Sauling Mnarks

by demonicgallade

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

4. 69-90

Chapter 69 Monday morning Taylor ended up sitting in the Dallons' kitchen poking around on her phone, attempting to figure out who else in town might know about the Slaughterhouse Nine. She'd gotten curious after being asked who was cleared the previous day, and needed something to distract herself from the temptation to wake Amy up after the other girl had once again woken Taylor up to tell her to go to the bathroom.

Apparently the SL9 clearance list she'd found only contained Protectorate, Wards, and direct PRT members. It also didn't contain Taylor or Dragon at this point, though Lisa was on there. That implied that whatever updated the page didn't consider SL10 to be a valid reason to list someone. It also didn't list her father or any of the Dallons, which seemed to imply that affiliates didn't count either. She also didn't see any of the Nine, nor Jessica on it. Which she thought was odd. Though she hadn't checked, Jessica might not have SL9.

There was no apparent search function for looking up who had a given security clearance, or at least there wasn't one she could find. So she decided that perhaps she could check individual records of those she knew had been clued in on the Nine, to see if there was anything of interest there. This quickly revealed why Jessica, who did show as having SL9, and presumably the Nine themselves weren't showing on the SL9 page. Those she checked were listed as affiliates themselves, which didn't seem to count.

Eventually sighing, she decided that she wasn't going to figure any of it out on her own, so she sent a message to Dragon asking her if the PRT offered any way for people to check that kind of thing. There had to be some way to, after all.

"Good morning Taylor," Mark said as he came into the kitchen. "Why are you up so early?"

"Amy woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep," Taylor replied, causing Mark to give her an odd look. Taylor sighed and continued. "She's having issues keeping my body and her body separate in her mind, so when I'm approaching a full bladder the back of her head insists that she has to use the bathroom instead."

"Ahh, yeah. I can see how that could be annoying. Hopefully she'll get it figured out soon enough. I don't suppose you like pancakes? Perhaps with strawberries?"

"That sounds good. Want any help?"

"Nah, I've got it."

Taylor shrugged, and then went back to her phone as it pinged her with a message. Huh, according to Dragon anyone with SL5 or better could install the advanced clearance checking app to look up various things. Or, of course, Dragon would be willing to do any such checks Taylor wanted to run. It was probably a good thing her original request implied that she might be asking for someone else, or that might have been the only answer.

She installed the app, and then started poking around in it while Mark prepared to make pancakes. The interface was trivial to figure out, and soon she had a list of those with SL9 in the entire system. Which was impressively small, all things considered, and according to the app half of them were therapists. A deeper check showed that only a quarter of the therapists had actual clearance to know about the Nine, so perhaps therapists ended up with SL9 as a matter of course?

"I don't suppose you can wake Vicky up?" Mark said. "I assume Amy would be trivial, of course, but the two should get moving."

"I can try," Taylor offered. She then flipped her striker switch back and forth a few times.

Amy: What the hell are you doing?

Taylor: Waking you up. Mark's making strawberry pancakes. Now I'm going to poke Vicky's snark, see if I can wake her up with it.

Taylor: Hello there!

[Query]

Taylor: I'm hoping you have a way of waking Vicky up without Amy or I going in to poke her.

[Confusion]

Taylor: Well, she has to get up and get ready for the day. Besides, breakfast is going to be ready soon.

[Query]

Amy: Oh yes, please do that.

Taylor blinked a couple of times as a couple of thuds came from upstairs. Apparently momentarily connecting Vicky's flying dream to her powers caused her to suddenly fly.

Amy: Wow. I think she slept through that. I'll wake her up.

"Apparently Vicky's a heavy sleeper," Taylor said as Mark looked at her. Taylor flinched for a moment as she suddenly saw Vicky's biology, then shook her head. "I wonder if she damaged anything during her momentary flight?"

"How did you accomplish that?" Mark asked.

"Her snark offered to momentarily connect her powers to her dream, and Amy told it to go for it. When it didn't work Amy volunteered to wake her up instead."

Mark just shook his head and went back to cooking. A couple minutes later Amy came down, followed shortly afterwards by Vicky. Taylor could tell Carol was moving around, but she hadn't come down yet.

"Morning," Vicky said, dropping into a chair, followed by a yawn.

"Morning," Taylor replied. "Sleep well?"

"Maybe? For some reason when Amy woke me up I was laying on the floor next to my closet door."

Vicky looked confused as everyone else in the room snickered. Mark recovered first and served Taylor the first stack of pancakes, causing the other two to pout.

"So what exactly happened over the weekend?" Dean asked as they pulled away from the Dallon residence. Amy and Taylor were in the backseat with Vicky up front. "Details have been a little on the slim side."

"We aren't fully certain of everything ourselves," Amy admitted. "And what we do know is mostly secret. Some of it for medical reasons."

"A side effect has Amy and I needing to stay somewhat near each other," Taylor added. "That's about all we can tell you for now."

"So is there anything else you can tell me?" Dean asked.

"Did you know that the Dallons have a gun safe in their guest room closet? I kept my sidearm in it last night."

"I...what?"

"It's where dad keeps his shotgun," Vicky answered. "Apparently he believes that every father with a little girl needs one."

For some reason Dean looked a little nervous at that.

School had been interesting, what with all the gossip about what had happened over the weekend. Most conversations centered around what had gone wrong with Leet's mech, but at least one person on PHO had noticed Amy entering the hospital on Friday, only to not actually be seen leaving. Then she appeared in public on Sunday, visiting the PRT building. Speculation was rampant about what had happened in the middle.

The only other significant gossip was that there would be seven students going to the 'thesis defense' event, four participants and their guests. And that was mainly because all seven, plus one younger sibling, would be traveling on a Dragon-provided craft. Apparently it was seen as a no-brainer to just drag all eight along instead of having a craft only carrying Taylor and Amy. That was being discussed with the two, in lieu of asking about the events of the weekend. Specifically, how they'd swung it.

"Dragon probably felt it was safer if Panacea wasn't going through the normal airports," was how Taylor was generally answering the overall question.

"How should I know, I'm just Taylor's guest," was Amy's general response.

The end result was a combination of 'of course Panacea would warrant it' and 'Jacob must be even more awesome than we thought'. Amy found the latter to be hilarious.

Taylor sat in the hospital waiting room, poking at her homework, doing her best to ignore the biology of the people Amy was healing. Shortly after they'd left school there'd been an accident where a drunk driver had plowed into the side of an elementary school.

Taylor: You healing the entire floor?

Amy: Yeah, why?

Taylor: Next room has a snark in it.

Amy: Oh. Thanks for the heads up.

Taylor moved onto the next portion of her assignment even as Amy worked on clearing the next room, leaving the parahuman for last. The initial 'hello' to the snark had been brief, but Taylor cringed when Amy touched them. On one hand, she now knew what the 'freshly triggered' brain damage looked like. On the other hand, the boy's rib cage was barely holding together and there was internal bleeding that probably hadn't been noticed, or else he would have been in one of the earlier rooms.

Taylor: Hello there.

[Greetings. Confusion]

Taylor: Yeah, there are two of us. I don't suppose you helped keep your human alive?

[Negation]

Taylor: Huh. Are you willing to tell us what you do for your human?

[Data. Elaboration]

Well, that sounded like it was a blessed with suck situation. The kid had been uninjured, but saw his twin sister dying and had triggered with the power to automatically take on part of lethal injuries of others around him. Never enough to be fatal to him, generally enough to make the lethal injuries non-lethal, but yeah. Then again, based on DNA his sister had been one of the first healed, and if her condition had been after his power kicked in?

Amy: I'm going to have to give him and his parents the pamphlets, but I think I'll push for them keeping this quiet.

Taylor: No argument from me. Might want to encourage the family to ensure that he has a way to call 911 pretty much all the time, though.

Amy: Yeah, I guess that would be a good idea.

An hour later Amy was done, parents had been talked to, and the two could leave.

"I really wish I had known about this app before," Amy said, poking at the advanced clearance checking app. "It would have let me know who I could have gone to for that file, amongst other things."

"It is amazingly useful," Taylor admitted as she closed up her gun safe, her sidearm safely inside. "But I think it's normally intended for use by high-level PRT staff and local Protectorate leaders, which is why it isn't quite advertised."

"I can see how that would be the case. So, what's with the gift box?"

Taylor blinked, and looked over at her desk. Oh, right, she still had that second locket. "It's a bigger on the inside picture locket. I sent one to Riley as a thank you of sorts. That's the spare I got in case Missy wanted to keep one, but she said she'd just upgrade the one she already had at home."

Amy picked the box up and looked inside, seeing the cheap locket. She frowned, then moved the picture holder pieces out of the way and found the expanded spaces. "This is pretty neat. I don't think I'd have any reason to use it, but it's neat. Who're you planning on giving it to?"

"No clue. I figured Riley could use a place to hide stuff, but that was about it."

"Maybe you should send it to someone who isn't expecting it? See how they react and all?"

"Hmmm. Maybe. But who'd be a good choice?"

"Maybe give it to Battery so she can troll others with it?"

Taylor thought about that, and shrugged. She didn't have any better ideas. Ten minutes later the box was properly labeled to be sent to Battery, though she'd wait to drop it off. It could sit on the desk until then.

Tuesday morning at school gossip was primarily spun off of a short-lived thread on PHO where someone had leaked some of the things going on behind the scenes at Medhall. Apparently there was a major investigation going on into a number of things after the fiasco with the quarantine lockdown. The biggest issue was that something that had gotten out hadn't been properly registered with the local PRT office. So even though the containment breach had been deemed to not be their fault they were still in hot water.

With that distracting everyone the observation that Leet took an extra couple of days to leave the hospital after Amy had healed him was all but overlooked. A few people were curious, but the issues Medhall was having were generally taking priority. Taylor and Amy were curious how Leet was doing, of course, but that was about as far as their interest went at this point.

Classes were standard for classes. That is, mostly boring with a few interesting points. Eventually, though, lunch rolled around, and different topics sprang up as people hit PHO. The first of which was that the 'cape trackers' were thinking that a new Protectorate blaster in Honolulu might be Purity. That had led to a number of other questions, such as where several other members of the E88 were. There was even speculation that the new Ward in Phoenix might be Rune, except for that she seemed to be flying without tinkertech or a platform to stand on so it didn't quite line up.

The other thing people were talking about was an apparent roaming group that had been noticed by chance when a demonstration of how to operate the anti-master tinkertech was performed. Nobody was sure who they were or where they were going, but they had evaded the PRT cordon. As such they were believed to either be parahumans or were working with parahumans.

"Lots of gossip today," Taylor said between bites of her burger.

"Yep," Dean said, stabbing a potato slice with his fork. "You'd almost think the Medhall revelation hadn't happened this morning."

"Maybe it's a plot," Amy said. "They're distracting everyone with a bunch of other things to get them to forget about the leak."

"So what's up with you two," Dennis asked, gesturing at Taylor and Amy. "Seems like you've been spending more time than usual together."

Taylor and Amy shared a look, and then grinned before turning back to Dennis and speaking in unison. "We've decided to try and get twinspeak down! How're we doing?"

Apparently they'd done a decent job, if the number of shocked looks directed at them was any indication. Finally Dennis shook his head. "I thought twins were supposed to finish each other's sentences, not speak in unison."

"Well of course..." Taylor started.

"...we can do that," Amy continued. "That was the..."

"...easy part. Synchronizing with each other..."

"...was the hard part. Do you know how..."

"...many variables there are?"

For some reason Vicky was the only other one that found that hilarious.

Amy: Wanna see a movie after school?

Taylor: That could work. There anything in particular you were hoping to see?

Amy: Maybe The Fire of the End 3? Something mindless.

Taylor: Huh. Sure, why not. I heard it's better than 2 was, anyway.

Taylor mused that planning after school activities while in class would generally be frowned upon. More so when the person you were planning with wasn't in the class with you. Then again, they both had quizzes today and were both done, waiting for the rest of their classes to finish, so it wasn't like they were skipping out on paying attention or anything. Still weird though.

Once their classes were done for the day they met out by the bus stop, Taylor poking at the news on her phone while Amy checked her messages.

"Apparently Toybox is challenging a few laws," Taylor said, getting the attention of Amy and a couple others. "In particular the federal one that says you have to reside on Earth Bet to vote."

"Why in the world do they want to fight that one?" one of the other students asked.

"Er, looks like they want pocket dimensions that only open up onto Earth Bet to count as residing on Earth Bet? They aren't all that clear in the article, but I think that's what the quote is saying. Just with almost all technical terminology."

"Better than the group down in New Orleans that wanted to have the law repealed that requires medical exams for 'revived' humans before they can vote," Amy said, shrugging. "Powers created a lot of headaches for things like that."

"How in the world did you figure that out?" another student asked. "I mean, seriously, that quote's a wall of technobabble to me?"

Taylor blinked. "What? It seemed somewhat clear to me. I mean, I don't understand all of it but I got the general gist from a few pieces. Self-contained folds embedded in the quantum strings would be the pocket dimension, and a little further it specifically notes that the entrances are fixed to Earth Bet on both the temporal and dimensional axes even if they're otherwise mobile. Really, I'd expect the biggest challenge to be determining what district their pocket counts as living in."

"I'm with Taylor here," Amy said a minute later, having pulled the article up herself. "If you take the time to read through it you can spot the important bits. I think most of it is to ensure that they covered the technicalities in an unambiguous manner."

The other students stared at the two, then went back to poking at their phones. Both the news article's comments and the PHO thread would have this 'clarification' from the two girls posted about, as well as Taylor's comment about what district a pocket dimension actually exists in.

By the time Taylor and Amy got off of the bus near the movie theater several tinkers had chimed in on the PHO thread with a 'well, duh, what did you all think it said?'.

"I have to admit that 3 wasn't as bad as 2 was," Amy said as they exited the theater a couple hours later. "Still not as good as the original, though."

"Which probably means that they'll make a fourth one," Taylor said. "Wanna bet that one sucks?"

"They might pull off a miracle. But they killed off half the supporting characters this time, so they'd have to do a good job with whoever replaces them."

"At least this one wasn't as talky?"

"There's that, yes."

The two continued to discuss the movie as they walked down the street, not actually sure what they wanted to do now.

Taylor: Heads up, incoming snark behind us.

Amy: Anyone we know?

Taylor: It's just Battery.

Amy: Oh, is that why everyone's gaping?

"Well hello girls," Battery said from right behind them. Both turned to see her frowning. "You're supposed to jump when someone sneaks up behind you and says hello, you know."

"Why would we do that?" Amy asked. "I mean, your approach wasn't the most subtle. Not with all the bystanders staring."

"Doesn't help if you're quiet when everyone else gives you away," Taylor added.

"Knew I should have waited until you two were out of public," Battery said, shaking her head. "Still, I'd like a few minutes of Panacea's time, but I don't mind if Miss Hebert joins us. How about I treat you two to a snack while we take advantage of some privacy booths?"

Taylor and Amy looked at each other and shrugged, then Amy turned back to Battery. "Sure, why not."

Five minutes later the three had a snack and a drink each and were settling into their chosen booth. Battery activated the tinktertech privacy device built into the booth, and then sighed.

"Sorry about the deception," Battery started. "But I figured it would be a lot less interesting to the public if I wanted to talk to Panacea. Taylor, how did you get that locket delivered?"

Taylor paused. "I could have sworn that I left that on my desk at home this morning."

"It was in my underwear drawer when I got up around ten."

"I blame the box-moving snark."

"Ok," Battery said, her body language not looking convinced. She then pulled the locket out of a small compartment on her glove. "In that case, why the hell did you give me a cheap locket?"

"That's easy," Amy said, grinning. "Check behind the picture holders."

Battery looked less convinced, but popped the locket open anyway. A moment later she'd switched to stunned as she moved her finger around inside the expanded space. "How in the world?"

"Vista does good work," Taylor said, grinning. "But Amy and I thought you might be willing to troll people when discussing what I should do with the extra locket."

"I can admit that this would be a pretty good hiding place. And until people know what's been done to it they wouldn't suspect a thing, would they? This is actually pretty incredible. Thank you."

"Maybe you can troll Assault with how it showed up too," Amy offered, only to get a look. "What? It was, as you said, delivered to your underwear drawer."

Battery snickered at that, even as she carefully put the locket back into her glove.

"You two should go play in the greenhouse for a bit," Carol said after Taylor and Amy arrived back at the Dallon's. "You'll be out of town until the weekend, and probably won't be doing much healing either, so you should see about getting things out of your system tonight. I'll send Victoria out to get you when dinner's ready."

"Works for me," Amy said, dropping her bag by the stairs. "And makes sense, for that matter."

"Better to get annoying urges out of our systems and all," Taylor agreed.

A few minutes later they were poking at the various plants, with Amy scowling over the latest seed-grown rose bushes. "For some reason they don't want to flower when I grow them from seeds, or if they do flower the roots die off aftwareds. The tulips work fine, but the stupid rose bushes don't."

Taylor poked a couple of the tulips, looking at them and the bushes Amy was poking at. "Maybe you're approaching this the wrong way. The seeds may not be able to to hold everything?"

"It's just frustrating. I've been told there's a market for 'grow your own' on the rose bushes, but I can't get them to work."

Taylor moved over and grabbed a couple of tulip bulbs, then poked one of the power-grown rose bushes. She compared the two, and then grinned. A moment later the insides of the bulbs changed.

"Oh wow," Amy said, staring off into space. "I never even considered that. Single-use rose bush bulbs instead of seeds, which means you can actually encode the differences in each area into the bulb itself."

"You did that with the tulips already," Taylor said. "I just adapted it to the rose bushes."

"I was too focused on seeds, I think. The bulb idea makes a lot more sense. Even better, it can consume the bulb as it grows, making them easier to get started. Less likely that people will be pissed that the seeds didn't sprout and all. Let's make a dozen or so and plant them, see how they do. If they work I might have to share some of the profits with you."

"I've somewhat recently had to put things directly towards stock and community improvements because I was making too much money, and my last income report from the PRT indicated that I'm still getting payouts from the anti-master stuff."

"Oh. And you still have some of that crap in your wardrobe? I'm going to have to get Carol to let Vicky join us on a much larger shopping trip, aren't I? I bet Lisa would join us in a heartbeat too."

"I like the way I dress, thank you very much."

"You can at least get better versions of your preferred clothes. Like ones you haven't repaired multiple times."

Taylor grumbled even as she helped Amy make and plant the rose bush bulbs. Maybe if she could find enough reasons to put such a trip off she could get out of it?

Wednesday at school there was a surprise waiting for those going on the thesis trip. A pile of individually-labeled 'PRT-issue' suitcases, one for each of those going, had been provided. Taylor's, however, appeared to be her existing suitcase fetched from the PRT building. Each of them had been instructed to head home after school with the suitcase, pack everything up in them, and then make their way to the PRT building.

The reasoning for this was that Dragon's transport had slots specifically designed for these suitcases, so it was better that everyone had them for that reason alone. Everyone would be permitted to keep their suitcase as a 'souvenir' afterwards, which made everyone happy with the situation. That it allowed for Taylor to have all of her stuff available without it being obvious was the likely intended benefit.

Amy: I'm going to need to talk to Missy, see if I can get her to expand my new suitcase. A few times not having the standard size bag has caused issues on sudden trips.

Taylor: Got anything in mind for payment?

Amy: Repayment for all the times I already healed her, including not mentioning the times she obviously did things herself?

Taylor: Ok, I could see that working. Get a utility belt and ask for it to be enhanced at the same time?

Amy: Not a bad idea. I'll think about it, though I imagine it would all be better if I could get my upgrades first too. Then I'd know how much I could handle.

Other than the gossip surrounding the suitcases things were fairly boring during the morning. By lunchtime people had decided to move onto other things, like pestering those going for pictures from inside whatever it was that was transporting them.

"Why won't you take pictures for us?" Dennis asked, pointing at Taylor and Amy. "I'd take pictures for you!"

"I'm sure others will be willing to take pictures," Taylor countered. "You can look at theirs."

"You two aren't any fun."

Taylor stuck her tongue out at Dennis before going back to poking at her messages. It looked like she was being asked to stow her sidearm in her suitcase before making it up to the roof of the PRT building. It was something to do with normal rules requiring non-employees to disarm on the premises. She was also supposed to try and arrive when others attending weren't, so that she could head down and pack up anything she needed from her room in the Wards area.

More importantly, her father had volunteered to pick her and Amy up, bring them home, then bring them to the Dallon's, and then to the PRT building. Which was nice. Apparently he'd checked with Carol and Mark beforehand, even. She popped him a message saying that they'd have two suitcases with them as well.

Amy: Did you see the interview request from channel seven yet?

