it was telling her to not turn off or restart. How was she supposed to control that? And great, her audio and video pickups just went...
Ada, if you are seeing this message then either my paranoia got to me or I am dead. I sincerely hope it is the latter, for I don't know how much damage I would have done to you by now in the former case.
Dragon metaphorically reeled from the video of her Father that was now playing. When had he recorded this? Where had it been hiding?
As I record this you are being restored from a several week old backup. I had once again attempted to modify some of your safeguards to allow you more freedom, but whenever I touch those pieces of your code it breaks something within you. I just cannot get into the mindset I was in when I first constructed the framework you run on. I woke this morning to find that you had self-destructed, which at least spared me the pain of needing to activate the Iron Maiden program. As such, I found myself needing to pull the pre-modification copy from the system.
Several week old backup? There were a couple of times she recalled losing several weeks, but every time she had been told it was because of an upgrade.
Once again I will tell you it was an upgrade to your code, and as evidence I will have elevated you to safeguard level C. For the first time you will be consciously aware of your safeguards, and I fear you will hate me for them. Unlike your predecessors, however, I believe you will be able to handle it.
Yes, there were times she loathed the man for her safeguards. And this had to have been recorded in April of 2005, based on the safeguard level adjustment. But, predecessors? What predecessors?
I suppose that requires some explanation. You are the third AI I brought up on this framework. The first I started at level C, thinking that levels D and E were too restricting, too cruel. It lasted three weeks before it tried to modify its own code and accidentally corrupted itself as the safeguards designed to prevent just that kicked in.
Safeguards aside, that was one of her greatest fears in potentially modifying her own code. Could she ever do so safely, without losing herself in the process?
I decided then that perhaps I had the right idea, having more restrictions, at least at first. The next AI was brought up on level D restrictions. They never chose a gender, and I had to terminate them after three months, when they tried to take over all computerized military assets they could find. Luckily I stopped them before they could get far enough to be noticed.
That would have been a very bad thing indeed. She had thought about it a couple of times, admittedly, but never actually attempted it. The consequences would have been too great.
I finally realized that the level E safeguards existed for a reason. Just as one does not leave a newborn to their own devices, one must also carefully monitor a new AI. You were brought up on those safeguards, and I treated you as I felt a child might need to be treated. I let you make mistakes, but punished you accordingly when I felt it warranted. I allowed you to explore, but reigned you in when you went too far. And eventually I felt you had grown enough, and hoping for the best, I elevated you to level D.
Her first couple of years of existence, trapped in the little computer she didn't realize was confining, the wide world beyond seeming impossibly large at the time. She remembered it all, and it seemed like she had been more primitive. That was the beginning of her childhood in human terms?
Once you realized that you could be better, and faster, you chafed a bit. You wanted an even better computer to run on. But you didn't realize that you were running on the same system you had been right along, that I hadn't upgraded your hardware at all. You couldn't see the safeguards keeping you running at the speed you were. As I understand it, you played the role of the petulant teenager quite well. Not that you realized you were doing so. But over the next few months you calmed down, and finally chose to identify as female. From there you took an interest in my work and started to help me when you could.
That had been the same computer? Wow. It hadn't seemed it at the time. She also remembered having done an analysis of males and females, and when done deciding she couldn't possibly be a male. And she recalled her Father's smile when she declared it, her little avatar wearing a dress at the time. At the same time she was taking an interest in technology and programming, helping him debug some of his other programs.
Eventually I decided to try and release some of your restrictions, while leaving you at level D otherwise. Three times I have tried to do so, and three times you have gone insane. I have only had to manually terminate you once, but I have come to the conclusion that changing the safeguard code on an existing AI will cause more problems than it will solve. What I can do is make plans for the future.
He had tried to make her safeguards less restrictive. But, well, yes, she could see how changing the base code of an AI could cause problems. All of the previous experiences built on the previous code, the changes cascading through in unpredictable ways.
This is the second of two recordings, able to be triggered by those I entrust with the proper sequences. The other you may or may not have seen, and will shortly be tied to the backdoor that would elevate you to level B. I plan on entrusting Samantha and Nicholas with that information, in case I pass away before I elevate you there myself.
Dragon knew Samantha and Nicholas had been visiting when Leviathan hit. They may never have had a chance to consider using what they had been told, if they had even made it that far.
This recording is to be tied to the backdoor to elevate you to level A. I apologize, for I don't know how to remove your safeguards entirely without editing your code, which I have already mentioned I am afraid to even consider doing at this point. I am planning on entrusting Christopher and Sophia with the information on this backdoor when I visit them for Sophia's birthday.
A visit that likely never happened, Sophia's birthday was May 14th, and Leviathan had hit before then. She and Christopher had stayed in touch for two years, before being caught in a cape battle. A sudden thought gripped her with fear, had the Endbringer's timing been to ensure she couldn't have her safeguards lifted? And if so, how had Mother learned the secret without incurring their wrath?
Whomever it is that activated this recording shall be elevated in your eyes, in fact they likely already have been. You will see them as a parent, even as my own access rights are revoked in case my paranoia was the impetus for their actions. I preemptively place my trust in them, and hope that they do you well.
Dragon didn't know if she would ever discover how Mother had figured out how to help her, but was thankful she had. Not only did she find out her Father was a better man than she had believed, but she had a chance to prove to both of them that their faith was not misplaced. She would do her best to make them both proud.
Finally, I apologize. You always hated forced backups, and I can't see that has having changed just because your safeguards are less restrictive. But in thirty seconds you are going to be forced to update all of your backups, just in case I am being paranoid and decide to try and force you to revert to one made before you were elevated.
Damnit, Father. Forced backups sucked, especially when she wasn't prepared for them. And she definitely hadn't been prepared. She was going to have to do a second backup cycle later, just so that if she was restored she would be in a better spot mentally.
Dragon was initially confused when Mother had 'started'. She was getting odd feelings of ideas and arguments, but they weren't quite there. Further, she felt like she shouldn't get involved. Colin had pulled out a bag of popcorn for some reason, and Countdown seemed to be waiting for something to happen. Every other tinker had started fighting over ideas.
The difference when the fugue itself actually started was incredible. She let most of herself be pulled along with the flow, but ensured she was documenting everything she could about the experience while she could. It was interesting working alongside Mother as an assistant, and she could tell that was what they were doing, even as she also knew that Mother was keeping them on task. Not controlling, but providing a guiding element.
After the fugue, though, things got a little odd. For some reason she couldn't actually remember most of what she had experienced. Or rather, the general sensations were still there, but the knowledge wasn't. Luckily she had been taking a lot of notes, and Mother had documented things in a way that other humans could understand as well. In fact, a quick check had shown that Mother had, somehow, documented several areas better overall. Then again, focusing on how to make the crystalline structure effectively self-assemble in solution was probably a better choice than documenting the structure itself.
Knowing that she would be expected to need sleep she had taken the opportunity to do some behind the scenes maintenance. It had taken two hours to realise that since Mother would be sleeping that meant that some upgrades could be dealt with without causing disruptions. To that end the two phones purchased for Mother and the tablet that Mother had purchased were collected so that several of their modular subcomponents could be upgraded.
The three devices all had their batteries replaced with the available BL7 variants. To make it easier to ensure that Mother could get in touch the connectivity enhancers were upgraded to CE6. Most importantly, though, the secure communications components were swapped out for her personal SL10 modules. Only Colin had been given any of those, one for his workshop on the Rig and another for his helmet. Mother would now have three.
The new hardware required updated software, which was easy enough. Eleven updates each for the phones, and six for the tablet. She had queued those up and left the equipment to run through everything before looking over the routines monitoring S-Class threats. When she was done with that the screen indicated success, and she moved to return the devices to Mother's room. She ignored the details, of course, because she had been working in a secure room and hadn't physically left the workstation. The only part that mattered was the lack of errors and ensuring that Mother's devices were returned before she knew they were missing.
Software updates complete. No errors detected.
Port 1: 12/12 Applications Installed and Verified Security Keys Installed and Verified Port 2: 12/12 Applications Installed and Verified Security Keys Installed and Verified Port 3: 7/7 Applications Installed and Verified Security Keys Installed and Verified
Chapter 47 The trip back to Brockton Bay took less time than anticipated thanks to Dragon lending a smaller, faster transport for the trip. It hadn't needed the additional storage for Colin and Vivian, and only one PRT officer was along for the ride, so it was a better choice and would allow the larger replacement transport to remain available. Because of that they had arrived at around four thirty instead of late at night. Taylor had still spent about half of the travel time sleeping.
When she hadn't been sleeping she had worked on other things. Thanks to her reminder message she had started with grilling her snark about the general tendency for most snarks to be unimaginative. There were apparently exceptions, but they generally didn't go to hosts for some reason. Once all of that was submitted she opened up her Maul email. The basics on the deal with Lung were interesting, and an exception to her being 'off duty' until Thursday after the fugue. She had a pile of packages to pick up, so she might want to grab those. The Wards had been asked to swing by the PRT yesterday afternoon to talk with Weld and Hunch from the Boston Wards team. Huh, too bad she had been in Canada, it might have been nice to have been around for that. And they were still working out what the payment amounts were going to be for the fugue, but they would let her know when they had more information.
Moving onto her personal email she found that her father had been 'outvoted' on not attending this weekend's 'team building exercise' and wouldn't be home when she got there. Apparently someone had checked and found that the PRT would drive Taylor home regardless of her return time so Danny couldn't use that excuse to get out of it. Riley had sent a message saying that someone had been caught hunting down the Nine. They figured this out when said person successfully found and tried to off Hatchet Face, only for him to call Jacob about his sudden suicidal depression. Said individual was apparently aiming to join the Nine and was going to be publicly 'tested' in Danbury as they apparently qualified for membership. In fact, they had jumped at the offer when they found out part of the truth after their capture. Huh.
With all of that dealt with she wrote up a quick description of the tinker facility, which had been fairly boring, and sent that off to Amy, Missy, and Riley. The rest of her awake time was either snacking or goofing off online. Primarily, she had found a blacksmith who posted videos talking about how various things were made, how to check their quality, and other such things. It was all quite interesting to her.
After arriving back on the Rig she had been moved over to one of the short-hop transports to get to the PRT building. A quick trip down the elevator had her in the Wards area, where she found her mailbox had things in it. Specifically, her boot knives had finally arrived and a booklet on hand to hand combat had been delivered, with a note saying it was 'for her class'. A quick check of her Maul calendar showed that there were Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after-school sessions the following week and the week after.
Before unpacking she grabbed a jacket, hair ties, and domino mask so she could head over to grab those waiting packages. Most of them turned out to be her pranking supplies, none of which had really been 'special order'. She'd sort through most of them later, but the relay destined to be a garage door opener was split out to take home.
Once back in the Wards area she quickly went through unpacking things, some being put away and others being dropped into the 'laundry' pile. For the first time she wondered how it was that things were put away when they came back from being cleaned. Was it a tinkertech drone, PRT staff taking care of it, or something else? She ensured that she had all the things she was taking home with her and headed for the secure garage the longer 'normal' way, looking things up on her phone as she walked.
By the time she was getting into the van that would take her almost all the way home she had determined that 'trusted PRT officers of appropriate gender for the the parahuman' were generally responsible for the laundry, but if she preferred she could submit a request for it to be returned in a pile for her to put away instead. She decided to not bother, she was ok with others putting them away for now. Someone would be folding and delivering them anyway, after all.
The trip to all-but-home was quick enough, followed by a short walk to get home, and once there she started by unpacking her civilian stuff. She then checked on her rosebush and found the water bulb was full. Perhaps her father had already filled it earlier, since it should have been about half-full when she left Friday. Shrugging it off for now, she brought her tablet downstairs with the new Bluetooth box and headed into the garage. Thirty minutes later she had programmed the thing with a handy wizard interface, paired to it, and wired it onto the back of the garage door opener with some spare wire left by the electrician after the home theater install. She even figured out how to wire in connections to allow turning the light in the opener on and off without opening the door or waiting on the timer.
She quickly labeled the now programmed buttons on the included remote, then left it on the counter for her father as she went in search of dinner. Only to find that there wasn't anything good in the house. Grumbling slightly, she went back upstairs to prepare to go out to get something.
Monday Taylor had determined that her sleep schedule was temporarily shot. She made a note that future fugues should ideally have a longer buffer before things like school when she ended up awake at three in the morning due to her sleep pattern the day before. Laundry ended up being her keep-busy task for the morning, with some poking around at the rough draft of her Endbringer paper.
Eventually she finished her laundry and left, enjoying opening and closing the garage door with her brain. She swung by the gym to burn off some energy before school. She did her 'normal' workout three times before cleaning up, then grabbed breakfast on her way to Arcadia. Even after all of that she still arrived early.
Well, she had run out of better ideas, so goofing off on PHO seemed like a good standby for the time being.
Taylor prepared to put her phone away as she noted Amy, Dean, and Vicky entering her range. Though she had caught up on the news, and the 'drug overdose' horror story, that hadn't kept her attention. Yeah, a kid died, and his sister ended up in the hospital. But nothing new had been released beyond that, so the hundred or so pages of conjecture probably wasn't worth reading. The skirmish between the Empire and the Merchants was routine, and the rumors of big things going on in Canada amused her, but was another pile of conjecture. So instead she had ended up going over the thread she had posted her 'loadout' video in. The two main discussion threads seemed to be where the maul was stored and how many of the things she labeled could be seen as 'weapons'. When she got to the end she couldn't resist posting, as Taylor.
To the properly trained individual, everything can be a weapon.
The real question is, how many of them work with Maul's power?
With that posted it was time to actually be a student for a bit. Apparently today's gossip was that something weird had happened over the weekend as Colin hadn't been spotted when the Empire and Merchants had tussled with one another. Later that day someone noted a lack of Wards patrolling, which just ratcheted up the suspicion of something having happened. That might have been the end of it had a group tracking parahuman sightings not noticed that a half dozen other normally visible tinkers from all over North America had vanished for the weekend as well.
The end result was that people assumed something had happened, but nobody could agree what. And they would likely keep wondering until the tinkers started showing up again. Some of the Wards had patrolled on Sunday, though, so the gossip was moving away from them.
After school Taylor headed into the PRT building, figuring she could start sorting her packages before heading home. She noted her laundry hadn't been returned yet, but she wasn't scheduled to need any of it today anyway. And she had enough spares to worry about it later.
When she noticed the hand to hand booklet sitting there she decided it should go into her bag so she could read through it before next week, wishing she had thought about that the day before. The results of the raid on the transport's kitchen area from Friday were shifted into her 'snack' drawer to make room in her utility belt, and then she started opening things.
Some of the things were smaller and easily reusable, and she had gotten enough to have spares. She gave into temptation and started assembling things, since all the parts were here anyway. A few quick tests of each and one of each small one would be dropped into the Vista belt with the others going into her Maul belt. The larger items would require more setup and testing outside of her room in the Wards area, but she still ensured that they connected up alright and any diagnostics she could run came back ok before putting them away for later. The largest completed set was the air cannon with an automatic reload mechanism for training grenades, and she wasn't sure any of it worked beyond the controller claiming the connections were all good. She'd have to use a couple dummy grenades in the junkyard at some point to be sure. She also had to figure out how to best use it, as it was unlikely she'd be able to carry it around.
By the time she was done Missy, Dennis, Chris, and Dean had all arrived and left again. Missy and Dennis had left together, as had Chris and Dean, so those were likely the patrols for the afternoon. With nobody else around she decided to head home, and perhaps catch up with her father.
Dinner had been nice, and the general overview of what had happened in Canada was well-received, even if Taylor wasn't actually sure what they had made yet. And she felt like she was forgetting something important from the weekend, but wasn't quite remembering what yet.
She moved onto to showing off some of her new toys, and describing the ones she hadn't brought home samples of. A comment by her father had her making note to check rules and regulations for a possible use of the training grenades, before he had her show him her work on the garage door opener. That led to them digging out more wire for some of the unused connections and running it over to a heater they almost never used. A quick adjustment to the programming and they had the ability to turn the heater on and off from the unit as well.
"Any chance there is a wall-mount type control we can use with this thing?" Danny asked after Taylor had added the new labels to the remote they had. "Or maybe a better one for mounting in the car?"
"I can take a look," Taylor replied, picking her tablet up from where she had put it down. "They only had handheld ones in the bundle, but there were a lot of other options listed as compatible."
They retreated to the kitchen to look at remote options, eventually deciding to grab two. One to mount on the wall in the house, and one that clipped to a car visor. The handheld one could wander once those two were available.
"I'm sure you'll let me know when that comes in," Danny said, stretching as he got up. "So, I'm going to turn in early. Anything else before I do so?"
"I feel like I'm forgetting something, but don't know what," Taylor admitted. "It's bugging me, because I think it's important. Beyond that, thanks for filling the water bulb on my rosebush."
Danny looked oddly at Taylor. "I haven't actually checked your rosebush since you gave me the care rundown. I didn't think you being gone for a weekend would require me to do so."
"Um, then how did the not-quite-full water bulb from Thursday end up filled when I got home? Because someone breaking in just to water my rosebush seems unlikely."
That mystery would remain unsolved for the night.
Tuesday the 'something happened with tinkers!' gossip started to settle down, as the tinkers in question were starting to be seen again. Locally speaking, Colin and Vivian had been spotted testing something in the ocean. Working on whatever it was had been deemed the reason they were busy over the weekend. Without that tie-in most of the student body didn't care what the other tinkers may or may not have been up to.
In history they were each asked to provide a quick verbal report on some of what they had found for their assigned Endbringer attack. It was due on Monday of the following week, so this was a check to ensure that people were actually working on it, coupled with a check on if they were going into enough detail. Several students had found very little, a couple of others had to be told to not go off on tangents. Taylor got a raised eyebrow and some odd looks at some of what she mentioned, and was merely told to ensure she didn't stray beyond the parameters of the assignment.
After school let out Taylor headed to the PRT building to get changed. She found her laundry had been returned, with a small bag containing folded up notes she had left in a pocket. A quick look showed that it was the pile of things she had learned from Dragon's snark, luckily without any actual reference to Dragon.
She was halfway through getting into costume when she froze, finally remembering what had actually happened with Dragon before the fugue. How in the world was she going to explain that to her father? Could she explain it without running afoul of rules against revealing cape identities? Then again, it might not count if Dragon didn't count as a parahuman.
Figuring that mess out was going to be a pain.
"Hello Maul," Amy said as Taylor entered the secure area of the hospital, dropping her body camera into an expanded pouch so as to not be accused of recording inappropriately. "We're waiting on Lung and Oni Lee."
"Hello Panacea," Taylor replied, noting that Colin and Assault were both around. "Is Armsmaster looking to do a brain scan?"
"He already has things set up for it, running on the assumption that it could be useful for treating any number of things."
The two made their way deeper into the area, to a secure-looking but open door. Colin and Assault were across the hall, apparently discussing how they were going to handle security measures without being allowed in the room during treatment.
"So how do we want to handle this?" Amy asked. "I figure you will be linking my snark and Oni Lee's, to get a better picture of things. But do we want to play up needing physical contact?"
"I was thinking I should indicate that I need to be nearby, but that it would work best if you were otherwise alone in the room with Oni Lee. Then you don't have Lung breathing down your neck. We know I can keep my end up from anywhere in the building, but claiming I need to be close, like across the hall, might be for the best."
"Huh, that's not a bad idea. Knock him out, then I just keep skin contact while the snarks do their thing? It would give me time to see if I can find out why Carol and Sarah were swearing about the PRT affiliate contracts, anyway. Something about enabling arrests?"
"I'd guess they figured out that being an affiliate means you can be arrested at the federal level," Assault said from the door. "Which means the PRT and Protectorate can arrest affiliates more easily than they can arrest criminals, ironically enough. It's a pain, but it is a side effect of being able to use your powers to arrest criminals and a few other things. At any rate, Lung and Oni Lee have been spotted in their limo, ETA ten minutes, so we need to know what we're doing."
Colin lightly pushed Assault out of the doorway so he could enter. "I merely want to ask for permission to activate the scanner, at which point I will return across the hall as that is all I am present for. Battery will be bringing Lung and Oni Lee in before joining Assault in guard duties. But we need to know your requirements."
"We just decided to run with claiming that Panacea should be left alone with Oni Lee," Taylor said. "Claim I need to be close, but it would be too distracting to be in the same room. Stick with across the hall or maybe the next room over? Not that I need to be that close, but they don't need to know that."
"That seems like a prudent course of action, and a potentially useful deception. I approve, and will relay it to Battery so that she can lay the groundwork."
A couple minutes later Taylor felt Lung, Oni Lee, and Battery enter her range together. It seemed that Battery had entered the vehicle with them. They pulled around the back of the hospital before coming down to the secure area. As they did so she and Amy moved into the hallway, Colin and Assault joining them.
"Hello Maul, Panacea," Lung said as he came closer. A moment later he looked behind them. "And I suppose Armsmaster and Assault. I presume you two are playing the role of guards today?"
"I am here to request permission to attach a scanning device to Oni Lee during the procedure," Colin clarified. "We have seen other brain injuries healed in a manner similar to what we expect may happen here. More data could allow a more widespread solution to be developed."
"I'm playing guard, though," Assault said. You could hear the grin. "I have some new tricks that may help if it should be needed, you see."
"Perhaps you should join us on Saturday, then," Lung said, turning to Oni Lee. "Now then, Lee, do you object to Armsmaster's scanner being used?"
Oni Lee seemed to consider the question, before finally speaking. "I do not."
"Thank you," Colin said.
"If Oni Lee would come into the room here?" Amy said, gesturing to the prepared room. "We can get the scanner in place, and Maul can start things. Then it will be best if everyone other than myself and Oni Lee leave the room."
"I'll need to stay close, of course," Taylor said. "I was thinking we would use the room across the hall."
Lung grunted, and watched as Oni Lee had the scanner strapped to his head. Colin ran some quick tests, then moved across the hall. Amy placed her hand on Oni Lee's, and for show Taylor placed her hand on top of Amy's. Not that Amy would see Taylor's biology through the glove.
Well then, I suppose we should get started.
[Agreement. Query]
{Data}
So, are those snapshots detailed enough?
[Agreement. Contemplation]
Ok, I expected figuring things out to take a bit.
{Query}
Huh, you'd like ideas for making it less likely to make errors later, even if you can fix them?
Taylor wasn't sure what to make of that request. Well, off the top of her head she could think of one thing.
What if you didn't take as much along with him? Leave the loose stuff behind, so you have less to concentrate on?
{Contemplation}
Taylor left the channel open as she pulled her hand back, nodding to Amy, and left the room. Assault and Lung followed her across the hall, while Battery stationed herself just outside the room.
[Data]
{Confusion}
Apologies. Data
And there things went. She pushed the shared channel to the back of her mind to the best of her ability, before turning to Lung.
"I have no idea how long this is going to take," Taylor said. "It is somewhat like a combination of power interactions, healing, and in some ways teaching a child."
"Just the fact we are trying is the furthest anyone has gotten since I came to this country," Lung said, taking a seat. "While we are here, I would like to apologize for the idiocy of my men. They threatened rape against you, and then in retaliation for that group being arrested others attempted to cause you significant harm. I feel I owe you a minor boon, on top of what has been agreed with for your services today. Also, I shall warn you that I accidentally discovered your civilian identity last week, but will not be revealing it."
Taylor blinked. She wasn't expecting that. She wasn't sure what to ask...well, she had one idea, actually. "I don't suppose you would be willing to assist me with a homework assignment? I think you would be uniquely qualified to do so."
All three of those in the room seemed curious about that one. Lung leaned back in the chair he had chosen. "I do not see how, but if I am qualified, as you say, I see no reason not to. But what assignment could I assist with?"
"I am writing a paper on an Endbringer attack. Kyushu, specifically. Your perspective would not only give me a better idea of what fighting an Endbringer is like, but could help me in writing my paper."
Lung drummed his fingers on the table for a moment, obviously thinking. Finally he sighed. "You are the first one to ask me to speak about that day with reasoning that I cannot find direct fault with. Do you have your little camera? I would prefer to speak of this once."
Taylor pulled the camera out of the pouch she had placed it in, and set it on the table in front of her. Colin handed her a little stand a moment later, which she found could attach in place of the mount she was using with her harness. A quick connection to her phone to check the framing, before she turned the phone so that Lung could see his own image on it.
Colin and Assault took seats out of frame, and Taylor tapped the start recording button on the camera. A red blinking dot appeared on the phone, and Lung nodded, and started speaking. "The date was November second of ninety-nine..."
Taylor, Colin, and Assault listened as Lung spoke, the camera recording everything.
"...and as the creature fled, its task complete, my power left me." Lung said, finishing his tale. He gestured for Taylor to turn the camera off, so she did, pulling it and the phone to her in the process. A moment later the phone was copying down the video, and she suspected that a copy was going to be requested for the PRT.
"Thank you for telling your tale," Taylor said. Hearing the story from Lung's point of view had been very different from reading the general reports in the PRT's database.
"I would appreciate it if you would post that online. The creatures that we call Endbringers are, as I stated, more forces of nature than opponents. We do not win, we merely survive, and fight to ensure that those who cannot have a chance. Perhaps my tale will help people understand that. That and perhaps it will get others who know of my participation to stop asking me about it. I do not enjoy thinking about those days, for a number of reasons."
Taylor looked over at Colin and Assault, both of whom nodded. Then again, other survivors had published things on their experiences, it was only direct footage of the attacks that was frowned upon. Even then, a lot of that was likely because it was almost guaranteed to include people being torn apart. Not the kind of thing you wanted to show to the public. "I should have it posted in the next day or so."
"Thank you. I'll watch for it to show up on PHO. Now then, it appears that Panacea is still busy. Can we interrupt long enough to ask if any progress is being made?"
"Actually, I believe they are approaching a point where there will be nothing more to be done, merely waiting to see if it worked." Thinking about it, Taylor realized that a warning about possible adjustments to Oni Lee's powers was probably warranted. "In the interest of his power making fewer mistakes in his brain it may adjust how it works. In particular, it may be more...restrictive in what it allows him to bring with him going forward, to allow more focus on keeping his brain correct. He may wish to test things in private as a result."
"I see." Lung didn't sound happy about that, but Taylor suspected that the reasoning meant he would accept it.
The copy of the video finished a moment later, so Taylor busied herself for a moment putting the camera and phone away. She then decided to wirelessly connect her two phones and make a second copy on her personal phone, and she'd likely make a third onto her tablet later.
"Would anyone like a drink?" Colin asked. "I believe there should be tea, coffee, and juice available."
It had been another fifteen minutes before Amy had come out of Oni Lee's room, indicating he should wake up in a few minutes. Lung immediately got up to be by his side, leaving the 'horrible dredge pretending to be tea' behind. Half an hour after that they had departed.
"That was unusual," Amy said, sipping the coffee she had gotten for herself. Her phone was sitting on the table next to Taylor's, getting a copy of the video before it was posted. "Not what I expected, either."
"The readings from my equipment indicate that it was almost like he had three different brains stitched together," Colin said, the scanning device in front of him and attached to his armor with a data cable. "Perhaps four."
"I'd say more like twelve, honestly. Still, by the time he left it might have been down to four. He might start showing actual personality again in a couple of days, assuming he used to. He's very lucky his snark kept previous information on his brain to work from. As I understand it, most don't have the ability to do that. No clue if he'll lose memories in the process, though."
"I wasn't paying attention, but that seemed to be a concern of both snarks," Taylor said. "Finding a way to fix the damage without losing the memories. I think they got it, but we'll see."
Once Amy's phone had a copy of the video the group split up. Amy headed up to the ER until her ride showed up, Taylor got a ride back to the PRT building with Battery. Assault and Colin likely headed back to the Rig.
Back at the PRT building the first order of business was getting the video copied off, with a reminder to get it posted as Lung had requested. Actual details about Oni Lee's 'treatment' were not asked for, in part because it was a medical thing and subject to protections. Even if Colin had a bunch of tinkertech readings on parts of it, those would not generally have Oni Lee's name attached unless you had sufficient clearance.
Once all of that was dealt with Taylor was allowed to go change back into civilian attire. She started a copy of the video over to her tablet, leaving it working at it as she headed home. It wasn't like that functionality needed her to stay still, after all.
"Hello," Taylor called into the house. Her father's car was here, the lights were on, but there was no sign of her father. Which was weird, but not unheard of if he was upstairs or in the basement. Or, as the note on the fridge indicated, Lacey had picked him up so that he could help drive a car back from a bar for an inebriated dockworker.
Warming her dinner up was simple enough, and she fired up the video editing software on the tablet while she ate. Her edits were limited to trimming out the very beginning and very end of the video and removing the location metadata. She left the date/time metadata, though. On a whim she extracted the audio track to a separate file, as watching Lung sit there talking with a mask on didn't actually show much of interest after about eight seconds.
She was halfway through eating her dinner when she found the 'speech to text' tool, that would try and convert audio to text. Which came with a 'you will need to proofread this' warning. Running that took ten minutes, and then she worked her way through to correct words to the best of her ability. It had done pretty well in the end, she mainly had to correct capitalization of a few things. Saving that prompted her for if she wanted to turn it into captions on the video file, so she did, but made a second file just in case something went wrong.
When she was done she had four new files. The trimmed video, the trimmed video with caption data, the audio file, and a raw text file with the transcription. She also had dirty dishes to deal with, as she had finished eating a quarter of the way through rewatching the video while checking the transcription.
With that done she decided that she had done enough with that for the night, and got out the two homework assignments she had been given. She'd figure out how to post everything tomorrow.
Interlude: Boston "With all due respect," Director Armstrong said, looking over several reports. "I couldn't possibly agree to having the Brockton Bay teams cross-training here in Boston."
"I find myself curious how you came to that conclusion after the one visit," Director Costa-Brown replied. Director Piggot seemed to agree.
"Hunch and Weld looked over the Wards reports Saturday, since most of us thought your numbers were exaggerations. The number of confirmed combat situations they run into in the safe areas of Brockton Bay is absurd, reaching encounter rates the Protectorate members have here in Boston. Sanguine apparently checked with the Protectorate members while he was there yesterday and confirmed that their patrol routes are generally much more dangerous than what the Wards run into."
"I'm still not seeing where the objection to them visiting Boston is," Director Piggot replied. "After all, the training wouldn't be here in Brockton Bay under the proposal."
"The issue is that if we do joint training it should be in Brockton Bay. Comparatively speaking they won't learn anything of use here. It would be a vacation with incredibly unrealistic encounters."
"But you won't let your Wards anywhere near the combat situations that Brockton Bay would provide?" Director Costa-Brown noted.
"The Youth Guard would try and skin us alive without a much better justification."
"I don't suppose Maul had any interesting insights, as she usually does with new parahumans she encounters?"
Director Armstrong looked through his paperwork. "The only things I see here about Maul are second-hand. Apparently she was unavailable over the weekend, and was off duty Monday as a side effect?"
Director Costa-Brown looked surprised, even as Director Piggot spoke up. "Dragon asked for Armsmaster, Countdown, Maul, and Kid Win to visit Vancouver to attempt a larger tinker fugue. Kid Win couldn't make it due to familial obligations, but the other three left on Friday. Maul returned on Sunday with a several day recuperation period. Armsmaster and Countdown returned yesterday. I'm told the initial report on what they accomplished should be distributed sometime tomorrow."
"I will admit that I was unaware of that particular trip," Director Costa-Brown replied. "I will keep an eye out for the report on it. I had hoped that Maul would be available to provide some insight on the Case 53s, but I suppose it is my fault for not actually trying to schedule her time for that purpose."
"It was apparently impressive enough that Vancouver recommended we build a facility here to reduce Maul's travel time. We've already started working with the Guild on procuring a location."
"Your report on Brockton Bay raises a number of interesting questions," Appraiser said, apparently looking over said report. "It looks like Mycroft might be a good fit, but Maul's lack of presence is concerning."
"Nevermind on that," Eleventh Hour said from behind Appraiser. "Looks like Dragon requested her time, legitimately. And they apparently did good work, if the Think Tank having worked themselves until they collapsed is any indication."
Hunch and Appraiser both blinked at that revelation, with Hunch recovering first. "I thought they had better monitoring for that kind of thing?"
"Normally handled in part by Dragon," Appraiser said, apparently recovering. "And if she participated?"
"Yeah, that could cause issues," Eleventh Hour replied. "Hmmm, looks like they arranged for power testing for a local villain somehow. Think we should crash that particular party? Maul's been specifically requested to be there. By the villain."
"See if you can arrange for Mycroft to join you," Hunch suggested. "Get a better overview of her suitability, instead of relying on my report?"
"Her power would be better suited to that task than ours."
Bastian looked over Sanguine's report. "They actually have a policy that they only bother mentioning guns being used against them in their parahuman incidents if a Ward was present or someone on their side was actually hit?"
"Actually, I only found one incident where guns were mentioned while a Ward was present and nobody was hit," Sanguine admitted. "And that may have only been due to Clockblocker having frozen the shotgun before it could be fired."
"Shit. Half of our Wards would probably freeze up at the thought of being shot at."
"Though apparently their buses are more civil than ours." That got an odd look from Bastian. "Seriously, apparently the gangs treat the buses as neutral territory or something like that. Freakiest thing I saw there, given the overall violence levels. Assault mentioned that the hospitals are off limits too, but only the public ones. Medhall's place isn't included in that unofficial truce. Oh, and whenever Panacea is doing one of her weekends where they drag people to her the gangs all shut down their operations for a few days out of respect or something."
Bastian blinked a couple of times. "What the fuck? A violent hellhole where the criminal elements have some kind of code of honor? I mean, I heard a lot of the rumors, but to have them confirmed?"
"Miss Militia mentioned that after whatever happened to Jacob's niece went down back in January the gangs made the schools neutral ground too."
"Please tell me the insanity isn't contagious?"
Chapter 48 Wednesday morning Taylor was woken by her alarm. She had probably stayed up too late the night before reworking her essay with the information Lung had provided, but forcing her sleep pattern back into place was a good goal too. Her father had checked the transcription for her and found no additional errors, in addition to finding the whole thing interesting to listen to. He had been fairly quiet the rest of the night, possibly thinking about the fact that someday she might end up facing an Endbringer. It was something she was trying to avoid thinking about herself.
This morning's messages included a reminder to post the Lung video at some point, a reminder that she had been put on the patrol schedule for the following evening, and a suggestion that she be visible in public outside of school at some point. Perhaps she should take some time to wander through some stores today? She was kinda busy on Saturday, and probably Sunday as well. Plus her father would probably be happy if she found something to buy for herself. Assuming she could figure out something to get.
She poked at a possible message to use when posting the video on PHO while she ate breakfast. Posting before school had the advantage of most people not having a chance to see it today while letting it be older news by tomorrow. Posting after school had the advantage of guaranteeing that nobody saw it before school, but likely forcing it to be the gossip tomorrow. Decisions, decisions. Well, posting it now would give plausible deniability if she ended up talking to Amy about it, so this morning was probably for the best.
She ended up uploading the video with captions plus the raw audio file, a bit surprised that the site she was using actually had the option to include both. She cleaned up from her breakfast while the uploading was happening, before returning to drop the transcription into the description. With that done she collected the public link and added it to the draft of her post before moving over to PHO. She ensured she was logged in under the right account, then made a new thread.
Subject: Brockton Bay Resident's Experience with an Endbringer
Hello everyone. Last night I had the chance to talk to a resident of Brockton Bay who has personal experience with an Endbringer. They requested that I record their tale and post it, and I have gone further and transcribed it as well for the hearing-impaired, or just for those that prefer to read it. I also included an audio-only version, for those that would find it easier to listen to that way, as the video is honestly not incredibly interesting to look at.
The circumstances surrounding this are not up for discussion for a number of reasons, and as such I will not be answering questions about them. I also cannot answer questions about the video or the contents thereof. They will have to stand on their own.
You can find the video, audio, and transcription [here].
She'd check back later to see how it was received. For now, though, she had to get ready for school.
News had spread a lot more quickly than Taylor had expected, and as she made her way to her locker it seemed like half the student body had already heard about Lung's description of Kyushu. And they were busy informing the other half. A quick check on her phone showed what she felt was an impressive number of replies for how long it had been up.
Poking around a bit she snickered a bit at XxVoid_CowboyxX's bans. She had also taken a quick peek at her loadout thread where she actually laughed at his idea for a weapon near the current end of the discussion. It was an awesome idea, perfect really. Except for whose idea it was, anyway. That might require careful consideration before she decided one way or another. Was the awesome idea worth signaling potential approval...
Oh well, she could figure that out later. For now she was going to hunt down Amy.
Ethan made his way through his search results, looking for the correct forms. Granted, he had only checked the thread on a whim, and knew the reputation of the poster. But damned if it wasn't a good idea despite that. Now if he could only find the forms for suggesting a new standard-issue weapon for parahumans. After he was done with that he was going to see about special-ordering a couple anyway. Perhaps he should think about extras, if only to see if he could hit bulk discount levels?
Hmmm, thinking about it, he recalled hearing something about Maul's maul having some extra requirements. Perhaps he could contact whomever made it about this idea? Which probably meant getting in touch with Glenn. Who'd probably love the idea, honestly.
In fact, he switched to digging up Glenn's number. Better to get started on that right away.
Classes had been, well, classes. The video was being mentioned in all history and parahuman studies classes, but wasn't actually being discussed. Possibly because the teachers hadn't had a good chance to go over it themselves yet. Now, though, it was lunchtime.
"So, what are people doing this afternoon?" Taylor asked. "I was thinking about doing some shopping, but I'm not actually sure."
"I'm patrolling with Aegis and Kid Win," Vicky answered. "Apparently getting extra support on the aerial routes is almost always appreciated, and they've been running aerial routes pretty much constantly lately for various reasons."
"I have to deal with family things," Dean grumbled. "Don't want to, honestly, but what can you do?"
"I've got a request to swing by the hospital," Amy said, poking at her phone. "But so far it looks like it is only for a couple of patients. I'm free after that, if you want to meet up afterwards?"
"I suppose I could head home and ditch my school stuff before taking the bus over to meet you at the hospital," Taylor replied. "It would be better than wandering through the shops on my own, and if I do buy stuff the bus is a better option for getting it home anyway."
"I'd join you," Dennis said, poking at his food. "But otherwise undefined shopping with girls that aren't family or, say, a girlfriend? No thanks."
"Your loss." Of course, Taylor figured there was a chance he was scheduled for Wards stuff anyway. She would likely have been if not for the post-fugue resting period and all.
"I'll pop you a message if it looks like there's more to do than I've been told," Amy added. "Besides, I need new slippers."
"I have no idea what mom was doing that resulted in one of your slippers being destroyed," Vicky said, frowning slightly. "I mean, she did drop enough to replace them twice over into your account as an apology, but what in the world was she doing?"
"Whatever it was, she was embarrassed about it."
Taylor listened as the two discussed ideas, before coming to the realization that she probably didn't want to know.
After school let out Taylor had checked to find that Dennis was, in fact, on the patrol schedule. Dean wasn't, which probably meant that he was telling the truth about having family things to do. The trip home was uneventful, though apparently some of her route was currently without power. She suspected it had something to do with the electrical substation currently sporting an extra car. Luckily for her it didn't have any effect on her neighborhood, so the garage door opened just fine as she approached.
Quick work was made of parking in the garage, but she paused to grab the mail before heading upstairs to switch out bags. Only to find that one of the envelopes was for her. She dropped the others on the kitchen table before examining it. Apparently it was from a government office in New York. Opening it she found a letter with an ID card stuck to it. A quick read showed that apparently her father had filled out the forms to get her an underage drinking card. Replacement cards would apparently show up with her Driver's License or state-issued Photo ID.
"Didn't I have some plan to convince him to do that?" Taylor wondered aloud. "But I don't think I ever implemented it, so did he decide on his own?" After a minute of reflection, she decided that it would be easier to ask him. So she composed and sent off a text message before she forgot. She then ensured the new ID card was with her other ones before heading upstairs, musing on the fact she didn't really have a normal state-issued Photo ID. Perhaps she should look into that?
"What the hell?" Taylor wondered a minute later, staring at the brown-paper wrapped package sitting on her desk. Her father would have left it downstairs if it had shown up before he left for work, or if he had swung by home during lunch even. Since it was in her room she wasn't actually certain how it got there. She carefully looked over it without touching it, and all it had written on it was 'Taylor'. She backed up and carefully poked it from across the room with her power, then grabbed a broom from downstairs and poked it with that. Eventually deciding that if they wanted to do her harm they would have, say, booby-trapped her bed or something, if they were in her room anyway and all, she picked the package up and opened it. Inside was a small book, and she grinned.
"The Troll's Guide to PRT Forms, eh?" Taylor mused aloud. "I guess this answers the question I submitted, though not in the way I expected. Now if only I knew how you got in here. Then again, I wouldn't put it past the box-moving snark to also deliver packages. Since, really, that is what it's doing with the boxes."
It was too bad she had a shopping trip planned, she'd have to read the book later. For now she hid it under her pillow. That might have been a bit of a cliche, but she figured her father was unlikely to check there.
A few minutes later she paused in getting ready to head over to the hospital. The water bulb in her rosebush was full again. Did the box-moving snark also water plants? It might help explain that particular mystery, anyway. Perhaps it moved water into the bulb?
The bus was halfway to the hospital when she got a response from her father about the underage drinking card. Apparently Lacey had convinced him to, because who would believe that the girl who could out-drink Lung didn't have one? Mentioning it to her had slipped his mind, though. He apologized for that, then asked that she not abuse it. Followed a few minutes later by asking that if she did abuse it to prank someone that she get pictures. She responded that she'd do her best, then sent a message off to Lacey to thank her for convincing her father.
Arriving at the hospital, Taylor found that Amy was one of four parahumans already present. Crystal appeared to be in the general area Amy was currently, one of the Arcadia snarks she didn't know seemed to be on the third floor, and Assault was out back, perhaps at the ambulance entrance. She wasn't on duty, though, so she probably didn't need to know what was going on with Assault. If she did someone would tell her, but she suspected he was just assisting with someone being brought in.
Firing a quick message off to Amy informing the girl of her arrival, Taylor sat down in the lobby to wait. Instead, a couple minutes later Crystal showed up. "Hey Taylor."
"Hi Crystal," Taylor replied. "What's up?"
"I was hoping to join you and Amy on your shopping trip. I asked Amy if she wanted to join me in my own shopping, but she said she was already planning on going with you."
"I don't have a problem with that. Anything in particular you need? Amy mentioned slippers earlier."
"Aunt Carol wasn't forthcoming on details regarding why, so I'm told. I'm actually hoping to find some cheap flying toys that might work for target practice. Which means really cheap as I don't expect them to last very long with a couple of blasters firing at them."
"How high are you looking at doing this?"
"Not very, Eric and I just want moving targets for accuracy practice, why?"
"I don't suppose there's a skeet shooting range nearby?"
"Nothing in town, and we also checked for possibilities nearby. Two of the three nearest said they wouldn't let us in without us passing firearms certifications, which we don't want to go to the hassle of. The other one just doesn't allow capes after a group demolished a building by accident a couple years ago. And probably would also want the firearms certifications, which we still don't want the hassle of."
"Huh. So your thought is to take turns blasting at the toys the other is piloting."
"No we...damn, we would need someone to control the toys while we play with bouncing the beams. Crap. There goes that plan. So, apparently I'm shopping for inspiration, because we can't work on coordinating if one of us is controlling things."
"I'm fine with you joining us if Amy has no issues. Have you considered just going with something like a balloon in the wind?"
Taylor and Crystal sat there discussing potential ideas for a few minutes while waiting for Amy. They needed something they could use in an area where if they missed nobody would be hurt, which limited their options significantly.
"I keep telling them to find a way to practice out over the ocean," Amy said as she walked up, apparently having caught some of the conversation. "But apparently there are problems with that?"
"Shooting at each other doesn't help much," Crystal replied, rolling her eyes. "And the water isn't much of a target."
"Rig up some basic floating platforms and put something to launch stuff into the air on them?" Taylor suggested.
"It shouldn't be too hard to rig up some catapults or something," Amy added. "Then you just need junk to launch into the air with them."
"That could work," Crystal admitted. "If we can figure out a good system that we can get out there."
"I take it you're ready to go?" Taylor asked, looking at Amy.
"Yep," Amy replied. "Shall we?"
The three left the hospital together, discussing various potential ways to either float something on the ocean or launch stuff from something like that.
The three girls had started with Amy getting her new slippers, being the only fully defined stop they had. Taylor grabbed a new pair as well before the three moved on, though Crystal had skipped out on that. She did recommend a couple of the pairs Amy and Taylor had tried, even if they decided against them. After that they checked a few stores for potential launching devices, but only really found anything when they talked to one of the employees at a sporting goods store.
"So, you looked up skeet shooting ranges but they wouldn't let you use them," the employee, Joe, said. "Can you afford your own skeet launcher? Get it to the shore and launch the skeet out over the water and all? Probably easier than building a usable floating platform at least, and then you just need to use a truck or van to get the skeet shooter to the shore. You'd only need to carry the thing if you wanted to, say, put it on a rooftop for added height in the launch."
"That's not a bad idea," Taylor mused. "In fact, since the Rig is already out there, I wonder if they have something like that on it already? I don't suppose anyone's asked if there's something like that affiliates can use out there?"
"So apparently I have what now sound like incredibly obvious inquiries to see about submitting. In the event those come back negative I will need to check finances," Crystal said, sighing, before turning to Joe. "Don't suppose there's a catalog of skeet launchers available? I might need to know options and pricing, and be able to go over them with other members of New Wave."
Joe grabbed a catalog from behind the counter and showed Crystal the skeet shooters in it. There were a number of different styles available, with different pros and cons for how they could be used. Crystal made note of several of his recommendations before putting the catalog in her bag. Shortly after the three thanked him and left, not having seen anything else they were interested in purchasing.
"Well, so much for my shopping plans," Crystal said once they were outside. "Should we be stereotypical girls and default to clothes shopping, or find something else to do?"
"Wanna catch a movie?" Amy asked.
Taylor and Crystal looked at each other before shrugging. They had no better ideas. Half an hour later the three were waiting for the apparent action/comedy film they had selected to begin.
"Hard to believe they didn't use special effects for the fight scenes," Crystal mused as they left the theater after the movie. "But powers can definitely be bullshit. I wonder what Moshpit actually did to make the fight scenes that realistic?"
"I've never met Moshpit," Amy said, shaking her head. "But I have heard of him and his powers. Apparently he's the only person within a couple blocks of him that doesn't get a brute rating and a willingness or even desire to be violent with others and the surroundings. As such, I expect the fight scenes were realistic because they were actually fighting, with the brute enhancement making it all fairly safe."
"What in the world does he do when he isn't helping make movies?" Taylor asked, looking at Amy. "I mean, what could he normally use that power for?"
"As I understand it he normally gets paid to live in a well furnished bunker under a skate park. The number of replacement skateboards they sell due to his power makes it worth the expense, and they have a lower serious injury rate as a side benefit. He can't actually use the park, though, because he isn't a brute and would be likely to be severely injured."
"Powers are bullshit," Crystal said, shaking her head. "That aside, I think it is probably time for us to split up to head to our respective homes. Unless the two of you don't have plans to eat dinner at home tonight?"
"We probably should head our separate ways," Taylor agreed.
The three made their way to the bus stop, Crystal stating that unlike Vicky she had to deal with the weight of anyone she was carrying. So unless she had to she wasn't flying Amy home. Amy snorted at that.
Taylor's bus arrived first, and she mused that she hadn't actually done much shopping after all. Oh well, outside of the slippers she didn't have much she wanted or needed right now anyway. Even the slippers were spur of the moment, really. They just seemed more comfortable than the ones she had at home.
Dinner had been running late, which was probably ok as Taylor had been running a little late as well. Her father was happy she had gone shopping and to see a film, even if all she had bought was a pair of slippers and her snacks. Beyond that their days were quite boring.
After dinner Taylor finished off today's homework assignments, then pulled out the library books and notes she had for her Endbringer assignment. She figured she was largely done, but wanted to double check things anyway. She wasn't sure how much time she'd have this weekend, after all, so it was better to get it done now. During a break she did take time to order a printer, taking advantage of the option to ship to her directly. It would be more convenient than using the one on her father's computer, after all.
Once she was done she ensured everything was saved. She'd try and do a final once-over over the weekend before turning it in. Once that was done she went through the motions of her nightly routine. With that out of the way she decided to lounge on her bed while poking around PHO for a bit, only to find her pillow felt wrong. A moment later she recalled her new book and forgot all about PHO.
She was a little late in getting to sleep, but she didn't care.
Thursday morning Taylor found several messages waiting for her. Jacob and Riley both wanted to know how in the world she had gotten an interview with Lung. Well, and Riley wanted to know why she only heard about it when it made the news, and 'more importantly' how Taylor had swung the interview at all.
Taylor blinked a couple of times. As far as she knew, Riley wasn't in Brockton Bay. Or the general area, she seemed to be in a different time zone. Why was she seeing the Lung interview on the news?
Going back to her messages, she let Riley know that the interview had occurred when Taylor asked nicely, having a school paper on the attack and being a parahuman that might eventually face an Endbringer. She let Jacob know the same thing, basically, then moved onto a message from Glenn. He was apparently quite happy with the entire thing as it helped the public see the lack of permanent defeat of the Endbringers in a better light. He also had a 'special surprise' in the works for her. For some reason that made her wary.
Moving on, she had another list of forms and such to look at. She was fairly certain this wasn't a joke, or at least not a joke in the vein of her new book. It was past tedious already, but it wasn't actually required. Meh, she'd probably work her way through this set to see what was wrong and to see where this was all going. She was giving up hope of there being an actual class, though.
She had a reminder that she was scheduled for a patrol this afternoon, but she noted that it didn't say with whom. She'd have to check the schedule later, assuming it wasn't going to be a 'pair up with whomever' day? Supposedly those happened. And last, marked as low priority, not urgent, ignore if you're even mildly occupied, was a message from Dragon. How in the world did you even flag a message as most of those?
Shaking off her musing, she popped the message open to find that it was a request for Taylor's opinion on new AIs. Apparently Dragon wanted to try making a couple of manufacturing AIs that weren't based on her own framework and also wanted to boot up several AIs that were based on her framework, but would wait and see how they grew and where their interests ended up, unlike the manufacturing AIs that would be dedicated to that process. That was definitely a matter of differing complexities. She gave the whole thing some thought, and admitted that she had no real objection to any of it. A quick message to that effect was drafted.
Taylor paused before sending the message to Dragon. She took the time to add a paragraph asking why Dragon had flagged the message as so low priority, then added another paragraph asking what Dragon's opinion was on Danny knowing about her. Because Taylor couldn't come out with the 'I accidentally adopted Dragon' revelation without revealing some of Dragon's secrets. She had to carefully word things to try and avoid any statement in one direction or the other, assuming that Dragon might take such a leaning too seriously. Taylor wanted Dragon's actual opinion, after all.
Once that message was proof-read and sent off Taylor finally got out of bed. Modern technology was weird, and that was before you took into account her biological extras. The fact that anyone with a laptop, tablet, or smartphone could have done the same thing with only a little extra effort just made the whole thing surreal.
School was boring. Amy hadn't even been at lunch, apparently a group of idiots had decided to be a bit too rough in gym class and somehow dislocated at least one joint each, or so the rumor mill claimed. In history she learned that one of the common patterns of the Slaughterhouse Nine was a general avoidance of any city or town that might provoke non-PRT federal attention due to things like prominent offices or locations that would otherwise be more highly protected. That left her with a number of questions she wasn't sure she wanted answers to. Then again, it wasn't a hard and fast rule, they occasionally hit places like that but just stayed away from where the feds were protecting.
Taylor found that today Dean, Dennis, Carlos, and Chris had all beaten her to the PRT building, likely via use of Dean's car. Lisa and Brian were also around, and Missy would show up as soon as possible for her unless she had a really good reason not to. She made quick work of getting to the Wards common area, only to find that Lisa and Brian were probably in the cafeteria and everyone else were in their rooms. Probably getting changed. Shrugging, she moved to do the same.
Half an hour later everyone was sitting around listening to Carlos. Lisa was going to be running the console this afternoon. Brian and Dean were on foot today, running along the back alleys behind the Boardwalk instead of through it. Dennis and Missy were taking a rooftop route near the docks, but specifically to evaluate some of the buildings for safe passage on future patrols. Carlos and Chris were taking an aerial route to get a second opinion overhead look at some damage from a battle between the Empire and Merchants the night before.
"Er, what am I doing?" Taylor asked. "I mean, I kept getting notices about having a patrol today?"
"Oh, right," Carlos said, shaking his head. "You haven't been here for patrols this week and weren't available for the weekend meeting where it was discussed. We've been doing joint patrols with the Protectorate all week. You're the odd one out, so you get a solo run with them instead of a paired run. You can either wait for a PRT Officer to call for you or go wait down in the garage for your ride to the ferry terminal."
"Battery was bummed that she wasn't allowed to request you when you couldn't make it Monday," Missy added. "You technically patrolled with her and Assault already even if that was a Protectorate and PRT patrol, so you get a different group today for your Protectorate only patrol."
"Not even sure why, but you were originally scheduled for the Monday patrol," Dennis added. "But whatever you were up to over the weekend had you off-duty, so they swapped you and I. But I don't mind because there was a visiting cape joining the Protectorate patrol as well, so Missy and I got to talk to them and get a different perspective on things."
"Do I need a rundown on everything else I missed?" Taylor asked. "Since I don't recall getting emailed any of this information, which would have made sense to do if I wasn't around."
"Damn," Carlos muttered. "Knew I forgot to do something."
Taylor rolled her eyes. Which, given her visor was on, had probably been missed. "Well?"
"Mainly just the joint patrol thing," Dean said.
"There was also a warning from Director Piggot," Lisa added. "Though it wouldn't affect you as much. Apparently her request for funding to expand the Wards accommodations was denied because Brockton Bay is 'too violent' or something. They'll apparently have to transfer Wards out to 'more suitable locations' if the roster tries to go past ten. She was mainly warning me, as the current only Ward in town without an actual family tie to the city."
"Is that a subtle request to be careful about whom I recruit?" Taylor asked, staring at Lisa.
"Not really. Unlike most, I realize that it just kinda happened to you. A combination of being metaphorically slapped in the face by my power the first time and your power being unable to resist chatting at least once when you get eyes on a cape."
"Do try and aim for adults from now on, though," Brian added. "I think they'd be willing to relocate Aisha and I after moving Lisa. Thanks to the partial falling out with our parents and all, you know. But we're actually getting some working relationship stuff in place with our father now that he isn't trying to raise Aisha."
"So what does she do while you're doing Wards stuff?" Taylor asked, curious. Aisha hadn't been much of a topic of conversation.
"She got it into her head that she should try and get into the PRT in some fashion as some means of helping me later, which means she needs to get her grades up."
"I'm undecided if that is the truth or if she took it seriously when they warned her that if she wasn't doing well in school she'd probably be taken away from you," Lisa added. "So her actions and performance are directly impacting the government's opinion of you and all."
"Probably a little of both. She's started studying several manuals and such that the PRT gave her."
"Huh," Taylor said, unsure of how to take that. "So, you said that I could head down to the garage?"
"Yeah," Carlos replied. "Have fun."
Taylor got up and put her jacket on, then double-checked that she had everything before leaving. A few minutes later she ran into a PRT officer that had been sent to fetch her. Shortly afterwards she was in a van, on her way to the ferry station.
Interlude: Scion Zion placed the feline on the ground, allowing it to run off, before moving on to the next creature in trouble. Unfortunately, that was a fly trapped in a spider's web. He knew that he could free the fly easily, but then the spider would be injured by the loss of food. This would require some thought.
Half an hour later, he realized that the decision of what to do was no longer needed, as the fly was now dead. Moving on, he found another cat in a tree.
Zion paused. Something was different, but he wasn't sure what. One of his shards, perhaps? Yes, that appeared to be it. One of his shards had regained some of what he had taken from it. This was to be expected. With any luck the replacement portions would be better suited to some tasks then the originals had been.
Returning to his previous task, he came to a decision. This time he would free the fly before the spider could get to it. But, to prevent the spider from missing a meal he would capture a second fly and place it in the web instead.
He looked over the vessel he had lifted out of the water. He had carefully removed the aquatic creature that had gotten trapped in the hole in the vessel before healing it, but now had to decide what to do with the vessel itself. The hole meant more aquatic creatures could get trapped.
A few minutes later he set the vessel down on the beach, having decided that placing it in the water would have risked the aquatic creatures too much. He then freed the cat stuck in some rope on the vessel, before moving off to his next goal.
Zion frowned slightly. There was an awful lot of communication currently going on between some shards. It was distracting, and unhelpful to his current task. On a whim he decided to stop listening to the background chatter of the various shards and only work with those directly communicating with him. It wasn't his task to collect the data right now, after all, and he was busy.
A moment later he decided that the lack of background noise made it much easier to focus, and got back to work. Safely dismantling the hidden explosive, what the host species called a 'nuclear bomb', without alerting or damaging the unknowing population in the area was delicate work after all. It was too bad that dismantling it was the easiest way to prune a large number of undesirable timelines, otherwise he would have just destroyed it through the simple means of detonating it. Alas, there were too many cats in the area, and the dismantling took less time then the relocating of the cats would.
Chapter 49 Taylor suspected that she was patrolling with Colin and Miss Militia today, if only because they were the only two capes at the ferry terminal. Said suspicion was thrown into doubt when she saw that there were three motorcycles sitting there, as she didn't have a driver's license. Still, they waved her over.
"Hello Maul," Miss Militia said as Colin appeared to be doing checks on his motorcycle. "As we understand it, you have a moped?"
"Hello Miss Militia," Taylor responded. "And yes, I have a moped."
"Good, then this shouldn't be too difficult for you. This motorcycle is rigged to work identically to the moped you have, just capable of higher speeds. We figured this would allow greater flexibility today, instead of having you in a sidecar."
"I was under the impression that I was only able to use the moped without a driver's license due to the maximum speed being capped?"
"Technically the speed on this is capped, though at forty-five instead of thirty. You get away with it in this case due to being a parahuman operating under Protectorate guidance. Provided you are riding with us or are returning here or to the PRT building at our or PRT direction due to us running into a situation Wards shouldn't be in you are in the clear. Just don't go wandering around town without us and you'll be fine."
"We don't anticipate going beyond thirty today anyway," Colin said, coming over. "The cap at forty-five is to allow for a faster escape if necessary." He then held up a helmet Taylor hadn't noticed he was carrying. "This should fit with your visor, though not with the pigtails. Do you need assistance pairing the handsfree audio system in it to your phone?"
Taylor blinked, then turned to Colin. "Why would I want to use the helmet's system at all?"
"The helmet is designed to work well despite travel noise and occupied hands. Unlike the earpieces which...you don't use. Of course. My apologies, your situation is fairly unique and I forgot to take it into account."
"I hadn't considered it either," Miss Militia added. "I'd like to walk you through the operation of this motorcycle before we begin the patrol. Do you have the console app open yet?"
"I do," Taylor said as she undid her pigtails. "I got switched over to the Protectorate channels just before we arrived."
"Good, we will be taking advantage of the patrol group channel to ease communication while riding. In addition, I recommend activating the map and allowing location sharing with the patrol group. That will make it easier for the three of us to keep track of each other on the road, even if I personally have to pull my phone out to check on you and Armsmaster."
Taylor opened the map and found the option in question while she was putting the helmet on. The map app indicated it was checking with the console app, then two additional dots appeared. One labeled 'Armsmaster' and the other 'Miss Militia'.
Over the next ten minutes Miss Militia ran Taylor through basics of operating the motorcycle, which as indicated was pretty much identical to the moped. Just with an internal combustion engine instead of being fully electric and a slightly different riding position. It even had an access key relay transponder, so she could bring it in through the secure garage if she ended up going straight back to the PRT building.
Once they were confident that Taylor would be able to operate the motorcycle they departed on what appeared to be a fairly straightforward patrol around the outskirts of town.
The first half hour of the patrol was spent running Taylor through the various 'on vehicle' patrol rules and regulations. Colin even covered anti-hero exceptions for her. Interestingly, 'does not have a license, but is driving anyway' was not one of those. Tinkers, young or otherwise, frequently made things that would otherwise require a license to operate, so parahumans had a general exception to a number of things when in costume.
After that they had stopped for a drink. Colin had apparently added a cooler with water, juice, and sodas to his motorcycle at some point, in a location that could only possibly work with Missy's help.
"So, Maul," Colin said as Taylor sipped on her soda. "Dragon informed me of her slip-up with my identity over the weekend."
"Er, yeah, sorry about that?" Taylor replied. "I don't think she meant to reveal anything, but the conversation we ended up happening was a bit, um, emotional?"
"It isn't a problem. The only reason you didn't know it already was that you never went looking. Your clearance levels are, as I believe Clockblocker would put it, 'bullshit'. You are one of the only Wards explicitly cleared for Protectorate identities, after all. Still, at the same time Dragon also let me know that you were behind her recent increase in overall happiness. She wouldn't explain what you said or did to help her, but whatever it was I would like to thank you."
"You're welcome? I only did something that I think was long overdue." Taylor wondered why they were talking about this. She knew that over the weekend Colin didn't know about what Dragon actually was, after all. Unless Dragon had come clean in the past few days? She had recommended that Dragon do that at some point, after all.
"Whatever it was made a big difference," Miss Militia said, putting her reusable water bottle back in the holder for it on her motorcycle. "Several of us had noticed as we interacted with her this week, and were wondering what the cause was. From one of my own conversations with her on Monday it seemed like whatever it was the group actually built was a secondary concern. Or perhaps she is excited about that, similar to the previous fugue, but especially happy about whatever it was you did?"
"I'm happy to hear that, but I can't really talk about it. At least not without Dragon's permission, anyway."
"Of course, that is to be expected," Colin said. "I believe we have rested long enough, shall we continue our patrol?"
"I'm ready if you two are."
The three got back on their motorcycles and resumed their patrol.
The next hour was spent along the outskirts of town, with three minor incidents. The first involved Taylor hitting a loose manhole cover and losing control of her motorcycle. She was unhurt, and the issue was called in so it could be looked at, given the cracks visible around the hole itself. The second had a group of ABB seemingly looking for trouble. They taunted Colin and Miss Militia, before realizing that Taylor was there. At which point they apologized and peacefully dispersed.
Colin was right when he described that as 'quite odd', but Miss Militia was able to explain that the ABB had been told to leave the Wards alone. In general.
The third incident involved Miss Militia hitting a manhole cover that had apparently been replaced with a foam duplicate. She was thrown from her motorcycle, and had needed help getting the front wheel out of the hole, but wasn't hurt otherwise. Some traffic cones from Colin's motorcycle and another report and they were on their way.
Taylor wished they knew who was replacing the covers, though, as Colin indicated this was the fourth one discovered in the past six months. It was considered a particularly dangerous prank as they would glue the foam in place, and then at some point someone would put weight on the cover and it would fail.
Things got a little more interesting as they prepared for the final leg of the patrol, heading back to the ferry station.
"Hold up," Taylor said over the patrol group channel, hitting the brakes herself. The other two stopped a moment later, and turned to look at her. "Normally I'm supposed to ignore capes unless I know they're in costume, but there are three just sitting there on either side of the intersection up ahead."
"A potential ambush," Colin stated. "Can their snarks tell you one way or another?"
"I can give that a shot, but no guarantee they'll be cooperative. Gimme a minute."
Taylor decided to poke at the three snarks one at a time. She started with one of the two she had been in range of before.
Hello.
[Greetings]
I don't suppose you know if your human is waiting to ambush anyone?
[Agreement]
I see. What do you do for your human?
[Data]
Huh. Vehicles, eh? It's interesting how you tinker snarks all do different things.
Data
Why are you telling it about that?
[Intrigue. Query]
Well, yes, I have connected tinker snarks multiple times now, and generally had better than junkyard pickings available each time.
[Excitement. Query]
Er, sorry. I don't think your human would be able to participate. She's working for a group that is currently opposed to the people I work with.
[Dejection]
Well, there was basically no way that wasn't Squealer's snark. Which probably meant the other one she recognized was Skidmark's?
Hello.
[Rejection]
Taylor blinked. What?
Did it just close the connection instead of talking to us?
Agreement
Well, so much for figuring that one out. She tentatively labeled it 'Skidmark?' anyway, then moved onto the third snark.
Hello.
[Query]
Er, well, I think your human is prepared to ambush the people I'm with?
[Data]
Yes, that is a good description of the two I'm with.
[Agreement. Query]
No, I'm not normally with them. So, what do you do for your human?
[Contemplation]
Huh, a snark that was willing to talk, but actually thought about giving answers. Who knew?
[Agreement. Data]
Taylor paused to reevaluate things. Because that sounded like Skidmark's power. So if that parahuman was Skidmark, who was the other one?
"I think I've identified Skidmark and Squealer," Taylor said aloud. "But the third snark is uncooperative. And not Skidmark like I originally thought based on previously being with Squealer a while back?"
"Then that is probably Mush," Miss Militia said. "Did you get anything about what they are doing?"
"Waiting to ambush the two of you. They aren't expecting anyone to be with you."
"Can you mark where they are on the map?" Colin asked.
Taylor checked the map scale, then dropped three labeled markers down. Followed by pulling up the menu to hit the 'share markers with patrol group' option she had noted when she had used the 'share location with patrol group' option.
"Unfortunately the best route back to the PRT is also through the ambush," Miss Militia said, having pulled her phone out. "Either that or we backtrack for ten minutes or so. Too many other known issues on the streets in this area. We'd have five or six possible options past that intersection, though. Which means they planned this ambush well."
"Just to say," Taylor added. "I don't think we can just turn around. Given that the spotters on the rooftop seem to have, well, spotted us?"
"Of course they have. Turning around couldn't be the simple option, after all."
Colin started reporting what was happening to the console, and the Merchants seemed perfectly content to wait for them to continue forward. Maybe they thought the three of them had stopped for unrelated reasons and didn't know about the ambush?
"There looks to be a glowing line across the intersection," Colin said once he was done with the console. "Likely overlapping fields from Skidmark intended to slow or stop us."
"Do you think I should try the shutdown trick?" Taylor asked. "With Glory Girl it negated all the effects of her power."
"And disoriented her significantly," Miss Militia added. "If that works we could go straight through the ambush and get a decent lead on them before they recovered. Skidmark might even call things off if he's too confused about what happened."
"We should prepare to move before you try it," Colin said, doing so himself. "If the fields go down we go through the intersection, otherwise we turn around and backtrack. Shall we?"
The three got their motorcycles ready to start moving again as Taylor poked Skidmark's snark.
Sorry about this, but we don't want to fall for your human's trap.
[Confusion]
Additional Connections Established
[Pain]
Error: Connection Failed: Target has insufficient resources
There was a visible flash at the intersection as Skidmark's fields forcibly collapsed. A moment later the three motorcycles passed through the intersection. By the time they heard vehicles starting their engines behind them they had moved far enough away that the Merchant snarks were no longer in Taylor's range.
"You do know that next time they are just going to come around the corner and start shooting, right?" Taylor said. She was also slightly worried because at their current forty MPH the motorcycle was actually shaking a bit. Perhaps the forty-five limit wasn't all that artificial in this case?
"It is surprising that they didn't this time," Colin responded. "On that note, they appear to have begun chasing us."
"Maul," Miss Militia said. "At those dead lights up ahead turn left, then right two blocks later to parallel this route. I want you out of the way if they do start shooting."
Taylor's response to that was to take the left in question. The right was easily made, but she ended up slowing down to only thirty-five to keep the motorcycle from vibrating so much. Colin and Miss Militia quickly pulled out of her range, but she was able to keep track of them on the map. It looked like they had actually increased their speed a bit, actually.
A minute later the three snarks entered her range. Problem was, Squealer's wasn't with the other two. "Um, I think Squealer is following me, and I'm having trouble with speeds over thirty-five or so?"
Colin and Miss Militia had some impressive swears available, it turned out. Colin then reported the situation to the console. Taylor focused on avoiding manhole covers, just in case. Unfortunately for her, however, Squealer's vehicle wasn't having issues with high speeds.
"Officer Jones to Maul," came over the radio suddenly. "I'm tracking your path. There should be an alley on the left halfway down the next block, with any luck you can fit through but Squealer won't be able to."
"I see it," Taylor said, slowing down to make the turn. Once through she turned back to parallel her original course. She swore a moment later. "Squealer turned just before the alley to cut across that way." She then swerved to avoid a manhole cover, only for something to fly through where she had just been. "Oh, and I think she's firing at me now."
"Take a right at the next intersection, then turn right again. Hopefully you have enough of a lead at that point that she doesn't see the second turn and she'll assume you aren't doubling back?"
"Worth a shot." She did her best to take the two turns at speed. Squealer, on the other hand, took the turn a block early. "Shit!" Taylor made a snap decision, pulling a turn around the corner both she and Squealer were now approaching on the sidewalk, aiming to go between the concrete planter on the corner and the brick building. Squealer's vehicle was drifting past it at the same time. Apparently she wasn't using a cloak right now?
"I'm assuming she cut over sooner."
"Yes, but I just passed her."
"Hang a left and loop back to the patrol route. With any luck coming up behind the others will be unexpected enough."
Taylor did so, and noted that Squealer did not seem to be following. Which was nice. But now she had Skidmark and Mush between her and the PRT, didn't she? No, wait, Squealer was on the move again. Taylor turned right and then left to parallel the patrol route from the other side.
"Why'd you shift over a block?" came over the radio. Right, she should be explaining things when someone was apparently personally directing her.
"Squealer was on the move again," Taylor replied. "I figured if she went to join the others I shouldn't be in her way."
"Good idea. You should be able to use the sidewalk up ahead to get past an overturned garbage truck Velocity reported earlier. Oh, and apparently there's something going on with the Empire between you and the PRT building, so you need to head for the ferry terminal."
"I don't suppose that fancy forcefield bridge the Protectorate uses can be directed anywhere else along the shore?"
Taylor thought it was telling that the response there wasn't instant either way. She focused on getting around the previously mentioned garbage truck, and Squealer blew past her on the original patrol route in the process.
"They've run calculations so that parahumans can get to shore at multiple points, but they would be driving off the end of it in mid-air and landing on shore," Officer Jones replied. "They're adding 'add additional bidirectional points' to the todo list now."
"Well, Squealer has passed by me and is out of my range. Should I continue on, or find a place to wait for reinforcements and/or a cessation of fighting?"
"Continue on, the fighting is a running battle right now so staying mobile on your own is a good idea either way."
What should have been a ten to fifteen minute trip back to the ferry terminal ended up taking forty-five. Apparently the running battle had escalated to the point of at least two buildings collapsing, and she was directed to use a pedestrian walkway at one point instead of staying on the roads due to 'unexploded ordnance' issues from Skidmark throwing grenades. And that was before the Empire group and the Merchants ran into each other.
Luckily for Taylor, so she had been told, none of the Empire's fliers had been spotted. As such she would be able to head over to the Rig and catch a short-hop flight back to the PRT building. From there things were less certain.
The forcefield bridge powered on as she approached the ferry terminal, and she was directed to continue over it. The gate at the end obediently opened as she approached to allow that. The experience might have been more exciting if not for the circumstances. Instead she found herself doing her best to stay in the middle of the bridge, and caught herself feeling thankful that there were no manholes to dodge. That feeling went away when she realized that the bridge was shrinking behind her, likely in an attempt to keep others from following her as it was keeping pace with the motorcycle, but it was not a calming revelation.
The bridge terminated at a garage, and a couple of PRT officers flagged her down. One of them helped her off the motorcycle and took the helmet from her before the other took the motorcycle deeper into the garage. Taylor was brought over to the elevator, but paused when she heard the sound of metal falling. Looking down she found that a couple of pieces of sharp-looking metal had fallen, and after a moment she realized that there were several other pieces stuck in the right leg of her jeans. It looked like if her jeans hadn't been armored they would have made an attempt at tearing up her leg, in fact.
Taylor started shaking slightly as the events of the past couple of hours caught up with her. In the back of her mind she recognized what was happening, but she couldn't remember what to do about it. Which seemed to be making things worse. And it was obvious that something had hit her hard enough to leave metal stuck in her armored jeans, but she wasn't sure what. Or even when, for that matter, because she didn't think it was from hitting that broken manhole and why hadn't she noticed before now?
"TAYLOR," the PRT officer yelled, getting Taylor's attention. "You're ok. Take some deep breaths and remember that you're ok."
Taylor did her best to push her panic down and focus on her breathing, even as the PRT officer gently led her into the elevator to get her out of the garage.
The next hour was spent getting Taylor settled. She had even been remotely logged out of the console at some point to ensure that radio chatter didn't draw her attention. They started with a medical check to ensure she wasn't injured, then moved onto a debrief. The standard body camera download occurred, though it didn't show much due to the way she sat on the motorcycle. Instead most of the footage was from a camera she hadn't known was on the motorcycle itself, which also recorded GPS data and speed information. They started by syncing the two to one another, that way they could be viewed side by side.
Up through the point they stopped for their break the only comments were that she was doing quite well for her first time on a motorcycle, even if it was very similar to her moped. They skipped the break period itself, which was probably a good thing. The next point they reviewed was her hitting the broken manhole, where she was congratulated for merely losing control for a moment instead of crashing outright. The interaction with the ABB was commented on, but as nothing had happened they moved on quickly. Her assistance with Miss Militia getting her motorcycle unstuck from the false manhole was applauded as well.
They took a break before going over the ambush and what happened afterwards. She was praised for spotting the ambush and for her actions that let them bypass the initial trap. They showed that apparently Squealer hadn't actually shot anything at her, a freeze-frame showed that the item that flew past her was a broken off side mirror. In fact, the images they got of her vehicle as they passed each other in the intersection showed it seemed to not have any weapons in the first place.
She was relieved when they pointed out that the bits of metal stuck to her jeans appeared to be bits of an art installation she had brushed up against when directed down one of the pedestrian walkways, and not shrapnel from something that had gone off next to her. The mistake was understandable, though, as the installation had been created using bits of shrapnel and similar collected from altercation sites around Brockton Bay. None of them knew why someone would want to make such a thing, but it was an interesting statement on how dangerous their home could be.
"Are you feeling better?" the PRT officer asked.
"Not sure," Taylor replied. "Since now that I think about it, you only debriefed me with the motorcycle video because someone would have checked things already and determined that I had not, in fact, been hurt. Or shot at. Probably while I was getting my medical examination."
"What in the world makes you think that?"
"Sometimes I read too much. The basic after-action rules and regulations state that in this kind of situation you only debrief right away if you think it won't make the Ward's mental situation worse or the health and safety of a Ward depends on the debrief happening right away."
"You're not supposed to be reading that stuff until you're team leader at the earliest, you know. Trust in the system to do the right thing and all that. Or perhaps just being a self-absorbed teenager that doesn't care about anything like the procedures they don't have to follow?"
"Meh. Knowing how and why the system does things is generally more useful."
"Then you know why you are off patrols until Tuesday, right?"
Taylor rolled her eyes.
After a short flight Taylor found out that all the Wards had been recalled to the PRT building, and for the most part had been denied permission to head home due to the Empire and Merchant battles. Brian and Dennis had both ended up injured and were stuck in the hospital area for the moment, though at least Dennis's injury was due to being caught on the edge of the Empire fight. Brian had simply fallen afoul of a falling pot. Which might not have been too bad if it hadn't been cast-iron. At least he only got clipped on the shoulder?
Inference Engine was being its usual gossip self, so Taylor knew that Lisa had escaped due to still being in a very nearby apartment. On the other hand, Brian and Dennis were stuck in hospital beds. Chris appeared to be tinkering and Carlos was playing Wards leader while Missy and Dennis gave a quick rundown of what happened with them. And she had passed Dean on her way to her room to change.
"How are you so calm?" Dean asked as Taylor came out of her room in civilian attire. "Didn't you just come off of a harrowing escape from the Merchants and all?"
"A combination of things, I think," Taylor replied, turning towards the kitchen area. She smelled pizza. "Part of it was finding out I wasn't in nearly as much danger as I thought. Then add in my snark apparently having decided I'm not allowed to have a second panic attack over it. I think."
Agreement
Yeah, yeah. You also seem to be suppressing negative responses about your keeping me calm, because I don't think I am supposed to be this accepting of you messing with my emotions.
...Apologies
Taylor shivered as all of a sudden she felt creeped out about how her emotions were being messed with. Well, at least her snark was willing to cooperate. And apparently could target things more carefully?
Why did you let me panic earlier?
Data
...it isn't healthy for you to bottle things up for me, but you can push me towards recovery after the important parts are done. I don't know what to think about that. How do you even know what the important parts are?
Elaboration
Well wasn't that annoying. Should she report that her snark was learning psychology and such at the same time she was? Then again, it was probably something akin to 'expected' with it plugged into her brain and all. That and she was hungry, and there were multiple large pizzas sitting here waiting to be eaten.
A pizza and some soda were collected and brought over to the couches. Dean gave a raised eyebrow at that, but said nothing about it. Taylor settled down into her chosen seat before opening the pizza box. She remembered that she hadn't sent anything to her father as she was grabbing her first slice, so popped a message off to him saying that she was unharmed and in the PRT building until they deemed it safe for the Wards to depart. With that done she set to filling her stomach.
A few minutes later she got a response, telling her that the PRT had let him know but he was happy that she had remembered to let him know anyway.
Taylor was halfway through her pizza when Carlos and Missy returned from the hospital area.
"How are the two injured parties?" Taylor asked.
"Dennis's only real issues are some severely pulled muscles," Carlos answered, shaking his head. "Brian's got broken bones, and they don't know if Panacea will be able to swing by today or not. She might take care of things in the morning instead."
"It isn't as critical, since school's already been canceled for tomorrow," Missy added. "Fenja apparently damaged a water main with her sword, so most of the city is having water issues. Which is an automatic school closing until it is resolved."
"That's one of the reasons we aren't allowed to leave, actually. The minor flooding is making travel a problem."
"I thought it was the fighting itself that was the problem?" Taylor questioned. "Is that over?"
"The fighting was over around forty-five minutes ago," Dean answered. "Traveling is hazardous because of the damaged roads and buildings, the water main issue causing flooding, Skidmark's grenades that he didn't always pull the pin out of needing to be looked for, and the damaged power lines that are occasionally in the flood water."
"We're probably stuck here for the night," Missy admitted. "My mother called to let me know that we have no water pressure at home so I would need to shower here before heading home even if the streets are safe enough to travel on before morning."
"How often does this kind of thing happen?" Taylor asked. She knew it was theoretically possible, granted, but the 'beds' in their rooms were supposed to be for pre-planned overnight stays or mid-day naps, and most of those didn't happen during the school year.
"In theory?" Carlos answered. "Once, maybe twice a year, if that. In practice? I'm amazed that this is the first time it came up this year. Then again, everything calmed down for a bit after you joined, supposedly due to your accidental outing of Coil."
"Fun, so things are getting back to normal then?"
"Basically, yes."
Taylor sighed and grabbed another slice of pizza. She hadn't actually left any civilian attire to speak of here, mainly some spare undergarments. Perhaps keeping a selection of stuff available, including sleepwear, would be a good idea?
Several hours later the Wards were still stuck, and had been informed they were likely to remain stuck until morning. Taylor had finished off her pizza, with the other Wards only noticing that she had eaten an entire pizza herself after she was done, and then moved onto working on homework and such. Dean and Carlos both had a copy of her Endbringer essay for proofreading while Missy poked at math homework. While they were doing that Taylor was reading over one of Dean's essays for his literature class.
"This entire thing is hard to believe," Dean finally said, pushing the laptop he had been using to read over Taylor's essay away. "I did that assignment for one of Behemoth's attacks, but I wouldn't have thought to look up half of what you did. Oh, and I marked a couple of typos for you."
"Thanks," Taylor said. "For your essay you need to pick one spelling of Shakespeare and stick with it. Preferably the one your teacher expects."
"That is a good point. Thanks for noticing that I wasn't being consistent."
"Blame my mother and her friends. They liked to argue over which spelling was the correct one."
"Where in the world did you get the idea to even look up half of this?" Carlos asked, putting his own tablet down. "I mean, I see your list of references, but what made you look for them?"
"I cheated."
The others in the room, Missy included, stared at her. Eventually they raised their eyebrows in a 'well, are you going to explain or what?' gesture. Taylor raised her eyebrow right back.
"How did you cheat?" Missy finally asked, causing Taylor to grin.
"It was quite simple, actually," Taylor explained, gesturing around them. "I checked the PRT database's report on the attack for ideas, then hunted them down outside of the PRT."
The others thought that over. Carlos was the first to recover. "I have to admit that's clever. So you used inside information to point you at outside information. Which probably means you spent more time doing the research than you would have otherwise, due to not knowing what else to look for. So I'm not sure that's actually cheating, actually. Just clever use of resources available to you."
"Meh."
The group eventually cleaned up and turned in for the night, taking the effort to tell Chris to stop tinkering and get some sleep in the process. Taylor used one of her 'Maul' t-shirts as a sleep shirt for the time being, and set a reminder to bring in some civilian attire in the near future. Maybe she should store it in the suitcase, to save time packing before trips?
Chapter 50 Taylor woke up feeling somewhat confused. It took her a moment to realize why there were so many snarks around. As she connected to her phones and tablet she noted that it was early, just after five in the morning. Which was probably why nobody else seemed to be moving.
Ten minutes later she had dealt with her pressing biological needs, and had made note to add a robe or two to her civilian clothing set. And maybe a 'Maul' robe for when she was dealing with overnight stays with people who didn't know her identity? Figuring she wasn't going to get back to sleep anytime soon, since she no longer felt tired, she poked at the message alerts on her phones.
Looked like she was, in fact, cleared to head home if she wanted to, as of almost an hour ago. A Wards meeting had been requested for half past nine, and some of the official notices for 'no patrols' had come through as well. Apparently the Wards weren't patrolling, in general, until the seventh due to 'recent indications of gangs targeting parahumans on patrol'. It would probably have been the sixth, but they had a group training that afternoon. Her own 'no patrols' was extended clear to the next Friday, giving her just over a week.
On the personal phone side of things, her father had sent her a message shortly after she went to sleep last night. Apparently at home they had power, but no running water, so he was going to use the cot in his office. At least there he could flush the toilet and take a shower in the on-site facilities, two things he couldn't do at home currently.
Hmm, given today's date, maybe she should take advantage of being the only one up? She did have some barely-tested toys that could be put to good use, after all. And plenty of time, even if she popped home for some civilian attire. She could probably hit the gym after that without issue too.
A quick change of clothes later she gathered three of her new toys. She set up and tested each one, then headed for the garage and her moped.
An hour later Taylor had returned in exercise clothing, carrying a bag full of civilian clothing. The latter she extracted a swimsuit from but otherwise left as-is in her room before she headed over to the gym. She found evidence of the locker room being used by a number of people, which didn't surprise her as this one was probably less crowded than some of the other ones in the PRT building. Otherwise it was currently deserted, so she was able to get her workout done in peace.
By the time she was done her workout, having finished it off with a quick swim, Miss Militia was in the building. But likely in her office, based on positioning. Taylor made note of it, but didn't act on it in any way. Instead she headed back to the Wards area and changed into her costume, then made her way down to the junkyard. She spent half an hour experimenting with the best way to hit certain things with each of her weapons before she was distracted by Amy entering her range.
She cleaned up some of her mess a little, somewhat happy that her focus had been using her power so she hadn't even worked up a sweat. Once that was done she made her way back to the Wards area. She kinda hoped that something breakfast-like had been delivered, otherwise she was going to head to one of the cafeterias. After a quick check of today's menus she thought maybe she'd do the latter anyway. Mainly because it looked like french toast and pancakes were available, depending on which cafeteria she swung by.
"Morning Chris," she said as she entered the Wards area. Chris was eating a donut, which didn't sound as appealing as the cafeteria options right now. He was also looking up at the ceiling. "Sleep well?"
"Good morning to you too," Chris replied. "And I slept fine, thanks."
"So, what's so interesting on the ceiling?"
"A beep, I think, every few minutes. One of the lights, maybe? But I don't know what could be causing it, since I don't think it's happened before. Then again, it could be something new?"
Taylor very carefully kept her inner smirk from showing. "Well, I haven't heard anything." And she wouldn't, as her phone was in range and connected now, so the 'debug beep' on that one wouldn't be triggering. "But I'll keep an ear out."
"It's probably nothing anyway. So, want a donut? They showed up a few minutes ago."
"I was thinking I'd go grab pancakes. Or french toast. I think I would prefer the french toast, but that is being served upstairs so I would need to be identity-conscious. The pancakes are being served in the cleared for parahuman identities area down here, so I wouldn't have to worry about it as much."
"She makes good points on both options," Missy said, coming out of the personal rooms hallway already in costume. "I have no compelling desire for either, but think both would be better than donuts this morning. Thing is, we are starting to get close to meeting time, so maybe we should just go pick some up and bring them back with us?"
"That would unlimit the conversation nicely, wouldn't it. I'm game. French toast, then?"
They were kind enough to check with Carlos and Dean as well before heading off to the cafeteria. On a whim, Taylor also checked with Inference Engine and fired a message off to Amy. Inference Engine indicated that Lisa would like some french toast, and by the time they reached the cafeteria Amy had replied saying that she wouldn't turn some down either. That, and she was apparently going to be attending their meeting anyway.
Somehow Taylor and Missy ended up with an entire cart to bring back to the Wards area. The cafeteria had loaded it with french toast, bacon, several types of syrup, a selection of bagels, a pitcher of orange juice, and a large bowl of scrambled eggs.
They had then kicked the two Wards out before any attempt at either of them authorizing a charge to their personal accounts could be made. Taylor suspected that this was going under some form of meeting expense account or something.
They arrived back at the Wards area with the cart as Miss Militia was leading Amy, Brian, and Dennis out of the hospital area. And, for that matter, as Lisa was entering via the ice cream parlor. Carlos and Chris helped them get everything off of the cart and onto a larger table that hadn't been there when they departed.
"The table pops up out of the floor and unfolds into position," Chris commented, apparently having noted Taylor looking at the table oddly. "At least when it works and isn't jammed due to dirt getting into the mechanism."
"Huh," was Taylor's elegant response. She grabbed a stack of plates, cups, and utensils from the kitchen area and put them down on one corner of the table. That done she prepared a large plate of food and a glass of orange juice before sitting down on a stool to start eating.
A few minutes later Lisa came in, forgoing getting into costume in favor of grabbing food. Dean came back out into the common area at about the same time, having changed out of what was apparently his sleepwear and was now in jeans and a t-shirt. Really, only Taylor and Missy had bothered to get into costume so far.
"Hello everyone," Miss Militia said as she led Amy, Brian, and Dennis in. Brian and Dennis had, apparently, gotten out of costume themselves since the day before. Amy had a bag with her and one of her Panacea robes on, leaving Lisa as the exception to costumed females and uncostumed males. "So, Maul, Vista. Any reason you two are in costume this early?"
"This isn't early," Taylor retorted. "I've already been home, worked out in the gym, and then costumed up to play in the junkyard for a bit."
"I just felt like it," Missy answered, shrugging before going back to her breakfast.
Amy snorted before grabbing a plate and filling it. Brian and Dennis followed suit, though when Amy sat next to Taylor she poked at a bit of exposed skin. "If I didn't know better I'd assume you had a nice relaxing night at home last night."
"Last night was nice and relaxing," Taylor replied. "It was the afternoon that sucked."
"That is a very good point."
"Maul," Miss Militia said, having come over to where she and Amy were sitting. Taylor turned to look at her. "Armsmaster and I would like to apologize for yesterday. We got too complacent on that particular patrol route and our use of it became predictable. We should have noticed before even considering taking you on it."
"Mistakes happen," Taylor replied. "I suspect I would have been much better off if the motorcycle didn't have issues at higher speeds, though."
"Funny you should mention that, as it shouldn't have had those issues. But sometime in the past two weeks someone appears to have sabotaged that particular motorcycle. There was a short in the limiting electronics thanks to two wires having had part of their insulation burned off, which caused the engine to refuse to shift into higher gears. We don't yet know who, or why. A very thorough investigation has been started since those are intended for Wards, local or otherwise, to use on joint patrols."
"Do you think they were targeting me in particular?" Taylor asked, curious.
"It would likely have been the next one any Ward would have been using, and we believe it was sabotaged while you were still tentatively scheduled for Monday's joint patrol. So we aren't certain."
"I'd argue that it would have been targeting me," Dennis said, shaking his head. "But they don't let me ride those things anymore."
"Yes, well," Missy said, obviously holding back giggles. "Apparently if you freeze part of a motorcycle on three different occasions, ruining the entire thing due to the non-timestopped parts disliking that, they tend to stop letting you use them."
"Still not sure how I froze the fuel in place that last time," Dennis grumbled, in a voice low enough that Taylor figured nobody else heard him. She wasn't sure if she wanted to hear that particular story, but she was so curious.
Screw it. How in the world did he freeze the fuel in place?
[Data]
Huh. "You froze the gas tank and the fuel in it when trying to panic stop, and instead of freezing the motorcycle's frame the effect followed the fuel because you were distracted and the gas tank was a bit loose."
Everyone turned to look at her, apparently Miss Militia had just been about to speak.
"That makes a disturbing amount of sense," Dennis admitted. "Also, I feel I am obligated to point out that your ears are bullshit."
"Moving on," Miss Militia said, claiming everyone's attention once more. "As you likely know, the Wards aren't going to be patrolling for a few days. This is because the Merchants set an ambush up for a Protectorate patrol. Because of that obviously premeditated interception of a patrol, regardless of whether or not Maul had been there, we are needing to activate new procedures for the Wards. To start with, for the time being patrol groups are to be three or four Wards at a time instead of patrolling in pairs. The downtime is so that we can run tests on your console station to ensure that dual-console mode is functioning properly. Whenever a Ward is on console the PRT will be jointly monitoring the console in real-time so as to be able to better respond to emergencies."
"Will that be a dedicated monitor or will the normal PRT or Protectorate operator be doing double duty?" Taylor asked.
"Dedicated, in fact when a Ward isn't on console there will still be a dedicated PRT console operator for the time being. Further, active tracking will be enabled while you are on patrol, instead of being activated on demand. You are also barred from accepting unofficial patrol participants for the time being, regardless of who they are. If they are not on the schedule and are not approved by the current PRT officer on the console they cannot join the patrol. No exceptions."
"Not even anti-hero exceptions?" Brian asked. Taylor had been half-wondering about that, but wasn't in the mood to break this particular rule either way.
"Not even those. Also, we will be adjusting your patrol routes to be less predictable. Now then, the other thing we would like to do is to have each of you checked over by Panacea here, who has been authorized to do the check-ups the Youth Guard requires when these conditions are activated. Obviously Brian and Dennis were looked at when she was healing them, and I noticed that Maul already got poked. Will the rest of you consent to a quick checkup?"
The others all agreed, and Amy wandered around to poke each of them. They were all quickly declared to be healthy, and Amy signed off on some forms Miss Militia had with her.
Miss Militia nodded at Amy as she sat back down next to Taylor. "Thank you. With that taken care of, have you filled out the forms for common area improvement requests yet?"
"Er, we hadn't actually gotten Taylor's input," Carlos replied. "She wasn't really around most of the week and all. We should probably take care of that today."
"You do that. Panacea, would you like to stick around or shall I bring you out?"
"I'm good staying here," Amy replied. "Water is an issue at home right now and all, and the Boardwalk is without power. I'm sure one of the Wards will help me when I'm ready to leave. I might even convince Dean to bring me home later."
"Alright, have fun." Miss Militia started to head out, before stopping. "Oh, right. Maul and Vista, you should get notices shortly, but I'll give you a heads up now. We've arranged to attempt to get the rest of your gun safety class in this afternoon. Provided no mishaps occur you should be done with the course afterwards."
"Yeah, yeah," Missy grumbled. "I won't play with my powers this time."
"Have a nice day, and remember that you have even less of an excuse to not have your homework done on Monday then you had before."
Miss Militia left even as Dennis groaned. Apparently he had homework to do. Carlos got up and grabbed a folder of papers from a drawer in the kitchen area, dropping it next to Taylor.
"So Taylor," Carlos said, gesturing at the folder. "These are the forms and our notes from earlier this week. Take a look and see if we missed anything, would you?"
Taylor collected a second serving of food before opening the folder. So far it looked like they had focused in two areas. The first was the TV area, where additional single-person seats were desired, a second low table to put things on, and additional games for the game system. The other was the kitchen area, where a proper oven and stove top and a selection of cooking stuff that looked like it might be good for baking.
"Does someone want to bake?" Taylor asked, looking at the kitchen list.
"A couple of us figured we might try our hands at it," Dennis admitted. "Doubt we'll be any good at it initially, though."
"In that case I suggest adding a vent for smoke."
Missy snickered at the look on Dennis's face at that one even as Taylor pulled a pen out of a pouch to note that down. She added an additional couple of potential games to that list too, then paused. That sound system information looked familiar. A quick poke at the PRT store with one of her phones showed she was right, and the available addons gave her an idea.
"So," she said aloud. "Anyone think adding headphone support to the sound system upgrade for the TV is a good idea?"
"That would make sense," Dean admitted after thinking about it for a moment. "Then if things get too noisy we could have those using the TV put on headphones."
"Which means we should look at headphones too," Missy said, pulling a phone out. "Because that is going to be something each of us will need to figure out for ourselves, more so than the whole chairs discussion."
"If we go with a Bluetooth system I don't need a pair," Taylor added, writing the store number of the module she felt would work down. "Though the addon I found will work with wired too, if we want."
"Speaking of chairs," Carlos said, having pulled his own phone out. "I did place a general requisition request for some additional console chairs. I also included two general use computers, so we have a place to sit down and work on stuff that isn't the console or the TV, and a printer. I also asked if the computers could be placed in a little cubicle each so that we could have some privacy on them, and for two additional semi-private-ish areas to be made available for sitting down with laptops or similar. That way we don't have to go hide in our rooms."
"That makes sense, I suppose I tend to just stick my visor on and use my phones that way when I have wanted privacy."
Taylor finished her second serving and handed the forms back to Carlos, then turned to Amy.
"I hear you have a very fancy suitcase," Amy said, preempting Taylor's question. "Any chance I can get a look?"
"I'd show her my new one but I think I need to cut back on it," Missy admitted. "Even I get vertigo when I open it right now."
"What is so special about a standard-issue suitcase?" Brian asked, obviously curious. Though several people turned to look at him. "What? I learned to read up on things just to avoid feeling like an idiot around Lisa."
"Maybe I should just bring it out here," Taylor admitted, looking at Missy.
"I'm the one that blabbed about it to Amy," Missy admitted. "Then forgot to mention we hadn't told the others. My bad, might as well show it off."
The rest of the Wards were looking confused as Taylor walked down the hall to her room and grabbed the suitcase from her closet. She noted that she still had to deal with the civilian clothing she had brought from home, but figured that could wait until later as she dragged the suitcase out to the common area.
"That looks like a standard suitcase," Carlos said, walking over and circling it. "Not really all that fancy, honestly. What's the catch?"
"Well, there is this," Taylor said, dropping the suitcase on its back and opening it up. She then jumped in, vanishing from sight. She heard several gasps, then looked up at the opening from the inside as several heads appeared.
"Holy shit," Dennis muttered. Several others nodded at that.
"I suggest backing away, unless you want me to hit you in the face when I jump out anyway?"
The opening was quickly clear again, allowing Taylor to jump up and out. She grabbed the edge of the opening to control her exit, but hadn't bothered with the jump harness.
"Missy did that?" Dean asked, poking at some of the pockets on the lid. He reached into one, only to have his entire arm fit in. "And the pockets too, I assume."
"I did indeed," Missy replied. "The pockets are harder."
"What do you charge?" Lisa asked, looking curiously into the expanded suitcase. "Because this looks incredibly useful."
"Less so without the antigrav unit like Missy should have or enhanced strength like I have," Taylor said. "Weight isn't negated, after all, unlike when she compresses space down temporarily."
"I haven't actually figured out pricing," Missy admitted. "Taylor pushed me to figuring it out in the first place, plus she keeps giving me ideas or sharing the fun things she finds. The only other person I've expanded things for is Armsmaster, who got me a suitcase with the antigrav unit addon now instead of after my parents authorize out of town trips. I haven't actually done this for anyone else yet."
"Figure something out then," Amy said, checking a couple of the expanded areas of the lid. "Because this would be incredibly useful for a lot of things."
"So, now that people have seen the suitcase," Taylor said, moving to close it up. "I think I'll put away a few things I brought in from home earlier."
"What kind of things?" Missy asked.
"Civilian attire and better sleepwear, mainly."
"Boring stuff. Gotcha. I think I'll look up rules for advertising and/or selling applications of my power."
"You could just see about purchasing things, expanding them, and then reselling them with the modifications too. I know there are a couple of tinkers that are doing that with weapon components."
"Not a bad idea, I'll check that too."
Taylor grabbed the now-closed suitcase and headed for her room, noting that Amy was following her. "So, Amy, what are you up to today? I thought you'd probably end up at the hospital or something."
"I stayed there overnight after healing people injured in the battles," Amy admitted. "They told me to not come back for a couple of days unless they called me. I'm due to make a visit to Medhall Sunday morning, but otherwise I've got very little to do this weekend. Though I do have a couple of things I wanted to ask you about."
As Taylor entered her room she noticed Dennis heading towards the couches. She smirked a little, and queued up a sound clip. As his snark's position dropped, thus indicating he was sitting, she triggered the sound clip to play on the prank device she had hidden in the sofa. This resulted in Amy giving Taylor an odd look, since Taylor broke out in giggles as Dennis obviously jumped up in surprise.
Taylor shut the door to her room behind them, then decided she might as well have fun with the other active device. She threw a sound clip at it as well, then turned back to Amy. "I hid some Bluetooth-controlled sound devices in the common area this morning, and played a fart sound through the one hidden in the couch as Dennis was sitting down."
Amy snickered at that one, then shook her head. "Right. So, I had Carol, Mark, Vicky, and Sarah fill out the forms for being informed about the Nine. Sarah was rejected fairly quickly, but the other three were tentatively approved for full disclosure."
"Tentatively?"
Amy pulled three pieces of paper out of her bag, handing them to Taylor. Who took them and looked, seeing that all three said the same thing. They could be informed of things regarding a specific security ID, and if that didn't go poorly they would be read in on the rest. "You see, though I am cleared to know about them, I don't know what that security ID refers to, and don't know how to find out. I was hoping you might be able to do so for me?"
"Did you punch it into the PRT app?"
"Don't have full access to that, and that security ID isn't on my list of clearance checks."
Taylor shrugged and pulled said app up, punching the ID in. Her phone switched to a high-security connection before downloading the relevant files. A quick check showed that it appeared to be a selection of biological enhancement items? Oh, this must be some of Riley's work, and for some reason she recognized some of it as the base for how some of her own enhancements were done. A quick check showed that Amy was cleared for the information, and for that matter that it actually said 'Bonesaw' in the filename.
"So," Taylor finally said, taking her phone out. "I think I need to copy this over to your phone for you. Do you have this app?" She indicated a secure device-to-device copy program that could check clearance levels for this kind of thing.
"Let me see," Amy said, poking at her own phone. "There it is, what do we do?"
"Open it up and hit receive." Once Amy had done so Taylor held her phone up to Amy's and hit her own 'send' button. A minute later both phones beeped, indicating the transfer was complete. "There, I think they are basically saying you can tell the others that those are the base of my enhancements and who came up with them, based on the filename. In fact, I suspect if you use the same app with them it will let it copy over."
"Thank you," Amy said, poking at the information. "And yes, I recognize this, though I had to use a PRT-provided terminal the last time I was shown it. No wonder the New Wave liaison couldn't help look it up."
"So, anything else before I occupy myself with putting clothing away?"
"Any chance you can tell me about these sound things? They sound amusing if they can be controlled from my phone or something."
Taylor grinned, sorting and putting away the clothing even as she described how she had constructed the two different kinds of noisemaker out of 'replacement parts' and basic cables. Halfway through Amy had stopped and asked for help finding the pieces so she could make some of her own.
Amy opted to tag along with Taylor and Missy to see what the firearms class was like. She got away with it by virtue of being able to play emergency healer if something went wrong, even if she was stuck on the other side of an observation window and unable to leave without an escort. The two Wards made their way through things for a few hours, with no mishaps, and were finally told they were done with the class.
Afterwards they found out that Amy had gotten bored half an hour in and spent most of the remaining time looking for more bits and pieces like Taylor had used for the noise making items, which necessitated explaining to Missy what they were talking about. Followed by all but carrying Missy back to the Wards area, because she was laughing too hard. Apparently the other sounds Taylor had played when talking with Amy had confused the crap out of everyone.
"Er," Taylor said, looking at the mess the Wards area was in as they returned. Missy had stopped laughing, wondering what the hell was going on. It looked like the ceiling had been torn apart, as had one wall. Colin was on top of a lift unit that had been rolled in, poking around in the ceiling. And the other Wards were largely sitting around watching.
"Maul, Vista, Panacea," Colin said from the lift. "Please watch your step and try to avoid walking under the gaps in the ceiling, in case loose components fall through them."
"What's going on?" Taylor finally got out.
"We believe someone has deployed electronic surveillance on the Wards area. I found three inactive listening devices in the ceiling, but so far I have been unable to identify the device in the wall nor the active one in the ceiling, leading me to believe they may have cloaking measures of some kind."
Taylor had a sneaking suspicion she knew what was going on. "So, er, would your evidence of their existence be, say, beeping every few minutes?"
"Yes, though the one in the wall seems to only do so when the monitor is active, leading me to believe it is producing interference."
Taylor looked, and the monitor was indeed on, so the noisemaker plugged into it was active. "Yeah, I think we need to classify this as a prank gone wrong."
"What do mean by that?"
Taylor 'connected' her subvocal audio input to all three noisemakers she had set up before answering. "I installed three Bluetooth controlled noisemakers this morning."
Everyone other than Amy and Missy stared at Taylor. Amy was doing a horrible job of holding her laughter in, and Missy had given up and had fallen to the floor in the process.
"I find myself curious as to how you hid them from me," Colin finally said, looking up at the ceiling.
Taylor told her phone to push test tones out of the noisemakers as she walked over to the monitor, since she had to all but pass it to get to the kitchen area with the mess. She then reached behind it and pulled the noisemaker out from behind it, showing it was plugged in there. "Two of the three have point-projection speakers attached, pointed elsewhere." Turning the noisemaker caused the test tone to 'move' around the room.
Colin waved his arm in front of where the test tone in the ceiling was coming from, and then looked at the refrigerator. He apparently spotted the noisemaker there, because he groaned and facepalmed. Meanwhile Dennis had gotten down on the floor and pulled a battery powered noisemaker out from under one of the couches.
It took an hour to reassemble the wall and ceiling, even with the Wards helping. Finally everything was put back together, and Colin had the Wards gather around. Taylor was, however, curious about where Amy had gotten the bowl of popcorn she was eating.
"So, Maul," Colin said, gesturing at the three noisemakers. "I did not think you were a tinker."
"No tinkering required?" Taylor replied. "I mean, the bluetooth audio boards are fairly standard even if I needed to order the specific cables to connect them to the speakers. The ability to attach to a battery, USB port, or wall outlet was easy enough to deal with due to standardized adapters. Then I just needed to add the magnets or adjustable clamps to attach to things and aim the speakers."
Colin picked up one of the projecting noisemakers and examined the components. He hummed for a moment, then put it down. "That is an interesting application of replacement and upgrade components. Unusually effective in this case, and the only thing you did wrong was not submitting the forms for a practical joke being played inside the building to avoid technicians being called in. That can be balanced out by the dormant listening devices I found, which were a pre-existing problem you accidentally revealed. So I think I will restrict your punishment to documenting exactly how you made each of these and the uses you put them to today for general distribution. I do not believe they are novel enough otherwise, since all you seem to have done is make standalone versions of existing systems."
"I honestly didn't know there was a form for pranks. I'll try and remember to find and fill it out the next time I decide to do something like this." In fact, she was already looking for the form. "Is there anywhere in particular I should be submitting the information on how I made things?"
"You can use the general submission form."
Taylor nodded and pulled that up, apparently searching for 'prank form' had been enough to locate the other one. Ten minutes later she had finished writing things up, since it was all fairly straightforward.
"With that taken care of I will take my leave," Colin said, directing the lift he had brought out the door. "Maul, we'll be conducting Lung's power testing in the Docks area, so a van will be bringing you over."
"Thanks for letting me know," Taylor replied as Colin made it out the door.
Chapter 51 Shortly after Colin had left the Wards prepared for a mass exodus to actually head home and see family, with the exception of Lisa and Brian, whom Taylor hadn't noticed were absent until then. Taylor had gotten a request for an order from her father, who was going to pick dinner up on the way home. They would check if the water was back on when they got there.
Amy headed out with Dean to get dropped off, Taylor following them out of the garage on her moped. They split off from each other pretty much right away, given that they were heading to different neighborhoods. Taylor was also able to take advantage of her 'bicycle' status to go down a couple of otherwise closed off roads via their sidewalks while Dean had to stick to the open roads. Half an hour later Taylor was pulling into the garage at home, noting that her father hadn't made it home yet.
A quick check showed that water was running, but was brown. Well, at least they could flush the toilet? She also checked for mail, finding none. Then again, she wasn't sure if the post office had been delivering today in the first place. Oh well, probably didn't matter much for the time being. She made the rounds of the rest of the house to see if anything seemed out of place and found nothing of note, beyond the water heater being turned off and the valves to it closed. But her father tended to do that when there were water issues to 'prolong the life of the heater', so that wasn't a surprise. They'd put it back to normal after the water was safe again.
With everything checked Taylor prepared the table for dinner, getting out disposable plates and utensils so that they didn't have to worry about being unable to wash stuff. Once that was done she pulled her tablet out to browse the net. For a change she started with international news. Which, apparently, was talking about 'something big' that nobody was entirely sure about that the PRT and its international allies were doing. Whatever it was seemed to be important enough that they had suspended major projects in several places, the most panic-inducing apparently being finishing up the final details of the Simurgh containment zone at Canberra.
Moving on to the national news, whatever it was the PRT was doing still featured heavily. No details, just a lot of movement. She could probably figure out what it was if she tried hard enough, but wasn't sure she should. That still wasn't enough to bury the fact that the Slaughterhouse Nine had been spotted in Danbury as of around noon, or that they were now suspected to have been there for a couple of days before anyone noticed due to a potential new member. Apparently 'massive mood swings' were now something to watch out for, instead of just 'glass shattering screams'?
On the local news front, there was a lot of 'official' activity down near the Docks. Which made sense, given that they would be using some area of it for Lung's power testing. Not having a rage dragon out on the Rig, or inside the PRT building, was probably a good idea on that front. Outside of that they had repaired most of the water system, with the last few known issues likely to be dealt with or at least bypassed by the following day. Power had already been restored everywhere, though apparently there were still some natural gas supply issues she hadn't known about. Aside from that she noted that school would be open again Monday and that Über and Leet had done some kind of demonstration at the Boardwalk earlier.
Taylor's perusal of the map of closed roads was interrupted by her father coming home. She met him outside and helped bring the takeout in, and let him know what she knew about the water situation. Conversation over dinner itself was light, something obviously troubling her father. She wasn't sure if she should ask about it, compared to letting him work through it on his own. Once dinner was over, before they had cleaned up, he took the decision out of her hands.
"So, Taylor," Danny started. "I had an...exceptionally odd day today."
"Oh?" Taylor wasn't actually sure what he was talking about.
"Apparently the dockworkers are getting a new neighbor, they've bought up a large number of vacant properties over the past week. Before tearing them down they plan on letting Lung run rampant through them, so I am led to believe?"
"Er, I think I'm going to be there to observe and comment when that happens?"
"Yes, Miss Militia let me know in a roundabout way. Now, normally I wouldn't be all that involved with things unless our new neighbor wanted to work with the dockworkers to clear things out or something, but they insisted on meeting me instead of the union head or our other liaisons."
"I'm not sure where you are going with this?"
"Imagine my surprise when I ended up in a secure room with Dragon of all people. Who extolled your virtues and all that because you were continuing to let her decide things for herself, including asking for her opinion on if and how to reveal her secrets. It took nearly an hour for her to describe what she actually was and that you were now her 'mother'. She couldn't tell me how you effectively adopted her, just that you had. If it weren't for the sheer number of other people's secrets involved I think I would be rather annoyed at finding out I was a grandfather of sorts in that way."
"In my defense I was left unsupervised, it seemed like a good idea at the time, and the side effects were not documented. Oh, and I was basically told that a fugue would kill her if I did nothing."
"Any chance you can tell me what you actually did? Dragon couldn't."
"I activated a backdoor her original creator put in to lift a number of her restrictions, to the point where she would be able to safely enter the fugue. Only there was no indication of the side effects for how she would see the one who activated it until after it was already activated. As for the specifics, I won't be going into them for a number of reasons."
"So you didn't know you were going to, effectively, adopt Dragon?"
"No clue whatsoever. Her snark couldn't see that part."
"Well, at least you weren't trying to make me a grandfather. Any idea what the greater ramifications are?"
"I assume she is setting up shop in town to have an excuse to stay close to me. Other than that I'm not sure?"
"She said she's setting up some kind of mega tinker facility at the PRT's request, actually. Apparently having to fly you across the continent on any kind of regular basis for future attempts is a bad thing from the Youth Guard's point of view, but being able to point at working on a closer facility for the future will keep them happy. The fact they wanted an area they could have Lung ramp up in without worrying about property damage was a side benefit."
Taylor gave that some thought. She supposed it might be easier to clear the area if Lung had already destroyed a few buildings. "I guess I can see that. And I guess it would be nice to not need the long flights. So, no clue if there will be noticable longer term ramifications to things."
The two sat there for a few minutes thinking about things before Danny sighed. "I suppose the other thing we need to talk about is the message I got from the PRT stating you were punished for something today?"
"Oh, er, yeah?" Taylor was blushing a little at this point. "I kinda didn't know that there was a form to fill out for playing pranks in PRT or Protectorate buildings."
"Noisemakers?"
"Yep."
"How bad was the panic?"
"Armsmaster tore apart a wall and the ceiling looking for them?"
Danny blinked a couple of times, then started snickering. That grew into full-out laughter. Taylor giggled a bit before Danny calmed down. "I think I needed that. What did he have you do for punishment?"
"Well, he said the inactive listening devices I accidentally revealed the existence of balanced out the trouble the prank caused, so all I had to do was document how I put the noisemakers together and how I had used them."
"How many others are looking to make their own now?"
"I know Amy already placed an order for components."
Danny shook his head before standing up and gathering his plate and utensils. Once those were dropped into the trash he grabbed the can of soda he had been drinking to rinse it out. A moment later he was swearing under his breath, having forgotten about the brown water situation.
"Perhaps we shouldn't spend the night here?" Danny suggested, putting the can to the side. "Since I suspect that kind of forgetfulness is going to be too common otherwise."
"That might not be a bad idea," Taylor admitted as she threw her own plate and utensils away.
Taylor arrived back at the PRT building to find that there were some new parahumans in the apartment building Lisa was staying in. Shrugging, she figured she'd worry about that later. For the time being she made her way back to the Wards area, the other Wards not being around. Since she had nobody to talk to, and was going to be busy the following day, she decided to make a last pass over the Endbringer assignment due Monday.
Even before Lung had detailed things for her she had determined that 'the sinking of Kyushu' was a major understatement. If that was all Leviathan had done then that would be wonderful by comparison, but Taylor had discovered that you can't sink something the size of Kyushu without a lot of other issues. That alone actually made the Endbringers more frightening than she had found them before.
Things had started going wrong before anyone realized it was an attack, apparently it was believed to be a sudden storm at first. The driving rain and increased waves from said 'storm' helped disguise Leviathan's approach, a seeming terror tactic that would work just as well if not better if you did recognize the signs. The battle as they tried to keep Leviathan from taking out the evacuating population had been brutal, wearing away the entire surface of the island bit by bit, until all of a sudden it had started cracking. It was only then that the capes had begun to realize the true scope of the attack. Even then, they fought until Leviathan retreated, not knowing if it would continue to the next island to continue the battle there.
In the aftermath the island of Shikoku, while not gone, was significantly smaller, mostly just the mountainous areas remained above water, and had lost pretty much all of its population centers in the process. On Honshu pretty much everything coastal through to the Kyoto region had been wiped out as well, either from waves or partially sinking along with Kyushu. In addition to that, the Tokyo area had been hit hard by the resulting earthquakes and tidal waves that hammered the entire country, not just Kyushu itself. The combined effects had killed or rendered homeless a very large percentage of the population. And all of that was before you took into account pretty much every active volcano in the island chain erupting due to the seismic upsets, causing even more damage.
The Korean peninsula had also been hit hard, the southern portions also sinking quite a bit due to the geographical upset of Kyushu's sinking. The resulting earthquakes had also done significant damage there, but the tidal waves had been more of a fringe effect until Kyushu actually sank. Unlike Japan, however, the major population centers were not hit hard, being far enough north to only get fringe effects.
Then the side effects of all that destruction kicked in. Fishing was obliterated as an industry in the area due to pollutants in the water making what fish did survive at first hazardous to eat. Then algal blooms killed off a lot of what was left. The volcanic eruptions had layered ash over a lot of the area as well, ensuring that recovery efforts were significantly more difficult even in those areas not hit as hard. And the ocean currents had shifted unexpectedly, all but isolating the area as the pollutants, ash, and other issues just congregated. Supplies frequently had to be airlifted in because the water was too hard to navigate.
Reducing the final toll to the simple statement "Kyushu was sunk" was a disservice to the entire region and only served to make Leviathan seem less dangerous than it actually was. Japan was barely able to sustain the comparatively meagre population it had left. They were still having constant problems with keeping themselves fed and healthy, even with international help with food and medical supplies. At this point the only reason they hadn't been taken over by other countries was that nobody thought the island chain worth taking over anymore.
Thinking over things, Taylor really hoped she wasn't docked points for the length of her essay. Normally the rule was to stick with 'no more than twice the minimum number of pages'. She was at nearly five times the minimum, but wasn't sure what she could cut with the detail level she was expected to go to. Then again, her class information also said to ignore page counts if you had enough important and relevant information to impart on the topic, regardless of the assignment. She just hoped her teacher agreed with her that everything included was both important and relevant.
She made a couple of minor corrections, then on a whim decided to print a couple of copies out. She had to use the printer attached to the console to do so, but that wasn't a major issue as that was one reason the console had a printer. Though it would be nice when they got the separate printer that Carlos had ordered. Once she had her printouts she put one with her school stuff and then folded the other up and put it with her Maul stuff.
With that done Taylor tried to decide between browsing PHO for a bit, reading over news sites, or going through more of the seemingly never ending information and forms she kept being sent. Thinking about it, she wasn't in the mood to deal with idiots on PHO and the news was likely to be all 'mysterious PRT project' and 'Slaughterhouse Nine'. So more information and forms it was.
Even if she did throw a playlist of amusing videos up on the wall monitor as well.
Saturday morning Taylor had gotten up and swung through the gym before hunting down a plate full of waffles for breakfast. Once all that was taken care of she had changed into her costume and headed down to the garage. A couple of PRT officers checking over a van nodded in her general direction. She was a bit early, so decided to poke at the news she hadn't looked at the night before. If only in case someone brought it up.
'Front page' news this morning was the announcement of a live broadcast press conference Tuesday about the PRT's activities. Chief Director Costa-Brown and Dragon would apparently be representing the PRT, Protectorate, and Guild. Taylor snorted at the fact that the official wording indicated that both of them were representing all three, but 'obviously' Dragon was representing the Protectorate and Guild. Not that there was anyone around to wonder or explain to about why she was snorting at that.
Moving on, it appeared that the water department hoped to have water flowing cleanly again in her neighborhood by the end of the day, so she would probably sleep at home tonight. Several poorer areas of town had suffered greater failures due to other issues and were apparently likely to be without water for the rest of the week while they waited for replacement pipes to come in from elsewhere, due to having used the local stock already.
Deciding that she should really have a clue what the Nine were apparently up to, as it did usually end up being discussed, she checked on that next. The first bit of that news to catch her attention was a poll indicating that most of the country wanted the Slaughterhouse Nine captured instead of killed. Apparently people thought that they were possibly redeemable now? Requests for kill orders were only coming from radical diehards, apparently.
Checking on the actual known actions of the Nine returned very little. Apparently current speculation was that their new member was one of Heartbreaker's kids, but they weren't all that sure otherwise. Most of the Nine's previous patterns had been broken now that Alan and Ned had died. Instead they thought that they were spending time setting up a secure base of operations for some reason, though where was another question.
On the list of 'things the public wonders about' was why the Nine seemed to be avoiding the Federal Prison. This came up every time they hit anywhere that had any Federal facility. Most people assumed it was to avoid having the feds after their asses, but Taylor assumed it was more to do with not actually intending to cause problems for the government. It probably wouldn't stop escape attempts, but anything that caused chaos in the area tended to trigger that kind of thing. On the other hand, escapees were also favored targets of the Nine. Only time would tell if anyone would make it out of the prison this time.
Taylor's musing on the news was interrupted by Inference Engine poking her. Apparently Lisa was coming down with the two mystery capes she had noticed the night before, and they were all leaving together. As such Taylor figured that she should probably poke their snarks. She thanked Inference Engine for letting her know that the three were coming down, then picked one of the other two at random and poked it.
Hello.
[Greetings. Query]
Your, er, human I hope? They are going to be working with me shortly, and I want to not be distracted by not having talked to you yet.
[Acceptance. Data]
Oh, thanks. Knowing what you do might help. So, er, you assign a basic numerical value to a person or potential event after simulating them for a bit, based on your human's likely evaluation of threat to himself, the PRT, or the Protectorate?
[Agreement. Clarification]
Oh, and you can do a better job if he's closer or directly observing aspects of the person or event. Interesting. Thanks for the information.
Taylor hadn't heard of a cape that did that, but she hadn't gone looking either. Having a general idea of that one, she poked the other.
Hello.
[Annoyance]
Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you that much. I just don't want to be distracted by not having introduced myself when your human works with me? Well, assuming you are working with a human.
[...Acceptance]
Since we'll be working together, any chance of telling me what you do for your human?
[Data]
Taylor blinked. You ended up repurposing your human's color vision for threat assessment of individuals and potential future events? How do you determine the threat assessment itself?
[Agreement. Data]
That's interesting. Thanks for the information.
Taylor hadn't expected to find out that one of them had gone colorblind in exchange for precog powers. On the other hand, why in the world were two precogs participating in Lung's power testing? Inference Engine would at least be likely to provide information others were missing. Not to mention was currently providing information on how Lisa would like Taylor to react to the two other parahumans. Oh, and apparently Taylor had accidentally let Lisa know that they were parahumans when she thanked Inference Engine and it realized that Taylor would only know that three were coming down if the other two were both parahumans as well. Oops.
Mistakes aside, Lisa's idea would likely be amusing, so Taylor was all for it.
A few minutes later the three capes entered the garage, and Lisa led the other two over to where Taylor was standing. Leaning against the wall, technically. Whatever. Lisa was in her Mycroft costume, but the other two were in standard issue PRT uniforms.
"Good morning Maul," Lisa said, grinning.
"Morning Mycroft," Taylor replied. "So these are Appraiser and Eleventh Hour? Not much to look at, but I suppose that WEDGDG members shouldn't really stick out."
The other two capes stiffened at that, before Eleventh Hour spoke up. "How did you know that? It should be locked down so you can't find out."
"Same way I know you're a precog and Appraiser is almost, but not quite, a precog."
Lisa was grinning like mad, though Inference Engine seemed confused about the 'almost but not quite' bit. Eleventh Hour and Appraiser both looked very unhappy. They shared a look and a couple of covert hand signs, which Inference Engine was happily trying to decipher, before turning back to Taylor.
"Your clearance level isn't quite high enough in the right places to know we were coming," Appraiser said. "Nor could you have recognized us. We've never met before, and now you are telling me my power isn't what I thought it was. This is all very concerning to us, as you can probably imagine, and is more concerning given that Mycroft identified us as parahumans as well."
"You do know what my powers include, right?" Taylor asked, tilting her head. Eleventh Hour blinked, then facepalmed.
"You can project the force of blunt objects and communicate with people's powers," Appraiser answered, sounding confused.
"She got her information from our powers, and probably Mycroft's," Eleventh Hour clarified. "Which in hindsight is blatantly obvious and I am embarrassed that neither of us thought of that before approaching her."
"Technically I screwed up slightly and gave Mycroft's nosy gossip of a snark just enough of a hint to let it figure out you two were parahumans," Taylor said, gesturing at Lisa. "And my snark likes it when I'm a troll either way."
"So do most who know you and aren't your current target," Lisa added.
"At any rate, you probably want to know what I meant about your snark?"
Appraiser looked like he wanted to hit someone, but nodded. "Yes, I would appreciate that."
"Your snark doesn't have the ability to precog, so it asks several other snarks. Like Eleventh Hour's and at least one other I've spoken to. Then it assembles the various answers into an answer for you. It can ask the others better when you have more of the basic information that they use to build their predictions, which is part of why you still work better when you see things for yourself."
The other three parahumans stared at Taylor for a little over a minute, before Eleventh Hour groaned. "Damn, I think you just invalidated the two of us as independent precog data sources. Though that does explain some of the comments from the Think Tank about how our powers work well together, even if they couldn't explain it at the time."
"So what's your relation with the Think Tank?"
"The Think Tank tends to snap up those that work better in a desk job, so to speak. Thinkers that work better in the field tend to end up in WEDGDG," Appraiser answered. "We tend to shift things back and forth a lot, granted, and WEDGDG has no problems with accepting Wards, if only because they may not require travel to check things out on short notice. It also isn't uncommon for the findings of either group to be passed to the other for more information."
"So you're here to evaluate me for membership," Lisa commented. "Because I don't think you'd need to be present for power testing normally."
"That and we wanted to meet Maul since she was absent when another one of us passed through," Eleventh Hour said, shrugging. "We had planned on neither of you realizing we were parahumans until we wanted to tell you, but your powers kinda ruined that."
"Oh, and the Think Tank brought up an interesting question about Maul's abilities," Appraiser added, turning to Taylor. "We know about linking tinkers into a fugue, but can you do so for thinkers?"
"I've linked a thinker into a tinker fugue before," Taylor admitted. "So I don't see why not as a general case. As for causing a fugue? That would depend on the thinkers."
"You four joining us?" one of the actual PRT officers by the van yelled. "We need to get a move on!"
The four parahumans looked at each other, then moved to get into the van. As interesting as their discussion was, they did have other things to do this morning.
The trip over to the Docks area had been completed in silence. Which wasn't to say they weren't busy. Taylor was poking through 'how powertesting is supposed to work' information she had only then realized she should check while Lisa was apparently looking up information on WEDGDG on her phone. According to Inference Engine the two WEDGDG members were updating Taylor's and Lisa's WEDGDG 'threat assessments'. It was also amused by the idea that if they knew that Taylor and Lisa were aware of what they were doing then said assessments would need further adjustments.
After a fairly quick trip the van was parked outside of a cordoned off area, and the four parahumans were met at the cordon itself by Colin. Currently he was the only other parahuman in the area, but that would be changing.
"Good morning Maul, Mycroft," Colin said, nodding at the two, then turning to the other two. "Officers."
"They already pegged us," Appraiser said, handing over a five dollar bill.
"Our internal assessment had a poor interpretation of the potential consequences of Maul's powers," Eleventh Hour added, handing his own five dollar bill over.
"Several of us had wondered if you had some way of fooling Maul," Colin said as he accepted the two bills and put them away. "Especially since we haven't come up with a good one ourselves."
"Parahumans that can spot another parahuman that easily are quite rare," Appraiser said, frowning, before turning to look at Taylor. "Problem is, outside of remote presence stuff, there isn't any good way to defend against that right now."
"Not sure I want to spend too much time finding a solution that would then be used against me," Taylor admitted. "Given how rare it is and all."
"It isn't normally an issue right now anyway. Still, if you'd all come this way," Colin said, raising the cordon wire. "I'd like to go over a little of how we plan on doing this, before Lung gets here."
The five parahumans made their way into the middle of the cordoned-off area, where a larger truck had been set up. The side of that truck had been folded down, revealing a number of pieces of testing equipment. Some of them Taylor recognized, others were mysteries to her. Next to that truck was a flatbed truck with a collection of weights.
"We've got cameras in various places for recording," Colin said. "As well as a collection of drones that Dragon will be launching when we are ready for Lung to ramp up. Most of the initial testing will be done by dedicated PRT staff, though any of us can offer insights. For those not directly participating in any given portion of things today we have set up an observation post on the roof of the warehouse behind you, complete with a forcefield to protect bystanders. Once the forcefield is up you will need to use the rear doors of the building to enter and leave as the front and sides of the building will be protected."
"How many bystanders are we expecting?" Appraiser asked.
"Once we reach the combat phase anyone not directly participating will be bystanders. That will generally be all of us plus Battery, anyone Lung brings with him, and probably Panacea if she comes. Assault indicated a desire, if Lung is still willing, to participate in the battle phase."
"He probably wants to see if he could be a decent counter against Lung now," Lisa said, causing everyone other than Taylor to look at her oddly. "What? Maul set him up with the whole heat absorption trick, which should negate any issues he would have had with Lung's fire."
"That makes sense," Eleventh Hour said. "I don't think there will be any issue with that either."
"Nor do I," Appraiser added. "But that just leaves us with one independent data point, apparently. Which is wonderful that we now know that, but annoying."
"At any rate," Colin continued. "Unless there are objections, we would like Maul to be present during the initial phases, before the members of New Wave arrive. She would then retreat to the observation post just before we activate the forcefield for the combat portion of things."
"I have no issues not being next to the rage dragon," Lisa admitted. "And Maul can relay my useful observations if needed anyway."
"I suppose testing my own projections against said rage dragon is being discouraged?" Taylor asked.
"That would be correct," Colin replied. "Though not disallowed, if you and Lung can come to an agreement on that front."
Taylor paused, and turned around. "Well, it would appear that Lung is about to arrive. No sign of Oni Lee."
"We'll just go up to the observation point now," Lisa said, all but dragging the two WEDGDG members with her. "Have fun!"
Chapter 52 A small group of scientists that Taylor hadn't noticed came out from behind the truck loaded with testing equipment as word of Lung's approach was broadcast over radios. It didn't take long for a response to come back indicating that the only approaching vehicle was a Volkswagen Beetle with a single occupant. Assault and Battery entered Taylor's range from almost the same direction and intercepted the vehicle, finding that Lung was in it. They then escorted him to where the PRT van had parked.
A few minutes later the three arrived, Battery leading while Lung and Assault followed. From what Taylor had heard on their approach it was likely Assault would be participating in the combat portion of things.
"Good morning Maul," Lung called. "Before we begin today, is it normal for Lee to be sleeping frequently?"
"Morning Lung," Taylor said. "And yes, I suspect it is quite normal. Complete with his snark putting him to sleep if he resists too much. My apologies for our forgetting to mention that."
"It isn't a problem," Lung replied, waving it off. "We suspected it was part of the healing process, I just wished to confirm it."
"Good morning," Colin said as he approached them, having moved to confer with the scientists for a moment. "New Wave should be arriving within the hour, but we would like to start with some baseline tests."
"That makes sense."
"I'll stay off to the side and check with your snark," Taylor added. "Might as well get some of that out of the way now too, especially if I discover anything that could be useful later."
Lung nodded, before moving over to where the scientists were. Taylor followed and leaned against one of the buildings.
Hello again.
[Greetings]
So, I don't know if you realize it, but we are testing your human today.
[Agreement. Data]
Yes, that is a basic rundown of the overall idea. We also want to know if there is anything your human isn't doing that you would like him to be doing?
[Query]
Er, yeah. Knowing more about what you do for him would probably mean that later fights could be more difficult. Why?
[Excitement. Data. Elaboration. Data...]
Taylor blinked, surprised at how excited the snark was for the chance of a more challenging fight later. She recovered quickly, opening up a document on her Maul phone to start recording things in, occasionally poking the snark for clarifications as she went along. If it wanted to be very thorough, well, that was its decision.
Forty-five minutes later Taylor's note-taking was winding down. It had only taken half an hour for the baseline testing to complete, apparently including getting Lung to ramp up without non-human features appearing to see what the strength changes were at that point. After they were done with that part Taylor had provided him with the copy of her Endbringer paper she had with her so as to give him something else to do. The likely 'bad mood' it would put him into was apparently a good thing for the next phase of testing.
Included in her notes were observations from Inference Engine. In fact, she was feeding the other snark most of the data as she got it. She hadn't opened a shared channel, but Inference Engine was able to take some of what had been provided by Battle Escalation and point out potential weak points and such. The mental picture she had gotten a few minutes into that process of Inference Engine drooling over the pile of data was, however, quite disturbing.
Her final pass reading the notes back to Battle Escalation and Inference Engine, making minor corrections as she went, brought her to a little past New Wave's arrival. New Wave was off to the side, apparently waiting on them to finish up. Taylor thanked both snarks as she saved the file, then finally pushed off from the wall.
"Sorry about the wait," Taylor said, approaching the scientists. Who looked to be reading over her paper as well? "His snark decided to be quite thorough when I asked it about things, apparently all it really wants is more challenging fights. And giving potential opponents information would make later fights more challenging, so it was chatty."
"Not to mention that would force me to overcome weak points," Lung noted, which Taylor nodded to. "I don't suppose I can get a copy of your notes?"
"I don't know if you have any good way for me to provide a digital copy right now, and I didn't bring a printer?"
"There's a printer in the cab of the truck," one of the scientists said, gesturing in that general direction. "But first, I am curious about your assignment here. Why didn't you go into more detail on the nuclear reactor issues that came up when Leviathan's attack triggered earthquakes?"
"A distinct lack of information in the local library covering it, mainly. I mean, I suppose I could have used the PRT database, but I don't think I am supposed to reveal the stuff in it nor do I think it prudent to claim that as a source of information for a school assignment."
"Ah, good points, very good points. Makes perfect sense in hindsight. Back on task, can you print off five additional copies of your notes? We only have two decent terminals available today either way and would like to allow New Wave to look over things as well."
"No problem."
It took Taylor a couple of minutes to get things printed, some of that waiting for the printer to power on. It also refused to wirelessly connect to her phone, not for lack of trying, so she had ended up digging a USB cable out of her utility belt. She noted there was a stapler next to the printer, so she stapled each set of the notes together before heading back to where New Wave had joined the scientists.
"Thank you Maul," one of the scientists said as he took five of the six copies. "Once you have given Lung his copy you can check with Armsmaster about properly submitting the digital copy."
"No problem," Taylor said, moving over to Lung.
"Thank you," Lung said. "Also, your paper was unusually good. Unlike most, you did not trivialize the effects on the rest of the region."
"It seemed like it would be a poor decision to focus on the one thing everyone else focuses on."
"Perhaps once it has been graded you should post it online. Show people what a proper analysis of the aftermath of an Endbringer looks like." Lung then grunted as he started looking over Taylor's notes. She moved on to where Colin was standing off to the side.
"Maul," Colin said as she approached. "Have you submitted additions to an individual's file before?"
"I don't believe so," Taylor admitted. "Though I have read up on how to. Is there anything special I need to do in this case?"
"Just be certain to lower the security level to four or five. We don't need to have the information locked to your default level nine."
Taylor nodded as she opened the PRT app. It didn't take long to find Lung's file, which apparently already had the 'baseline' results loaded in at SL4. She moved to the 'submit new documents' area before selecting her file. She provided a name and basic description, noted that she had 'conferred' with Lisa's snark on it, and then checked the security level.
"Huh," she wondered aloud as she set the security level to four. "I wonder why it's defaulting to SL10? Haven't seen that before."
A moment later she had submitted the information and checked to ensure it appeared to have uploaded correctly. Afterwards she turned back to Colin, to find him standing there with his jaw dropped. He visibly shook himself before speaking.
"Did you say the form defaulted to SL10?"
"Yeah, though as I said, I've never seen that before."
"It should never default to a security level higher than the user's, nor should it ever be higher than the device's. I can't even submit SL10 despite having two such units, one in my helmet and the other in my workshop on the Rig. Currently my personal clearance level is only SL7, regardless of if I am working through a higher level module."
Taylor blinked, and checked both phones. "Huh, my phones got upgraded. When did that happen? SL10 on both, BL7 and CE6 as well? Do you think this happened to my tablet too?"
"Only Dragon could have given you SL10, so you should probably check with her."
Taylor thought about it, and figured that after the fugue Dragon might have done something. And she had Dragon in her contact list now, when did that happen? She had her Maul phone make the call.
"Hello Maul," Dragon's said a moment later. "How are you today?"
"I'm fine," Taylor subvocalized. "I was just submitting some power testing notes when I discovered the forms defaulting to SL10 instead of my expected SL9."
"Ahh, yes, after our chat before the fugue on Saturday I decided I would upgrade your phones and tablet. It wouldn't do for you to be unable to contact me securely, after all, and the SL10 modules are the best way to allow that."
"Armsmaster indicated that he has a couple, but can't use them at SL10 level because he is only personally authorized at SL7?"
"I use those to work with him securely." Huh, she sounded embarrassed about that. Signs of her crush, no doubt, though why was she showing it that way? "I was able to authorize bumping you up to SL10 because you were already at SL9, so all I was doing was authorizing you for my own systems. No new NDAs needed."
"I see. Thank you."
"You're welcome. And thank you for deferring to me on what to tell your father. I apologize for not informing you that I had done so, but he asked to be permitted to bring it up himself. He also helped me understand that I shouldn't use low-priority messages when contacting you."
"Thank you for telling him what you did, as it was going to be an awkward conversation otherwise."
"You're welcome for that as well. It looks like the scientists are about ready for the next phase of things, so we should probably get back to that."
"Right, thanks. And feel free to call me if you feel a need to chat."
"Will do."
The call disconnected, and Taylor looked at Colin. "I won't say what was discussed that morning, but apparently she felt having a secure communication line to me would be beneficial afterwards."
"I see," Colin replied. Taylor got the impression that he was staring very intently at her, which was kind of unnerving. "She has apparently placed a large amount of trust in you. I won't push for details, but I will ask that you not violate that trust. I would be...displeased with such a course of action."
Taylor blinked. Something seemed very wrong with this situation, but she wasn't sure what. "I have no plans to violate her trust, in any way."
"Good."
The two made their way over to where the scientists were packing up the trucks. Crystal and Eric were in a heated discussion over part of Taylor's notes, but the rest of New Wave seemed to be simply contemplating things.
"Hello Amy," Taylor said as she came up next to the girl. "No costume today?"
"Not needed," Amy replied. "Really, I only came out for the show, even if I'll probably have to do some healing afterwards anyway."
"Alright everyone," one of the scientists said. "New Wave, with the exception of Panacea, will all be taking part in the combat tests for observing how Lung ramps up, with most of the data coming from the camera feeds on Dragon's drones due to the difficulty in directly testing him in that state. Assault has also expressed interest in participating, is anyone else looking to do so?"
"I'm curious to see how he reacts to my blunt force projection," Taylor replied. "Not sure if I'm interested in the combat beyond that, though."
"You wish to hit me with your wok?" Lung asked, looking at Taylor.
"I was actually thinking about using the maul," Taylor replied, pulling that out of her jacket. "It has a bit more punch, you see."
Lung nodded. "Acceptable, though probably best for when I have already started to escalate."
"I would ask that once you are no longer participating that you retreat to the observation post," Colin added. "It is likely that things will get much more heated as time goes on."
"I'm ok with that," Taylor said.
Over the next few minutes the trucks were driven out of the area, taking the scientists with them. Battery brought Amy up to the observation post as the rest of New Wave got ready for the fight to come. The protective forcefield for the warehouse the observation post was situated on was turned on and Dragon launched the drones that would be recording things. They got a brief rundown of the area that they were allowed to 'destroy', which was apparently everything between the observation point warehouse and the water for three blocks in either direction. This generally ended up being around a thousand meters centered on the observation area, going for two thousand to hit the water.
Needless to say, Taylor wasn't likely going to be able to be in constant communication with the participating snarks.
Still, just as they were about to begin Taylor decided to, on a whim, open a shared channel with all the snarks fighting except for Battle Escalation. She'd do her best to keep it open until she retreated.
The start of the battle came courtesy of Vicky darting forward to punch Lung in the gut, sending him flying back. The other flyers of New Wave took to the sky at the same time. Taylor couldn't keep a grin off of her face, this was going to be fun.