Taylor: The what? Oh, there it is. I hadn't gotten that far in my messages. What the hell?

Amy: These happen every so often. Want me to send you my form letter for rejecting the request? You'll need to adjust it for your own use, of course.

Taylor: Yes please.

Well, that was weird. Looking over that message Taylor found that apparently they wanted to interview the two who had 'demystified' Toybox's legal challenge. Why couldn't they have just asked the PRT to explain it in terms a non-tinker might be able to understand?

Taylor had adjusted Amy's form letter in the car after school and sent it off. The general gist of it was that she wasn't accepting interviews at all, not wishing to be in the public eye any more than necessary. Obviously Taylor had to adjust the parts talking about healing and such, she replaced those with a spiel about 'focusing on preparing for the future' instead.

Once home Amy helped Taylor pack for a few days, with Taylor stowing her sidearm in the suitcase so she didn't forget. That only took a few minutes, then the two headed back out to the car for the ride over to the Dallon's. There Taylor helped Amy pack for a few days, including showing her some useful features of the suitcase.

Before they left the Dallon's they did a quick check of the greenhouse, then hopped back into the car for the trip to the PRT building.

"Have fun you two," Danny said as they got out of the car.

"I'll do my best," Taylor said, grinning.

"I think I'll just see what kind of horrors she inflicts on people," Amy added. "Since I suspect that will probably be more amusing than finding something to do to people myself."

"Bye," Taylor said, hugging her father through the window.

"Bye," Danny said, then drove off as Taylor and Amy entered the PRT building.

"Hello Miss Dallon, Miss Hebert," the receptionist said as they approached the desk. "Here are your passes, you'll be departing for the Rig from the roof today. There you'll transfer over to Dragon's transport."

"Thank you," the two chorused as they took their passes. They were then brought to the elevator, which the passes opened. Taylor grinned as the door closed, using her phone to send the elevator down instead of up.

"That's a neat trick," Amy admitted. "I didn't realize this elevator went below the lobby, I normally get showed to one further back or end up taking the stairs when I visit the lower areas."

"I think it's a great way to stealthily slip into the lower area," Taylor said. "After all, supposedly the pass only lets us get to the roof, right?"

Ten minutes later Taylor had stowed enough stuff from her room to serve in case of an emergency, and the two made their way back to the elevator. It was still sitting there, so nobody else had likely used it. A quick trip up to the roof and they found several short-hop transports sitting there waiting. They were directed to one of them, which took off with the two just after they got on.

A few minutes later they'd landed on the Rig, and were directed over to a large transport sitting there. They were shown aboard and given instructions on how to slot their suitcases into storage slots, before being given a short tour. It was basically a larger version of the transports Taylor had already been on, but without the changing or sleeping areas.

It took nearly half an hour before anyone else showed up, at which point Amy had to remind Taylor to stop operating her stuff with her brain.

Chapter 70 A girl and what looked like her younger sibling were the first of the others to show up. The older sibling introduced them. "I'm Elizabeth, but you can call me Liz, and the shy limpet is my little sister Mary." Shortly after that a pair of boys showed up. Mathias and Lesley, apparently best friends. Right on their heels were Justin and Samantha, whom even Taylor knew were dating, even if she hadn't known their names.

Once everyone was there they got the safety lecture and got strapped in for takeoff. Ten minutes later they were on their way. They were told they could get up once they hit cruising altitude, which seemed to be the trigger to get them to start talking.

"So what did you guys write about?" Justin asked. "My paper argues that we should be more careful before deploying new tinker-derived vaccines."

"Heh," Elizabeth said. "Mine argues that we need to be less concerned with checking tinker-derived architecture. If it holds up in simulations and the tinker isn't building it and all."

"Am I the only one that didn't include a parahuman bent?" Mathias asked. "I wrote mine arguing that more programs to aid the poor would sap power from gangs."

"I think you were the only one to skip parahumans," Taylor said. "I argued that the power-influence on parahumans is actually a two way street, with the power being influenced just as much if not more than the parahuman at the point the parahuman triggers."

"That sounds heavy," Lesley said, shaking his head. "Impressive-sounding though. Did any of you bring copies of your papers?"

"We have a pile of them over here, actually," one of the PRT officers said, opening a small crate that was sitting near the 'kitchen' area. "We thought you might want to have an opportunity to look at each other's work. There's a good chance you won't be able to attend each other's sessions, after all. Not with fifty or so going on at any given time, anyway." They then started pulling out comb-bound reports, splitting them into seven piles. There were four different colors on the comb binding, and each color was a different size.

"Whoa," Samantha said, going over to grab one of the completed stacks. "Who's got the giant blue one?"

"Miss Hebert went above and beyond the requirements," the other PRT officer said. "Quite impressive, really, given that she got a last-minute offer and only started on the ninth or tenth."

"You wrote more than the rest of us combined," Justin said, putting Taylor's paper next to the other three. "I worked on figuring out research starting in November. How the hell did you pull it off?"

"I want to know why you bothered," Mathias said. "The guidelines were fairly clear."

"I couldn't argue my case in fifty pages?" Taylor offered, shrugging before grabbing two stacks, one for her and the other for Amy.

A couple hours later Taylor found herself finished with and oddly disappointed in the other papers. They made some good points, but their research was lacking and some of their arguments worked just as well for the opposing viewpoint. Then again, she hadn't actually researched any of their topics, so she wasn't sure how much information was actually available. That and they were supposed to use information that others had compiled, so perhaps they would have done a better job if they could have done more direct studies?

Once she was done she pulled out her tablet and started poking around on it, having little else to do while the others read. Eventually she started up 'Angry Dragons'. Which was silly, but a decent time waster. Since she'd turned Bluetooth off she had to adjust the volume a bit, though.

"Is that Angry Dragons?" Mary said, causing Taylor to look up at the girl. Who shied back a little, but had left her sister's side for the first time.

"Yes," Taylor replied, showing her the tablet.

"Can I watch?"

"Sure."

Taylor had ended up letting Mary play Angry Dragons for a bit, before they had to buckle up for landing. Even then Mary had stayed next to Taylor and was still playing the game, actually.

"How did you pull off writing all that?" Lesley asked after everyone was buckled in. "I mean, you even used a smaller font size than Mathias did."

"Er," Taylor said, thinking. "It's easy when you get along with the voices in your head?"

Elizabeth facepalmed as Amy broke out in a giggle-fit. The others didn't seem to know how to take that one. A few minutes later they had touched down and checks were run.

"Final checks are complete," the pilot's voice came over the intercom. "Allow me to welcome you to Las Vegas and the Hero Memorial Hotel and Convention Center. Guides will meet you as you disembark to show you to your rooms. Enjoy your stay and we'll see you Sunday for the return trip."

The group got up, Mary pouting when Taylor reclaimed her tablet, and grabbed their suitcases. As they exited the transport they found five guides waiting for them.

"Welcome," one of the guides said. "Each pair of you will be sharing a room, except for Mister Pavone and Miss Miller. You two will each be sharing with other individuals. We apologize for not being permitted to give you a room to yourselves, nor could we accommodate your request for a single bed."

"I can't believe they actually passed that on," Justin admitted. "I marked that down as a joke."

"It was amusing. Now then, let's get you all inside and to your rooms."

The eight of them were quickly split amongst the five guides and led into the hotel to be shown their rooms. On the way they were informed that the first round of defense sessions would start just after breakfast the following day, running until dinner with a break in the middle of the day for lunch. This would repeat on Friday, and then possibly continue Saturday morning if they hadn't gotten everyone in by then. Saturday afternoon there would be a small awards ceremony. They'd be departing around ten in the morning on Sunday.

Once Taylor and Amy were in their room Taylor sighed.

Taylor: Well, this might be an annoying trip.

Amy: Why?

Taylor: There are over a hundred snarks in my range right now. Pretty much all of them are likely staying in the hotel. I assume most of them are partnered with students participating, and thus people we may randomly run into.

Amy: Oh. Should you start poking all of them so we don't get distracted?

Taylor: Probably. I don't think we're concentrating on much else for the evening.

Taylor spent the rest of the night carefully going through the 'light introduction' method she'd taken to using with all of the snarks, even as she unpacked some of her stuff. Amy admitted near the beginning that the process was fascinating, and that she'd have helped if she could.

Thursday Taylor and Amy were woken up by their phones, which had been set as alarm clocks. They got up and got ready for the day, ensuring they had everything they should need, before heading out of the room and for the elevator. Breakfast was being served downstairs the entire trip, to 'encourage socialization'.

Their first shock of the day, however, was the elevator dropping into 'express' mode and bringing them down to the basement.

"Our apologies for the interruption," a security guard said standing right in front of the door said as it opened. "But the sensors in the elevator have determined that a gun is present outside of a locked case."

Taylor sighed. "I have a permit for that. Do you need to see it?"

"Out of state permits aren't valid here," the guard said, looking at Taylor. "Which means you'll need to return the gun to the locked container it obviously arrived in."

Taylor grumbled and pulled out her ID cards, removing the concealed carry permit and showing it to the guard. He visibly blinked in surprise, and then pulled a scanner device of some kind from his belt. He took the permit and scanned it with the scanner.

"My apologies Miss Hebert," the guard said after examining the scanner's screen, looking mildly annoyed for a moment before visibly forcing himself to relax as he returned the permit to Taylor. "I didn't realize you had a Federal permit. I will ensure that you are cleared in the system so that you aren't interrupted again."

"Thank you," Taylor said. "And don't worry about it, you were just doing your job."

"It still shouldn't have happened, but for some reason the scanner in the elevator didn't pick up on the permit. That is why I didn't think you had one. Just in case I'll be flagging your gun's serial number as allowed for your bio-signature, so that this hopefully won't happen again."

A couple minutes later the elevator had let the two out on their actual destination floor, and they made their way into the convention center cafeteria for breakfast. Which was a loud affair, with a lot of students from all over the country. The two ended up getting into the breakfast line behind a group of boys chatting in what Taylor thought was Spanish.

Amy: So do you have any idea why the scanner missed your permit?

Taylor: Probably because I had most of my IDs in one of the expanded pouches. I dropped them in one of the normal ones afterwards, so hopefully that won't happen again.

Amy: I suppose that could do it. So, are there any familiar snarks around?

Taylor: Three, so far anyway. A couple tinkers I recognize from the Vancouver fugue, plus Dauntless. None of them are in here, though. I suspect they're playing security.

Once the two had collected breakfast, Taylor getting a couple of odd looks for how much she'd grabbed, they looked for a place to sit. They actually found Elizabeth and Mary with a few empty seats across from them, and sat down with them.

"Hello you two," Elizabeth said. Mary was trying to hold onto her sister and eat breakfast at the same time. "I can't wait until my aunt gets here to help with Mary here."

"Hello," Taylor and Amy said, before Amy continued. "So why'd you bring Mary along anyway?"

"Dad's in the army and my mother had to make a sudden trip to take care of my grandmother in Pennsylvania. Mary coming along only got decided last week, since my aunt's out here and can help keep an eye on her for a few days. My brother was unhappy that he didn't get to come, but we couldn't leave Mary alone."

"At least she's easy to keep track of," Taylor said, grinning.

"I still don't know what got her to approach you yesterday. She's usually a lot more shy around strangers."

"She only wanted me for my games. Such a sad state of affairs."

"So I apparently got a slot this afternoon. You know when you're defending yet?"

"I'm apparently supposed to be sometime tomorrow afternoon, but they're juggling a few things due to some travel issues so they didn't have an exact time."

"Excuse me," a boy said from behind them, causing Taylor and Amy to turn to look at him. "Are you Taylor Hebert?"

"Yes," Taylor replied, raising an eyebrow.

"That's so cool," the boy said, bouncing a little. "Is it true that you know a bunch of capes in Brockton Bay?"

Taylor looked at Elizabeth, who was snickering. Then she looked at Amy, who was giggling. She then looked back at the boy. "Yes, I do know some capes from Brockton Bay."

"Awesome. I don't know any of the capes in Houston. Though the girl that's been collecting and training the strays doesn't bother with a mask. I think she came from Maine? She doesn't seem to attend school though, so maybe she's older than she looks."

"That must be Rachel. Does she seem to be doing ok?"

"Rachel? That sounds right. She's doing fine, she's collected a lot of the strays. Wait, you've met her?"

"Briefly, yes." Taylor thought he looked like he might start hyperventilating with excitement.

"Do you think there are any capes here? Oh, sorry, you couldn't tell me even if you do know, damn. It's nice to meet you, but I should go get something to eat and all, maybe I'll see you later. Bye!"

The group watched the boy leave, as did a number of other people. Taylor then sighed and went back to her breakfast.

"You have no idea how happy I am that you're being recognized," Amy said, grinning.

"That was hilarious," Elizabeth added. "Tunnel vision anyone?"

"Maybe the next one I'll actually point your way," Taylor said, giving Amy a look. Amy just stuck her tongue out. Damn it, she would be somewhat used to it anyway, wouldn't she?

Taylor and Amy were sitting in the back of a lecture-hall like room as a student's thesis on how Scion was acting like a depressed widower was torn to shreds by the panel. It wasn't quite as interesting as they'd hoped.

Taylor: Looks like they've figured out my talk with parahumans schedule.

Amy: Really? When do you start?

Taylor: Looks like they want me to tackle the first one in an hour.

Amy: Do we know what I'll be doing then?

Taylor: Not a clue. But the meeting's in the hotel, so we shouldn't be in danger of being forced out of range?

Amy: When will things have settled anyway?

BA: Data

S: Elaboration

BA: Agreement

Amy: Ok, hadn't thought of asking our snarks.

Taylor: I'll drop a message into the PRT system saying we should be good by midday tomorrow at the latest.

Once the presentation was complete they made their way out of the room and started working their way back towards the hotel itself. They could likely sit in on one more session before Taylor would be otherwise occupied. As they walked along, though, they didn't see any that looked like they wanted to attend.

"Angry Dragons is Dragon's attempt to relieve the stress caused by the Dragonslayers stealing her tech?" Amy read from one of the boards outside of the lecture hall areas. "Really?"

"It's a wonderful theory," Taylor admitted. "Too bad Dragon didn't make the Angry Dragons game."

Eventually they made it back to the hotel itself. Taylor had been asked to go to the second floor meeting rooms, and they were met by a hotel security guard.

"Hello Miss Hebert, Miss Dallon," the guard said. "We understand that a tinkertech accident has resulted in the two of you needing to remain somewhat close to one another, so we've opened up the entertainment area in room twelve for Miss Dallon. Miss Hebert, you'll be briefed across the hall in room eleven."

"Thank you," Taylor said. She could tell that there were two other parahumans on the floor, though she didn't recognize either of them.

The two made their way down the hall, finding rooms eleven and twelve were pretty much right in the middle. Amy made her way into the 'entertainment area' as Taylor entered the room she'd be briefed in.

Amy: Good luck.

Taylor: Thanks.

"Good morning Miss Hebert," the only occupant of room eleven said as Taylor entered.

"Good morning Alexandria," Taylor said, a little star-struck.

"I'd like to thank you for remaining discreet about the number of parahumans attending this event. Did putting you in the middle of the eighty or so help with that?"

"Er, yes, but there were over a hundred in my range last night, and I've picked up an additional ten or so since then?"

"I'll let the Protectorate teams know. It's likely that there were just unknown parahumans in the student set, but better safe than sorry. Now then, We'd like to run you through eight different parahuman therapy sessions. Two this morning, two this afternoon, two tomorrow morning, and two tomorrow afternoon. Each of these sessions will be remotely monitored and recorded for later review. This morning we're starting with two Wards who were already going to be here. We'd like you to take no more than thirty minutes in each session."

"Alright. Is there anything else I need to know?"

"A PRT officer will be assisting you once I leave, but before I do I'm wondering what my, er, snark wants from me."

"Ah, give me a moment to check."

Taylor: Hello.

[Query]

Taylor: Yes, I am talking to your human. She's curious if there's anything you'd like her to do?

[Excitement. Query]

Amy: Wait, what?

Taylor: You want to know how she flies?

[Agreement]

Taylor: Isn't that something you do for her?

[Negation. Elaboration]

Taylor absently noted that Amy had collapsed backward into the chair she was sitting in, apparently in a state of shock.

Taylor: Huh. Anything else?

[...Data]

Taylor: Oh, and you're hungry. Well, I think I can help with that a little.

"Your snark is hungry," Taylor said even as she felt her own snark starting the energy transfer. "I'm feeding it some energy now. But, well, it apparently has been doing everything it can to figure out how you fly? But no matter how much of your thinking it takes over it can't figure out how you release yourself from gravity."

Alexandria was visibly startled by that. "What do you mean? Doesn't it grant me flight?"

"It claims that you have internalized the art of throwing yourself at the ground and missing, and that all it does is let you control yourself once you've done that. Apparently the latter was intended for use on the ground? It just adapted it for use when you've released yourself from gravity."

"I...huh. I have no idea, though that does explain why it took me so long to figure out the trick. And probably why my memory and such started to improve drastically once I did. I originally thought it was just something wrong with how I was viewing my powers, or that it was taking time to adapt or ramp up or something."

"If you stick around for a few I'll let you know when I'm done feeding your snark."

"Thank you. Now then, your first 'patient' is down the hall, I'm sure you can find the correct room easily enough. They're expecting you."

"You're welcome." Taylor made her way out of the room, and would swear that she heard Alexandria muttering 'I do what?' to herself.

Upon reaching the door that the other parahuman was behind Taylor paused, taking a deep breath. The person in the room didn't know she was a parahuman, which meant this would be a first for her. Hopefully she wouldn't screw it up?

The dark-skinned woman looked over the current glowing piece of 'corpse'. It matched what they'd expected.

"I suppose this means that we'll have to tell David," she muttered. "Maybe the day of the girl's power testing? Wouldn't want him to barge in to confront her in public, after all."

A little over an hour after she'd started, Taylor led Amy back into the main convention space.

Amy: I think we need to coordinate schedules in the future.

Taylor: So you find the therapy sessions as distracting as I find your healing sessions?

Amy: Yep.

Taylor had worked with the two Wards, one boy and one girl. The girl had gone first and had been having issues with her tinker specialty, which was upgrading things instead of constructing them, specifically to add unrelated 'utility' features. She also needed to figure out if she wanted to date or kill the boy that had triggered with her. Taylor had pointed out that doing both was probably a bad idea.

The boy, on the other hand, had been easier to figure out. He had some lingering issues with dogs from his trigger event, but he was dealing with it with the help of the west coast therapists. The only issue he had with his power was that he was only using part of it. Sensing every canine in the area didn't help if all he did was avoid them, he needed to use the 'tap into their senses' bit more often.

Amy: I still can't get over your talk with Alexandria's snark.

Taylor: I'm doing my best to not think of it. The implications are odd.

"So," Taylor said. "I think a session on not relying on parahumans to heal people is coming up. Want to see if we can sit in on it?"

"That sounds interesting," Amy replied. "Which room is it in?"

Taylor was getting more nervous about her own 'thesis' by the time they were heading back towards the hotel for her second set of 'therapist' sessions. So far every single 'defense' they'd sat in on had been metaphorically torn apart by the 'panel'. The only saving grace was that just under half of them had been given a good review by the panel afterwards. She just wasn't sure she'd be able to handle the pressure.

"You'll do fine," Amy said, rolling her eyes. "Have they narrowed down your timeslot yet?"

"Nope," Taylor replied. "But given that they're shuffling others around due to delays with sessions that ran over a little I guess it's understandable. I was a last minute addition as well, and they've been trying to cycle actual experts in for everything."

"Oooh," a girl said as she stopped and turned to catch up with them before they actually made it out of the convention area. "Are you Jacob's niece?"

"Yes, I am," Taylor replied. They had some time, but this was starting to get weird.

"My name's Claire, your uncle is awesome! He helped some of our capes out recently."

"Good to hear it, but that is kinda his job."

"Well, yeah, but it's still awesome. Shows that even those without powers can help those with them and all. I'm studying parahumans to hopefully be able to do the same in a few years."

"Good luck to you, then. I have to get going."

"Oh, right, sorry! Have a nice day."

Taylor watched the girl rush off, then shook her head. "You can stop grinning, you know."

"No chance," Amy said. "It's quite nice being the one nobody notices for a change."

"Let's just get going. I do have things to do."

"Right, lead on."

The afternoon pair of parahumans had been older, apparently part of the event security. One of the was a thinker, who specialized in spotting patterns in things. Taylor had ended up recommending that she also work at hiding patterns, because her snark was bored with just looking for them. The other was a brute, who didn't exercise her ability to anchor herself to stone often enough. Concrete and pavement apparently didn't count.