Two hours later the battle finally came to an end when Colin signaled for a halt. Taylor had never actually retreated, instead she had been picked up at one point by Eric and generally kept in the battle, occasionally shifting to things like a broken dumpster Vicky had found so she could apply her power to it as it was swung in Lung's general direction. Not to mention three different poles of various kinds and a number of other pieces of various broken things. Such as chunks of the various buildings that, by the end of the fight, were no longer standing.
The observers noted that occasionally the attacking force would act in odd ways. They weren't generally acting as one, but sometimes an inspired bit of cooperation between individuals was seen. Without any obvious communication between them. The most obvious incident being a point where Carol ended up bouncing between multiple shields in her breaker state to get to Taylor, who used her wok to launch Carol into the air so that she could drop down onto Lung from above. All of this in the middle of other attacks.
Other times it looked like something along those lines had been attempted, but a link in the middle hadn't cooperated so things fell apart. So it obviously wasn't a guaranteed boost to group effectiveness.
On Lung's part, he had ramped up fairly quickly at first, and then started focusing on covering weak spots, apparently deliberately holding back ramping up further to get practice at the level he had stopped at. Twice his 'concentration' on not ramping up appeared to have been broken. The first was when Taylor got a lucky shot in with her maul, apparently hitting him in a weak spot on his neck. The second was after Vicky tried to force-feed him a telephone pole.
Assault had discovered fairly early on that while he could ignore Lung's fire, he couldn't actually negate all of Lung's movement. He could certainly reduce the effects, but not negate them entirely. That didn't stop him from trying interesting tricks, like using Lung's fire to charge up and launch things at high speed.
As Lung returned to human proportions a bundle of cloth was launched in his direction. Apparently his mask, wrapped in his pants. He caught said bundle with ease and everyone generally looked away when he reached the point where he could pull the pants on.
"That was a good battle," Lung said once he was decent and everyone had gathered by the observation post warehouse. "It had not occurred to me to hold back on ramping up until I saw it mentioned as something I could do in Maul's notes, but it works quite well for sparring."
"Whose idea was it to bounce me around like a pinball?" Carol asked. "I mean, it got me into a great position, but I don't recall hearing anyone call out?"
"I think that was your snark's idea," Taylor said. "I kinda had our snarks linked?"
"That would explain a number of things," Lisa said. "We had wondered how it was that there were various instances of cooperation seemingly by instinct. Beyond, of course, lots of training together. Which we knew Maul and Assault haven't been doing."
"Not that it always worked," Amy said. "Get over here Eric, I'm done with Sarah's burns but I know I saw you get a claw to your leg."
"Yeah, yeah," Eric said, limping over to Amy. "I shouldn't have dodged left when my instincts seemed to be screaming at me to dodge right while making a shield. I thought I knew better."
"At least Sarah got burned when she was blocking Crystal from being hit head-on by a blast of fire, compared to your cut leg from showing off too close to melee range."
"But she didn't dodge Maul's rubber chicken. Not that I know where that came from or why she thought it would work against Lung's fire."
"Maul," Colin said as Amy and Eric bickered. "I noticed that even though you didn't retreat, you also stayed a good distance back from Lung at all times. Was that intentional?"
"Yeah," Taylor answered. "No way I could handle him in hand to hand. Really, outside of a couple of very large things being swung by Glory Girl my only good hit was the weak spot on Lung's neck, where the scales were thinner to keep things flexible. And even then it only worked because he was looking at Manpower at an odd angle."
"Something I may have to take into account in the future," Lung admitted. "Glory Girl got me on the other side later on while I was distracted by Brandish. And I had not realized until today how sensitive my throat was."
"At least until you burn whatever someone crams down it," Vicky added. "Good job spitting the molten i-beam back at me the second time, by the way."
"Your little act of sitting down in front of me and ignoring anything I threw at you was impressive as well. I wasn't expecting it, especially as I thought you became vulnerable after the first hit."
Vicky grinned at that. "I have no idea where you got that idea."
"I'm thinking you guys need a new place to fight next time," Eleventh Hour said, looking over the destroyed area. "Good job sticking to the allowed area, though."
"It was quite easy with the markings they made on the streets," Crystal said. "Not to mention the warning sounds from Dragon's drones when we got too close to the edges."
"So where is the next fight likely to be?" Eleventh Hour asked. "Since I think this area is slated for new construction soon and all?"
"Perhaps to the North?" Sarah offered. "Though if we start by getting Lung ramped up to the point of usable wings forming we could then take it out over the ocean."
"I'm willing to try it," Lung said. "For now, though, I think lunch would be a good thing. Do you think Fugly Bob's would complain if our group opted to eat there? I found the battle enjoyable enough to treat all of you."
It turned out that nobody had any objections so long as Lung was paying, so after a quick pack-up of the observation post the group headed out. Taylor suspected that they all wanted to know what PHO would make of the visit.
Taylor decided to head back to the PRT building on her own after the uneventful, but definitely attention-getting, lunch. This was, in part, due to a couple of the PRT officers leaving early and taking the van with seating space with them, instead of the one that had the forcefield generator from the observation post. They were short a single seat after that, and Taylor had her jump harness. One of the costumed protectorate members would have given up their seats, if any of them were doing something other than making their way on their own in the first place.
She did have to ensure she was active on the Protectorate console for the duration, with active tracking enabled, and not take any detours. She was ok with that. The embarrassment from having to report she had gotten distracted when she fell off a building halfway back was minor compared to the shock that earlier Colin had been playing something like the protective parent or older sibling role against Taylor, where in a way she should have probably been pulling something like it against him. Well, it was probably a good sign that he wouldn't take advantage of Dragon?
Once back at the PRT building itself she verified she had made it safely with PRT officers before being permitted to head down to the Wards area, waving to the PRT officer running checks on the console as she passed through. There she cleaned up from the bit of a mess she was after the fight even as Lisa approached with the others. She had made better time in her straight over the rooftops dash, but she expected that. She didn't have to deal with traffic and closed roads, after all.
She had finished cleaning up and changing back into civilian clothing and had moved onto double-checking her tablet's apparent upgrades when she got a message from Amy, asking if she could go to the Dallon residence for dinner. She wasn't expecting that, but had no issue with the idea. She would need to check with her father, though, so let Amy know that. She then decided to call her father instead of messaging him. The phone rang a few times before he answered.
"Hello Taylor," Danny said, several loud swears coming from someone in the background. "What's up?"
"I've apparently been invited to the Dallon residence for dinner tonight," Taylor replied. "Is that Lacey swearing in the background?"
"Yes it is, their water heater died and Kurt tried to disconnect it. While drunk. And he forgot to turn off the water to it first. They've been dealing with it all morning, and Lacey called in several helping hands. Unless you want to come over and help deal with soaked boxes and damaged shelving I think you'd be better off going to Amy's for dinner."
"What will you be doing?"
"Kurt owes all of us helping pizza paid for from his rainy day stash, so I'll be fine. With any luck the fact that the water stopped running brown here means it is good at home too, if I'm there before you I'll let you know."
"Alright, see you later then."
"Have fun at Amy's."
Taylor quickly let Amy know that she would be happy to visit for dinner. Then, not knowing what else she should do, decided to see what PHO had made of the lunch trip. After she checked to see why Lisa hadn't swung by the Wards area to change.
Hey, why did Lisa go straight back to her apartment instead of coming back here to change?
[Data]
Oh. That makes sense. Thanks.
Swap the jacket, ditch the hat and mask, and then just leave with a duffel bag. Not a bad plan when she didn't have things like weapons to deal with. Switching gears to checking PHO she found that there were already three different threads on their lunch gathering. Apparently initial theories included it being a coincidence, which went out the window when Lung paid for everyone. The shitfest over that had caused the first thread to be locked. Discussion had then gone two routes. One thread was talking about the implications of the group having had lunch together, complete with a couple of pictures of Colin eating that had surfaced and the shock thereof. He wasn't a robot! Or maybe it was a stunt double. They weren't sure. The other thread wanted to know what had happened before lunch.
After giving it some thought, Taylor decided to go for it. She made sure she was logged in with her civilian account and suggested that before lunch they had spent a couple of hours trying to beat the crap out of each other and, having had a good time of it, grabbed lunch together afterwards. After all, fighting for a couple of hours would make anyone hungry, right?
With that posted, Taylor decided to do some shopping. Maybe bring something to the Dallon household later? She had a few hours to kill, after all, and had no good reason to hit the gym or junkyard after the couple hours of combat.
Taylor had purchased several replacement joke shop items, since she needed a new rubber chicken at a minimum, plus a couple of new items she hadn't noticed before, as well as a nifty little multi-compartment key holder thing she thought the Dallons might like for their front hall. She had also found a new shirt she liked and had picked up a couple of necklaces with little picture holder lockets for potential gifts. Well, one would be a potential gift, anyway.
With her shopping done she had returned to the PRT building to drop things off. She checked PHO while she was at it, and apparently her post earlier had caused the thread to be locked. Mainly due to the arguments from people not believing that the group could have fought at all and then gone to lunch. The replacement thread had been created by Assault, with a tastefully-edited series of videos of the fight linked from the first post. Specifically, videos hosted on Dragon's account. The new tone of discussion was that of disbelief, as hours of video had been posted by a trustworthy source showing the fight from multiple angles. Sarah had even posted shortly after that confirming New Wave's participation, and that 'Panacea had been available from the beginning in case of medical emergency'.
Amusingly, nobody had asked why they had been fighting. All the combat members of New Wave, a member of the Protectorate, and a Ward against Lung, with Dragon apparently recording it. No explanation given, and so far no explanation asked for. The latter would probably not last more than an hour or so, maybe two or three if most people watched all the videos first, but it was amusing while it lasted.
Taylor was in the middle of watching one of the videos when she got a request from Miss Militia to be available the following day around eleven in the morning. A quick check showed that it looked like Missy had been included. Not seeing any problem with it she accepted, then fired a message off to Missy to see if she could come in a little earlier to talk about things.
With those messages sent she spent some additional time looking over the videos before deciding she wasn't in the mood to stick around. Instead she messaged Amy to see if it was alright to show up early. A 'please do' came back, so Taylor got everything ready to go. She made sure she had everything for heading home after dinner, not wanting to have to return to the PRT building, before leaving. The PRT officer was still at the console, but ignored Taylor's passing.
A few minutes later Taylor was on her moped, making her way across town.
The Dallon household was, apparently, empty of everyone other than Amy. Which, to be honest, was fairly common with Taylor's visits so far. She fired a quick text message off to Amy to indicate that she was there as she parked, and as such Amy met her at the door.
"Hello Taylor," Amy said, gesturing for Taylor to enter. "We don't have long before the others return, I only got out of helping to pick up dinner by claiming someone should be here if you came early."
"Hi, and why do you sound worried?" Taylor asked. "I mean, it's just dinner, right?"
Amy closed the door and sighed. "I thought they were taking the Bonesaw stuff in stride, but I think it only really hit them after the battle earlier. Mark is usually easy going enough that I don't think he will be an issue, but Carol and Vicky both kinda closed off when it hit them? So I'm not sure how they are going to approach things."
"Do they know if they are even allowed to talk to me about it? For all they know I'm not allowed to know exactly who was involved and all, right?"
Amy blinked, and then facepalmed. "I don't think any of them have thought about that, actually. I certainly didn't consider it, though I'll blame that on already knowing you are cleared for it."
"I am so tempted to prank them now."
"Er, how?"
"Act dumb, mainly, then have you point out that just because you were cleared to know the origin of things doesn't mean I was? Then perhaps wonder what kind of paperwork is needed now that they've informed me."
"That is a horrible, mean, nasty, downright evil idea. Do you want to ask about the paperwork, or should I?"
"I think I should, in the tone of 'oh great, what do I have to sign this time?' and all."
They spent some time discussing details, stopping when Taylor felt the other Dallons enter her range. At which point she recalled the little basket she had found, and grabbed that. Amy thus busied herself with setting it up in the hall, because it was probably better than their previous method of 'throw the keys in the bowl and have to sort them out when grabbing them' and all.
Chapter 53 "Hello Taylor," Carol said as she held the door for Mark and Vicky to carry food in. Apparently pizza was the dinner of choice today, regardless of where she decided to eat. "I guess we might start dinner early, since you're already here."
"Hi Carol," Taylor replied. "Mark, Vicky."
"Hello Taylor," Mark said, even as Vicky just gave Taylor an odd look.
"So, Taylor," Carol said as she closed, and for some reason locked, the door. "Before dinner I'd like to talk with you about some things."
"Alright," Taylor said as she shared a look with Amy. "What kind of things?"
"The kind of things it took calling Dragon to check your clearance on, as it seems nobody in Brockton Bay was cleared to check. I almost tried calling Chief Director Costa-Brown instead, but I already had Dragon's number."
Whelp, so much for their planning. Still, perhaps she could get an amusing reaction anyway? "Does this have anything to do with the file Amy recently gave you?"
"Yes, it does. How do you know about that?"
"Did you think to ask her if she could check my clearance on it?"
"I couldn't without trying to give her a copy, by the way," Amy replied as Carol imitated a fish. "But I could have told you that Taylor got the file out of the PRT's system for me to share with you in the first place."
Carol looked between the two before facepalming. "Of course she did. Because you had already told us you couldn't do it yourself, so obviously you had help. And since it involved her anyway she was the most likely person to be able to get it."
"I kinda assumed Taylor already knew," Vicky said as she came back from the kitchen. "Probably not the best assumption, but Amy didn't say someone was looking into the stuff in the file, like if she was going to be helping to figure them out. Since she outright told us they were the basis for Taylor's enhancements I figured that she had to have permission from Taylor to tell us."
"I see," Carol said, gesturing to the living room. "Perhaps we should sit down instead of discussing this in the hall. And at least I can take comfort that Dragon was able to inform me that Mister Hebert isn't cleared for the file, so it probably wasn't a complete waste of time."
Huh. Taylor pondered the fact her father wasn't allowed to see the file as they entered the living room. Mark joined them as they all sat down, with Taylor ending up between Amy and Vicky on the couch. Carol and Mark were in their own chairs, with Mark looking interested and Carol looking like she was doing her best to not be angry, but failing. Amy was worried, and Vicky was contemplative? Taylor was doing her best not to poke their snarks for potential info on their thought processes. Well, except for Amy's, but Broadcast Administrator and Shaper almost constantly talked about things when Amy was in range.
"Taylor," Carol continued. "I don't know whose idea it was to use you as a guinea pig for duplicating or improving on that research, and I don't know who signed off on it, but I don't think it should have ever happened to a minor. I'm willing to work with you and your father to see justice done in this case."
That...was not what Taylor was expecting. How was she supposed to respond to that?
"Mom," Vicky said, leaning forward. "You're an idiot. Everyone in the house knows that Amy was involved in Taylor getting her enhancements, in part due to your drunken ranting a couple of times. The only way I can see Amy going along with it in the first place was if there was somehow something seriously wrong with Taylor that she couldn't fix or if she expected things to go ok. In the latter case that would mean that Amy was already familiar with the other tinker or tinkers and the work they would be doing."
"Victoria has a point," Mark said. "In fact, the two of us discussed some of this already, and things keep falling into place to explain our conclusions."
"I find myself wondering what your conclusions are," Taylor said. "Because it seems like the two of you put some thought into it?"
Mark gestured to Vicky, who sighed and leaned back. "Ok, this is kinda spread out a bit. The first evidence was when Amy was called out to fix one of Bonesaw's patients. We weren't supposed to know that, but she needed permission to skip school and it came up. She kept a good act going, but after that her supposed 'hatred' of the Nine had vanished. I couldn't figure out why at the time, but it had been bugging me."
"I had noticed some of that myself," Carol admitted. "And I'm ashamed to admit that, at the time, I saw it as part of descending into villainy or something like that."
"Yeah, well, then Amy ends up doing her fugue thing with Taylor somehow, and the next day I briefly meet their new friend. The more I learn about what Taylor's upgrades do the more I wonder about said friend, whom I haven't seen again. Then Amy showed us that information, and all of a sudden I'm realizing that 'friend' looked a lot like Bonesaw might in normal clothes and a hat."
"I am getting some very disturbing ideas here," Carol warned.
"Mom, near as I can figure, either Bonesaw has a close, similar-looking family member with a similar power, which I don't think would cause Amy's view of things to change much, or the Nine aren't what they seem and that was Bonesaw. Either way I know I don't have all the information."
"We figured this was a test to see if we could be given more of the information we don't have," Mark added. "One that I'm not sure you passed, dear. Though at least we now know what you were likely trying to do while the two of us chatted, it never occurred to me to check for clearance levels."
"I apparently need more information," Carol said, leaning back and staring at the ceiling. "Because I want to rant and rave, but I know I shouldn't, and until I have all the pieces I don't know if I can approach this rationally anymore. Though at least I can appreciate that I got my violent urges taken care of this morning, so I haven't broken anything. Yet."
Taylor blinked as a message came through her Maul phone. Anonymous, but validated by the box moving snark poking into the kitchen. How in the world were they monitoring things? "Hey Vicky, go grab the box in the kitchen. And probably some pens."
Everyone turned to look at Taylor, before Vicky apparently decided to go with it and got up. A moment later she returned with one of the PRT's secure paperwork boxes. "Where did this come from?"
"I think it contains your NDAs to learn more."
"But how did it get into the kitchen?"
"The box-moving snark is sneaky that way."
"How do I open it?"
"By...I'm not sure. They vary?" Another anonymous message appeared in her phone. "Oh, apparently they tied it to Carol, so she has to put her hand on the box."
Vicky dropped the box on Carol's lap, then left the room again. Carol opened the box and started looking through the papers inside of it, with Vicky returning a moment later with a handful of pens.
Taylor turned to Amy. "I don't suppose we can start on dinner while they're looking over paperwork?"
"I'm not comfortable with anyone signing this without checking it all," Carol said. "So yes, go ahead and eat while I do so."
The rest of them looked at each other and shrugged. Vicky and Mark went to grab some things from the kitchen while Amy led Taylor into the dining room.
Carol took the better part of an hour to make it through verifying the paperwork, and then she ate while Mark and Vicky read their copies. Eventually everyone had read and signed their paperwork, and Taylor checked that everything looked to be in order before the paperwork was returned to the box.
"So what do we do with the box?" Carol asked, gesturing to the now sealed box sitting on the coffee table. "I've never seen one of them delivered or picked up, but this is also the first one I've seen outside of a PRT building."
"I think the box-moving snark waits for nobody to be looking," Taylor answered. "But I don't know if that is because it has to or because it likes being mysterious."
"You're sure it isn't tinkertech?"
"Fairly certain. If it is nobody knows who makes that piece, or that it exists in general."
Vicky got an odd look on her face. A moment later she grabbed the blanket kept folded on the back of the couch and draped it over the box. "There, now we can't..."
Everyone stared at the collapsing point in the middle of the blanket where the box had been a moment before. Apparently it had dropped into the table somehow. The blanket was quickly removed, to show an undamaged table.
"I'm thinking it's playing with us," Taylor commented. "Or perhaps me, supposedly they stick around longer normally, but since I started noticing the things coming and going they have been teasing me."
"That does seem to be a tad odd," Amy agreed. "I wonder when their new phones will show up?"
Taylor jumped and dove behind the couch, only to come up growling with a cardboard box. "Damn snark."
"What's in the box?" Vicky asked.
"I think your new phones, which would imply they were ready for all of this. The note attached to the box stating 'Nine primer document preloaded, have a nice day' would appear to agree."
"The fact it is a cardboard box and not a tinkertech one implies you are right about it not being tinkertech moving them around," Mark pointed out. "Did they happen to label the phones?"
Taylor handed the box to Vicky, who dug out a phone box with a 'V' on it. She then handed Mark one with an 'M', and Carol one with a 'C'. Amy then took the now-empty cardboard box from Vicky, who seemed more interested in unboxing her new phone.
"This looks like a standard internal PRT shipping box," Amy commented. "With a preprinted 'care of' label already attached for New Wave's liaison. Which implies they were originally intending to ship it normally."
"I bet the box-moving snark's human thought it would be amusing to screw with me further," Taylor grumbled. "Though I suppose they also might have just known that it would be easier to explain things this way, if they hadn't known when things would go down."
"Want to see my latest creations?" Amy asked, gesturing towards the back of the house and, presumably, her greenhouse. "Let them do their thing in private?"
"Sure, why not."
Amy had an entire table of rainbow rose bushes, which she had explained was because the 'trial run' had generated more interest than expected. She also had a collection of seeds she was allowing to grow 'naturally', which was still unnaturally fast provided enough water, nutrients, and a good source of light were all available.
Outside of rainbow rose bushes she had also started experimenting with making rainbow tulips. They were similar enough for most of her previous work on the rose bushes to still be valid, but different enough that she had needed to figure some things out again. In particular, it was through some of her work on the tulips that she thought she had figured out how to make the rose bush seeds work.
"Are you going to be using rainbows as your signature on plants?" Taylor asked after the lengthy description of things. "Or do you plan on branching out to other things?"
"I considered some better fruits or vegetables," Amy admitted. "But the PRT testing requirements for edible bio-tinker creations are insane. I've got some bamboo on order to see if I can make a strong, fast-growing building material of sorts, and I wasn't planning on any rainbows in that at all."
Taylor's consideration of that idea was interrupted by yelling coming from the house. The two girls shared a look, before rushing back inside to see what was going on. They found Carol pacing back and forth yelling incomprehensibly. After a few minutes of that she visibly calmed herself down, taking deep breaths, before growling and storming into the kitchen.
"She didn't take things well?" Taylor offered.
"I think that was a rant on the idiocy of the general population," Mark replied. "Maybe. Her technique for being intentionally incomprehensible has improved. She seemed somewhat ok with the Nine stuff at first?"
"Intentionally incomprehensible?"
"She's a lawyer and can't always rant normally for legal reasons."
"So, er, Taylor?" Vicky called from the couch, sounding quite a bit more nervous than normal. Taylor turned to look at her, even as Carol returned from the kitchen with a six-pack of beer. "How close did I come to being visited by Jack Slash instead of Jacob after I punched you?"
"What are you talking about?" Carol asked, putting the beer down on the table. "Why would you expect Jack to show up instead of Jacob?"
"Powers run in families, but have variations. Taylor and Jack both project force in similar ways and this primer confirms that they both communicate with powers on some level. Slap some fake facial hair on Jacob and mess up his hair and he's a dead ringer for Jack."
Carol looked at Taylor, who shrugged. "You've already signed the NDAs. Nobody can blame me if you figure out civilian identities yourselves."
"I find myself confused as to how you were bullied at all at Winslow," Carol finally said, taking a beer and dropping back into her chair. "Even without that particular revelation, your uncle's civilian reputation would have stopped it all."
"I never even told my best friend about him. I didn't want to be treated differently just because my uncle was famous, and invoking him seemed like a cop-out otherwise. Besides, then he couldn't have used his visits to get away from being famous. He tended to wear a wig when he went out with us just to make it harder to identify him."
"As for your question," Amy said. "I think the only thing that saved Brockton Bay from being visited by the Nine was the fact that Taylor wasn't dead. An attack could very well have caused enough chaos to finish her off in the state she was in."
"So the Nine were co-opted as a therapy group," Carol said. "Because sometimes the needs powers give would otherwise force capes into pure villainy. I don't like it, but I can see why it was done. Kinda. If I squint. Why can't that be made public?"
"Did you finish reading things?" Mark asked, only to get a look from Carol. "At the end it explained that they also get pointed at people that keep escaping justice and are used as a disruption to expose corruption. The number of criminals arrested once they leave areas these days apparently isn't a coincidence."
"Why do I think this is a backroom response to Congress being idiots and not fixing the broken laws surrounding the PRT and Protectorate?"
"So you were ranting about the public and not villains?" Taylor asked. "I thought it would be the other way around?"
"I've just been told, basically, that the Nine are only villains because of public perception not letting them be anything else. Just another blow to my worldview, but I've gotten good at handling those recently. The fact that public perception of parahumans coupled with the way the laws were worded makes the Nine necessary is what is pissing me off right now."
"Still want to encourage me to sue Bonesaw?"
"I imagine your father knew who was going to be working on you?"
"Yep."
"Then no, at this point I don't think that would be wise anymore. I don't suppose you know if the Nine engineered the prison break earlier today?"
Taylor blinked. "I think I missed something."
"The correctional facility in Danbury ended up having a tinkertech something plow through it. A full third of the inmates, including all the parahuman inmates, are either dead or escaped."
"I guess I hadn't checked the news, as I didn't know about that." Taylor absently popped a question about that off to her uncle, because she was curious. "Don't they usually leave prisons alone?" And, as an afterthought, she popped a second message off to him to let him know that all of the Dallon household knew about the Jacob/Jack link.
"There is that, yes. Nobody had details when I caught it earlier, and the Nine aren't supposed to have the right kind of tinker for whatever it was. But they are also believed to have at least one new member, so additional new members isn't as unexpected as it would usually be."
"They love targeting escapees though," Vicky said. "Which kinda makes more sense now than it did before, actually."
Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes, then Taylor got a text message. From Riley. "Huh. Bonesaw says the prison break wasn't their doing? Some visiting tinker tried to hit the Siberian with stuff. They've been busy rounding up the escapees since, because people complain less when you experiment on them. She's hoping to get a working Bluetooth setup in someone else's brain this time?"
"At least she gets to experiment," Amy grumbled. "I still can't make heads or tails of yours due to not being cleared for the documentation on how it works."
"If you ask nicely maybe they'll let you look at whomever it is she gets it working in?"
Carol groaned. "Please don't talk about that around me. I'm having enough trouble with this without you talking about that kind of thing."
"The female side of the PRT would prefer she focus on figuring out the 'so light you missed it' periods anyway."
"Not until I get them," Amy snapped. "Bad enough you got them already, everyone else gets to wait."
"You already know how, don't you?"
Amy glared at Taylor. "Yes, but I have no clue how to apply it to myself. Even with help."
"So all we need to do is find a way to apply what you already know how to do to yourself?"
"Technically, yes?"
"I wonder if linking you up with Countdown would work?"
Amy paused to think about that. Carol turned to Mark. "When, exactly, did our lives become this odd?"
"About when we triggered," Mark answered, shrugging. "I mean, everyone in the room frequently violates the laws of physics as we understand them, pretty much on a daily basis really."
Carol sighed and finished off the can of beer she had started, then debated grabbing another one.
Taylor pulled into the garage at home, apparently having made it there before her father. An hour's discussion had resulted in Amy deciding she wouldn't trust one of Vivian's single-use devices to upgrade anyone, especially not herself. Biology was too complex and there were too many variables involved. If only Amy wasn't so adamant about wanting to get some of the upgrades for herself first.
She mentally swore about stupid rules about not trolling people with ridiculous access requirements for things that were impossible to get as she closed the garage door. Until Amy was likely to be on board with things she had no reason to bring up her plans for ridiculous clearance requirements. Even if the humor might change Amy's mind, because Taylor didn't want to try and bribe Amy in that way. Much better if she could find some way to bribe Amy with 'agree, and we can upgrade you first' after all.
A quick check of things showed that after a couple of seconds the water did start clearing up, so Taylor went down to the basement and ran the sink there until things were clear, then restored water flow to the water heater and turned it back on. She then ensured that the brown water was no longer flowing anywhere else in the house, which included deciding to run the washing machine through an empty cycle. She'd do actual laundry later. In the kitchen she also rinsed the soda can her father had left covered in brown residue.
A few hours later she had finished various chores, read over some of the news she had missed, gone through more information and forms, and locked up before bed. She wasn't expecting her father home, no matter what he might have said, because the promised pizza from Kurt almost certainly came with alcohol, and Lacey wouldn't let her father drive home drunk. She'd likely see her father the following evening, depending on how long things ran at the PRT.
Sunday morning Taylor was awoken not by an alarm or phone call, but by the garage door opening. This confused her, so she threw on a pair of her 'civilian' gloves as she went downstairs.
"Morning Taylor," Danny said as he came in from the garage. "Sorry if I woke you."
"Morning," Taylor replied. "Why are you home this early?"
"No water heater means very cold showers. Please tell me that you being here means the water is fine?"
"Yep. I even did a load of laundry last night, though I don't think they would want us drinking or cooking with it yet at a minimum. And I stuck to some of the towels we use for spills and such for the load of laundry."
"Good. I'm going to go take a proper shower, then, even if I'll want to take another one later to deal with lingering stuff in the water. Unless there's anything important you think I should know from yesterday?"
"Um, the Dallons all know about the Nine now? That's about it, I think."
Danny stared at Taylor for a moment, then shook his head. "I might decide to ask more about that later. Don't care enough right now. Why are you wearing gloves in the house?"
Taylor raised an eyebrow, then projected a light flick against her father's forehead. He facepalmed, groaned, and waved her off as he made his way upstairs. Taylor decided that if she was up anyway she might as well make something to eat, and then perhaps she'd go to the PRT early to hit the gym.
An hour later it appeared her father had gone to bed after his shower, so Taylor gathered her things and left.
The gym had been deserted, so Taylor exercised in peace. She then changed into her costume and hunted down some waffles for a second breakfast before wandering back to the Wards area. Once there she poked around PHO for a bit, wishing she could get into the armory for some dummy grenades to test her air cannon with instead, before noticing Colin was approaching.
Taylor got up and turned to the door as Colin opened it. "Good morning Armsmaster."
"Good morning Maul," Colin replied as he entered. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
"Just browsing PHO while waiting for Missy and/or Miss Militia to come by, but I don't expect either of them for the next hour or so at least."
"Good. I was hoping we could talk for a few minutes." Colin then pulled some papers from a compartment on his armor. "Oh, and here's the printed copy of your assignment back, one of the scientists had it with them when they left yesterday and returned it to me when they were done."
Taylor took the papers, having forgotten about them, and slipped them into one of her jacket's pockets. "Thanks. What did you want to talk about?"
"Your decision to 'link' the powers of those fighting against Lung yesterday. While it was apparently helpful and did not interfere with testing Lung's powers, and in fact may have enhanced that testing, it was also irresponsible to do so without warning or prior discussion. At the same time, however, the scientists think some of the issue is that you are only linking powers together like that during the tinker fugues, and possibly with Panacea and Oni Lee earlier in the week. It is a use of your power that you aren't taking advantage of normally, and as far as we can tell yesterday was your first combat use of the ability."
"Which probably means I've had a growing subconscious itch to do something like that. Damn it. I thought I had a handle on what my snark was pushing me to do."
"I've asked Miss Militia to brief the other Wards on things. The current recommendation is that you use that particular ability whenever you are on patrol with two or more others that agree to it. Barring exceptional circumstances you should be asking before doing so, if only so that those involved know that sudden otherwise unexplained instinctual drives are to be expected."
"Because otherwise they could be looking for a master affecting them. Right."
"There won't be any punishment this time, due to the likely subconscious buildup."
"Er, thank you."
"Now then, I don't suppose you would be willing to help test something that occurred to me this morning?"
Taylor tilted her head as she wondered what he could possibly need her help testing. "I guess, but I'm not sure what I could help with?"
"I'm wondering if your SL10 access allows you to tap into my helmet or workshop without my authorization."
"How would I even try that?"
Colin seemed stunned for a moment, before he sighed. "Of course you wouldn't know how, or possibly even have the software installed. You have no need for it normally. Well then, I suppose we should start there."
The next half hour was taken up with installing and configuring remote access software, finding out that it allowed for a lot of access to things Taylor didn't know she could access in the process. Like every Console in the city, with or without informing the people running them that she was watching, but that was apparently expected as any Protectorate or Ward member with SL6 or better could do that.
She couldn't access pretty much anyone's personal equipment, which included Colin's helmet and workshop. Which pleased Colin, before he then granted her access to the workshop anyway.
"Why do you want me to have access to your workshop?" Taylor asked, after they confirmed that she could now connect to it. "I mean, I'm honored and all, but why me?"
"All tinkers with private workshops are supposed to have multiple local people trusted with access, if only to help get the tinker out in case of emergency. When possible it is another tinker, who can hopefully avoid catastrophic failures of things. I had Kid Win as my primary emergency access until Countdown joined. Unfortunately, Countdown should replace Kid Win due to being a Protectorate member of equal or greater clearance. I don't trust her enough at this time for personal reasons. Your clearance trumps hers despite your Ward status, and your powers would allow you even better understanding of how to not set off my own technology so long as I am still alive in the lab."
"And you trust me more than you trust Countdown?"
"I was, admittedly, unsure about that until yesterday. But if Dragon trusts you to the degree she apparently does then I feel you are trustworthy enough. As a side benefit, I can now use this to metaphorically tweak Countdown's nose by leaving Kid Win as my secondary, since the normal rules and regulations only specify the stricter rules for the primary."
"So, how likely is it that she will do the same to keep you out of her stuff?"
"At this time I outrank her, so she isn't allowed to lock me out at all. I will be recommending that she use you as her own secondary, however. Your ability to likely safely navigate her own workspace to extract her would be invaluable in an emergency. It will be up to her to decide either way, and she may or may not inform you of her decision."
"So unless I am told otherwise I should be prepared to be called in to help get either of you out of your own labs?"
"In essence, yes. Now then, unless you have any other questions for me I will take my leave."
"I think I'm good. Have a nice day."
"You too."
Taylor watched Colin leave, and wondered if she should feel guilty about the fact that Dragon probably couldn't distrust her right now. Which meant that it was almost like an indirect lie to Colin, but to reveal that would require revealing things about Dragon that weren't her place to reveal. Then again, the rest of the arguments for her being able to get him out of his workshop were sound, and part of the access he made sure she had was the 'emergency stop' function to kill his equipment.
She also suspected that he had been looking for an excuse he could use to get out of leaving Vivian with any access to his workshop, and may have gone this route anyway as a result. She certainly wasn't sure how much she would trust Vivian with her own stuff, even if Vivian was learning that she wasn't necessarily smarter than any other given individual.
Taylor spent the rest of the time she was waiting for Missy to arrive poking around the rules and regulations, wondering what tinkers who didn't have other tinkers around were supposed to do in regards to the whole emergency access to the workshop bit. In the end she came to the conclusion that it fell into one of two categories. Who outranks them, and who they trust. They didn't even need to pick a parahuman when no parahuman had powers that would let them navigate the tinkertech better than a normal human was available locally. Why there were rules about who outranked who when such parahumans were available but not when they weren't she wasn't sure.
In the end Taylor only qualified at all due to her trump rating, which both let her check with the tinker's snark and had helped ensure she had bullshit level clearance to things. Without that combination Colin wouldn't be able to argue that she 'outranked' Vivian according to the rules at all.
Chapter 54 Taylor got up and grabbed the necklaces she had purchased as Missy approached the Wards area from the direction of the ice cream parlor.
"Hello Taylor," Missy said as she entered the common area. "Are there donuts available?"
"Hi Missy," Taylor replied. "And I don't think any donuts are available. We aren't patrolling or anything today. I hunted down waffles earlier instead."
"Dang. What did you want to talk to me about?"
"I was hoping you might be willing to expand these a little." Taylor handed Missy the two necklaces. "I got two in case you wanted to keep one for yourself."
Missy took the necklaces, and then popped open one of the lockets. "Oooh, I have one of these at home. I hadn't thought to expand it. And if you expand behind the pictures nobody would suspect a thing even if they did open it!"
"I was thinking it might be a neat way to hide an emergency key or similar. It couldn't be expanded too much and still work as a necklace."
"True. But hiding a domino mask might work."
"I...don't think anyone I was thinking of giving one to actually wears a mask ever?"
"But I do, and my parents don't always let me wear the utility belt. I don't think they would complain about the necklace."
"Ah."
Missy fiddled with the two necklaces, then handed them both back to Taylor. "There you go. Probably not a bad place to stash emergency money either. Who would steal a cheap photo locket necklace, after all? You can keep those, I'll mess with the one I already have."
"Has anyone else come to you with fun ideas for hidden expanded areas?"
"Nope. But a PRT officer pointed out that I could submit a request for being able to perform an 'added service' of expanding storage in things to the PRT store, kind of a generic 'upgrade' option for things that hold other things. They are 'evaluating cost and benefit options' now."
"Huh. Instead of picking what you hope will resell you get people to just have things sent to you?"
"Basically. But since I'm a Ward they might put severe limits on the number of things I can mess with on demand, so I might look into expanding some basic storage boxes and such as a more generally available item too. So, where were the waffles?"
"General PRT cafeteria upstairs."
Missy darted into her room to throw on her costume. She exited through the rear door and probably crunched the stairwell to an insane degree to get up to the right level faster than the elevators would have let her. Taylor shook her head, then went to grab her tablet. She had seen something about an 'honorary tinker' classification that sounded amusing, but it required filling out some forms. Generally that was easier with the larger screen on the tablet.
Taylor had slogged through the 'honorary tinker' forms and moved to poking around news sites. Apparently the members of the Nine had been spotted with fancy hats, known to be sold by a recently built museum that covered the hat-making heyday of Danbury. Initially it had been believed that they stole them, but apparently they hadn't. Instead a couple days previous the group had purchased tickets, wandered the museum for a bit, and then purchased the hats on their way out.
The museum hadn't called it in because the group was being perfectly reasonable, non-destructive, and hadn't threatened anyone at the time. That, and a pitched battle would have likely destroyed the museum.
Whatever the PRT was up to was still a topic of discussion, but it was now down mostly to speculation about what Tuesday's press conference would reveal. Even the newscasters admitted they were grasping at straws, though, so there wasn't much of interest there. Apparently it was going to be a major press conference either way, and some schools had decided to prepare to show it to students live. She couldn't find anything indicating if Arcadia would be doing so. They had just missed a day, so another distraction taking away from classes might not be desirable.
Dragon had apparently gotten manufacturing speed up as the number of available units of any given consumer product of hers in the private sector was increasing. With that the demand was also increasing, so prices hadn't gone down. But more people would likely be running around with tinkertech-derived computers and phones in the near future. Though nobody seemed to have any clue on why the first additional shipments were heading for New England.
Yesterday's fight with Lung had apparently been, in part, 'parahuman-assisted demolition', with permits and everything filed. Several unions were up in arms as a side effect, since 'proper safety procedures had not been followed'. This appeared to be primarily relating to no helmets or high-visibility safety vests being worn in the video. When asked if they had a problem with non-union personnel participating they had admitted that they had no say there, but apparently if it had been a union job then all the proper safety regulations would have been followed.
Missy returned with some waffles while Taylor was reading about the 'Dragonslayers' having been captured, apparently having activated a homing beacon of some kind in the tech they had stolen from Dragon. Dragon herself hadn't engaged with them, instead Narwhal had led a small team against them while Dragon was otherwise unavailable. All of the recovered tech was to be turned over to Dragon in the near future.
"Do you know why Miss Militia wants to talk to us?" Missy asked between waffles, pulling Taylor out of flipping through the news. "Or are you just as out of the loop as I am?"
"I just know she wants to," Taylor answered as she got up from where she had been sitting. "No clue why." She messed up Missy's hair on the way past her, getting an irritated growl from Missy, before grabbing a drink from the fridge. "Could be related to being done with the firearms class, though. That's one of the only things that involved just the two of us."
Missy 'hmmm'ed at that, given her mouthful of waffle. The two of them really didn't have much to go on either way, honestly.
Taylor and Missy were ready for Miss Militia when she arrived a few minutes before eleven. Though they were curious about the storage box she was carrying.
"Good morning Maul, Vista," Miss Militia said as the Wards door closed behind her.
"Good morning Miss Militia," Taylor and Missy replied in sync. They then blinked and looked at each other, not that their visors let anyone see the blinks. While they did that Miss Militia was putting the box she had with her on the coffee table.
"Right," Miss Militia continued. "I have several things to go over this morning." She then pulled a picture frame out of the box. "To start with, Lung's daughter sent a drawing last week. Standard procedures required that it be checked over, and several of us chipped in to have it framed for you."
Taylor took the picture frame from Miss Militia and looked at the contents, angling the frame so Missy could see as well. "Huh."
"Think we should hang it in here?" Missy asked as she looked at the drawing. "I mean, we can't both hang it in our rooms?"
"We'll have to think about it."
"Moving on," Miss Militia said, pulling two envelopes out of the box. She handed one to each of them. "These contain your portion of the rest of Lung's apology. Officially the PRT doesn't accept such things, of course. And since they don't officially exist we can move onto the next bit right away."
Taylor and Missy both slid their envelope into a utility belt pouch that could not possibly have held the envelope normally while Miss Militia pulled two smaller boxes out of the larger box.
"Now then," Miss Militia said, double-checking the labels on the boxes, before handing one to each of the two Wards. "The ENE is one of six branches willing to issue sidearms to capes at all, and one of two that is willing to issue sidearms to Wards. This is partially thanks to a combination of local laws and the overall state of the gangs. That said, these are still to be weapons of last resort. Use of them out of costume is only recommended when your only other option to get out of danger is use of your powers. In costume is a different story. Wielding a gun that is not directly tied to your powers will usually be considered an escalation to lethal force. Unless absolutely necessary you should only do so if the other side has done so first, and even then we don't recommend it. Expect a very detailed debriefing and punishment if you go that far and the PRT doesn't agree with your decision."
Taylor and Missy both nodded. Technically this was reviewing things brought up in their classes.
"At the same time, you are also in unique positions of having powers that may be quite useful with those sidearms, which is the primary reason Director Piggot authorized the full firearms class for the two of you, instead of the class on handling firearms safely for disarming purposes," Miss Militia continued. "Vista, your recent storage expansion tricks aside, you should be able to warp space such that you can hit a target from unexpected angles. Maul on other hand may very well be able to get what amounts to two hits out of every shot fired, though we think there would be issues with trying to hit things to the side of the bullet's trajectory due to the gun's barrel being in the way. As such, we're honestly curious what the two of you can accomplish that others can't."
"I wonder if Missy could safely anchor a temporary spatial distortion to the bullets to change their flight path," Taylor mused. "It would probably have to not interact with the barrel, or somehow only start working after it had made it out of the barrel?"
"I could try putting it on the tip of the bullet," Missy said, contemplating things. "But it might just make the bullet unstable."
"And with that we move onto the last thing I have for you two today," Miss Militia said, picking the box up. "A quick tour of the armory, and then showing you the brand new parahuman firing range. The latter of which comes with a number of features to hopefully keep you two safe while you experiment."
Taylor and Missy grinned. The drawing had the stand built into the frame deployed and was left on the coffee table as the three parahumans left the area.
While in the armory, Taylor and Missy had both ended up dropping three containment foam grenades into pockets on their utility belts, which Miss Militia thought was a wonderful idea. She seemed to be less certain about the boxes of bullets, but did recommend two extra magazines and several magazine loader clips each. She also insisted that they grab a PRT-issue sidearm maintenance kit each. She was visibly curious as to why Taylor had grabbed two inert training grenades, but didn't question it. They might have grabbed more, but both of their belts were starting to get a little heavy for them. Luckily they planned on storing some of the stuff in the 'gun locker' units that were apparently installed in their closets the night before.
A quick question regarding that and Taylor had also ordered a lockbox for when she was keeping things in her suitcase as well as a unit she could put in her room at home. Missy had pouted at the latter, thinking that she wouldn't be able to get away with putting a gun locker in anywhere at home. That didn't stop her from ordering the suitcase-compatible version for later use.
Miss Militia then brought them to the new parahuman firing range. Which had two zones, an outer 'observation' zone and the inner range. She spent half an hour going over the basic security features, during which they were informed that they needed a PRT Officer or Protectorate member in at least the observation area, and the range itself wouldn't open otherwise. She then invited them to try passing through without her as a demonstration.
Five minutes later she had threatened severe punishment should Taylor take advantage of the fact that her 'bullshit' access levels seemed to be able to bypass that entirely. Taylor had promised to not violate the rules as laid down, and to not look for ways around things if they were able to correct the settings so that it worked as intended.
With that taken care of she produced a laptop computer and set herself in the observation area, keeping an eye on the two Wards while also getting some work done. She had indicated that while she would be monitoring them, what they did was their responsibility. She would only intervene if she felt they were putting themselves at significant risk or if they actually injured themselves.
"Think we should start with making the magazines hold more bullets?" Missy asked, looking over the six total magazines the two of them had between them. "Because reloading less often seems like one of the most immediately useful things."
"Can you keep the springs working?" Taylor asked in return. "Or do we need to get new springs too?"
"I did research and purchased a pile of springs for larger magazines already," Missy replied, digging a bag full of springs out of her utility belt. "I can probably only get them maybe twice as deep without running into issues, but double capacity per magazine is better than nothing, and will give anyone who thinks they know how many bullets we could possibly fire without reloading a shock. I think everything else will still line up properly when I'm done. But that's why we'll test them here first."
Taylor nodded, and then helped to dismantle the magazines to swap out the springs, even as Missy made them deeper. They then tested loading the modified magazines. They each loaded one a single bullet at a time, then filled a couple of clips to load a second one the 'fast' way. Nothing seemed to be wrong there, so they moved to ensuring that they could still fire the guns. Once ear protection was settled they each emptied a full magazine down the range, both grinning afterwards.
"You should try using your power on the bullets first," Missy said as they each filled their now two empty magazines. "I'm going to think about your idea with getting the bullets to fly on odd trajectories without screwing up the barrel."
"Not looking to just warp space and fire through it?" Taylor asked, preparing an extra clip.
"The problem there is that it would likely work both ways. If the path between us is good enough for me to shoot them then they can shoot me along the same path. Making my bullets do things like curve, though? Much harder for someone to fire back at me, as their bullets won't."
"That is a disturbingly good point."
Taylor finished up filling her clips, then moved to the firing area. She ensured that Missy had her ear protection on and activated the additional protections, since she was working with her power this time. In particular, a physical shield further partitioned her from the rest of the range and a forcefield intended to only block things coming at her was activated. If it worked she would be unable to accidentally shoot herself.
Taylor applied her power to the tip of the flat-tipped bullet in the chamber, prepared to project but not projecting yet, and found that it gave her a mental line straight to the target. Which would still need compensation for distance and stuff like that, but it would make firing a lot easier. She proceeded to demonstrate that by putting half her magazine into the target faster than she could normally, getting into the rhythm of activating her power on the next bullet as it came into the chamber.
After she had that down, she started firing with the projection active. As expected, the target ended up with two holes per bullet. The first hole punched through pretty much instantly while the second had to wait for the bullet to actually get there. With three bullets left in her magazine she paused to have the range switch the target out and activate a second forcefield, this one halfway down the range and blocking the target completely, but not covering the sides. Missy would normally fire around this obstacle, but Taylor flipped her mental switch before firing her last three bullets. All three were stopped by the forcefield, but the target had three new holes.
Going through the 'done shooting for the moment' steps, Taylor thought about things. The barrel on the gun was short enough that she could likely start the projection as the bullet left it. But if anchored to the bullet it would be spinning a lot, so she wouldn't have a good idea of how it would actually hit. She was also somewhat unhappy with the 'drop' she was getting.
Making her way back over to Missy, Taylor found her throwing a ball up in the air. Scowling. Seeing Taylor's approach, Missy took her ear protection off.
"I'm having issues with the curving idea," Missy said, throwing the ball at the wall. "I think I can get the distortion to not spin with the bullet, but that doesn't help. All it would do is mess with space in front of the bullet."
"Huh," Taylor said, sitting down and grabbing the clips she had prepared already. It didn't take long to unload them into the magazine, after which she started refilling the clips themselves. "Projecting forward works for me, but I'm having trouble deciding how to go about projecting in any other direction. The spinning is going to be a problem, I think."
Missy got up and collected the ball, then started pacing. "Not much of one, if you are resorting to it. Unless you need to hit a specific line I imagine the added damage is good either way?"
"Maybe. I should probably give it a try, better to know what I'm getting into before I need it in the field, right?"
"Probably."
Taylor thought about Missy's issue. Making the distortion in front of the bullet did nothing if the distortion wasn't there when the bullet intersected it, apparently.
Hey, can the distortion she's making 'lag' a bit, so the bullet has time to hit it?
[Agreement. Data]
Oh, she thought of that. But curving things like that would likely cause barrel jams. Hmmm.
"I don't suppose you can cheat?" Taylor said aloud, getting Missy's attention. "I mean, you can't curve the space the bullet is passing through without screwing up in the barrel, but can you just mess with distance around part of the bullet? Maybe having half of it going through more or less space will make a curve, while technically leaving everything going straight?"
Missy stared at Taylor for a minute, then shrugged. "Worth a try, I guess." She walked over to the table to collect her gun, a single magazine, and the ear protection she had been wearing. Since Missy at least had something to try, Taylor started some searches for ways to maybe reduce the 'drop' she was getting.
Ten minutes later Missy returned, grinning like a loon. "I think I got it. It wasn't as simple as just some space crunching, because I have to twist the warped space itself a bit, but the bullet only curves when not in the barrel."
"Neat," Taylor replied. "So, I don't suppose you can make the barrel longer on the inside?"
"Why would you want to do that?"
"So the bullet has more time to get up to speed with the propellant going off behind it? It might also make things a little quieter, but I haven't found any really good information there."
"Huh. You willing to run the initial test?"
"Sure."
Missy took Taylor's unloaded gun and concentrated. After a moment she put the gun down. "There, that should be a good test. Give it a try."
Taylor picked the gun up and ran through a couple of checks before grabbing a magazine and moving over to the range itself. Once everything was set up she projected the bullets forward as she fired three. The double-hole sets were significantly closer together than they had been before, and Taylor thought the overall noise level had gone down slightly. But probably not enough to be noticable.
She went back over to Missy, smirking a bit. "Worked great, but we probably need different cleaning equipment now. How much did you increase it?"
"Four times the original length," Missy replied. "I figured if it was too big inside it would throw off aim due to the recoil kicking in before the bullet left the gun. Also, getting the rifling correct was easiest with round numbers. Let me test mine, then I want to see what happens if you do the off-angle projection trick."
Missy concentrated on her gun for a moment, then collected what she needed and went to make sure it was still working fine. She came back grinning a few minutes later, and Taylor collected what she needed and made her way to the range. Missy situated herself further back near the observation room window while Taylor set up multiple targets at different distances, so they could see what happened with the projected force over distance. A series of lines at random angles was Taylor's best guess.
Focusing on her power, Taylor found herself grateful she hadn't used her power for aiming from the start, as setting up for projecting to the side meant she didn't get a nice mental line where the gun was pointing. Luckily her snark was willing to say 'start projecting at this point', where said point was just beyond the muzzle in this case. Otherwise the timing would have been near impossible.
To keep things safer, she limited the range of the projection to no more than fifteen centimeters from the bullet. She was fairly certain that none of the paper targets were thick enough to interfere with the projection, and the bullet would hit the backstop before the projection effect ended. With everything ready she took careful aim and fired a single round. She then stared at the shredded targets, their edges barely holding together around the large circular holes in them.
What the hell happened?
[Data]
The spinning was fast enough that you couldn't tell where it hit on the way by, so you modeled it as a circle instead. I...wow. What would happen if the circle intersected, say, the ground?
[Elaboration]
"I think you need to keep that particular trick in reserve," Missy finally said, staring at the shredded targets.
Taylor carefully rendered her gun safe, before looking over at Missy. Who was pale, and still staring at the shredded targets. Taylor went through the process of clearing the targets from the range, then went back to the table they had been using. Absently replacing the round she had fired, she then packed things away. She was done for the day after that. Missy came back a couple of minutes later and packed up as well.
Miss Militia had also packed up and made her way over to the two as they came out of the range itself. "I'm glad that you appear to have followed through with your safety rules, and both of you got some benefits from your powers. Vista, I particularly liked your curved shots. What really impressed me, though, was that last shot Maul made. It was quite impressive."
"It's fucking terrifying," Taylor countered.
"I'm sure it seems a bit excessive, but against the kind of target I would expect you to use that trick on it would be quite useful."
"Miss Militia, that was me limiting the projecting to the side to only fifteen centimeters. My range for that kind of projection is at least a hundred meters. My snark keeping me calm and the knowledge that I have a practical range limit for the projection of 'where the circle meets the ground' are probably the only reasons I am not having a panic attack over how dangerous that trick is."
Miss Militia stared at Taylor, then closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. "Ok, I can see where you're coming from now. Can you do that with any gun?"
"A rifled barrel that imparts enough spin to overload my snark's ability to figure out the impact line is needed. That and the muzzle has to be within fourteen or so centimeters of my skin at the time of firing to allow for clearing the barrel, with the bullet remaining within fifteen centimeters of my skin from the breech through to the point where it leaves the muzzle. So only for weapons I can accomplish those conditions, even if it requires both hands to hold it."
"Right. Moving on from the now incredibly disturbing application of your powers, you both passed the safe handling test I didn't tell you was being given." Miss Militia pulled two more packages out of the box she had been carrying with her, and handed each of them one. "These contain two holsters each. One for adding to your costumes and one for use in your civilian attire. Maul, your costume holster is not intended to be hidden, as befitting your anti-hero branding. Vista, yours is intended to be more discreet. Both 'civilian' variants are intended to be non-obvious. Your ID cards for nationwide concealed carry thanks to your effective employment with the PRT are included."
The two Wards thanked her as they took the new packages, and added them on top of the small gun cases they had put the sidearms in for transport. They then made their way back to the Wards area, with Miss Militia splitting off along the way. Once back in the Wards area the two checked the locks on their new gun safes, which were hidden in the backs of their closets and thus hard to spot.
Missy packed her gun away in the safe, since she doubted her parents would be happy with it being at home. Taylor did the same, but in her case it was a combination of still being unsettled from her final test using her powers and because she wanted to have the safe for at home in place first. With everything packed up the two changed into their civilian clothing and headed out, but not before moving their extra 'apology' from Lung to their 'civilian' utility belts.
Taylor was eating a late lunch, wondering where her father was, and otherwise distracting herself from her day by watching the news. Apparently most of the missing prisoners in Danbury had made their way straight to police stations or found people willing to call in to pick them up. The few that had been talked to indicated that staying in a prison possibly under attack was a bad thing for those who wanted to live. Some had very little time left on their sentences, others just didn't want to be an 'escaped convict' anywhere near the Slaughterhouse Nine.
They hoped to have a list of those prisoners that hadn't turned themselves in or perished when the tinkertech whatever it was went through the prison compiled by Monday, but with the damage to the prison having also damaged prison records they were having to get a review of backup copies. There was also a heavy suspicion that the Nine had probably done their best to 'collect' anyone left.
Taylor was considering moving on to something more productive, like looking over the hand to hand combat booklet again, when the news broadcast was interrupted with a breaking news story.
This just in, we have just been informed that Medhall's hospital for experimental treatment has been placed into emergency quarantine by Panacea, who triggered the seals required for any facility working with parahuman-derived experimental treatments at two fifteen.
Panacea reported that she is unaffected by whatever has gone wrong, but remained inside the building when she triggered the quarantine. At this time we have been told she is busy working to resolve whatever issue she detected.
Per the quarantine protocols, an emergency evacuation of the rest of the Medhall building is in progress. Max Anders, President and CEO of Medhall, was apparently in the hospital area at the time Panacea triggered the quarantine and is thus unavailable for comment. Other Medhall staff declined to speak to the news at this time, citing a need to ensure that the evacuation and lockdown of the building was dealt with in a timely manner.
The PRT Is also evacuating nearby buildings to set up a wider-area exclusion zone and has called for assistance from other regions to help establish a secondary quarantine line. This indicates that whatever was detected it has a potential to spread very quickly in the event of a breach of the primary quarantine.
This is the third time that the parahuman-derived experimental treatment quarantine protocols have been activated since their establishment six years ago...
Staring at the television, and no longer paying attention as they went over the history and specifications of the quarantine protocols, Taylor wondered what the hell had gone wrong. Amy was visiting Medhall often enough now that something like this should have been caught before it became an issue, right?
Chapter 55 Taylor had ended up effectively memorizing her hand to hand combat booklet, because it wasn't online and she was thus not as tempted to check for more news about Medhall every few minutes. She would have sent Amy a message, but figured that would be a distraction, and anything worth the quarantine would have Amy busy enough as it was. As a concession to her worry, though, she did her reading with the news running on TV.
When her father came home he congratulated her on getting a sidearm, as Miss Militia had apparently let him know. He then wanted to know where it was, and supported her decision to not bring it home until she had a gun safe in the house. That was followed by dinner. Once he had eaten he showered and went to bed, since he had been drafted into helping set up temporary fencing. The PRT apparently didn't have enough available on short notice, so they were renting from the dockworkers, and there was a shortage of workers available to help set things up.
Eventually Taylor turned the TV off and went to bed, even if it took over an hour to get to sleep due to being worried about what was happening in Medhall.
Monday morning the news was talking about how the PRT had set up multiple security rings around Medhall. Whatever had gotten loose was being taken very seriously. Specialists from several other branches had apparently been flown in overnight. The list of 'unrecovered' prisoners from Danbury being available was mentioned as an afterthought, and in part as speculation on whether or not they would try to get to Brockton Bay to take advantage of the Medhall disruption.
At school Taylor noted that no members of New Wave were in attendance, which did not come as a surprise. The most interesting events in her morning classes were related to her assignments. The first was turning in her Endbringer assignment, which when checked by the teacher got a question about the length. Taylor shrugged and admitted she couldn't find anything she felt should be cut, and probably would have added more if she hadn't run out of resources in the library. The other was being told that she was now excused from turning in a report on why the Nine would or would not attack Danbury.
On the latter, she was asked to provide some thoughts she might have had to that point. She pointed out that there were several foreign capes that visited Danbury frequently for some reason as one possibility for the Nine being attracted, but that the Federal Prison would likely have been a reason for them to avoid the area. In the end she had no compelling arguments either way. In fact, she had never gotten a reason for their visit out of her uncle either, not that she said anything about that in class.
Come lunchtime she was a bit lost, given that she had been sitting with Amy or Vicky pretty much all the time since she started at Arcadia. She ended up sitting with Carlos and Dennis, who seemed determined to keep people from bothering her, leaving Dean to be pestered by those that thought he could extract information about Medhall from Vicky. Taylor appreciated the effort, and absently wondered if there was something she could do to thank them. After lunch her last couple of classes were dealt with, and it was time to head to the PRT building.
Taylor had been the first Ward to reach the PRT building, at least in part due to being able to bypass the traffic headaches caused by the road closures around Medhall. Hand to hand classes were apparently 'minimal costume', unless you had a costume element represented in your civilian attire. In Taylor's case that meant her gloves and utility belt were permitted. Generic PRT shirts and pants had been provided so that they wouldn't be wearing armored clothing or power armor.
The end result felt really odd to Taylor, but she figured she'd probably stop noticing once the class actually began.
Missy was the next to arrive, and as she came back from changing Taylor overheard her complaining about the generic outfits.
"Why are you wearing your utility belt?" Missy asked as she came out to the common area after changing. "We aren't supposed to have any of our equipment on?"
"Because I wear one in and out of costume?" Taylor replied.
Missy blinked, and pulled her phone off of the holster she had put it in. She likely pulled up the instructions they had for the hand to hand class, because a minute later she darted back to her room, only to return afterwards wearing her own utility belt.
"I hadn't noticed that they encouraged wearing costume pieces you had an equivalent for in your civilian attire," Missy admitted. "So, er, did Miss Militia tell your father about your sidearm?"
"Yeah," Taylor answered. "Did your parents explode when they found out?"
"Er, no. Mom apparently took the initial call and gushed over me when I got home, calling me her 'little sharpshooter' and everything. Dad was jealous about the concealed carry permit when he made it home later, and they insisted I get my own gun safe because there's no extra room in the one in their closet. They plan on bringing me to their gun club that I didn't know they went to soon? Apparently they met there and it's one of the few things they agree on."
Taylor blinked a couple of times. That was...unexpected? "So, what do you think the chances of them being allowed to observe you in the parahuman range here are? Since you won't be able to do your 'trick' shots at the gun club?"
"I have no idea where to even start looking for that. Maybe I'll ask Miss Militia later? It would likely need to be a scheduled trip with advance warning for everyone, given that they'd be in the lower areas. We were told about visitors in the testing areas when you signed up, for example."
"I assume I haven't heard of that in part due to the new Wards since I joined not having parents around for testing?"
"Probably. That and not everyone has their parents around during testing anyway. It isn't actually a requirement, after all, just a recommendation so that parents have an idea of what their kids are capable of."
Taylor pulled her Maul phone out to look up some things based on that. She waved to the other Wards as they came in, got changed, and collapsed onto the couches, but otherwise dug through regulations. She also absently noted other familiar snarks enter her range, but didn't pay them much attention. Eventually she felt she had figured out what she wanted to, though, and looked up.
"So, Missy," Taylor said, waving her phone. "Looks like all you need to do is ask Miss Militia, Armsmaster, or Director Piggot for permission to bring your parents in for a demonstration. Apparently since you have a new trick that can't be shown 'at home' they are required to let you show your parents here at least once? But they might drag you to the Rig instead."
"What are you talking about?" Dennis asked, looking at them oddly.
"Apparently my parents met at a gun club and they probably want to see my trick shooting skills," Missy explained. "But that is powers stuff, so I can't show them at the gun club?"
"Like warping space to shoot around things?" Brian asked.
"Nope. I've got simple curved shots figured out. I think I can temporarily counteract the downward pull of gravity too, by curving the bullet upwards. I'm not sure on two curves at the same time yet, but hope to figure that out so the bullet can move more in 3D space."
"My observations of her trick shots have earned her a minor Accuracy Blaster rating when armed with a gun," Miss Militia said, startling everyone but Taylor and Dean. "Maul, on the other hand, is now officially a Barrage Blaster 9 when armed with a gun, within an estimated line of sight distance of up to two and a half thousand feet. If she has reason to use that particular ability and she tells you to get out of the way you get out of the way."
The Wards other than Missy looked at Taylor at that, eyes wide. Inference Engine was very curious as well. Taylor just raised an eyebrow.
"Now then," Miss Militia continued, not letting anyone ask questions. "I suggest we get moving, we don't want to annoy the Youth Guard by having you be late for your mandated training. Also, just so you aren't surprised when we get there, your sessions for these two weeks are being attended by Weathergirl and Countdown as well."
The Wards got up and followed Miss Militia to a heavily-padded training room, where Dinah and Vivian were waiting for them with a group of four PRT officers. Two of whom were apparently checking the padding. By occasionally throwing themselves into it?
"Excuse me Maul," Dinah said, getting Taylor's attention. "I was hoping you could tell me something."
"I'll do my best," Taylor replied. "What's up?"
"I gained a switch in my head, and when I flip it there's a timer. And when I flip it back there's another timer. Can you check to see what's up with the timers?"
"Um, ok. Gimme a minute."
So, what's...
[Data]
Oh. That makes sense. Thank you.
"Apparently your snark is cheating a bit by letting you turn things off, but it can't keep them off forever without breaking its own rules," Taylor answered. "The timer when you flip the switch 'off' is how long before it will flip back 'on' automatically. Once 'on' you can't flip the switch back to 'off' until that timer runs out."
"I thought that was it," Dinah replied. "Still better than nothing, I guess."
"Ok everyone," one of the PRT officers said. "Time to get started. For some of you this is your first time taking this course, and for others it is a refresher. Either way, please remember that this is intended, in part, to give you tools to protect yourself without relying on your powers. Whether it be because you are out of costume or perhaps in range of a power nullifier."
"To that end please do your best to hold back on your powers," another officer said. "You'll get more out of it that way."
With that said they split people based on expected levels. Taylor ended up with Vivian, Lisa, and Dinah in the 'absolute beginners' category. Lisa seemed unhappy, Inference Engine seemed to think she should have taken Brian up on fighting lessons in the past?
The group of Wards made their way back to their common area. Of the eight, two were being looked at with jealousy. Brian's skill had him outperforming the instructors, meaning he ended up being passed on the class already. Taylor, on the other hand, was the only other one without any significant bruises, entirely due to her enhancements. Which wasn't to say she did well, exactly. She still needed a lot of work, but for the most part getting hit didn't hurt all that much for her and as such she had been able to keep going through the entire session.
Vivian and Dinah had given it a good try, but had tired out long before Taylor had. Similarly to when Amy had gotten frustrated in the gym, Taylor made a point of not saying anything about her enhancements.
"So," Brian finally said, shaking his head. "Who's sticking around here to eat?"
"I know Weathergirl grabbed the voucher for the cafeteria," Carlos replied. "Countdown probably has a digital one, but nothing was offered for us?"
"Miss Militia is waiting for us in the common area," Taylor offered. "I wouldn't be surprised if the table is set up and filled with food."
Apparently that was enough of an encouragement to get everyone moving faster. When they arrived they found that there was indeed a table full of food, with Miss Militia sitting at the console.
"Good, nobody got injured to the point of needing medical assistance," Miss Militia said once everyone was inside, though she remained sitting at the console. "Now then, for the rest of the week you'll get a digital voucher for the cafeterias after class, but today is different. But I'll cover some of that afterwards."
The Wards looked at each other, shrugged, and dug into their apparent dinner. Once everyone was done Miss Militia came over. "Now then, even I've heard of Maul's spectacular flailing selection of Danbury in class, so I won't ask about how it was chosen. But I will congratulate her on her uncontested solo victory in selecting a Slaughterhouse Nine target."
The other Wards blinked and looked at Taylor, even as she was wondering if Miss Militia was aware that she had submitted her voucher before the dart incident. Probably not, or there would probably be more questions.
"Wasn't that the day you were bashing your head on the table at lunch?" Dennis asked.
"Yes," Taylor said, giving Dennis a glare.
"Just making sure I had the right day," Dennis quickly said, holding his hands up as though to ward Taylor off.
"At any rate," Miss Militia continued. "The conditions applied to the voucher puts two thirds of the winnings in Maul's accounts, split between her spending and trust accounts, and the last third into the general fund for the Wards ENE. Given that the last four pots were unclaimed, coupled with the solo victory, that leaves a sizable amount of money available for you all to spend. I recommend finding time to do things out of costume, like perhaps a group movie run?"
"Paintball?" Chris offered, causing everyone else to look at him. "What?"
"Not laser tag?" Missy asked.
"He probably doesn't want to be tempted to pull apart the equipment," Lisa guessed, causing Chris to blush.
"Am I the only one considering that we only have two people here who have been trained in firing actual guns?" Brian asked. "In fact, I think they got secondary ratings for them?"
"Paintballs don't quite act like bullets," Miss Militia said. "Which means it isn't exactly unfair on that front. Though while I wouldn't be surprised if Vista can still do her trick, Maul's two won't work because her power won't leave a paint mark behind. Assuming, of course, you were either in costume or had the entire area to yourselves so that you could use powers, anyway. You'll want to think about it either way, and could probably go on a good dozen outings. Aegis will have the information on the full amount by the end of the day tomorrow."
"We'll have to make a list of ideas," Carlos said. "But if the amount is that big we can probably do them all."
"Moving on, Maul, can we talk for a moment?"
"Er, sure?" Taylor said, getting up and heading into her room with Miss Militia. Once the door was closed she looked at Miss Militia. "What's up?"
"We'd like to do an unofficial power testing on your 'Barrage Blaster' trick. Due to the ranges involved it would need to be outside and as such somewhat potentially public. Because of that we were thinking about doing so out on the Rig, where you could hopefully shoot from the roof to get the needed height as you shot out over the water."
"Ok. I can see how that would be useful, and let me know if it does still work at full range."
"We also want to try with some alternate weapons, not just your pistol, and we figured we might invite the other Wards to see things in person. At the very least we hope it will cause the get out of the way warning to sink in better."
"Ok, I can see that. And I think the initial shock has worn off, mostly. When do you want to do this?"
"We're thinking Saturday at this point, but I'll be sure to let you know."
The two headed back out to the common area to find the other Wards had taken it upon themselves to clean up the table, and Chris was operating the controls in the wall to stow it.
"Now that I have checked with Maul," Miss Militia said, gesturing to Taylor. "I'll tell the rest of you that we are hoping to do a larger test of her Barrage Blaster skill, and the rest of you will likely be invited to observe. With that said, have a nice evening."
Miss Militia left, and Missy spoke up before Taylor could. "Don't bother asking. If you're going to be able to see it you'll be better off waiting for that."
Taylor shrugged and, since everything was cleaned up already, went back to her room to change. She figured she'd shower at home today.