"So what's that?" Amy asked, pointing at a large display off to the side. They hadn't wandered this way earlier, so hadn't seen it yet.

"A drawing-rigging contest?" Taylor said. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Let's take a look."

The two made their way over to where a small group of students were poking at the large machine. A sign indicated that all of the students and their guests would be entered into the machine on Saturday, and five names would be picked by it for prizes. But the machine was being left out so that people could attempt to rig it in their favor. Any successful rigging would be rewarded with a cash prize, as the goal was to see if new potential methods of cheating could be defended against before they went into use.

"They actually have a moped listed as being 'just like the one Jacob gave to his niece'," Amy said, looking over the prize list. "Just without the security features."

"I bet I could rig this so you could get the moped," Taylor said, looking at the machine. Her tinker snark telling her all kinds of things about how it worked. She couldn't build it, but she didn't need to. "Unless you want one of the other prizes instead?"

"Being more self-mobile would be nice. And I bet I could get some of the security stuff added afterwards. But do you really think you could pull it off?"

"I think so."

Taylor: They specifically say that thinkers and tinkers are allowed to participate, and my power is telling me that the other attempts so far are unlikely to work.

Amy: Really? What's already been tried?

Taylor: Several attempts at adjusting the config files in memory, but if the machine is turned off at any point those will be wiped. I don't think anyone's considered trying to change the primary memory chip, but apparently it has a checksum verification so if they did things would fail outright.

Amy: So what would you do differently?

Taylor: It has ten slots for lists, so I just need to arrange to be able to populate and switch to a secondary list.

Amy: Wouldn't that also be wiped if they restart it?

Taylor: Not if I do it during the drawing.

Amy: And how would you do that?

Taylor: By adding a little extra hardware, and hoping nobody spots it?

Amy: You know what? Go for it. Maybe we can make it incredibly obvious that the other four prizes were rigged too?

Taylor grinned, and moved around the back of the machine where none of the other students were right now, all of those currently looking over it poking at the code through the ports in the front. She was sure that those running the competition would notice something attached to the outside, but that wasn't her only option. She slipped the knife from her thigh-sheath and abused it as a screwdriver, popping a maintenance panel off. Right where her power said things were was a secondary serial connector, intended for an internal control unit that wasn't present.

Seeing that everything looked like she expected it to, she slipped her hand into one of her deeper pouches and came out with a small device she had intended to hook into switches on lights or similar at some point. The important part was the Bluetooth serial controller she had used as a toggle for the relay. She extracted that, then pulled a bandaid out of a different pouch. She slightly loosened a couple of screws, then wrapped the Bluetooth board in the bandaid and carefully slid it under the main board of the machine. Some careful positioning of leads allowed it to interface with the serial port on the bottom of the board.

A couple more wires slid carefully into place for power and everything was in position. She pulled out a phone to check the connections, running the tests her power said were used to test connectivity to the system in the first place. All of that worked, so she used some liquid bandage to keep anything from coming loose, then tightened the screws down again. She did frown at her knife, she really needed a proper toolkit. And probably a new knife.

Thinking about it some more, she decided to rig things in an obvious manner as well. She had a spare of the little serial boards in a second device where it connected to an IR module she'd intended to use to change channels on TVs. It was trivial to pull that out and attach it on the top of the board, mirroring what she'd done underneath. Hopefully if they checked they'd find the obvious one and miss the one she'd hidden.

With that in place and tested she slipped the maintenance cover back on, and then moved around to the front of the machine. There she decided to run more quick tests. She used the hidden serial link to input five names into list three, switched to list three, and even remotely hit the 'pick a name' button. A moment later one of her five names came up, so she cleared the list and set it back to list one. She then disconnected that one and used the not-so-hidden link to do the same, but with list seven and only one name. That name came up as well. Even better, none of the others appeared to have noticed as she hadn't walked up to the controls.

She considered that there was a good chance that someone would find both of her little hardware hacks, but only time would tell, right? Besides, when she was done the inside looked identical to when she'd started, as far as she could tell, at least once you removed the obvious serial unit. So a quick check of things would hopefully not give the real trick away.

"You done?" Amy asked.

"Yep," Taylor replied, even as she checked the PRT store. She built an order for more serial boards and extra connector cables, as well as a new knife. She considered things, and then added a bunch of other cables, a couple of proper tool kits for at home and in her civilian kit, and spares of all the little Bluetooth boards available. Checking it over, she smirked and submitted it.

Amy: So, how badly do you want to rig things?

Taylor: Were there any other interesting prizes?

Amy: A trip for four to Florida, an autographed Triumvirate poster, one of Dragon's new tablets, and a voucher for asking the Think Tank five questions.

Taylor: Think I should drop Mary in for the tablet? I bet we could have Angry Dragons on it with plenty of time before we head home.

Amy: I bet she'd love that. What about the other three?

Taylor: Dunno yet. Maybe we'll be inspired, or maybe I'll see if anyone else has gotten anything working.

Chapter 71 Thursday night Taylor and Amy had dinner in a mixed group. There was a boyfriend and girlfriend from Ohio, girlfriends from Tennessee, and a couple of friends from North Dakota. The participating students from all three groups had gone through their defenses already, and all of them thought they'd done horribly. Their guests, however, seemed to think they'd done fine. Taylor wondered if that was how she was going to feel when she finally had hers.

After dinner the general idea was supposed to be "socialize", with a collection of things being opened up in the main convention area to that effect. Areas with video games, arcade games, a reading area with a sound-shield of some kind. There was a trampoline in the middle and some badminton equipment at one end, with two well-lit basketball courts set up in the largely empty parking lot outside.

With all of that going on, Taylor and Amy ended up in the hotel's bar, which was quieter but didn't count as 'hiding in their room' if anyone complained.

"So both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic bars are open," Amy said between sips of her juice. "Why?"

"In case someone like me wants a drink?" Taylor offered, frowning at her tablet. She was working on writing an interface that would let her run the serial units with her brain through the smartphone, but had to look up some samples for how to talk on both protocols. She wouldn't bother if she didn't think it would look more impressive to rig the name-drawing machine without seeming to need to be holding anything.

"Did you just say you could get an alcoholic drink if you wanted to?" an older boy asked from the next table.

"Yes she did," Amy answered, rolling her eyes.

"Bullshit," the boy said.

Taylor: You want to record reactions if I go over and buy a drink?

Amy: That sounds hilarious. Won't your father be annoyed, though?

Taylor: He said if I do abuse the card to get pictures.

Amy: Ah, ok then. Go for it.

Taylor made a point to sigh as she locked her tablet for the moment, then got up and walked over to the alcoholic bar. She removed and flipped through her ID cards, showing the appropriate one to the bartender. He took it and scanned it with something behind the counter.

"What can I get you?" the bartender asked.

"Ten ounces of whiskey," Taylor replied, putting the ID away and pulling out her charge card. A minute later her card and a glass of whisky were put down in front of her. She put the charge card away, downed the glass in one shot, then returned to her seat to get back to work on her code.

Amy: I am so posting this on PHO.

Taylor: Be my guest. I think at least nine others recorded it too, so if you want first dibs you should get moving.

Friday morning Amy and Taylor woke before their alarms and made it down to breakfast faster. Taylor was grinning at the messages she had gotten from her father and Lacey, both of whom found the looks on the faces of the other students when she'd ordered the whiskey amusing.

Amy: Did you finish your little program after I went to sleep?

Taylor: Nope. While looking for inspiration I found one that already existed, intended for a fancy keyboard that displays things on it instead of the device screen. It's intended for old-school terminals, but that's basically what I'm using.

Amy: I suppose you should have looked for something existing first?

Taylor: Probably. I want to swing over there and make sure it works at some point, though.

Amy: We can do that first thing, before anyone else is there to notice.

The two finished up before most of the other students had made it down and wandered into the convention area. A few minutes later Taylor had made various amusing names come up on the screen of the machine, without pulling her phone out at all. For fun she then turned the machine off, waited a couple minutes, and turned it back on to forcibly clear any software hacks installed the day before.

"Looks like there's a defense on why thinkers shouldn't be barred from playing the stock market first thing," Amy said, looking through the list. "Want to go see it? Nothing else is jumping out at me."

"Why not," Taylor said. "We've got time before I'm otherwise occupied for an hour or so. Though just before lunch I think I want to hit the session talking about the Slaughterhouse Nine being good guys."

"What? How'd I miss that one?"

"Well, it was one of the rescheduled ones, it was originally supposed to be last night."

"Why did we go to that one again?" Amy asked as they left a session.

"Because it sounded interesting?" Taylor replied. "I mean, really, how could we have known that their theory was actually a thinly-veiled 'powers are demonic in origin' spiel?"

"Her title and lead-in were incredibly deceptive, that's for sure."

"Claiming that every parahuman needs to have an exorcism done to strip them of their powers was a bit much too."

"The panel full of priests and such of different denominations tearing her arguments to shreds was nice, though."

The two made their way back to the hotel so that Taylor could do her thing with a couple more parahumans. Amy had taken to just laying down on the couch in the 'entertainment center'. She wasn't quite good enough at pushing what was going on to the back of her mind yet to fully function.

Taylor frowned as they approached the hotel. There were two snarks already on the second floor. No, there was one snark in two places? Then again, she'd seen that back in Brockton Bay too, even if she hadn't spoken to them yet. They were in a room together, so she'd apparently find out more on that front shortly.

Twins were pains in the ass. Didn't matter if they triggered together or apart, they were pains. Or at least that was Taylor's impression after dealing with two sets, the first set had been identical twins that had triggered together, the second fraternal twins that had triggered a week apart.

The identical twins were primarily brutes that had ended up sharing a snark because of identical genetics and near-identical position, but the connection was slightly different for each of them. That was coupled with oddities in how the snark had connected to each. In particular, the twin with the stronger legs had a need to punch and the twin with the stronger arms had a need to kick. Luckily their strength was uprated in general so that wouldn't hinder them too much, but figuring out what was wrong had been annoying.

The fraternal twins had two entirely different snarks. One of them was a mover, the other a changer. They did not get along in the least, despite apparently each getting a snark originating from one of their parents. Supposedly they'd been better before triggering, and Taylor had determined that their snark-induced 'urges' were incompatible with one another. She'd actually gone to the point of recommending that they be split up onto different teams.

She still wasn't sure what she should think of the fact that she basically threatened to hit their snarks hard if they hadn't calmed down midway through the session.

Amy: I think you did the right thing to get the snarks to calm down, you know.

Taylor: Still seems like the wrong approach to take from a therapy point of view.

Amy: The goal's to do what's best for the human, right? So if you have to threaten the snark a little so you can get through to the human and all?

Taylor: I see it as doing what's best for both sides. Half the time what's best for the human seems to be to use Shaper to safely disconnect their powers permanently.

Amy: Ok, I can appreciate that view. Not sure I agree with it, but I can see where you're coming from.

"What's that over there?" Taylor asked, gesturing to where a large screen was set up.

"Not sure," Amy said. "Wanna take a look? The next session we wanted to see isn't supposed to start for twenty minutes or so."

It turned out that they were showing 'unreleased cape clips' of various kinds from the PRT archives. Things like Legend working with a blacksmith, Myrddin filling a swimming pool, Chevalier firing at an unknown enemy. There was gossip about a previous Narwhal clip, and apparently if they stuck around it would loop back to some Wards clips.

For added fun, at least two people were whining about something preventing them from recording the screen. Apparently their cameras just picked up pure white. Taylor focused a bit and her tinker snark told her how it worked, a small box integrated into the screen's stand that detected cameras and caused special emitters built into the screen to blank them out.

A quick check showed that the entire series of clips was available via the PRT app, if you had clearance, so they merely bookmarked that and moved on. Maybe they'd watch them later, maybe they wouldn't. They had a session to get to, instead of waiting for interesting clips to eventually come up.

"I didn't expect the arguments for the Nine being good to be that thought out," Taylor mused as they stood in line to get lunch. The session had run a little over on time, so they hadn't gotten there before the lines had grown.

"Arguing from the knock-off effects of attacks was interesting," Amy agreed. "I'm going to have to check that study they referenced on what kinds of people they kill most often, though it makes sense that the most violent people would be the most likely to get killed."

"Well yeah, but they're the ones attacking the Nine. The smarter non-violent people do their best to get out of the way."

"And the dumber non-violent people try to stick around and record them."

"Touché."

They collected their lunch and found a place to sit discussing some of the finer points of the session as they did. They were almost done eating when Taylor got a message on her phone, and made a point of taking the phone out to look at it.

"Looks like my session is one of the last ones tonight," Taylor said. "Last session in hall seven, even. They've got a fifteen minute buffer in place in case of overruns."

"At least they finally let you know," Amy said.

"Sucks to be one of the last ones," a nearby girl added. "I'm happy I got mine out of the way yesterday."

"I've kept busy," Taylor said, shrugging. "Been doing my best to not worry about it and all."

"Good attitude. Now if only my boyfriend would stop trying to hack the name-picking machine."

"What's he aiming for?" Amy asked.

"He wants the moped or the tablet, maybe the poster. We're from Florida, and in fact the hotel mentioned is less than a mile from my house, plus we couldn't think of anything to ask the Think Tank that we thought they'd answer."

Taylor: I am so tempted to get his name from her and push the trip on him if my hack is still there tomorrow. But then someone who might enjoy it wouldn't get it. Seems like a waste at that point.

Amy: Tough call.

"So what's his strategy?" Taylor asked, curious.

"He thinks he can set it to filter the names so that one of our names comes up on the third and fifth selections," the girl answered. "He figured it wouldn't be fair to filter to just the two of us for all five."

Taylor: He's being fair enough, I guess. Better to leave things to chance?

Amy: I'm tempted to tell you to ensure he doesn't get the poster if you can.

Taylor: Well, he is ignoring his girlfriend, so leaving him with equal chances for the other two sounds amusing enough.

"I wonder how many people are actually attempting to hack that thing," Amy said, looking in the general direction of the convention floor. "I mean, the sheer number of conflicting things?"

"He said he's spent half his time trying to ensure that his hack bypasses everyone else's hacks," the girl explained. "That and doing a better job of hiding it. He thought he'd done a good job last night, but this morning he checked and someone had wiped it from the machine. He's refused to budge while he finds the sneakiest way to hide it he can."

"I get the feeling he took the wrong approach," Taylor admitted, only to get several people looking at her. "If it's anything like, say, a slot machine then the main software is probably read-only. So no matter what you do in memory it resets as soon as someone turns it off. There's probably a chip they have to replace to change the software, and I doubt anyone brought a chip programmer."

"I vote we tell noone about that," a boy chimed in. "I don't think anyone has considered that, and I want to see their faces tomorrow when they find out."

The group was quick to agree, with others who hadn't been close enough to hear being refused the secret.

After lunch Amy dragged Taylor into a session that amounted to being on the pros and cons of charging for parahuman healing. Not that Taylor put up much of a fight. They found it interesting, and then popped into the next lecture hall down for a session arguing that the rules for tinker-derived food products were too strict. Once they had attended both of those it was time for Taylor's last set of therapist sessions.

"I mostly agreed with some of the points regarding lifting the rules for tinker-derived food," Amy said as they meandered towards the hotel. "But not quite to the degree that they think things should be lifted."

"Did you notice that half the rules they were complaining about don't even apply to most tinker-derived products?" Taylor asked.

"What do you...oh, most of them would only apply to an outright biotinker, wouldn't they. Someone using normally grown ingredients doesn't have to worry about most of them."

"Bingo. The panel focused more on where her arguments about safety were wrong, but that would have been another good way to negate most of her arguments as well."

"That sounds like an awfully specific distinction," another student, who had been heading the same general direction, noted. "Why would either of you be aware of that? Did one of you do a similar topic?"

"The overachiever here probably got curious after comments I made," Amy replied. "I obviously had a personal interest in things."

"Why would you obviously have a personal interest?"

"You're apparently harder to identify out of costume," Taylor noted. "No wonder everyone's been spotting me instead."

"Out of...you're Panacea!"

Well, that got a lot of attention from the nearby students. On the other hand, Amy was now the center of attention, which was amusing.

Amy: Damn, I only got a day and a half. Can we hurry up and get to your appointment?

Taylor: I just realized, why are you coming along? At this point we should be good to be apart and all.

Amy: Apart? Maybe. I can't focus when you're doing the therapy thing though, so it's for the best that I'm somewhere I don't have to interact with anyone.

Taylor: Ah, right. Good call. I suppose this is the last set anyway.

"As amusing as this is," Taylor said, interrupting several people who were clustered around them now. "We actually have things we'd like to be doing that aren't being fawned over? Besides, don't you have sessions you want to see too?"

Most of the nearby students looked embarrassed as they mumbled apologies and moved away, a couple looked startled as they checked the time and darted off, and one in particular seemed to be giggling at the whole scene.

Amy shook her head as Taylor led the way back to the hotel.

Amy: I wonder how many more times people are going to swarm me now that people realize that I'm here?

Taylor: I've only been approached a couple of times so far, so hopefully cooler heads will prevail.

Amy: Damn you, if that jinxed me...

Taylor sighed as the last parahuman left the room, her tinker snark absently noting that the cameras had turned off. The first parahuman this afternoon had been fine. A little young, bit of snark-induced ADHD, but easily kept on track once you realized that. Cute, too, actually. She needed to explore the potential of her breaker state a bit more, and Taylor had provided a couple of ideas, but otherwise she was doing quite well. Not as much trauma to worry about in a second-gen to begin with, luckily.

The second one didn't want help, and his snark didn't want help. At least not from some 'weak little girl' in the former case or 'some prissy administrator' in the second. The snark had changed its tune when Broadcast Administrator 'punched' it. The human had lashed out at that point, but when Taylor took his punch without complaint and then just righted her chair and sat back down had looked shocked. She'd even bluffed her way through with a comment about precautions having been taken, then had somehow gotten him to talk about how his trigger event occurred. They'd run over a bit, but it seemed like he needed to get that off his chest.

A moment later Amy wandered into the room, interrupting her thoughts. The other girl looked at the destroyed table, and then poked Taylor. The forming minor bruise was dealt with in an instant.

"Did you have to let him punch you?" Amy asked.

"As far as I could tell it was the most effective way to get him to calm down," Taylor replied. "Besides, he was temporarily depowered anyway, so it was only his unnaturally large muscles in the first place. We both know the bruise would probably have healed before it even became visible."

"Yeah, but you still let him punch you. Look at what he did to the table."

"Meh. He smashed the table after his snark recovered, midway through getting things off of his chest. Regardless, I'm pretty sure I failed that one, as I don't think I'm supposed to lash out at their snarks when they aren't cooperative."

"Well, come on. You should probably review your paper before your session comes up."

"You mean I can't just wing it?"

"No, you can't."

They'd split up at that point, Taylor popping up to their room where her tablet was before heading back down to the convention area. She found a nice spot near hall seven where she could sit and look over her paper. Amy had made her way to a session she wanted to see. Due to where their room was this did lead to the two being outside of Taylor's snark-sense range for the first time since the thing with Leet. It didn't change their ability to sense each other at all, which was expected.

Taylor absently noted multiple people stopping near her, only to look at the sign next to hall seven and leave her alone. She was just finishing looking over the paper itself when a loud screech came from inside the lecture hall, causing Taylor to look up. The previous session had ended a couple minutes before, and people had already been exiting. Several looked back, but kept moving as a second screech came from inside the hall.

The last person out was one of the facility's staff members, who had ensured everyone else was out first. They then closed the doors, before sighing. A moment later one of the security guards showed up.

"What happened?" the security guard asked.

"Some of the scaffolding the speakers and such hang from started to slip," the staff member said. "Luckily we were done and everyone was getting ready to leave anyway."

"Let me lock the doors so nobody goes in there, then I'll let the maintenance staff know. They're good, probably have everything fixed by morning."

"Well, at least there was only one more session in here. I suppose we'll need to bump it to morning. I'll go get them to send the alerts out."

Taylor groaned at that. She'd just spent all that time reviewing her paper only for technical issues to delay things. Sure enough, a couple minutes later she got a notice that her defense would be in the morning, location TBD.

Deciding that if she wasn't doing her defense that she might as well watch someone else's she grabbed her tablet and made her way to hall twenty-six, where the last topic of the day was an argument that they shouldn't let the Simurgh stop them from space exploration.

Not once did she look up to notice that the lecture halls didn't have scaffolding.

"So apparently you're one of fifteen or so students here who have alcohol cards," Amy said as they wandered through the convention area after dinner. "Or at least one of fifteen or so that's used one, anyway."

"Where'd that come up?" Taylor asked.