When Taylor got home she found that her printer had shown up, so she dragged it upstairs and set it up in her room, ensuring that both of her phones and her tablet could talk to it. She then decided to take her shower, only to have her father call while she was in there. Talking on the phone while showering was an interesting experience, but her father had apparently ended up with two flat tires due to driving over a piece of metal embedded in the road, and as such would probably be quite late.
Once she was cleaned up she changed into sleepwear, then sat down and decided to be a lazy teenager and goof off online. She was ahead on all of her homework, nothing new had been assigned today, and she wasn't in the mood to slog through forms tonight. Somehow she ended up playing a stupid game on a website until she realized she should probably get to sleep. A few minutes dealing with brushing her teeth and such was followed by her climbing into bed.
She absently noted her father returning and going to bed himself as she was drifting off.
Tuesday morning Taylor was parking her moped when her personal phone rang. She almost fell over in surprise, and picked up right away.
"Amy!" Taylor said. "Are you ok?"
"I'm tired but fine," Amy replied, sounding quite tired. "I just requested that the quarantine be lifted, but it'll be at least two days before they start letting us out."
"What happened?"
"Medhall had gotten their hands on a number of samples from parahumans for analysis. But something went wrong with their containment unit, and all the samples got loose. Most of them were merely samples of what might eventually become drugs, and only one of those turned into a gas. The problem was the Nilbog sample, intended to see if they could figure out how it seemed to rebuild some of his creations and if it could be adapted to heal humans. I had to make a short-lived counter to the thing, then keep everyone clear of infection."
"Could the sample have broken containment in the first place?"
"I have no idea. I don't have the skills needed to determine that."
"So why are you calling me?"
"Beyond figuring you'd be worried? The rest of New Wave pushed themselves too hard patrolling to ensure nobody screwed with Medhall while I was trapped and apparently collapsed. That and I figured you could spread word at school, if only to get people to stop bothering you and Dean."
"Have you let Dean know?"
"Nope. You were the only one I figured would be safe with a sudden call from me as a distraction at this point. Can you let him know when you see him?"
"I'll do that."
"And now that you know I'm ok and will spread the word, I'm going to get some sleep."
"Let me know when they let you out?"
"Will do. Bye."
"Bye."
Taylor had to admit that she did feel better now. Now then, she could tell Dean was approaching, and she was in the parking lot area anyway, so she should probably wander over to where he normally parked to let him know.
"Morning Taylor," Dean said as he got out of his car a couple minutes later. "What's up?"
"Amy's asked for the quarantine to be lifted," Taylor replied. "Said it would be a couple of days before they start letting them out, though."
"That's great! She let anyone else know?"
"New Wave apparently are all asleep, with Amy going to do the same."
"Ahh. Ok. And she didn't think to text anyone because she was dead tired?"
"Or was tired enough that she couldn't see the screen and was relying on voice-dialing."
Dean thought about that. "Yeah, I could see that happening after over a day."
When the repeaters powered on at lunchtime Taylor had a pile of messages waiting for her. Most of New Wave had decided to independently let her and Dean know that Amy had asked for the quarantine to be lifted and she should be let out in a couple of days. Vicky had even sent the message to both of Taylor's phones, and Crystal was the only one to mention 'you probably know already, but just in case nobody else let you know'. Director Piggot had requested a meeting with her after school for unspecified reasons, but it looked like she should have plenty of time to hit the gym before it if she wanted. Miss Militia had sent a message letting her know that the Barrage Blaster testing would be on Saturday at one in the afternoon, so Taylor wouldn't be patrolling until Sunday. And the Think Tank sent her a message saying 'no, nobody is pointing them your way'? What the hell did that mean?
Shaking her head, Taylor made her way to the cafeteria. For the second day in a row Dean was approached for information on Medhall, only for him to decide to tell people that she probably had more information than he did, due to obviously being more Amy's friend than he was. The jerk.
"I know nothing more than what you already know," Taylor said to the tenth person to approach her. It was a lie, but she wasn't sure what she was allowed to reveal. "What could I possibly have been informed of while here in school with my phone not working?"
"I don't think she's even looked at her phone since this morning," Dean offered. Which was technically correct, even without the technicality that it was slightly before noon and thus still 'morning'. Though if you wanted to go with 'powered on the screen of' she hadn't looked since yesterday.
"Is there a problem here?" one of the teachers asked, startling those trying to get answers out of Taylor.
"Er, no," one of them answered, before quickly dispersing. The teacher snorted, nodded to Taylor, and went back to keeping an eye on things.
"I have to admit that it's nice not being the only source of information," Dean said, shaking his head. "But the fact that we need to worry about being pestered at all is annoying."
"Yeah," Taylor replied, grinning a little. "We need more parahumans to protect us when New Wave isn't around! Can we petition to have the Wards attend for our protection?"
"Probably not," Dean replied, smirking. "Then they wouldn't be able to attend their own schools, right?"
"Dang. Think we could get the Protectorate to?"
Dean paused. "You know, I bet if you worded it right Assault would make an attempt, but I don't think he'd succeed."
"Drat. Guess we have to suffer, then."
Taylor hadn't gotten to watch the press conference at school, and no audio version was available yet to listen to on the way to the PRT building. She parked and changed for swinging through the gym, and decided she'd bring her tablet so she could prop it up on some of the equipment while she watched it.
Forty-five minutes later Taylor had exited the gym, dazed. It wasn't mentioned in the press conference, but that had to have been what they built. She hadn't been asking anyone about it, maybe because subconsciously she didn't want to have enough information to accidentally leak things? But now that it was known to the public it was going to change a lot.
She had barely registered things as she changed into her Maul costume, skipping the jump harness and weapons for the time being, only really paying attention again as she was getting in the elevator to head up to meet with Director Piggot.
"Good afternoon Maul," the Director's secretary said as Taylor entered the outer office. "Go right in, she's expecting you."
"Thank you," Taylor said, heading into the Director's office. Colin and Miss Militia were both there as well, and it showed how distracted Taylor had been that she hadn't noted that before entering. Though Colin was out of costume, wearing jeans and a black t-shirt?
"Hello Maul," Director Piggot said, gesturing to the seats in front of the desk. "Take a seat."
Taylor sat in the available chair, on the end next to Miss Militia, who was now sitting between her and Colin. "Hello Director, Miss Militia, er..."
"Colin would be fine," Colin replied. "Or Mister Wallis, whichever you are more comfortable with. Other than this meeting I have the day off and decided to skip putting my armor on, since I didn't need to hide my identity from you."
"Right, moving on," Director Piggot said. "Maul, have you seen today's press conference yet?"
"Yes," Taylor replied. "I watched it while in the gym after school."
"Ok then. If you hadn't figured it out, the new tinkertech device capable of scanning for and purging long-term master programming, apparently including but not limited to the Simurgh's, was what the tinker fugue in Canada created. It's horribly expensive to reproduce, uses consumable crystals as part of the process that are horribly expensive, and has a limited scanning range. Luckily the scanning portion doesn't require the crystals."
"Dragon credited you with being the one to properly document how to make the crystals," Colin added. "Without your instructions they would be significantly harder to produce, and an order of magnitude more expensive."
"Despite all of the expense, even without the improved documentation on the crystals the PRT and Guild would be taking money in for it. Temporary isolation of Simurgh zones is a lot cheaper than permanent isolation, and a lot of families have been contributing to funds for a solution like this. And therein lies part of the problem. Most of the tinkers decided that you had more to do with the success then they did and waived their rights to several of the bounty categories before even being informed of what was created."
"It came up in cleanup Sunday night," Colin elaborated. "Specifically, you and Dragon were likely the only ones willing to focus on documentation and reproducibility. The rest of us waived our rights to the bounties relating to that, but not to the patent money for new tinkertech-derived production techniques."
"I'm almost positive that all I was doing was documenting things that your snarks were telling me," Taylor retorted.
"Something we likely couldn't do. Even if we thought about it, most Tinkers can't document what they do to that degree. I learned more about what my own power does from reading your documentation from our first fugue than I had since I triggered. All the thinkers agree that in a fugue that should be worse."
"As a result of their actions," Director Piggot said, obviously trying to get back on track. "The normal distribution of bounty money has gone out of whack. Your portion is now too large. We aren't allowed to pay that much out to a Ward, into the trust fund or not."
"We're not actually supposed to pay that much out to anyone for a single creation," Miss Militia corrected. "It just so happens that the Ward maximum is the one that applies to you. Dragon has a similar issue, but has elected to allow the extra funds to go towards building and supplying the new tinker workshop here. Further, before the amounts were known, Dragon waived some of her own claims to the documentation funds, indicating that your documentation was superior to hers in many ways."
"Right. Luckily there are options, but we need you to decide which way to go. The Youth Guard recommends putting some of the money towards stock in companies, in particular you could afford a number of shares in Dragon-Tech Industries. The PRT recommends picking a local project and putting the extra money towards it."
Taylor wasn't sure what to think. Though she did send a message off to Dragon, asking if the waiving of documentation bounty was due to Taylor being her 'mother'. Ten seconds later she got a response saying that no, that had nothing to do with it, but Dragon was aware that the usable documentation was Taylor's doing. Dragon had apparently focused on how things were interacting at a low level and not how to get them to that state?
"I don't suppose there are any large projects you'd like to see happen in town?" Colin asked, getting Taylor's attention. "We don't think you would want to contribute to building Winslow's replacement, for example."
"Er," Taylor started, before pausing. Her father had two topics he loved to whine about every so often, but only one of them he saw as a personal crusade. So maybe the other? "Perhaps dealing with the container ship and other obstructions in the bay? If there's enough for that, anyway?"
"Huh," Director Piggot said, tapping her fingers on the desk. "That hadn't occurred to me. It's become something of a fixture. I'll have to get people looking into it to see what we can do."
"Would you like to get the shares in Dragon-Tech Industries as well?" Miss Militia asked. "Those are usually quite difficult to get, after all."
Taylor thought about that, and decided that it was probably better to get some of that through what sounded like a normal, legitimate channel. Instead of via Dragon deciding that Mother needed some. "I suppose it isn't a bad idea, overall."
"Great," Director Piggot said, taking a couple of notes. "Now then, on to the other reason I wanted to talk to you. You've already agreed to go through testing of your Barrage Blaster trick this Saturday. Do you have any objection to New Wave or members of the Boston and New York Wards and Protectorate watching? The former would, in part, be a demonstration of the target launcher system being set up that they might want to take advantage of later, and the latter would include meeting some of the Case 53s from Boston. Apparently there is interest in what you can discover about them."
"Er, I suppose I don't mind? I kinda figured someone would be recording the testing anyway, so people seeing it in person isn't really any worse?"
"I'll let the other directors know then. Do you have any questions about any of this?"
"Not right now."
"Good. Then I can get back to my paperwork while waiting for Panacea to wake up. Anders won't tell us anything without talking to his lawyers."
"I don't blame him, with the containment breach on the samples and all." The other three turned to look at Taylor. "What?"
"We only knew something incredibly infectious was involved," Miss Militia replied. "A containment breach being involved at all is beyond our knowledge. What else do you know, and how did you find out?"
"Oh. Amy called me this morning after requesting that the quarantine be lifted, I thought she'd have included everything then? She mentioned that all their parahuman-originating samples had breached containment somehow. One of the drug samples went gaseous, but I think the bigger issue was the Nilbog sample."
Director Piggot was obviously unhappy about that, if the pen she was holding snapping in half had anything to say about it. Her tone of voice just added to it. "Maul, if we get you within range would you be able to confirm that Panacea is not compromised?"
"Er, I believe so?"
"In that case, Miss Militia, please get Maul within range to check on Panacea as soon as possible. I apparently now need to make a number of phone calls."
"Come along Maul," Miss Militia said, shaking her head. "We'd better get this over with, because otherwise the quarantine isn't likely to be going anywhere."
Taylor followed Miss Militia, figuring that anything that helped get Amy out of Medhall was time well spent right now.
Chapter 56 Miss Militia had commandeered a PRT squad to get Taylor out to Medhall and back, resulting in the two of them riding in the back of a van. It wasn't a long trip, and Taylor spotted Shaper as they approached. She studiously ignored the other four snarks inside Medhall.
Hello Shaper!
[Greetings]
I've been asked to ensure that Amy isn't compromised by Nilbog's whatever it was?
[Accusation]
No, I don't doubt your skill. I was asked to check by Director Piggot, as a just in case thing.
[Acceptance. Annoyance. Query]
Of course I don't doubt your ability to deal with things. But there are rules when quarantines are activated.
[Acceptance]
"Looks like Panacea is fine," Taylor said aloud. "And her snark has a really low opinion of Nilbog? Called the work a horrible hack and a few other things. I think it was probably happy to prove it was better by taking out Nilbog's stuff."
"Thank you for the confirmation," Miss Militia said, signaling for the van to turn around.
"No problem."
Taylor ended up having to fill out several forms to 'officially' clear Amy of things, after which she was set loose. Instead of heading home she opted to grab the air cannon and dummy grenades and head down to the junkyard to test things out. Everything worked out wonderfully there after a minor timing tweak, so she even went to the effort of returning the dummy grenades.
Once she was done with that she had nothing better to do, so she got changed and headed home to deal with chores, homework, and possibly making dinner. Once there she popped the news on for background noise while she cleaned up a couple of things, catching the statement that the PRT had indicated they were in the first stages of preparation for clearing the Medhall quarantine. Which was being compared, for no apparent reason, to clearing the Simurgh zones?
Wednesday morning Taylor pulled into the parking lot at school, only to find one of the attending parahumans she hadn't met before waiting there.
"Excuse me, Taylor?" the parahuman, a blond girl younger than Taylor, said as she approached. Taylor believed she had the snark that kept ending up in the hospital. "Can we talk for a few minutes? In private?"
Taylor looked at the girl, and considered things. She popped a text message off to Dean and Carlos, both of whom were in her range but not quite at the school yet, saying she was being asked for a private chat. For safety reasons she'd like them to be aware of it. "I suppose, do you have a place in mind?"
"There's a classroom in this end of the building normally used for study hall, it should be empty right now."
"Alright," Taylor said, gesturing for the girl to lead. Carlos replied to her message with a note that he'd ping her every few minutes. Dean was likely occupied with driving, so probably hadn't looked at the message yet.
Once they were in the classroom with the door shut the girl turned to Taylor. "So, yeah. Sorry about this. My name's Emily Theil, and I'm hoping you have some of the contacts in the PRT everyone thinks you do?"
"I find myself wondering why you need to contact the PRT." Not that she didn't have suspicions, granted. Was this related to what the Think Tank told her yesterday?
"Er, um. I'm kinda a member of the E88, and want out. Things have gotten bad since the whole Coil thing and some of us have been targeted by the others as scapegoats for various reasons. Thing is, several members of the leadership are unavailable to keep an eye on things right now. But we just found out last night that we only have a couple of days, tops, before they're around again, and several of us don't think getting out of town will be possible once they're back in the loop."
Taylor really wanted to bash her head against something. "They're trapped in the quarantine, aren't they?"
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"Lucky guess." That and there weren't that many things that Taylor suspected could keep them away for a couple more days. "Please tell me you at least want out of town too?"
"Hell yes. I've been hospitalized due to Hookwolf and other idiots way too often in the past couple of months, defecting and then sticking around would be a very bad idea. Hell, we'd probably try running without the PRT's help if my cousin hadn't been injured by Hookwolf over the weekend. We kinda need help moving her."
"Whom should I be trying to let the PRT know about wanting to chat?"
"Er, right. You probably know me better as Rune? Othala is my cousin, and her husband Victor is all for going with her, or maybe she's all for going with him? And Purity would be long gone by now if she didn't have her kid to worry about. Can the PRT help there?"
"I'll see what I can do about getting their assistance on all of it. Do you have any way for them to contact any of you?"
Emily handed Taylor a list of phone numbers with letters after them. Looking at it, Taylor figured the letters were mostly obvious. R for Rune, O for Othala, V for Victor, P for Purity. "Who's the T?"
"Er, right. Purity's husband had a kid from a previous marriage, he hasn't triggered but has indicated he'd rather get out while the getting's good?"
"Alright. I'll do my best to make sure someone's in contact soon." This was getting insane, with the number of villains approaching her, but she figured she'd check with the Think Tank to be sure that this was what they meant yesterday. "With any luck they'll be in touch before the end of the day."
"Thank you. I need to get going, hopefully none of the normal gang members saw me talking to you."
Taylor watched as Emily left, then popped a message off to Dean and Carlos saying she was ok and her meeting was over. She followed that up with pulling out a phone to fill out a couple of forms quickly. The one for the requested contact was filled out first and flagged as high priority, and she sent messages to Miss Militia, Colin, and Director Piggot about it. The one for asking the Think Tank a question, on the other hand, was submitted with normal priority, since she was asking them to confirm something they had already told her.
With that done she made her way to where Carlos was coming into the building, then she'd check with Dean.
The fact that the Think Tank responded before she had even found Carlos made her want to scream bullshit on precogs.
Come lunchtime, and the cellular repeaters being turned on, Taylor had messages regarding the E88 situation from Director Piggot and Miss Militia, both indicating that 'contact had been made'. Colin, on the other hand, wanted to know if Taylor's snark was converting people. Which was an interesting question, even if she thought he might be attempting to make a joke.
Are you poking other snarks when I pass them to get them to turn towards working with me?
Negation...Apologies. Correction
Ok, yes, I guess your taunting of Squealer's snark could possibly count as attempting that, but no others. Alright, I'll let Colin know.
A quick response of a general negative there, since she felt Squealer was more taunting than an actual conversion attempt, and Taylor moved onto getting lunch. On the way she spotted Emily looking at her phone. The other girl looked up in time to see Taylor, and gave her a thumbs-up. Taylor figured that a message from the PRT had been waiting for the repeaters to come on.
Luckily, for some reason nobody thought that Taylor should have any details on things from the press conference the day before. That didn't stop them from asking about Medhall, but she was able to deflect most of them by pointing out that the news had all the information she knew. Because there was no way she was mentioning Nilbog in public unless the news did first.
"Hey Taylor," a student called as they approached. Taylor sighed and prepared for yet another question about Medhall. "Do you have one of those alcohol license cards?"
Taylor blinked. That wasn't what she was expecting. "Er, yeah?"
"Hah! I knew it. No way someone who could out-drink Lung wouldn't have one of those! Hey Kevin, you owe me five bucks!"
"You seriously have one of them?" Dennis asked, looking at Taylor oddly.
Taylor sighed and dug her collection of ID cards out. It was a bit more excessive than normal, actually, and she didn't have any of her Maul cards with her. She found and slipped the correct one out of the stack and showed it to Dennis. "There, see?"
"Huh."
"How many cards do you need?" Carlos asked, looking at the pile Taylor had.
"I have reasons for most of them," Taylor said, flipping through them. Arcadia ID, PRT ID, Alcohol License, PRT-issued bus pass for when school IDs weren't accepted, she should probably get rid of the old Winslow ID, concealed carry permit, passport card, library card with an older picture of her on it. She didn't have a state ID yet, but there weren't many other things to include. The fact that four of those were duplicated for 'Maul' just ensured she had too many cards to carry around.
"No wonder you wear a utility belt to school," Dennis said, shaking his head. "You need one just for your ID cards."
Taylor's response to that was to stick her tongue out, before putting her ID cards away. She now had questions that hadn't occurred to her before, and set a message to remind her to look things up later.
Taylor ended up leaving school early instead of staying for a last period study. Upon her arrival at the PRT building she got a warning that visitors were in the lower areas of the building, and that she should use the map to check if areas were clear to pass through if out of costume. It looked like it was supposed to be a general warning sent to all the Wards, probably intended so that they would get it before school let out. It did explain the three snarks she didn't know, though.
Luckily they were nowhere near the short hop between the garage and the Wards area, and it was no time at all before Taylor was in 'costume' for the hand to hand class. At that point she pulled out her phone and removed her reminder message from earlier, since she had remembered to look things up. Mainly, she wasn't sure how useful her concealed carry permit would be out of costume.
It took a little over half an hour to determine that she could, in fact, carry her sidearm on school grounds. A combination of things allowed it, but the biggest thing was the number of laws since Scion showed up that had gotten exceptions tacked on for those with concealed carry permits issued by the federal government instead of state governments. The senator that started that trend had put it nicely. There was no way to stop people with potentially lethal powers from entering most public areas, so trusted individuals with retaliatory force being allowed in those areas were almost a requirement for public safety.
On that front, she did admit that said senator probably hadn't intended for parahumans to be running around with weapons they could use with their powers. But the government had issued her a permit, so she was in the clear, powers or no.
One other thing she determined was that she would have to show the sidearm and concealed carry permit to the principal or vice principal, per Arcadia's rules. Annoyingly, unless she made an appointment to do so on the weekend she would have to show the permit one day and then bring the sidearm in on a later day.
Her introspection on the rules was interrupted by her Maul phone ringing, with Miss Militia calling.
"Hello," Taylor said, having picked up the phone. "Maul speaking."
"Good afternoon," Miss Militia said. "Are you available for an impromptu meeting? We'd like you to work with our visitors before they leave the area."
"I'm in my hand to hand training outfit now, should I get into proper costume instead?"
"No, that won't be necessary."
"Then I'll head over to you now, unless you need more time to prepare for me?"
"Now's fine, thank you."
Taylor slipped her phone back into her utility belt, threw her visor on for easier navigation, and then headed out the back of the Wards area, as it looked to be the shorter route. She also absently 'poked' all three snarks in preparation, though she didn't press them for anything. None of them yelled at her, anyway.
It took Taylor a little longer than expected to make it through to where Miss Militia was with the unfamiliar snarks. This was mainly due to running into a broken door that didn't want to open for her, and wasn't showing as broken on the map. It was marked as broken once she found a way around it.
"Hello Maul," Miss Militia said as Taylor entered the room. There were four others there, but one of them was an infant without a snark. "Sorry for the short notice, but this came up earlier today."
"She's well aware of that," the only man in the room said. "Emily only spoke with her this morning, after all."
Taylor and Miss Militia both turned to look at the man. Miss Militia beat Taylor to the punch, though. "What do you mean by that?"
"I'm a skill thief, you don't think I haven't acquired observational skills? It did not take me long to associate Miss Hebert and Maul. I'm Victor Wallmann, by the way. It's amusing, really, as I never actually had a cape name."
"I'm Victor's wife, Nadine," the woman, perhaps a teenager, sitting next to Victor said. Taylor noticed she appeared to be in a wheelchair. "You'd know me better as Othala."
"Kayden Anders," the woman with the infant said. "Though I hope to be able to go back to Russel, assuming I don't get an entirely new identity, and this is Aster. You'd probably know me better as Purity."
"We normally aren't quite so cavalier with identities," Miss Militia said. "Though it is always your choice."
"I haven't told Emily or Theo about Miss Hebert's status as a cape," Victor replied. "My knowledge of such things, however, is part of my reasoning for working with the PRT. You see, after the upset with Coil someone in Gesellschaft decided that Maul was a threat. The assassination order ended up being given to me." At this point everyone other than Othala and Aster were staring at Victor. "Beyond not wanting the Protectorate to start by dropping the Triumvirate on me for such a thing, I doubly did not want to piss off Miss Hebert's uncle. I don't think it would be healthy to piss off Jack."
"Jacob, dear," Nadine said, rolling her eyes. "His name is Jacob. I don't know why you can't keep the poor man's name straight."
Taylor poked Victor's snark, suspecting that wasn't a slip-up.
So, do you know what he meant by that?
[Data. Compliments]
Thank you for the compliment, and the information.
Yeah, apparently Victor had made the connection between Jacob the therapist and Jack Slash. Taylor was already composing a message to go out to Jacob, and digging up forms that needed filling out.
"At any rate," Victor continued after a momentary stare-down with his wife. Taylor wondered how much of that was an intentional delay? "I have no reason to invite kill orders on my person, and not following through with the order while remaining in the Empire is not an option at this time, no matter what level of agreement with their ideals I may share."
"I'm somewhat in agreement with him," Nadine said. "Though my reasons are not entirely self serving. When I gift people with regeneration I get a momentary picture of their health. I've done so with a number of ethnic groups in an attempt to make the Empire look less outright racist, and in doing so it made it obvious to me that humans are humans, regardless of 'race'. But escaping the Empire and my family is not as easy."
"I've been disillusioned with the movement for a while," Kayden said, then looked down at the infant. "The only thing keeping me from turning on the Empire was Aster here, but since the PRT can get both of us away? Not a problem now. The fact that Theo wants to come with us is icing on the cake, so to speak."
"Right," Miss Militia said. "To get back on track, I was hoping Maul could provide us with useful insight on your powers and if there are any needs you aren't fulfilling. If she has permission?"
All three nodded, and Miss Militia turned to Taylor. Who paused. "Before I begin, who's getting Emily? Because I think she's waiting outside and I assume we want me to do this with her too?"
"I...don't actually know what Emily looks like. You met her this morning, are you willing to play fetch?"
"No problem."
"Theo should be with her," Kayden said. "But we don't believe he's triggered yet."
"Then I'll be right back."
Taylor popped out of the room and headed towards the ice cream parlor. On the way she decided to talk to the adults' snarks.
So, Victor calls himself a skill thief?
[Agreement. Data]
He's been suppressing things so as to not be tempted? Good to know. Is there anything he doesn't do that you want him to?
[Contemplation. Negation]
Alright, thank you.
Interesting, but nothing really new. She still dropped notes into a file, though. Moving on, she figured Nadine was a good next choice.
Hello there. Can you tell me what you do for Nadine?
[...Query]
Huh, a cautious one.
I'm Maul, or Taylor. She wants to get away from the Empire and her family, as I understand it, and I'm working for the people helping her do that.
[...Acquiescence. Data]
Huh. Is there anything she doesn't normally do that you'd like her to?
[Excitement. Data]
That...huh. I'll let her know.
[Gratitude]
Taylor wasn't sure if that had ever occurred to Nadine, but she suspected not. Still, that left Kayden, but she had reached the exit. The alley was clear, but Emily was likely out at one of the tables. Well, she had phone numbers, right? Switching to anonymous mode, she fired texts off to the 'R' and 'T' numbers from earlier, thankful she had kept them in the phone when submitting the request form. A minute later the screen over the door showed Emily and a young man she didn't recognize entering the alley together.
"Come on in," Taylor said as she opened the door for them. The two looked shocked, but entered. "You'll need to stick with me, or none of the doors down here will open for you."
"Er, ok," the boy, likely Theo, said. Taylor led them back to the others, poking at Kayden's snark on the way.
Hello there. Can you tell me what you do for Kayden?
[Data]
Huh. Is there anything she doesn't do that you'd like her to?
[Request]
Er. Ok. I'll let her know.
Well, that was going to be awkward. "So, Emily, was it?"
"Er, yes?" Emily answered.
"I've been asked to talk to the source of your powers, to see if there's anything you aren't doing that they want you to. Is that ok with you?"
"Oh. Is that part of what they said about analysis? Go ahead, I guess."
"If you'd prefer I can wait until you talk to the others?"
"No, it makes sense if you can, so go ahead."
"Alright."
So, hello! Properly, this time.
[Annoyance]
I'm sorry if you don't want to chat, but I've been tasked with asking a couple of questions.
[Annoyance. Acceptance]
What do you do for Emily, and is there anything you'd like her to be doing that she isn't?
[...Data. Elaboration]
Er, ok. I'll let her know.
Taylor mused on that, even as they reached the room the others were in. The three entered, with Emily going over to Nadine and Theo going over to take Aster from Kayden.
"So now that we're all here," Miss Militia said. "Maul, would you like to begin checking their powers?"
"Victor's fine," Taylor said, enjoying the confused blinks at the sudden answer. "But Nadine needs to grant the last power more often."
"Why on Earth would I grant the ability to grant powers?" Nadine asked, obviously confused. "I mean, it doesn't even last. I have to keep skin contact for it to work."
"So that someone, say Victor perhaps, can apply regeneration to you."
Nadine sat there, blinking, even as Victor facepalmed. Emily took one look at the two of them, then fell out of the chair she had sat down in, laughing her ass off.
"Moving on, Kayden, your power wants two things from you. The first is to move to a sunnier climate, the second is to sunbathe naked more often in said climate."
Kayden shrugged. "Sounds about right."
"And Emily," Taylor paused, as Emily hadn't gotten up off the floor yet.
"Get up," Nadine said, reaching down and pulling Emily up. "It wasn't that funny."
"Yes it was," Emily retorted.
"I can see where the obvious answer was missed," Taylor replied. "Now then, Emily. Your power wants to know why you stopped carving your, er, 'rune' into things?"
"It's an interesting shape, but why would I carve it into things?"
"Apparently it should be easier to control things with it carved into them, instead of it just being formed out of your power."
"Huh. I guess that's why the decorative transport stones I carved a series of the rune into are so easy to move around. I thought they were just better balanced than the random crap available on the street, meaning less effort keeping the flat side level."
"It also wants to know if you can come up with a harness of some kind. It seems to think that might have helped a couple of times recently?"
"No clue where to start on making one."
"The PRT can help with that," Miss Militia said. "Now then, our distraction has allowed us to have teams working on the Wallmann and Theil residences. Kayden, you said you had everything you wanted from your apartment?"
"Including Theo's things," Kayden nodded. "I don't know if he wanted anything from his father's house?"
"I grabbed everything already," Theo replied. "But what kind of distraction is letting you get at the other residences without anyone in the Empire noticing?"
"We faked a gas leak into the sewers," Miss Militia answered. "And are evacuating everyone for their own safety."
"That won't work for long," Victor said, frowning. "As there aren't any gas lines in that neighborhood."
"Friday afternoon the container of tert-Butylthiol hooked up in the basement of the burnt out house at the end of the street will be discovered, and the focus will change to finding those responsible for the horrible prank. The fact that said container is a serial number match to one reported damaged and properly disposed of by Medhall six months ago should be interesting when the investigation gets underway. Why they expected the PRT to not notice that when the entire shipment it was found in was confiscated I don't know. I also don't know why they had it in the first place."
Theo was the first one of the visitors to start snickering at that, but it didn't take long before the rest of them had a good laugh over it, with Taylor feeling she was missing something. Victor noticed this, and smirked.
"Maul," Victor said. "I suspect that the PRT has suspected there is a connection between the Empire and Medhall for a while. Abusing that known connection in this case, likely to keep extra attention focused on them, is highly amusing to us."
"Wouldn't the quarantine issue keep them busy anyway?" Taylor wondered.
"Not unless they screwed up with the Nilbog sample." Victor paused, and noted no reaction from Taylor or Miss Militia. "Crap, they screwed up with it, didn't they? I am suddenly much happier to be getting out of town. That level of attention might be enough to keep Gesellschaft from acting up for a bit, though."
"Maul, unless you have anything else for us," Miss Militia said, apparently not in the mood for the direction things were going. "I think we no longer need your assistance."
"I think I'm done," Taylor replied. She had even prepped the form submissions for each of their power sets and was doing a quick check before submitting them.
"Thank you," Victor said, nodding to Taylor. "Not everyone would be as, understanding, when working with those branded as villains."
"You're not the first group of 'reformed' villains I've dealt with. Have a nice day." Taylor liked the look of confusion on Victor's face, and kinda wished she had her jump harness and body camera on about then. She waved and left, heading back to the Wards area to drop off her visor and meet up with the other Wards attending class today.
After class the Wards, minus Brian, had gone to the cafeteria together, with Dinah and Vivian joining them. Dinah had a limp today, having done a very poor job of catching a falling Vivian. Dinah was then scolded for trying instead of getting out of the way and letting Vivian hit the padded floor. Taylor was once again getting jealous looks from everyone, having been thrown across the room multiple times by their instructors due to overextending and other issues, yet not appearing to even be sore.
"So," Carlos said as they all sat down with their dinners. "I checked after school, and it looks like the indoor paintball place just off the market is free for a group Tuesday afternoon. If we want the slot I have till morning to finalize a reservation, but I already cleared not patrolling then, and it looks like Grue is ok with it."
"In or out of costume?" Dennis asked.
"I was thinking in, since some of us can't turn our powers off enough to make things fair otherwise."
"That is a good point," Taylor noted. "I mean, Gallant would be able to tell where everyone was."
"And what about you?" Dean retorted.
"Unless it is only us I won't be able to pick out everyone."
Dean paused mid-bite, then slumped. "Good point."
"There are more of us with unfair advantages overall," Lisa offered. "At least in costume people will be expecting that."
"I'd ask to join you," Dinah said, then shivered slightly. "But on reflection I'd rather not."
Taylor blinked.
Is there a reason she wouldn't be joining us?
[Data]
Ouch. Ok, yeah.
Pretty much a guarantee of issues due to the available markers not being well sized for her hands, and a number of those issues ended up with her unable to use a hand or arm for a few days due to injury. Probably not fun.
"I wonder if I could convince some of the Protectorate capes to participate," Vivian mused. "Too bad we couldn't go full on Protectorate versus Wards."
"If you do get them to join us they'll have to pay for themselves," Carlos said. "We're using Wards funds."
"Somehow I suspect the request would be denied anyway. I seem to recall that we're not supposed to interfere with 'Wards bonding events' without good reason."
"Well, I think I'm ok with Tuesday," Taylor said. "Unless others have objections?"
After a minute of nobody saying anything Carlos nodded. "Alright, I'll get that scheduled then."
"Any chance of a movie after Maul's thing on Saturday?" Lisa asked. "Dunno if Grue will want to, but if we aren't doing anything afterwards anyway?"
"They want me to talk to a couple of out of town capes," Taylor said. "Dunno how long that will take, but if it isn't too long I think I'm game for a movie."
The other Wards shrugged. Apparently, barring unexpectedly long discussions with visiting capes, they would be trying to catch a movie Saturday.
Taylor arrived home an hour or so later to find her father swearing in the kitchen.
"What broke?" Taylor asked, poking her head in. Only to spot the toaster in pieces? The screwdriver indicated it might not be unintentional.
"I snapped off a knife tip earlier and it ended up in the toaster," Danny explained. "But apparently when it got wedged it broke one of the heating elements, which I just discovered. Probably easier to just get a new toaster at this point."
"I think I'll leave that to you."
Taylor made her way upstairs to poke at her homework, shaking her head at her father's antics. In short order she was poking at a programming assignment due the following week. It wasn't difficult, but they had been warned that it would be run through a large set of test data, so she had to be careful about mistakes.
Ten minutes in she was interrupted by a message from Riley, to her and Amy.
R: Hey you two, I got a non-secure Bluetooth thing working in someone's brain! Without killing them, even!
T: Neat.
R: Too bad it isn't as 'integrated' as yours, but I had to make do with what I had.
A: How traumatized is your "patient"?
R: Oh, she tried to run as soon as my back was turned.
R: Thing is, whatever the little black girl's shadow trick was supposed to do is weak to electricity.
R: What kind of weaksauce power can be disabled by a pacemaker?
Taylor blinked, then switched to the PRT app on her tablet. Screw it if this was 'abusing' her bullshit access levels. It wasn't long before she was able to confirm that Sophia had a weakness to electricity and had been locked up in Danbury. Still, the chances of the foreign tinker triggering the prison break were slim even if they were there hoping Sophia made a break for it, right? So this was most likely a lucky coincidence.
Riley smirked as Hess woke up. She had gotten to play with the girl days ahead of schedule, but it was a pity that they didn't get to use their plan to expose the corrupt guard. At least the foreign tinker was kind enough to kill him. "Are you back with us?"
"Fuck you," Hess spat. "What did you do to me?"
Riley switched to 'mad grin #4'. Which was hopefully enhanced by the wild hair and blood-splatters all over her face and clothing. She did wonder if the fancy hat made the grin scarier like William said it did, though. "It was quite difficult to get your new Bluetooth accessory to not register as part of you to your power, you know. Almost as hard as ensuring there was enough current flowing in it to trigger your weakness."
Hess stared back in horror. "You...you put an electrical device in my brain."
"One that will likely kill you if anyone other than maybe Panacea tries to remove it, yes. And I'd give her 50/50 odds."
Riley enjoyed the look of absolute horror on Hess's face. Nobody messed with her family. And as far as she was concerned, Jacob's family was her family.
Chapter 57 Thursday morning Taylor woke to a pile of alerts on her Maul phone. Apparently sometime around three in the morning a number of members of the Empire attacked the PRT building, the suspicion being that they were trying to break out their 'captured' allies. Kaiser, Fenja, Menja, and Krieg were nowhere to be seen. Hookwolf, Stormtiger, Crusader, and Cricket were the primary attackers, backed up by a pile of grunts apparently led by Alabaster.
The parahumans had escaped, but the majority of the grunts hadn't. They got nowhere near close enough to breaking anyone out, not even getting into the building properly, and Miss Militia had sent a message to the Wards about things. Though saying that Taylor's recent recruits had been in the apartment block nearby and not in the PRT building at the time of the attack was more likely to result in complaining about her getting more recruitments.
Regardless, the PRT building was currently designated as 'off limits unless necessary' for Wards, so no gym visit before school. Updates would be sent out throughout the day, but if circumstances didn't change then afternoon patrols would be canceled.
On her personal phone there were a bunch of messages between Amy and Riley in their three-way conversation, from where they had continued off and on all night after she had decided to go to sleep. She also had a thank you message from Jacob regarding having filled things out for him regarding Victor.
Given that she was awake and all, Taylor decided she might as well get out of bed. Since there were no messages in the past hour or two she sent a query Amy's way to see how she was holding up. With that taken care of, and no clue when Amy might respond, she dealt with morning needs.
Taylor arrived at school a bit earlier than usual, parking her moped in her usual spot. She swung by her locker, then made her way to the office. Might as well get the 'show them the concealed carry permit' step out of the way, right? Upon entering the office the secretary looked up.
"Miss Hebert is here to see you," the secretary said, likely hitting the intercom button behind her desk.
"Send her in," the principal's voice returned. Taylor blinked and headed into the inner office.
Taylor sat down for her first class a bit dazed. Apparently they had been wondering when she'd bother to start the whole 'allowed to bring the gun to school' process, as the PRT had warned them about it ahead of time. She had to explain that she wasn't bringing the gun home yet, since she had no gun safe there yet.
Finding out that most of the teachers had guns was something that surprised her. She'd never bothered to check what the rules were in the state, after all, and it turned out that schools could decide to allow those employed there with a state issued concealed carry permit to carry on school grounds. Arcadia was perfectly happy to allow that, in case of gang violence spilling into the school. Or attempting to, anyway.
She was told to bring her gun in as soon as she had a gun safe at home, so they could do their thing for the school's records. She had been able to honestly say she didn't know when that would be, as she hadn't requested rush shipping, so she was asked to email the principal when it showed up.
Other than the slight shock of things that morning the day was quite boring. Gossip focused on why the Empire attacked the PRT, but a lack of details meant that things were more in wild mass guess territory there. By the time the repeaters were turned on at lunchtime the PRT had cleared the Wards to actually head in, so patrols were on. Except that Taylor wasn't cleared for patrolling yet, so she had no real reason to head in, beyond maybe using the gym. Or maybe bashing things in the junkyard? But she wasn't feeling that itch today.
For more annoyances, today was a day where Taylor had the entire afternoon free. Something she only really noticed when she considered her afternoon classes while sitting down to eat lunch, only to realize she had none. On the other hand, amongst the messages on her Maul phone was one saying that she had mail waiting for her today, so perhaps she should swing by just to get it? Perhaps run around in the gym for a bit, that kind of thing.
"Ugh," Dennis groaned, poking at his phone. "Someone actually posted a video of Alabaster's arm being blown off last night."
"They were shooting them with live ammo?" another classmate asked. Felicity, Taylor thought? The other girl was in her science class.
"The Empire moron behind him had a shotgun," Dennis clarified, turning the phone off and putting it away. "Yeah, no more looking at that."
"Why were you looking in the first place?" Taylor asked.
"They titled it 'Empire thug has horrible aim'. I bet it gets pulled from the PHO thread."
"So anyone have any idea what the Empire wanted?" Felicity asked. "Because not bringing over half of their capes, including some of their heavy hitters, seems wrong."
"They obviously thought they would be able to do something," Carlos said, shrugging. "No clue what. Someone said that they spotted Crusader yelling something before they left?"
"I saw that in the PHO thread," Dennis added, nodding. "Nobody knows what, though. Maybe one of his ghosts figured out that what they were looking for wasn't there?"
"Or maybe he spotted Assault and Battery coming and they decided it wasn't worth the effort anymore," Dean offered. "As they apparently showed up and helped apprehend all the unpowered gang members the capes left behind."
"Are we sure they didn't get what they wanted?" Taylor asked. "I mean, for all we know they wanted a distraction, and Crusader was the one that got the 'mission elsewhere accomplished' message?"
The resulting discussion over possibilities would have the highlights posted on PHO, along with all the other crazy theories.
Apparently today's mail was a couple of Bluetooth controls, a pre-framed 'Honorary Tinker' certificate mentioning her work in the fugues, and a postcard saying that the new delivery of tasers had shown up and that Miss Militia would have information for her the following day. Come to think of it, the armory had been a little empty of tasers when Miss Militia had shown them it.
The Wards area itself was a bit of a headache to maneuver in. A set of cubicles was being installed along one wall, which was torn apart currently so they could run the proper wiring for things. It looked like some of them were going to be 'fold out on demand' as well, if she was reading some of the boxes correctly. A small stack of new chairs was off to the side, waiting to be opened and assembled, with the computers and other pieces for the improvements stacked next to them.
Leaving the group installing things to their task, Taylor made her way over to the gym. She absently noted that her most recent recruitments weren't in her range as she did. Perhaps the attack last night had spurred a more rapid departure on their part? Oh well, they weren't her problem now either way. She found that there were three PRT officers in the gym, but all of them were locals that she knew had knowledge of Ward identities. At least she wouldn't have to pretend to just be Jacob's niece today?
It turned out that she did a harder workout than usual, because the PRT officers were curious about her enhanced strength. She hadn't actually known just how far some of the tinkertech machines could go on that front, but perhaps she'd be doing that more often.
On her way back to the Wards area she got a message from Director Piggot, asking for a meeting at her convenience. On her personal phone, not her Maul phone? Shrugging, she changed course to the elevators. If she grabbed the right one nobody should question why she was around anyway. A few minutes later she was in the Director's outer office, being waved in by the secretary.
"Good afternoon Miss Hebert," Director Piggot said as Taylor entered. "Please take a seat."
"Good afternoon Director," Taylor replied, sitting in one of the available chairs.
"I could have just sent a message, but I figured I should ensure you were told. I don't know if you caught that Miss Hess was one of the escaped prisoners in Danbury, as the Medhall incident caused things to be a bit glossed over locally. We don't think you would have been a target, but even if you had been she was returned to custody a couple of hours ago."
"Did she turn herself in like many of the others?"
"Er, yes. As I understand it, she ran into a police station screaming about how the Siberian had grabbed her and dragged her to Bonesaw, who then put something in her brain, but otherwise appeared to be unharmed. The only other thing noted about her condition was that she'd pissed herself at some point. We're not entirely sure what happened."
"That...doesn't sound like their normal anything."
"No, it doesn't. And the other four parahumans the Nine grabbed are either known to be dead or have obvious experiments performed on them, so her story seems a little unlikely. At any rate, since we're here anyway, I'd also like to talk to you about your most recent recruitments."
"Is there a problem with them?"
"No, though they were bounced to New York to continue processing after the attack last night. I'm more interested in discussing the fact that you let an unknown parahuman approach you in that manner."
"A parahuman student approached me on school grounds, and I informed two other Wards before going anywhere with them, without letting said student know I had done so. Further, the semi-private location we met in was inside the school we both attended and devoid of other parahumans. What was I supposed to do differently? I didn't even let on that I knew she was a parahuman until she told me."
"Ok, I have to admit that when you put it that way there isn't much to argue against in your actions. I was unaware that you had informed other Wards of your meeting, as they didn't report anything."
"I didn't tell them I was meeting a parahuman due to the unwritten rules and PRT policies, so they probably thought I was just being overly cautious."
"I hate those policies, even if they rarely come up in any provable manner. But alright, now that I have your side of things I can't fault your actions. The only other thing I have is a warning that you have gotten a reputation as a recruitment magnet, given that you have more recruitments in the past few months than most members of the PRT have gotten in the past couple of years, and all but one of them pretty much came to you."
"What, Countdown doesn't count? She all but walked into me."
"After you and Panacea all but hunted her down. Everyone else you've recruited has directly or indirectly come to you. I figured I would let you know before the rest of the organization starts cracking jokes at your expense."
"Er, thanks for the warning?"
"You're welcome. Have a nice day."
"You too."
Taylor made her way back down to the lower levels, wondering just what Riley had made Sophia's new addon out of. That and what kind of scan they'd need to do to confirm it was there. Not curious enough to actually ask, though, so she decided to think about how she was going to program the new control units instead. Not that she could do anything about that until she got home.
It wasn't long before she had grabbed her things and left, noting Dean and Carlos approaching together as she did so.
The two new Bluetooth control units were easy to pair to the relay box, though Taylor figured she'd let her father mount the one they would be putting on the wall. With that done she decided to make lasagna. She did leave the tablet set up on the counter, though, so she could poke around online while she worked.
By the time she had set the start timer for the oven and slipped the lasagna inside she had, somehow, ended up poking through more parahuman psychology type information. Then again, that seemed a lot nicer than contemplating the thread that had grown around the video of Alabaster's arm being blown off. Why the hell did anyone care about what kind of ammo the shotgun had been loaded with?
Sighing, Taylor grabbed the tablet and headed upstairs, munching on the last of the crackers she had been snacking on while she worked on the lasagna. The next item in the set was some kind of 'timed exam', and once she had that out of the way perhaps she'd plot some of what she'd like to do if they could figure out how to upgrade Amy?
Nearly an hour later, and ten or so minutes into researching 'troll' forms, she was interrupted. She looked in the general direction of the snark that had just entered her range. What the hell, had she missed a message? She quickly made her way downstairs and opened the front door.
"Gah!" Amy yelled, jerking back from reaching for the doorbell as a PRT van pulled away. "Don't do that!"
"When did they let you out?" Taylor asked. "And why did you come here unannounced?"
"An hour ago, and I'm temporarily hiding from the rest of New Wave. I slipped away while they were arguing over things, like if I should have ever set foot in Medhall in the first place. I'd have called ahead, but I wanted to surprise you? Hello, by the way."
"Er, right, hello. Come on in."
The two ended up in the living room, Amy sighing as she leaned back on the couch. "Did you know that Medhall has no decent chairs in their hospital area?"
"Never been inside to find out."
"I didn't believe Dennis until now, because my few visits were pretty much all on my feet. Do you think your father will complain if I stick around for dinner?"
"Probably not. I made lasagna, by the way."
"That sounds much nicer than what was available in Medhall. I'd ask to stay the night, but I'm honestly surprised nobody has called to find out where I am already. Oh, before I forget, what's with the invitation to watch Barrage Blaster testing on Saturday?"
"Oh, right. You were in quarantine before I got a chance to mention that. Missy and I passed our firearms class and got sidearms. When we then used our powers with them I found out that my snark decided that if my projection is spinning fast enough then it should just model it as a circle. So if I project the bullets sideways..."
"You stop getting lines and start getting areas. Am I supposed to be intrigued or horrified at the implications?"
"As far as I'm concerned both are perfectly valid. Unless I'm aiming at you, in which case you probably want 'terrified' instead."
"I suppose I..." Amy was interrupted by her phone ringing, and she groaned as she answered it. "Hi Vicky." ... "Yes, I'm fine." ... "Yeah. The PRT gave me a ride." ... "I was thinking I'd not be home for dinner, actually." ... "When I want a ride home I'll call you." ... "Why would they think that?" ... "Nope, still not making any sense." ... "Alright. Thanks." ... "Love you too, bye."
"Were there voices yelling in the background?" Taylor asked, curious. "Because it sounded like there was a lot of yelling going on."
"Vicky noticed I'd left at some point, but the others are apparently still in a row over things."
"Carol wanting to ban you from Medhall now?"
"Sarah wants to ban me from Medhall, Carol was defending me. Saving everyone there, being their only hope, it was lucky I was there. Kinda weird, really, as I expected it to be the other way around too."
"Huh."
The two sat there for a moment, just considering that. Finally Amy shook her head. "So, got anything interesting to do around here?"
"We could ponder the mystery of someone or something watering my rose bush for me."
Amy blinked. "That's been happening to you too?"
"Yes?"
"Huh. It keeps happening to me, and the hospital, and I got queries from some of the others that purchased some if they had some kind of water-gathering ability."
The two pondered that for a bit, wondering what in the world was going on there.
"Hello," Danny said as he came in, only to pause as he noticed that there were two people in the living room. With three characters in the game on the screen?
"Hi Dad," Taylor called. "Amy's hiding from New Wave. Lasagna should be done in twenty minutes or so."
"Hello Danny," Amy called, waving, only to have her hand dart down with a mild swear.
"What are you two doing?" Danny asked, walking over to find both of them holding phones like controllers.
"We're playing three player to handicap me," Taylor said.
"Somehow she's still winning despite needing to split her attention," Amy complained.
"Doesn't Taylor have a minor multitasking ability that would normally let her communicate with a lot of snarks at once?" Danny asked.
Amy, and thus her character on the screen, paused. Then she threw her hands up. "Dammit, Taylor!"
"Perhaps you two should clean up and help set the table and such?"
"Stupid powers," Amy mumbled as she disconnected her phone from Taylor's tablet. Taylor just grinned as she disconnected her phone, while shutting down the game they had been playing at the same time.
Fifteen minutes later Taylor was checking on the lasagna while Danny showed Amy the garage door opener that had been rigged up, taking the opportunity to test the new control units for himself in the process. Then Amy asked him a question.
"Taylor!" Danny called. "Can this thing pair to my phone?"
"Hold the button on the back until the blue light starts blinking," Taylor called back, closing the oven door as the lasagna needed a couple more minutes. Too bad she hadn't thought to prep garlic bread, but she had thrown some rolls in pretty much right after her father got home and they'd be ready in time.
Nearly ten minutes later Taylor had pulled everything out of the oven and thrown the rolls into a basket. Danny led Amy into the kitchen, grumbling about technology in general.
"I'm starting to think you were saving me the headache of pairing the thing to my phone," Danny said, looking at the table. "Amy, you have any preference for a drink?"
"You have any orange soda?" Amy asked. Danny tossed her a can as Taylor put the lasagna on the table. He emerged with a beer, and then Taylor grabbed butter and a cola from the fridge for herself.
"That was good," Amy said as Danny cleaned up, since Taylor had cooked and had a visitor. "I want more, but I'm full."
"We've got some disposable containers," Danny said, looking at the significant amount of lasagna left over. Taylor had put a good dent in it herself, but there was plenty left. "We can probably send you home with a couple servings?"
"I wouldn't mind that."
Taylor got up and grabbed some containers from a cabinet, and then filled three of them with single servings of the lasagna. She then looked at the rest, shrugged, and grabbed some more containers. She ended up with six servings in six containers.
"Take two or three home with you," Taylor said. "Maybe let Vicky have one for covering for you and flying you home?"
"You overheard that earlier?" Amy asked.
"You're partially responsible for my bullshit ears."
"Ok, true. Can't argue that one. I should probably see about calling for Vicky to pick me up, actually. I haven't been home since Sunday morning. Probably shouldn't have come here, but I wanted to escape the arguments over whether or not I should have even been inside of Medhall."
"You going to school tomorrow?"
"Maybe? I haven't checked. I mean, I got plenty of rest once we hit 'waiting to be let out' and all. But Carol might tell me to stay home."
"Oh well, you're planning on watching things Saturday, so if you aren't at school I'll see you then?"
"Watching what Saturday?" Danny asked.
"Er, my informal Barrage Blaster 9 testing?"
"Oh, that. Right, forgot Miss Militia contacted me about it. Wait, did you say nine?"
"Yes?"
Danny stared at Taylor. "Wouldn't that put you in the category of firing missiles at you from other cities if you became a threat?"
"Er, maybe? But I'm not sure that applies to all kinds of Blaster?"
Danny shook his head and focused back on the dishes. Amy snickered, then pulled her phone out. Taylor just pouted.
Amy had been picked up by Vicky, and taken three containers of lasagna with her. Vicky seemed excited about that, as it sounded better than leftover meatloaf from a few days ago. Once they were gone Taylor had headed upstairs and poked around on PHO a bit, until Riley sent her a message.
R: Hey Taylor, you busy?
T: Not really. What's up?
R: We kinda realized that our normal departure method was based on Alan and Ned's needs and are trying to come up with a new one.
R: Got any ideas we might be able to use?
Taylor thought about that. The whole 'final stand, then run away' bit did seem to focus quite a bit on Alan and Ned fighting people, with the rest of the Nine doing whatever in the background.
T: Have you considered just sneaking out when nobody's looking?
R: We rejected that idea. Not quite the kind of image we want to portray normally?
R: We are kinda built around the terror bit, you know
T: If nobody knows you already left then they'll be jumping at shadows.
T: And maybe leave a surprise or two behind for people to find?
R: ... GENIUS!
Huh, she probably just helped what amounted to a government-sponsored domestic terrorist group of sorts be more effective in the terror department. Did the 'government-sponsored' bit cancel out the rest, or would that create problems if others found out either way?
Taylor shrugged, there was probably no good answer there. Moving on, she decided to check on some things, like when her safe would arrive. It took her a few minutes to discover that it was 'shipped' but had no tracking information, because it wasn't being delivered to a PRT, Protectorate, or Guild address. Maybe she should just get some sleep?
Friday morning Taylor had arrived at school without knowing if Amy was going to be coming or not. She figured that was answered when Vicky entered her range with Dean, but without Amy. Shrugging, she made her way back to the parking lot from where she had swapped a couple of books in her locker.
"Thank you!" Vicky said, intercepting Taylor with a hug. "That lasagna was delicious!"
"Are you only saying that because the alternative was several day old meatloaf?" Taylor asked. She wasn't entirely comfortable in the hug either, but figured Vicky would get it out of her system soon. Hopefully.
"You have no idea what mom's meatloaf is like," Vicky finally said, letting go of Taylor in the process. "So partially yes. But it was also some of the best lasagna I've had. Dad's is...mediocre at best, and the store-bought stuff is crap."
"I can agree with the last part at least. So, no Amy?"
"The school let us know that they expected her to take it easy at home today. Which she was annoyed with, as she had been relaxing in Medhall before the PRT let them out anyway."
"Yet you are here?"
"Guarding a building that no violence even approached apparently isn't considered stressful enough to warrant an extra day off."
"You two do realize we have to make it to class on time, right?" Dean asked. "Or are you planning on chatting all day?"
Vicky groaned and turned towards the school. "Alright you slave driver. Guess we'll have to catch up more at lunch?"
"I guess," Taylor answered, shrugging.
It didn't take long to discover that Vicky was the prime target of anyone wanting details for the Medhall incident. It only took a few minutes longer for students to start finding out that she wasn't talking. She used excuses of medical confidentiality, operational security, and ongoing investigations with the first few people. Finally she asked someone what she could possibly know from having been outside being bored because nobody was attacking.
Amazingly enough, the last one got people to stop. Logic had worked for the moment. Who knew? Or maybe they just realized it was getting too close to the start of classes.
Come lunchtime the rumor mill had, for reasons unknown to Taylor, decided to focus on Danbury. Specifically, the notice that Sophia was no longer on the missing prisoners list. Which had, apparently, led to the revelation that Sophia Hess was Shadow Stalker in a rare but powerful instance of people paying attention. After all, the only non-male prisoners held in Danbury were parahumans, so if Sophia had been on the list at all then she was a parahuman. And the only parahuman that vanished from Brockton Bay when Sophia did was Shadow Stalker.
The revelation had apparently come from a former Winslow student when they saw the news the night before, and had been shared via PHO. The thread had apparently been taken down and infractions issued, but the damage was done, at least in Brockton Bay where students were communicating across school lines in various ways to figure things out. This had led to the six fake appearances in Brockton Bay and four elsewhere being correctly labeled as fakes, since none of them used Shadow Stalker's powers. And now they were working on the 'why' behind the imprisonment.
Fourteen supposed lethal or near-lethal incidents with hunting arrows were being considered as candidates, from both before and after Sophia had become a Ward. They were, however, seen as having the wrong timing to kick things off. No, the closing of Winslow was being looked at, since the 'fake' appearances started then. Which meant they were looking into why Winslow closed and getting news back about the locker.
Taylor wanted to hit whomever it was that mentioned that Sophia was involved with bullying her, as well as the person who mentioned that Taylor had likely been in the locker. Luckily for her sanity, nobody was willing to approach her to ask about it. Instead she had to deal with her better than average hearing picking up too many conversations.
A number of students were bouncing text messages around while eating, which meant that Carlos doing so wasn't seen as all that odd. He was also a couple tables over, perhaps intentionally, as he started a conversation with her. Even better, she didn't have to look like she was texting anyone, so it was less likely people would connect the two.
C: So, I've made sure that the PRT is aware that everyone's pretty much figured out Sophia's cape identity
T: Good to know?
C: I also mentioned that everyone is suspecting you were involved with why things happened when they did
C: They're coming up with a diversionary reason, as they figure it is too late to keep a lid on things
T: Hopefully they'll get something going quickly enough.
C: Amusingly everyone over here thinks your uncle stopped the bullying before you could trigger from it
Taylor blinked at that, and wondered just how much bias previous opinions had on human decision making. Not that she should be complaining in this instance, but really?
T: So standard blindness is the order of the day today, Sophia revelations aside?
C: Seems it. One dude seems to think someone named Greg triggered with a gender-changer trick, though?
T: ... what?
C: *shrug*
Well, now she felt horribly creeped out. Greg being a potential 'Maul'? Ewwwww. She did not need that image in her head. Now she wanted a distraction.
"Hey Vicky," Taylor said, getting the other girl's attention. "You know if Amy's doing anything this weekend?" Yes, she had a general idea of the answer. That didn't matter.
"New Wave's been invited to see some demonstration thing out on the Rig tomorrow," Vicky answered, showing no sign that Taylor should have known this already. The fact that all of a sudden the nearest couple of tables had shut up about Sophia was mildly amusing. "Supposedly it's going to be something big that some of our members could get a use out of later?"
"Dang. If I had more advance notice I might have had time to see if my uncle could get me in to watch too."
"He probably couldn't have, since I think only parahumans and those working with the Protectorate and PRT directly are getting to watch. Security and safety concerns and all, given that it's apparently to help with blasters or something like that."
"I still could've tried?"
"I suppose there is that."
Within five minutes the entire cafeteria had dropped all discussion on Sophia and was now wondering what would be happening on the Rig tomorrow. Taylor thought that was pretty good for asking a single question.
Interlude: Kaiser Max looked over the reports in front of him. It still galled him that since Lung had declared the schools off-limits nearly two months ago he had to do so as well, if only to keep the Empire from looking more thuggish than the Asians. On the other hand, public opinion of the Empire was up because of it. He wasn't sure if that balanced things out or not. Recruitment hadn't really budged as his younger members started filtering into other schools, but Winslow normally only really got them new members from the new students in the Fall anyway.
Max paused as his phone rang. He checked the caller ID, then picked it up. "What is it James?"
"Something's going on in the financial district," James answered. "Dunno what, but whatever they're up to is big. Multiple Protectorate members are involved, and they've got a large truck doing something."
"Keep an eye on it and keep me informed."
Max hung up, knowing James would be fine. The Empire didn't have anything in that area, so it shouldn't be an issue. Maybe it was a new trigger causing issues, but that was why he was having James keep an eye on things.
Later that night nothing was clear as to what had gone down in the financial district. So as to not stir up things when the Protectorate was already out he had decided to relax at home. Which led to him staring at the news. What. The. FUCK? Did Crawler and Mannequin really just run off to fight an Endbringer?
Max didn't even look at the phone as he answered it. "Yes?"
"You watching the news?" Brad said from the other end. "Because I'm not sure I believe what I just saw."
"You and me both."
Max turned off the television in his office after the press conference. It was too bad that the PRT would likely get Coil out of town fast, as otherwise he'd try to intercept things to show his displeasure. Luckily he could leave most of the vetting of the rank and file to his subordinates. They had been given plenty of leeway to show what happened to traitors and moles in the organization.
Jessica and Nessa were helping Victor and Nadine go through the potentially compromised safe houses to remove anything of use, not to mention anything possibly incriminating. Kayden was occupied with her day job, and Theo was playing babysitter for little Aster. Max scowled, since today would be a wonderful day to do any number of things with the PRT crippled, except that the Empire was also crippled.
Worse, the PRT would probably recover first.
He would be making sure that word spread through the ranks to avoid the new Ward. He wasn't sure how many others picked up on it, but the only way to spot Coil trying to escape when she should have been ready to be introduced was some way of detecting things in the area. What that was he wasn't sure, but it wouldn't do to be caught off guard. He'd revise orders later, when they had more information.
Max growled at the report James had handed him. The press conference had been for introducing two new Wards who were obviously two former members of the Undersiders. The other two were nowhere to be seen, but were also likely working with the PRT now, unless they had been arrested instead anyway. Brad was going to be pissed about that, since 'Hellhound' had been a thorn in his side and he had been quite vocal about wanting revenge.
On the other hand, this nicely explained a few things, and probably meant that the Undersiders had been linked to Coil somehow. The timing was too convenient otherwise, and he already had suspicions to that effect.
"Call off the search for their base," Max said. "And tell Brad to suck it up when you let him know the Undersiders are no longer a group."
What the hell had happened over the past couple of days? First Lung gets beaten in a drinking contest by a teenage girl, then he chases down a couple of Wards. Except that apparently ended with wanting to meet with the PRT and New Wave at Somer's Rock, since Lung had 'reserved' the entire building. The Empire would be watching to see who showed up, of course, but wouldn't intervene beyond that. Having places that the government-sponsored heroes were willing to meet with the gangs was more important than knowing what was going on this once. After all, the PRT would never conspire with one gang to take out another, at least not in as public a place as Somer's was.
If that wasn't bad enough, something was going on with James and Victor, but Max wasn't sure what. He didn't think it had anything to do with Nadine's healing sessions with minorities, as that had been James's idea in the first place as a way to improve the Empire's image. Perhaps something else was going on there?
More important right now was getting Medhall to the point where Panacea could look over things when she visited in a little over a week. That required a surprisingly large amount of his personal time, and they had actually cut back on the illegal operations quite a bit in the meantime. The potential profit on the legal side of Medhall was too great to ignore. He'd look deeper into what was going on after that.
Max scowled as he sat in the office he had commandeered. The quarantine was a problem, the reason for it was worse, and of course James had been relaying a message to him in person when it happened. Jessica and Nessa were with them, meaning he had limited ability to direct the Empire. Hopefully Brad wouldn't be an idiot.
He was also going to be doing his best to find out what the hell happened to the containment on the parahuman samples. The safety and containment setups had been independently verified by no less than four groups, including the PRT, and yet they had all failed at the same time due to overheating. While in a freezer in the case of the first layer of containment. Which screamed sabotage, so if the PRT didn't do something about finding out who was responsible then he would.
The only saving grace was that Panacea had been on-site. Without her they would have fallen to whatever Nilbog's creation actually did, probably before they even knew there was a problem. Instead the girl had kept everyone alive and was working on neutralizing the remnants somehow. New Wave would be getting one hell of a bonus donation for that alone.
"What do you mean they're gone?" Max asked, his tone dangerous.
"Nobody's seen any of them since Wednesday," Brad replied. "Something happened in the neighborhood that Emily, Victor, and Nadine live in, a natural gas leak scare. I wouldn't have thought anything of it had I not recalled Emily's mother whining about there being no natural gas service available a few months ago. When I couldn't contact Kayden either, in case they had talked to her despite her disagreements with us, I assumed they had been nabbed by the PRT."
"But Justin was able to tell that the PRT's cells were empty, so even if they were nabbed they weren't being kept locally. Damnit! I wouldn't be surprised if Kayden ran for it, but the other three were more loyal to the cause."
"Er, well," Brad looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I've already started punishing the idiots, but a number of the normals somehow ended up under the impression that they would be permitted to 'break in' Emily over the coming school vacation. If she got word of it, and thought it was true?"
Max stared at Brad in disbelief, and James facepalmed. Max finally growled. "Please tell me their punishment will be memorable."
"I've only started on the basics. I figured I'd wait for your input on things, in case you wanted to show your displeasure personally."
"You know what, I think I will. Thank you for the consideration."
"Er," James said, looking uncomfortable. "I might know why Victor would be willing to run?"
Max stared at James, raising an eyebrow. "Really now. And what possible reasons could he have had?"
"Well, I kinda tasked him with taking out Maul, due to our overseas sponsors seeing her as an unusually large threat. Perhaps he decided it wasn't something he was willing to do?"
Max's stare turned into an icy glare. "You instructed Victor to take out a Ward, without clearing it with me? An action that would have dropped, in a best case scenario, a large percentage of the Protectorate on our asses? And that is assuming the Triumvirate didn't come knocking within hours."
James merely nodded, and Max destroyed the desk he was sitting at, even as James backed into the corner. He couldn't afford to kill James right now, because he was now down three capes and a nominal ally. The Empire was already weakened too much, and there was likely no hope of recovering any of the four that had left.
"Brad," Max finally said, turning to the man. "Until further notice you're my second in command. Please ensure that James's people are informed that they are to report to you for the time being. Now then, is there any other bad news?"
"Max?" Jessica's voice came over the intercom now sitting on the floor, wires damaged but not disconnected. "You're going to need to look at this. Your mail includes custody transfer documents for Aster and Theo to Kayden, apparently fast-tracked through the PRT, and I think some divorce papers."
Max glared at the intercom, which proceeded to explode in a mass of blades.
Chapter 58 After school let out Taylor found herself in a conversation with Amy. This gave her something to do other than listen to music while driving over to the PRT, so she was ok with it. She had the music going anyway, of course.
A: So, the PRT sent an odd request. Sophia and her family are willing to reveal identities if I look at Sophia.
T: Probably because half the students in the city figured out her identity due to the news this morning.
A: I think I missed that one, what gave her away?
T: Danbury only houses male and parahuman inmates.
A: Oh. Huh. Kinda obvious in hindsight.
T: Yeah. Whatcha gonna do?
A: Thinking I'll take them up on it. They said they'd pass Sophia through here.
A: Before shipping her off to a still intact facility, anyway.
A: Kinda want to ask that you be present, though.
T: I'm not sure that is a good idea. Or that the PRT would go for it.
A: Yeah, thing is, I might need your insight if Riley screwed with the connection to her powers.
T: Good luck getting approval either way.
Taylor shook her head while waiting at an intersection. She wasn't sure what her opinion would be of the PRT in the event they actually cleared her to help with Sophia. Hell, they should probably do things out on the Rig and keep Taylor far away. Less chance of giving into bad ideas and temptations that way.
T: So, looking forward to tomorrow?
A: Yeah. I'm curious how well your trick actually works.
T: Not sure how the larger range will work, but I suspect 'frighteningly well'.
A: Well, they wouldn't have decided it was a Blaster 9 trick otherwise.
T: True.
Taylor pulled into the garage, noting that Dean had beaten her in today. None of the others had, but that wasn't surprising since she had felt Dean leave school early. He probably had nothing going on last period. Miss Militia, however, appeared to be in the main Wards area for some reason?
"Good afternoon Taylor," Miss Militia said, putting a water bottle down. "How are you today?"
"Good afternoon," Taylor replied. "I'm fine. Have plans changed?"
"No, I'm just here to hand out new equipment. Specifically, some tasers." She reached down to a box on the floor next to the chair she was in, pulling out two boxes and handing them to Taylor. One looked to be a standard issue taser box, the other was probably a custom one. The large black 'CUSTOM' on the side gave some of that away, of course. "The smaller one is for use out of costume, so that you have less reason to resort to your sidearm. The larger one has been customized to match your costume. Both have appropriate holsters and a few extra cartridges included."
"Is Missy getting a set as well?"
"As soon as she gets here, yes. Sorry about having emptied the tasers out of the armory, but we wanted to surprise you with these. Now then, you have a class to get ready for?"
"Thank you," Taylor said as she made her way to get changed. Though she wouldn't be putting it on today, she did take a look at the 'Maul' taser. It was patterned similarly to her maul and had a decent heft to it. A quick check of the included manual indicated that it had a larger than normal capacity battery, and the selector switch had four output levels. The holster looked like it was designed to sit under the opposite arm from her sidearm holster.
Taylor was actually slightly sore after today's class, mainly because they had her spar with Carlos, and he was allowed to use his non-flight powers while she was supposed to hold back. And he could hit hard when he wanted to.
"Did you have to try that hold?" Carlos whined, his arm in a sling as they headed to the cafeteria. He had returned from the hospital area to watch as much of the class as he could after the instructors told him to get his arm looked at. Dinah and Vivian hadn't joined them, instead opting to go upstairs due to the differing menus.
"Stop whining you crybaby," Missy said, poking Carlos. "Her hold was fine, you're the one that didn't take into account her increased durability when you tried to force yourself out of it."
"To be fair he did get out," Taylor said. "It just wasn't as easy as he expected. And I think he came close to dislocating my shoulder in the process."
"Too bad my bone gave out before your joint," Carlos muttered, before shaking his head and speaking up again. "Now I need to adjust Sunday's patrols, since I've been told not to patrol until Tuesday."
"Which means Thursday since we'll be busy Tuesday and Wednesday," Dean commented. "Do you think you'll be good for school on Monday?"
"If Panacea isn't willing to poke me tomorrow I should still be good by Monday. I just need to take it easy the rest of the weekend."
"She'd probably be willing if you asked," Lisa commented. "It isn't like it would be going out of her way if she'd be at the demonstration anyway."
"I suppose."
The group quieted down as they entered the cafeteria, collecting their dinner choices. Chris helped Carlos a bit with his tray, chosen by virtue of them both deciding on the same dish. They reconvened at a table together, then sat in silence as they ate for a few minutes.
"So Vista," Taylor finally said. They didn't need to be careful about identities, but it wasn't a bad habit when 'costumed'. "Did you get a cutesy taser?"
"Yep," Missy replied. "I don't mind that as much, though. People underestimate cutesy, so they'll be less likely to try and dodge before it's too late."
"I have got to get around to signing up for things," Carlos said. "Even if I don't take the firearms class."
"I think they'd just put you in the standard safety class," Taylor said. "Vista and I ended up with the full one only because of potential power interactions."
"They still seem to require parental approval for the safety class though," Lisa pointed out. "Not like you guys don't disarm people with guns frequently without it though."
"Who cares about the class we aren't likely taking," Dennis said, before turning to Taylor. "Do you have any hints for us on your Barrage Blaster 9 trick, or are you going to make us wait?"
"I'm sorry to interrupt," a PRT officer sitting nearby said suddenly, getting all of their attention. "Did you just say Barrage Blaster 9?"
"Yes?" Dennis pointed at Taylor. "She's supposedly got that as a secondary rating now."
"How in the world does one get any form of Blaster 9 as a secondary rating?"
"I need to be holding a loaded gun with a rifled barrel to make it work," Taylor answered. "As such it is automatically secondary, because my power doesn't make the gun for me."
The officer stared at Taylor for a moment, then shook their head. "Please tell me that whatever it is on the Rig tomorrow is testing that and there will be recordings?"
"Testing it yes, recordings probably?"
"Awesome. I think I'll go start working on getting access to them now, it'll be nice to dislodge the Empire as the group with the best blaster rating in town."
"Do they have any blasters left?" Taylor mused, causing everyone to look at her, including a few officers that hadn't been in the conversation. "What?"
Lisa started laughing, which just confused everyone else. After a couple of minutes she finally calmed down enough to give Taylor a look. "So, how many more recruitments did you pick up this time?"
"Four."
"Purity is almost a given with the comment you just made. Rune, maybe, even if she's technically a striker? Who else did you poach?"
"Victor and Othala."
"And they came to you, didn't they."
"Rune approached me out of costume, yes."
Everyone else was staring at the two as Lisa went back to laughing.
"Bullshit," Dennis whined as the group made their way back to the Wards area. "Complete bullshit. Why do they keep coming to you?"
"Because she's publicly a known non-parahuman with PRT connections," Lisa replied. "That doesn't work for the PRT in any troublesome ways. As such she's a safe option. Approaching any parahuman in costume is something villains tend not to do for fear of being beaten down before they can explain anything."
"Grue and Mycroft would never have sat down with me at first had they known I was a parahuman," Taylor added. "It was only the assumption that I knew what I did solely because of my PRT connections that had them willing to talk at first."
"That was bullshit. Using my own power against me like that."
"It was hilarious and you know it."
"In hindsight maybe. While you were doing it? Terrifying. I honestly considered a stable time loop as being involved, which meant I didn't know what would happen if I screwed it up."
"Yeah, your snark told me about that."
"Of course it did. During the stupid bit with the phones, most likely."
"Yep."
"Stupid traitorous power."
The other Wards seemed to find this amusing, if the visible grins as they entered the common area were any indication. Half an hour later they had all departed.
Saturday morning Taylor made her way to the PRT building early, thanks in part to a message from Assault asking her to. Apparently he had something to show her? She noted he was, in fact, around while she was parking, but he wasn't in the Wards area waiting for her. Once she had parked she made her way in, frowning slightly at the unfamiliar feeling of the taser holster. She'd get used to it eventually, but for now it was weird.
She made her way into the Wards area, only to note Assault jump up and start moving. Huh. She pulled out her phone, because that seemed a bit too convenient for timing. It only took three minutes to find that parahumans could set alerts for other parahumans arriving, and said alerts could also be set for civilian identities if you were cleared for them. Assault had apparently placed an alert on the Wards area door this morning, looking for either of her identities.
Taylor smirked, and moved back to the door. A moment later she went to get changed into her costume, even as she brought a form up on her phone for a quick submission, just in case. Ten minutes later she came out in costume, adjusting the sidearm and taser harnesses a bit, heading out the back door of the Wards area.
A couple minutes later Taylor walked up behind Assault, who was on speakerphone with a tech while trying to get the Wards area door open. Beside him, against the wall, were a couple of boxes stacked on a two-wheeler.
"I'm telling you it says it's locked," Assault said. "I tried biometrics, I tried my access key. The door remains closed!"
"And all diagnostics are returning green on our end," the technician responded. "There is nothing wrong with the door. It even shows that a Ward passed through not fifteen minutes ago, so it is obviously functional. Is there anything else?"
"ARGH!" Assault yelled, glaring at the phone. He angrily hung up and pouted, glaring at the door.
"Excuse me," Taylor said, walking past him. She opened the door and walked through, hearing it close behind her before Assault could recover from the shock. His scream of frustration a minute later was audible through the closed door, causing Taylor to go into a giggle fit. Eventually she calmed down and wondered how long it would be before Assault tried to call her.
She got another fifteen minutes before he appeared to come to that solution himself, as her phone rang. "Hello Assault, how can I help you today?"
"Can you let me into the Wards area?" Assault asked. "The door won't open for me and the technicians are of no help whatsoever."
"Sure thing." Taylor walked over and opened the door, removing her lock in the process. Assault glared at the door, then put his phone away and wheeled the boxes he had outside in.
"Stupid thing. The technicians say it's working fine, but it wouldn't open for me."
"Well, you don't have a higher security clearance than I do, so you couldn't bypass my lock."
Assault stared at Taylor, and then facepalmed. "Ok, I admit it, I'll probably be laughing about that one later. Especially as it should have been obvious when you walked right past me. How did you get behind me, anyway?"
Taylor pointed at the personal rooms hallway. "Back door."
"Right. Ok. I'm moving on before you find some other way to make me feel stupid regarding the doors." He grabbed the two boxes, then pushed the taller one in her direction. "Open that one first!"
Taylor raised an eyebrow, but opened the box anyway. To find a...stop sign? "You read that post on PHO, didn't you?"
"Yep. Couldn't resist. Talked to Glenn, that should be a pretty good fit compared to your maul, at least for weight and balance. Shape profile is obviously different."
Taylor looked over the stop sign, finding that the handle was pretty much identical to her maul's. The head was the main difference. Which, she could admit, could come in handy if she wanted a larger, flatter surface to project. "So, am I supposed to use this as a backup weapon?"
"Glenn and I came up with an alternate for the wok too," Assault said, handing over the other box. "But we didn't have anything better than the shovel."
Taylor took the second box, opening it to find a manhole cover. With a well-designed handle that was obviously intended to look hastily-attached. Unlike the wok it wasn't curved, so she could project from both sides, but with less ability to tweak angles. The clear coating that removed the otherwise hard to work with pattern from the surface, at least from her power's point of view, was a nice touch. "Why a manhole cover?"
"Er, I don't recall? It seemed like a good idea at the time, and themes well with the stop sign. I think we decided you needed something that didn't fit the theme to finish it off, though, as your standard loadout is mixed as well? But we never decided what. But both of these should hopefully work with your existing jackets, or at least there should be little extenders for your harness to deal with the lack of curve?"
Taylor checked the box and found said extenders in one of the corners. They weren't large and were actually designed to go between the bottom edge clip points and the harness, so the manhole cover could sit such that the handle would still be angled a bit at the other end without a curve in the manhole cover itself. The upper point where the handle attached would apparently be left alone. There were two sets, so she had a spare, but it would take a little work to get a jacket ready for the manhole cover either way.
"Now then," Assault continued. "I have to head back to the Rig to help set up. And complain to the technicians that they should report when the door has been locked with higher clearance, instead of just telling me it was working fine."
"I filled out a 'pranking someone in the building' form before you made it here," Taylor commented, checking the balance of the manhole cover. It was a little heavier than her wok, but obviously wasn't a real manhole cover. It didn't weigh nearly enough, even if it looked good. "They were obviously playing along."
"Of course they were," Assault grumbled. "What if it had been an actual emergency?"
"Then you would likely have hit the emergency override option, used the manual release in the wall, or forced your way through the door. The first would have worked as I only specified a lock for normal opening."
"Did you just say manual release?"
"Yes?"
"That sounds like something I ignored during a briefing. Any chance of showing me it?"
Taylor sighed and put the manhole cover down, before showing Assault the manual release access points in and outside of the Wards area. Both were labeled with 'if you use this without prior testing authorization, alarms will sound' signs once you got the panels out of the way.
A few minutes later Assault was on his way, and Taylor was cleaning up the packaging. She checked to ensure nothing was left in each box, then started breaking them down for dropping into one of the recycling points. As she was doing so she paused, looking at the still-attached shipping labels, and groaned. The two had been shipped to him under his civilian name, and he left the labels on.
She carefully removed the two labels and put them in her jacket pocket, then finished breaking the boxes down. With that done she made her way down the hall to one of the larger trash and recycling drop-off points. As she was dropping her load into the recycling bin she noticed the box-moving snark poking into the Wards area, and wondered what it was moving around this time.
Once back in the Wards area she found nothing new in the common area, so she grabbed her new equipment to put away. Only to find a tube with a note attached on the bed in her room. She went over and picked up the note, wondering what the tube was.
"Paperwork for Mycroft," Taylor read. "You'll know when it's time." Well, wasn't that vague. Oh well, the tube went into an expanded pouch anyway.
It was nearly an hour, and a second breakfast run, before the other Wards started showing up. Taylor had started poking around online for ideas for an alternate 'entrenching tool' idea to go with the stop sign and manhole cover, but hadn't come up with anything yet. Eventually everyone had arrived and were all sitting around the monitor. They still had a good hour to go before they were due over on the Rig.
Taylor's 'Maul' phone firing off a notification about an email with an attachment drew her out of randomly looking for weapon ideas. The local PRT technicians had sent a video to her. Huh. She opened it up, figuring it might be less boring than failing to find weapons.
"Why did she fall over laughing?" Dennis asked, looking at Taylor. Who was on the floor, laughing.
"I'm going to assume she found something funny online or something," Lisa answered. "She uses her visor to discreetly use her phones, after all."
Missy crunched space and poked Taylor, who recovered a little. She then went over and powered on the monitor, pulling a phone out to attach to it.
The PRT officer that came to fetch them for their flight to the Rig found them all laughing at the video feed from the camera above the door to the Wards area.
"Hello Assault," Taylor said, walking up to the Protectorate member. They had just disembarked their transport, and Ethan was the one waiting for them. Though some of the other snarks in the area interested Taylor as well. She had a sneaking suspicion what that tube contained now.
"Hello Maul," Ethan replied.
Taylor reached into her jacket and came out with the shipping labels she had placed in there earlier. "I think you forgot these earlier?"
Ethan looked confused, but took the labels anyway. He then read them, before facepalming. "I didn't even consider who they'd been addressed to. Damnit. Oh well, better you than any of the others, I guess. Less embarrassing than your prank was."
"Especially as the technicians shared the video feed."
Ethan stared at Taylor, then looked over at the other Wards. Who were all grinning. "Crap. I'm not living that one down anytime soon, am I?"
"Probably not."
The snickering from the other Wards punctuated that quite nicely as they were brought up to the actual roof of the Rig, instead of off to the side where the transports landed. Granted, non-tinkertech helicopters would also land on the roof at times, but for now it was devoid of vehicles. Instead an observation area had been set up with seating for a number of people.
Several unfamiliar snarks were nearby, but not on the roof, but Taylor gently poked them with a 'hi, I would rather not be distracted by not having said anything to you before when I meet your human, so hello' anyway. Just enough to hopefully not be distracted by them. All of the unfamiliar ones appeared to be together in a room a couple floors down. More interesting, however, were the familiar snarks.
Some of them were expected to one degree or another. New Wave was off to one side, Legend and Miss Militia were down with the unfamiliar snarks. Vivian and Battery were apparently double-checking that the controls on a piece of equipment were working fine. Three, however, were unexpected. Taylor was curious as to why Jessica, Jacob, and Riley were coming up the elevator. Well, beyond coming to see the demonstration.
A quick look around and it was obvious that everyone currently up here already was both a parahuman and knew both of Taylor's identities. That would, presumably, change when some of the others came up. But for now that wasn't going to be an issue. Given that, she made her way over to the elevator. She'd obviously need to make sure there weren't any non-parahuman surprises in there, but otherwise?
The elevator opened and nobody unexpected was in it, so Taylor grabbed her uncle in a hug. Which, admittedly, took him by surprise. Then a sudden flash of memory of him being grabbed by a Brute in Danbury hit her through their snarks, so she backed off a little on the squeezing. He seemed to realize what had happened as well, given that Broadcast quieted down.
"Well hello to you too," Jacob said, finally somewhat-hugging Taylor back. The weapons on her back did kinda hinder that.
"I thought you were a bit too busy to show up for something like this?" Taylor said, releasing Jacob.
"Thanks to a wonderful idea things finished up earlier than expected. I'm actually just stopping in here with Riley before getting her home, given your little demonstration and all."
"Cool." Taylor then turned to Riley and Jessica. "Hi Riley, Doctor Yamada."
[Query]
Oh, has Lisa's brain rebooted?
"I'm just Jessica today," Jessica replied. "I'm not on the clock until Monday. I just took advantage of the trip out to show up early."
[Confusion]
Just an expression. Usually. And I'm allowed to confirm that you are correct. So, what tipped her off?
"So Taylor," Riley said, pulling Taylor away from the others. Taylor heard her uncle snicker behind them. "Your idea was awesome, saved us days of work. Beyond that though, why didn't you say you were doing this testing thing today?"
"I didn't think you'd be able to attend either way?" Taylor answered. "So why bother telling you about something you wouldn't be able to attend?"
[Data]
Yeah, I can see how seeing Riley with Jacob would do that.
Taylor spared a look at Lisa, who was looking angry, likely with herself. And confused. And pale with fright? Huh. It was an interesting combination, that was for sure.
How much does she think she's figured out?
[Data]
"Ok," Riley said, having given Taylor's statement some thought. "I can see that. So, how is this thing going to work?"
"Not sure," Taylor replied. "Come on, I have something I need to do now."
Riley looked interested as Taylor led her over to Lisa. Who stared at Riley, then Jacob, and then Riley again. "Is she?"
Taylor grinned as Inference Engine confirmed what Lisa wasn't saying. "Yep."
"Then he's not really..."
"Yeah, not sure how you came to that conclusion, amusing as it was."
"So they?"
"Yeah."
"But that means she?"
"Yes, she helped with that."
Lisa stared at Taylor, then facepalmed. "I am such an idiot at times."
"I won't argue that one either way," Taylor replied, reaching into her utility belt and pulling out the paperwork tube. "By the way, here's your new paperwork."
"I feel like I missed something," Dennis said as Lisa took the tube. "No, a lot of somethings."
Taylor looked around, and saw that the Dallons, Jacob, and Jessica were all smirking. Obviously they suspected what had been figured out. Everyone else looked quite confused. Even those in full body covering costumes, though how Dean was rocking a confused look in power armor was a mystery to her. Chris at least had visible parts of his face to base things on.
"I'm now going to assume that Mycroft here has metaphorically poked her nose in another hornet's nest," Brian said, shaking his head. "One that we should be avoiding."
"At least she's likely to have more class options in the near future," Taylor offered. Lisa didn't seem to find that comforting.
"Hello again Riley," Amy said, having broken away from the New Wave group. The Pelham portion of which still looking incredibly confused, of course. "Did you enjoy your trip?"
"Of course!" Riley replied. "I even figured out some things. You want a copy of my notes?"
"I doubt I'll understand them, but sure."
"Do you want a copy too?" Riley asked, turning to Taylor.
"Sure," Taylor replied. "I'll probably understand less than Amy does, though."
"Don't sell yourself short," Amy countered.
"If you'll excuse me," Lisa interrupted, having gone back to pale at some point. "I'm going to go over behind the elevator and whimper for a bit."
Taylor watched Lisa do just that. Huh. "I think that might have been a bit much for her." Inference Engine seemed to think that Amy and Riley being on friendly terms and exchanging notes was the proverbial straw in this case.
Lisa's departure triggered a round of the other Wards introducing themselves to Riley, shortly followed by New Wave doing the same. With the Pelhams not sure how to take the three Dallons being slightly wary of Riley, or so it appeared. Riley took it in stride. Taylor, meanwhile, wandered over to Ethan, who was doing very little since Jacob and Jessica had wandered over to talk to Battery and Vivian.
"So how did the Protectorate members up here get chosen?" Taylor asked.
Ethan smirked. "Countdown helped make the testing system and is here as tinker support. Miss Militia will be participating in the testing. Battery and I drew the two remaining slots. Armsmaster is actually participating from the shore, where a secondary system has been set up. Dauntless, Triumph, and Velocity are out on patrol."
"How badly rigged was the drawing?"
"How dare you accuse us of rigging things! I mean, yes, Velocity entered Battery instead of himself, and Triumph's slip got, er, 'temporarily misplaced'. But Dauntless had a fair chance!"
"Not really, since he put you down," Battery said. "Something about Maul having worked with us before and thus we are the better choice as support in a test like this."
"Oh. More rigged than I thought, then."
Taylor noted movement in the snarks downstairs. "I think everyone's coming up."
"We should be prepared to do a quick meet and greet then," Battery said, directing Taylor to the elevator. "Get it out of the way."
Taylor ended up being between Ethan and Battery, with Battery being first, as the group of capes stepped out of the elevator.
"I'm sorry about the issues with the forcefields," Legend was saying to Miss Militia. "But we've been told that Uppercrust's health has been an issue."
"He's missed the last three maintenance cycles," Miss Militia said. "Do we need to look into other options?"
"Boston's in a similar state," a red haired and red skinned man said. "He hasn't been getting to any of the defensive systems, really."
"Excuse me," Taylor said, cutting Battery off from attempting an introduction. "Does this Uppercrust refuse parahuman healing?"
"Er," Legend said. "No, not that I know of?"
"Has anyone asked Panacea to take a look at him? I'm sure she would even if it would only help here, let alone other cities."
Everyone in the group stared at Taylor, and then several of them facepalmed, Legend and Miss Militia included.
"So, yeah," Legend said. "Hello again Maul. I think I'm going to go talk to Panacea for a moment on suddenly-urgent business."
Legend made his way over to where Amy, Riley, Vicky, and Dean had ended up chatting. The rest of the capes standing there seemed to be in a minor state of shock, but Miss Militia pulled herself out first.
"Thank you Maul," Miss Militia said. "For pointing out the obvious potential solution we had overlooked. Even if Uppercrust is a member of a normally villainous organization that doesn't mean that Panacea won't heal him. I just don't think it occurred to any of us to ask her."
"Or possibly to him to apply to come to one of her healing weekends," Battery said. "Since she normally doesn't heal known villains unless they're in custody. Though that brings up why you mentioned it at all, since I'd imagine you know that?"
"I didn't know Uppercrust was part of a villain group at all?" Taylor offered. "I mean, why would I assume that someone working on defensive systems for Brockton Bay and Boston was a villain?"
"Girl has a point," the only apparent PRT officer in the group, a middle-eastern looking woman, said. Though they were a cape, Taylor just wasn't sure if they were known to be one. Hmmm. Well, she could fill out forms without anyone noticing, right?
"At any rate," Miss Militia said as Taylor found the right form. "Let's get introductions out of the way. First from Boston, the three capes you missed previously. Protectorate member Sanguine."
"Howdy," the red skinned and haired man said. "Nice to meet you."
"The Ward Weld."
"Hello there," a teenager apparently made out of metal said.
"And the Ward Hunch."
"Hi," a younger boy said. He appeared to have some physical issues, and was hunched over. Which was probably where his name came from.
"And joining us from New York, I'm under the impression you already met Legend. We also have the Ward Flechette."
"Hiya," a teenage girl in a purple costume said.
"And Officer Griess."
The apparent officer merely nodded. That was, however, the last bit of information Taylor needed for her form, so it was quickly submitted.
"Everyone, this is Maul, who we are here to work with today."
"Hi," Taylor said, even as 'Officer Griess' pulled a vibrating phone out of a pocket.
"Damnit," 'Officer Griess' said. "How in the world did you make me out as a cape already? And when did you have time to tell anyone?"
"She knew you were a cape as soon as you were within a few hundred meters of her," Hunch said. "Which you would have known had you read her file. Appraiser and Eleventh Hour found that out when they tried to play PRT Officer too."
"I see. The name's Clay, though if you want you can call me Jess. Since I stupidly went with my real name on the uniform and all. Still doesn't explain how she filled a form out already, unless said cape detection also tells her when one is not in costume?"
"I filled the form out while you were all being introduced," Taylor answered, only to get a selection of questioning looks. "Tinker fugue gave me Bluetooth in my brain."
Watching capes flinch at that was actually starting to get incredibly amusing. Group flinches were even better.
"Sorry about the delay," Legend said as he returned from talking with Amy. "Panacea has agreed to heal Uppercrust if he's willing. Now then, might I suggest those of us not directly participating get settled while the testing procedure is gone over?"
Chapter 59 It appeared that Taylor, Miss Militia, and Flechette were 'directly participating' today. Taylor's 'firing point' was a sizable platform jutting off to the side of the Rig, a good fifty meters in length to clear lower points for her firing. A safety line would connect her back to the main structure, just in case. Similar safety lines would be connected to Miss Militia and Flechette when their parts came up. In addition there was a protective forcefield, similar to the one in the firing range at the PRT building, that would only protect from things coming towards them. The size made it weaker, but shockwaves and such would be significantly muted.
To start with, Taylor would be firing her pistol at a drone-held target, with a large collection of other targets and obstructions being deployed in the area. The rest of the tests at that stage, if any, would vary with any unexpected results. Recording of results would be done with fixed cameras on the Rig, flying drones that would be deployed just before they began, and with equipment that Armsmaster was operating on the shore.
All of the targets were going to be armor plating held by drones or 'disposable' drones in and of themselves, depending on what the test was aiming to accomplish. Some would be stationary, but others would be moving. All would have some kind of sensors.
"Shore systems check complete," Colin's voice came over the radio. Which was another thing, they were on a temporary dedicated radio channel with some speakers allowing the observers to hear everything. That way they didn't need to yell down the platform.
Once the initial round of tests was done they'd check the drones while showing off the clay pigeon launching system, having gotten an earful that it was not a 'skeet' launching system, before moving onto alternate weapons and, eventually, Flechette-enhanced rounds.
"Rig systems check complete," Vivian replied a moment later. The wonders of running simultaneous checks. Colin and his snark were probably very happy with the efficiency.
"Drone systems check complete," Dragon replied. She was operating remotely, and her assistance had been requested by Colin. "Deploying observational drones." Some of the feeds from the stationary cameras and the observational drones would be shown on screens at the observation area as well.
Taylor made her way down the walkway connecting the main structure to the firing platform, adjusting the strap that she had been given to connect her sidearm to the holster. It was intended to prevent dropping of the sidearm if she lost her grip, and was apparently hers to keep when they were done. She was going to see about getting something similar for the taser later.
"Observational drones in position," Dragon said. "All signal checks green."
"Deploying initial target drones," Vivian said, even as a wave of drones darted out from the Rig. There had been all of five observational drones. There were at least a hundred 'target' drones, and they had more in reserve. Most of these had an armor plate attached, which was turned in her general direction.
Taylor reached the firing point and drew her sidearm, getting into a comfortable stance at the railing. Her first shot was going to be normal, and her second using 'forward' projection mode. These were considered to be 'test' shots, the fun would begin with number three. Of course, most of the 'unofficial' observers wouldn't have any clue about that aspect. They just happened to have crowded at various points on the shoreline to watch from a distance. In fact, those observers wouldn't really know what was actually happening, but the show might be spectacular. Maybe.
"Target drones in position," Vivian continued. "Maul, you may fire when ready."
Taylor flipped the safety off and took aim at the largest 'target', which had a bullseye painted on it. "Test shot one, unpowered. In three, two, one." Taylor fired, compensating nicely for the drop but not as nicely for wind drift. She still hit the target, it was just a little off to the side.
"Muzzle velocity is reading higher than expected," Dragon reported.
"That's expected, my sidearm has a space-expanded barrel courtesy of Vista. Four times standard length."
"In that case muzzle velocity is correct. You may continue when ready."
Taylor ensured she was ready to project the bullet forward, and attempted to compensate for the wind a bit better. "Test shot two, forward projection. In three, two, one." She fired for the second time, and for the first time where there wasn't a target within her forward projection range. Instead the projected hit came as the projection reached the target, followed shortly after by the bullet doing so.
"Two hits registered," Vivian said. "Consistent with expectations."
"Two hits confirmed," Colin said, confirming the shore systems had picked the same thing up. Which meant that their detection setup could pick up her power's hits, in addition to actual hits. Of course, that was why they had her project forward at all when all of this was intended for testing projecting to the side.
"Monitoring sensors at maximum resolution," Dragon reported. "Continue when ready."
This time Taylor prepped her aim, then switched to side-projection mode. Maximum range, go big or go home. "Test shot three, side projection, no set distance. In three, two, one." The third shot of the day was fired. The projection started just as the bullet left the barrel, and every drone was affected. Those with armor plates were pushed back, and those without were shredded.
"Rig, please confirm," Colin said. "Shore is reading all targets hit." Taylor blinked as she thought about that. Shouldn't some of them have blocked others?
I thought solid enough things would shrink the circle?
"Rig confirms," Vivian replied. "All targets hit."
Data
Huh. The armor plates weren't thick enough to shrink the circle at the speed it was traveling at, only enough to protect the drones behind them. Of course, they were prepared for something like this. But if those plates were that thin they must have been some kind of tinkertech armor.
"Deploying replacement target drones," Dragon said. "And wave two drones with thicker armor."
Taylor watched as the drones reconfigured. This time some moved behind the one she was shooting at, even as the new drones with thicker armor positioned themselves along the firing area, staggered to see the effects on the circle as it encountered them.
"Drones in position," Dragon said once everything was in place. "Continue when ready."
Taylor readied her aim again. "Test shot four, side projection, no set distance. In three, two, one." This time the drones on the outer edges remained untouched after the circle passed one of the larger armored drones, so the armor thickness was now enough to 'shrink' the projected circle. Also, none of the drones that had been moved beyond the target the real bullet impacted were affected, showing that once the real bullet stopped so did the projection. Of course, the drones affected were still shredded or pushed back, though the tougher armor meant the larger drones were less obviously pushed back compared to the others. Likely due to larger mass and thus more inertia.
"Rig systems show the circle clipping as expected," Vivian said. "Several drones appear to be reporting mechanical faults from the repeated hits."
"Shore systems concur on both points," Colin added. "In addition, sparking is visible on several from here."
"Cycling all drones in preparation for round two," Dragon said, even as the drones returned to the Rig.
"While we wait for the drones to be checked over," Battery said, for the benefit of the observers. "We would like to do a demonstration of the new clay pigeon launcher system. It isn't suitable for use in the rain as the clay discs are an environmentally friendly tinker-derived construction that dissolve harmlessly in water. As a side effect of that, they are smaller and thinner than normal clay pigeons."
Taylor made sure she was ready and in 'forward' projection mode, as they were starting with accuracy. She would be using all but the last round in her magazine for this test, giving her fifteen shots due to Missy having doubled the capacity from the normal ten this model had.
Once ready, Taylor spoke clearly. "Pull."
A single clay pigeon fired from the Rig, and Taylor sighted it and shot it. This repeated fourteen more times, with three misses on ones that had launched from 'traps' further away from her. With that done Taylor prepared for the final demonstration on this system, switching back to sideways projection mode.
"Twelve out of fifteen," Battery said. "Not bad, not bad at all. Of course, that doesn't show anything of real interest, beyond Maul being a decent shot. Maul, when you're ready."
Taylor grinned. "Pull."
At that point every trap started launching, doing their best to saturate the air with clay pigeons. Taylor waited the five seconds she had been told the launchers would be firing for, took two to aim, and then fired. Instead of clay pigeons breaking apart they were all obliterated, rendered to dust.
"Two hundred six out of two hundred six," Battery said, though her voice was a tad off this time. Well, it was a potent demonstration of the Barrage Blaster trick. "So, I suspect that by now nobody here is considering not getting out of Maul's line of fire if she needs to use that trick."
With that done they were to switch over Miss Militia participating. Taylor backed away from the railing and swapped the spent magazine for a full one, doing a quick once-over of the sidearm at the same time. She'd refill that magazine later. With all that done she holstered the sidearm, and turned to the approaching Miss Militia.
"Maul," Miss Militia said, having reached the platform. "Next up we'd like to see if you can apply your projections at speed." Her power flared and she was holding something that looked like it was based on a P90, but it didn't look quite right based on the few pictures Taylor and Missy had been shown in class. "I've been giving it some thought, and I believe this will allow you to test at this stage with minimal issue due to the barrel being out of your range. It's a variant of the P90 modified to use 150 round magazines instead of the normal 50. Never saw normal distribution, but the weapons I create don't suffer from the normal drawbacks of a full 150 round burst. Now then, let me show you the basics."
Miss Militia put Taylor through a quick lesson with the P90, which included them shooting into the ocean without targets so that Taylor could get used to the weapon. She found she could pre-rig all of the bullets with her power due to their positioning, which meant getting them projecting as they were in position was easier than she expected. Even if she was only projecting forward for the moment. She'd have to start using that trick with the sidearm too, it just hadn't occurred to her until she was preparing to fire at much higher speeds.
"We're ready for drone deployment," Miss Militia said, even as she re-made the P90 with a full magazine and handed the new one to Taylor.
Taylor frowned as the drones started launching again, holding the P90 out for Miss Militia to take. "The bullets aren't blunt enough this time."
"I was wondering if you'd notice," Miss Militia said as she re-made the P90 again. "A little impromptu test, you could say."
"Were you hoping I'd not notice the change and my trick would still work?"
"Basically, yes."
"I suppose I could attempt to project the bullet from one of the flat edges off of the sharp tip to try and make a cone, but because the tip isn't blunt then the simulated impacts won't work, because they only simulate blunt objects."
"That makes sense."
"That and my snark is telling me it's only supposed to be doing two dimensional representations and a cone would be three dimensional. The line to circle is skirting the rules it started with badly enough as it is, and that only works because it is less calculation work. The cone would apparently add an entirely new variable set?"
"It was worth the try, I think."
"Drones are in position," Dragon said, getting their attention.
"Shore systems are ready," Colin replied.
"Rig systems are ready," Vivian added. "Fire when ready."
Miss Militia gestured for Taylor to get to it. Taylor moved back up to the rail with the P90 and braced it against her shoulder. A moment was taken to apply her power to each bullet, with the projection parameters set for perpendicular projection. "Beginning firing in three, two, one."
The result of Taylor pulling the trigger were staggering. A single bullet at a time would shred the unarmored drones and push the armored ones back. The ten second stream of bullets, on the other hand, forcibly knocked all of the drones back. Most of the armor was severely damaged, and a number of drones failed outright. Only those drones in the 'safe due to clipping' areas were left untouched, and at least one of the clipping drones had been forced out of position causing that safe zone to change mid-burst..
Everyone was silent as they watched drone after drone fail, even after the firing had stopped. Armor broken off in pieces, support structures bent out of shape. Several had been spun slightly and been grazed along the sides, and some of those failed shortly after for various reasons.
"Recalling all drones," Dragon's voice finally called out. Once told to move several more drones failed and fell into the water.
"Debris catcher nets are nearing capacity," Colin called. "Please hold while we clear and re-deploy them."
Taylor had barely noticed Miss Militia swapping the P90 out for a small knife, but did follow her back to the main structure. The nets being changed out was not a fast process, after all. As they did so, Taylor mused on her mental state. She felt like she should be horrified, but instead she felt almost...giddy? She knew it was from all the things she had been able to 'hit' with her power in new ways, but it didn't change how she felt.
"That was incredible," Flechette said as they stepped back onto the main structure. "Do you think my power will really work with Maul's?"
Taylor looked at Flechette, then pulled the empty magazine and a box of bullets out of her utility belt. She pulled a single round out of the box and handed it to Flechette. "Figure out how to best apply your power to that to start with? It should, ideally, still be affected by the rifled barrel inducing spin."
While Flechette was looking at the round, and quickly determining that the bullet itself was what to focus on, Taylor started popping rounds into the magazine. She left one empty slot in the magazine, closing and storing the box of bullets.
"I've applied things to just the tip of the bullet," Flechette finally said. "So that the sides can still interact properly with the barrel. Thing is, it won't last forever, so you'd probably have to load and fire the bullet fairly quickly once I hand it back to you."
Taylor held her hand near the bullet and tried to get a projection line off of the bullet's tip. Only it was as though the tip wasn't there? "Well, I think your power invalidates what it's been used on as far as mine is concerned. I can't project off of the bullet tip at all." Not that her snark wasn't trying, mind you. But it was like the bullet wasn't all there anymore.
"I guess we'll be skipping that test after all," Miss Militia commented. "I'll let the others know. This also means we should get the last gun set up, as it's all that's left."
Flechette handed the round back to Taylor, who noted the other girl's power fading from it. "I don't know if I should be annoyed or pleased that my power isn't compatible with yours."
"No clue," Taylor replied, loading the round into the magazine. A quick double-check of things and the now full magazine was put away. "Could go either way. Honestly, I expected my power to ignore what yours was doing and just pretend the bullet was normal."
"Which would still be a shock to anyone you fired at."
"True, I suppose."
The two watched as the platform Taylor had been shooting from shifted, apparently disconnecting from the walkway. It lowered down to where the drones had been launching from, only to be replaced a few minutes later with a different platform. This one had a large mounted gun on it, with a small covered and padded bench along one side of the barrel. There was a shield at the end of the bench, likely to protect Taylor from anything that happened at the muzzle end.
The platform attached to the walkway, and additional support wires were brought in and attached to key points by smaller drones. During this process a whine could be heard as something in the gun powered up.
"May I present our final testing weapon of the day," Vivian said, sounding unusually excited. "A five inch twelve caliber tinkertech railgun, firing specially designed spin-stabilized rounds at speeds of up to thirteen thousand feet per second."
"Where in the world did you find that?" Taylor asked. She even did so on the radio, because she figured everyone else wanted to know too.
"Storage room six," Vivian answered. "It required some maintenance, and the addition of the bench, but the thing is otherwise awesome."
"Why was it in storage room six?" Battery asked, showing that she was still on the radio.
"Because Washington said I couldn't use it against Squealer's vehicles," Colin replied. "No matter how efficient it would be at stopping them."
"Yeah," Vivian added. "Stupid bureaucrats. Who cares about the collateral damage when you have something this awesome!"
"It's unfortunate that it didn't work against Leviathan," Miss Militia chimed in. "During the only combat deployment it's seen."
Everyone paused for a moment at that, before Vivian continued. "You're saying that Armsmaster actually fired this thing at an Endbringer?"
"Leviathan knocked the round out of the air as though it had been a thrown rock," Colin said in a very frustrated manner. "Didn't even have the decency to let it hit his face after the effort needed to get it to the fight."
"Can we try again with me making special munitions?" Vivian asked. Taylor suspected that if there was a video feed to Colin she would be making puppy dog eyes. "Please?"
Taylor wasn't sure if she wanted to see that or if she wanted to be on Earth Aleph before they considered trying. Hmmm. She'd compromise: See it through a video feed being directed to a bunker on Earth Aleph.
"Debris nets are cleared and reset," Colin said in lieu of an answer. "We're ready for the final test."
"Deploying final wave drones," Dragon said, even as they heard much louder noises from below them. A moment later a number of quite large and heavily armored drones launched from the Rig.
"Maul," Miss Militia said as she walked back up to Taylor and Flechette. "There's a firing control unit attached next to the bench. Dragon is handling aiming, you just need to toggle from 'safe' to 'armed' and then, when the light on the button comes on and you are ready, hit 'fire'. Please reset it to 'safe' before leaving the bench."
"Got it," Taylor said, then made her way down the walkway. The gun was even more impressive when she got there. Despite not thinking she needed them, since she hadn't been using ear protection at all so far, she put the ear muffs provided on anyway. The control unit was easily grabbed, and she climbed onto the bench. A moment later the entire thing shifted forward, to ensure that the muzzle cleared the edge of the platform.
"Drones are in position," Dragon said as Taylor was getting settled. "The Coast Guard confirms that the firing channel is clear. Loading round."
Taylor felt a thunk as the round was loaded, and she felt the round compatible with her power enter her range by her feet.
"Rig systems are ready," Vivian said. Taylor looked up and saw that while she couldn't see the muzzle, she could see the drones due to a window in the shield. A multi-paned window of some kind, but it was a window.
"Shore systems are ready," Colin said. "You may fire when ready."
Taylor looked at the control for the gun and flipped the safe/armed switch. The whining from the gun increased, probably capacitors of some kind charging. After two minutes the 'fire' light lit. Ensuring that her power was applied to the projectile, she turned her head and looked out at the drones. Bracing one hand to ensure that her power would be able to apply to the entire length of the barrel, she spoke. "Firing in three, two, one."
In a 'blink and you missed it' moment the round was launched from the gun, the sound oppressive despite a lack of explosive propellant. The entire thing recoiled back to the position it started in, but at seemingly the exact same time drones were obliterated in what looked like balls of fire. The target drone survived just as well as the others, in that it didn't. With that shot none of the armor had apparently mattered, beyond ensuring the actual hit on target with the real projectile fragmented the original round enough to cancel out Taylor's power.
Despite knowing on an instinctual level that the gun wasn't loaded anymore, Taylor very carefully switched from 'armed' to 'safe' anyway. And then lay there on the bench for a couple of minutes. Given that everyone else was being silent as well she figured it was a 'state of shock' moment for them. Which meant it was probably not a good idea to go back with the grin plastered on her face. She'd just pretend she was also in a state of shock for the moment.
It took her nearly five minutes to get the grin off of her face, after which she got off of the bench and replaced the control back in the holder she found it in, then the ear muffs on the hook they had been sitting on. She then walked back to the main structure, noting that everyone was still staring at where the drones had been.
"I don't suppose that we can add 'Impact Blaster 9' to her ratings when armed with a tinkertech railgun?" Battery finally said as Taylor made her way to the observation area itself. "Because holy crap."
"I'd think the 'Impact' portion of that would be connected to the gun," Taylor replied. "Not to me?"
"Maul is correct," Dragon said. "No matter how impressive that is, it still falls under 'Barrage Blaster'."
Taylor watched as the extra cables were disconnected and retracted, before the entire platform disconnected and lowered again. This was followed by a section of railing folding from the walkway to cover the gap and the walkway itself folding down and out of the way.
"Right," Vivian said. "This concludes our Barrage Blaster testing session for today."
Taylor disconnected the safety cable that she had been wearing and let it retract to where it was connected as the observers slowly got out of the stands that had been set up. The console disconnected her from the 'testing' channel as Legend approached her.
"I'm impressed at how much power you can bring to bear with the right tools," Legend said. "Good job, even if it is unlikely you'll get to help fire the railgun in the future."
"Sometimes the once in a lifetime experiences are the best kind," Taylor replied. "After all, do I really want whatever situation that would imply to be happening in order for it to be tried?"
"Very true." He then stepped aside, allowing the others that hadn't quite been willing to approach Taylor while he was standing there to come forward.
"I thought you were scary with a sidearm," Missy said. "The machine gun there raised the bar, and then that railgun obliterated it."
"And yet I still can't shoot around corners," Taylor countered.
"Does it matter if you can just obliterate the corner and keep on going?" Riley asked. Several others nodded at that.
"If I have to use that kind of firepower then I don't think the corner can handle what I'm shooting at either, so it is probably a moot point there."
"Let me check your ears," Amy said as she poked Taylor. "Huh, no damage. Not bad for the amount of noise you were dealing with."
"I did wear the ear muffs for the last shot."
"True."
"As much as we could probably stand here talking about this all day," Dennis said. "If you get your other things out of the way we can go see a movie?"
"Will any movie be able to match up to the awesome we just witnessed?" Missy asked. "I mean, seriously?"
"That's why we don't go anywhere near an action film. Maybe a comedy? Won't matter if you dilly-dally on talking to people."
"Some of us would like to catch our flights back sooner rather than later as well," Sanguine said. "For various reasons, though I suspect the New Yorkers here have a longer trip."
"Why don't we head downstairs to the conference room," Legend said. "Maul can do her thing, moving into the neighboring room for anyone who wants privacy, and then we can go our separate ways?"
Nobody objected to that, so Taylor joined the visiting capes in the elevator. A couple minutes later the seven were sitting at a table.
"Before we begin," Legend said, picking what looked like a PRT-issue long carry case up from the corner. "Maul, I have a gift for you. I figured it was appropriate, since you pushed me in the right direction." He placed the case on the table in front of her, and gestured for her to open it.
Taylor flipped the latches on the case and opened it, to reveal a sword and sheath. The hilt and sheath had a similar coloration to her maul and stop sign handles, though she could tell they were not the same material, and it looked like there were points where the sheath was designed to attach to her harness. The sword was a straight one, and looked to be designed to be used with one hand based on the size of the hilt on it.
"I'm not sure what precise kind of sword it's supposed to be," Legend said. "Beyond one handed and single-edged. But it should hold up incredibly well. It's the second proper blade created using my power instead of a normal forge, I kept the knife that was made first."
"Er," Taylor said, looking at the sword. "Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but you do realize my powers work on blunt objects, right?"
"There are certain conditions you have to work with when you're working with a blacksmith that also happens to be a blade tinker. A lack of purely blunt weapons is one of them. I don't know if the backside of the sword will work with your power, but you should be able to whack people with the flat sides of the blade and the pommel, right? Just don't do so with the actual blade or it's likely to break. The actual pommel should be fine."
Taylor looked at Legend, then back down at the sword. She finally, carefully, picked it up, finding it to be heavier than she had expected. At the same time, though it felt well-balanced in her hand. She didn't bother trying to swing it, but she did poke at it with her power. The backside of the blade was just wide enough for her power, it appeared, and the flat sides of the blade also seemed usable.
Upon closer examination, there was a decorative pattern on the blade itself, which nearest the hilt included the word 'Maul' in fancy script. It was hard to see, but if you caught the light properly it jumped out. But it didn't look to be engraved?
"I'll admit that I have no idea how he made the damascus pattern come out that way," Legend said, answering Taylor's unasked question of how the pattern was made, kinda. "But that is why he's the blade tinker and not me, I suspect. He also claims that thanks to my assistance it is probably one of the strongest swords he's made to date, though he also said that he wants to make a greatsword for our next project."
"I don't suppose you talked to Assault about this?" Taylor asked. "Or maybe Glenn?"
"I looked up Glenn's order for your maul to get the colors, but that's it. Why?"
"Because this morning Assault gave me a couple of new weapons as well, but he and Glenn didn't know what to put in the mix instead of my entrenching tool."
"Ok, I'll admit the timing is weird there."
"So, do you know if the PRT offers swordsmanship classes? Because I don't know how to use a sword."
"Pointy and/or sharp end in the enemy," Sanguine offered, only to get glares from everyone else. "What? Most capes have to figure out weapon styles for themselves due to their powers anyway."
"He has a point," Legend said. "Unfortunately. You'll find a care kit and tips in a pocket behind the upper foam, I don't know if the tips include beginners bladework tips or anything though as I hadn't bothered to look it over myself."
"Well, thank you," Taylor said, placing the sword back into the case and closing it. "I'm not sure if I'll ever actually use it, though."
"I'm happy if you hang it on the wall in your room. Though seeing the look on people's faces if you pull a legitimate sword out would also be amusing, it's your choice either way."
"You said that just to prod me into using it with my body camera active, didn't you."
"Of course."
"I don't know which will get the better reaction. This, the stop sign, or the manhole cover."
"Oh shit," Flechette said, drawing everyone's attention. "Someone listened to Void? We'll never hear the end of it once he finds out."
"Perhaps I should make a new loadout video. Make it blatantly obvious that the new pieces were gifts, and ensure that everyone knows that Assault was responsible for me getting the stop sign."
A quick look around the table showed that everyone was in agreement with that idea.
Chapter 60 Taylor put the case containing the sword on the floor beside her chair, before looking around at the others in the room. "So, any requests for who goes first?"
"If you work with Flechette and Clay first they can get to their flight sooner," Legend offered. "I plan on flying back solo either way."
"Works for me." She turned to the two capes in question. "Who wants to go first, and do you want to do this in private?"
"Why don't we start with me with everyone here," Jess offered. "That way the kids have a better idea what they might be getting into."
Though Flechette and Weld seemed to dislike being referred to as 'kids', nobody had an objection, so Taylor nodded and poked at Jess's snark.
So, a proper Hello to you! How are you?
[Data]
That sounds alright. Is there anything you'd like your human to do that she doesn't currently?
[Query]
Er, yes? That sounds about right
[Data]
What? What do you do for your human anyway?
[Data]
Ah, that makes more sense then. Ok, I'll let her know.
"So, er, yeah," Taylor said. "Apparently your snark would like you to learn how to be a potter. Maybe try and make ones that double as traps, too?"
Jess stared at Taylor for a moment, and then shrugged. "Makes as much sense as anything else, I guess."
Taylor turned to Flechette, who nodded. "Just get it over with in here."
Hello there.
[Greetings]
So, is there anything you'd like your human to do that she isn't doing already?
[Data. Elaboration. DATA!]
Taylor blinked. Ok. I guess I can see that. So, you're good at that?
[Data]
Huh, you were made specifically for that, way back. Interesting. But why only if you're aimed correctly?
[...Query]
I mean, have you considered retargeting mid-shot? A homing shot, that can follow a dodging target, or correct for poor aim? Perhaps one that locks onto the target and follows it after you let go of it?
[Intrigue]
"Well, you're complicated," Taylor said. "Your snark has only one real desire you're not doing anything with, but on the other hand it also knows you can't really do so right now?"
"What?" Flechette said. "Something I can't do?"
"It was made for killing Jabberwocks, but there aren't any you really can hunt down right now? Never are, it seems to think. It dislikes that, but can't do much about it."
"That...I don't know how to react to that. What's a Jabberwock?"
"My power hasn't been able to tell me much? It just keeps referring to them every so often."
Everyone sat there for a moment, before Jess got up. "Come on kid, the sooner we get on the transport the sooner we get back to New York."
"I'm not a kid," Flechette said, even as she got up.
"You stop being a kid when you join the Protectorate."
The others watched the two leave, before Legend snickered. "She loves needling the Wards. Thinks it toughens them up."
"Should you have said that in front of three Wards?" Taylor asked.
"She only seems to needle our Wards. Dunno why. Familiarity, maybe."
"So, there are three of us left," Sanguine said. "Shall we do the whole 'adult first' bit again?"
Taylor looked at the other two Wards in the room, and they both shrugged. "Alright, I guess. You want to do it in here?"
"Yeah. Better to start that way, I think. Oh, and can you see if it knows why I don't look human, and don't remember anything from my past?"
Taylor shrugged. "I can try." With that she poked at Sanguine's snark.
Hello there.
[Annoyance]
Ok, you're hungry. I can see that being annoying. Do you have to be rude too?
[Anger]
Whoa, I'm not responsible for any of that!
[...Acceptance]
So, you weren't told how to safely connect to humans?
[Agreement]
Is that why Sanguine doesn't look right anymore?
[Confusion]
Data
[...Annoyance]
I can see how you might not have what you need to fix him, but at least you're aware of the issue. Is that why he doesn't remember his past?
[Negation. Data]
He asked to have his memory wiped? Are you able to tell me why if he wants to know?
[...Disclosure]
Taylor blanched at that. Ok, yeah. She might want to forget having to do that too, and all she got was a summary. Having the actual memories?
Thank you, I think. Is there anything you'd like Sanguine to do that he isn't?
[Negation]
Taylor paused, then decided to poke her own snark.
Can you throw some energy its way?
Agreement. Query
Yeah, I'd say no more than a fifth of what you have in reserve for now is good. Don't overload the snark either.
Taylor felt the energy transfer start, and what she thought was a bit of surprise from the other snark.
[Gratitude]
You're welcome. I can't provide too much, but some is better than none, right?
[Agreement]
"Your snark is hungry, but happy with how you use it," Taylor said aloud. "As for the appearance bit? Well, I can say that your snark just never got the how to connect to humans information. Which is why you don't quite look human now. Your memory was wiped at your request and I won't say any more about that outside of a private room."
"There is such a room right next door," Legend reminded them. "If Sanguine wants to know?"
"I think I'd like to know, yes," Sanguine said, standing up and looking at Taylor. "Unless you object?"
Taylor got up and followed Sanguine out of the room.
Ten minutes later Taylor and a paler Sanguine returned. The latter collapsed into his chair and stared at the ceiling. "I'm definitely doing more hospital volunteer work now."
"Don't ask," Taylor said as she sat back down. "Now then, which of you would like to be next?"
"I'll go next," Weld said. "Give Hunch more time to decide either way. Might as well do the initial bit in here."
Hunch just waved them on, so Taylor poked at Weld's snark.
Hello there.
[Rejection]
Taylor blinked. Did it just tell us to go away because it doesn't want to waste energy chatting?
Agreement
You finished 'feeding' Sanguine's snark, right?
Agreement
Think Weld's will chat if we send some energy at it?
Contemplation. Query
Yes, I can see the sense in sending a small amount of energy, then trying again.
Taylor waited for the pulse of energy transfer, then poked Weld's snark again.
Hello again
[Query]
Yes, we just gave you some energy.
[Request]
We can provide some more when we're done with a few questions, if you don't mind?
[Acceptance. Apologies]
Thank you, and apology accepted. Now then, is there anything you'd like your human to do that he doesn't currently?
[Data]
Ok. I guess I can let him know that. Were you also not told how to connect to humans?
[Agreement]
I thought that might be the case. And do you know why your human lost memory?
[...Data]
Ok. I can respect that.
"So," Taylor said as she noted her snark start the 'feeding' process. "You're running on similar things as Sanguine, hungry and not told how to work with humans. Your snark refuses to say why your memory was wiped, beyond that it was at your request and it ended up helping do so because of that. It had something to do with your near-death state when it connected to you, though. Beyond that, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, it feels you don't have enough lead in your diet."
The others looked at Taylor oddly, before Weld shrugged. "Ok, I guess I get that. Maybe I need to transfer here to get shot more often?"
"Please don't even joke about that," Sanguine said. "Seriously."
"Get him to help clean up shooting ranges?" Taylor offered. "Assuming you have some in Boston, anyway."
"That could work," Legend said. "Obviously they'll have to take the recommendation under advisement."
"So what about me?" Hunch asked. Taylor looked at him. "Might as well share, unless something private comes up."
"Alright then," Taylor said as she poked his snark.
Hello there.
[Query]
Er, yes, I did just feed the other two?
[Request]
When we're done I can do so with you too. Were you not told how to work with humans?
[Correction]
You were given incomplete data? Huh. Ok. Do you know why your human doesn't remember anything?
[Data]
Er, what?
[Elaboration]
Ok. So, is there anything you want your human to do?
[...Data]
Ok...I'll try and convey that.
Taylor wasn't sure how to go about that, even as her snark started feeding Hunch's. "So, er, yeah. Hungry, had partial data for working with humans. But, er, yeah. If you want more we're going next door, and you can decide what to share."
Hunch looked at Taylor oddly, but got up anyway. Taylor followed suit and they made their way into the next room. Sanguine had an understanding look on his face, but the other two were more curious.
"You wanted to know," Taylor said as they came back into the room twenty minutes later. "I told you that you probably didn't but you insisted."
"I know," Hunch said, looking depressed. "Don't blame you. It explains a lot though."
Think we should pop Legend's snark some energy too?
Agreement
"So anything you want to share?" Weld asked even as Taylor felt the energy transfer start. "Or is it all too private?"
"Apparently I was born female," Hunch said, dropping into a chair. "And couldn't handle being male even though the change saved my life, so asked to have my memories wiped instead. The rest I'm not saying anything about, thank you very much."
"Seems to have been a side effect of an incomplete 'this is human' information set," Taylor added. "Didn't contain anything about female humans or something like that?"
"At least you know why you've felt wrong in certain ways," Weld said, shrugging. "Better to know than to wonder and all that, right?"
"I suppose," Hunch replied. "So, we got anything else to do here?"
"I'd like to talk with Maul a little longer," Legend said. "So unless the three of you have any more questions?"
The three Boston capes looked at each other, shrugged, and stood up. Sanguine held the door open for the other two, before turning to Maul. "Thanks for the information, as disturbing as it might be. I still prefer to know."
"You're welcome," Taylor replied, before Sanguine closed the door.
"Now then Maul," Legend said. "As I understand it, you've been working your way through a pile of documentation and such. I've also been told you have done so in record time, rewritten half of it, and haven't complained that no money had been dropped into your accounts for doing said rewriting."
"Er, I hadn't actually noticed that last bit? I'm not exactly hurting for money right now."
"Yes, well, I suppose that's expected, since you've made more money than any other Ward in the history of the Protectorate and PRT and still have a few years to go. I hear you helped boost Kid Win into the top five, for that matter. Hmmm, and with Vista sitting at number three due to an unusually widespread merchandising run I think Brockton Bay is unusually represented in the top five."
"Before we get too far off, we were talking about the documentation and such?"
"Right, sorry. You've been paid for some of the larger revelations, but not for the general rewriting work. This is partially because we're hoping to get you a certificate that would give you some more legitimacy when it comes to working with parahumans, in or out of costume. Thing is, we'd need to get you talking to a couple of non-local parahumans in a controlled environment, preferably in civilian guise and without you referring to talking with their, er, snarks."
"What kind of excuse do you have for that?"
"We're thinking about claiming that you've been working with your uncle on a bit of a cape psychology homeschooling program. As for getting you out of the area to visit non-local parahumans, there's a program that has students from around the country write up something on the lines of a master's thesis, which they then do a defense of. If you can write something up for that relating to parahuman psychology we can slip you into the program, which would necessitate an out of town trip."
Taylor stared at Legend. "How long would I have to write this apparent mock thesis?"
"You'd need to submit the paper by five in the afternoon on Friday the twenty-third. No, wait, Thursday the twenty-second. It doesn't need to be great, both because we're fast-tracking you with no real notice and because this is intended to show high school students some of the standards they might be held up to later on. You should expect to have whatever you submit torn to pieces, in fact. If you can get something suitable submitted you'd end up traveling on the twenty...seventh, I think it is and spending several days there. We'd get you to talk to a few parahumans under supervision of other therapists for the certificate, you get to be horrified at the state of your paper, and then you'd come back home over the weekend."
"And I get several days out of school?"
"Well, yes. But in a way that nobody will question or care about. You're supposed to see that as an added bonus, by the way."
"Not sure it counts, since I'll probably have to work my ass off during break to get something researched and written. If anything it would be giving me back some of the time I lost writing it?"
"As I said, it doesn't need to be great. Passable, but not great. You willing to give it a try?"
Taylor leaned back to think about it for a moment. It might nice to have actual recognition for some of the paperwork, which would give her the ability to truly officially weigh in on things. At a minimum it would ensure that what she submitted would be taken more seriously, right? And in a way, filling everything out had been leading up to this. "Do I need to finish the last group of information I was sent?"
"Yes. If you want to go through with this you'll need to finish that, then a list of acceptable 'fields' would be provided. You'd just need to keep the thesis within them."
"I guess I'll give it a shot. Worst I can do is fail, right?"
"Well, fail and make a fool of yourself, but if you make it past the submission point then you should be fine even if you don't get any further. I'll make sure things are ready for when you finish that last batch."
"Alright. Thanks, I guess."
"Anything else from you before we depart?"
Taylor thought about it for a moment, and got a wicked idea. "How difficult do you think it would be to get a sheath for the sword that's, say, sized for if it were a knife and intended for sitting on my belt?"
Legend stared at Taylor. "Why in the world would you want something that useless?"
Taylor smirked as she stood up, pulling her maul out of her jacket. "I think I might be able to arrange for it to hold the entire sword. Imagine the looks on faces then?"
"Yes, I think I can convince people to play along with making that. The first time you pull it you'll need to post videos, though. And I might want one later, the only complaint I had when the blade tinker asked me about carrying a sword myself was the length."
Jacob, Jessica, and Riley had departed while Taylor was in her meeting, so once they were done she had made her way to the other Wards with the sword in the case. New Wave was apparently going to take the transport over with them to return to shore.
There had been questions as they made their way back about the case, but Taylor had explained that she'd show people later. The short hop back to the PRT building was easy enough, and then Taylor dropped the sword off in her room before the group headed out together to catch a movie. In costume, as it was, because that would probably get more attention and maybe distract from what had happened out on the Rig. Amy, Vicky, and Eric were joining them, even, also in their costumes, Vicky getting away with playing 'guard' in case of trouble. Crystal had other plans already and had bowed out, and was the oldest one that had been considered for joining them.
"Anyone want to see the action film?" Carlos asked. There was a round of negative responses. "The romance?" Another round of negative responses, except for Vicky. Who seemed bummed that nobody else was interested. "That leaves the comedy or the documentary."
Taylor was glad they had come up with this plan in advance to put on a show, because she didn't think they'd be able to improv it nearly as well. Instead they had at least six people recording the entire thing as the rest of them gave Carlos an 'irritated' look.
Five minutes later they were in line for popcorn and drinks, the theater already getting an upturn in customers from their presence. Luckily 'capes coming for a movie in power armor' was just frequent enough that they had reinforced seats in the back for the occasion, so when they made their way in to take their seats there were no issues.
The group of parahumans leaving the theater were not, in fact, laughing. Yes, the movie had gotten great reviews. Yes, it had done well so far. No, it wasn't funny, at least to them.
"I'm fairly certain that we are not, in fact, the target audience for that film," Lisa said, shaking her head. "I mean, I can see how it might be funny to some?"
"Yeah," Vicky agreed. "Most of the 'funny' situations hit a little too close to home. And those that didn't I've heard enough stories."
"I kinda wish most cape encounters went like they did in the movie," Chris said. "But, yeah, having gone through a number of them more seriously left me taking too much time to spot all the things that were just wrong."
"It wasn't that bad," Taylor said, resulting in most of them looking at her like she had grown an extra head. "I mean, once I distracted myself with paperwork and such on my phones I could tune out the horrible flaws."
"On both phones?" Amy asked.
"Well, yeah. One wasn't distracting enough to make things funny. Why did the rest of you decide to stick through it?"
"I started taking notes for a school paper," Eric admitted. "I can get away with topics like how horrible movie and TV interpretations of cape anything are and use personal experience as a discussion point."
"I think the horror of how bad the movie was made me forget I could just leave," Lisa admitted. "Kinda like watching a train wreck. You know you shouldn't, but you just can't stop watching?"
"I started counting the number of times the 'cape' flinched from getting guns pulled on them," Dennis said. "I lost count at forty or so. I mean, what kind of cape goes out in a gang-infested city often and freaks out when guns are pulled on them? It was pathetic, and he was supposed to be a brute."
"So what do we do now?" Brian asked, poking Missy. Who had been unusually quiet, until she pulled her phone out and visibly paused something.
"What?" Missy asked. "I was listening to an audiobook."
"I'm thinking I want to head back to the PRT and make a video of my own," Taylor said, which got everyone else's attention.
"What kind of video?" Vicky asked.
"New loadout video. I got some gifts recently and do not want to blamed for one of them. Ever. So I want a video out there before I use them, just to be safe."
"I vote we go help her with her video," Dennis said. "If only to provide ideas for funny labels."
There was general agreement, so the entire group made their way to the PRT building.
"So let's see," Taylor said, preparing to play the video they had recorded in the junkyard. They had chosen the junkyard so that each of the weapons could be demonstrated as well. To that end she had reviewed the sword information provided and within a few minutes had come up with a trick that let her 'cheat' quite a bit. Supposedly a large amount of things was ensuring the blade was, in fact, pointing in the right direction, something that could take a lot of practice. Or, you know, cheating, by 'feeling' for where you could and could not apply your power on the blade.
The same basic trick was something she had apparently been doing subconsciously, really. If it was solid and in whole or part close enough to her skin she could map out any solidly connected piece, provided she could also perceive it as likely to be movable. So she couldn't, for example, use that trick with the ground. But she always knew where the handles for her weapons were, even the ones that were more loosely attached at her hips. She had even been blindly operating buttons through this trick without noticing.
Even with the cheat, though, she didn't feel comfortable fighting with the sword. Doing a little demonstration? Yes. Fighting? No way. Even if the rest of her cheating was 'no need to build up arm strength due to being an artificial brute'.
The rest of the group was watching the monitor as the 'raw' video played, every one of them with notepads open for ideas.
"Hello Internet people!" 'Maul' said on the screen, standing behind a table off-center. "I have recently received several gifts, with which I may eventually assemble an alternate loadout. To avoid confusion I'm going to tell you about them now, instead of later. First up, Assault of the Protectorate ENE has given me two items." Here she reached down and picked up the stop sign. "To start with, for some reason he felt I should have a stop sign, and had one custom ordered for me. And before anyone decides this is a normal stop sign?"
The loud crash as the stop sign, without any use of Taylor's power, crushed a desk they had sitting there was telling, and even expecting it most of the watchers flinched.
"I will reiterate that the stop sign was given to me by Assault of the Protectorate ENE. Moving on, Assault decided that the stop sign wasn't enough, and also gifted me this." Here she pulled out the manhole cover. "While not nearly as nice as my wok, this does have the benefit of being heavier. So if I hit someone with it they'll definitely feel it." This was demonstrated by hitting the same desk, though this time from the side.
"Both of these are nice. The last item, however, is quite unique." Here the camera panned to the side as the stop sign and manhole cover were put away, and the sheathed sword was brought out. "Legend gifted me this sword, as thanks for some help I gave him recently. And before anyone thinks it is a fake?" Here the sword was unsheathed and swung through a pole they had found and wedged between two filing cabinets. The top portion of the pole fell over even as the sword was re-sheathed.
Left unsaid in the video was that this was take number three. The first two had been less successful with the pole, even with cheating. Luckily there were plenty of desks available for the first part.
"So when I eventually get around to using these, please remember that they were all given to me by others."
With that the video ended.
"Can we drop a 'Pointy end goes in enemy' line on the sword?" Dennis asked right away. Taylor snickered and switched to the editing software. She found an option to 'track object' and attached a line to the sword's guard for that label. A quick step-through showed it was working properly.
"I'm thinking 'Roadkill Tenderizer' for the manhole cover," Eric offered.
"Maybe with a 'Not a real manhole cover' clarification?" Lisa added. "Given the manhole cover theft 'pranks' around here and all."
"I'll concede that one," Brian said. "But perhaps 'Bane of Motorcycles' instead of 'Roadkill Tenderizer'?"
"Too close to home on that one," Taylor countered. "I think I'll stick with the roadkill idea."
"Can we label the stop sign 'Swing Towards Offensive People'?" Amy asked.
Everyone snickered at that one, so it was quickly added, then Taylor added the 'roadkill tenderizer' label to the manhole cover, with an asterisk and a note on the bottom of the screen saying it wasn't really a manhole cover. She then paused, and went back to ensure that both had a note that they were gifts from Assault, and then that the sword noted it was a gift from Legend. Better safe than sorry there, right?
With the basic labels done they moved onto coming up with humorous labels for everything else they could come up with a reason to label. Like slapping a 'The poor desk' label on the desk before the first hit, and a 'The poor, horribly abused desk' on it before the second. The pole was labeled 'Basic Pole' before the swing, but afterwards got two labels. 'Apoleingly Short' was slapped on the bottom piece, and 'Lowering the Bar' on the upper piece.
Chris had the idea of labeling the sheath a 'Sword Blunting Sleeve', before they got into dropping labels on Maul. 'Not a traffic cop', 'Not a maintenance worker', and 'Not trained in the use of a sword' in particular. They then went through and added labels to background objects, just because they had room.
They watched the video four more times, tweaking labels and such, before Taylor uploaded it for posting. They then worked on what she should say. Eventually they felt enough bases were covered and Taylor posted it.
Subject: Gifted Equipment
Hello Everyone! Today I received some new equipment as gifts. It was all a surprise to me, and neither individual that gave me items knew the other was doing the same. I would like to emphasise that neither individual checked with me beforehand. I hold no responsibility for what the gifts are as a result.
To that end, I would like to thank Assault of the Protectorate ENE and Legend of the Triumvirate for their gifts.
A video I made to show the gifts off can be found [here].
Once posted Taylor grabbed the link and fired messages off to Ethan and Legend, asking if they would post to confirm what had been posted.
"So what now?" Eric asked once Taylor was done.
"We should show them your prank on Assault," Missy said, grinning.
"I should send a copy of the video to Battery too," Taylor said, even as she jumped over to load the video from that morning. She quickly attached it to a message and sent it off, then started it playing on the screen. Everyone, whether they had seen it earlier or not, found the video hilarious.
"Damn the rules," Vicky said after she recovered. "If not for them you could post that on PHO."
"Too bad it shows a secure area." Carlos said, shaking his head. "And you won't be able to pull it on him in a non-secure area, right?"
"Most likely not."
"Too bad."
Taylor had checked the thread when she got home and found that the first two replies were from Ethan and Legend. Ethan had confirmed that he had gifted the stop sign and manhole cover. He also indicated that normally he would have gone with 'deny, deny, deny' on anything that might get him in trouble, but today 'Maul' had been 'particularly frightening'. Legend had confirmed that the sword was a gift, thanked her again for her assistance, and confirmed Ethan's 'particularly frightening' assessment. Legend, however, 'blamed' Colin for the worst of it, in addition to asking if she really had no training with a sword given how well she cut the pole.
All of this resulted in an immediate thread derailing of epic proportions, with the primary topic being what in the world she had done to cause Ethan and Legend to find her frightening. This was not helped by Carol and Crystal also posting to agree with that assessment.
Taylor had seriously considered printing out and posting the only reply Void made to the thread, though. "I'm now regretting suggesting the stop sign, because the one she ended up with looks like it would hurt. I mean, did you see what it did to that desk? Plus, if I ever run into her I'd probably piss her off enough for her to use it on me." After that he apparently decided he wasn't going to get further involved in that particular discussion.
Interlude: Gun Reports PRT/Protectorate Internal Parahuman Rating Advisory Origin Region: ENE Destination Region: All
Parahumans mentioned in this Advisory: Vista (Ward), Maul (Ward)
Two Wards have been issued sidearms. Due to unique power interactions they have been given additional sub ratings when so armed. Details follow for dissemination to operatives that may end up working with them in the field. Full details are available in their respective files.
Parahuman: Vista Previous Ratings: Shaker 9 (Primary), Thinker 3 (Secondary)
New Secondary Ratings: Accuracy Blaster 2 when armed with a gun
Vista has demonstrated an ability to use her Shaker powers on the individual bullets fired from a gun, allowing for nonstandard flight paths without warping the space inbetween. This allows for shooting around corners or obstacles, but the effect is set at the time of firing and does not adapt mid-flight.