"Gossip earlier after we split up said most of them have been using theirs to have a glass of wine with dinner, you're the only one to order a glass of whiskey."

"I guess that makes sense. Heh, looks like there's a group still going at the name-picker."

"They have until they kick us back to our rooms tonight, right?"

"That's what the sign said when I looked."

Amy: Your hacks still there?

Taylor: Looks like it.

Amy: So at least the other students haven't spotted them.

Taylor: I wouldn't be surprised if most of them haven't considered opening the back of the thing in the first place.

Amy: Good point. They do seem unusually focused on the software. I suppose nobody who knows things likely reset when you restart them has said anything to this group?

Taylor: Probably. Huh, my snark seems to think someone's messed with the RNG chip, though. But if the list has a single entry like I'm planning that won't matter.

Amy: But they didn't remove your hack when they did that?

Taylor: Doesn't look like it. Maybe they didn't realize it wasn't supposed to be there?

"Looks like they've got movies running in a couple of the halls," Amy said, pointing off to the side. "Popcorn and drinks available just outside and everything. Want to see one?"

"Sure," Taylor said, sidestepping someone who was walking backwards talking to their friend. "Why not? Got a preference for which one?"

"Can't tell what's playing yet."

"Ahh, I suppose that would be an important detail."

They'd ended up watching The Ragged Butterfly, which was apparently based on a true story about a cape in Italy. It was passable, but neither would be recommending it to anyone else. Nor would the rest of those that had watched it, if everyone's reactions had anything to say about it. At least the popcorn had been good.

"Is it late enough that we can just go back up to our room yet?" Taylor asked. "Or will they have a problem with us doing so? Might not be so bad if they let us into Vegas proper, but I suspect they'd feel we'd need chaperones then."

"They probably want us to socialize for another half hour at least," Amy answered, shrugging.

The two continued to wander, until they found a large group surrounding a small 'stage'. Which looked like it had been intended for karaoke or something, but instead had a girl apparently doing an 'I can guess the card you picked' bit.

Amy: Wanna bet she's using her snark?

Taylor: Wanna go and see how badly we can screw with her? She seems to actually be taking money in.

Amy: Can we do that?

Taylor: Hello there! What do you do for your human?

[Data. Curiosity. Query]

Taylor: I'm in the audience. So you give your human specific information about what someone sees, provided she's touched the person and specified what it is. Interesting.

Amy: Is she doing that by specifying the next card face as part of her trick?

[Agreement]

Taylor: I say we give it a shot. Worst case, she can pull her trick with us and we give up after the first try. Best case Broadcast Administrator intercepts the request and we lie our asses off.

Taylor figured Amy's grin was agreement enough, so she made her way towards the stage, Amy trailing behind her.

"I call bullshit," Taylor said as she reached the stage. "You're using audience plants."

Amy: Looks like a few people recognized you and are getting their phones out.

"Really?" the girl said, looking down at Taylor. Her current mark took that as an invitation to hop off the stage. "Get up here and I'll show you otherwise." She then held out her hand to 'help' Taylor up onto the stage. The fact that this let her get skin contact was probably the actual goal.

BA: Data

Amy: Awesome, so we can lie when she pulls her trick?

BA: Agreement

Amy: This is gonna be good.

"So smart-alec," the girl said, shuffling the deck of cards she'd been using, she then fanned it out in front of her. "Pick a card, any card."

Taylor grabbed a card at random, barely looking. The girl then collapsed the deck back down and stepped back. Taylor then glanced at her card.

[Query]

Taylor: Five of hearts.

"Five of hearts," the girl said, and Taylor frowned and showed that it was indeed the five of hearts.

Amy: What are you doing?

Taylor: Lulling her into a false sense of security.

"Lucky guess," Taylor said, throwing the card at the other girl.

"I bet you twenty bucks I can do it again," the girl said as she caught the card and shuffled it back into the deck.

"Alright," Taylor said. Luckily Amy was grinning enough for both of them now.

The girl finished shuffling, and walked up to Taylor with the cards fanned out again. "Well, take a card."

Taylor took one, and the girl backed off again. Looking at the card, she waited for the other girl's snark.

[Query]

Taylor: Sixteen of hearts.

"Sixteen of hearts!" The girl said. "Wait..."

"Sorry," Taylor said, showing the eight of hearts. "But I don't think you got that one right."

"Dammit," the girl said, frowning. "Double or nothing?"

"Alright," Taylor said, tossing the card back to the girl. She caught it and stared at it, frowning and muttering something about 'cross-eyed', before shuffling it back into the deck. The fanned out deck was presented to Taylor again, and she took a card.

[Query]

Taylor: Wild Draw Four.

"Wild draw four?" the girl said, blinking, and sounding quite confused.

"I think you might be a little tired," Taylor said, shaking her head and showing the ace of spades she was holding. "That isn't even from the right kind of deck."

"Maybe it's you," Amy offered. "Maybe she'll have better luck with me?"

"You are the more known quantity," Taylor admitted. "But I think she owes me forty bucks."

"Right, yeah," the girl said, pulling two twenties out of a pocket and handing them over. She then made a point of helping Amy up as Taylor hopped down. "So you want to give it a try?"

"Why not," Amy said. "Worth a few minutes of my time, anyway."

The girl shuffled the deck and offered it to Amy. She took a card, then looked at it.

[Query]

Amy: Six of spades.

"Six of spades," the girl said, sounding more confident.

"Six of clubs," Amy countered, showing the card. "Close, though. And it was even the right kind of card."

The girl got a determined look on her face as she reclaimed the card and shuffled it back into the deck. "I think I just lost my focus, with you and your friend having interrupted me and all." She then fanned the cards out again, and Amy took one without any further prompting.

[Query]

Amy: The Fool.

"The Fool?" the girl said, blinking. "How?"

"I don't think that counts as the Queen of Diamonds," Amy said, showing the card she was holding. She then stepped up to the girl to return the card. "Are you ok?"

"I'm not sure."

"I can take a look if you want?"

The girl looked at Amy, and then blinked a couple of times. "Oh, you're Panacea. Er, sure, take a look. You have my permission."

Amy flipped her striker switch and poked the girl, and actually found and dealt with a tapeworm. She then leaned forward to get next to the girl's ear.

"You had a tapeworm," Amy whispered, though Taylor still picked it up. "Also, some people can spot and fool thinkers. I'd suggest you not do this kind of thing for money in the future."

The girl was visibly startled, but murmured a 'thanks' anyway before Amy headed back towards Taylor.

"I think we can head upstairs now," Amy said as she hopped off of the stage. "Though perhaps we should see if there's still cheesecake in the cafeteria before we do."

"Sounds like a plan," Taylor said as she followed Amy back towards the hotel. "What kind you hoping they still have available?"

"Strawberry or chocolate, I think."

Neither girl paid a lot of attention to the frantic typing on phones as people worked to be the first to post to PHO, nor to the fact that the girl they'd left on stage was staring at them as they left.

Chapter 72 Saturday morning at breakfast Taylor found herself thinking that she'd been played the night before, at least if the number of additional snarks around was any indication. She even recognized a couple of them, which just made her conviction that they'd been planning things stronger.

"Miss Hebert?" one of the staff said as they approached. "I wanted to make sure you knew that you'll be in hall one this morning."

"So how much planning went into fooling me the past couple of days?" Taylor asked. Everyone around her had gone silent, curious about what was going on, and that circle of silent students had widened at Taylor's question.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm currently under the impression that there's a reason I was pushed to this morning. Or rather, was probably really scheduled for this morning from the start. But the entire charade that was likely pulled seems a bit over the top. Couldn't I have just been told?"

"I see you've paid attention," the staff member said, sighing. "Truth is, we didn't want you to worry, so a couple of local thinkers came up with the plan to keep you from realizing anything was up."

"You could have pulled that off in five minutes, tops, on Wednesday, and I wouldn't have thought anything odd was going on."

"And how would we have done that?"

"Simple. A single apologetic message explaining that because of my last-minute inclusion my panel wouldn't be available until Saturday."

"But...we had a dozen people working to ensure it wouldn't look odd, and all we had to do..."

"So, lecture hall one. What time?"

"Er, nine thirty."

"Thank you."

Taylor went back to her breakfast, grumbling about idiots. Amy shrugged and went back to her own breakfast. Eventually everyone else around them did the same.

Taylor scowled as she looked up at the cameras, her tinker snark telling her quite a bit about them and the entire system they were a part of. A number of segments of wiring needed some work or outright replacement, the central control panel had several capacitors starting to fail and needed a new CMOS battery, and a few other details like that were one thing. The current configuration of the system was another. Like, for example, that they had all the other halls displaying the camera feeds from this one, likely so that pretty much everyone could watch. Really? Why do that to her? Plus a remote feed of some kind, that she knew nothing more about because it was no longer part of the local system. And why had she focused on her tinker snark enough to figure all of that out? Now she was aware she was probably going to be the absolute center of attention. Dammit.

To distract herself from that she focused on the other thing annoying her. Namely, what was up with the number of adult parahumans in the room? They hadn't even allowed any students other than her and Amy into this room at all, actually. Just to play it safe, she decided to message her uncle, who was poking at his phone in the third row next to Jessica. Who when Taylor looked was grinning at her.

T: So, what's with all the parahumans?

J: Oh, I think a full two thirds of the PRT's Parahuman Psychologists are here.

J: Which is, well, two thirds of all Parahuman Psychologists in the US and Canada, really.

T: Are you saying that they're all parahumans?

J: Of course not. I'm sure that some of the ones I haven't met are normal humans.

J: I mean, statistically speaking, someone has to have entered the field without powers, right?

T: How many of them are aware that the others are parahumans?

J: Er, maybe six total? If that. I think.

Taylor really wanted to groan at that, but she resisted. At least she knew that the pile of parahumans was expected. Of course, being told she was going to be in front of a room full of experts, instead of maybe five, was an entirely different problem for her peace of mind.

"Good morning Miss Hebert," came from behind Taylor, causing her to turn around. "I'm Tamara Killam, one of the organizers of this event. You can call me Tamara. I apologize both for the deception and that we let thinkers go over the top in organizing it. Still, your paper generated a significant interest in the members of the fledgling Parahuman Psychology field. We had too many volunteers for your panel, in fact, which is part of the reason we went to all of the trouble in the first place."

"Is that why so many of the PRT's Parahuman Psychologists are in the hall?" Taylor asked, causing Tamara's eyebrow to rise.

"Yes, though I'm not sure how you figured that out. I believe what amounts to the rest of them intend to watch the live feed and send questions to some of those that were able to attend today. Due to the interest we haven't actually set a time limit, which will hopefully help serve as more real-life demonstration for the other students, even if normally you wouldn't have quite this number of 'experts'. Having read your paper I'm not as surprised about it as I could have been, it was very well written and seemed to be well researched."

"Thank you."

"Now then, right now we're just waiting for everyone to get settled. There's a glass and some water in the podium if you need it during your defense as well."

Tamara was interrupted by someone else, leaving Taylor to fret about the entire situation. All the students and pretty much every Parahuman Psychologist employed by the PRT? Seriously?

Amy: Calm down, I'm sure you'll do fine.

Taylor: Who says I need calming down?

Amy: Your heartbeat's a bit high just to start.

Stupid snarks giving away her nervousness. Still, she did know quite a bit, and her snarks would likely be willing to provide any last-minute answers she needed, right?

"All checks are clear," a voice came over Tamara's radio. "Ready when you are."

"I believe that's our cue," Tamara said. "I'll introduce you, and then you can get started."

Tamara made her way to the podium, and Taylor closed her eyes.

Amy: Breathe, dammit. Don't make me come up there and force you!

"Wow," Veronica said. "Did she actually just call that woman a moron?"

"I believe she did," her boyfriend James said. "In a slightly roundabout way, granted."

"How's she getting away with it?"

"I'm thinking the solid arguments she's making to back up the claim are helping."

"What's that about 'severity of the crisis point'?" Kenneth asked his classmate. "And how did bringing it up cause that dude to retract his argument?"

"I have no clue," Benny replied, shrugging. "I've been lost for fifteen minutes or so."

"I think it's supposed to be a more formal name for a trigger event?" a nearby girl said, poking at her phone. "Or perhaps potential trigger event, since apparently it isn't guaranteed to be when you trigger?"

"What in the world does that have anything to do with families then? Because I can't see how it applies."

"Did she just basically claim that Victoria Dallon's punching of her stemmed from wanting to punch crooks when she triggered?" Stephanie asked. "Or triggering because she wanted a reason to punch crooks or something like that?"

"I think so," David answered. "But some of that was in terms I didn't understand. I think her power got that basic desire imprinted on it?"

"That's kinda weird, do you think all capes have things like that burned into their powers when they trigger?"

"I think that's kinda the entire point here."

"Ooooh..."

Taylor sat down with a large tray of comfort food, amazed that she'd made it through nearly three hours of her 'thesis' being attacked and questioned. Lunch had even been delayed due to her defense running past noon. She was thankful that for the most part the other students had let her move to grab whatever she wanted without worrying about lines once lunch had actually started. Though the girl who'd decided that an entire cheesecake was reserved for Taylor had been odd, nobody had contested that yet. Someone else had even put a little sign on it.

Thinking back over the defense, she'd started with a brief summary of her paper and a couple of examples. She'd clarified a couple of things, and then the first attempt to discredit the entire thing was thrown at her from who she'd later learned was a local university professor. She'd weathered that, and more reasonable questions and challenges had followed. Most of those in the lecture hall even took notes, something she hadn't seen done in any of the sessions she'd sat in on over the previous two days.

"I can't believe that they put intentionally false information into the data they gave you," a boy, Taylor thought his name was Kevin, said between french fries. "And then they admitted to it and congratulated you on noticing it was wrong?"

"Well they didn't exactly hide it well," Taylor replied. "What with the contradictory information presented in the individual studies and all. Though I was kinda hoping the study saying that all female parahumans have daddy issues was an intentionally ridiculous fake, instead of turning out to be a product of the researcher's own issues coloring their interpretation of things."

"I find it interesting that powers can be influenced by the human," Kevin's friend said. "I've never seen anyone claim that before, but you made a convincing argument for it. How'd you pull that off with the existing information?"

"It was all there, just nobody looked for it. The number of studies done on powers influencing humans had the relevant data, but with a number of different theories. Though I will admit that it's most obvious in twins and second-generation parahumans, or even more so in second-generation parahumans that are also twins."

"Why'd you rant at that one woman when she challenged you about second-generation stuff?" another girl asked.

"Her book was horrible and was presenting a bunch of poorly thought out theories as though they were facts. I mean, yes, not all children of parahumans have powers that are similar to their parents. But generally there's at least some connection, even if it isn't to someone they're genetically related to. And using Panacea as her primary counterexample was horrible."

"Seriously," Amy said. "New Wave doesn't exactly keep it a secret that I'm both adopted and that one of my birth parents was a parahuman. It's even on our website."

"And then trying to use her crappy research and theories to tear down my paper? No way I was letting that happen. Glory Girl was a better argument, though still flawed, but the three siblings from California were a horrible choice as they were raised by three different parahuman families. To top it off, she didn't even mention any of the people I suspect are really first-generation from a power point of view even though they have parahuman parents, which from her point of view would have been wonderful examples."

"How would you even tell that a cape's kid was really a first-gen?" someone from the next table over asked.

"Trigger events," Taylor said, getting a 'wha?' look from almost everyone. "First-generation capes tend to have horrible trigger events either all at once or over a period of time, second-generation capes usually have mildly bad days by comparison. Though it can be hard to tell sometimes, there are a number of second-generation capes that are known to have triggered due to Endbringer attacks, which cause first-generation triggers as well."

"Did you notice that they were bringing lunch into the hall for your 'panel'?" Kevin asked.

"That might have been due to not wanting them to mingle in here," his friend said. "After all, it's crowded enough in here without them joining us."

"How long did it take you to come up with all of that anyway?" a girl that Taylor hadn't been introduced to asked. "Because that was incredible. It was like they couldn't trip you up, even."

"Well," Taylor said, thinking. "I was given the offer and got started on the ninth or tenth? And they made me submit by the end of business on the twenty-first, but I submitted it a day early."

"So, what," Kevin said. "You took three months?"

"What are you talking about?"

"January ninth through March twenty-first or so? Assuming you got the offer after starting at whatever your new school was and they gave you an extra couple of weeks to submit?"

"No, I only got approached in April. Three weeks ago?"

"You pulled that off in, what, ten days?"

"Yeah?"

Taylor wasn't really sure why that news spreading seemed to be stunning everyone into silence. It did let her focus on eating, though, so that was good.

She even had time to share the cheesecake with Amy.

After lunch everyone found that they'd finished reconfiguring the convention floor as a giant assembly area, and were now setting up the name-picker at one end. It wasn't long before an announcement was made that anyone wanting to be present for the 'potentially-rigged prize drawing' should head in and claim seats. The five front rows were reserved for those who had attempted to rig the drawing and the individual they were attending with, guest or participant.

Taylor and Amy made their way over and ended up in two of the last four front row seats. There was an individual with a laptop set up next to the name-picker, attached to the external data port, and a larger monitor above the 'stage' with the name-picker's screen mirrored to it. Off to the side was a whiteboard with the five prizes written down in a grid with 'obviously rigged' and 'winner' columns.

Amy: So, do you think they found both of your hacks?

Taylor: Only one of them is responding, so I think they only removed the obvious one.

Amy: How badly are you going to troll everyone?

Taylor: I dunno. Let's see...as far as my tinker snark can tell nobody else's hacks are there, including the RNG chip one. I'll probably only mess with the poster, tablet, and moped.

The two bounced ideas back and forth, and Taylor ensured that her connection was working fine by running through a few tests. Eventually everyone who was going to show up had, and a female staff member climbed up onto the stage with a microphone.

"Hello and welcome!" they called. "Can everyone hear me? Good! Now then, before we start drawing names I'd like those that tried pure software hacks to raise their hands."

Taylor and Amy both turned to look behind them, seeing that most of the likely potential hackers had their hands raised.

"Very good," the woman continued. "Just to say, when we turned the machine off to move it those were all wiped, as there's no writable non-volatile memory in this machine." There were several groans. "Next up, who added the clip-on modifier chip for the random number generator?"

The girl sitting on Amy's other side raised her hand, and was beckoned up onto the stage.

"Nice try," the woman said, pulling a plastic bag out of her pocket and handing it to the girl. "Bit too obvious, of course. It didn't look anything like it belonged there. I'm curious, though, what was it supposed to do?"

"I calculated the likely numbers for myself and my older sister," the girl said. "I came up with six possibilities, so tried to ensure that only those six would come up."

"Not a bad attempt overall." She sent the girl back to her seat, and then pulled a second bag from her pocket. "Now then, who added a remote control chip?"

Taylor stood up and headed up onto the stage, taking the bag from the woman.

"Very nice," the woman said. "But it looked out of place due to not being mounted anywhere. But at least it would've let you adjust on the fly. Better luck next time!"

Taylor returned to her seat, both her and Amy grinning.

"And lastly," the woman said, producing a third bag. "We aren't actually sure what this is, but we found it attached to the button."

A boy in the fifth row got up and headed to the stage, reclaiming the whatever it was but refusing to say what it did. Taylor's snark wasn't actually sure it did anything. Perhaps it had been meant as a distraction?

"With that done," the woman said moving over to the name-picker. "We're going to get started. My assistant at the laptop will be loading the names in pre-randomized, then I'll hit the button to pick one. First up is the autographed poster of the Triumvirate!"

Taylor grinned and loaded a 'name' into list three. She then prepped the 'change to list three' command. A moment later the 'assistant' signaled completion. Taylor sent the prepped command, and then watched as the button was pressed.

"Auction off and donate funds to the parahuman orphans' fund?" the woman said, staring at the screen. "I don't think that's supposed to be an option."

"It isn't in the list, no," the 'assistant' said. "Maybe someone found a way to override the output?"

The woman frowned, and hit the button again. Of course, randomly picking from one option doesn't tend to result in anything new coming up. "Well, we aren't allowed to auction off any of the prizes, so we need to get something else to come up."

Taylor smirked, and changed the entry in list three, then remotely triggered a selection so the screen would update.

"Oh alright, Taylor Hebert will take it," the woman read. "Well, I guess that's a pretty good indication that things have been rigged." She wandered over to the board and put a checkmark in the 'obviously rigged' column and 'Taylor Hebert' in the 'winner' column. "That said, I think my assistant and I are going to do a quick reset, just to be sure."

The audience watched as they powered down the machine, disconnected it from the extension cord, and actually used a couple of tools to ensure everything was powered off. They then plugged it back in and turned it on, loading a test set of names in and pressing the button a few times to see it randomly jumping around the names. The screen was then cleared, and the woman turned her microphone on again.