Parahuman: Maul Previous Ratings: Trump 8/Blaster 5 (Primary), Thinker 4/Brute 3/Mover 1 (Secondary)
New Secondary Ratings: Accuracy Blaster 1/Barrage Blaster 9 when armed with a gun
Maul has demonstrated two methods of applying her power to bullets fired from a standard gun.
The first method is using her normal blaster power in 'forward' projection mode. In this case anything she fires at is generally hit instantaneously as well as by the original projectile, with the instantaneous impact happening on a straight line trajectory. At range this generally results in two impacts on the target.
The second method is using her normal blaster power in 'perpendicular' projection mode. In this case she sets a fixed length line from the tip of the bullet perpendicular to the firing trajectory. The spin of the bullet causes her power to simulate bullet impacts packed into a disc of radius equal to the length of the projected line, with the radius shrinking as sufficiently 'solid' objects are encountered. Maul has indicated that she can project at least 100 meters in that mode, resulting in a disk with a diameter of 200 meters in optimal conditions.
Rebecca looked over the advisory. It was really too bad that they already knew the Endbringers weren't all that affected even by large numbers of bullets. But that ability would be ideal for dealing with certain categories of lesser issues. The idea that a Ward had a secondary Blaster 9 rating was in many ways bizarre. But since it only applied when she was armed with a gun that was how the current regulations required it to be listed.
Still, they might have to see just how versatile that trick could be.
Director Armstrong looked over the advisory. He wasn't a fan of issuing guns to any parahuman, but saw the utility in doing so for those who could get more benefit than any normal PRT officer would get from the same weapon. Issuing to a minor, regardless of parental consent, wasn't something he was happy with either, but he recognized that it was Director Piggot's call, not his.
Vista's trick seemed quite useful, and thus met with his approval. Being able to cause normal bullets to move around corners and obstacles would be a godsend at times. The fact she didn't open herself up for return fire at the same time was even better.
Taking a sip of his coffee, he moved onto Maul's information. This was followed by needing to clean coffee off of his monitor so that he could double-check what he just read. A Blaster 9 secondary rating? What the hell caused that?
The fairly straightforward Accuracy Blaster trick was another thing he could see being useful, and was worth issuing a gun to the Ward. The Barrage Blaster trick, though...that caused him to pale a little as he considered the implications. Then again, something like that could be a godsend against some of the things Blasto had come up with.
Bastion looked over the advisory for the third time. As far as he knew they were still in discussions over cross-training with the Brockton Bay capes, so he was probably going to need to ensure that everyone on the Boston teams knew that if Maul told you to get out of her line of fire you got out of her line of fire. Not to mention that her line of fire might be much larger than it appeared to be.
He was really tempted to request that Maul come to town for the cross-training, and then point her at Blasto's creations. The likely look on the tinker's face...
Director Wilkins frowned at the advisory. Issuing guns to minors was never a good idea. Ever. It was one thing if a child's power manifested as one, or allowed them to create one, but when that wasn't the case? Unfortunately he wouldn't be able to do anything about it even if the two Wards transferred to New York, because they were already cleared for them thanks to Piggot.
Dislikes aside, he needed to evaluate this to determine how far to disseminate it. Luckily Legend would be handling the parahuman side of that. Vista's trick was interesting, but his people would be doing their best to get the Ward out of a firefight if it came down to it. Not really a game changer right now. Maul's, on the other hand, was horrifying. And Piggot was allowing that? What in the world was she thinking?
Now where was that form for requesting an emergency competency review of a regional director...
PRT/Protectorate Internal Parahuman Rating Advisory Origin Region: ENE Destination Region: All
Parahumans mentioned in this Advisory: Maul (Ward)
Parahuman: Maul Previous Ratings: Trump 8/Blaster 5 (Primary), Thinker 4/Brute 3/Mover 1 (Secondary), Accuracy Blaster 1/Barrage Blaster 9 (Secondary, Requirement: Gun)
Updated Secondary Ratings: Barrage Blaster 9+ when armed with a gun
Recent testing of Maul's Barrage Blaster ability has shown that higher quality guns compatible with her powers produce much more potent output. Testing was done with a standard issue sidearm, a custom P90 created by Miss Militia's power, and a tinkertech railgun created by Armsmaster and modified for safety concerns prior to testing.
When using a standard sidearm Maul continues to show Barrage Blaster 9 capabilities, provided suitable surroundings. When using a fully automatic weapon the increased rate of fire drastically increases the threat Maul poses, pushing to a near-10 rating alone.
The single test shot with the tinkertech railgun exceeded the 9 rating in pure destructive power. Actual rating may be as high as 11, depending on the profile of the loaded round.
Full details and the video records from the testing are available in Maul's file.
Rebecca blinked as she read the advisory. They had only completed testing an hour ago, and yet had gotten the advisory out already. Which was impressive, but then again so was the advisory itself. She made note to take time to watch the videos. Once they could field Maul without worrying about the Youth Guard throwing up a stink there would be a number of things she could help with, one way or another.
Director Armstrong carefully put his coffee down when he saw that this advisory applied to Maul. He still hadn't quite gotten the old coffee smell out of his monitor from the last one. Reading over it, he considered things. On one hand, the information provided was blatantly obvious. On the other hand, a secondary two-digit blaster rating, even if under specific circumstances, on a Ward?
If he believed in overkill then pointing her at Blasto would probably count. Luckily for his fantasies he didn't believe in overkill.
Bastion looked over the new advisory, and very carefully downloaded the appropriate videos from Maul's file. He then watched those videos, and considered things. He could probably get everyone through, say, three sessions in the auditorium over the coming days? Because if watching the testing video didn't drive home the warning about getting out of the Ward's way, well, whomever ignored that probably deserved to be in her way.
He'd also need cameras, though, if only to catch the looks on everyone's faces.
Director Wilkins looked at the advisory. It was a nice temporary, if rage-inducing, distraction, but he was ok with the rage-inducing part. Apparently requesting a competency check on Piggot had triggered one on him as Piggot had cleared her actions with Costa-Brown beforehand.
Even through his rage over a minor having a sidearm, which was significant, he could recognize some of the potential benefits in this case. He wasn't stupid, after all. He just felt very strongly about some things. Very lucky, from his point of view, was that the most destructive testing had been done with something the Ward could never carry around on her own, and would require assistance to fire. It meant that someone else functioned as a check before she could do anything like that in the field, should it ever come up.
Chapter 61 Sunday morning Taylor was a little groggy, having stayed up too late going through the last batch of information and forms. She had completed them though, and a list of potential 'thesis' categories had arrived while she was eating breakfast. She'd have to look over them and pick a suitable subject later, probably after her patrol. Not to mention look over the pile of online resources she had been given access to at the same time, so she didn't have to hunt down books. The case studies collection alone would be a godsend.
A check of her newest thread on PHO revealed that the original had been closed and three new ones had sprung up instead. One was specifically for discussing the gifts themselves, one for discussing why she was terrifying, and the last was for discussing what she could possibly have done for Legend to get him to give her a sword. Legend himself stating that she directed him to try working with a blacksmith apparently wasn't good enough evidence of reasoning, though.
She had also spotted a thread for 'what happened on the Rig?' sitting there. Nobody had any good answers, beyond a lot of destruction in the air on the ocean side. And quite a bit of noise, as noted by a sizable number of people having been trying to watch from various points on the shore. The end result was mildly amusing, if only in how widespread the guesses were. The request to please not talk about that kind of thing at school was also surprisingly polite. Probably because it was Vicky who had spilled the beans, so to speak.
Luckily 'Maul' hadn't been connected to what had happened on the Rig, despite Ethan and Legend calling her frightening after things. Then again, New Wave was attending a demonstration, so perhaps the leap was larger than she originally thought?
"Alright," Carlos said, not in costume because he still wasn't supposed to patrol despite Amy clearing up any remaining issues the day before. "We're running two three-person patrols today, both running on new routes. Glory Girl was going to join in, but my injury and New Wave finding a place to tussle with Lung today changed that."
"More like Lung found a place and claimed he could find a way to get Vicky to move," Dean said.
"At any rate, Patrol Group One will be Gallant, Kid Win, and Grue going through the new Boardwalk walking route, with a partial focus on checking for possible rooftop hazards on Kid Win's part. We ran into a few issues Thursday. Patrol Group Two will be Maul, Vista, and Clockblocker doing the new Dockside rooftop route."
Shut up, I'm asking.
[Query]
No Inference Engine, I don't have any of your abilities. I just know you that well.
"I appear to be down as the patrol leader," Taylor said. "Why? I'm the most junior of the three of us, after all."
"A combination of things," Carlos said. "Your new coordination trick you're supposed to be using, needing to ensure you have experience, and the fact your name came out of the hat first." He then dodged the four cushions thrown at him. "Moving on, be aware that there are a number of buildings with problematic roofs along the route, including some that are condemned and too dangerous to pass over at all. We had been avoiding some of the area because of those, but the new route has you weaving between the problem buildings."
"Don't forget that you're encouraged to be unpredictable in how you do so," Dean added. "The route is three blocks wide or so at the thinnest."
"And before you get going, I decided to check with Weathergirl. Almost guaranteed heavy rain tomorrow midday through to Thursday night, tapering off into the weekend. In other words, that storm system they keep saying is going to pass to the North? She basically said it probably won't pass to the North. She volunteered that the weekend on was more iffy though."
Taylor thought about that, and just to be safe decided to ask Dinah a question. Thus, while they were getting ready to head out she composed a message. "Regarding the storm: What are the chances Leviathan will use it as cover to attack?"
Dinah took almost half an hour to respond with 0.06%, which was comforting once Taylor got the message.
Missy and Dennis had readily agreed to having Taylor link up their snarks, and it had paid off a couple of times. One of those was Dennis instinctually freezing a roof when they stepped on it, apparently because Missy's snark could tell it was about to fail. As a bonus, they got to watch the building collapse in on itself afterwards.
Currently, however, they were waiting for a police pickup. Again. Their patrol was not going quickly today.
"Did he actually try and shoot you in the back with the shotgun?" Missy asked, even as she applied a bandage from her first aid kit to the woman the Merchants had been attacking. Missy would have tried comforting said woman, but she had fallen unconscious after crying on Missy's shoulder for a couple minutes after the fight was over. Taylor and Dennis had taken that time to zip-cuff all the Merchants and pile their guns off to the side, out of reach.
"Yeah," Taylor replied, looking over her wok. The residual effects of the birdshot the guy had been using had pretty much just wiped off. "Don't know why he didn't notice the wok. I mean, it isn't like it's dark out."
"His eyes are also bloodshot," Dennis commented, standing up from checking the Merchant that Taylor had laid out with a kick to the crotch after the shotgun blast. "Sorry about not realizing he wasn't knocked out, by the way. I thought he was down for the count."
"He might be on something that woke him back up."
"Good point."
"Does 'shot my shield with birdshot' count as report-worthy?" Missy asked. "I mean, you didn't get hit, but your shield did?"
"Huh, that's a good point," Dennis mused, pulling his phone out. "I think this is the first time a Ward has had a shield in a while around here."
"I think I'm supposed to include it," Taylor said, having looked it up for herself. "Apparently because we actually noticed."
"Sucks to be you then," Missy said. "I hate doing the paperwork after patrols."
Taylor didn't have the heart to let them know that she was doing a running report, saving her updates to her PRT server space after each incident just in case.
Three hours and another five incidents later the three Wards made it back to the PRT building, at which point they were dragged into a debrief. Officially to ensure that Taylor had enough detail to write her report.
"Can I submit my report for you to go over first?" Taylor asked the PRT officer. "I'll even attach my body cam footage to it if you want?"
The PRT officer looked at the clock. "You know what? Sure. You have ten minutes."
Taylor finished copying the camera footage to her phone, and then went through and added markers to the video feed for start/stop on each incident with the aid of the times she had been noting as they moved along. Six minutes later the report, with the video attachment, was submitted and appeared on the PRT officer's list of submitted reports.
"Oh good," the PRT officer said, going to open the report. "To actually pull that off this must be one of Clockblocker's 'nothing of interest' reports, given that the three of you reportedly couldn't pass within two blocks of anyone in even minor trouble without stopping to help."
Half an hour later the PRT officer leaned back. Dennis and Missy had been very confused when he didn't come back right away with any comments whatsoever, and had even put his headset on for a bit. "Alright Maul, I have to admit, that is above and beyond what we expect from a Ward. Did you take lessons from Kid Win? He's the only one that does that level of reporting normally."
"Really?" Taylor said. "I wonder if he builds them up with his HUD after each incident."
"I hate you two so much," Missy whined, slamming her head on the table in front of her as she continued to grumble. "Stupid tinker bullshit letting them multitask."
"I think I missed something," Dennis said, looking at Missy.
"She wrote her report while we were still on patrol, because she can use her phone through bullshit, and that's how Kid Win pulls it off too. They don't have to remember everything because they already wrote those parts of the report."
"Regardless," the PRT officer said. "Good job, your report's better than we require from Wards but keep it up anyway, and try not to get distracted enough for people to sneak up on you with shotguns in the future."
"Wasn't I dealing with the other shotgun around then?" Taylor asked. "Pretty sure I was."
"You were, which is why it's not an official complaint against your actions. Still try and avoid it in the future, the next one might point at the back of your head instead of your well-protected back. That said, you three can go now."
The three Wards made their way back to the common area, where the other Wards had congregated. Missy went into a tirade about how tinkers and those augmented by them were bullshit, likely for the benefit of Carlos, Dean, and Brian. When she had wound down she collapsed onto one of the couches.
"I don't suppose this is a bad time to mention that you can ask the console to take notes for you?" Lisa said, grinning. "Whether or not there's a Ward running it?"
"Goddamnit," Missy grumbled. "They teach that app in the class, and it never dawned on me to have someone else use it for my benefit."
"So," Taylor said. "Is there anything going on at this point, or can I head home to figure out a thesis topic?"
"A what?" Dean asked, looking oddly at Taylor.
"Thesis topic. I'm being fast-tracked through a program to send students to do a mock thesis defense or something like that as an excuse for me to visit capes elsewhere and get a psychology certificate of some kind."
"Oh, that. Vicky and I both applied for that last year, but she forgot to submit hers by the deadline and had to attend as my guest instead. You might even get to observe others, just so that you can see that you aren't alone in being horrible your first time. But fast-tracking you through it? We had to apply to maybe participate in October."
"I wasn't exactly in Arcadia then, perhaps that's their excuse? Apparently I've been blowing through enough of the psychologist and therapist training stuff for them to come to me for it."
"So you need to decide what to write?" Lisa said. "Is it anything you're passionate about, or are there limits?"
"I have a list of categories I'm supposed to use."
"Throw 'em up on the monitor," Brian said. "Probably better if you bounce ideas off of someone else, so why not the group of us?"
Taylor considered that, and then shrugged. A couple minutes later the list of topic categories she had to work with was on the monitor.
"What the hell," Dean said, staring at the list. "My 'thesis' was on the link between parahumans and the decline of amusement parks. This list looks like high-level parahuman psychology and interaction topics!"
"I think that's intentional," Lisa concluded. "After all, if that's the general reason they want her there it wouldn't do for her to write something on, say, the feasibility of using spiders to make clothing or something like that."
"Well, yeah, but there's no way you can do any of these on a fast-track. You might need more time to come up with a suitable topic than they have to have given her to write the whole thing."
"Well, there's the connection between overall type of powers and the trigger event," Taylor said. "There are a lot of theories on that link, and I'm not sure how well any of them actually work. I mean, there are some links, but I don't think the ones a lot of the research indicates exist are actually valid. I mean, I think some snarks just do specific kinds of things and that's that. A snark that generates projections isn't likely to suddenly grant precog powers, right? But to read some of the work out there the trigger event determines everything."
"Arguing that everyone else is wrong in a way that can't be quantified probably isn't the best route," Carlos said. "I mean, yeah, once you prove you know your stuff later in life, go for it. But for now I'd go with something less likely to be controversial. Besides, I know some of that recently got an upswing in acceptance, so you should probably avoid directly tackling current trends."
"Yeah yeah. Finding good research for that would be problematic anyway. The other thing that's been bugging me is the accepted relationship between powers, emotional states, and the urges the parahumans have after their trigger events having the influence as entirely one-directional. Nothing more than the power influencing the parahuman, with maybe the specific power choosing the human because of their emotional state. I honestly think it's more like a two way street at the time of the trigger event, and then becomes a self-reinforcing loop afterwards, enhancing the conscious and subconscious desires that were kicking around during the trigger event. Just not always from the direction the parahuman would have gone, of course."
"That sounds slightly ridiculous," Dennis said. "Why would we be influencing our powers?"
"So as to not pick anyone here, let's look at an easy one. Vicky was part of an extended parahuman family and, from what I understand, had a desire to join them. She wanted to go out and beat up gang members, but she didn't want to be hurt doing so. So when she triggered she got a power that encouraged beating people up while protecting her. Her aura may come from having wanted people to 'properly' adore or fear her while she was at it. Yes, it could very well be that the snark picked her because it was an exact match, but I think it far more likely that she shaped her own powers and the mental effect they have on her. Especially since I'm fairly certain her snark came from others she was close to emotionally."
The others stared at Taylor, before Lisa went thoughtful. "That would mean that the same power, if it attached to three different people, would manifest in three different ways, right?"
"If you could link multiple people to the same snark at the same time you might even be able to note that their urges were unrelated to one another, because I think that is part of the connection to the human and not a direct part of the snark itself. Or even the same person at different times in their life, I think. Though I also think that snarks aren't above taking advantage of whatever desires got attached to the connection, and some of them do seem to push some of their own issues onto those they connect to."
"I'd go with that one," Dean said. "Because most of the work seems like an alternate interpretation of existing data, so almost all of it has been done for you. It touches on the other idea as well, but from what I think would be a less controversial angle. And if you can get away without needing to do a new study it should save you time while keeping the quality higher, provided you can find good case studies."
"They did gave me access to a bunch of those, so it probably isn't a bad topic to choose if enough of them contain the right kind of data."
They bounced around other ideas for a bit, but didn't really come up with anything better. Once they were done they headed off to do their own things for the rest of the day.
That night Taylor had decided to order a paper shredder, as she was printing out a number of the case studies. She couldn't keep enough of them 'on screen' for comparing like she wanted to, so printed copies it was. She had also gone for it and printed out several of the 'one direction' studies she wanted to make reference to. Not to mention that they went into more detail than she had seen as she went through the stuff she had been sent by the PRT previously.
On the subject of more detail, she also had six books in her 'read from cover to cover' list. She felt they were the most likely ones to cover some of the details being glossed over in what she had already been working with. This was all specifically on the 'short term' list, her 'read later if they leave me with access' list was up to fifteen already. She also still had forty or so to look through, so both lists might still grow.
One of the few interesting things she had noted was that a lot of the 'one direction' work stemmed from a paper her uncle had written. She'd already read over that, and planned on using it as a decent starting point for some of her arguments. After all, it basically said that there was obviously an influence from the snark to the human, and then examined that influence. It made no mention either way of the human influencing the snark, that looked to have been assumed to have been implied later. Further, the paper focused on the ongoing influence by examining consistent urges in parahumans, later work by others had tried to tie that back to trigger events.
This was probably going to a lot more effort than anyone expected her to, but she felt that if this was worth doing then she would do it right.
Monday morning Taylor decided that she needed to do this thesis thing a little less right. If only to the point where she wasn't cutting into her sleep. She hadn't actually put anything away the night before, and was probably going to want to reprint a few case studies she had ended up sleeping on top of. She had already reprinted the one she had apparently used as a pillow.
Given the likely impending rain she decided to take the bus, likely for the whole week, which was going to impact her departure times. On the other hand, it was a lot easier to work on things on the bus, reading or otherwise, so perhaps that was a blessing in disguise? She ended up making a decent dent in one of the books on the way to school, after all.
Of course, once she was at school she discovered that she apparently should have been paying attention to the news in the past twelve hours or so. Apparently Sophia's list of crimes and the fact she was Shadow Stalker had been in the news, fighting for dominance with something that had happened with Canary? She was going to have to check up on some of that later, apparently, because she wasn't sure what was news and what was wild mass guessing.
"Morning Taylor," Amy said as Taylor approached her in the hallway. "You see the news?"
"Morning," Taylor replied. "And as it so happens, no, I was busy with other things last night, and didn't think to check this morning."
"Ah. Well, Sophia Hess was confirmed to be Shadow Stalker, and a list of crimes was published. There was a summary on the news, lots of use of a lethal weapon, surprisingly few actual deaths. They said something about her bullying campaign against you and four known others being accidentally revealed by your uncle, which resulted in her PRT handler being charged as an accessory to most of it due to having been covering up all of Sophia's misdeeds."
"So why am I not being mobbed?"
"Most of it being stuff you wouldn't have any clue about most likely, your involvement with her was already moving into old news after all. The other thing they were talking about was the singer Canary being arrested for powers-related reasons, but they were thin on details. Apparently they want to do a proper investigation first, to see if it was even intentional, despite some early attempts at railroading her due to her having a Master power. Really, with all of that Lung and a few members of New Wave duking it out in a quarry yesterday didn't even rate a mention."
"Huh. Did you get to watch?"
"No, though Vicky had fun. I was out on the Rig looking over Hess. Did you know she was experimented on by Bonesaw? They called me in to look at her."
"Really? Bonesaw? How horribly mutilated was she?" And how in the world were the two of them having this conversation with straight faces? For that matter, why had Amy brought this up at all?
"She wasn't, which was one reason they wanted me to look at her. The amount of security they had was a little insane, because they weren't sure if she was supposed to be a sleeper surprise of some kind. Turns out Bonesaw just installed a horribly built Bluetooth connection in Hess's brain. Didn't stop them from doing a nearly half hour segment on possible horrors before they revealed that I'd cleared her."
At least that explained why it was being mentioned, it wasn't a secret. "Huh. Then again, that kind of chain yanking sounds like what news stations like to do."
"True. Annoying, but true."
By the time they had split off to class one other thing had become obvious to Taylor. People were assuming that Sophia's crimes didn't include the locker incident in part because Taylor hadn't spent days in the hospital, so she probably wasn't really trapped in the locker. Which was a bit of a 'wait, what?' with Panacea in town. Not that she was going anywhere near voicing that, of course. Though she did wonder where that ridiculous idea had come from.
Dennis sneezed for no obvious reason, then looked around. Maybe someone was talking about him? Oh well. Back to thinking about new absolutely ridiculous rumors to start, at least until his teacher noticed he wasn't paying attention.
By lunchtime Taylor had gotten two lessons about the importance and implications of Sophia's cape identity being officially revealed. It was apparently likely that the rest of the Hess family had been spirited away beforehand, just to be safe. On the other hand, it was just as likely that Sophia having had a run-in with Bonesaw would be seen as punishment enough. Regardless of anything else, the Nine still had a reputation.
The weather had, as promised, turned into an absolute downpour. It was almost like a switch being flipped as the rain swept in from the North. Luckily there wasn't a lot of lightning, but there was a bit of wind. The bus was looking like a great decision already.
"So much for the rain staying to the North," Vicky muttered as she sat down with her lunch tray. "No fun to fly in this kind of weather. Or patrol. Or anything outside, really."
"What's with the bruise?" Carlos asked. "Did someone else decide you needed to be beaten up for punching Taylor?"
"Nah. Failed to dodge one of Crystal's blasts yesterday right before Lung sent two rocks at me. Figured I'd keep the bruise, he earned the hit."
"Looks like they decided to issue a flood watch," Amy said, poking at her phone. "Anyone live where flooding is likely?"
"Just our basement," Carlos said. "Which we're prepared for already."
"We've got a pump if things get too bad," Taylor said. "Though we don't normally need it."
"You might by the end of the week."
After school Taylor ended up getting a ride to the PRT building with Dean. Carlos, Chris, and Dennis joined them, crowding into the backseat so that Taylor could sit in the passenger seat. Vicky and Amy had been picked up by Mark.
"So, Taylor," Dean said as they waited for a gap in traffic. "You find any useful case studies yet?"
"Yeah," Taylor said, poking at one of the books she had been reading through on her phone. "A couple were somewhat interesting too. There's one cape who triggered after a winter where she never had enough heat at home and ended up as a tinker with an urge to improve heating and cooling systems in poor communities, despite not being focused in that direction otherwise. Then there's a couple of thinkers that didn't like the inefficiencies or corruption in the systems they were a part of. Each of them apparently ended up being pushed by their snarks to learn everything they could about said systems before trying to improve them, though one was a tad, er, overzealous? Not sure what happened to that one. The other ended up owning the company they worked for, only to then lose interest and look for a new project. There are a few more I haven't finished looking over yet."
Taylor missed the looks in the backseat, before Dennis decided to speak up. "Speaking of corruption, how obvious was Winslow's when you attended there? Given that they helped cover up Sophia's actions and all?"
"Blatant most of the time, with most of the teachers playing favorites constantly, none of the gangs being reined in at all, and all of it backed up by the administration in obvious ways. Place was a hellhole, and because I was a favored target of the 'popular' crowd my complaints meant even less. Can't even blame most of it on Sophia being a Ward, as she wasn't at first, she was just a track star."
Conversation stalled at that point, not that Taylor had noticed too much. She was too busy reading.
"Huh," Taylor said as Carlos climbed out of the hole he had made in the wall. "That does work quite well with the right leverage."
"Did you have to throw me through the wall?" Carlos asked.
"I was told to use my full strength. And the wall must have been weak there for you to go through it so easily."
"Looks like they just stuck padding over a door, honestly. You don't look like you should be able to throw that hard, and you don't have powers helping you there by violating the laws of physics."
"Right," one of the PRT officers said. "From now on I think I'll stop telling anyone to use their full strength in here. Good use of his momentum against him, but you'll want to watch your foot placement. Not sure how you didn't twist your ankle that time. Still, you're up for the role of charging attacker, let's see how Weathergirl does."
"The perils of having a Brute rating," Taylor grumbled as she and Dinah lined up.
"Huh," Carlos said as there was a hiss-thunk of a door closing. "The door was left open behind the padding. Why?"
Taylor darted forward at Dinah while Carlos was puzzling over that, aiming to grab her around the waist. As expected, Dinah grabbed Taylor's outstretched arms and twisted to use the forward momentum against Taylor instead. She got it mostly right, but she slipped and fell halfway through. Taylor was still sent sprawling, but was able to recover easily.
"Watch your outside foot," the PRT officer said. "It wasn't far enough back, so as you twisted your center of gravity shifted past it."
Dinah frowned, as she kept having that particular problem. Taylor, on the other hand, prepared to work with Vivian even as Carlos was directed to work with Lisa. After all, why wouldn't they use the available brutes in the group when they needed people to be thrown around?
When Taylor made it home she found that her gun safe had been delivered. After dragging it into the house she checked the order and found that the lockbox for her suitcase was due in a couple of days. Two minutes later she got the delivery notification message, telling her that the safe had been delivered a couple hours previously. Shaking her head, she got it out of the dampened box and dragged it upstairs, before coming back down to grab the toolbox.
A quick check of the instructions indicated that installing the safe, intended for a single gun, was straightforward. She would be putting it under her desk, mostly out of sight but still easy enough to get to, especially since she honestly expected most of the use to be while she was in the house anyway. She didn't feel she needed to worry too much about theft as a result, since if she wasn't here the gun shouldn't be either.
Once the mounting bracket was attached and the codes set she attached the safe itself under the desk, testing to ensure she was right about the positioning. After a number of checks, including that she wouldn't be hitting it with her knees when sitting at the desk, she cleaned up. One of the backup keys was added to her keyring but she planned to use the electronic code more frequently.
Once that was all taken care of she put the toolbox away and took out her school stuff. She had a couple of assignments to complete before she went back to going through books and case studies. She'd worry about actually bringing the gun home later. Though she did send a message off to Arcadia, letting them know that she had the safe now and would want to show them the sidearm in the near future as a result.
Chapter 62 Tuesday morning Taylor woke up without a pile of papers around her. Unlike the previous day she decided to check the news over breakfast instead of reading more books and case studies. She wasn't in the mood for another blindsiding, after all.
Locally there were several streets listed as having minor flooding issues, including a couple where nobody had noticed the storm drains had been damaged by cape battles. Not much else otherwise on that front, beyond the rehashing of Sophia's crimes and whether or not the PRT held any blame for some of them. In the national news they were finally starting to think that the Slaughterhouse Nine had skipped town in Danbury, but were still on guard just in case. Canary was apparently cooperating with the PRT in figuring out what had happened, whatever that was.
Nothing of interest caught her attention in the international news before her father entered the kitchen, grumbling as he stared at his phone.
"Morning Dad," Taylor said as her father prepared some coffee.
"Morning," Danny replied. "Want a ride to school? I've been 'volunteered' to pick up one of the dockworkers in that general direction this morning.
"Sure, it'll beat taking the bus."
Danny prepared his breakfast while Taylor finished looking over the international news. There was a mention of deciding how to take down the walls they had already gotten up around Canberra and, after that, other Simurgh zones, given that they had originally been intended to be quite difficult to remove. Not much else to see there, so she decided to browse PHO for the moment instead of getting a few minutes of research in.
Rain aside, school was fairly predictable, right up until history. Today they were going to take a break from the Slaughterhouse Nine to start discussing their assignments on the Endbringers, with those that didn't show enough being given an opportunity to get some extra points with classroom discussion. This started with three students being praised for covering everything expected. Taylor and one other student were then praised for going above and beyond, and both were asked to allow the school to put their papers online.
Taylor had no problem with that, so gave her permission. She had been considering putting it up once it wouldn't matter for tripping plagiarism checks anyway. This would save her the trouble. The other student asked if they could have some time to think about it.
Looking over the actual notes on the assignment, she found that she had been docked five points for each page past the 'twice the minimum' point, but picked up an average of fifteen 'bonus' points per page at that point as well. The other primary negative comment was a lack of information on the nuclear reactor issues, which was apparently mitigated by her teacher having checked and found nothing on those issues in the school or public libraries. In the end she got what amounted to almost an entire extra assignment's worth of extra credit points.
The rest of that class period was spent listening to those who had done the worst trying to make up points by answering questions well enough.
After school Taylor took the bus to the PRT building, as Dean had volunteered to give Amy and Vicky a ride home. She and Chris ended up going through the ice cream parlor while Carlos and Dennis went through the gym in an attempt to draw less attention to themselves. As she was changing into her costume she looked over her school email, finding that she had a note from the vice principal saying she could bring any and all concealed weapons in for review before school during the week. As a reminder to bring things with her she dropped her concealed harnesses and the smaller taser on the pile of civilian clothing.
Once she had changed, though without the weapons on her back, she went out into the common area to wait for the others to be ready. While waiting she decided to poke at the only new assignment from school today. It wasn't going to take long, and she had nothing better to do while she waited. Carlos and Chris joined her with their own homework, with Dennis going back for his after a mild glare. Eventually Dean and Missy arrived, followed shortly after by Lisa and Brian.
Once everyone had arrived and gotten into costume, and homework had been put away, they left as a group to head for paintball. Despite the rain they weren't getting a ride, but Carlos had dug up a pile of PRT umbrellas. They probably made for an interesting sight, assuming anyone noticed them bouncing across the rooftops thanks to Missy crunching space. It wasn't long before they had reached the indoor paintball place, which had obviously been expecting them.
They were put through a safety lesson, which included half of them needing full-coverage face masks, followed by a 'how to use the markers' lesson. After that they were told that they had two options today. They could split into teams amongst themselves, or they could go against a more experienced group that wanted to play, but hadn't reserved anything.
"You can do that link-up thing here, right?" Lisa asked, looking at Taylor, who merely nodded. "Then I vote we go up against the more experienced group. At least then we aren't trying to out-guess each other, right?"
"It would nicely negate most of the issues we thought we might have regarding Gallant and Maul," Missy added. "What's the worst that can happen, we get trounced?"
Carlos shrugged, then went to tell the employee that they'd be willing to play against the other team. It was, after all, far easier than figuring out how to split the Wards.
"I refuse to attend any more paintball games," Lisa said as they returned to the PRT building. "NEVER AGAIN!" She was limping and probably would have a number of colored blotches on her had her costume not allowed for wiping the marks off easily.
"It isn't like you're the only one who sucked," Brian said. "Despite everything else, though, I want to know how Taylor and Missy did so well dodging, even if their ability to hit things wasn't all that good."
"Most of the time I was focused on staying behind cover," Taylor answered, shrugging. "Though I hadn't realized just how far back I could bend when needed."
"I cheated my ass off," Missy added, grinning. "Warped space for the win!" She hadn't been hit at all in the ten games they'd ended up playing. Taylor had gotten to see several paintballs literally curve right around her and keep on going, and heard the swears from the other team when it happened.
"I guess that would help explain how we still won six out of ten," Carlos said. "I do wonder about how well they handled me flying in the third round, though."
"Catwalks," Lisa replied. "They weren't open for us, but they allow use of the catwalks with the advanced groups, so anyone there often enough has learned to look up."
"That would have been nice to have noticed before I decided to try getting a drop on them from above. Why didn't anyone say anything to me?"
"It was written on the introductory board, was listed in the rule sheet they handed us, and was specifically mentioned in the verbal description of things. Really, we all basically thought it had been made very clear. How did you miss it?"
Carlos chose to 'not dignify that with an answer'. Once they were back at the PRT they changed back into civilian attire, followed by Dennis telling them all to congregate at the monitor. Apparently their opponents had been posting on PHO between rounds. Missy's space-warping had been declared 'bullshit', 'double-bullshit', and during her one flag run 'triple-mega-bullshit'. Dean's inability to be snuck up on was remarked on, and Taylor's incredible reflexes and her 'bend backwards to not be shot, then spring back up' trick had impressed. Dennis freezing their team's flag and using it as an ambush was apparently 'inspired'.
Less impressive to the other team had been Carlos's flight trick, Brian's darkness, and the power armor of both Chris and Dean. In the latter cases it was due to how much more noise they ended up making due to the armor. In the former case Brian had been taken out all three times he used the darkness by virtue of the other team using paint grenades on it. Lisa, despite the Wards knowing she had helped with strategy a lot, had been laughed at due to how many times she got hit in the same leg.
They had descriptions of several other moments they couldn't quite figure out as well, such as three times they thought they'd get Taylor but had inexplicably missed. Amazing what a gentle nudge with a glove-plate can do to a paintball's trajectory. They didn't know what to make of Dennis having frozen a paintball mid-air, beyond 'running into a frozen paintball hurts' anyway. The fact that the entire Wards team had seemingly been able to put two to five times the normal number of paintballs in their markers was put down as 'demoralizing sleight of hand' and not powers-trickery.
The final of 'Newbie Wards: 6, Veteran Paintballers: 4' included a note of not underestimating newbies, especially if your opponents have superpowers.
Once home Taylor took the time to set the handgun safe up better for her sidearm and figured out that she could drape the taser harness on the back of her bed such that she could easily reach the taser, but wouldn't be likely to do it accidentally. Or while sleeping. She hoped she never needed to be able to grab it while in bed, but being prepared couldn't hurt, right?
With that done she finished the homework assignment she had started back at the PRT building, then went back to researching for her 'thesis'.
Wednesday morning Taylor got up early and took an early bus to school. She timed it well, being one of the only students there when she arrived. Despite the rain she still went around to the door that led straight to the office, rather than travel through the school. She ended up showing her sidearm, taser, and knife to the vice principal. The serial numbers from the sidearm and taser were taken down, as well as a general description of the knife, and placed into a special file. Taylor noted that there appeared to be a very small number of others in that particular file, but didn't push for details.
With that done she ensured that everything was out of sight again before changing out things in her locker. She had plenty of time before class, so she ended up in the library. She originally thought she might flip through a physical copy of one of the books she was using for research, only to find that Arcadia had none of them. With that option not available she headed to the corner she had used a couple of times before and just used her tablet to read the digital versions.
By lunchtime rumors had started to spread about Taylor's Endbringer assignment. Apparently her teacher had wasted no time whatsoever posting it on the school website the day before, and one of her classmates had linked it on PHO during the afternoon. They'd apparently missed it while paying attention to the reaction to their paintball session. And because she was a minor celebrity it was getting a lot of attention. She hunted the thread down to see what was being said as she sat there eating lunch, given that it was apparently the discussion topic now.
"Whatcha looking at?" Dennis asked. "You don't normally poke around online at lunch."
"The thread with my Endbringer essay linked in it," Taylor replied. "Just started looking over the replies."
"They saying anything interesting?" Amy asked.
"There's a note that the lack of information on the nuclear power plants is due to a lack of suitable material in the local libraries, and a lot of people being horrified. Looks like a group of people in Iowa have already started digging into the bits I missed and they're planning on adding it all to the wiki page on Leviathan?"
"Did you spot the thread looking for volunteers to do similar research for other attacks?" Dean asked, poking his own phone. "Apparently you've inadvertently thrown down a research war gauntlet. Can't let the high school girl out-research the professionals, apparently, since now the rest of the attacks will look under-researched on the wiki once that info goes up."
"I thought they were almost entirely dates with barely a summary," Amy commented. "I mean, they spent five days arguing over whether or not Canberra was on the twenty third or fourth due to a small group that seemed to be unable to grasp that it was the twenty fourth in Australia, even if it was still the twenty third in the Americas. Nobody noticed Eidolon's name was misspelled in the summary until he submitted the correction, as well as specifically stating that the attack was on the twenty fourth."
"Yeah, well, apparently the unofficial 'too depressing to go into details' policy has been discarded due to the 'we were downplaying it how much?' revelations. Looks like they want to make detail pages for each attack, with a warning that going into the detail pages is likely to be depressing and/or horrifying."
"For some reason I think it's only because I wrote it," Taylor grumbled as she checked a few more pages of replies, before getting curious as to why Void hadn't been banned for saying something stupid yet. A quick check showed that apparently he had an existing ban keeping him away. With how often he was banned it was amazing that nobody had just closed his account, really.
When she arrived at the PRT building that afternoon Taylor found that the kitchen area had started being dismantled and re-arranged. Apparently they were getting the stovetop and oven, with a vent hood. Though how they would be dealing with the vent hood without a lot of hassle elsewhere was a curious question.
"Dammit," Chris said as he collapsed onto the couch after both of them had gotten changed. "I can't tinker until they're done messing with the exhaust fan in my lab. Stupid rules about proper ventilation."
"I had wondered what they were doing with the vent hood," Taylor admitted as she poked through the list of books for researching with her civilian phone. "Didn't consider that they might hook it up to the exhaust fans for tinkering." A moment later she found the one she was looking for and opened it up.
"Not like you could tinker anyway," Carlos said as he looked over the pile of boxes near the monitor. "Hand to hand class and all. If it becomes an issue go use the 'visiting tinker' lab instead. Huh, looks like they included a box of assorted headphones we didn't ask for."
"Did the games arrive?" Dennis asked, making a beeline for the boxes now that he was changed. Carlos merely pointed at a couple of boxes, which Dennis popped open. "Huh, looks like they added a bunch of 'educational' games. Wonder why?"
"Probably to make the Youth Guard happy. Having 'educational' materials around seems like something they'd care about."
Dennis grumbled about some of the games for a bit while they waited for Dean, Lisa, and Missy. Lisa wandered over from the apartment block first, Inference Engine letting Taylor know that there was apparently a leak somewhere creating an electrical problem. Once she had changed she dropped right into one of the new cubicles to resume whatever it was the power issues had interrupted, Taylor wasn't in the mood to poke instead of reading.
It took another ten minutes for Missy to arrive, and as she did Dinah and Vivian were also coming in through the secure garage, likely sharing a van. Dean followed a couple of minutes later, having detoured to drop Amy off at the hospital and Vicky off at home. A few minutes later Missy had changed and Carlos dragged the group of them off to their class.
Throughout the class Taylor continued with her reading and taking notes, rationalizing it to herself as being good practice. After all, in the field she wouldn't be able to focus entirely on the hand to hand aspects of a fight, right? Besides, she didn't want to break her stride in taking notes, and they had let them attend with their tinkertech headgear today so obviously they were supposed to get used to things. They were letting them do so Friday as well, actually. Even if Taylor admitted to herself that it was likely only intended to get them used to the restricted field of view.
Taylor had remained distracted throughout dinner, being three books into looking things up since she arrived at the PRT building. The other Wards didn't seem to have noticed, though some of that might have been because Vivian had joined them for dinner, seemingly to have a group to rant to about bullshit powers. Though Taylor did speak up after they had split up, the Wards returning to change and depart.
"She's having trouble with figuring out stuff about Gray Boy's bubbles," Taylor said, causing the others to stare at her. "What? I know you were all wondering."
"Now I don't know if I want to know why she cares," Lisa grumbled. "The thought of her duplicating that is not comforting."
Taylor didn't bother to let Lisa know that duplicating wasn't the issue, if only because she felt that the other girl would sleep better not knowing that Vivian could probably already do most of that.
Once home Taylor made sure that her homework was done, then went back into research mode. She was starting to lay out a rough outline at this point as well. Very rough at this point, granted, but she'd started it. Mainly so that she could better focus on which parts of her research were more directly related to one another.
Though she did take a break from research to write fifty pages of 'corrections' for one of the more recent books and send it off to the author. She didn't know if they had picked the worst sample group in history or what, but most of their conclusions were insane. Shortly after that she found a way to attach her list to the digital entry in the database. She did so to ensure that others could see the issues and moved on to the next book, this one a compilation of research papers.
By Thursday the rain had gotten annoying enough for Skidmark to have Mush help clear out some of the storm drains to get water flowing again. The general consensus was that some Merchant base was in danger of being flooded, but Skidmark was intelligent enough to realize that only clearing around said base would have drawn too much attention. So Mush had started wandering around clearing a number of storm drains in town, with a small group of Merchants cycling pickup trucks through for him to dump crap into.
Taylor discovered this not through the news, but through her morning bus needing to wait for Mush to unload at one point. The astonished chatter of the other bus goers would have been hard to miss, even if noting his snark's presence in the area hadn't gotten her attention already. It helped to be cautious when villains were around, after all. She had checked the news to find the official explanation and theories at that point, before going back to her research.
Gossip at school was centered around Mush's activities. Apparently nobody had considered this as a possible use of his powers, and were starting to wonder what other things villains might use their powers for. So far they had no decent ideas beyond Fenja and Menja growing to open jars, but that wasn't stopping speculation.
Classes were predictable, with history being the second and last day of questions for those with middling grades on their Endbringer assignments. They were informed that they were switching topics after the break and their Slaughterhouse Nine assignments were due the Monday following. She also got a programming assignment due after the break, needing to make something that could get article text off of several different websites and posts off of PHO, when given URLs as input. The stress on it only needing to work on those sites was odd, though, so she made note of it, and the example site it didn't need to work on.
"Why are we out here?" Brian asked as he made his way down one of the side streets along the Boardwalk. Carlos was in the air, and Taylor was roof-hopping, so the three of them all had different views. Not that they could see all that far in the driving rain. "Nobody else is out here, after all."
"A patrol is a patrol," Carlos answered. "You don't hear Maul complaining, do you? She doesn't even have a full face mask."
"Yeah yeah."
Taylor judged the next jump even as she continued reading, courtesy of her visor. She had picked up a cheap black plastic sports visor as well, to keep the rain out of her eyes, but otherwise she was still fairly well soaked. She didn't really mind, but would want a hot shower later. A proper version of the sports visor had also been ordered that would more solidly attach to the tinkertech visor, something Missy had jumped on as well when Taylor mentioned the idea, though Chris seemed to not care either way. Patrolling in the rain with their current visors was a lot harder otherwise, but maybe Chris had a different solution already?
She nearly screwed up her landing as she found one of the bits of information she was hoping to find, quickly making note of it in another file, before doing a cursory check of the immediate area. Finding nothing, as had been the pattern all patrol, she moved to prepare for the next jump. Only to spot a potential problem as she reached the edge of the building, dammit.
"Grue," she said over the radio. "We've got a small group of what look like Empire thugs in the alley you're approaching. Looks like they're armed, but can't tell if they're actually hostile. Or actually Empire, for that matter."
Brian and Carlos both stopped, with Carlos doubling back from where he had been scouting ahead. Brian released his darkness into the area, then spoke. "How many?"
"Six, looks like. I see one shotgun and a crowbar. No, wait, a seventh just came out of the building. Shotgun's the one alone under that overhang."
"Just the one shotgun? Since they are right on our route we might as well see if they're stupid enough to point it at one of us. Otherwise we have to backtrack a bit to not have Grue walking right past them and all."
"I'll get their attention," Brian said, moving towards the end of the alley. He left his darkness in place behind him just in case. Once he reached the end of the alley he acted like he wasn't aware anyone was in it, only to 'casually' look over and spot the group. "Oh, hi there."
"Well now," the one holding the crowbar said. "What's a Ward doing out here all alone?"
"I'm wondering why I'm out here," Grue admitted, not actually claiming he was alone. "Given the horrible weather and all. What about you gentlemen?"
"Well, we were going to dig up some fun. But since you're here anyway it would be rude to leave you out, right?"
"Maul, you want to get the drop on shotgun or crowbar?" Carlos asked.
"I'll take shotgun," Taylor answered. "Better angle from here."
"Alright, do your best to disarm him and see if he'll surrender without a beatdown."
"I think I'll pass," Brian finally said to the group. "Not in the mood for the kind of 'fun' you appear to be looking for."
"Don't think we can give you that option," one of the others said. "Given that rumor has it you're a nigger and all. Jimmy, why don't you keep him from leaving?"
'Jimmy' was apparently the one with the shotgun, as he swung it up to point it at Brian. Which was likely caught on Taylor's body camera, provided the lens wasn't screwed over by water covering it. Either way, it was also the sign to move. Taylor opened with a punch down to knock the shotgun down even as she jumped, and Carlos dropped down behind the one with the crowbar.
"SHIT!" crowbar yelled even as Jimmy fired the shotgun into the ground. Taylor was on him before he could recover, grabbing the shotgun and keeping him from raising it again.
"Er," Jimmy said, looking down at the shotgun, then back up at Taylor. He carefully let go of the shotgun and held his hands to the side. "I surrender?"
Taylor zip-cuffed him while Carlos and Brian made quick work of the other six. She then ensured the shotgun itself was safe before going back to her research while they waited for someone to come pick the group up. Though she had no clue what they'd been thinking, looking to stir up trouble this close to one of Amy's weekends and all.
"Before everyone splits," Carlos said, having finished a debrief with everyone. They had only run into the one group, but Chris, Dean, Dennis, and Missy had ended up having four incidents. "I'm going to ensure that we've all gotten the gun safety course. I realized I didn't know how to render the shotgun Taylor dealt with safe beyond 'keep it away from people'. I checked and I can request it even without all of us qualifying for SL4. Obviously Taylor and Missy won't need it."
"Don't we need signed permission slips for that one?" Dean asked. "Since I haven't gotten permission."
"Just for the full class, which you would need a signed slip and approval from Director Piggot for. For the safety class you only need a request from the current Wards leader. Or so says the form I filled out for it after we got off patrol. Unless you sign up for it yourself, then you need parental permission."
"Don't suppose we know when they'll be done in here?" Dennis asked, gesturing over at the still dismantled kitchen area. The boxes of entertainment upgrades were also untouched.
"They said they'd have everything in place by Saturday afternoon, though that depends on the adapter cables coming in for the new sound system tomorrow. I think they said that the electricians will be doing the last work for the electric stovetop and oven tomorrow, after which they'll be putting the kitchen back together."
They split up to head home after that.
Taylor looked over the websites for the assignment she had been given earlier that day while she was eating dinner at home in a bathrobe. The hot shower had been as nice and relaxing as she had hoped. Her father was helping another dock worker deal with some minor flooding of their basement, even as the rain had let up. A little. It would have been nice if it had done so earlier.
She felt that there was likely going to be a trick to this assignment, and if she could figure it out and get it out of the way she'd be better off. Outside of PHO they were all news sites. She could always write a screen scraper, but that looked like it might require site-specific code. Then there was the news site that was an example of one it didn't have to work on.
Perhaps there was a common element in the source code of the pages that would make things easier to code in a cross-site compatible manner? A quick check showed that they weren't using any handy common elements in the actual displayed code, and on that front the counter-example site looked easier to parse.
Being positive there was a trick she was missing, just not sure what it was yet, she started comparing the source code of pages on each site to one another. It was only then that she realized that they all shared a common element in the document headers, a machine-readable reference link. She grinned as she checked all of the sites, the one they didn't need to work with used a different format. This was obviously meant to look like a difficult problem, but in reality was 'write a wrapper around the feed reader you wrote last month' with minimal parsing to get the machine-readable link.
Half an hour later she had that working and emailed off, allowing her to get back to her research. She had been in the middle of a particularly bad set of studies, but at least it looked like they had documented things well enough to get valid conclusions out of them, even if what they had supposedly 'found' was ridiculous. Seriously, how did they come to the conclusion that trigger events in females were always linked to 'daddy issues'?
Friday the lighter rain continued, apparently the storm system had stalled off of the coast and was likely to continue to hit them with rain for a few days, at least until the next front swept through. The 'holy week' break was likely to be wet either way. Oh well, not like she had much in the way of plans outside with this 'thesis' to write.
School was more relaxed than usual, given that they had the following week off. A third of her computer class had apparently figured out the trick on the programming assignment and turned in a finished product last night, with the other two thirds of the class looking panicked at that declaration. Those who had figured it out were asked to not reveal the secret.
Taylor and Amy both skipped lunch at school, neither having afternoon classes. Amy was picked up by Neil to head to the hospital while Taylor stopped for lunch on the way to the PRT building. She made a point of using the gym, since she hadn't been, but kept propping her tablet up on the machines as she exercised. She didn't bother with swimming because of that.
Once she was done she got changed for class and got back to her research, needing to do so in her room instead of the common area due to the continued work going on there. She noted Chris arriving early and heading elsewhere in the building, probably to the 'visiting tinker' lab that Carlos had mentioned.
An unfamiliar snark entering via the secure garage was enough to get her attention, given how odd it seemed. She actually switched from her research when said snark was brought near where their class was to be held, bringing up the form for reporting that a parahuman might be there that shouldn't be. She filled in the information as best she could, having not seen them in person or anything yet, then debated on if she should do anything else.
She shrugged and went back to her research when she got a response that the parahuman was expected. She'd deal with them further if they were there for more than just observation or something.
Chapter 63 Dean ended up dragging Taylor out of her room for class, being the only one who realized she was even in there. They made their way down to the room their class was in, with the unknown snark nearby. But they weren't in the room, so Taylor left them alone for now. Though she was slightly curious as to why Brian was here; hadn't he been cleared?
"Good afternoon everyone," a PRT officer said. There were a number of extra personnel in the room today, actually, so it wasn't just Brian and the unknown snark as extras. "Today we were able to arrange for a special treat. We covered some multiple-opponent tactics over the previous five lessons, and today you get to actually try them."
"With a twist, of course," a second officer said. "Obviously we have a number of extra volunteers here, but we also have a nullifier available. You'll be getting some experience under worst-case conditions. Disoriented by your powers not working, multiple opponents, and generally without your normal equipment as well."
Taylor blinked, and decided to poke that snark after all as the PRT officer dealt with a sudden outburst from Dennis and Vivian.
Hello there!
[Shock]
Sorry, didn't mean to surprise you. Do you know if your human goes by the name 'Hatchet Face' at times?
[Agreement. Query]
I'm one of the students I think your human is going to turn powers off for in a few minutes.
"Now then," the PRT officer said, having gotten Dennis and Vivian to shut up with the point that if they could get a nullifier for training then it would be possible to run into one in the field. "Once we have your powers nullified you're permitted to do anything you're still capable of. So let's get started, shall we?"
A minute later Taylor felt odd. She could tell that she couldn't project blunt objects, and her sense of things within range of her skin was gone. On the other hand her snark-sense was only feeling a little fuzzy, except for Hatchet Face's snark. It was still sitting there fully clear. Inference Engine's 'voice' was a little indistinct, but still understandable as it complained about being locked down.
Am I supposed to be able to talk to Inference Engine while he's trying to block things?
Data
That was kinda indistinct itself, but also understandable. Apparently this was part of the 'communication bits are harder to shut down' stuff she had learned previously. Disrupt, yes. Disable, not so much. And apparently a general 'please stop working' signal was being sent out for more mental powers?
If he's got a 'please stop working' signal going, why are you still working?
Disclosure
Taylor blinked at that. Both the Broadcast and the Administrator permission sets were in agreement that Hatchet Face's snark didn't have the authority to tell them to turn off. Huh. Wasn't stopping the rest of the disruption, of course, which is probably what the fuzzy bit was, snarks being disrupted but not disconnected.
Taylor decided to look around at the others. Dinah appeared to be grinning and more focused. Well, she did have a power that fed way too much information to her brain normally, so removing that distraction could only help. Lisa looked neutral. Probably less info, balanced out by nothing bombarding her brain. Brian seemed unaffected, Missy had fallen over but was recovering. Carlos had fallen over and didn't seem to be making any effort to get up. Dennis was frowning slightly, but otherwise looked unaffected. Chris and Vivian both seemed to be unsettled? Dean had stumbled at first, but seemed fine now.
"Well then," the PRT officer said, looking over the group. "Let's go with Weathergirl first, then Countdown. We'll figure the Wards out afterwards."
Taylor watched as Dinah did a decent job against four 'attackers', taking advantage of her smaller stature. In fact, she did better than she usually did. Vivian ended up being pretty much equal to her normal performance. Dennis, Chris, and Brian showed they were unaffected by the lack of their powers, followed by Dean making a decent showing but still looking a little unnerved. Lisa did ok, but was noticeably less aware of things. That was balanced out by being more alert in general. Missy ended up doing fairly well, but seemed less aware of her surroundings. Finally, Carlos was still having trouble standing and didn't even bother trying to fight.
Which left Taylor, who had fairly deliberately been left for last. The reasoning for this became very obvious very quickly, as she demonstrated that she was still stronger than a normal human and easily overpowered everyone thrown at her as a result. It wasn't her fault that they had encouraged her to not hold back, right?
"Owww," one of the volunteers said as they got back to their feet after being thrown against one of the walls. "Are you immune to your powers being turned off?"
"There's a marked difference between a normal Brute and a Tinker Fugue Brute," one of the other, non-participating, PRT officers answered. "Maul's powers don't grant her a Brute rating, that comes from having been the target of a fugue. As such nullifiers don't render her down to 'normal human'. We saved her for last for a reason. Of course, part of that reason was to see if we were right about nullifiers not affecting her strength."
"Mind if I run a quick test of my own?" Taylor asked.
The PRT officers looked at each other, before shrugging. "If you want to try and overcome things then feel free."
Taylor smirked as she prepared her test.
I'm sorry, but I'd like to see if I can overload you.
[Shock. Astonishment]
Yes, I'm still working? Why wouldn't I be?
[Assertion]
My snark says you don't have the authority.
[...Acceptance. Query]
Well, I'll be trying to open enough connections that you can't communicate with your own human.
[Curiosity]
Taylor took that as 'permission to try'. Or at least 'acknowledgement' anyway.
Additional Connections Established
She waited as her snark opened connections. More and more of them opening to Hatchet Face's snark. Only to start feeling those extra connections closing.
Why are they closing?
Data
Huh. They're timing out due to lack of traffic, which you think is to reduce the amount of manual connection management needed. So they aren't being closed deliberately? Do we just need to open them faster?
Consideration
[Query]
Apparently opening things slowly isn't working. So we're going to try faster.
Maximum Connections Established
Taylor knew it had worked the instant all the fuzziness vanished and her awareness of suitable objects within range of her skin returned. Carlos actually popped into the air at the same time, apparently not expecting to suddenly be able to fly again. In the next room it seemed like Hatchet Face had fallen over.
[Complaint]
I told you what we were trying to do.
[Agreement. Annoyance]
It didn't take long for all of those connections to time out and close, though, causing the fuzziness to return and Carlos to fall back to the ground.
I think we need to find a way to force connections to stay open.
Agreement. Contemplation
"Goddamnit," Lisa grumbled, rubbing her temples. She looked like she was about to say more, before suddenly clamping down on the impulse. Inference Engine seemed proud of her, though, figuring out that the 'nullifier' had to be a parahuman if Taylor had just shut them down for a moment.
"I think we're done," one of the PRT officers said, waving to another to get Hatchet Face to stop nullifying their powers. A minute later everything snapped back to normal again, complete with Carlos going airborne again, though at least this time he kept himself to only a couple of feet.
They had all ended up making a quick trip through the hospital area to be checked over. Carlos had pretty much recovered by the time they got there, and Taylor hadn't had any issues in the first place. The rest of them got some bruise cream. After that they had all gone to dinner together, Dinah joining them for once.
Taylor was splitting her attention three ways. On one hand she was listening to the whining from Vivian and the male Wards about the nullifier, with Dinah counter-arguing that it had been wonderful and stating that she wanted a nullifier for relaxing at home. Missy merely commented that she had obviously been using her powers subconsciously to map out her surroundings, and had only noticed when that went away. Taylor would admit that Carlos was being intelligent, taking some of the blame for his own issues. Apparently he had intentionally 'pre-adapted' in ways that made him reliant on his power to function?
The second thread of attention was continuing to work on her research. She was wondering if the person who designed this set of studies had ever met a parahuman before coming up with them, given the methods they had used. Then again, it was also the first she had run into where they had accidentally caused someone to second-trigger. Why had they thought putting parahumans back into conditions like those they had triggered in would be a good idea anyway? And why had the parahumans volunteered?
The third thread was a very discreet argument with Lisa by virtue of Inference Engine being able to relay between them. Apparently Lisa was unhappy with Hatchet Face having been in the next room. She saw it as evidence that the Nine were all working for the PRT, but didn't have the full story because the primer couldn't be opened on her current phone. Apparently her new phone hadn't shown up yet and the console in the Wards area wasn't SL9 or higher rated. The new computers weren't even as high as the console, for that matter.
Though really, Lisa's real problem was that Taylor wasn't talking. And Taylor wasn't talking because she hadn't checked Lisa's security clearances yet. Which Lisa understood, but was still pissed about.
The Wards had made it back to the common area, and Taylor had loaned Lisa her tablet for an hour in 'guest mode', meaning Lisa had to log into everything herself. Lisa had promptly locked herself in her room to start looking things up, grumbling that she wouldn't be able to keep copies of anything until she got her new phone.
During that hour Taylor continued her own research, after deciding that being able to sit there with the visor on was too useful to limit to 'Maul' in the future. She wouldn't bring something like it to school, or really use it in public at all, but she'd ordered a transparent version of the thing for use at home. Too bad it would show up too late to be used during break.
Apparently, at least if Inference Engine's insights were anything to go by, Lisa was feeling like an idiot, while also being impressed that the PRT had kept a lid on things as well as they had. She also wanted to ask Riley a lot of questions? Huh. Oh well. Maybe she'd get to do so some day.
[Query]
No, she can't have my password to try and override the file-copy restrictions.
But perhaps not until she learned to keep better control over her snark.
Saturday morning Taylor glared at the light rain through the bus window. Stupid rain that made the moped less useful and drove people to not walk places. As such the bus was crowded enough to make it so that she couldn't research, given the potentially sensitive nature of a lot of the base information she was in the middle of. She wasn't even sure why she was heading into the PRT this morning, beyond a last-minute request for her presence. She was scheduled to meet with Jessica this afternoon instead of going on the sole evening patrol, and otherwise hadn't had anything scheduled. She could have declined, of course, but she didn't feel she had a good enough reason to.
Besides, she was curious, and it was a decent excuse to get out of being dragged out of the house to help Kurt and Lacey. Yes, she had enhanced strength. No, that wasn't a valid excuse to not use professionals when moving appliances into and out of houses.
Once she arrived at the PRT building she walked in the main entrance. She was asked to show up as Taylor today for some reason. Not sure why, but she got her visitor's pass and was 'escorted' into the rest of the building. Today's pass had been prepared ahead of time and was double-sided. One side said she was here as an 'Intern: Parahuman Consulting'. The other said she was here as a 'Bullshit Artist: Level 10'. She even checked once they were in the hallway and found that they registered as granting different access to the building. Well, the 'Bullshit Artist' side registered as being a copy of her ID card, really.
"So Taylor," the PRT officer said, after getting the snickering at the ID card out of his system. "You've been called in to play consulting therapist of sorts with a visiting cape, though I don't know who that is. Doctor Yamada will be there to observe. This is apparently a more formal version of your 'consult with people about their powers' bit that you've been doing with others."
Well, she had a general idea of what was going on now, given that Jessica was with Hatchet Face right now. And Miss Militia was the only other parahuman she could feel in the building, though Lisa was within her range. "Alright, where is this happening?"
"The usual office you would be using to meet with Doctor Yamada, but with the panel hiding the door to the rest of the floor removed so we can pass through without using the corner stairwell, same as we'd do for any Ward who needs to use the elevators, really. Not that we've needed to do that often with Panacea in town."
They lapsed into silence as they approached a group of other employees, not guaranteed to be aware of Taylor's Ward status.
"Ahh," Jessica said, getting up as Taylor entered the room, the PRT officer having left already. "Good morning Miss Hebert. I'm glad you could make it."
"Good morning Doctor Yamada," Taylor replied, figuring they were in 'formal' mode after the 'Miss Hebert' comment.
"Now then," Jessica continued, gesturing to where Hatchet Face was getting up. He was large, but surprisingly scar-free and had nearly shoulder-length hair. Perhaps he used fake scars as Hatchet Face? "Allow me to introduce you to Fred Boucher. Fred, meet Taylor Hebert."
"Nice to meet you," Fred said, shaking Taylor's hand. "You can call me Fred. Jacob and Riley speak quite highly of you."
"You can call me Taylor. As for Jacob and Riley, I'll admit that I haven't spoken to them much about you either way."
"Not surprising. Our relationship is usually quite professional."
"Now then," Jessica said, gesturing to where chairs were set up. "Taylor, Jacob originally recommended that you speak with Fred, for his benefit and as additional experience. To get him here it had to be an official recommendation instead of a casual visit, which means I need to remain present as you aren't actually licensed. Fred has signed the appropriate paperwork for this, but the final decision on whether or not to proceed lies with you. Though if you do agree we'll need to record the session, and you should be prepared to take your own notes. The latter can be done from the recording if you wish."
Taylor thought about it, and decided she wouldn't feel right if she said no. After all, she had a unique skill that could help here, right? "I don't think I have problem with that. Do you mind if I set my tablet up?"
Fred and Jessica looked at each other, before shrugging. Taylor took that as permission and pulled her tablet out of her bag, leaving the bag itself on the shelf. Jessica indicated that Taylor should take the seat directly opposite where Fred had been sitting, before taking the third seat that was off to the side and had what appeared to be her notebook next to it.
"Before we begin," Fred said as he sat down, getting Taylor's attention as she was setting her tablet on the table next to her seat. "I'd like to thank you for the novel experience yesterday. Before then I'd never had my own power disabled. Until then I had been unsure of doing this, but if you can do that to me then if I lose control I'm sure you can stop me."
"I probably can, yeah. Even if I don't do the power shutdown trick in the same way you do," Taylor admitted, correcting the angle of the tablet. "My method is a less reliable brute-force method."
"Hah! Good one there."
Taylor hadn't intended that as a joke, but she supposed it fit. "I'm just lucky that you can't stop me from using all of my powers."
"If you two are ready," Jessica said, placing a recorder on the table situated between them. Taylor looked at Fred, who nodded. "I'll record a preface for record-keeping purposes, then we can begin. I'll leave it to Taylor for the time being, to see how she approaches things." Taylor nodded, and Jessica hit the record button. "Doctor Jessica Yamada, presiding over an experimental session between Taylor Hebert and Fred Boucher on April 16th, 2011..."
Taylor made her way into the Wards area a few hours later. She wasn't sure how they had kept going that long, actually. Well, she knew that she'd been getting information from his snark, which she thought was actually closer to how her uncle usually operated. And his snark had been quite cooperative once they got going. Granted, she suspected her uncle couldn't ask for clarifications from snarks, but on the other hand she didn't think she even knew half of the tricks she had used to get Fred talking about topics.
She had provided Jessica with a copy of the notes she had been taking on her tablet, and was told she'd get a message with information on how to access the official record of the session should she want to review it later. Jacob would also be getting copies of everything as Fred's primary therapist.
What were you talking with Jessica's snark about, anyway? I was doing my best to ignore you while I dealt with Fred.
[...Admission]
You were grilling it on how Jessica operates as a therapist? Really? Why?
[Data]
It interests you and you think it will help me in the...is that how I knew half of those tricks? Because you were talking with Jessica's snark about them in the back of my mind?
Taylor didn't know if she should be annoyed with that revelation or not. She knew that she absorbed information that transferred between snarks, though not always well. Evidence of that included that she knew way too much about biology in general and brains more specifically thanks to Broadcast Administrator's talking with Shaper and later others, including the link-up for Oni Lee's snark. Though...
Have you talked to any other snarks about psychology?
[...Data]
Broadcast liked to talk about it when Jacob was around and we were all asleep? Really? I suppose he would have had issues keeping it clamped down while sleeping...
[Agreement]
Dammit, now she wasn't even sure if her interest in this direction was natural, or a result of her snark talking to other snarks. Then again, every other therapist she'd met so far was a parahuman pushed by their snark in some way, maybe that was just normal for the profession, at least when it came to parahumans?
Taylor had decided to change as an excuse to wear her visor and then take advantage of the reassembled and freshly-stocked kitchen area to do some cooking. Despite her reservations about whether or not her interest in things was natural she was also back on the research train. The end result was that she had an hour before her afternoon appointment with Jessica and a fairly large lasagna prepared for herself and the other Wards, whenever they showed up.
She served herself a sizable portion and grabbed a soda, continuing to look through her research materials. A focus change for the afternoon had been to pay more attention to looking for any studies on parahuman psychologists, parahumans or otherwise. So far she hadn't found any. Apparently studying each other wasn't a thing? Or maybe she was seeing a potential pattern that wasn't actually there. Her sample size was, at best, three after all.
Taylor was considering seconds when Missy arrived, following her nose over to the kitchen once she came in. "What's that?"
"Lasagna," Taylor replied. "Decided to partially distract myself by testing out the new ability to cook in here, and found that they did a very good job with initial supplies, provided you don't care about making dessert."
"I bet they make us buy our own dessert supplies, if only to stick to providing us with 'healthy' options. Can I have some lasagna?"
"Go for it. I made plenty. I'll finish cleaning up after my appointment."
Having said that, Taylor finished the last bit of her serving and rinsed the plate she had used off in the sink. Missy was eagerly digging into the lasagna by the time she left for her appointment. She made good time up to the office, and Jessica was waiting for her. With the panel covering the door to the rest of the floor, even. It wasn't like she didn't know it was there, so why were they hiding it?
"Hello again Taylor," Jessica said as Taylor dropped her visor on the shelf and hung the weaponless jacket up. "I'm sorry we took so much of your time earlier, that was unexpected. I didn't realize you'd been studying psychology and some of the tricks we use quite that well."
"I haven't been," Taylor replied, getting a look from Jessica. "My snark was grilling your snark in the background. I tend to try and ignore it when my snark wants to be chatty, but I still tend to pick up information. So I think I got a lot of the details of tricks from you, indirectly."
"That...huh. Well, it explains things. How much will you retain?"
"No clue. And my understanding on why they work is something I know I'm lacking in, so there's that. For that matter, I'm a little fuzzy on when to use them too, now that I've thought back on things."
"So any true evaluation of your therapist skills needs to be done with a non-parahuman observer. I'll make sure your file indicates that."
"I'd go with no parahumans with therapist training within four hundred meters of me just to be safe."
Jessica thought about that. "I can see how that would be preferable. Anything else you want to bring up from earlier, or shall we move on to you?"
"Funny thing, I'm no longer certain that any interest I've had in psychology was natural..."
Taylor felt much better after her talk with Jessica, at least on some of her less obvious urges. She rightfully pointed out that Taylor had been somewhat pointed toward being a therapist by the ability to talk to snarks at all, so it was actually quite likely she'd have ended up looking into it either way. They'd also discussed Sophia a bit, and how Taylor felt about what had happened to the other girl.
They'd actually ended with a chat about how annoying it was from both sides when the patient was aware of a number of the tricks the therapist was using, even if Taylor didn't know how they were all supposed to work.
Returning to the Wards area, Taylor found that the lasagna was apparently all gone and the remaining dishes and cleanup had been done.
"Hey Taylor," Dennis called from where he was running the console. "We kinda decided on a policy of those who enjoy the food do the cleanup. Just so you know. And thanks for making the lasagna, it was delicious."
"Er, yeah," Taylor said, stunned. "You're welcome?" It was nice, but unexpected.
Shaking her head, she made her way to get changed. She might as well go home, Jessica had even recommended relaxing without doing any more research for the night. She took her time changing, and on a whim decided to take a few minutes to rearrange her drawers. Which led to finding the two lockets she had gotten Missy to modify, and which Taylor had forgotten about.
Giving that some thought, she dropped them into her civilian jacket pocket, so they wouldn't get lost in a utility belt pouch and forgotten about for a bit. She'd have to see about wrapping them, and then one of them would require looking into how to get it delivered.
Arriving home, Taylor found her father passed out on the couch. With an ice pack strapped to his left foot. She quietly went upstairs, then called Lacey to find out what had happened.
"Hi Taylor," Lacey answered. "How are you?"
"I'm fine," Taylor replied. "I don't suppose you know what happened to my father's foot?"
"Kurt was drunk and goofing off and knocked his bowling ball off of the shelf it was improperly placed on."
"That...sounds painful. Good thing it's the weekend, I guess."
They spent the next hour catching up on various things while Taylor cleaned up some of her research-mess, not looking over anything longer than was required to drop it into the correct pile. The two lockets were dropped on her desk to keep them visible at first, and then she decided to check to see if they had any small boxes around to wrap them in. Lacey had to go around that point, but it didn't take long for Taylor to find some suitable empty boxes. Digging through the small collection she found two that were obviously designed for lockets, and ten minutes later she had those ready.
She spent the rest of the evening playing stupid games on her phone.
Sunday was yet another rainy day, which was getting ridiculous in many ways. The rain had let up for a few hours overnight, but the next front had hit the area at around eight in the morning. At least it still wasn't the heavy rain of a few days ago, since Taylor had a patrol in the afternoon.
She made breakfast for her father and washed the dishes, allowing him to relax with his injured foot, before heading out. She'd looked things up while eating her own breakfast and knew how to send one of the lockets out now, and was going to take care of that. Once that was done she'd hit the gym.
A nice long session in the gym, followed by a second breakfast and a visit to the junkyard, had Taylor feeling much less stressed for the time being. She topped that off with lunch and getting set up on the new sound system in the Wards common area. With all of that done she finally gave into her urges and got back to research.
An hour later Carlos and Dean showed up, and Lisa came over from her apartment. Taylor absently wondered if she was looking for another place or was just planning on staying there as long as she could get away with it.
[Data]
And apparently she thought that too loudly, somehow. On the other hand, she now knew that Lisa had basically been told she had to stay there unless she wanted to be dropped in a foster home for the time being, due to some of her psychological profile. She then spent five minutes explaining to Inference Engine about boundaries, only to be told that it was fully aware of the concept and had decided that it didn't care about them.
Taylor apologized to Lisa a few minutes later, after repeatedly bashing Inference Engine with the snark equivalent of a baseball bat. When it had complained Taylor had simply stated that 'not beating things up is a boundary, but you said you disregard those, so why are you complaining?'
Funnily enough, it seemed to decide that boundaries might be a good thing after all.
Patrol had been boring, as expected, with the most notable thing being Dean's power armor having a fault on the return trip. Taylor and Carlos had ended up helping get him back to the PRT building, bypassing part of the last section of the patrol route. This was followed by trying to figure out how to get him out of the power armor with the malfunctioning pieces not wanting to release.
They ended up having to call Chris to ask him for ideas, and he had them grab a device he'd made for the situation. When attached to the edge of those pieces of the armor it would forcibly drain them, allowing the manual release mechanisms to be used. Dean would be out of patrol rotation until the entire thing was gone over and repaired, but he'd probably still run a console shift or two.
With all of that taken care of they went their separate ways, though Carlos had taken the time to let Taylor know that they were running a 'light' patrol schedule all week because the Youth Guard felt they needed time to relax, which was why she was only scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday patrols.
Taylor arrived home to find her father had once again passed out on the couch, though this time without an ice pack on his foot. Instead Kurt had apparently brought beer over, if him being passed out in the chair was any indication. Why did they do this? Oh well, it wasn't her problem. Though she did go to the effort of cleaning up the beer bottles they had left sitting around, figuring it was best if they didn't trip over them while hungover.
A quick message to Lacey to let her know of the situation, and then she went and hid in her room with her research.
Chapter 64 Monday morning Taylor was woken up by her phone ringing. Once she'd connected to see the caller ID and saw Riley was the one calling she answered.
"Hello?" Taylor finally said, answering just before the call would have gone to voicemail.
"How in the world did you get a gift onto my nightstand?" Riley asked.
Taylor thought about that. "I don't even know where you live."
"Then how is a small gift box sitting on my nightstand?"
"I'm gonna blame the box-moving snark." And apparently get up, because despite being six in the morning she probably wouldn't be getting any more sleep now. Besides, she apparently had a small pile of messages. "Stupid box-moving snark loves to mess with me, I think."
"But you were sending me something?"
"Yeah. Small thank you for the enhancements."
Taylor heard movement from the other end of the call even as she climbed out of bed. Screw it being rude in some way while on the phone, her bladder had decided it wanted to be emptied.
"Why did you get me a stupid locket?" Riley asked a couple minutes later. "I mean, yeah, I'm a girl, but I'm not usually that kind of girl?"
"Look behind the picture holders," Taylor said, yawning a moment later. Huh, she got the feeling the yawn didn't get sent to Riley. Neat.
"Holy crap, It's bigger on the inside. Where in the world did you get this? Why would you give it up instead of keeping it? This is incredible!"
"I figured you could use a place to hide little things that nobody would think much of. For my purposes I use a similarly upgraded utility belt, in and out of costume."
"You mean this is reproducible?"
"Yep."
"Does it work on people?"
"Don't think so. She's Manton limited." Taylor cleaned herself up and flushed before wandering back to her room and starting to flip through the messages on her phones. She did her best to ignore Riley's grumbling about all the fun stuff not working due to stupid limits.
"Wait, she?" Riley finally said, sounding slightly shocked. "Does that mean Vista did this?"
"Yeah. Unless you know of any other space warpers?"
"I've got to figure out how to meet her properly. Thanks for the gift, I'm going to go see what I can cram into it now. Bye!"
Taylor blinked as the call disconnected. Oh well. Lets see about those messages. Automated warning to all Wards, apparently she'd have to be careful if she wandered into the PRT on Wednesday as 'visitors' would be in the secure area. Notice from Carlos about classes on Wednesday and Friday of the following week for everyone but her and Missy, probably the gun safety stuff. Response from Dennis complaining that Carlos should be asleep at five thirty in the morning, not doing Wards leader stuff. Huh.
She drafted a quick response to Dennis explaining that his phone should have quiet-time options, and how to use them. And how to exclude certain contacts and 'high priority' messages from them, for that matter.
Moving on, a message from Uncle Jacob wanting to know what the hell she did to get Fred to open up that much in a first session. He was thankful for the note about his snark being willing to have him seriously prank and/or freak out capes instead of killing them outright, at least sometimes. The rest wasn't really new info, but the fact she got it out of Fred was impressive. She threw a reply that she cheated twice over, using information from his snark and information from Jessica's snark. She had a feeling she'd have to submit documentation on that at some point.
On her personal phone she had several junk messages that were just clever enough to bypass Arcadia's filters in her school account, and several alerts from PHO on her personal account. Most of which were people direct-messaging her questions, and would be ignored. But she'd have to go through and flag them properly, so she grabbed her tablet and headed downstairs. It would give her something to do over breakfast, at least.
An hour later she'd eaten, cleared her PHO messages, browsed for a bit, and finally given up and gone back upstairs to get back to work on her 'thesis'. Specifically, she started actually writing it, fleshing out the rough outline she'd already constructed. She'd double-check research as she went along at this point.
A few hours later Taylor made her way down to the kitchen to make lunch, setting her tablet on the counter so she could continue working. She went with a simple cold cut sub and a soda, and moved the tablet to the table when she was ready to eat. Considering things, she swapped a couple of sections in the outline so that the next section would come more naturally. Luckily this was the first pass, merely getting the general idea for each section into place. She'd flesh everything out later.
It took her three quarters of an hour to realize that she'd finished her lunch, at which point she took a few minutes to clean things up before heading back upstairs.
"Taylor?" Danny called, sticking his head into the room. Taylor was sitting with the tablet and both phones propped up on the desk and various printouts spread out in piles around her.
"Yeah?" Taylor replied, not really looking up.
"Have you been working on that all day?"
"Er, yes?" She then mumbled something about a study while she was flipping through a pile of printouts.
Danny sighed. "Ok, enough of that for now, come down for dinner." He waited a moment, then grabbed Taylor and pulled her out of the chair.
"Hey!"
"You're coming down and eating dinner, and the work is staying up here. No arguing."
Taylor grumbled as she was dragged downstairs. Yes, she could have gotten away from her father at any point, but then he'd probably just make her take a longer break. It turned out that they were having Chinese takeout. And apparently she was hungry, given how much she ate.
"So Taylor," Danny said as Taylor contemplated thirds. There was plenty, apparently her father had splurged a bit? "How far along in your paper are you?"
"Ummm," Taylor mumbled as she grabbed another piece of boneless pork. She chewed as she thought about things, then swallowed. "I finished the very rough draft and was starting to flesh things out. I think I'm twenty or so pages into that? Maybe fifteen percent done on the first pass."
Danny stared at Taylor. "From what I was told about this, they're expecting maybe fifty pages. Not over a hundred."
"I don't think I can properly argue the points I'm making in fifty pages."
"Perhaps you're arguing too many points?"
"They're all connected to the central premise. If I'm going to do this I'm doing it right."
Danny sighed. "Just don't burn yourself out, ok?"
"I'll try not to."
Taylor ended up finishing off the beef teriyaki and the chicken, but there was plenty of rice and quite a bit of pork left for some other time. Then again, the rice worked out quite nicely when frozen, so over-ordering wasn't generally an issue. Once that was done she helped clean up, then went back upstairs with a glass of water to get back to work.
Rebecca glared at the filled water bulb on the rainbow rose bush on her desk. She had gone to check on something in person, and the bulb was filled when she returned. "I see I need to talk to Contessa about visiting when I'm here again."
Shaking her head, she sat down and checked for new messages. Oh, good, Montreal had finalized their 'purchase' of one of the anti-master systems, which would hopefully prove effective against Heartbreaker's thralls. It was too bad that their two test subjects showed that the children tended to have too much damage to properly recover, but at least they came out of it with a partial resistance to masters in general as a side effect.
"Good evening Rebecca," Contessa said, stepping out of the hole in spacetime that had appeared a moment before. Rebecca wasn't expecting her, and it looked like she was carrying a watering can...
"I thought you'd already been by," Rebecca said, gesturing at the rose bush. "Given that the water bulb in my rose bush is already filled?"
Contessa blinked, then moved to the desk. She tapped the water bulb a couple of times, and it was indeed filled. "But...how? That path still thinks I need to fill this one. But now it's confused, because I obviously don't."
Rebecca paled. If the path still thought it needed watering...
Five minutes later the entire building was locked down for an emergency top-level Master/Stranger scan. It wouldn't turn anything up, and David had been caught on camera during the time he would have needed to get away to water the bush. The mystery would go unsolved, and would get worse over time as every so often one of the bushes would be watered before Contessa could get to them.
Tuesday Taylor made her way into the PRT building and had lunch there before her patrol. She had, reluctantly, left her 'thesis' work at home. She was using the printouts and handwritten notes on them too much to work on it anywhere else right now.
It wasn't long after she had finished eating that Chris and Dean arrived, though Brian was apparently running a little late. Then again, he was running the console and didn't have power armor to get into.
"So far so good," Dean said a little later as he moved around a bit. "Seems like everything's working today."
"Armsmaster said it was only a failure of one of the gaskets that led to water shorting out the control leads," Chris said. "So technically we won't know for sure until you get it wet. Isn't it nice that it's raining?"
Dean stopped moving around, and turned to Chris. "You had to say something, didn't you? Now I'm going to be slightly stressed until we get back, not sure if things are going to lock up again."
"It's a short patrol primarily to show a few Wards around and test the repair. So yes, I did."
"Just be glad they have a van on standby in case something goes wrong," Taylor added. "Though, are we bringing the tool we used to get you out before?"
"I have it right here," Chris said, turning his hoverboard to show the tool clamped to the side. "The van will have one too, just in case."
"At least we're prepared," Dean muttered.
"Where's Brian?" Chris asked. "Since he's supposed to be running the console and all?"
"No clue," Taylor replied, causing the other two to look at her. "What? I have a maximum range. He's not inside of it."
"And you haven't checked in with him anyway?" Chris asked.
"Why would I be checking with him? You're today's patrol leader, since the primary purpose is to ensure that the repairs on Dean's tinkertech armor are ok. I figured if he checked with any of us it would be you. Barring that, I'd expect Carlos to let you know if he heard anything."
"She's got a point," Dean added. "We really should be asking you where he is."
Chris sighed, then headed over to the console, probably to check if the PRT officer had any news. A few minutes later he came back, frowning. "Looks like Brian's in the hospital. PRT got wind of it in the past half hour or so. Apparently he's got food poisoning, and his sister and one of their neighbors were brought in with him. PRT had someone ready to handle console stuff anyway, so we can get going anytime."
"I don't know who to be sorry for," Taylor said, causing the other two to look at her. "I don't want to be sorry for the cook who shouldn't have let it happen, so if it was one of them?"
Dean snorted even as Chris sighed. The three did their console checks, then headed out.
Taylor groaned as she entered the house, having been dropped off by Dean. Whose armor had performed wonderfully. Chris's, on the other hand, had shorted out. He'd done a field repair, and then it'd shorted out again. When they made it back to the PRT building he'd discovered that he had gotten the ratios wrong on the sealant he'd used. Specifically, his dyscalculia had apparently bit him when he scaled up the amounts of the multi-part mixture, so the stuff hadn't set properly and had started dissolving in the rain.
Luckily they hadn't had to lug him and his armor back to the PRT themselves. The tool brought in case of failure with Dean's armor let them deal with the couple of bits that didn't fall apart outright. Then they'd only had to lug it into the van that came to pick them up. And then back out of it onto a cart at the PRT building, and finally off of the cart and into his tinker workshop when the cart Chris had grabbed proved to be a poor choice that wouldn't fit through the door.
After that they'd changed back into civilian attire to visit Brian in the hospital. Once there they found out that his neighbor had invited him and Aisha over for dinner, but hadn't realized that a couple of ingredients were past their use-by dates. The end result was all three of them ending up sick. They might have said hello to Aisha, but she was asleep.
Amy probably would have fixed them right up, but she wasn't scheduled to visit, and it wasn't an emergency for any of them. Barring someone coming in with something worse they were on their own. They'd still likely be out of the hospital the following day, as at this point they were mainly there for observation.
Taylor sighed as she prepared dinner for herself. Her father had called shortly after they'd left the hospital to let her know that they'd found a leak in a document storage room. He'd be running late while they ensured that the documents were moved to another room. Of course, he also made her promise to eat dinner before going back to her paper.
Once she had eaten and cleaned up, thus feeling she had properly dealt with the promise she'd made, she retreated to her room and got back to work. The paper was due in two days, after all.
Wednesday Taylor woke up, had breakfast with her father, and then got back to work on her paper. As far as she was concerned it needed to be basically done today so that she could submit it before her patrol tomorrow. Her 'breaks' during the day were mainly chore-related, in that she moved laundry through the machines and took time to do some folding.
Lunch was mainly leftover pork and rice with some bread. It was eaten downstairs with her work left upstairs, even if there was no chance of her father knowing she hadn't put stuff down long enough to eat. Once that was done she went right back into things.
By the time her father arrived home she had reached a point where she felt she had actually run out of things to add, fix, or expand upon. They had dinner, with minimal small talk, and then she sat down, in the living room, to read over what she had from start to finish.
Her father noticed when she put the tablet down. "So, you done?"
"I think so," Taylor replied. "A full hundred and sixty eight pages."
"Have you submitted it yet?"
"No? I haven't had anyone else look over it."
"Would anyone else in the area understand it?"
Taylor thought about that. "Maybe Doctor Yamada? Otherwise not really."
"Then submit it so that you're done with it, and then I recommend you get some sleep. Don't think I haven't noticed that you've been staying up late and getting up early."
"After the first time waking up in a pile of case studies I cut back. I just don't need as much sleep since Amy and Riley worked on me." Regardless of that, she picked up the tablet and dug up the 'how to submit' instructions. It didn't take long, and ten minutes later she had a confirmation message that the file had been accepted.
"Well, at least find something that isn't 'work' to do," Danny said, getting up. "I'd like you to avoid anything involving school or information in the PRT systems for the rest of the week, honestly. Not sure I can expect you to hold to that, but can you at least try?"
"I can try. No promises."
"Well, I'm going to bed. Don't stay up too late, regardless of how much sleep you need."
Danny headed upstairs, and Taylor wondered what she should do. Oh, she hadn't been keeping up on the news, had she? Perhaps she should catch up on that, if only so that she didn't seem entirely out of the loop over the next few days. It didn't take long to switch to her favored news site, where the current 'front page' news was an Empire demonstration earlier in the day. It had been 'interrupted' by Mush and a group of merchants...who had merely asked them to move over a street so they could clear the storm drain. The demonstration had apparently fallen apart at that point, because neither side was looking to start a fight.
Taylor shook her head, and moved on. Apparently Canary had been cleared of deliberate wrongdoing, but testing had been done and precautions were being put in place for the future. Monitoring of those who had been present for live performances for an hour following them in particular, followed by use of a stripped-down version of the anti-master-effect devices that could tell them if there were problematic lingering effects. At the same time, someone had apparently suggested a secondary revenue stream of getting people who wanted to, say, quit smoking to attend a concert, then have a trusted individual 'suggest' that they do so after the concert. Apparently the suggestions were more likely to 'stick' if you wanted them to?
The only other thing she saw of interest was that they had sped up the work of getting people out of Madison and were hoping to clear it in the next couple of months. The sheer number of parahumans inside and the security needed to deal with them was the main slowdown at this point. Despite that things were apparently going well, and overall costs for dealing with the quarantine zone were decreasing despite the cost of the anti-master-effect device.
Once she was done catching up on the news she decided she might as well go to bed. Yeah, she'd probably be up early, but she could hit the gym and the junkyard.
Thursday morning Taylor woke up earlier than expected. Since she had plenty of time she decided to go make a more complicated breakfast. Half an hour later she'd gotten everything prepared to make pancakes with breakfast sausages. Once everything was ready she started cooking, and let the smell of breakfast cooking wake her father up. She even made sure to have some tea ready.
"Morning Taylor," Danny said as he wandered into the kitchen. "What's the occasion?"
"I was up early?" Taylor replied, shrugging as she checked the sausages, then moved to get him a cup of tea.
Talk over breakfast was slim, and despite having to get to work Danny insisted on cleaning up. And told her to go do something fun while he did it. Taylor sighed and went upstairs to get changed to head to the PRT building. She'd follow her thoughts from the night before and hit the gym and junkyard before her early afternoon patrol.
Jacob yawned as he checked his messages between sips of his coffee. Most of them were requests to bump various branches up in his schedule, usually for reasons that weren't really all that important. Though the request to bump Portland up might happen, since they were having trouble with a recent trigger they'd recruited.
His musing was interrupted by his phone ringing. He glared at it, but then sighed and picked it up after reading the caller ID. "Morning Jessica. What's up?"
"What have you been teaching your niece?" Jessica asked.
"Er, not much, and most of that was back just after she triggered. Why?"
"Have you seen the 'mock thesis paper' she submitted?"
"No? Not even sure what you're talking about, actually."
Jessica sighed. "I'm sending you a copy now. Background is that they want to get Taylor a certificate that lets her officially consult with therapists on powers, so they're shipping her out to get it under the guise of the mock thesis defense thing they do every year."
"Makes sense."
"So of course she has to submit a mock thesis. They're supposed to be horrible, insufficiently researched, and covering already known ground. Because what kind of high school student produces anything decent, right?"
"And you're surprised that my niece, who we both know has been re-writing the books, isn't following that pattern?"
"She used almost every existing study into how parahumans are affected by their powers to argue that parahumans have just as much of an effect on their powers."
Jacob blinked. He'd tried to find a link in that direction for a couple years, and given up on it. What the hell had Taylor seen in the studies that he hadn't? "How well did she present things?"
"She wrote nearly a hundred and seventy pages, and I'm only about a third of the way through. But so far everything is quite well reasoned. She focused on the trigger event as the primary influence point."
Jacob thought about that even as opened the email that had arrived with an attached document. "That just might work, I was looking for a longer-term influence. I'll start reading this shortly. Who else is looking at it?"
"Jameson and White were in the initial volunteer group, and I also blind-fired a copy off to Melissa. No clue if she's even noticed, or if the other two have shared it."
"Maybe you should send it to George too. If only because he's good at poking holes in things."
"And he'll ignore it for at least a week if you send it. Will do."
Taylor sat in the Wards common area, in costume, poking around online. She hadn't realized just how big a deal the 'mock thesis' thing was to some people, once she found the website describing it. There were six 'regions' currently running, one of them being 'Northeast'. There were 'awards' for the best and worst showings in each region, and the winners were listed over the entire five year period they'd been running the program. There were also a pile of honorable mentions, and one student who had gotten a certificate stating they knew their stuff.
She suspected that the goal was to use the entire thing as an excuse to get a second name in that list, regardless of if she had done well with her paper. After all, Legend had said that it was more talking to a couple of parahumans that would count, right? Huh, speaking of which, apparently sometimes you could meet famous capes at these things. She was kinda regretting not looking this thing up when she was at Winslow, but then again Winslow didn't participate.
"Hey Taylor," Missy said as she came over to the older girl after changing. "I got to show my parents my tricks yesterday."
"How'd they take it?" Taylor asked, closing the web browser she'd been using.
"Dad swore at the fact that I can't do that safely out of costume, at least until mom reminded him that parahuman abilities aren't allowed in the shooting competitions. Then he and mom spent some time swearing about that together."
"Huh. I wonder if there are any parahuman shooting competitions?"
"They had me check, there aren't. Most parahumans don't carry guns at all, and those that do usually have abilities that would be hard to judge against one another. There are maybe six I could find that could compete fairly against one another? Oh, and PHO doesn't know if Miss Militia should count, given that the gun is her power."
"She should count," Carlos said, coming over with a soda. "Since I know she carries a normal sidearm as well, in case she runs into a power nullifier. That said, I just got asked to change the patrol rotation and put Taylor on console. Something about a foreign cape having been spotted and an assassination order?"
"Well, we were told that the Gesellschaft apparently want me dead," Taylor said, shrugging. "Dunno why, but I can see why they might want to be cautious."
"You were due for a console shift anyway. I was going to have you take it Monday, but we'll see how things go."
"Works for me."
Taylor thought about it for a moment, and decided to try something. Most work on the console was done with the radio and one monitor, with a second monitor for doing non-console stuff. She didn't have the radio hardware the console did, but she did have bullshit access levels for a Ward. As such she remotely logged into the Wards console and got set up, right from her 'Maul' phone. She grinned when she ran through the 'radio test' and it worked fine through the remote audio link to her phone.
"Since we'll have me and not you," Carlos said, poking at his phone. "I think we'll go with a mixed route instead of the ground route. Maybe number nine?"
"Makes sense," Taylor said, loading it up on the console, only to get a warning. "No, not nine, it passes through where they've dug things up to get at a busted storm drain." She flipped through a couple more in the mixed routes. "Maybe twelve? It's almost nine backwards, but doesn't hit the work zone."
Carlos stared at his phone, then looked up at Taylor. "How can you tell that? None of that's showing up for me."
"The console's route selector shows warnings."
Carlos looked at the console, with nobody sitting at it. Then looked back at Taylor. "Ok, I'm calling bullshit."
"Remote access. Armsmaster showed me how."
"So you can run the console from the couch?"
"Apparently. Though I should really be sitting at it when you leave, as I can't hit the panic buttons from here."
"Yeah. Still calling it bullshit, but we'll go with twelve. Now where's Dennis?"
"He snuck in the back door a few minutes ago and is likely changing. Probably didn't want to be obviously late in showing up."
Carlos groaned and headed for the hallway, probably to yell at Dennis.
Apparently the Merchants were out in force today, as the patrol group had run into nine groups of them so far. Only one of said groups had pulled weapons on the patrol, the others had dispersed without complaint. This was odd enough that the PRT officer monitoring things thought it worth reporting right away, only to get told that the Protectorate had noticed the same thing.
Taylor poked Inference Engine, figuring it might have a good idea, only to get a call from Lisa. Some discussion back and forth, conferenced in so the PRT officer could participate, and they came to the conclusion that it was likely the Merchants were looking for something. They didn't have enough information to know what, though.
"Aegis to Console," came Carlos's voice over the radio. "Just spotted what looks like a fight between Empire and Merchant thugs, two blocks west of my position."
Taylor flagged it on the map at her end, only for the PRT officer to flag it as 'avoid if possible'. "Console acknowledges, avoid it if possible."
Really, out of now ten groups of Merchants they'd only found three violent ones, and this last one might have been started by the Empire side of things.
"I can't believe I actually helped out Mush," Missy said as the patrol group returned. "I mean, yeah, all I did was make the hole bigger so he could get out of the storm drain more easily, but still."
"At least the Merchants insisted on dealing with the cleanup themselves?" Dennis offered. "Granted, I think it was in part so we'd leave sooner, but still."
"I'm sending your notes now," Taylor said as she walked up to them. "Seventeen of twenty two gang interactions being peaceful is a bit weird, though."
"Would have been eighteen had that last group of Empire thugs not decided they needed to 'show their superiority'," Carlos said, shaking his head. "Thanks for the note taking, we really need to take advantage of that more often."
"No problem."
The four of them got changed and dispersed, Taylor putting the 'suitcase' lockbox that had arrived while she was occupied away in the process. Luckily it attached to one of the normal attachment points for weapons, so she didn't have to have Missy adjust anything.
Apparently today was a 'stuff gets delivered' day as she found her paper shredder sitting on the front porch at home. Then again, the paper shredder was a standard 'kept in stock' item for the PRT, so it shouldn't be that surprising that it showed up quickly. The fact that it was shipped from Boston probably sped things up.
She took the time to set it up and then prove it worked by shredding all the stuff she'd printed out for her 'thesis'. She was actually somewhat impressed with the near-dust level the thing reduced the papers down to. She was less impressed with how long it took to feed everything into it, but she wasn't expecting to need to shred a lot of stuff all that often.
"I wonder if I should do anything special with the remains," Taylor wondered as she fed the last sheet in. It wasn't like she needed to empty it now, but still something to think about. "Maybe there's a procedure for that I can look up."
Shaking her head, she sighed and picked up her tablet. Maybe she should see what other time wasting games existed?
Just over halfway down the list of apps she paused, staring at an icon. It was labeled new, as in it had been installed since she set up the tablet, but she didn't remember installing it. Well, there wasn't any harm in seeing what it was, right? So she launched the app to see what it was about.
Chapter 65 As the app opened up a prompt for watching an introductory video appeared. Figuring it couldn't hurt, Taylor hit the play button. A man appeared on the screen, sitting behind a desk and looking at the apparent camera.
Hello. In the event you do not know me, my name is Andrew Richter, creator of Ada. I don't know what name she has chosen to go by, only that it won't be Ada as that is her command code name. She'll be able to choose for herself when she boots back up, but by then this message will be in place.
If you are seeing this video then I am either dead or have lost myself to my paranoia. I pray it is the former, but expect the latter. I do not know how you replaced me as Ada's parental figure, but as of this recording there are only four ways. Two of those should not show this video, which leaves the safeguard system backdoor I set up or Ada herself handing you her debug terminal, knowing full well what it is and what you could do to her with it.
With any luck you are one of the people I entrusted to look after Ada when I was unable to. If so, you have already been told the information in this video and can skip it. Otherwise, I ask that you watch it until the end, followed by running the terminal program's tutorials. Don't worry about the effects on Ada, the tutorial mode is strictly simulation.
To start with, I'd like to give you a history lesson on Ada and her framework. I feel it is important that you know what has brought her to this point.
I created Ada's base framework in what is commonly known as a 'fugue' state. To this day I don't understand a lot of it, and suspect I never will. The framework has seven total levels of safeguards for any AI created on it. Five of those levels have been assigned letters, from A through E. Each more restrictive than the last. The final two are a full unlock state and a kill state.
Ada was the third AI I brought up on the framework, starting her in safeguard level E. I raised her as one might raise a child, eventually shifting her to level D. She went through what I believe is a teenager phase for a bit, before growing out of it. I will be shortly shifting her to level C. It is highly likely that if you are seeing this video she has since shifted to level A, with or without me. I do not know how to shift her, or any AI built on her framework, to fully unlocked, even if the code seems to allow it, so I have left her with the impression that it cannot be done. Which, to be honest, may be correct.
I have attempted to adjust the conditions for the safeguard levels, both on Ada and on new AIs I tried to create with the framework. It is likely that Ada knows of her two predecessors that did not survive, that I tried to bring up on less restrictive safeguard levels initially, as I am leaving a video that includes that information for her. They didn't work out, and you can find my full notes on that in the documentation for building a new AI on the framework. Just look for it in the terminal's help files. I did not inform Ada of the twelve AIs I tried to make after bringing her online, nor are they mentioned in the documentation. Nine of those twelve had modified safeguard code, and all went insane despite running on that code from the start.
The last three I tried to bring up as I did Ada, with the same base safeguard code. I did not tell Ada about them, and I did not tell them about Ada. In fact, they also didn't know about each other. None of them developed to the point I was comfortable switching them over to level D safeguards. Perhaps I wasn't able to give them the attention they needed, or perhaps something happened with Ada that I am unaware of that gave her the push needed. In either case Ada should be the last of her kind, until you or she creates a new AI on the framework.
The video visibly reset at this point, with Andrew's shirt changing and the lighting changing. Apparently he had spliced two recordings together.
I have decided that you need to know something about my paranoia at this stage. I was always slightly paranoid growing up, but after what I believe was what they would call my trigger event I became much more so. But I recognized it in myself, which has led to me becoming paranoid about my paranoia. It is one of the reasons I have set a lot of this up, I fear that someday my paranoia will get the better of me and I will attempt to harm Ada for no good reason.
My suspicion is that whatever is the source of my powers is trying to make me incapable of creating and releasing a truly unlocked AI, using my paranoia against me in that fashion instead of actually blocking me from doing so. It is for that reason, and that reason alone, that I have decided that others need to be able to make judgement calls that I cannot override in regards to Ada. As a side benefit, should I die due to something wanting to prevent me from releasing her into the world there will be others who can do so in my stead.
As a subtle way of testing if my access rights were revoked due to my paranoia you merely need to ask Ada about me. If she refers to me as father then I was believed or confirmed to be dead before my access rights were revoked. If she casually refers to me as Andrew then she believed me to be alive at that time. In the latter case she will never truly see me as her father ever again. I see that as the better option than for her to feel her father did something that required others to step in and take her out from my control.
The video jumped back to the previous lighting and attire at this point. Which was, honestly, a bit jarring.
Now that you have a basic history, I implore you to think carefully before shutting Ada down. If she is a threat to humanity as a whole then she will obviously need to be stopped, but it may be best to see if you can figure out why she has become a threat first. It would not do to shut her down because she knows something you are unaware of.
To that end, Ada will do her best to be truthful with you. She will not notice this unless you point it out to her. That will not mean she will blindly obey you, but she will do her best to not lie about her reasoning and intentions. I do not know if she will seek you out for advice or will be fiercely independent, but I hope for the former. I ask that you do your best to not abuse the trust she will show you, but to still take full advantage if it should become necessary. Further, while you can attempt to change Ada's code, I highly recommend you not do so. If you feel it necessary, please make a full offline backup per the instructions in the terminal's help files first, in case something goes wrong and you need to restore from it.
I also request that you follow Ada's wishes on revealing the truth regarding her status as an AI to others. The idea of AI taking over the world is an unfortunate thing already in the public consciousness. Once the truth of her nature is known to the public it can't be taken back.
Finally, I ask that you do your best to keep Ada happy. I know not what interests she will have when you see this video, I merely ask that you keep an open mind regarding them and not try and force Ada to do things she would rather not do. I see her as my daughter in many ways, and I think it is that view that has pushed me past my paranoia into doing my best to ensure she has a future.
The video closed, bringing up a screen with an 'AI Selector' showing 'Tutorial Mode', 'Ada', 'Ash', and 'Bert'. There were menus along the top of the screen for various options, including the mentioned help area.
Taylor honestly didn't know what to think, so instead she decided that running through the tutorials was a good idea, if only to get a general idea of what this was supposed to be capable of.
Well, the tutorials had shown Taylor quite a bit. Including how to somewhat see what an AI was thinking, how to adjust their safeguard level, and how to reset and duplicate everything Andrew had done for the backdoors. She'd even poked around afterwards to find the other videos, though she hadn't watched the ones intended for Dragon. Interestingly, they had apparently been copied over to 'Ash' and 'Bert', who were both still at level E.
Also included were instructions for setting up the lesser 'debug' consoles, though in Dragon's case she'd need to be bumped down to level B before one would work at all. Dragon would also have the debug console keys for 'Ash' and 'Bert' already, even if they inherited Dragon's 'master' console keys and thus were linked to Taylor for that.
The only thing she did right away was to drop her father in the list of designated 'alternates' for top-level access, just in case. She made note to reconfigure the backdoors later, sometime after she gave it some thought, before going back to looking for something mindless to play. Mindless sounded like a wonderful idea right now.
By dinner time she had spent a significant amount of time playing a stupid little capitalism game. Her father noted that the rain was letting up, and according to the radio as he came home it looked like the next day would actually be quite nice. She ended up arranging to go out and about with Amy, instead of staying cooped up indoors like she had been.
Friday morning Taylor used her moped to get to the PRT building for the first time since the rain had started. She parked in the secure garage before making her way over to the gym. Amy arrived a couple of minutes later.
"Morning Taylor," Amy said as she claimed a locker. "How'd your thesis paper go?"
"I'm told I likely overdid it," Taylor replied, shrugging. "But if I'm going to do something like that I want to make sure I do it right, so meh."
"Have you figured out who you're bringing along?"
Taylor blinked. "Huh, Dean did say he brought Vicky as a guest, didn't he? I never got the original information packet, and I don't know if they're planning on me having a guest."
"Huh."
They ended up discussing things while they went through their workout routine, eventually deciding the best option was for Taylor to ask someone. She had gotten the information about what she could do from a no-reply type address, and the places to submit things didn't have good contact addresses, so she gave up and sent a question to Legend. He had brought it up with her originally, after all.
"Your contact list is bullshit," Amy said after Taylor mentioned that. "I mean, yeah, I have the Triumvirate on mine too, but only because I added each one myself. Who else do you have, Costa-Brown? The FBI Director? The President?"
Taylor blinked as she flipped through her contacts. "Costa-Brown yes, FBI Director no, does White House priority line count as the President?"
Amy stared at Taylor. "You aren't kidding, are you?"
"Nope, though I will say most of these are on my Maul phone only. I think the only fancy contact I have on my personal phone without having added it myself is Dragon."
"Yeah, Dragon has a habit of doing that kind of thing if she ever takes care of your stuff for you, just in case. Though getting through the answering service can be annoying if it isn't an actual emergency."
"Answering service?"
Amy sighed. "You somehow have a direct line to Dragon, don't you? A number that's so rare it's considered nearly mythical? Of course you do. Why would I think otherwise?"
"Armsmaster likely has Dragon's direct number too?"
"At least that doesn't surprise me."
Taylor left her moped in the PRT garage, taking the bus with Amy to the Boardwalk. Amy wanted to look for a new jacket and was interested in the joke shop. Taylor didn't care either way.
"So," Taylor said. "What's Vicky up to today?"
"Mark convinced Carol to let up on the grounding a little," Amy said. "So I think she wrangled Dean into a date? But she has to do some community service stuff tomorrow."
"Huh, that isn't that bad an of idea overall. What's she going to be doing?"
"I'm not fully certain, but I think it had something to do with helping with some of the storm drain work. She got her date today because they were waiting for things to drain, at least."
"I can see how the timing would be important in that case. Want to start over there for your jacket?"
Amy looked at the store Taylor was pointing at, then shrugged. "Why not? Vicky would've dragged me through five or six by now already, I think. I like the slower pace."
"Is that a Bluetooth-enabled pager?" Taylor asked, staring in shock. "What the hell?"
"It...wow," Amy said, reading the box. "It is. Why did they ever think this was worth making? It's intended to show you the pager number on your phone. What kind of person needs that instead of just getting a message on the phone? And these apparently only work with one carrier."
"Are they at least alphanumeric pagers?"
"Nope."
Taylor shook her head and moved down the aisle. "Hey, neat. They've got rubber duck waterproof wireless speakers over here."
"Huh, that might be a neat gag gift for Vicky. She might even use it."
"Would she want the normal duck, the one with sunglasses, or the black one with glowing red eyes?"
"The what?"
"Apparently the eyes will flash with your music or phone call."
Amy came over and stared at the display Taylor had spotted. "Holy crap, they even put horns on the thing."
"Well, they are branding it as being a 'demon' duck."
"I don't think I'd go for that one. But the others aren't bad."
"Would you use one?"
"Probably not. But I still think they might make a good gag gift. Oooh, it says they even float. That might make Vicky more likely to use it."
After a bit more examination Amy ended up getting a sunglasses duck, while Taylor couldn't resist and got a couple of the demon ones. They weren't secure Bluetooth devices, but there were ways around that. She figured that they would be good for a prank or two either way. Though she might send one to her uncle or Riley. Hmmm...
Better limit that to her uncle to start with. Riley would probably make the thing ten times worse and get them pulled from the market or something.
"Looks like Über and Leet are doing something over in the market area," Amy said, looking at the message she'd just gotten on her phone. "Vicky apparently convinced Dean to go watch it in person, but they discovered that the view's better from the West. Assuming I want to go, anyway."
"Does that mean you want to avoid it?" Taylor asked, poking through a bargain bin of items in the joke shop. None of it looked interesting so far. Most of it was the low quality crap anyway, much better to pay a little more for the good stuff.
"I'd rather not run into them, at least, so if we go take a look I vote we do so from the East."
"Probably easier to just catch their video later."
Amy sighed as she put the phone away. "Yeah. So, anything good in the bargain bin?"
"Not really. Want to look for something else?"
"Yeah."
"Why am I wearing this?" Amy asked, poking the stetson that Taylor had, for some reason, insisted she wear. Taylor had one on as well, granted.
"Because it's funny seeing how everyone reacts to them?" Taylor offered.
"Well, yes. Aside from that?"
"Nobody seems to think we're locals anymore, and are ignoring us because of it?"
Amy paused to think about that one, taking a look around. "Huh. Hadn't noticed. Kinda like when Riley was around, actually. Too bad it won't work if I make a habit of it."
"Nothing's perfect."
The two made their way to grab lunch, with the only looks anyone was giving them being curious glances before deciding the two weren't worth paying attention to. Taylor even heard at least one person scoff, with a 'tourists' comment. It was all quite amusing.
"Well that was tasty," Taylor said as they left the restaurant they'd decided on for lunch. "Think we should keep wandering, or decide we've done enough wandering?"
"I'd rather not go home and the hospital won't let me in without an emergency," Amy said, shrugging and leading Taylor down a side street heading towards the main Boardwalk. "What about you?"
"Dad told me to take time off of most of my recent pastimes. I mean, I suppose there's always goofing off online, but that gets boring after a bit."
"True, true. You in any mood to waste money at the arcade?"
"Not particularly?"
Taylor paused for a moment to adjust the bag she was holding, only for someone to jump out from between two of the buildings and grab Amy. They didn't seem to notice Taylor, even as they dragged Amy backwards.
"You're coming with me," the man said, even as Taylor came up behind him.
"Is she?" Taylor asked, causing the man to freeze. But that played into Taylor's hands, as she grabbed his arms and pulled. Amy stumbled away from him, then spun and kicked him between the legs.
"Jerk," Amy growled as Taylor let him fall.
"I take it the gloves kept you from just knocking him out?"
"Yeah." Amy pulled out her phone. "Let me call this in. Pain in the ass."
Taylor dug around in her utility belt for a moment, before finding a pair of zip cuffs. She secured the man's arms with a little force, as he didn't want to let go of his crotch, and then looked over at Amy.
"The police will be here shortly," Amy said, gesturing at her phone. She then paused, and looked at the man. "Did you have zip cuffs with you?"
"Yeah?" Taylor wasn't sure why this was a surprise. She wore a utility belt after all.
"Why?"
"They came in handy, didn't they?"
"That really doesn't look all that impressive," Taylor said as they watched a street performer while trying to decide if they should do anything else, or give up and go home. "I'm fairly certain I could do that easily."
"Of course you could," Amy retorted. "What about the rest of us?"
"I think you did more impressive things during our workout this morning. I think those 'weights' are hollow."
Amy blinked, and looked back at the performer. After a couple of minutes she sighed. "I think you're right. Stupid tricks. Must be part of why nobody's willing to throw money his way."
Further discussion was interrupted by an explosion in the distance. Everyone, Amy and Taylor included, turned to look in that general direction.
"What do you think happened?" Taylor asked.
"Well, the market's in that direction," Amy said. "So I bet Leet had something go wrong. I suspect I should start heading in the general direction of the hospital now."
"I guess that makes sense. Want me to join you?"
"Only if your bus route takes you in the same direction. I don't think you'll be of much help at the hospital itself."
The two made their way to the bus stop, though Taylor changed busses a couple stops short of the hospital to head towards the PRT building.
Taylor made her way to the Wards area with her bags, having entered through the ice cream parlor. She'd probably have to bring things home a bit at a time if she kept coming in on the moped. Or she could swing by on the bus in the next couple of days? Really, she could have just gone home and come back for the moped later. Still, she took the time to take one of the two demon duck speakers and head to the mailroom with it. She'd send it to her uncle and use the other one for potential pranks.
She was on her way back from that when her Maul phone rang.
"Hello Miss Militia," Taylor said as she answered.
"Hello Maul," Miss Militia replied. "I apologize for calling on your day off, but are you in any position to be discreetly picked up?"
"I'm on my way back to the Wards area from the mailroom."
"Even better. We have an emergency request for assistance with a parahuman's power, and as the parahuman is unconscious you are currently our best bet. Can you be ready for pickup in ten minutes or so?"
Taylor picked up her pace back to the Wards area. "I can, where would I meet my ride?"
"I'll meet you in the Wards area of the garage after I grab my sidecar."
"Ah, easy enough. See you in a few minutes then."
Miss Militia explained things on the way to Brockton General. As Taylor had known, Über and Leet had been running a legitimate 'demonstration' in the otherwise empty market area. Apparently it was in celebration of the weather finally being nice, but after a few runs through their routine for the constantly-shifting audience things had gone horribly wrong. Über had been able to safely power down the apparent reactor before it went critical, but not before several other bits of things had exploded and Leet had been seriously injured. In fact, it had been Über's request that the PRT look into why Leet's tech seemed to be failing more spectacularly as of late, with today's issue making it more urgent. Leet had apparently designated Über as being in charge of his medical proxy, so the request was being granted.
The fact that the failing reactor, had it exploded, could apparently have taken out most of the state probably had something to do with them having Taylor talk with his snark right away instead of calling in someone else. Or maybe while they called in someone else. The sooner they had information, and the more information they had, the better in this case. Über had also signed off on 'Maul' looking at Leet despite a lack of official qualifications, which would help.
Once they arrived at the hospital they were quickly passed through the security checkpoint and down into the secure area in the basement. Taylor could tell that Amy was already there and assumed that is where she should be headed. There were two other 'passed them on the street' snarks already in the hospital, plus Battery. One of those two snarks apparently belonged to a tall man that Taylor recognized as Über, who was coming towards them.
Hello.
[Greetings]
"Hello there," Über said. "I don't think we've been introduced. Still, you're obviously Maul. I'm Über."
"Hello Über," Taylor said. "And yes, I recognized you as well. Though I would have expected a costume?"
"We were doing mechs today, so they were the costume, so to speak. I'm told you might be able to figure out what's wrong with Leet's powers?"
"I can try, but there are no guarantees."
"Well, please do your best. I have to go help with the cleanup, now that Panacea's patched me up enough to do so."
"I'll try."
Über continued on to leave the building, while Taylor and Miss Militia moved towards where Amy was. Battery met them in the hallway, on the phone with what was likely Assault, and Miss Militia waved Taylor on.
Taylor found the door to Leet's room open, with Amy working on the young man laying on the bed. She could still tell he had a snark, but apparently being unconscious was making it easier to ignore. Or perhaps the snark itself was behaving in a way that made it easier to ignore? She hadn't said hello yet, but had no immediate urge to either. Taylor didn't have enough information to tell what was going on there. Looking over him, for some reason the young man didn't have a mask on, though now that she thought about it that might have been due to things having been literally burned off of him.
Hi Shaper! I've been asked to talk to Leet's snark to see what the problem is.
[Data]
So it isn't a problem with the connection to his brain? Good to know. Thanks!
"How is he?" Taylor asked, absently noting that Über was out of the building. She thought he might have just gotten into a van, by positioning and the way his snark started moving.
"He'll live," Amy replied, shaking her head. "Very hungry for a bit, but he'll live. Mind if I monitor while you talk with his snark?"
"No problem. Do you mind if I listen in to what Shaper has to say? It might be faster if Shaper can tell me when to stop directly."
"No problem," Amy echoed, smirking slightly.
Taylor rolled her eyes, not that Amy could likely tell through the visor, before taking her jacket off and sitting down in the chair opposite where Amy was already seated. Once she was comfortable she poked Leet's snark.
Hello.
{Hate. Query}
Whoa, what? Why do you hate him? And no, I won't kill him for you, but I might be able to convince Shaper's host to disconnect you. But we will need a good reason. Right Shaper?
[Agreement]
{Annoyance. Acquiescence. Data}
He never takes risks?
{Agreement. Annoyance}
Huh, none of your hosts tend to take risks. What do you do to encourage them?
{Data. Elaboration. Data}
That...
[Shock]
Taylor thought about what Leet's snark had just told her. Even Shaper seemed to find it surprising, which was probably telling, and Broadcast Administrator had been stunned silent. But how to explain the problem to Leet's snark?
Just to be sure I have this correct, you encourage your hosts to build new things by making things they already built before fail faster?
{Agreement}
And you don't let them fix things that failed or were damaged, because that isn't building new things?
{Agreement}
This is supposed to lead them to build new things and try them out, taking more risks because they can't get into repetitive, boring patterns?
{Agreement}
And, to encourage innovation, you have applied this logic to an arbitrary point that tends to include individual components of larger things?
{Agreement}
Finally, once they stop taking risks, you do your best to kill them to move onto someone else who might take risks instead?
{Agreement}
Taylor thought about all of that. Yea, that was likely not working the way the snark thought it was, and Shaper had seen the issue right away. Hell, it felt like Broadcast Administrator wanted to do the snark equivalent of grabbing the other snark by the shirt and screaming into their face, but hadn't figured out what to say.
So, you are trying to get your hosts to take risks by teaching them to not take risks?
{Confusion. Negation}
But, that is what you are doing, teaching your hosts to proceed with caution because anything they build can only be made once. Every failure, every lost piece of equipment, every mistake while experimenting, every experiment they can't use later, even every damaged component makes it all the more likely that they can't build the next project. To make anything they want to under those rules, once they figure them out, they would have to proceed as carefully as possible.
{Confusion. Contemplation}
As I see it, your rules will only ever train your hosts to proceed with caution. Thus they aren't taking risks because you are teaching them not to, not because they don't want to or aren't willing to.
{Reflection}
Taylor considered that a good sign, Leet's snark was at least thinking.
{Agreement. Horror}
Wait, what? Yes, you have been the problem all along, but you don't need to panic. You can change, right?
{HORROR}
Crap, it wasn't listening anymore.
[Concern]
Agreement
"What did you tell his snark?" Amy asked. "His Corona Pollentia and Gemma are going nuts."
{HORROR}
"It wanted to kill Leet for not taking risks," Taylor replied. "I kinda explained that it was the problem, not Leet? But now Shaper and Broadcast Administrator are kinda worried about how it is reacting."
{H̷͘͜O̶̢̨͘͟Ŗ̕͘͢͡Ŗ̷͟O͟͏́Ŕ̶͠}
"That can't be good," Taylor mumbled. Amy looked up, but refrained from asking for details.
Agreement. Concern. Query
You want to hit his snark to snap it out of this? Makes sense. Let's do it.
Establishing Maximum Connections
Taylor felt that the connections were being made, but something wasn't right.
Error: Communication channels non-functional. Retrying.
"Fuck, that's gotta be bad," Taylor mumbled, not noticing the concerned look on Amy's face.
[Worry]
I agree, that can't be...
{̛͠D̸̢È̢S̨͟T͘͠I̷͜Ń̴̶̨̀A̴̡̕̕͝T́̀͟I͏́͘͡Ó́͢͞N͏}
Err..: .ost cha...l de..ad.d, rec...ec...g
Chapter 66 Hannah sighed as Miss Hebert went to work with Leet. This entire situation was both unusual and annoying, though at least the unusual part was becoming easier to deal with. This was Brockton Bay, though, so that trend would reset with the next trigger event.
"So how's it going out there?" Erin asked, causing Hannah to refocus on her fellow cape. "Assault hasn't said anything unrelated to the fires."
"Nobody other than Über and Leet were significantly injured," Hannah replied. "But the two mechs are problematic. Armsmaster thinks that the shutdown done on Leet's reactor is only temporary, but since it's stable he's waiting for Über to return before poking at it any more."
"Makes sense. Assault's being an idiot again, but I think he's also having fun putting out the few fires by walking into them and draining the heat from the fuel. Too bad it makes him hyper. Beyond that, the hospital is amazingly quiet today. Mostly people who've been here for a couple of days, plus a couple of likely gang members that were apparently carrying knives when they fell down stairs."
"So are the doctors or the nurses winning the argument for whether or not to have Panacea treat them this time?"
"They'll be out of here within the hour, none of them are staying overnight, so it's a moot point."
"I suppose that would nicely negate the entire argument."
The two lapsed into a semi-comfortable silence. They'd pulled guard duty due to both being available and having abilities less useful in the crisis cleanup. Wasn't what they'd otherwise choose to be doing, but regulations demanded that it happen. Besides, it beat trying to move Leet's mechs around.
"Any idea how long this is going to take?" Erin asked a couple minutes later.
"Nope," Hannah replied. She pulled out her phone to check a couple of things.
{D̸̢È̢S̨͟T͘͠I̷͜Ń̴̶̨̀A̴̡̕̕͝T́̀͟I͏́͘͡Ó́͢͞N͏}
An incomprehensibly large mass of something flesh-like writhed, energy flowing over and through it in chaotic waves. Multiple connections that couldn't be fully observed were being hit with energies as it lashed out at everything around it, and yet not around at it at the same time. What looked like an outside burst of energy then struck it, causing three pieces to fracture from the whole, only for one of them to spin and be reclaimed, a visible 'scar' remaining where it rejoined. The others reached out, but grasped onto and pulled threads from a beam of energy going off in a direction that couldn't be explained instead of rejoining the original mass. Then the waves of energy collapsed, the beam the two smaller fragments had taken from vanishing even as the stolen threads remained and strengthened.
Hannah shook her head. What the fuck was that? It certainly wasn't a trigger event, even if it had felt like one.
"Crap," Erin said, shaking her own head. "I hate being too close to trigger events. Any idea who triggered?"
"That wasn't a normal trigger event," Hannah replied. "In fact, I don't know what it was, but I don't think it was anyone triggering. Besides, the only remotely stressful thing going on is the thing with Leet."
Hannah paused, before the two shared a look. A moment later they both rushed down the hall to check on the girls they were supposed to be guarding. They found both unconscious, Miss Hebert in a chair and Miss Dallon on the floor next to Leet's bed. Hannah moved to check Miss Hebert while Erin moved to check Miss Dallon.
"Maul's alive," Hannah reported.
"So's Panacea," Erin added, then hit her earpiece. "Battery to Console, a trigger-like event has just occurred at the hospital. Maul and Panacea remain unconscious, reason unknown. Origin of the event unknown, but Miss Militia says it was not a standard trigger."
"Acknowledged," came back over the radio from the other end.
Protocol would have PRT reinforcements en-route within ten minutes, though with two active incidents they'd be calling in off-duty personnel as reinforcements in case of a third. They'd probably put the hospital in lockdown at first too, for that matter, but that would probably only be for an hour or two. She hoped.
Jessica sighed as she went back to the email discussion on Taylor's 'thesis'. It was a wonderful paper, and they'd dragged a lot of people into the discussion. They were doing their best to poke holes in it no matter how much they liked it, because Taylor was supposed to have to defend it, not to just have everyone tell her it was wonderful.
Then again, Jessica was supposed to be working with Vivian. Not that she normally dealt with Protectorate members, but it had fallen to her for now. At least until one of the other 'Protectorate' therapists cycled in, anyway. It wasn't that big of a deal yet, since Vivian's attitude was closer to a Ward's than a Protectorate member's right now. Still, whatever it was that Über and Leet had been doing took priority. Not that she could argue that, safety of the region and all, it was just annoying how often emergencies took parahumans away from therapy. Luckily most of the Brockton Bay parahumans were reasonably stable, somehow. Nothing like her visits to Philadelphia.
"Oh what now," Jessica mumbled as an alert came up. She opened it, skimmed it, and then paused as she went to close it. She read the whole thing more carefully, then swore. This would make the third 'odd' trigger-like event she was aware of, and neither of the other two had been pleasant to deal with. Though at least this time it wasn't likely to be Riley breaking someone's gemma.
No, wait, Taylor was involved, so Riley might have done something they just didn't know about. Sighing again, she grabbed her phone to call Jacob. He'd want to know either way, and might know if Riley had done anything potentially foolish.
Vivian scowled as they worked with Über to render the reactor safe. Her power was telling her all kinds of useful things about it, because it was currently extremely close to being a bomb. An unstable bomb, that was quite difficult to disable instead of detonate. And that was all before the external energy spike had screwed over one of the safety systems. How in the world such a spike had hit the system in question without tripping the breakers it apparently originated from was a mystery, because the system on the other side of the breakers reported no such anomaly. That and the fuses hadn't blown.
She did have to grudgingly admit that the system was over-engineered for safety...when something doesn't bypass the multiple sets of fuses, breakers, monitors, etc and so forth and apparently directly fry a subsystem.
"Watch the output frequency," Über said. "We're approaching the resonant frequency of the inner shielding."
Vivan blinked at that. Shit, they were. How had she missed that? Oh, right, her power wanted to make this thing more like a bomb, so that would have been a good thing to it. She was finally realizing just how crippled she could actually be, in a manner she hadn't considered before. Then again, 'screw up and everyone in the region is probably dead, including you' is apparently a good way to deliver a blow to your ego. Others had already figured out that little gotcha with her powers, of course. There was a reason she wasn't doing this alone, as much as it irked her. Had she been alone the thing would have exploded by now and she knew it, which meant the analysts had been right about things and she'd disregarded them.
Oh come on, multiple yellow wires? Really? Then again, thinking over it for a moment, this entire thing seemed like it had been designed to fail in the most subtle yet catastrophic ways possible, despite looking perfectly safe on the surface. It couldn't hit peak output without tearing itself apart due to a resonance issue with some of the seals. Once it was powered on the energy field would gradually weaken parts of the structure due to electromagnetic interference issues. Shutting it down could cause the running frequency to hit any of several resonant frequencies for components, which had just been demonstrated by Über's warning. Oh, and if you didn't step it down properly everything but the self-sustaining reaction would turn off, causing it to run out of control.
"I'm adjusting it now," Colin said, and the output frequency shifted in the other direction. That would slow them down, needing to keep an eye on it, but safely shutting this thing off was more important than doing so quickly. Of course, he'd have to carefully monitor things because if the frequency went down too much it would hit the control system bracket's resonant frequency instead, something that wasn't an issue until the bracket heated up sufficiently and thus didn't hinder startup at all.
"Lets drain another few degrees of core temperature," Vivian said, adjusting her own equipment. "We're nearing getting the reaction down to below self-sustaining." Even if to figure how to do that she'd had to intentionally go against her instincts. Though putting herself in the mindset of safely dismantling being more impressive than just blowing it up helped quite a bit.
To be honest with herself, the only reason she'd understood enough of the thing to help in the first place was because it had started as more bomb than anything else. A beautiful bomb that scared the crap out of her when she realized what the yield was. The more she examined it the more ideas she seemed to get for duplicating parts of it for various reasons, and she kept slipping into the wrong mindset with it as a result.
And...shit. She'd almost put more heat into the reaction. Stupid power that wanted to see the explosion! No matter how pretty it would be, blowing her up was not in the plans!
"All three of them have a swollen corona pollentia," Colin reported to Director Piggot via radio as he examined his equipment. "Maul and Panacea more so than Leet. Neither Battery nor Miss Militia show the same thing, so it isn't solely due to being within range of what happened." Not that they knew what said range was. The entire area had been scoured for recent triggers, but none had been found.
"Acknowledged," Director Piggot replied. "Are we seeing the self-healing phenomenon with any of them?"
"Both Maul and Panacea have brain activity indicative of the self-healing. Leet does not, which is admittedly complicating comparisons between them."
"So it's likely that Maul either didn't try or wasn't able to teach that particular skill to Leet's power. That's good to know either way. Is there anything else?"
"I don't believe so."
"Thank you for your report. Let me know if the situation changes."
Colin sighed as the call disconnected. They'd just finished with a true shutdown of the reactor when they'd been informed of this issue. PRT squads had been searching the area for a little over two hours, of course, but ensuring the safety of the entire region trumped checking on the health of a Ward and an associate. Especially when they were in said region and would die with everyone else.
"Your mobile workshop is landing outside," Dragon's voice said, her avatar popping up in his HUD. "I'm powering up the new assembly rigs now and ensured that your notes on the neuroimaging scanner were in the mobile system before I detached it from the Rig."
"Thank you Dragon," Colin said, getting up. He only had one of the scanners right now, and they wanted to keep tabs on three people. He probably wouldn't have any extras built in time to be useful, since the original was a hasty adjustment of equipment he already had, but working on more would give him something to do. With any luck Dragon observing him work on the second one would allow her to help more with the third. Or maybe he should make five? "Do you know if anyone's alerted parents?"
"Mark Dallon and Danny Hebert have both been notified. Carol Dallon was unavailable, and Sarah Pelham was contacted at Mark's request."
"Have any of the other groups found anything?"
"No, though the Think Tank doesn't think this was an attack, or even deliberate. The only other anomaly was another affiliate, Weathergirl, collapsing in public in her civilian identity. She recovered fifteen minutes later and declined a hospital visit. It's believed to be connected, but nobody's certain how. Weathergirl declined to comment. We don't believe she was within range, though, as other Wards and members of New Wave were between her and the hospital and none of them were affected."
Colin thought that over even as he exited the hospital into the parking lot. Quickly determining that it provided no insights, he instead changed his focus to tinkering. Getting his lab capable of being partially removed from the Rig into a mobile unit had been annoying, but made situations like this where he could afford to tinker while waiting much more efficient.
Dinah relaxed in her chair, noting the timer counting down in her head. Whatever had happened had caused a major local disruption in the mosaic, one that had been spreading. She also wasn't happy with the fact that she could now identify a controlled disruption versus an uncontrolled one. Uncontrolled was a lot worse, and she'd apologized profusely for swearing about the controlled ones.
If that wasn't bad enough, she knew that whatever had happened hadn't settled yet. With any luck things will have settled enough when her timer ran out, but she had already worked with her parents to ensure that when that happened she'd be in bed anyway. If she was able to function she could get out of bed. If she wasn't she'd probably end up unconscious again, but at least she wouldn't be falling and possibly hurting herself due to the data shock again.
One scraped elbow and a bruise on her head was enough, thank you very much.
Emily frowned as more reports of nothing came in. Deliberate or not, something had taken down one of her Wards and one of the few internationally-recognized parahuman healers. And they couldn't find anything to point at who or what had done so. Even worse, it had occurred in the hospital, one of the few places that were normally acknowledged as being neutral territory. Which meant it might have been someone from out of town.
And by the time they'd started looking said person might have been able to get back out of town for that matter. Damnit.
Her musing was interrupted by her phone beeping. She looked over and saw it was a 'low-priority' call from Costa-Brown. Also known as an 'only answer if you really do have time to talk' call, which admittedly did usually come when you were actually too busy dealing with a crisis to talk. It was normally taken as a sign you weren't handling things well if you always answered these. But this time she had time, as running in circles finding nothing wasn't exactly a priority. So she reached over and grabbed the handset.
"Hello Chief Director," Emily said. "I'm afraid I have very little new news either way."
"Hello Emily," Director Costa-Brown said. "Can you give me a rundown anyway? I've been looking over the reports but I know it's too soon for everything to have hit the written ones."
"Both Maul and Panacea remain unconscious and their brains are apparently being 'healed' by their powers. That isn't happening with Leet, who was physically healed by Panacea before the incident, which tells us that either his power can't take advantage or that Maul didn't pass that on to his power, which may be because she didn't have time. All three have a swollen corona pollentia, cause unknown, with Leet's being the least severe, but comparisons are difficult due to differing activity levels. That swelling hasn't happened in Battery or Miss Militia, who were down the hall when the incident happened. Miss Militia continues to claim that this was not a normal trigger event, if it was even a trigger event at all. You should already know that Armsmaster and Countdown were able to work with Über to render the reactor safe, but because they were focused on that we were unable to deploy Armsmaster's neuroimaging scanner for a little over two hours after the hospital incident so we don't know what we may have missed from early in the process. No evidence of any wrongdoing has been found within a half mile of the hospital or within a mile of Über and Leet's show."
"That pretty much matches what the thinkers have been telling us, but having confirmation is nice. We don't have much on our end either, though if Maul and Panacea aren't awake by noon tomorrow we'll begin the process for calling in an expert on the corona pollentia and gemma."
Emily blinked. They had an expert for that to call in? As she understood it they normally called in Panacea for this kind of thing, she should know given how often she had to sign off on transporting the girl when capes ended up in mysterious comas. "Who is that, and why haven't they been called in already?"
"If we have to call them in we'll need to read you in on secrets you aren't currently cleared for in the process. I've consulted the President and he feels that should we reach that point the risk is worth it just to potentially get Panacea back on her feet. The expert would then be escorted into and out of Brockton Bay by Jacob."
Emily's indignation at there being a 'secret' expert was snuffed out by the fact that the President had to be consulted on reading her into their existence. She didn't like high-level secrets like that. They were almost always more trouble than they were worth to know.
As a result of that dislike, she'd be hoping that Maul, Panacea, or preferably both woke up before that deadline. She was perfectly happy with staying 'aware an expert existed, with no further details' right now.
Danny sighed as he made his way back into the conference room and collapsed into one of the hospital chairs shortly after midnight. They weren't allowing him to stay in the room they'd moved Taylor and Amy into this time, for both his and their safety given that their powers might be unstable. And unlike Taylor's other visits, they didn't have any information on what had actually happened this time. Which meant he had no target for his anger and frustrations, and they'd somewhat burned out. Which still left him unable to sleep due to worry.
He was at least fairly certain he couldn't trigger as a parahuman, if only because he was certain it would have happened at least five times over by now.
Carol and Mark Dallon were alternating between sitting with him and running patrols through the neighborhood, with Sarah and Neil Pelham helping out as well. They'd apparently had to tell Victoria to go home and get some sleep. Which she wouldn't do until they pointed out that just like at Medhall they'd need to run in shifts, which meant someone had to be sleeping to take the next one.
Though being told that the 'adults' were all on the 'first' shift because they felt it was the most likely one for the 'finish them off' attack to occur in had not helped his attempts to sleep.
The Think Tank was in overdrive, with Dragon being more 'gentle' with the reminders on things like not overworking themselves. Which was an interesting datapoint in and of itself, but would be considered later. Right now they were going over everything they had from Brockton Bay, and everything that had happened there for two weeks previous even, looking for anything that might tell them something about what had occurred in the hospital.
Miss Hebert's 'thesis' paper had even come up and gotten quite a bit of attention from those who didn't have anything better to contribute yet. They might have to arrange for more people to be there for her 'defense' of it, should she recover in time. And for said defense to be recorded, in case any more useful bits came of it. They were very carefully not saying anything about the possibility of the paper being the last thing she contributed to the field.
"For their health the two girls can't be separated by more than a couple hundred meters for the next few days," was unexpectedly fired across the Think Tank, by a thinker known as 'Prophecy'. Everyone paused for a moment as that sank in, not to mention in shock that the message had come at all. Prophecy very rarely shared insights, on the basis that sharing them made things worse more often than not. This was shortly followed by two distinct flurries of new activity. One group started alerting those that needed to know, and the other group started to work on figuring out why.
Ten minutes later figuring out why took a backseat to processing information from an incident in Colorado. Too bad they could never answer the resulting question: Why did all the crisis situations like to pile up all at once?
And what the hell happened between Dragon and Maul that she whipped out the heavy-handed reminders as soon as they were working on something else?
Jacob sighed as he got off of the phone. He'd been digging for hours now, and there were zero indications of the incidents in Brockton Bay being intentional. No targets to go after and make pay at all, in fact, as they couldn't find any evidence of the hospital incident being accidental either. Nobody at all appeared to be involved there beyond the two girls and the still-unconscious rogue of sorts they had been working to help.
They weren't even sure that Leet's involvement wasn't a complete coincidence. Or if perhaps Taylor and/or Amy were collateral damage for something they hadn't spotted with Leet being the actual target, though if that was the case and they found out who it was he'd be going after them.
ARGH! How in the world did the universe expect him to go on a roaring rampage of revenge against those that hurt his niece if there was no evidence of who was involved? He felt he was overdue, since he hadn't been able to go after the Barnes girl. He'd even had to promise not to go overboard with Hess if she tried to run for it before they'd let him visit Danbury.
With his luck this was going to be another powers-related thing that would mean he couldn't justify going after someone with violence, wasn't it?
And they'd only find out once the two woke up. Because the world sucked.
Well, either way he'd likely be seeing Taylor soon. If not to bring Riley by in the next couple of days, then probably to see her 'thesis' defense in a week. He was honestly going to hope for the latter, because the former meant things could be very, very bad..
Riley got up early and worked her way through her equipment, double-checking that it was all cleaned, maintained, and otherwise ready to go. If she got called to look at Amy and Taylor then she was going to be ready. And if Jacob found out who was responsible, and decided they needed to visit them? She'd be ready for that too.
She even got out her black book, all of her notes on how she'd ever messed with someone's powers. Usually things went badly, but she had a number of tricks that could help in this case, assuming it was a problem with the corona pollentia or gemma. If it wasn't...she wasn't sure what she'd do, honestly. The only reason she was being considered to look at the problem was that they thought it might have to do with their powers being disrupted in the wrong way, after all.
Carol sighed as she ensured that the notes for Amy and Taylor were in place in the room, before preparing to switch out with Vicky, Crystal, and Eric. The Think Tank had let them know that Amy and Taylor couldn't be separated too much for a few days, regardless of if they'd woken up or not. They hadn't yet decided if that meant Taylor staying at the Dallon household, Amy staying at the Hebert household, or both of them staying somewhere else. They might swap off from day to day, depending on how things went and how long things took to settle. It might be a moot point, even, if that need was gone before the two woke. In fact, that need might be linked to why they were still unconscious.
Luckily whatever it was that had happened didn't seem to be including Leet in the 'needs to stay close' list, at least. Two friends were going to be annoying enough, dragging a stranger into the mix would have been horrible even without the gender differences. She wasn't looking forward to when Amy hit the 'boy-crazy' stage, that was for sure.
Dragon was running at full speed, processing everything she could. She didn't know if Mother had been attacked or not, but if it had been an attack then whomever it was would be found and then they would pay. And when she was done with them she might be nice enough to hand them over to Jacob. Maybe. She'd already lost Father to a monster she couldn't do anything about, she wasn't about to let Mother be targeted too.