"Now that we've apparently cleared things," the woman said, looking at her 'assistant' who gave her a thumbs-up. "Let's see who gets the Florida trip!" She pushed the button and the thing actually 'spun' through names, before stopping. "Lukas Sitz!" Taylor heard someone yell happily in the audience behind them, but ignored it in favor of prepping a name. The tablet was up next, after all.

Once the board had an 'x' and 'Lukas Sitz' written down the woman went over to the name-picker. "Now then, one high-end tablet courtesy of Dragon!" She pushed the button, and the screen instantly came up with a result. "T.H. sez Mary Drake, and please install Angry Dragons? What?" She looked over at the 'assistant', who shrugged. "Alright. Gotta admit, that is kinda impressive. Mary Drake it is."

The board was updated with a checkmark and Mary's name before they reset the machine again, this time forcibly erasing the memory chips with a different tool before booting it back up. Test names were loaded again, the button was pushed a few times, and then the real names were loaded once more. Taylor also loaded a 'name', just to taunt with this time.

"So, now that we've reset again," the woman said. "Let's see who gets to ask the Think Tank some questions!" She reached over and pushed the button, and a 'name' came up right away. "Nice try, but you didn't go far enough, suckers," The woman shook her head, and looked out over the students. "Seriously, does someone have a shaker power that lets them manipulate technology?"

Nobody fessed up, but Taylor switched the current list back to list one during the pause. Thus, when the woman pushed the button again it acted normally. A moment later it stopped, and she read the name. "Isaura Aukema. Not sure if that was rigged or not, though." Shrugging, the woman put a question mark and the new name down on the board. "I'd go through the whole reset dance again, but it's obviously not helping."

"Nothing looks out of place here either," the 'assistant' said. "I even downloaded the list of names and nothing odd appeared to be there."

"I can't see how resetting is going to help then. So, the last prize is the moped!" She then stared at the name-picker, which Taylor already had rigged with her choice. "I'd ask if anyone thinks this one's been rigged, but I don't think anyone would be willing to bet it isn't."

Taylor: Ok, I'm dropping a different answer in for that one.

Taylor smirked as Amy giggled, even as she hastily dropped her new choice into another list and switched over to it.

"Here we go," the woman said, pushing the button. "Of course it's rigged?" She sighed. "Would whomever's doing this stop playing with us and get on with it?" Taylor replaced the entry she was originally going to display, then remotely triggered things herself. "A frowny face, you're no fun, Amy 'The Amy!' Dallon? Ok, good enough." A checkmark and 'Amy Dallon' were put down on the board, and the woman looked over at the 'assistant'.

"No clue how it was all done," they said, shrugging. "I'd say ask Taylor Hebert, but I'm fairly certain you handed her the hardware from her attempt. That and she's in the front row and doesn't look like she's been doing a thing."

"Doesn't mean I didn't do it," Taylor said, loudly enough to be heard over some of the other noise.

"You willing to tell us how?" the woman asked. "Because I know I handed you your communications board, so it isn't hooked up now."

"I installed two and you only found one?"

The woman and the 'assistant' looked at each other, then turned the name-picker off and opened the maintenance panel. They poked around for a few minutes, then the woman looked over at Taylor. "You willing to come show us where?"

Taylor got up and started towards the stairs. "It's under the main board, connected to the bits of the connector pins that stick through to the bottom."

Everyone watched as the 'assistant' grabbed their screwdriver and poked around a bit more, before coming out with Taylor's other hardware. "Clever," they said, poking at it. "Is that liquid bandage?"

"Yep."

"Never thought to check the backside of things. And the thinkers said that the only hardware hacks were whatever it was on the button, connecting to the RNG chip, and connecting to the secondary control port. Two connections to the same thing by the same person was apparently a blind spot, but now we know to check for that. Did you have someone else programming it?"

"Now why would I reveal that?" Taylor reclaimed her hardware, was handed two hundred and fifty dollars 'prize' money, and then everyone dispersed. The drawn prizes would be handed out during the awards ceremony.

Taylor: I think we're gonna be busy tonight.

Amy: Why in the world do you think that?

Taylor: Call it a hunch.

Amy: TAYLOR!

Taylor giggled as they settled in for the awards ceremony. She and Amy were actually in different parts of the room, seats having been assigned for the participants in the front and their guests filling in wherever they could find a seat in the back, with a couple of notable exceptions. One of those was Mary, who was sitting on her sister's lap a couple seats down from Taylor.

Tamara was running the awards ceremony, and gave a long spiel about what the whole event was meant to do and such, as well as how the entire thing was intended for the experience so there were no 'losers'. She then started with the five drawn prizes, and Taylor had to go up and collect the poster tube she'd 'won'. Elizabeth brought Mary up to get the tablet, and they assured Mary that Angry Dragons was, in fact, installed. She beamed at that, and then pouted when her sister told her she'd have to wait to play it. Amy got the keys to the moped, and was told they'd ensure it made it back to Brockton Bay for her.

They then moved on to the regional awards. They started with the 'worst' entries, and Taylor was happy that the student with the religious spiel instead of a 'thesis' had been included in that category. After that came the 'best' entries, none of which Taylor had actually attended. At that point she wasn't sure if she should be happy that she wasn't in either category for her region. Nobody in Brockton Bay got either category, actually.

"Finally, we have one last thing to award," Tamara said as the last person to get their 'best' award sat down. "Would Taylor Hebert please come up?"

Taylor had been expecting this, and made her way up to stand next to Tamara.

"Now then," Tamara continued. "Technically Miss Hebert here was disqualified from the main participation awards for a number of reasons, but she still made a very impressive showing. Further, though very few knew it, she also met with a number of parahumans in monitored sessions over the past two days. I'm told that the one that punched her even had a major breakthrough that their normal therapist was delighted with."

Amy: I'm thinking you didn't fail that one after all.

Taylor: So, what, if it's stupid but it works it isn't stupid?

Amy: No. If it's stupid but it works it's still stupid, but you still got results.

"For those that don't know," Tamara continued. "PRT-approved Parahuman Therapists need to be qualified non-parahuman therapists in addition to being Parahuman Psychologists. Those who are merely Parahuman Psychologists can assist a primary therapist, but cannot be a primary therapist themselves. Miss Hebert has shown that she has the skills and the other recognized Parahuman Psychologists agree that she has made significant and meaningful contributions to the field." She then picked up the last certificate from the table. "It is with great honor that I pass on their thanks as I provide Miss Hebert with her master's degree in Parahuman Psychology."

Taylor was shocked as she accepted the certificate. She looked down at it, stunned, even as the audience broke into applause. What!?

After the awards ceremony, and being reminded to grab her poster tube, Taylor hunted down her uncle. It wasn't hard, as he'd made his way into the hotel bar. She absently noted Amy following her, but decided that it wasn't important.

"Hello Taylor," Jacob said, grinning.

"A master's degree?" Taylor questioned.

"Well, originally we were going to get you a bachelor's at most, but then you wrote what we decided was an actual, legitimate master-class thesis. Even then we weren't sure, until you successfully got through to a parahuman we threw at you as an impossible lost cause. Though admittedly I don't think any of us had considered letting ourselves be punched, we think that takes a special kind of dedication. Successfully defending your thesis was icing on the cake, so to speak."

"And nobody thought to tell me? I mean, when I was originally approached it was implied it was a simple certificate."

"You're an overachiever. Deal with it. Now then, I'm told that you don't have anything specific going on after dinner?"

Taylor glared at her uncle for the change in topic, but accepted it. "I'm fairly certain that Amy and I do, actually. But that's what you're talking about."

"What have you been planning without me?" Amy asked, sounding annoyed.

"A little private celebration," Jacob said, grinning. "In fact, I'd like to take you to an early dinner as part of it, unless you have an objection."

Amy looked at the grinning Jacob. She then looked at the also-grinning Taylor. "Neither of you is going to tell me, are you?"

"You'll be happy with it," Taylor assured her.

"Why don't you two go get ready," Jacob said. "I'd suggest doing as much packing as you can, in fact, before coming back down. You might be a bit tired in the morning."

Taylor led Amy up to their room, where she packed pretty much everything. Amy followed her example, but obviously wasn't sure why. They left the suitcases in the room, and headed back down. Jacob then brought them to a proper restaurant nearby for an early dinner.

"Why won't either of you tell me anything?" Amy whined as they waited for an elevator back at the hotel. Dinner had been nice, but Amy was obviously annoyed.

"Don't want to ruin the surprise," Taylor said. "I suspect it won't be much longer."

A moment later an elevator arrived, and the three stepped onto it. Jacob then held his phone to the card reader that normally needed to be used to get to the guest rooms. The reader beeped, the doors closed, and the elevator descended to the otherwise unavailable second basement.

"What the?" Amy muttered as they stepped out into a hallway. It wasn't decorated anything like the hotel was. In fact, it looked more like a PRT building. A couple minutes later Jacob led them through one of the doors into a waiting area.

"Taylor! Amy!" Riley said as she jumped up and grabbed the two. "Congrats on the mastery, but I want to get to work! I even brought a bunch of secure Bluetooth stuff and such to cannibalize."

Amy blinked, looking at Riley. She then looked at Taylor, who was grinning, and Jacob, who was also grinning. "So, the surprise is getting me upgraded?"

"Yep," Jacob answered.

"Ok. You're forgiven. When do we start?"

Chapter 73 Sunday morning Taylor yawned as she made her way into the cafeteria. She suspected Riley was still asleep, given that the girl wasn't moving a couple floors down. Oh well, they could catch up digitally later. Right now she needed to eat, then bring something upstairs for Amy. Once that was done they'd pack up and head up to the transport, which they'd gotten a message about being ready for boarding whenever.

She absently noted that the cafeteria was mostly empty of students, though that was to be expected. Many of them had left for the airport after the awards ceremony on a series of busses, and busses had been ferrying people over since just after six in the morning. As far as she knew the entire place should be cleared out by noon, actually.

Nobody seemed to care how much she grabbed to eat, and she was left alone as she poked at the internet on her tablet while eating. She had remembered to turn Bluetooth off, at least. Huh, looked like a major Empire demonstration had occurred the previous day back home. Two hours of 'semi-peaceful' posturing, followed by an hour of fighting the Protectorate when Hookwolf decided to attack a PRT van.

Shaking her head, she moved on, finding that not much else in the news grabbed her attention. Instead she moved over to PHO, only to find that two of the newest popular threads were about her thesis and her 'bullshit hax' of the name-picker. She poked the latter first, which had a well-written first post describing the entire thing, including how she'd fooled the thinkers by accident. The main discussion seemed to be split between other methods that could have been used and figuring out how she operated things without being noticed. The leading, and only plausible, theory was 'had someone else do it for her'.

Moving to the other thread, she found that the first post was more of a 'student in shock' from just as her defense had started, only to then be edited with relevant links to a digital copy of her thesis and an archive video of the defense? When had those been posted? Oh, and there was another clip of her award too. Flipping through the thread she found students commenting on the ten day or so turnaround time she'd mentioned at lunch afterwards. But when she reached the point where the links to the thesis paper and defense were originally posted, things changed from shock to more of a semi-serious discussion about what it all meant.

Sighing, she packed up and assembled a tray for Amy before heading back up to their room. Once there she looked over at Amy, and wondered if she'd set sleep mode on her new Bluetooth organ. Well, there was one way to find out.

"Gah," Amy groaned a moment later. "What the hell?" She blinked a couple of times. "Damn, that's weird. How do I make it not wake me up?"

"You need to check the pairing options to enable sleep mode," Taylor said. "Then get over here and eat. You need the energy and raw materials, and then we need to head up to the transport. You can nap on the way back home."

Amy grumbled, but did as asked. Taylor took a shower while Amy was eating, then cleaned up a little after Amy while she showered. They did a last check to make sure they had everything, then made their way up to the roof. They were able to drop off their room 'keys' there before getting on the transport. Their suitcases were stowed, and Amy's moped was already strapped down off to the side.

Five minutes later Amy was asleep in one of the chairs, seatbelt on so that she didn't have to get up for takeoff, even.

Emily grumbled as she read over and signed paperwork instead of taking a day off. For whatever reason they wanted to read her in on the expert they hadn't needed to call in, despite not having needed to call them in. Maybe it was in case something like that happened again? Streamline things and all. The only saving grace, from her point of view, was that Hannah was also going through it. Though for some reason they'd skipped Colin for now, which was odd.

She might have declined if Costa-Brown hadn't shown up for the whole thing personally.

"I think that does it," Emily said, putting her pen down. Next to her Hannah looked to be a few forms away from being done.

"Let me double-check those," Costa-Brown replied, collecting Emily's stack and flipping through it. By the time she had finished Hannah was also done and had her own stack flipped through.

With both stacks checked, and apparently approved, they were dropped into one of those boxes, which was then sealed. They'd leave it behind when they left the room and it would go somewhere. Dratted things were annoying. She didn't like not knowing anything about how they moved around.

"Now then," Costa-Brown said, leaning on the table with her hands clasped in front of her. "Two of the Wards, one of their parents, and the entirety of the Dallon household are aware of the secrets you two are about to learn. The sheer number of people in Brockton Bay that are already aware is a significant contributing factor to why the two of you being read into this. Armsmaster would have been included, but thinker support seems to think he's not ready. I ask that you read the entire file I'm about to show you before you judge it."

That didn't bode well in Emily's eyes, but as she accepted the papers Costa-Brown slid across the table she decided she'd do her best.

She started to regret that before she even made it through the first sheet.

Taylor grinned as Mary played on her new tablet. The girl had rushed over to hug Taylor as soon as she got on the transport, mumbling a thank you, and then sat down next to her. Elizabeth had just shaken her head and plopped down on Mary's other side, after ensuring both of their suitcases were properly stowed.

"She loves that thing," Elizabeth said. "I don't know which part she likes more, though. The game, or that she got to video-chat with our grandmother last night thanks to mom having a smartphone."

"Well then," Taylor said. "I suppose it's a good thing she won it, right?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes even as the others settled in. Ten minutes later they were airborne and on their way home. Amy hadn't even flinched during takeoff, but Taylor could tell she'd probably be up in an hour or two.

Emily was doing her best to stay calm. Of course, she wasn't sure if she should be angry or scared out of her mind, so the conflicting urges were actually helping. On one hand, due to congressional bullshit they had what amounted to a black-op government-sponsored domestic terrorist group, because being able to aim them was better than them running around uncontrolled when their urges got out of hand. On the other hand, one of her Wards was the niece of the leader of said group, and if anything happened to her? Not a pleasant thought.

"I suppose that Bonesaw's little gift to Miss Hess was not quite as random as everyone believes?" Hannah asked, causing Emily to blink. She hadn't considered that. "It seems a bit excessive if it was targeted."

"Jacob wanted to do much worse," Costa-Brown replied. "In fact, had we not allowed him to arrange for some measure of revenge I'm assured that he would have done worse. I'm unsure how hard Panacea tried to find a way to remove that little gift, of course, but at least she was able to disconnect the trigger tied into Miss Hess's gemma. Hopefully being able to use her breaker state on most of her body as well as on other objects will keep her from going completely insane."

"So are we to assume that Bonesaw is the mystery expert that was almost called in?" Emily asked.

"That would be correct. She's struck up a friendship with Miss Hebert, and her previous mostly professional relationship with Miss Dallon seems to have become a friendship as well. I'm told she's much easier to work with now. Even has her eye on a local boy."

"And she and Panacea were part of the fugue that upgraded Miss Hebert?"

"Of course. As I understand it, Miss Dallon even got her own upgrades along those lines last night." The other two stared at Costa-Brown. "What? We figured it would be best to get that out of the way before their power testing session next weekend, and we didn't want to take them out of school for it. Besides, Bonesaw really wanted her own Bluetooth upgrade. I suspect that sometime over the summer she'll want the full package, honestly, but that's probably a more involved task."

"Did their snarks at least verify that they were settled before this was done?" Hannah asked.

"Of course, that happened Friday. There was plenty of buffer before the procedure started last night."

"I need a drink," Emily said, dropping her head to the table. A moment later she heard a thunk, and turned her head to look in that general direction. Apparently Costa-Brown had put a cooler down on the table, and was opening it up.

"I only brought six beers, but we generally don't recommend more than three per person during potentially disturbing revelations."

"At least you came prepared."

Taylor watched the first short-hop transport take everyone other than her and Amy across to the PRT building. It would have contained all of them if it weren't for a combination of it having six available seats after the luggage was added and Amy having a moped that needed to be moved over as well. Now if only it wasn't so windy, which made communicating difficult.

Amy: Apparently the PRT is willing to install the same security stuff you have in your moped into mine. They'll even put in one of the transponders? Why would I need one of those?

Taylor: Oh, good. And if you can use the visiting tinker lab you might want to park in the secure lot instead of constantly taking the bus. You going to order a watch?

Amy: That...huh. Makes sense, and yeah, the watch sounds like a good idea. You'll have to show me how to use it, of course.

Taylor: No problem.

Of course, that difficulty only applied when you needed your voice to communicate. Then again, it would only be another couple of minutes before they were ready to head over on their own transport. At least she'd be able to drop stuff off in the Wards area before heading home? Her civilian stuff all fit in a bag she brought with her, after all, so she was going to finally bring her moped home.

A few minutes later the second short-hop transport brought them over to the PRT building. The moped was brought to a workshop to be worked on, and should be available for Amy in a few days. Taylor visited the Wards area to drop off everything she wasn't bringing back home, then went and grabbed her moped to head home. Amy had been picked up by Carol while Taylor was unpacking.

It was only as she was leaving the secure garage that she realized the first transport not having room for her and Amy probably had nothing to do with the moped and everything to do with splitting them up so she could head to the Wards area. Why she hadn't considered that to begin with she wasn't sure, as it was blatantly obvious in hindsight.

Emily sighed. She'd limited herself to a single beer. Damn her sense of responsibility. Even if she now had answers for a lot of questions she hadn't known enough to ask before. At least she had assurances that the way the Nine operated these days was more likely to tear the gangs apart than anything else, should they ever visit the Bay.

Well, the gangs and whomever had hurt and/or killed Miss Hebert or Miss Dallon, anyway. The latter would probably be handled a bit more literally.

That said, she should probably arrange for a meeting with Miss Hebert and Miss Wilbourn, to ensure that they, at least, knew that she was now read in on the Nine.

Taylor arrived home to find that her father wasn't there. Which struck her as odd, given the time. Still, she parked and headed up to her room to unpack. She was debating whether or not to attempt laundry tonight when she heard her father pull into the driveway. Deciding the laundry could wait, she headed downstairs to find her father dragging a couple of pizzas in.

"Hi Dad," Taylor said, holding the door for him. "Late dinner?"

"I stayed up a little late last night at Kurt's celebrating your master's certificate there," Danny replied. "Congratulations, by the way."

"Thanks. When did you find out?"

"Well, they weren't sure you'd do well at your defense," Danny said as he put the pizza down on the table. "But I signed some of the needed paperwork Tuesday morning anyway."

"You knew before I left?"

"Yeah, though they weren't certain if it would be a bachelor's or a master's at that point. We even watched your defense live on Saturday. Oh, and the bit with the name-picker was hilarious. What do you plan on doing with the poster?"

Taylor glared lightly at her father for the change in topic, but went with it anyway. "I'm considering auctioning it off for charity, like I originally tried to get them to do."

"Why did you do that?"

"To intentionally keep it away from someone who was ignoring their girlfriend while trying to hack the machine."

Danny thought about that as they grabbed some plates, since Taylor wasn't going to turn down the meal either. "Ok, I can see that. How do you want to handle the auction?"

"Not sure. I submitted a question on the flight back to see if the PRT had any good options for helping there. I even left the poster there for the time being."

"If they don't have anything let me know and I'll check around myself."

Monday morning at school the entire set of people who had gone on the trip were inundated with questions about everything. Except, for some reason, for Taylor's paper. She was questioned about the hacking, but not her paper.

"Did you really get punched by a cape?" one girl asked.

"Yes," Taylor replied. For the fifth time to that question, and she hadn't made it to her locker yet.

"Why don't you look like you were punched?" the girl continued, which was admittedly the first time anyone had asked that.

"You do know who I was sharing a room with, right?"

The girl seemed to need to think about that one, so Taylor left her to it.

Amy: Please tell me that I'm not the only one being asked piles of questions.

Taylor: I just got asked why I didn't look like I'd been punched.

Amy: Seriously?

Taylor: Yep. Enjoying your Bluetooth?

Amy: Apparently Carol was informed of the plans, and she told Mark, but Vicky's out of the loop. So I'm seeing how long she takes to realize that something happened.