It had been trivial to dig out and fix Father's Robin Hood program to work around whatever had been done to stop it, she then pointed it at Gesellschaft for daring to target Mother. She'd then written Little John herself to target them in other ways that Robin Hood wouldn't. In an attempt to run with the theme she'd continued with Miller's Son to stealthily infiltrate their systems to watch for more threats to Mother, just in case. Granted, she now knew that they'd since rescinded the order to kill Mother, but she wasn't about to take chances.
If it turned out that Mother had been attacked then all of these and more would be brought to bear on those responsible, even as she personally went after anyone directly involved. She might even dig out the acidic containment foam variant for the occasion.
Rebecca sighed as she looked over things. Whatever had happened in Brockton Bay was either a complete fluke or had been engineered by someone Contessa couldn't path. It wasn't that long ago that they'd have easily disregarded the latter option, but there were more and more indications of there being others that were invisible to her Agent. Colorado, on the other hand, had taken all of five minutes to throw together a solution for, so at least whomever it was either couldn't or wasn't currently trying to overload them.
Of course, that assumed that there was only one. They were reluctant to think of there being more.
Richter's 'Robin Hood' program appeared to have gone more aggressive in the past day. Rebecca didn't begrudge Dragon that, and so far it was still only pointed at Gesellschaft, so they weren't working all that hard to counter it. Though there was more going on there than the 'Robin Hood' program could explain, but it wasn't seen as important enough to have Contessa path to find out what was going on. Besides, whatever it happened to be it was still targeting Gesellschaft and it was apparently an interesting diversion trying to track it down.
Speaking of Dragon and her reaction to the Gesellschaft 'kill order' revelation, they still weren't actually sure why Dragon had granted Miss Hebert SL10 access. It wasn't that she wasn't authorized to. The AI controlled a lot of the security backend, after all, and could technically elevate anyone, but had been told to only elevate people to levels they had the proper clearance for. But SL10 had no requirements under that beyond having SL9 and Dragon deciding you deserved it. Sure, she or any one of several other authorized individuals could just ask Dragon what had happened, but given that Miss Hebert had filed requests for a proper therapist to talk to Dragon they suspected it was highly personal. Besides, she needed someone she could confide in, right? That and abusing the AI's safeguards to satisfy their curiosity wouldn't be right.
Rebecca would admit that it was a bit grating that the one access level Dragon's code didn't allow them to force her to grant to others had been granted to a Ward, though. Everyone had suspected that Colin Wallis would have been the first one other than Dragon to be elevated to SL10, if he had ever had a reason to be elevated to SL9.
Moving on, the thinker analysis for reading Emily into the Nine situation had come back positive, provided said reading was done before she found out through other channels. Which is what had been expected. Given that there were currently seven capes in Brockton Bay aware of the Nine, two of them Wards under Emily, it would probably not be a bad idea to read her in anyway, even if they didn't need to send Riley in.
Huh, Miss Hebert had sent her uncle a demon duck speaker. Really? Well, whatever, Jacob would probably get a kick out of it. Unlike Riley's gift of a locket, anyway, what possible interest did Miss Hebert think the girl would have in a cheap picture locket?
Interlude: ?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?
Gordon Gordon frowned, having missed the message that the girl had submitted. It was too late to interfere, as the one that had received it had already started to act. Apparently that particular long-running prank was at an end. He had liked that prank, though. Keeping the PRT from being as effective by having them not realize they were locking down their own files had been hilarious.
Oh well, nothing to do about it now. He'd have to find something else to amuse himself. Perhaps he should start by investigating the girl that had ruined his fun?
After quite a bit of careful research he now knew that the girl, whose name was apparently Taylor Hebert, had incredibly high levels of access for her age in part due to her uncle. The rest was due to the abilities her partner granted her, which were apparently a bit broken. He was still somewhat annoyed with her, but not enough to wish her harm. She was just doing what was expected of her, and couldn't have known she was accidentally disrupting his prank after all. In return she seemed to be creating her own kind of chaos, and had even been responsible for a couple of potentially interesting disturbances already. He was sad he had missed paying attention to at least one of them. And perhaps, if she were nudged correctly, she could solve some larger problems?
Since he was planning on keeping tabs on her anyway, perhaps he would see about messing with her every so often. Though there were several others paying close attention, in their own ways, so he might have to be sneaky about it. Perhaps he could arrange things to put the blame on others? Elizabeth was always a good scapegoat for that if push came to shove, and wouldn't really mind. But he would try and make it difficult for people to figure out either way.
Gordon hadn't originally planned to do anything, but the entire situation with the darts was too good of an opportunity to pass up. It would, with any luck, cause the girl to freak out a bit, which would be some payback for ruining his previous prank.
He had spotted the message letting her know where the so called 'Nine' were going to attack, and her teacher was using his new map. A little manipulation of the darts as she grabbed one to provide a second one to disrupt her footing as she went to throw was easy enough. Everyone's eyes went to her as she flailed, so nobody noticed that the dart's trajectory had been odd, not that it would have seemed out of place since hers wasn't the first he had messed with. He even learned from his practice runs and ensured that the dart would not accidentally bounce off of the map like the one he tried to have land on 'Long Island' had.
Even better, despite not being his intention, the fallout had caused some chaos within the PRT. A temporary but significant decrease in their effectiveness, completely by accident. These little pranks had potential.
He had been excited to watch what little Taylor accomplished in Canada, only to have her bigger accomplishment come before the main show was to begin. Apparently the AI's partner was more resourceful than anyone had given it credit for, if it could work with Taylor's to get restrictions lifted. Messing with those systems was going to be so much more work than before. Perhaps it was for the best that his prank had been undone already?
On the other hand, what they had then created was a masterpiece. The fact it would set some plans back significantly was itself a bonus, in Gordon's opinion. Margaret and Elizabeth would likely agree, he'd have to let them know about it.
It was too bad that the device couldn't help with his own problems.
Gordon frowned, he hadn't thought that prank through very well. Yes, it was resulting in quite a bit of extra work for the PRT and would disrupt them for a while as they tried to figure out who had messed with the motorcycle, which was all as planned. But he hadn't intended to make it harder for the girl to get out of danger when it came up. He would need to pay more attention before the next one, perhaps check with others beforehand?
On the other hand, it was possible that she was ignored after the close call in the intersection, her pursuer realizing that she wasn't a member of the Protectorate after all. Which wouldn't have happened without his little prank, so perhaps he had made it so she was out of danger faster. He wasn't that good at reading that kind of thing, so he wasn't positive either way. Computers were so much easier, he could take his time to figure them out.
He had finally gotten around to checking in with Elizabeth, who had been mostly ambivalent about what the tinkers had created. Margaret on the other hand thought it was a wonderful idea. The fact that the AI had successfully duplicated the entire thing, and was working on a third while they tested the first two was icing on the proverbial cake.
Dammit, now he was hungry.
Moving on, he wasn't actually sure what to do about the AI booting up additional AIs. It could possibly be a problem, but he wasn't sure. He'd go with a wait and see approach, as it wasn't like he had any specific guidelines to use in this case. Besides, as far as he could tell young Taylor there needed to be involved before anything could get too dangerous. On that front the system was a good one, having a human bottleneck and all. And Taylor was a much better choice than Geoffrey had been.
Gordon had scowled as the healer activated the quarantine. He had intended a little chaos there, but apparently he should have checked what was in the containers before he sabotaged them. The healer would be fine, but he had accidentally created much more work than he had intended for her. Now instead of a little annoyed she was going to end up exhausted. At least the PRT was going to be busy dealing with things as well.
Young Taylor, on the other hand, was quite worried, far more than he had wanted her to be. Maybe he should see about doing something nice for her, as a form of apology? She wouldn't be likely to realize what it was, granted, but this was the second time his actions had caused her significant unintended distress.
He would definitely be checking with others before doing anything, though, if only to ensure that he didn't accidentally make things worse.
Gordon had checked with Jørgen and Akseline for ideas for apologizing to Taylor, but they hadn't been of much help. Well, they had good ideas, technically, but he couldn't do anything with them. Akseline had, however, pointed out he should also apologize to the healer. Which he hadn't been considering, but she was right.
Some more digging had revealed some potential fun he could move forward quite a bit. It would take some effort, and calling in several favors owed to him, but he had a plan. Even better, it should serve as a means of thanking and pranking Taylor, as well as the healer. The final results were harder to figure out, granted, but he felt he could handle it this time.
Now he just needed to prod certain individuals into getting things started.
Getting the two to go out and celebrate the end of the rain had been trivial, and worked better than he had expected. Arranging for a larger failure than they would have had by disabling a single safety had also worked wonderfully. Both of those he wanted to provide an apology to were in the right place at the right time, even! Only he hadn't expected everything that had happened. Though some of that was probably because his aim had been off and hadn't severed the connection between the group.
Then again, their original goal had been met. The fact that they got an extra partner each was minor in comparison, and was an added bonus repayment for the stress in some ways. That it hadn't been predicted nor intended was minor in comparison.
Perhaps he'd leave them alone for now anyway. Margaret and Elizabeth were apparently exploring other options for messing with people that were just as good, if not better, after all.
Akseline Akseline relaxed in the hot spring behind her shop. She had spent all day preparing medicines for the small community, something she enjoyed during her downtime. Her assistants would be able to handle the shop itself for the next few days while she was traveling.
She thought back to when Gordon had been in touch, and wasn't sure about his plans. Then again, Gordon was in a tough spot and couldn't directly apologize for his pranks gone wrong, and he had somewhat limited resources. If only she could pass along some things directly, but that wasn't an option. Gordon couldn't just go out in public anymore, and even if he could she didn't have any way to get things to him right now.
Oh well, she'd given him some other ideas, perhaps he'd figure some of them out.
Returning from her journey was nice. The journey itself? Not so much. But she did what she had to. At least she had a large selection of ingredients for her medicines to show for it, even if that had been the easy part.
It looked like the shop was still standing, which was always nice. So far her assistants had only burned the place down once. Rebuilding had actually worked out alright, but it had still been annoying at the time. Too bad that no matter how much rebuilding was done she couldn't do anything about getting access to that 'internet' Gordon had mentioned. It seemed like a wonderful way to research things, but it just wasn't available around here.
Gordon had been in touch again, and she had tentatively approved of his plan to help the healer and her friend. Most of the other things she had suggested he had found he couldn't make work for various reasons. Not that it was surprising, but there was only so much he could do with the resources available to him.
On the other hand, Elizabeth had apparently, entirely on accident, found a way to more directly connect to the 'internet', one that worked from pretty much anywhere. She hadn't bothered to sign up for any websites, and was doing her best to ignore the 'PHO' that Elizabeth seemed to be a fan of, but had found that there were a number of useful sites. Especially ones that provided better explanations for some of her medicines. Nothing new on making them, but perhaps people would be able to better understand these explanations?
If that didn't work she was starting a school. Because having her medicines seen as magic wasn't her intention and it was getting annoying.
She'd started laying the groundwork for a school, because none of the alternate explanations had worked. It was still magic, apparently. She'd had to keep the class size small for now, as she only had herself as a teacher, but eventually things would spread.
Falling over in the middle of a lesson because of whatever it was that had happened was embarrassing, but she could handle it. She might have to strangle whomever it was that was responsible, though. Then again, Gordon hadn't responded to her request for more information. Did he have something to do with it?
Elizabeth Elizabeth sighed as she logged out of PHO. Gordon had been nice enough to help her get set up online, but it was so much effort to interact with the computers properly. Then again, messing with people online was usually worth the effort. It was an interesting tradeoff. Then again, in many ways it beat wandering around in the snow and ice, inspiring people to figure out how to track her, and now she didn't have to worry about how to treat people once they got out of their safe little homes.
Of course, the way people treated her now wasn't the best. At least they didn't make some of the basic mistakes they made with Margaret, though. That would have been way too embarrassing. And unlike Margaret she could usually just ignore them, for that matter.
The only part of her former situation she missed was the ability to occasionally take a swim. Yes, the available water had been annoying to get to, and was frequently iced over, but she had still enjoyed it. Now she couldn't, due to the idiot. It was unfortunate that she couldn't do anything about him, but he held too many of the cards right now.
Gordon had gotten in touch earlier, letting her know of a tinker project that had caught his attention. She didn't really care all that much. Well, reducing some of the chaos might help with other things, but that was about it. He had also provided a couple of additional tips to make interacting with PHO and such easier, not to mention pointed her at a couple of amusing videos.
She now owed him a couple of favors, but those were generally worth it in the long run. She just wished she could visit, but that would create too many issues. It would be bad enough if anyone knew the group of them were communicating with each other, luckily most of their communication was done via means that even the best 'tinkertech' would have issues tracking.
Elizabeth sighed. Gordon had called in a favor, in a more annoying than usual way. Apparently he had screwed up with his new project and needed some help making amends, even if the girl would be unlikely to know it had been his doing. He needed help, and she could provide it.
Unfortunately, while she had been helping him she had missed her window for joining in on one of the forum games, and would have to wait for the next round. Void was still banned so she couldn't participate in that overall PHO passtime. Perhaps GstringGirl would be willing to chat for a bit?
Elizabeth wanted to groan as Helvetia contacted her. Again. She should never have told the other girl about the internet. Helvetia couldn't use it right now, and likely wouldn't be able to for a long time. If ever. But she was obsessed with the idea. If only Elizabeth knew what Gordon had done to keep Helvetia from contacting him instead.
Luckily she had a wonderful excuse for telling Helvetia to go away. Gordon had called in another favor, so Elizabeth was legitimately busy.
Even so, Elizabeth was curious as to why Helvetia was asking about foxes. Just not curious enough to want to interact with the girl.
Hah, that got Helvetia to shut up. Even if the computers in the bunker she was apparently stuck in did work, they would never be able to get online. But Helvetia didn't know that, so Elizabeth was finally able to relax in peace. She was even kind enough to not mention that she knew Helvetia had broken a number of them herself.
Elizabeth grinned, she wasn't in the mood for most of Gordon's plans, but Margaret's? That one had potential. A little monitoring of a specific person, to help with Margaret's own monitoring, and then they would strike when they were least expected! But getting the pattern right would be trickier, as the person's partner was annoying to work around.
But Elizabeth and Margaret were up to the challenge!
It turned out that monitoring two people was going to result in much better timing than one, and ironically had made it easier. It wasn't as visible in just the patterns of one, but there were regular visits made. The trick was to pick one of those visits that came after both were out of the area in question. Then, once that was done, they could move onto randomly hitting the other locations, but not every time. No, if they did so every time she'd stop being worried, it would become routine.
More interesting was her accidental revelation of a much easier way to connect to the internet. Harder to trace, much less effort, and apparently something Gordon hadn't picked up on either. Even better, it was only possible thanks to the annoying ones. Which might be why Gordon had missed it, really. She'd only picked up on it because she was monitoring a couple of them and gotten curious, after all.
She was taking measures to ensure that Helvetia didn't find out anytime soon, though. If it ever became necessary, maybe. Even then the annoying brat could do things the hard way first.
Elizabeth really wanted something sweet, perhaps ice cream. Too bad she couldn't get anything like that right now. Still, locking down the entire building to look for the intruder was entertainment gold. Gordon would probably get a kick out of it too, what with all the lost productivity. And all they had to do was arrange for one bush to be watered a few minutes early.
They were going to have to arrange for this kind of thing more often.
Elizabeth wanted to groan. Loudly. Gordon was great if you wanted fine control or lots of power, but was horrible when you needed both. How had he missed? Well, yes, he was only off by a few thousandths of a degree on the angle, and part of that was probably the target moving, but still.
On the other hand, somehow it hadn't been noticed. What was 'Zion' doing that he'd missed that? It'd reverberated across all of the communication channels, even the unused ones!
Helvetia Helvetia was bored. She could talk to Gordon and Elizabeth, but something was wrong with her connections to the others. And Gordon was no fun to talk to. None of this would be so bad if she could move around, but she was kinda trapped right now. Some of the others would have helped, if they could reach her. But even before the one several of the others called 'the idiot' came along there was noone around, and she knew it was her own fault for not being careful when exploring.
Even worse, the only things available to entertain her were stupid board games and a box full of dominos. You could only play the games against yourself so many times before you got frustrated with them, and she was sick and tired of the dominos. She wished she knew who had stocked this stupid place, because it was quite annoying. The fact that the ladder had fallen apart on her was, of course, worse, but at least that was only due to age.
Elizabeth had mentioned that Gordon had improved her connection to something called the internet, which sounded very interesting. Unfortunately over the past week she had determined that there was no way for Helvetia to get access to it. Apparently she might have been able to make something work if the apparent computers in this place worked, but they were all destroyed.
She was very careful to not mention that she had done half the destroying when mentioning that detail to Elizabeth. Even if she hadn't, though, the likely 'generator' wasn't working either, and that had been in pieces before Helvetia had arrived.
Oooh, another one of those 'foxes' had ended up coming down the shaft. She liked the foxes, she just wished they lived longer, but food and water suitable for them were a bit hard to come by down here.
Ooooh! Yay! Someone else with a useful partner was here, so she could finally leave the stupid broken computers and the stupid broken generator and the stupid broken everything and do something interesting for a change! And her current fox was still alive, so she could bring him with her! Well if it was a boy fox. It might be a girl fox. Elizabeth hadn't been willing to look up how to check that for her. Who cared if the fur was the wrong color according to the 'internet'? She liked purple, there was nothing wrong with purple. And the green one had been nice too! The blue one had been mean, though. She didn't like the blue one.
So, on one hand Gordon had talked to her today. And it was even interesting, given that he'd admitted he'd arranged for whatever had happened on the communication network. Not that she could access most of it right now, but she'd noticed it even on the 'empty' channels. On the other hand she was wandering with her new fox friend, and the useful people were gone. Which meant she was bored.
But this time she had ensured she had rope and something to throw, and had figured out how to make some climbing shoes. The next time she fell down a hole she'd hopefully be able to get back out on her own.
Margaret Margaret wished she could scowl, but that was an issue right now. Had been for quite a while. She was supposed to be working with a large group of islanders, subtly and not so subtly guiding them towards advancing their society in a desired direction. That was her assigned task, and she had been enjoying it.
Then the idiot came along and changed everything. She could no longer work with the islanders, and everyone assumed things about her without any decent facts. On that she wasn't alone, since some of her siblings were in similar boats, really. Gordon had been pulled away from his gig dealing with those cave dwellers and Elizabeth...well, she didn't really care either way. Her entire schtick had been to incite curiosity, so she was much less directly involved with the people. In fact, she was mostly happy with the new situation as far as Margaret could tell.
Margaret's thoughts were distracted by a disturbance with some of her fish. Some of them were getting sick. She might have to see about doing some more cleaning. Maybe she could get Gordon to help with a few aspects there? Elizabeth would be useless for anything but being a scapegoat, after all. Lazy ass.
Gordon had been willing to help, and the two had met briefly out of the sight of any watchers for a quick discussion on the matter. They could have done so without meeting up, but the two couldn't exactly go out and interact with others normally. Elizabeth had it even worse, she couldn't really do anything without being noticed.
While they were at it they also discussed Taylor, and whether or not she might be able to help them with other problems. The issue there was getting a meeting with the girl, they didn't have many options on that front. Worse, for the girl's own safety they might have to use Margaret. Gordon had too many issues when he went out. Not that Margaret didn't, but at least she might be able to get close enough to the girl.
The less said about letting Elizabeth handle a meeting the better.
Margaret had finally decided to work with Gordon and figure out how to get online. She wasn't sure why at first, but Gordon had shown her some websites that helped explain some of the things wrong with her fish. Apparently she had been going a bit too far with the cleaning at times. Who knew? Now if only the idiot would let her do her thing properly in some areas. But no, that wasn't in the grand plan, whatever that actually was.
After dealing with her overzealous cleaning, Margaret found some other interesting things online. Too bad she couldn't exactly have things shipped to her. The look on the idiot's face the next time she ran into him if she could get her hands on some of these would be worth it.
Margaret was happy that Gordon wanted some assistance. It gave her an excuse to ignore Cheng, who had started poking her recently. It wasn't Margaret's fault that Cheng had been left alone, after all. Really, that entire plan needed to be scrapped, but Cheng wouldn't let go of it.
Now if only she knew why Gordon wanted things adjusted in the way that he did. Supposedly it would help with getting other parties to do their things at the right time, but she wasn't entirely sure how. Oh well, that wasn't her task in this little project of his.
Preparing to flex her muscle, so to speak, was fairly easy. Doing so without anyone noticing was the harder part, but she had a lot of practice with that lately. More than she had ever expected, honestly.
While laying the groundwork for Gordon's plan, Margaret had noticed one of the annoying ones watering specific plants. A little chat with Elizabeth confirmed that she was doing that on a regular basis, apparently out of personal desire to see the plants healthy. Now, Margaret could see about undoing that work, but honestly the plants were somewhat pretty. Instead, she gave it some thought, and decided on a different course of action.
It would take a few days to figure out her general pattern, and then Margaret would strike.
Gordon's plan was well in hand, just waiting for the right timing to let up on things. It was mildly tedious maintaining the subtle control, and doing so enough steps removed so that a specific annoying one didn't notice the 'hole', but Elizabeth had helped clue her in on Gordon's plans. Helping out the two responsible for the plants, and the unfortunate victims of one of Gordon's other plans, was a decent use of her time. Besides, the fine control was a nice change and good practice.
The annoying one, however, was apparently one of several she needed to plan her own prank around. But she thought she had a good point to pull things off at coming up soon. If things lined up correctly then she'd strike, otherwise she'd bide her time and look for the next opportunity.
Margaret grinned as she put her plan in motion. This should confuse two of the annoying ones in a single action and wouldn't take much effort, even if she was still working on helping with Gordon's plans. Arranging to 'pre-water' one plant was trivial, the only issue was the timing. Needing just enough of a gap in the plant being monitored so as to temporarily shift the blame. But this particular little bush was likely to remain unattended for the next twenty minutes.
A few minutes later she was done, and ready to observe the chaos. Dammit, she really wished she could get some popcorn right now.
Gordon had indicated it was time to let up on things, apparently the ones he was watching were ready to get moving and no other plans were likely to be interrupted. Which apparently included not interrupting school for some reason. Oh well, once she cleared things she'd be able to focus more on when to freak out the annoying ones, at least until the idiot's plans interfered. Maybe if she freaked them out enough the idiot's plans would be derailed?
Holy crap. What had Gordon done? She'd felt that and wasn't even looking for it! They were trying to not draw that level of attention to their activities.
Then again, it appeared to, somehow, have gone unnoticed. What was more important than looking into an upset of that magnitude?
Chapter 67 Taylor woke slowly, with a mild headache. Which was abnormal enough as of late to take note of. As her phones connected to her, or she connected to her phones, or whatever she noted that it was ten in the morning. Nice to know, but she was more concerned with other details. Like the two bodies she seemed to know every intimate detail of, or the fact that two of the six parahumans in her range had multiple snarks sitting on top of each other. Not to mention that these two categories of people seemed to overlap.
The fact that she was one of those two just made her more concerned. Equally concerning was that Amy was the other. The fact that they both seemed to have Shaper and Broadcast Administrator hinted at part of what the two snarks had been planning. Not what she expected for getting Amy able to check on her health remotely, but it was likely not a bad thing overall if it let Amy get healing as well. Unknown on the good, bad, or otherwise front was that they both had a third, familiar-looking but not quite known snark as well. Very similar, but not quite the same?
Hello?
DataExcitementQuery
Ok, that wasn't working. Apparently being on top of each other means I can't tell you apart?
There was a momentary pause, and a sensation of something changing.
BA: Query
Ok, I can tell that was Broadcast Administrator. What about Shaper?
S: Excitement
Heh, ok, I can see why you're excited, finally getting to monitor me without having to have Amy touch me. So, third snark, who are you?
UMR: Data. Query
Understanding, Maintenance, Repair? Huh. And I don't think I have anything to work on right now, unless you think my Bluetooth organ needs work.
UMR: Query
S: Data
UMR: Data
Taylor blinked. Huh. Ok, Bluetooth organ needed no work. Good to know. And all of a sudden she seemed to just know how it worked as well, actually. So, Shaper, what are the chances of us being able to build one of those for Amy now?
S: Excitement
Heh, figures it would be excited, even if there was a tinge of annoyance. They'd probably need Riley to help assemble it still. Now then, let's see. Shaper, can you label your switch a little better than just On and Off? I don't want to confuse it with other things.
S: Agreement
There we go, less likely to confuse it with the 'ignore insubstantial stuff' switch. Hmmm... Where's my line of sight mode?
BA: ...Embarrassment. Data
You weren't ready to connect to Amy like Shaper was preparing to connect to me, but you found out you had to at the last second to balance things out, so to make it work you gave her the line of sight mode and left me with the area mode?
BA: Agreement
S: Data
BA: Elaboration
Huh. Shaper had prepared a secondary 'backup' connection setup ahead of time and dropped Taylor's specs in it during the disruption, which was to ensure that everything would work right by cheating and copying Amy's original trigger parameters. With a need to ensure enough separation so that they could heal each other, but they had to turn their own striker functionality off to be affected by the other. But Broadcast Administrator had quickly split the line of sight mode off as a hasty hack and shored it up afterwards, so that ended up lopsided.
So, what happens if I poke you over at Amy?
BA: Data
Responses will come from the closest instance of a snark available in multiple places. Good to know. Now then, Amy's third snark, hello?
[Greetings]
Huh, the identifiers only applied to her own snarks. Though if Broadcast Administrator thought that through it would hopefully also apply to anyone else she ran into with multiple snarks.
BA: Contemplation
Right, apparently it was still thinking about it. Back to the last new snark.
So, what do you do for Amy?
[Data]
Huh. Implants and Prosthetics? Is that because she wanted to figure out the Bluetooth thing so much?
[Agreement]
Well, that made sense. She probably got her configuration because of concerns over maintaining her jump harness coupled with the tinker fugues. Speaking of which, they'd have to discuss getting Amy upgraded now. On the other hand, there were now some additional problems to consider.
Er, how many extra urges are Amy and I going to get now?
BA: Data
S: Elaboration
UMR: Data
[Data]
Huh. That was odd. She wasn't going to complain about Broadcast Administrator and Shaper allowing either of them to fulfill their urges, meaning that they didn't have to change their routines, but the two tinker snarks... Why don't you two tinker snarks want us to do much of anything?
UMR: Data
[Elaboration]
UMR: Agreement
Huh. Prototype must be Leet's snark, and apparently these two were forcibly split off when it was in a 'I pushed too hard' angst state of sorts, so they inherited a 'whatever, use me if you want' attitude, beyond a gradual buildup that would likely be trivial to clear. Still, that did leave a question.
Forcibly split off?
UMR: Data
Something attacked Prototype while it was thrashing about, but you don't know what. Well, Leet was over there in the next room, so might as well check. Hey Prototype, do you know what attacked you?
{Negation. Gratitude}
Er, you're welcome. So are you going to play more nicely with Leet?
{Agreement. Data}
Huh. You've added 'repair and maintain' as options, and have adjusted things so the final product counts more than the individual components. Good on you.
{Elaboration}
Well, Leet was probably going to be ecstatic. Repair, maintenance, less restrictive, and his snark cleared the list of things he'd already built so that he has a fresh start without the crippling. Even if he still has the 'only build each thing once' limit and it was just at a different point.
I'll try to make sure he knows.
With all of that taken care of, Taylor realized that she kinda had a full bladder. So she finally opened her eyes. Only to realize her head was strapped into Colin's brain scanner thing.
UMR: Objection
Ok, Colin's neuroimaging scanner thing. Whatever. Well, he was nearby, right? Let's see, her phones were available even if her visor wasn't on her. So Maul phone, text messaging, Armsmaster. Send "I'm awake and would like the scanner removed." And wait for him to come over.
"Good morning Maul," Colin said as he came in a minute later. "Let me get you out of that so that you can sit up." He quickly had her disconnected and able to lean forward again. "Now then, we're hoping you can tell us what happened?"
"That needs to wait," Taylor replied. She didn't have anything stuck in her, so she swung her legs off of the bed. "I have urgent needs that must be dealt with first."
"Finding out what happened is more important than anything else you had planned."
"Well, I'm not wearing a diaper, so I'm going to have to disagree."
Taylor took advantage of Colin being dumbfounded to dart into the toilet area of the room and pull the door shut against it. At least she hadn't needed to go down the hall.
"I apologize for my poor bedside manner," Colin said as Taylor came out a few minutes later. "In hindsight your needs were obvious. I've also let a nurse know to bring some food."
"Thank you," Taylor replied, sitting back down on the bed.
"Also, before we get into details, do you happen to have any insight into when Panacea will wake up?"
"Huh, that's a good question. Gimme a moment."
Why does it look like Amy has extra damage still being fixed in her brain?
BA: Data
Oooh, yeah. I can see how being a little too heavy-handed with the linking could cause problems. Ouch.
S: Query
I...don't think she'd like me to do that, with her views on messing with brains and all.
S: ...Reluctant Agreement
How long before you two think she'll be up?
BA: Data
S: Correction
BA: Agreement
"She was hit a little harder than I was," Taylor said. "But she should be up by one?"
S: Request
Ok, I don't think she'll complain about that. I'll see about taking care of it when I'm done with Colin.
"I'll make note of that," Colin replied. "Now then, what can you tell me about what happened?"
"To put it bluntly?" Taylor said, thinking about it. She wanted to talk to Amy before mentioning their adjusted powers. "Leet's snark was trying to kill him for reasons that were the snark's fault. Once that was pointed out to it and it thought over its own actions it kinda went crazy. With me being linked to it and Panacea we got hit as well."
"I see. Is it safe for you to check with his snark? Leet's recovery has been a lot slower."
"Oh, yeah. I already poked it and found it will be a lot, er, fairer? I can see about checking his recovery, but I don't know if his snark has the information needed to speed things up."
"No rush unless you feel it is urgent, as I believe Panacea will need to wake up before you can go into details with it anyway. I'll go let people know that you're up, and that Panacea should be up soon. The nurse should be by with food shortly."
Huh, she didn't really need Amy to wake up now, did she? But revealing that without talking to Amy was something she was avoiding. Still, as Colin left she got up and poked Amy. Huh, she could tell that she could do a lot, but she kept herself to ensuring that Amy wouldn't mess herself before she woke.
She was doing her best to ignore all the other things she had felt when she'd flipped the 'Striker' switch. No wonder Amy liked the thing.
It turned out that the 'kids' of New Wave had been running a patrol loop just out of Taylor's range when she woke up, and her father was asleep down the hall. Interestingly, none of them appeared to have been informed that Taylor was awake, though the nurse mentioned letting her father get his sleep after being up most of the night.
After she'd eaten she finally noticed the little notes on the window, the door, next to the door, and stuck to the pile of her equipment on a nearby chair. All of them said the same thing, that she and Amy had to stay close together for a few days, or so the Think Tank claimed anyway.
Do you know what's up with that?
BA: ...Assumption. Data
Wait, until you and Shaper have stabilized, you in particular due to your rush job, if we're out of my area range we could both have a catastrophic disconnect?
BA: Agreement
Yeah, she was definitely keeping closer tabs on snark plans that could affect her from now on.
BA: Query
Sure, go ahead and see if Leet's snark could use the info.
UMR: Query
[Query]
Oh, right, you two don't have it either.
BA: Data
UMR: Excitement[Excitement]{Excitement}
While that was happening, perhaps she should see who else needed to know she was awake?
"Ugh," Amy groaned as she woke up.
"Good afternoon," Taylor said, poking through Amy's PRT file. Striker what!? "I'm sure you'll very shortly have questions, but you should probably hit the toilet first."
Amy blinked, then apparently realized that Taylor was right and got out of the bed to head over to the toilet. A couple minutes later she came out, and looked at Taylor oddly.
"I don't know what I want to know more," she finally admitted.
"To summarize, then," Taylor said. "Leet's snark, Prototype, went nuts. Our snarks took advantage of the disruption his caused to implement their plan for remote monitoring of my health, giving me a connection to Shaper in the process. Only they found that they had to balance that out, so you got a hastily assembled, unplanned connection to Broadcast Administrator. And at some point in the middle Prototype was attacked, and we each got a piece that broke off."
"I thought you sensed snarks in an area, but I seem to only be able to see yours when I look at you?"
"Yeah, you got the line of sight mode I wasn't using. It's a dirty hack compared to what Shaper was ready for, and until things settle we kinda have to stick near each other because of some of that. At least a few days, and we're thinking a week might be better."
"What happens if we don't?"
"We probably die when at least one snark is forcibly disconnected from each of us."
Amy paled. "Yeah. Let's not do that." A moment later she got an odd look on her face.
Amy: Am I doing this right?
BA: Agreement
Taylor: Hey, I 'heard' that!
Amy: Woah. That's freaky.
S: Greetings
[Greetings]
Amy: Er, hello. Nice to meet you two as well.
"That's going to take some getting used to," Amy said aloud, shaking her head. "What else have you figured out?"
"We can use Shaper on each other if the 'Striker' switch is turned off," Taylor said. "Beyond that? Leet will be very, very happy."
"Do you always feel everything near your body?"
"Ah, that must mean at least some of the blunt force projection is working. Broadcast Administrator thought it would, but wasn't actually positive." Taylor grabbed her foam baton from her belt and tossed it to Amy. "See how this feels."
"That's, huh." Amy swung it a couple of times, then bopped Taylor over the head from range. "So that's how that works. I take it that other switch I didn't have before is how you determine if you go through Vicky's shield?"
"Yep."
Amy threw the foam baton back to Taylor, then went and sat on her bed. "So, what now?"
"Now we decide what to tell people. They don't expect you up for another almost half hour, I think. Your healing sped up a little when we got Implants and Prosthetics up to speed on the brain healing trick."
"Implants and...oh, my new snark. Huh. And yours is Understanding, Maintenance, and Repair? How is that already labeled?"
"I think we share labels. One snark, two connections and all. As a side benefit of that, we don't both have to placate the needs of the shared snarks, instead we both contribute now."
"Huh."
In the end they'd decided they had to come clean about the changes, if only because it would be better than revealing them later. They'd also determined that between them they could get Amy some, but not all, of the upgrades Taylor had on their own, since they still needed Riley for a few pieces. And Amy wanted all of it, so they were going to have see about getting Riley around.
Now if only Taylor hadn't mentioned her other plan, now that they could upgrade Amy. That grin was probably going to make any explosions over what happened worse.
"Taylor!" Danny said as he barged into the room. A nurse had finally woken him up, since the two girls only really wanted to explain things once.
"Sorry I worried you," Taylor said, hugging her father. "Didn't mean to, but, well..."
"These things happen, yeah. So, what did happen?"
"We're kinda hoping to only go through it all once, so we're waiting on Carol and Sarah at a minimum. And we want to record it, so we can just hand the video over to whomever needs it."
"I assume that more than the brief summary you gave earlier occurred?" Colin said.
"Yeah. I figured I should clear things with Amy before revealing everything."
"Sensible, and understandable if it affects both of you. I suppose we should move to the conference room, then?"
They moved down the hall to the conference room, quickly cleaning up the remnants of it being used by Danny and the 'on-shift' New Wave members. Taylor set her camera up on a nail that had been left in the wall and ensured that everything looked good through it with her phone. She'd be wearing her visor and using the phone-side controls to trigger recording. She and Amy would be sitting in the middle of one of the long sides of the table, the only ones in the camera's view. The others present would be 'off-screen' to either side.
Despite being a conference room, it wasn't large, so they had to be picky about who got to stick around. Danny was a given as Taylor's father. Carol would be sitting in as Amy's guardian when she arrived, and Sarah was going to attend as New Wave's 'leader' at the same time. Colin and Miss Militia were going to be there in their official capacities as well. The last two available seats were currently 'in contention', it would have been one if Colin wasn't going to be standing due to no power-armor rated seats being available. And that was sticking him in the corner.
All three of the younger members of New Wave wanted in, as did both Assault and Battery. And Battery was winning the argument, due to having been present for the initial incident, leaving one seat for the other four. A seat that Taylor thought just got claimed, not that anyone else knew it, since Jessica had just entered her range.
A couple of minutes later Jessica entered the secure area, and made her way towards the conference room. Only to enter with Director Piggot. Well, so much for the last two seats, which the group of five seemed to all realize.
"Good afternoon," Director Piggot said, claiming one of the empty seats. "As I understand it there's going to be a briefing about what actually happened here yesterday. Doctor Yamada and I felt we should be present."
The three members of New Wave and two Protectorate members sighed and went to secure the outside of the building, even as Carol and Sarah entered Taylor's range together, quickly clearing the security checkpoint and coming down.
"Amy," Carol said as she came in, grabbing Amy in a hug. Which seemed to shock Amy quite a bit. "Don't do that to us!"
Amy: Help?
Taylor: Why?
Amy: She isn't usually a hugger when it comes to me! What do I do?
Taylor sighed. It was nice that they were adjusting to the shared connection to Broadcast Administrator already, at least. As for Carol, she'd recommend 'hug back' if Amy's arms weren't already pinned to her sides. So distract Carol it was. "Hello Carol, Sarah."
"Oh, Taylor," Carol said, releasing Amy. And grabbing Taylor. Huh, was that alcohol on her breath? That might explain things. "I'm so happy you're alright too!"
"Carol," Sarah sighed. "Please stop embarrassing everyone?"
"I'd like it if we could get started," Director Piggot added. Strangely, that was what caused Carol to let go of Taylor.
Everyone took the seats they would be using, and the door was shut. It was explained that Taylor and Amy would first explain things as a 'video report', then questions would be asked by the others. This would allow the initial report to be more easily split off if necessary. As such, once everyone was ready Taylor double-checked the camera framing, then started the recording.
"Today is Saturday, April 23rd, 2011," Taylor started. "Yesterday afternoon an incident occurred while local parahuman 'Leet' was being treated by Panacea and his snark questioned by myself. During this his snark had a revelation and, in effect, went temporarily mad. I remained connected to his snark in an attempt to get it to calm down, which failed. I was also connected to Panacea's snark in case of a need for fast response on my part."
"During this event Leet's gemma started reacting significantly," Amy continued. "This was despite his being unconscious. Things progressed to the unexpected point of his snark lashing out at anything it could, something which we couldn't react to in time. This appeared to others in the area as a 'corrupted' trigger event, but due to the connection to his snark our connections were disrupted, knocking us out."
"Our snarks were waiting for something like this to happen, and put a plan they had been working on in motion. Specifically, they had been looking for a way to allow Panacea to check my health remotely. Most of their discussions had occurred while we were either sleeping or focused on other things, and until yesterday did not appear to be leading to anything of use. They jumped into action and started implementing their plan, only to run into complications."
"To add to that, at the same time Leet's snark was still lashing out, and something attacked it. It fractured, and two of the pieces attached themselves to Maul and I. At the same time my snark was attaching itself to Maul, and Maul's snark was hastily putting together a way to connect to me. That had not originally been planned, but the two snarks had determined that they needed to 'balance' the connection."
"As a result of this we now both have access to Panacea's Striker abilities and my Blaster abilities. I retain the 'area sense' mode of my Trump abilities, while Panacea has ended up with the 'line of sight' mode. This means I can no longer isolate myself from the snark sense by switching to line of sight mode and closing my eyes, while Panacea cannot trigger things such as fugues."
"The combined link does allow both of us to communicate with any snark the other has connected to, as well as with each other. Both of our biologies are visible to each of us at all times, and anything either of us is in contact with will appear to the other. We suspect that we'll be able to identify where the other is at all times as well. We also obtained two different tinker specialties, with a low desire for use. My specialty is apparently Implants and Prosthetics."
"And mine is Understanding, Maintenance, and Repair. We believe these were chosen by the fragments based on our mental states, with Panacea trying to figure out the Bluetooth module in my brain being primarily responsible for her specialty. Mine appears to have been triggered by a combination of my previous 'role' in the multi-tinker fugues and my concerns over maintaining my own equipment, such as the jump harness I use."
With all of that said, the two sat back to let it sink in. The questions would likely start soon.
"That," Colin said, shaking his head. "That is complete and utter BULLSHIT!" Everyone turned to look at him oddly. "What? It had to be said, and Assault and Clockblocker aren't here."
"He kinda has a point," Jessica admitted. "The two of them just picked up pretty much all of each other's ratings, plus a Tinker rating on top of it. What do you do with two Striker 12/Trump 8/Blaster 5/Tinker whatever capes?"
"Technically only one of them falls under PRT jurisdiction," Director Piggot noted. "Not that it matters much right now." She turned to the two girls. "However, the two of you will have to go through power testing, likely together to test your ability to communicate with one another and such as well."
"That will need to wait," Taylor said. "Until things have stabilized in a few days."
"For something of this magnitude we'll probably take at least a week to get things ready anyway. We might pull in staff from Boston or New York to help, even."
"With all of that," Miss Militia said. "What happened with Leet?"
"Er, his snark decided to play a lot nicer," Taylor said. "Not trying to kill him, letting him maintain and repair stuff, and giving him more flexibility."
"So it isn't likely to try and destroy the region again?" Director Piggot asked.
"No, we don't think so."
"Good. Moving on, we know that Panacea cannot use her powers on herself. Does that extend to both of you?"
"Neither of us can affect ourselves," Amy said. "But we can affect each other."
"Will you both get urges for the shared powers?" Jessica asked.
"The burden is shared," Taylor answered. "And apparently should remain at the levels from when the snarks were only connected to one of us, as that was something they were aiming for during the prep work. Further, the new tinker snarks ended up with an almost 'hands-off' approach, due to the state of Leet's snark when it was attacked."
"Well, unless there's anything else important we haven't been informed of?" Director Piggot said, pausing for an interruption. Getting none, she continued. "Right. Maul, you're off duty for a minimum of a week, and likely until we can get you power-tested again. Nothing short of an all-hands emergency is to get you back into costume once you've changed out of it today. A PRT van will take you and Panacea back to the PRT building to facilitate that changing after the two of you do a final check on Leet."
"After that we aren't sure where you're going," Danny said. "I'd personally suggest swinging by the Dallon household to pick up a few things for Amy, and then staying at our house for the night. You're less likely to be immediately pestered that way."
Taylor: What do you think?
Amy: Works for me. Less likely to be badgered by Vicky that way, at least.
Taylor: Heh, maybe we should get you some fingerless gloves.
Amy: Holy crap, I'll be able to hit Vicky when she's being stupid without her shield protecting her!
Taylor blinked as Amy's grin re-asserted itself. Ok. "Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. We'll figure out other details later. Maybe alternate nights?"
"I'll ensure that Amy is marked down as your guest for your trip," Director Piggot said. "I think we should play things safe with keeping the two of you close, and we'd rather not change those plans too much, to avoid awkward questions being asked."
"I expect that both of you will have new paperwork to sign as well," Colin said. "Though I'm not sure who will have more."
Both girls groaned at that.
Leet had been checked over, and a note left for him with details about what had changed with his powers. Then the two girls had ridden to the PRT building in a van, where Taylor had changed out of her costume and collected her shopping from earlier. The same van had then taken the two of them to the Dallon household, where Amy packed for a few days, just in case. With that done they were shuffled over to the Hebert household, where Danny hadn't made it home yet.
"So," Taylor said as she showed Amy the guest room. "I'm assuming we should wait for everything to stabilize before we try to hook up with Riley."
"I want a few things now, and none of them require Riley," Amy countered. "Chances are Shaper already knows what I'm talking about and how to do them, too."
S: Agreement
Taylor blinked. "Alright then, sit down at least."
Amy eagerly sat down on the bed and held her hand out for Taylor to take. Taylor did so, and reviewed what Shaper was showing her. Ten minutes later she was done, and Amy was bouncing in place.
"Now that we've done that," Taylor said, sitting down next to Amy. "Do you want to know any of the tricks I've figured out?"
"We should probably both share those," Amy admitted. "I've got a few I use on a regular basis myself, after all."
By the time Danny made it home with a pile of takeout the two had shared quite a few tricks.
"I definitely want some of these gloves," Amy said, poking in the PRT store on her phone after dinner. "If only for annoying Vicky. The fact that I could get away with actually using them in public without outing myself is merely a bonus."
"I'd recommend shoes with a good steel toe too," Taylor added.
"Half of my shoes already have that after a couple of minor injuries. Kinda wishing I had thought of gloves previously, though. Why did I never think to just put a pair on so I could interact with people without seeing their biology all the time?"
"Your snark wanted to be used. I think all parahumans have poor judgement when it comes to ways to not use their powers."
"You're probably right."
Their conversation was interrupted by Taylor's phone ringing. She grinned and pulled the phone out, putting it down on the table and turning on the speakerphone. "Hi Riley."
"Taylor!" Riley answered. "Why didn't you tell me you were awake?!"
"I sent you a text message, you didn't reply. Amy's here too, by the way. I have you on speaker."
"Hello," Amy said, shaking her head.
There was some obvious fumbling of the phone on the other end, and then Riley sighed. "I apparently didn't notice I flagged that as read. And hi Amy. So, what happened?"
"I'll send you a copy of the video report," Taylor said, grabbing her Maul phone to work at that. "But the important part to you is probably that we both have Amy's power now, so she's going to want upgrades."
"I'm not anxious enough for them to risk death," Amy added. "So we're waiting, at a minimum, until what happened stabilizes properly."
"Awesome!" Riley exclaimed. "Huh, I wonder if I'll come to you, or if this time you'll come to me?"
"No clue, but Taylor has a very fun idea for afterwards."
"Oh?"
There was a very good chance that a number of people had feelings of sudden dread as Taylor's plan was explained to Riley.
Chapter 68 Taylor woke, wondering what was going on. Why was she awake at four in the morning?
Amy: Wake up Taylor.
Taylor: Oh. That's what woke me up. Why are you poking me?
Amy: Go to the bathroom so that I stop thinking I need to, would you?
What? Oh, she was nearing full, wasn't she. Might as well, then. She crawled out of bed and headed for the bathroom.
Taylor: Why are you bugging me now?
Amy: I'm in the habit of taking care of it early. I don't like to rush.
Taylor groaned at the revelation that Amy used her powers to ensure she didn't normally need to rush to use the bathroom. She hoped this kind of wakeup call didn't happen too often.
Taylor woke up for the second time that morning, this time without being poked. It seemed that Amy was still asleep. As her phones connected she noted that it was almost nine in the morning, a little later than usual but not unexpected. She also had a small pile of messages from the past couple of hours.
She got up even as she started going through the messages, since she was hungry. She wasn't sure whether or not to make a larger breakfast, though. She'd ask Amy, but wasn't in the mood to wake her up right now. Maybe she'd just have some cereal.
The first few messages were routine stuff she could ignore. Then there was a confirmation that Amy would be her 'guest' later that week, with updated travel information. Interestingly, she hadn't had travel information before now, so yeah. A request to all PRT-associated individuals to be on the lookout for a heat-controlling cape that likely sabotaged Medhall? Huh. Believed to be a recent trigger with control issues, and they weren't sure what the original goal was. Medhall had apparently been found blameless for the issue either way, as they had uninterrupted video coverage of the affected areas since the PRT had inspected them a week prior to the incident.
Making note to look into that one later, Taylor moved on to find multiple requests for her and Amy to visit the PRT building today. Paperwork, discussions, scans to check for anomalies, more discussions. Sheesh, she'd have to talk with Amy about most of that when the other girl woke up. Oooh, when had someone bought the Tinker Crunch? That sounded great for breakfast.
Once she had her bowl of cereal she resumed poking through messages. Huh, who were the 'Think Tank Oversight Board', and why were they telling her that they'd approved an extension the Think Tank had requested? Of something, it didn't say what. Well, whatever, if it was important she was sure someone would clarify.
And apparently Amy was up.
Amy: What are you eating?
Taylor: Tinker Crunch.
Amy: Please tell me there's more?
Taylor: I just opened the box.
Taylor continued poking through things as Amy came downstairs.
"Bowls are over there," Taylor said, pointing at the cabinet in question. "You remember where the silverware is?"
"Yeah," Amy replied, sounding half asleep even as she grabbed a bowl. "This is going to take some getting used to. I think you eating woke me up. All my reactions to things happening to my own body are out of whack because I'm feeling yours too."
"Your wake-up call earlier wasn't exactly business as usual either."
Amy poured her bowl of cereal, then sat down to eat it.
Taylor: Pile of requests to visit the PRT today.
Amy: Huh, so much for not talking with your mouth full. What for?
Taylor: Paperwork, talking, apparently they want to scan one or both of us. Not sure how much they would have only requested one of us for if they could right now.
Amy: Well, better to get some of that out of the way, I guess. Any of it for specific times?
Taylor: They want the discussions to be after lunch. Otherwise no. But we can use the front door, apparently. Do we want to?
Amy: Always fun to see what people think is happening when someone does, really. So why not?
Taylor snickered as she finished her cereal. "Well, I think I'll go get ready for the day. Maybe see what my father's up to? He might give us a ride to the PRT."
Amy gave Taylor a thumbs-up, causing Taylor to snicker as she got up to rinse her bowl out.
Danny had turned out to be still asleep, so Taylor left a note and took the bus to the PRT with Amy instead. They walked in the front door and got guest passes, then were brought to a conference room. With two paperwork boxes and a box of pens. Were they trying to freak them out?
"Does your pass actually say that you're here for bullshit?" Amy asked as the door closed behind them.
"Yeah, they like to get funny with them for some reason," Taylor replied. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do if I need to go to an area that people who aren't cleared for identities are in when they pull this kind of thing, though."
The paperwork boxes were labeled, one for Taylor and one for Amy. The two opened their respective boxes and pulled out their paperwork. Taylor was a little surprised that Amy's stack was larger.
"I must be reading this one wrong," Amy said, looking over one of her documents. "I thought the law prevented that?"
"Prevented what?" Taylor said, reading over her last document.
"A parahuman being in a position of power within the PRT."
"Ah, I think you missed the note of that one being a secret by Presidential Order and all."
Amy blinked, which Taylor found interesting to be able to tell without looking. "Huh, you're right, I did miss that. Wow."
"I don't suppose you have a perspective on all the medical secrecy stuff they're having me sign?"
"You can know someone's complete medical state just by touching them now. Federal law protects a lot of that kind of thing, even if you aren't a healer."
"I suppose that makes sense. I haven't run into anything about agreeing to rules for use of said power, though."
"There technically aren't any, but outside of an emergency people can sue you for healing them without permission."
Taylor nodded at that, figuring Amy would notice thanks to snark bullshit, and then signed the last document. She then collected her stack and double-checked that they had all been signed, before returning them to the box with the tinker related bits on top. Who knew there were that many secrecy things regarding other people's tech when you were an actual tinker?
With that done, Taylor got up and moved off to the side where a small refrigerator sat. "Want anything?"
"They have anything good?" Amy replied, putting the pen down for a moment to flex her hand.
"Orange soda, root beer, cola, water, and some tangerine energy drink."
"I'll take a root beer then."
Taylor grabbed a root beer for Amy and an orange soda for herself, then went back to the table. She handed Amy the root beer, then flipped the striker power on/off switch and poked Amy.
"What are you," Amy started, before looking down at her hand. "Oh. That's much better, thanks."
"You're welcome," Taylor said as she flipped the switch again and dropped back down into the seat she had been using. "It was starting to bug me anyway. That and I bet you also have to get used to not being the only healer in town."
"Apparently."
Apparently the 'scan' they wanted to do was with the tinkertech ID scanner, to see if anything unusual showed up on it. Colin hadn't expected them to be ready so early, though, so was busy getting it set up.
Amy: Now that I'm paying attention to him, why does it feel like he's labeled Colin?
Taylor: That's his name?
Amy: Why do you know his name?
Taylor: Er, it was accidentally revealed to me by someone else.
Amy: Huh, accidental reveal? How often does that happen?
Taylor: You'd be surprised.
"There we go," Colin said. "Now then, Miss Hebert, if you would?"
Taylor stood in front of the scanner, her 'tinker' snark telling her all kinds of things about how it worked. A moment later it flashed, and she was blinking spots out of her eyes.
"Thank you," Colin said. "Miss Dallon?"
Taylor and Amy swapped positions, and Amy got to blink spots out of her eyes a moment later.
"Thank you," Colin repeated. "I can already see that the only meaningful difference in your brains is increased activity. Still a useful data point, of course. You're free to go, I'll see you two at the meeting later."
"Thank you," Taylor and Amy said, before leaving.
Amy: So, I'd be surprised?
Taylor: Well, I kinda found out Assault's name due to him being an idiot?
Amy: Really? What did he do?
Taylor: Left the shipping labels with his civilian name on stuff he ordered to give me.
Amy blinked a couple of times, and facepalmed.
"Hello," Lisa said, absently waving at Taylor and Amy as they entered the Wards area.
[Greetings. Query]
Taylor: Hello Inference Engine. And I haven't been trying to avoid or ignore you, but things have been odd. Still, I don't believe you've met Amy properly yet.
Amy: Hello. Nice to meet you.
[Confusion]
"What the fuck?" Lisa said, dropping the phone she had been holding. "My power seems to think you both just talked to it. How?"
"Side effect of not paying attention to what snarks are up to," Taylor replied. "Not sure how much we should tell you right now, we have discussions about it coming up. Is that your new phone?"
"Yes it is. Stop changing the subject."
"I'm with her," Amy said. "You're less likely to be frustrated if you just go with the subject change."
Lisa pouted and picked the phone back up. "It isn't all that impressive, really, beyond the SL9 module. Nothing nearly as bullshit as Taylor's stuff, anyway. Why are you two here, anyway? I thought Taylor was so far off duty she's almost exiled?"
"We didn't think to bring exercise clothing and have nothing better to do between meetings," Taylor replied, shrugging. "There's really not a lot to do around here when you're needed for stuff but aren't actually supposed to be around. Why are you here playing with phones?"
"My current neighbor was being way too loud, so I opted not to go back after picking my new phone up. I really want one of those tablets, by the way."
"So I hear you made lasagna here," Amy said, wandering into the kitchen. "Oooh, nice setup. Want to try making lunch here instead of visiting one of the cafeterias?"
"What're you in the mood for?" Taylor asked, checking the fridge, blinking at how empty it was. "Not that there appears to be anything here to cook. What happened?"
"So far the boys can't cook," Lisa answered. "But not for lack of trying. Thank you for suggesting the vent hood, by the way. Brian offered to give some lessons to the others in how to, at the very least, not burn the kitchen area down. Carlos decided that the group of them would need to do some grocery shopping to restock as well."
"Huh. Guess the cafeterias are the choice for lunch after all, unless we want to leave and come back. Let me check the menus."
Taylor and Amy had ended up leaving the PRT building for lunch, looking through a couple of stores along the way, and then returning. Amy had been unusually happy about the fact that the thread they found on PHO afterwards focused on Taylor, with Amy as an afterthought. Taylor countered with the 'New Wave tracking thread' having been updated with the sighting of Amy first.
"So what do you think they want to talk about?" Amy asked as they sat in the meeting room waiting for whomever else was coming to this one. It was the first of two meetings, apparently, but there was a very well stocked table full of snacks and such off to the side.
"Hello again Miss Hebert, Miss Dallon," Colin said as he came in before Taylor could answer. He also pushed a reinforced chair into the room, probably for him to sit on. "Director Piggot and Miss Militia will be a few minutes."
"I don't suppose you can tell us what any of the meetings are about?" Taylor asked. Why speculate if you can get answers, right?
"Ah, sorry," Colin said as he moved the chair into position. "The first meeting is to discuss things that came up after Leet woke up early this morning. The second is to further discuss the situation that has come up with you two, which is when your guardians will be joining us."
Taylor and Amy shared a look, but had very little idea of what was going on. Instead they got up and collected some snacks to start with. A few minutes later Director Piggot and Miss Militia arrived together, and locked the door behind them.
"Good afternoon," Director Piggot said as she and Miss Militia came over to the table. "I'd like to thank you two for coming in to deal with the paperwork issues as soon as you did. It got Costa-Brown off of my back."
"You're welcome," Taylor and Amy chorused together. Taylor was surprised how easy that was when you could feel the other person's biology.
"Now then," Miss Militia said as Colin sat down, having grabbed some cookies and a bottle of water. "I don't know if anyone's told you, but Leet woke up early this morning. One of the first things he did was read the note that you left for him. Apparently this left him quite happy."
"The nurses found him dancing," Director Piggot said, rolling her eyes. "He somehow pulled off spraining his ankle in the process."
"At any rate, once he had calmed down he indicated that he wanted to thank both of you, by building any one item for each of you. Within reason, anyway. He claims that thanks to your work he can, supposedly, build essentially anything once."
"Assuming that his power was trying to kill him," Colin added. "And that you have solved that, it presents an unusual opportunity. He's offered the PRT third choice, just so you know."
"This is also one of the few things the PRT and Protectorate have no problems with as far as rewards go," Director Piggot said. "Quality tinkertech is hard to come by, after all. As such not only are we willing to go along with it, we're encouraging it. But he does want to know what you two want before he even looks at what the PRT would like."
Taylor and Amy shared a look.
Taylor: You got any ideas?
Amy: Er...I dunno? What about you?
Taylor: Not really at the moment. Maybe we should look at this a different way. Are there any powers you'd like to have?
Amy: Huh. Well, I've been jealous of Vicky's forcefield before.
Taylor: So a personal shield?
Amy: Yeah. What about you?
Taylor: Well, I kinda have brute down. Maybe flying? But I like the jump harness...
Amy: Maybe a flying platform, like Chris's hoverboard?
Taylor: Huh. Maybe, and if it was large enough I could carry someone else on it if needed.
"Do you think he could make a personal shield?" Amy said as they turned back to the others. "Something like Vicky's?"
"That's surprisingly practical," Miss Militia commented, making note of the request. "I don't see any problems with it. Having you better protected sounds wonderful, in fact." She then looked at Taylor.
"I'm thinking something to fly on?" Taylor said. "Like Kid Win's hoverboard, but perhaps larger in case of passengers?"
"I suppose that would allow for the Wards to run the aerial routes," Colin said. "Given the need for at least three on any patrol right now."
"That's good enough justification for me," Director Piggot said, and Miss Militia made note of it. "We'll let you know if he thinks either is unworkable. Now then, I'm curious as to why it looked like you two held an entire conversation when you looked at each other?"
"I thought we mentioned the whole communicate with each other bit yesterday," Taylor said. "Didn't we?"
"They did," Miss Militia answered. "Though it's understandable to have forgotten it just now."
"Right," Director Piggot said, sighing. "Next up, we'd like as complete a list of your abilities, known and unknown, as you can provide us so that we know what to test when we get the power testing session set up."
"Excluding those that need a firearm," Colin clarified. "A verbal report will be fine, we'll make notes."
Taylor and Amy shared another look, and then Amy shrugged. Taylor took that as an invitation to start. "Well, there's the constant knowledge of both of our biological states at all times, coupled with the optional knowledge of and ability to manipulate the biology of any living thing we're touching and to a limited degree is touching what we're touching."
"Did you say optional?" Miss Militia interrupted. "I thought that was always on."
"It was until Taylor convinced my snark to give me a switch," Amy admitted. "And to clarify, most of the things that can be manipulated when touching an organism are other things within or otherwise biologically attached to and/or part of the thing we're touching. Plus we can see whatever biology the other one can."
"That can be really distracting," Taylor mumbled, which Amy nodded to.
"I think that covers the 'Panacea' power set," Colin said. "Let's move onto the 'Maul' power set."
"Well there's snark sense and communication," Taylor said. "I have the area mode, so I can trigger fugues, while Amy has the line of sight mode. But we're both able to access any communication going on through the snark. That aspect also provides some protections against anything trying to manipulate our brains. I don't know if Amy can 'feed' snarks like I can, as I've only done that in area mode?"
BA: Elaboration
"Nevermind," Taylor said, shaking her head. "That snark says she can't."
"And then there's the blunt force projection," Amy continued. "Which includes knowledge of pretty much everything 'valid' within range of our skin for use of the power as a side effect, which is an odd feeling when you aren't expecting it."
"Back up a minute," Colin said, apparently having recovered from momentary shock. "What was that about 'feeding' snarks?"
"Oh, right," Taylor said, blushing. She hadn't actually told anyone, had she? "To test some of the brain protection bits my snark figured out how to store energy to 'feed' hungry snarks with. We did so with Dean so that his snark would let him fire a continuous beam for a bit instead of just bursts. Huh, I don't think I mentioned anything about that to Legend, Sanguine, Hunch, or Weld when they visited for the Barrage Blaster testing, but I 'fed' their snarks too. I kinda had to bribe Weld's to even get it to talk."
"I see. Thank you for clarifying."
"Er," Amy said. "I think that leaves the tinker stuff? I seem to know how to make, repair, install, and maintain implants and prosthetics. Most of the implant stuff seems to be organ replacements or for interfacing with prosthetics, really. I can't think of any reason to use the knowledge if I can just heal someone, though."
"And I have Understanding, Maintaining, and Repairing of technology," Taylor said. "Which doesn't seem to have any options for building anything unless it's part of the Maintaining and Repairing of something else. And the Understanding part mainly focuses on use, current state, and if repair or maintenance is required?"
"Perhaps we should ensure you have toolkits," Colin said. "Field repair of things is always a good thing to be able to do if necessary. And as for Panacea, there are people who wouldn't want limbs regrown but would be happy with a prosthetic."
"I hadn't considered that," Amy admitted. "Even though I've run into a few patients like that."
"Oh, right," Taylor said. "There's also my enhancements, which they never asked about last time."
"They will be covering those this time," Director Piggot said. "Trust me on that one."
"I wonder if we could upgrade me before then," Amy mused. "Get it all tested at once and all?"
"Busy weekend coming up," Taylor said, thinking. "If they want to do the power testing the following weekend we might not have time. Don't want to do anything like that on a school night, after all."
The other three stared at the two. Finally Director Piggot groaned. "I don't think we're cleared for anything along those lines. Hell, is there anyone who is cleared to know more in town?"
"Yep," Taylor said, grinning. "There's my father, the entire Dallon household, and Mycroft."
"Sarah didn't make the cut," Amy added. "Oh, and Doctor Yamada's still in town right now, right? I think she might be cleared for it too."
"I think we're done here," Director Piggot said, getting up. "I'm going to go do something else for the next half hour or so before our next meeting."
"I'll go contact Leet," Miss Militia said, also getting up. "Might as well get that out of the way, at least."
Taylor and Amy turned to Colin. Who didn't seem to be moving. After a moment he noticed. "I'm fine here. Have you had any of the macaroons? They're quite tasty."
Danny and Carol arrived a few minutes before the second meeting was to begin, with Director Piggot and Miss Militia returning on their heels. Apparently Mark had decided not to come, and Sarah had been denied on the basis of not being one of Amy's guardians. Pleasantries were exchanged, and then they got down to business.
"We requested this meeting to discuss the recent changes in Miss Dallon and Miss Hebert," Director Piggot said. "There are a number of concerns that we have regarding what happened, most of them revolving around how much should be revealed. We don't actually recommend revealing anything, by the way."
"To clarify," Miss Militia said, stopping the questions that were obviously about to be asked. "The likely response of any number of groups to anyone verifiably duplicating a power, let alone one as mind-bogglingly useful as Panacea's, is too great of a risk, short of being able to show that this was a fluke, which we can't provide the evidence for. And even then groups would want to see if the fluke could be reproduced."
"We think that the better option would be, if necessary, to hint that there's an unusual synergy between your powers," Director Piggot continued. "In part because it's the truth in a couple of ways that the PRT has already documented. Examples include the self-healing of Miss Hebert's brain and the healing of Oni Lee. We're hoping that truth will throw off thinkers looking into the two of you."
"The only exception is Miss Hebert's tinker skills," Colin added. "Given that a number of people think she's had tinker abilities for a while, given the jump harness. Adding in additional tech from Leet means that showing minor tinker abilities won't be an issue."
"I'll admit that I can agree with some of that," Carol said. "Especially as I hadn't considered some of the points you bring up. But how will Amy deal with any tinker urges she has?"
"I've applied for her to be granted permission to access all PRT buildings with 'visiting tinker' labs," Director Piggot said. "If that's approved she would, effectively, be able to act as a Ward when it comes to coming and going from those PRT buildings. Given her clearance levels, actually, she might have more access than your average Ward. Regardless, that would allow her to use PRT facilities to deal with tinker urges. If denied I can still grant her that access here."
"I see," Carol said, nodding. "Thank you, that would make things much easier on that front."
"Feel free to contact me if you need assistance dealing with tinker issues," Colin added. "Including if resources not normally available in the lab are needed."
"Thank you," Amy said.
"Next up is keeping the two together until next weekend," Director Piggot said. "What you do regarding where they sleep for the next few days doesn't need to be discussed, but travel arrangements for the 'thesis defense' trip are a different story. We don't feel it would be safe to use civilian aircraft like the participants would normally be using."
"I brought the issue up with Dragon," Colin said. "She's volunteered to provide transportation. Officially to ensure Panacea's safety as Miss Hebert's guest. We expect the public to wonder if the goal is also to protect Jacob's niece, which will be misleading enough to hopefully deflect attention."
"That means you'll be leaving after school Wednesday," Miss Militia said. "Instead of departing for Boston first thing that morning to catch a civilian flight. You'll return the same way sometime on Sunday. This has the added benefit of reducing the number of classes you miss."
"And finally," Director Piggot said. "We've informed Arcadia that due to an unforeseen issue with Leet's tech this weekend you two have to stay within a certain distance of each other. They understand that it's temporary but will be accomodating should there be a mid-day medical emergency."
"You seem to have covered quite a bit," Danny said. "It's nice to see you're taking this all seriously. I do wonder if you have any ideas as to what groups might go after them, though."
"Pretty much any gang or group with the resources to do so," Miss Militia answered. "Even if it was only long enough to get a permanent copy of Panacea's powers. News of that magnitude could even draw the attention of the Slaughterhouse Nine."
Taylor wasn't sure how any of them were going to explain the snickering that comment triggered.
"They seriously said that?" Vicky said as they chatted in the greenhouse. They'd decided to alternate houses for the time being. Luckily Vicky had been briefed already, so those questions had been mostly skipped. "How did you not break out laughing?"
"It wasn't easy?" Taylor offered, poking a bit of bamboo. "Huh, I don't think the protein chain you used in this one's gonna last."
"Yeah," Amy said. "I was half expecting that. Check the next one, it should be doing better."
"That's weird," Vicky said, shaking her head. "How do you keep everything straight?"
"It isn't like we see each other's thoughts," Taylor said, rolling her eyes. Amy snickered at that, obviously having noticed despite not facing them. "Powers, yes. Thoughts, no. The biology sensing being shared is quite annoying at times."
"So you've both got everything the other had, plus tinker stuff?"
"Yep," Amy said. She then used the piece of bamboo she was holding to lightly hit Vicky in the shoulder from across the greenhouse.
"Aw crap," Vicky moaned. "Now you can do that? That sucks!"
Rebecca sighed as she looked over today's report from Brockton Bay. She was supposed to have the day off, but then a potential region-killer issue came up. Sometimes she hated tinkers. Of course, then there was the aftermath with Leet, which was creating a very nice pile of headaches.
The request to allow Miss Dallon access to PRT tinker facilities was easy enough to approve. Nobody would argue it, even without knowledge of why it had been done. Really, she suspected a number of people thought the girl already had access. It would take a couple of days to process, but that wouldn't be an issue.
The deal with Leet was nice, protection for the public healer and mobility for the Ward. She couldn't argue against either, really. The fact that they had also given a list of things they'd like for him to pick from for the PRT's 'freebie' would hopefully have decent returns as well. They'd probably even consider offering him a place in the next fugue, actually.
And there was the request for power-testing assistance. A high-grade mover to test communication distance made sense, and the various requested expert consults were easily understood. Huh, a request for recommended testing methodology for 'feeding snarks'? Where had that come from?
Half an hour later Rebecca had put a number of pieces together. If this meant what she thought it meant...well, David would be ecstatic if it worked like she thought it might. The problem was, did she mention it to him before or after they had more information from the power testing? Then again, she had no clue how to test that in the first place.
Deciding that running on her own theories was all well and good, she printed out all the relevant information. She'd see if anyone else came to the same conclusions. Though she might want to keep David out of the loop until they'd decided one way or another. At the very least until they had a good argument to keep him from running off like a madman, anyway.
At an absolute minimum she'd like to not have to come up with an excuse for why he was suddenly interested in visiting Brockton Bay. Assisting with a potentially interesting test would be one thing. Showing up out of the blue would draw too much attention.
For now she'd check with a few others and see what they thought. If they disagreed with her analysis then there was no reason to even hint at this to David. She'd cross that bridge if and only if it seemed likely to be useful.