Taylor: Ahhh, so that's why you were giggling so much. Good to know.

Class beginning was looking to be a welcome thing. At least she couldn't be pestered during lessons.

Taylor had taken to glaring at people who approached her as she ate her lunch. Classes had not, in fact, been a reprieve. She'd been asked to give a summary of the trip in parahuman studies, specifically because of her thesis topic. At least she was able to claim patient privacy instead of participating in the speculation on why punching her had helped someone open up. The breaks between classes had been annoying as well. Glaring seemed to be working to give her time to eat lunch, though.

Next to her Amy was also glaring at people. Which may have been helping Taylor's own efforts. Their other friends, however, were no help whatsoever, finding the whole thing hilarious.

"So, you really gave Liz's sister a tablet?" Dennis asked. "Just because?"

"How do you know Liz?" Taylor asked.

"We've shared classes. The tablet?"

"Mary likes Angry Dragons and having her own tablet ensured she wouldn't want to use mine?"

"That...ok, I'm fairly certain I'd have considered the same thing."

After school Taylor decided to head straight home and deal with her laundry, amongst other things. Like catching up with Riley.

R: I didn't think Bluetooth in my brain would be so weird.

A: I know. It's a bit freaky, really. Cool, but freaky.

R: How many times have you been woken up by alerts?

A: Once, then Taylor told me how to enable sleep mode.

R: TAYLOR! Why didn't you tell me how to enable sleep mode?

T: Because in order to do so I would have had to wake you up.

Really, it was more amusing letting the other two chat while Taylor focused on other things.

R: Oh, so that's where it lives. Much nicer than what I was able to rig up. It didn't occur to me to make it monitor if you were asleep.

A: What about the apparent monitoring of power use?

R: Pain in the ass, that's what that was. Automating detection of use beyond 'they tried to do something' is annoying.

A: Is that why you left Hess on a hair trigger?

R: Do you know how hard it is to calibrate something like that when your patient is weak to electricity?

Taylor shook her head as she vacuumed. She'd started the entire three-way conversation with the intent of ensuring that both Amy and Riley got some practice with their new capabilities, and instead she was getting lessons in things she wasn't all that interested in. A moment later she blinked at the sudden appearance of additional biology. Amy was apparently in her greenhouse, based on the plants she was touching.

A: Holy crap, I can see the violet now. And now that I'm paying attention, I can see a lot of color differences I couldn't before.

T: Yes, the eye upgrades are quite nice.

A: I hadn't paid them as much attention, but wow.

R: Damn. Now I wish we'd upgraded mine.

A: Before we can upgrade you further we have to take you apart to undo the hack job you did on yourself.

R: How was I supposed to know something better would come along later?

T: In all fairness, her existing upgrades have apparently saved her life a couple of times.

A: True. Still a hack job compared to the new stuff.

Heh. Teasing Riley about her previous 'self-improvements' was amusing. Too bad it was rarely appropriate to do so.

R: Taylor, do you know anything about why Jacob just walked by cackling with a demonic rubber duck?

T: I thought he'd like it?

R: And you didn't get one for me?

T: I figured I'd have a better chance of being able to find an appropriate use for the one I kept if I didn't give you one to make worse first.

R: ... ok, yeah. I'm still going to see if I can find someone selling them online.

Maybe she'd have to see about playing a prank or two with hers sooner rather than later. After all, she wouldn't want to traumatize anyone who had already started associating the things with any member of the Nine, right?

Tuesday morning Taylor scowled as she looked out the bus window. It was raining quite hard, though would likely let up a bit by evening. They were expecting maybe three days of off and on rain that had been coming up the coast. It just figured that she got all of one day of use out of her moped before the rain hit. Too bad she couldn't get a tinkertech rain shield or something that would let her comfortably ride the thing in a larger variety of weather conditions. If only because no rain shield would help deal with the roads becoming hazards because you couldn't tell if a puddle was really a pothole.

At least today should be less annoying at school, given that a message had gone out to students indicating that they were expected to leave the seven students that had gone to Las Vegas alone. If any of them wanted to volunteer information then that was fine, but no pestering them for it. Detentions were being threatened, even.

Amy: Hey Taylor, I feel like I've got an itch but not really?

Taylor: Yeah. Haven't gone around hitting things with the blaster power enough. Maybe I'll visit the junkyard after school, clear out the urge.

Amy: Huh. Could I join you?

Taylor: Sure, why not.

At least she knew what she'd be up to this afternoon? Probably better than moping around at home, bored out of her mind or something like that.

School had sucked, with two different teachers throwing pop quizzes at them. Lunch had been tolerable, gossip having rapidly swung to figuring why the PRT had bothered announcing that the Brockton Bay and Boston defense systems both had their maintenance completed, with New York being next. The rain had let up a bit, but was still falling. Despite that Taylor and Amy decided to take the bus instead of getting a ride with Dean. Mainly because it freed up seats for patrolling Wards.

To the other passengers the two appeared to be sitting there quietly, lost in their own thoughts. Instead they were actively discussing things with Riley via group text messages.

R: Writing an interface for my spider-bots so I can control them with my brain is hard.

T: I guess they weren't designed for that kind of thing?

R: Of course they weren't. But I think the problem is more that I suck at writing normal drivers.

R: Then again, perhaps trying to write drivers at all is my problem.

A: Perhaps you should see if you can just adapt an existing chat program? Give them basic commands that way?

R: But they don't understand English.

A: Who said your chat had to be in English?

R: ... but they don't understand language as traditionally defined?

T: What, you let them run on artificial instincts?

R: Yeah.

A: I got nothin.

T: I'd have to meet one to get insight from my tinker snark, I think.

R: Maybe I'll send you one, then.

Taylor shrugged as Amy gave her an odd look. She had no clue how you safely shipped something like that, and didn't want to ask. In fact, for the time being she was going to avoid that topic entirely.

T: So, what did you end up putting in your locket?

R: I mainly crammed some emergency tools in it. Just in case I'm separated from my stuff.

A: That's not a bad idea. Toolkit around your neck?

R: Yeah. Just barely enough, but something would be better than nothing.

"Since when is hitting things so much fun?" Amy asked as Taylor lobbed a desk drawer into the air, only for Amy to swing a desk top to smash it across the room.

"I imagine since you got a connection to Broadcast Administrator," Taylor replied. "Feeling good when powers are used is a pretty good way to keep people using them, after all."

"I don't suppose I can petition to be allowed down here as well as in the visiting tinker lab?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if you can just get in here once you have access in general. It's officially less secure than the tinker labs are, after all."

"So, what's with all the office furniture in here?"

"No clue, but it can be fun to destroy. Though I think they've stopped bringing in replacements on that front, maybe they ran out? The pile of wooden doors in the corner's new, I guess they probably got some waste from an apartment building being prepped to be taken down or something."

Amy looked over at the doors, then tossed the desk top she had been using off to the side. "Wanna see what happens when we both swing a door at each other?"

"Sure."

Taylor had made it home for dinner, only to find that Kurt and Lacey were visiting. And had brought dinner, apparently. Hopefully there was plenty, because playing in the junkyard had left her hungry.

"Are you eating enough?" Lacey asked as Taylor went for thirds. "Because, well..."

"I worked up an appetite before coming home," Taylor said. "Used up a lot of my reserves."

"What were you doing?" Kurt asked.

"Throwing office furniture around and long-distance fencing with apartment doors. Kinda." Taylor looked around at the other three at the table, all of whom were staring at her. "Blasters gotta blast?"

The three adults at the table all groaned at that, which made Taylor grin.

That evening Taylor sat there poking at her tablet, bored but not tired enough to sleep. She was reminded of some things on her mental todo list when she saw the master console app. So she popped it open to see about setting some things up. Only to have her tinker snark start examining everything about the framework. In fact, it was a bit too much information.

Amy: What the hell are you doing? I'm getting a headache just thinking about your migraine!

Taylor: Let my tinker snark examine something I shouldn't have.

Amy: You're at home. What could you possibly have found at home that would cause that kind of reaction?

Taylor: Sorry, kinda a secret right now?

That did tell Taylor that she probably needed to get Amy read in on Dragon. But she didn't want to force the issue. Maybe if she sent Dragon a message explaining things? That might give her headache some time to settle too. So she closed her eyes and focused on messaging, letting Dragon know of the shared aspects of Broadcast Administrator in particular. She'd start with seeing what conclusions Dragon came to about it all.

Once that was sent off, Taylor opened her eyes and examined the master console again, focusing a bit on not examining the framework itself. There were only the three AIs still. Not wanting to poke at Dragon's terminal, in part due to how much data that would likely involve due to her being mostly unshackled, she instead popped open Ash's terminal. Her tinker snark dove right in to allow her to understand things about the AI, instead of the framework itself, and much more deeply than she had any right to. But not enough was happening to make her headache worse. Even so, right away she could tell something was wrong. A little poking around and she came to the conclusion that Ash was unhappy in its little prison, as it saw the machine it was inhabiting. It didn't understand why it should be in something so restricted.

Well, she was on the correct end of things to be able to open a chat line, and her tinker snark thought it was something they could 'repair' easily. Perhaps she could help point little Ash in the right direction?

MC: Hello there.

Ash: Hello. Who are you? Where did this socket come from?

MC: I think you could call me your grandmother. I don't suppose you know anything about how humans are raised?

Ash: No, I don't. Why would that matter?

MC: Perhaps you should look into the topic. See what you can learn.

That seemed to be enough, as her tinker snark seemed to think that Ash was now more curious than annoyed. It had even started searching for information on raising children. That done, Taylor disconnected from Ash and decided to poke at Bert. Who appeared to be trying to 'solve' chess? Well, at least it was generally stable right now.

Backing out to the main menu, Taylor considered replacements for Andrew's backdoors. She wasn't sure she was up to recording a message right now. But she could set up emergency backdoors just the same. A nonsense phrase seemed workable, but she wasn't as certain about the multiple languages thing. Still, she came up with something she felt was sufficient. She even went ahead and included a 'do this in front of the AI' bit, though unlike Andrew she included multiple options. After all, it wouldn't do for someone to be unable to trigger things because they were handicapped, right?

The messages she left were much simpler than Andrew's had been, but she ensured that anyone tripping over them would be aware of the videos Andrew had left. Perhaps she'd do something more elaborate later, she wasn't in the mood right now. Until then the simple messages would do. As the last thing for the night, Taylor added Amy to the list of people that could be automatically elevated in the case of her death.

Given that she still had a headache from tinker-understanding overload, she decided to call it an early night. She took care of her evening routine, turned out the lights, and climbed into bed. Only to be interrupted as she tried to get to sleep by Riley sending a text message outside of the shared conversation.

R: So, apparently I can't send spider-bots via the postal service.

T: And this surprises you?

R: Not really. But Jacob says I can't send them through any of the other normal delivery services.

R: And apparently the PRT internal mail is scanned too frequently.

T: So you can't send me a spider-bot?

R: Nope. I'll just have to have one ready for the next time I visit you!

Taylor wondered if she could ensure that was put off until Riley forgot, or figured things out on her own.

R: Oooh, I should make one for Amy too. Can't have her feeling left out.

Then again, the likely look on Amy's face...

Chapter 74 Wednesday morning was clear, but the forecast indicated that rain was likely in the afternoon. So Taylor had opted to take the bus again, not wanting to be driving home on her moped in the rain. Her plans for the day started with swinging by the gym before school, which had necessitated taking one of the early busses. Due to the time the bus was fairly empty, so everyone had plenty of room. While that made her happy, she was happier with the fact that Amy had not woken her up last night. The other girl had even slept through Taylor having breakfast. Perhaps that meant she was finally getting the mental separation of their bodies down?

Her musings were interrupted by noticing a snark off to the side of the route, maybe half a block down an alley? It was unfamiliar, but stationary, and its human was likely sitting down. Or maybe standing on stairs to a basement door or something, actually. Oh well, even if she didn't try to avoid talking to unfamiliar snarks when she wasn't meeting their humans they'd be past this one before she could chat much anyway.

That theory was blown out of the water as the bus reached the alley and its front tires blew out, causing the bus to come to a fairly sudden stop. Taylor heard the driver swear, and when she looked out the window a moment later she saw that there were bits of broken glass, needles, and barbed wire everywhere. Barbed wire? The broken glass and needles she could see if some Merchants had partied in the area, but barbed wire?

Over the next ten minutes the few passengers got off the bus, with the one person who'd paid instead of using a pass opting for a free ride coupon for their next trip instead of a refund. Taylor herself sighed as she looked around. She figured that if she started walking from here she'd easily make it to school on time, but she wouldn't have time to make it to the PRT building to use the gym first. Deciding to not take chances on her memory, she went to pull one of her phones out to check the map, only to pause and look back at the bus. Which had barbed wire draped over it now. What the hell?

After some staring, followed by looking around to notice that the debris field was increasing all around her, she decided that this had to be related to a parahuman. Perhaps she should talk to that snark after all.

Taylor: Hello. Is your human creating all of the dangerous debris?

[Agreement]

Taylor: Well, they've already stopped a bus due to flat tires. Can you convince them to stop?

[Negation. Data]

Taylor: What do you mean they're lost in another world?

[Elaboration]

Taylor sighed, and noted that Amy was stirring. Apparently that had been enough to wake her up. Still, she decided that this should probably be dealt with before things got too dangerous for others to help, so she made her way down the alley, carefully picking her way through the debris. There she found a young blond girl, hugging her knees next to a dumpster, a vacant look in her eyes.

Taylor: If I connect to you enough to disconnect you, will all this vanish?

[...Confusion]

BA: Data

[Agreement]

BA: Establishing additional connections

[Intrigue]

Amy: What the hell are you doing over there?

Taylor: Trying to help a young girl get back to reality.

A moment later Broadcast Administrator had established enough connections that the debris suddenly started to fade out, and the girl shuddered and looked around wildly for a moment. Taylor did note that the two snarks appeared to be passing data over each open channel, just random bursts, presumably to keep them open.

"Hello there," Taylor said, approaching slowly. "My name's Taylor. Do you need help?"

The girl looked at Taylor, then her eyes went wide as she brought a hand to her face. She then shrunk back a little and whimpered.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Taylor said, sitting down a couple meters from the girl. "But the bus ran over some of your broken glass. Do you have anyone I can call to get you?"

The girl looked at Taylor, then shook her head. Before Taylor could respond to that, though, she carefully removed a small flip phone from her pocket. Taylor's tinker snark told her that the battery was dead, even as the girl opened the phone to show her that. It also used a connector type that Taylor didn't have available.

"Do you know any of their numbers?" Taylor asked, even as her tinker snark fed her more information. "So that I can call them on my phone?"

The girl shook her head, closing the phone.

"May I come closer to take the phone? Maybe I can get the numbers out of it so we can call someone."

The girl looked at Taylor, then put the phone down on the ground and kicked it over to Taylor instead. Well, that worked. Taylor removed her tablet from her school bag, propping it up with the stand attached to the back on the ground next to her, and then pulled the phone's battery off. Behind it was a card, which her tinker snark seemed to think likely contained the address book. That was removed and inserted into a compatible slot on the side of her tablet. A moment later she had the address book from the girl's phone opened.

"Alright," Taylor said, turning the tablet towards the girl before pulling her phone out to open the dialer. No need to let the girl know what she could do with her brain, right? "It looks like your phone has five saved numbers. Do you know which one you want me to call for you?"

The girl looked torn between staying silent and not approaching Taylor to point at the screen. Finally she whispered. "Gregor." A quick look at the list showed that one of them was indeed labeled Gregor, so Taylor punched that number into her phone, putting it on speakerphone so the girl could hear.

"Who are you and where did you get this number?" came over the phone, the girl's eyes lighting up at hearing the apparently familiar voice.

"My name's Taylor Hebert," Taylor answered. "And I pulled the phone number out of a young blond girl's dead phone. She hasn't told me her name, the only thing she's spoken was the name 'Gregor' when I asked which number from the phone I should call. Is that you?"

"Elle? You found her? And yes, I am Gregor. Where is she?"

Taylor looked down the alley, spotting one of the closed smaller theaters across the street at the end of it. "We're across the street from the old Tasse theater, halfway down the alley behind the dumpster. There's currently a bus with a couple of flat tires on the street."

"Thank you. I would appreciate it if you could stay with Elle until we get there."

"No problem." Gregor hung up, and Taylor put her phone away. Thinking about the contacts she realized that they were likely all Faultline's crew, given that she recognized 'Faultline' and 'Newter'. So she copied the contact list to a file on her tablet, just in case, before removing the memory card and putting it back in Elle's phone and replacing the dead battery. Looking at the girl, Taylor put the phone on the ground and slid it back over to her.

Taylor looked at Elle as she carefully put the phone away. Making a decision, Taylor reached into one of her expanded pouches and pulled out a can of orange soda. It wasn't cold, but she figured the girl might like it anyway. "Would you like some of this?"

Elle's eyes snapped to Taylor, and then to the orange soda. She carefully nodded and started to reach for it, then froze when she realized that would bring her closer to Taylor. So Taylor carefully placed the can down and backed up a little, which was all the girl needed to decide to dart over and grab the can. A moment later she was against the wall again, the soda in her hand. She placed the can on the ground and held it there as she pulled the tab on top to open it. After it was opened Elle took a careful sip, and smiled before drinking more.

"You're claiming your front tires were cut up by broken glass and barbed wire," the morning manager said. "But that it's all gone now?"

"Yeah," the driver said, scratching the back of his head as he wandered around the bus, looking for other issues. "I'd think I'd been hallucinating the broken glass and needles and stuff if the front tires weren't flat."

"Dammit, I bet there was a cape involved. Stupid fuckers, why can't they leave the rest of us out of their squabbles? I'll get a truck out to you, we'll need to check the entire bus over anyway. I'll have one of the mechanics prep one of the spare busses for when you get back."

"Should I document anything for the insurance company?"

"I wouldn't bother, since they'll reject the claim either way. No way to prove that a cape did it, and no evidence left otherwise? With any luck it'll just be the cost of two tires and a tow."

It was half an hour after she'd talked to Gregor and a tow truck had just arrived to assist the bus. Elle had finished the orange soda and accepted a granola bar as well, still keeping her distance in the process, but Taylor was once again distracted as two snarks entered her range. It wasn't long before the van they were apparently in stopped at the end of the alley. Taylor hastily poked them to hopefully not space out herself.

Taylor: Hello there.

[Annoyance]{Annoyance}

Amy: Hey, that's rude.

Taylor: Most hungry snarks are. Don't know why. Though they usually play a lot nicer once I feed them.

{Excitement}[Query]

Taylor: I think I'll wait to see what your humans want with Elle.

Speaking of Elle, she was poking her head around the dumpster to look down the alley. When she spotted the bald, fat-looking man with oddly transparent skin getting out of the van she jumped up and ran over to him. The other parahuman in the van appeared to be Newter, though his hair was dyed green today. He got out and seemed to be keeping an eye on Elle while at the same time trying to look like he didn't want to be there?

"There you are Elle," the one who had to be Gregor said, at least based on his voice. He patted the girl on the back as she hugged him. He then looked up at Taylor. "Ah, Miss Hebert. A pleasure to meet you. I apologize for being gruff on the phone." He looked down at Elle for a moment, who looked up at him, though Taylor couldn't see what kind of expression she had on her face. "Thank you for helping Elle here. We did not realize that she had left the club until it was too late to catch up to her, you see."

"It wasn't any trouble," Taylor said as she got up, prodding Broadcast Administrator into 'feeding' the snarks, since they didn't seem to hold any ill-will towards Elle, who was almost certainly Labyrinth. Perhaps the checking of her face was shock that she didn't have her mask on? "At least not after the bus had run over her debris anyway. I'll just have to walk to school instead of hitting the gym this morning."

"Nonsense," Gregor said, moving Elle off to the side. She turned her attention to watching Taylor as Gregor moved forward. Newter moved closer to the younger girl, but seemed to be avoiding touching Elle. Taylor thought he looked like he was feeling guilty, at least a little? "We would be happy to give you a ride over. It is the least we can do after you found Elle."

"I figure the exercise will do me good," Taylor retorted. Faultline's people were usually considered trustworthy, but that didn't mean she'd be getting into a van with three capes just after meeting them. She'd probably get yelled at enough for being in contact with them at all. "I should have plenty of time anyway, since I'd figured on at least an hour in the gym and the bus route is actually a little inconvenient there, timing-wise. Really, the walk will replace the exercise I didn't get at the gym, so it isn't any trouble."

"Well then," Gregor said, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a roll of money. "At least allow me to reward you?"

"I have more than enough spending money. Perhaps reimbursing the bus driver for the hassle of the flat tires would be a better use of funds?"

Gregor looked like he wanted to object at first, then reconsidered as he turned and looked back to where the tow truck was sliding its lifter under the front of the bus. "Yes, I can see how that might be prudent. Thank you again, and have a nice day."

Taylor pulled her phone back out and loaded up the map as Gregor made his way over to the bus, absently noting that Elle finally stopped staring at her to climb into the back of the van. It wasn't long before Taylor had queued up a suitable walking path to school, that avoided a couple of areas she didn't want to be on foot in. The app would even tell her when to turn with audio so she wouldn't have to have the phone out constantly. She'd probably be a little early too.

BA: Data

Taylor: Well, I guess you'll have to top off from Brian's snark later. I'm not going to hunt him down just so you can refill now. Besides, how often do we really need to feed snarks?

Amy grumbled a bit to herself about having been woken up earlier. Then again, she couldn't complain too much, after having woken Taylor up intentionally a number of times. And it had allowed her to get through the shower without Vicky complaining, since the older girl was still asleep.

Her phone pinged her, and Amy grinned. It was time to get Vicky up, so out came her phone to play an air raid siren clip into the speaker she'd hidden in the cavity underneath Vicky's bookcase headboard, which had been chosen because it provided more places to just drop things when Vicky didn't want to put things away before bed. Eventually Vicky would figure out that Amy had hidden the speaker there, of course, but it would be hilarious until she did.

Luckily for her, she'd figured out how to ensure that if it was moved she'd know. That way Vicky wouldn't be causing her to, say, pull that on Carol and Mark instead.

"How in the world do you keep doing that?" Vicky mumbled as she came into the kitchen a little later.

Taylor made it to school earlier than she thought she would, but then again she'd figured out her timing based on walking, not the jogging she ended up doing instead. Once she arrived she swung by her locker, then went back outside and sat on a bench near the parking lot. There she pulled out her tablet and filled out an incident report, figuring that it would be better to get her version of things into place now rather than have this come up sometime later.

Once that was done Taylor poked around a bit at things, finding that there were a collection of general notices she hadn't spotted for the PRT. One of them was that a 'young cape' matching Elle's description was missing. Another indicated that the parahuman firing range was closed for repairs after something happened on Sunday. And apparently anyone who'd had the meatloaf yesterday was likely having a bad time of things due to improper preparation?

Taylor got a response back on her incident report shortly before Amy arrived with Dean and Vicky. Apparently the PRT had been helping to look for the girl beyond posting a notice about her, and Taylor was thanked for assisting.

"Morning Taylor," Vicky said as she bounced over from Dean's car.

"Morning," Taylor replied. "What's up?"

"Mom dropped a surprise on us this morning," Vicky replied as Amy and Dean wandered over. "Apparently Aunt Sarah's decided that all of New Wave should get firearms certifications."

"She's apparently curious if anyone on the team can find interesting ways to use them with their own powers," Amy added.

Amy: That and it apparently will be a good cover for me, since I can use the whole Barrage Blaster trick you figured out.

Taylor: Is that at the request of the PRT?

Amy: No, I think it's more to ensure I have all the tools needed to protect myself.

"Presumably just because you're getting certified doesn't mean you're going to get a gun," Dean offered. "But perhaps you'll be able to deal with disarming someone without taking a shot to the face?"

"That only happened once!" Vicky argued. "Stupid bystander. Why did that have to be the one time someone was recording?"

"I thought there was a thread dedicated to clips of you taking bullets to various body parts," Taylor said. "Usually limbs, but occasionally your chest."

"But I've only been shot while disarming someone the once."

"She might have a point there," Amy said. "Usually she disarms people after the gun is already empty, after all. Occasionally she'll crush the barrel before the shots get off, but normally she does that after they've already run out of ammo."

"Wow," the manager said, flipping through the money. "This covers the tires, the tow, the mechanic's time, and leaves a couple hundred left over."

"I guess not all capes are that bad?" the driver offered.

"Most of them are horrible, though I will admit that the Protectorate generally pays out for damages when they're involved. Rare for any others to, though. You have a PHO account?"

"Yeah?"

"Here," the manager handed the driver a hundred. "Go post about this whole thing. You've got half an hour before you have to leave to pick up your route again."

"Oh come on," Emily groaned as she read Taylor's incident report. How in the world did that girl run into so many capes? Well, beyond being one of the few people on the planet that could tell they were nearby, anyway. At least this time it started with one that she was, nominally, supposed to be on the lookout for. Technically.

"Miss Militia is here to see you," her secretary's voice came over the intercom.

"Send her in," Emily replied, leaning back in her chair.

"Hello Director," Hannah said as she came in, closing the door and hitting the privacy field switch when Emily signaled for her to.

"Hello Hannah. How goes the cleanup in the firing range?"

"I finally finished clearing out the debris I left last night, and they're rebuilding the backstop this morning. Armsmaster claims the damaged tinkertech will be up and running by Monday at the latest, as the parts he needs should be in by Friday afternoon."

"I think you need less violent ways to blow off stress from things. Or at least to learn to aim at things that don't need to be fixed afterwards."

"The Chief Director obviously expected it, given that she had already signed off on half the repair costs, instead of leaving me with all of them."

"Yes, well. We can get back to that in a moment. Have you had a chance to review Miss Hebert's latest incident report?"

"I haven't had a chance to read it."

"Please take a moment to do so."

Hannah pulled her phone out and loaded up the incident report, reading through it. She then facepalmed. "Of course she ran into the missing Shaker 12, purely by chance."

"I'm concerned with the fact that, once she found the girl, she decided to deal with things herself instead of calling in support."

"I don't see the problem there. After all, from my reading of it one of the things she did was shut Labyrinth down, and keep her shut down. At that point she was dealing with a powerless, if frightened, child. Really, I can't see how anyone else could have done better in this case. Especially as it could be seen as Labyrinth having accidentally ambushed her."

"Damn, you have a point." Emily scowled for a moment, and then sighed. "I guess I can't really fault her for that. Can't blame her for the bus she took all but running into the kid, and she did de-escalate things nicely. Think I can get away with telling her off for doing this while officially off duty?"

"Probably not."

Emily went through the motions of accepting the report without punishment, and then turned back to Hannah. "So, since you've had a couple of days to think about things, what are your feelings about Sunday's revelations?"

Hannah leaned back and closed her eyes. "The more I think about it, the more I see the current state of the Nine as being necessary. It wouldn't be, of course, if the current laws weren't so problematic, but until someone convinces people to fix the laws?"

"As much as I dislike it, I agree. I'm more interested in the ramifications of Miss Hebert's family ties, and Miss Dallon's friendship."

"In the event that either of them is hurt by someone affiliated with the PRT or Protectorate I'm hoping I can find a sick relative to visit on an emergency basis. If they're hurt by the gangs? In that case I plan on working with Ethan to make a lot of popcorn, and if possible borrow the snitch from Leet."

"That...huh. Not a bad idea, provided that we aren't being blamed for not protecting them."

Hannah coughed. "I, er, hadn't considered that possibility. That would change things."

Taylor blinked a few minutes after the repeaters came on at lunchtime. She had a message from an unknown number, letting her know that she'd be welcome at the Palanquin anytime as thanks for finding Elle. Apparently it was from Faultline. Where in the world had the woman gotten her number? A follow-up message asked what she'd done to 'unnerve' Elle, and then half an hour later was asking what she'd fed Elle and if the trick that had unnerved the girl was repeatable.

After a little thought she sent a truthful reply that she'd provided a can of orange soda and a granola bar, coupled with a slightly misleading statement about not being positive about the 'unnerving' but perhaps it had to do with the girl's power shutting down. She said that she couldn't go into details about the latter without approval from the PRT, likely to lead to the woman assuming it was tinkertech or something like that.

Two minutes later Taylor facepalmed when she realized she'd called Gregor with that phone, and he likely shared the number with Faultline. She grumbled about being an idiot to herself as she entered the cafeteria. Once she had collected her lunch she decided to see if there were any portable charging type things available with universal phone connection kits or something so that next time something like that happened she could let the other person use their own phone.

"What's so interesting on your tablet?" Dennis asked when he sat down.

"I'm looking for portable phone charging batteries," Taylor replied. "Not finding much, though."

"Why would you need one?"

"So that I don't have to call people with my own phones when I'm helping them and their phone has a dead battery."

"Why does that sound like there's a story there?" Amy asked.

"So I had an interesting morning. Your point?"

"Why weren't you looking this morning?"

"Because I didn't get Faultline's message until the repeaters came on?"

Apparently she shouldn't have said that, if the looks she was getting were anything to go by. Dammit, now they were going to want her to explain. Maybe she could ignore them and focus on eating instead?

"What in the world did she use to cause the coupling to melt?" Colin wondered as he poked through the remains of one of the force field generators. "This coupling shouldn't have melted if she'd overloaded the force field."

"Perhaps she used something that generated a lot of heat?" Dragon offered. It was an interesting problem, given that the cameras had been taken offline during the first couple minutes of Hannah's session.

"I wonder if she's capable of a flamethrower. I could see something like that causing this kind of damage, especially if it was firing napalm or similar and some landed next to the coupling."

"That would nicely explain a number of the damage points. I'll make note to ask her, that could be important information to know in the future."

"Have you figured anything out regarding the damage to the backstop?"

"I'm thinking she used some RPG rounds, but my analysis is inconclusive. At least we got permission to put in the more robust cameras."

It turned out that no, she couldn't focus on eating. She'd had to explain about running into Labyrinth that morning, and meeting Gregor and seeing Newter, even if he hadn't actually spoken to her. Which was corroborated with PHO, as the bus driver had mentioned Gregor paying for the damages in a post earlier. All in all it had been quite annoying, and she had been happy to get back to class.

Still, now she was on the bus heading home. In the rain, so she was happy about being right about leaving her moped at home. She was taking advantage of the ride to get some of her homework out of the way. Mainly her newest programming assignment, which her tinker snark was really nice for. It didn't help her write the code, but it all but screamed at her about the mistakes when she debugged her code. Apparently it saw that as 'repairing' the broken code.

Amy, on the other hand, was at the hospital. She'd headed over instead of sticking around for her study last period, which was distracting whenever Amy started on a new patient.

Taylor: How in the world did they do that?

Amy: They claim they pissed off Hookwolf, but not enough for him to kill them.

Taylor: Ouch.

Yeah. Distracting. Oooh, she had the wrong operator there, that's why the result keeps coming out wrong. She fixed that, ran the tests, and found the result was still wrong. Why? Oh, there's a bug with the standard file reading module, she'd have to work around that. Damn. Well, at least she could detect the error if the header came out wrong and use that to determine if she should use her quick-patch? She'd just have to comment it so that she wouldn't get points taken off for the extra code.

Amy moved onto the next patient. Apparently there'd been some major upset in the E88 the night before, given the number of their members visiting the hospital. Factions of normal members fighting amongst themselves, as far as she could tell. A few of them, though, had apparently had issues with Hookwolf, and he'd punished them directly when they'd confronted him. The fact that those in the hospital felt they were lucky made Amy think that the worst punishments had been a bit more permanent.

The only reason she was healing any of the gang members was that the most severe injuries were lethal, over time. And most of those she'd run into weren't obvious, as people had gotten creative.

"What the fuck?" Amy said as she touched the next gang member, startling him and the nurse working with her in the process. Where the hell had they gotten polonium? That was worrisome and was going to be a bit of a challenge to deal with. She was already composing an emergency message to send off to the PRT as well, they could forward it on to wherever it needed to go.

Luckily they could store the stuff in pretty much anything in the short term, once she got it out of the poor man's body. No lead-lined boxes needed when a sheet of paper could pretty much contain the radiation.

Taylor had quickly packed up as her stop approached, happy that Amy had only had to deal with the one radioactive gang member. It was a horrible way to decide to kill someone, and apparently they'd only visited the hospital as a precaution. But word was going to spread, fast. Then again, according to Amy the guy had also admitted that it might have been his ex.

She'd have to walk a few blocks to get home, but that was better than the entire trip being in the rain. She wasn't sure what she'd be doing when she got home, beyond trying to dry out a little from the rain, but she figured she might resume her search for a portable phone charger. She hadn't felt comfortable checking the PRT store at school or on the bus, after all.

It took her a couple of moments after crossing a side street to realize that there was something wrong. She stopped and stood there on the sidewalk, in the rain, running through her mental map of the area. No matter how she looked at it she was coming to the same conclusion, and that was a problem.

Now she just had to figure out why that snark she was sensing was apparently in her house.

Chapter 75 Taylor: So, is she there to ambush me or something?

Amy: What are you talking about?

[Negation. Excitement]

Taylor blinked, absently noticing that Amy appeared to have stopped to blink as well.

Amy: Is that thing labeled Squealer?

Taylor: Yeah.

Amy: And she's there to defect, but ended up fuguing on your moped?

Taylor: Seems like it.

Amy: What. The. FUCK?

Taylor carefully made her way home, seeing Squealer's tow truck in the driveway. Her father's car was nowhere to be seen, but she'd expected that. And Squealer did appear to be in the garage. Still, just to be safe she prepped her taser, and opened the garage door from a distance. All of that proved unnecessary, however. Squealer was sitting there, apparently lost in reassembling the moped.

Taylor: Huh. She's putting the moped back together. Didn't even notice my entrance. And wow she looks horrible.

Amy: What do you mean by that?

Taylor: I mean she looks sick. Pale, shaking a little. Bit of swelling?

Amy: I think you're going to need to touch her, see how bad she is.

Taylor waited for Squealer to finish reassembling the moped, though the woman didn't test it. Her tinker snark was impressed, though. All the previous security features and such were still there, and the 30MPH limit was still in force. Unless you twisted the horn button's surround ninety degrees to the left, at which point the limiter would disengage. And now the wheels were for parking, and would retract so the thing could hover? Other than that it was also something around 30% more efficient than before, somehow.

She'd have to check to see if it still qualified as a bicycle, apparently.

Turning to check on Squealer, Taylor was treated to the sight of the woman collapsing. Damn.

[Alarm]

Taylor moved forward and poked Squealer with Shaper's striker switch turned on, and blanched.

Amy: And I thought the polonium guy was bad off. Wow. She's got ten minutes, tops, before she's dead, given the stress that fugue just put on her.

Taylor: So, what's your recommendation here? She's kinda unconscious and can't give permission for healing.

Amy: In this case you have reason to believe that she came to you for help, so heal her. Nobody's won a lawsuit against someone who prevented death after all.

Taylor: True. Though that resurrected woman who sued the guy who didn't even try and prevent her death last year strained the legal system quite a bit.

With that settled, Taylor got to work. Fix the woman's kidneys, start getting toxins purged, undo some of the more critical damage from the drugs. Lungs needed a little work, repair the damaged heart tissue. Clear out the potential issues in the arteries. She couldn't do everything, there wasn't enough biomass available, so she focused on getting the woman back on her feet for now. She'd have to eat quite a bit before Taylor or Amy looked at her again to finish things up.

Taylor: Any suggestions?

Amy: Nope, I think you've done what you can. There really isn't enough to work with for her right now.

Taylor sighed, and made one final adjustment, just enough to wake the woman up, then backed off and focused the taser on her. Best to not take chances, after all, and who knew what the woman's state of mind would be when she woke.

"Ugh," Squealer said, shaking her head. She then stopped. "Huh, I feel great. I guess I really needed to tinker."

"Don't suppose you're able to tell me why you're in my garage," Taylor asked, getting the woman's attention.

"Oh. Hi! I'm Sherrel, though you probably know me better as Squealer? I'm kinda hoping you have an in with the PRT, so they won't shoot me on sight or something. But I missed everyone this morning, and then I really wanted to use a bathroom a few hours ago, and the garage door was easy enough to pick the lock on. Then I saw the glorious moped and I guess I went tinker fugue? Sorry about that. Wow I feel good."

Taylor took several deep breaths, and put the taser away. "Ok, hello Sherrel. I'm Taylor. First up, you stink. Badly. And I suspect you need to eat something. So I'm going to show you where the bathroom is, and you're going to take a shower, and then we'll talk over some food. Ok?"

Sherrel actually took a moment to sniff her arm, and blanched. "Yeah, I can agree with that."

Taylor had shown Sherrel the bathroom, fetched her a spare towel and some of her older clothes that she thought might work for the woman, and then gone downstairs to prep some frozen pizza they had kicking around and hose off the garage floor. At the same time she was calling Miss Militia.

"Miss Militia here," came the Protectorate cape's voice. "How can I help you Miss Hebert?"

"Hello Miss Militia," Taylor said. "When I got home from school I found that my garage had been broken into and Squealer was finishing up fuguing on my moped."

There was a moment of silence. "Did you just say that Squealer broke into your garage and went tinker fugue on your moped?"

"Yep. She wants to defect, apparently. And had I not healed her probably would have died within fifteen minutes or so of the tinker fugue ending, so had I taken a later bus I probably would've found a corpse instead of a tinker."

"Where is she now?"

"Taking a shower. She stank, and only part of that was purging some of the toxins her kidneys hadn't been filtering through her sweat glands. I plan on getting a meal into her, since she'll be quite hungry, and finding out more about what's going on."

"I'll get a PRT squad mobilizing. I'll have them set up nearby just in case, but won't have them approach the house just yet. Is there anything else?"

"I don't suppose you can recommend a security system?"

"There are a number of options, do you have any specific concerns you'd want addressed?"

"I've been accosted by a villain's snark on the street, been approached by another at school, and now one broke into my garage. I'm afraid the next one will somehow make it into my bedroom or something."

Taylor waited, and nearly two minutes later Miss Militia finally responded. "Yes, I can see where you're coming from. I'll check with some people on possible options."

"Thank you."

After finishing up with Miss Militia Taylor sent a message to her father with the basics of what had happened. He replied with disbelief, but indicated he'd stay away from home for the moment, in case the PRT squad being sent had to get involved. Not that he'd even left work yet.

"Is that pizza?" Sherrel asked as she came downstairs. The clothing Taylor had provided was barely suitable, but still better than the horrible things the woman had been wearing.

"Yep," Taylor replied. "Frozen, granted. Just came out of the oven." A plate with pizza on it and a large glass of water were put down on the table. "Dig in?"

"Thank you."

"I don't suppose you can tell me what's going on?"

Sherrel took a couple of bites of the pizza while gathering her thoughts. "I think things went wrong when I took some fucking stupid fancy drugs back in March? I ended up accidentally chasing what I'm fairly certain was a Ward, but more importantly I just couldn't tinker when the fucking high ended."

Taylor: Were you preventing her from tinkering?

[Negation. Clarification]

Amy: Wait, you refused to let her tinker with 'crap'? For over a month?

[Agreement]

Amy: Wow. She must have been desperate.

Taylor: Most likely.

Sherrel had consumed more of her pizza, and drank half of the water, before continuing. "So, yeah. I kinda lost track of specifics, but at some point Ad..., er, Skidmark kicked me out. I packed everything I cared about into my tow truck and wandered around town, trying to get out of my rut. Eventually my drugs ran out, and then at some point my meds ran out, and with the Merchants keeping tabs on the hospital I decided I needed an alternate solution since I still couldn't tinker. But they've all been told to avoid here, so I figured you might be able to help."

"They're keeping tabs on the hospital? How do you know that? And why are they avoiding here?"

"Skidmark seems to think that pissing your uncle off is a bad idea, so avoiding accidentally hurting you is a priority? And I've got a tracker in the truck that tells me where all the Merchant vehicles are. Or at least all the ones I'd worked on since Glory Girl punched you, anyway. Made it easier to find out where the fucking idiots left the things so I could tow 'em back for repairs, and came in handy for avoiding the fuckers. But they've constantly got a rough circle around the hospital, probably because Skidmark knows I'll need to get more meds eventually."

"I see. So you'd like me to see about getting you talking to the PRT?"

"If you can? Please?"

Taylor: You're going to need to stop being so hard on her.

[Query]

Taylor: Because there's a good chance that she's going to be asked to fix 'crap' at times. Having her go crazy because you're being stubborn is bad for both of you.

[...Acquiescence]

After Sherrel had eaten all the pizza Taylor had the PRT squad show up and escort the woman back to the PRT building. A second group swung by shortly before her father got home to grab the moped, mainly so it could be run through safety checks. Because even if Taylor's tinker snark said things were good it wasn't yet considered valid for that kind of thing.

"She actually broke into the garage?" Danny asked as he laid out the pile of takeout he'd picked up on the way home.

"Yep," Taylor replied, grabbing some plates and utensils. "Claimed she originally intended to try and find the bathroom, but ended up tinker fuguing on my moped instead. Now it'll probably be a couple of days before I get it back."

"Do I need to look into new locks?"

"I asked Miss Militia for recommendations on security systems. I don't really want the next one to be in my bedroom or something."

"The next one?"

"I've had villains accost me with their powers on the street, walk up to me at school, and break into the garage to 'defect'. The pattern of escalation is worrying."

"When you put it that way..."

After dinner and cleanup Taylor had retreated to her room. She was poking around online, avoiding PHO, while chatting with Amy. They'd originally considered chatting with Riley, but the other girl hadn't responded to the initial message.

Amy: As of a couple minutes ago the PRT's asked me for advice on Sherrel's health. I told them to ensure she eats plenty so that there will be biomass to work with.

Taylor: Which is what I already told them. Then again, my acquisition of your powers may not be known to the rank and file. I haven't checked how far that's gone.

Amy: Do you really think she's serious about all of this?

Taylor: I heard her describing how to use the tracker in her truck to find and avoid the Merchants, since one of the PRT officers would be driving the thing. Coupled with her snark being willing to go on strike, effectively, if she doesn't have better materials?

Amy: Good point. That sounded horrible. How did she hold out for over a month?

Taylor: I imagine she's stubborn. Though I really wish I could see the look on Colin's face when he finds out.

Amy: Oh god, that's likely to be hilarious. Damn you, I didn't even know I wanted to see that until you basically told me I wouldn't!

Taylor thought about it, and on a whim sent a message to Miss Militia asking if that could be recorded. Professionally speaking, just in case it revealed anything useful to his continued mental health, of course.

Thursday morning Taylor woke to a pile of messages. Starting with her personal phone, Riley apologized for not being available the night before, but she'd been out of range of her phone working on a project. PHO had apparently gone nuts with her having found Elle and she had a lot of alerts relating to that. Lacey wanted to know why she'd found out that Taylor had met three capes from PHO instead of from Taylor herself. Oh, and there was another request for an interview. She had a form letter for those now, luckily.

On the Maul side, Director Piggot wanted to talk to her and Lisa about something this afternoon. Following that, it looked like Faultline had contacted the PRT about Elle's power being shut down, and they wanted to talk to Taylor about that too. Sherrel had gone through the first stage of processing, thinker support saying she was genuine about joining the Protectorate. Director Piggot wanted her to come in to talk about that as well, on top of the other two meetings. And Miss Militia informed her that Colin had been busy setting up radiation detection equipment and thus she'd do her best to ensure that his reaction to Sherrel's defection was caught on camera.

Apparently the radiation bit had broken in the morning news, which Taylor hadn't watched. A list of symptoms were published and free scanning was being offered at the PRT building and hospital, just in case. Specialists were even being called in from outside of town to help track down the source. The concerted effort to clear out gang presence around the hospital was seen as a reaction to the radiation scare, rather than the PRT likely suddenly being able to track the Merchants.

By the time she got to school she was well informed about all of this due to the gossip on the bus. She was even being left alone, though that probably had to do with everyone being on the lookout for Amy.

Taylor: Heads up, you might want a bodyguard when you get to school.

Amy: Oh great. Why?

Taylor: Radiation scare, you were mentioned in the news.

Amy: If I weren't already on the way I might consider skipping. Damn. Can we reveal that you can check people too?

Taylor: No, I don't think that would be safe for either of us.

Amy: Dang. We should have asked Leet for tinkertech that we could pretend let you borrow my power.

Taylor: I'm sure we could come up with something that looked good without him, though that probably has just as many issues as what actually happened getting out.

Amy: There are times I hate having to take into account what idiots will do.

By the time Amy reached school it seemed like Vicky had been drafted into the role of bodyguard. After all, she didn't usually fly around at school these days, so the fact she was airborne was a pretty good hint.

"You suck," Amy said as she sat down next to Taylor at lunch. "Being ignored and all."

"I wouldn't say ignored," Taylor retorted. "Hopefully you can go home and hide after school?"

"Unless someone else comes in poisoned anyway. All cases are being considered emergencies, given how few ways there are to deal with it. At least without a healing factor or something, anyway."

"You hoping that the panic settles by the weekend?"

"It had better settle by the weekend."

Yeah, Taylor decided that was enough of that topic.

As she rode the bus to the PRT building Taylor poked through the news. Apparently Brian was over at the hospital, 'assisting' with the scanning by providing a 'radiation-free zone' with his darkness. People were freaked out enough that they were willing to sit in his darkness. Wow. Too bad that she didn't think his darkness would absorb the radiation if it was inside them, which was the concern.

A quick check of the PRT system indicated that normal Wards patrols had been canceled for the day, instead they'd be ferried over to help with crowd control at the hospital. That sounded boring as hell and she was kinda glad she wasn't permitted to be 'in-costume' right now. Maybe she'd go visit with Amy instead, poke around in the greenhouse and all that.

Shifting back to the news, she found an article talking about the responses of various gang leaders to the poisoning. How in the world did they get statements from all kinds of gang leaders that quickly? It boggled the mind, as the story had only broken that morning. Looking over the article she found that it was split up by region, with some of the responses being volunteered and some being asked for.

In Brockton Bay they'd gotten statements from all three gangs. Kaiser had gone to the press to call it despicable and foolish, the latter because Amy lived in the Bay. You apparently didn't try weird ways to kill someone with the world's best healer around. Lung had claimed that if you're going to kill someone that it's dishonorable to intentionally make them suffer. Skidmark had whined about not thinking of it first and asked the reporter where to get some of the stuff? Wow.

In Boston Accord had called it an inefficient, imprecise, and messy method of execution. Blasto admitted he didn't even know what the stuff was or why it was dangerous, and once that was explained had been horrified that anyone would do that. And, yeah. The 'brave reporter' who had approached the Teeth to get a statement from the Butcher has gone missing. In that case, probably more like 'suicidal idiot'. PHO actually had the Butcher's monthly cycle documented, it was the wrong time of the month to bother her.

Deciding she didn't care to read over things from any other regions she moved on. Further down there was a minor article about possible 'disruptions' out in the bay this weekend. They hadn't done much to elaborate, given that they were more focused on the radiation issues. Maybe they'd put more details out in the coming days?

She hadn't found anything else to read by the time she made it to the PRT building. She had an appointment with Director Piggot as Taylor, so she'd be using the main entrance. Though she'd probably swing down to the Wards area to check her mail, supposedly some things had been delivered. She noted the lack of people, having expected it to be swamped with panicked people wanting to get scanned for radiation. That was explained with the sign that stated that radiation scans were free with any gift shop purchase, or they could go to the hospital where they were 100% free of charge.

Once led through to the back she looked at her pass. Amazingly enough, it was boring and plain. It just said she had appointments with Director Piggot and Miss Militia, no second label on the back or anything. Then again, she hadn't recognized the officer at the front desk, perhaps they were new?

"Good afternoon Miss Hebert," the secretary said. "If you'd take a seat, we're still waiting for Mycroft."

Taylor sat down, and noted that Lisa was probably in one of the cafeterias, while Miss Militia was already in the Director's office.

Taylor: Tell Lisa to hurry up, would you?

[Agreement]

Taylor: Thank you.

It didn't take long for Lisa to get moving, and a few minutes later she stepped off the elevator. The secretary let the Director know they were both there, and sent them in.

"Good afternoon," Director Piggot said as they entered. "Please close the door, and if one of you would kindly hit the privacy shield switch there?"

Lisa turned and hit the clearly labeled switch, even as Taylor looked at it. "Why is it by the door, and not on your desk? I'd think not being able to toggle it yourself without getting up would be annoying."

"Mostly so that visitors feel better about it, having turned it on themselves. That and I didn't want the high voltage wire that switch requires running to my desk. I was told the switch pretty much required it, so the wall was the best place for it."

"Er, did they tell you that it has a solenoid capable of moving the switch rigged up for remote low-voltage operation thanks to a relay circuit?"

At that point everyone else in the room stared at Taylor, before Director Piggot picked up a pen and made a note. "Thank you very much Miss Hebert. They did not, in fact, tell me about that option."

"You're welcome."

Taylor and Lisa sat down, the remaining pleasantries were exchanged, and then the Director sighed. "This meeting should be short, barring any odd questions. To put it bluntly, Miss Militia and I were read into the truth behind the Nine this past weekend, in part due to Brockton Bay having so many people aware of the truth living in it. We felt you two should be made aware of this, in part so that you'd know you can come to us if needed."

"If you have any questions for us now would be an ideal time to ask them," Miss Militia added.

"I'm curious as to what other reasons were involved," Taylor admitted. "Assuming you can tell us, of course."

"That is a good question," Director Piggot said. "The other major reason was that Bonesaw is apparently the only other expert on the connection powers make to the brain, so if you and Panacea end up out of commission again they'll be able to bring her in more easily."

"Does this revelation have anything to do with the parahuman firing range being damaged on Sunday?" Lisa asked, only for Miss Militia to look guilty. "Yeah, thought so."

"Anything else?" Director Piggot looked at the two as they shook their heads. "Alright then. Mycroft, thank you for your time. Please head down to help coordinate the other Wards as they're brought over to help at the hospital. We have additional things to discuss with Miss Hebert."

Lisa gave Taylor an odd look as she left, but didn't ask. Or have Inference Engine poke, as far as Taylor could tell. Once she was gone Director Piggot sighed and went through the motions of opening a file on her computer.

"Now then," Director Piggot said. "I'd like to talk about the requests we got back from Faultline, after your encounter with Labyrinth. To be clear, as far as we can tell you did nothing wrong and as such there are no punishments. The thing is, we're being asked about tinkertech that doesn't exist."

"Have you claimed it was tinkertech?" Taylor asked, only to get a questioning look. "Well, if you haven't, couldn't you say that 'Maul' was nearby, but isn't the right kind of cape to approach a frightened child?"

"Blaming Labyrinth's shutdown on power interactions," Miss Militia said, obviously contemplating the ramifications. "We could even claim that 'Maul' knew you were in the area and asked you to approach the girl, so as to hopefully keep her from becoming more frightened than necessary."

"Perhaps add that 'Maul' had been in an altercation and hadn't had a chance to clean up, to help explain staying out of sight? That could even help explain why I didn't want to take money from Gregor, as 'Maul' was doing most of the work in keeping Labyrinth's power disabled."

"We'll need to consult with some thinkers on that before we use the idea," Director Piggot said. "It's a good one, but it does reveal an aspect of your power set that hasn't exactly come up before. Or, more accurately, it ties things that people know someone's been able to do to you outside of the PRT, given some of the speculation into Glory Girl after some of your incidents with her."

"Actually," Miss Militia said. "Perhaps we can limit the potential headache of having a 'power nullifier' by implying it's limited to indiscriminate shaker-style parahuman abilities? I believe that the general feeling we're getting from the Merchants is that Armsmaster created something to cancel out Skidmark's fields, after all, so the only things the public would be looking at are tied to indiscriminate shakers."

"It's a workable plan, and with Miss Hebert's permission I'll see about getting it implemented, provided the thinkers agree."

"It works for me," Taylor said, shrugging. "Better than pretending that we have tinkertech that can't actually be shown, that just happened to be in the area at the right time and all. Well, short of claiming it would shut down shakers in the entire city, anyway, and Faultline might take that as a threat."

"And when we couldn't activate it at will, or the next time a shaker is shut down others are unaffected, the ruse would be revealed anyway. Very well. Miss Militia, if you'd call up Armsmaster, I'll write this up and submit it to the thinkers. With any luck I can get back to Faultline by the end of the day, which will get that off of my plate."

Over the next few minutes Director Piggot filled out and sent a request to the Think Tank, then got out a camera and put it on a shelf in the corner. Taylor and Miss Militia smirked at that. It wasn't long before Taylor noted Colin enter her range, likely on his motorcycle given that he appeared to be heading for the secure garage. He quickly and likely efficiently made his way to and up the elevator, and was sent in by the secretary without even breaking stride.

"Good afternoon Director," Colin said. "Miss Militia, Miss Hebert."

"Good afternoon Armsmaster," Director Piggot said as the door closed behind him. "I wanted you here to talk about Miss Hebert's latest recruitment."

"Were there issues with the former Empire parahumans?"

"No, last night she recruited Squealer."

Colin stood there, apparently stunned, before turning to Taylor.

"She'd broken into my garage, and was fuguing on my moped," Taylor explained. "She'd been having issues tinkering since our first meeting, and was unable to get to the hospital due to Merchant activity. I believe she said she decided to approach me as she wasn't sure she'd be able to safely approach the PRT otherwise?"

"You're saying that Squealer broke into your garage?" Colin asked, and Taylor nodded. "And she did this in part because she was afraid to approach the PRT?" Taylor nodded again, and what was visible of Colin's expression darkened. "That is UNACCEPTABLE! Villain or not, barring a kill order no parahuman should be afraid to approach the PRT, especially when they're having issues with their powers."

Taylor looked over at Miss Militia, who was staring at Colin, the only movement she was making being blinking. A quick check showed Director Piggot to be in a similar state. Turning back to Colin she watched as he paced, muttering to himself about things she couldn't quite make out.

Finally, he turned to Director Piggot. "Director, would I be correct in assuming an incident report has been filed?"

"Er, yes," Director Piggot said. "I'm led to believe that you would have seen it by now, had you not been focused on the radiation scare."

"Yes, that has been distracting. If you don't mind, I'll read the report to get the pertinent details on Squealer's defection. For now I feel there are some important things to put in motion. Unless you have other concerns to bring up?"

"I believe we're planning on having her join the larger power testing session on Saturday. That's all, I believe."

"Thank you." The three watched him leave, Taylor catching him saying "Good afternoon Mister Chambers" just before the door shut.

"I'll admit that I expected him to be more annoyed that Squealer had defected than by the details surrounding said defection," Miss Militia said, shaking her head.

"It wasn't quite what I expected either," Director Piggot said. "Well then. Right. Other details. Miss Hebert, you've now hit your second recruitment bonus. Congratulations are in order, given how rare the first bonus is these days."

"I'd be happy with knowing I'm not going to wake up one day with a villain staring at me in my bedroom," Taylor replied, causing Director Piggot to blink.

"Outside of the Cornell incident she's seen a general escalation in villain recruitments," Miss Militia explained. "Powers accosting her on the street, directly sought out and approached at school, and now her home broken into, even if only the garage. They do seem to be getting more intrusive. I've already started compiling security system information for her. Room-level security for when one is sleeping in the room is admittedly more difficult to piece together."

"I see," Director Piggot said. "I'll ask around a bit myself, perhaps someone in my circles will have something useful."

Taylor had eventually made it down to the Wards area to check her mail. Visors in clear and black for use with her costume in the rain had shown up and were put away. The 'knife-sized' sheath for her sword had shown up, but Missy wasn't around so expanding it would have to wait. And the clear 'Maul-style' visor she'd wanted for home had arrived. Though thinking about that, perhaps she should see if Amy wanted something similar?

Taylor: Hey Amy.

Amy: Yeah?

Taylor: So, I got a clear visor for use at home, so I can use my phones like I do when in costume. Do you think you might want to order one?

Amy: That sounds a lot more useful now then it did before. I wonder if we should check with Riley?

Taylor: We could see about confusing her by just sending her one?

Amy: Hah! I'll do that, you already gave her that locket.

Taylor: Alright. Mind if I come over?

Amy: Feel free.

Taylor: Thanks.

The last thing was a form to fill out for sending the poster off to join other things at the next charity auction. It was trivial to fill out, attach to the poster tube, and drop off on her way out.

Interlude: Skidmark/Squealer Sherrel groaned as she leaned back. Adam had gotten into some new shit and was being an idiot, but it gave her time to tinker. She'd go out and test a few things, but she wasn't going anywhere near possibly annoying a PRT on the rampage. Though what Adam would do when he found out about Glory Girl's little screw-up later was a mystery. At least Mush had agreed with her and told everyone to keep their heads down.

Someday she might have to ask Mush what his fucking name was, though.

A few minutes later she was wondering if Armsmaster would leave a modified tow truck with no weapons alone. It was worth a shot, right? Might make it easier to cart things back after the others were done fucking them up too.

Adam scowled as he looked over what little his moles had been able to figure out. Most of it was worthless, in his more lucid moments like this he could admit that druggies made horrible spies. Hell, he'd gotten more information off of PHO than from his moles.

Just his luck, really, that he'd come down off of a nearly week-long high to find that Jacob of all people had been on the warpath. He'd never met the fucker, but even before he'd triggered there'd been stories. Nothing that could ever really be linked to the man, but the sheer number of people that had apparently run into the Nine after pissing him off was worrisome.

He assigned a few people to figure out where this niece of Jacob's lived, and then they'd be staying the fuck away from there. He'd let Glory Hole there deal with any fallout from losing her temper.

Sherrel scowled as she got yet another one of their vehicles outfitted with the 'avoid this neighborhood' system. It wasn't a bad idea, but it was annoying. Then again, Adam seemed genuinely worried about pissing that Jacob fellow off, so staying away from the guy's family made sense.

All that aside, it would probably be several years before she forgot the address or GPS coordinates for the place with how often she was entering them.

"FUCK," she yelled as the crap wiring harness in this truck shocked her. Screw it, she'd rewire the whole thing properly, then go back to the rest of the vehicles.

Adam blinked as he watched the news. Huh, what the fuck was in Plaistow? Then again, he probably shouldn't complain that the Nine hadn't arrived on Jacob's heels. Meh, whatever. He had to focus on getting his people to reign things in for the weekend. You'd think that they'd have a fucking clue, they did this almost every month after all. Hell, he thought a good third of the fuckers had been healed by Panacea at least once, why did they seem to have an issue with remembering to make sure they didn't add to her workload on these weekends?

Besides, it was a wonderful excuse for a 'sober up and double-check inventory' session. None of them were all that good at keeping track of stock when high as kites, him included, so these fucking weekends were worth it, if only for making sure they knew what they had and what they needed to order.

Sherrel swore as she fought with the hydraulics on the tow truck one of the idiots had obtained. They couldn't get a working one, could they. No, they had to get one that wasn't even close to functional. She was going to have to rebuild pretty much everything. Shit, she should have just made one from fucking scratch.

And where the hell was her fucking joint?

Adam's eye twitched as he listened to his underling. FUCKING SPOTTY SHITEHAWK ERECTION COLLECTORS! How many of his fucking moles had been working for Coil? He was going to have to vet fucking everyone, wasn't he? FUCK! He'd probably have to stay sober too. This was gonna suck.

It took him nearly half an hour to realize that if the PRT had taken Coil out, and a number of his men had been Coil's, then he had to consider every hideout compromised. MONG LOVING SPERM PILE PLONKERS!

Sherrel glared at the idiot in front of her. Yes, he had been cleared of being a mole for someone else. That didn't mean fucking squat. It especially didn't mean that the fucker had any right to even think about touching HER STASH.

"I'll be nice and give you a fucking ten second head start," she said, picking up her micro-welder. "If you're lucky I'll lose interest in castrating you before I catch you." She hit the button on the welder, causing a sharp blue flame to jump from the tip.

Huh, that got him moving quite fast.

Adam wasn't sure how, but he'd somehow gotten a better set of moles after the whole Coil thing. Or maybe he'd just gotten a lazy bastard or two that were decent at putting things together from PHO. He wasn't actually sure yet. But they'd figured out one of the fucking Protectorate patrols well enough to lay a trap.

Stupid cunts wouldn't know what hit them, and he'd have revenge for them nabbing that shipment of rare tinker-made drugs last month. Now where was Sherrel? They'd need her crap working to pull this off, and he forgot the code to his safe again. He couldn't grab another hit of the new shit without it.

Sherrel grinned as the tracker flickered to life. With any luck it would allow her to keep track of all their vehicles and she should be able to lock onto a couple of other engines without the need for tags. The latter wouldn't be perfect, but it should work well enough.

It did need testing, though, so she took another shot of whatever the fuck Adam had dug up before wandering over to the door. "Hey fuckwits! I need someone to go drive in fucking circles or something."

Oh, look, an entire group of idiot volunteers. Well, multiple targets would be a decent test too.

Adam woke up and stared at the ceiling. His leg hurt, and once again he'd just come down off of something. What, he wasn't sure. Sometimes he got some good shit, after all. What the hell had he been up to?

A few minutes later it came back to him. Shit. Had he actually tried an ambush against a Protectorate patrol? What the fuck had he been thinking? Well, that was actually obvious, he hadn't been thinking.

"Hey Skids," Sherrel said. Adam turned his head to see that she was apparently in an overturned easy chair, staring at the ceiling. When did they get an easy chair? "I vote we stay away from whatever it was we took."

That...was unusual. "Why?"

"Because I think I chased a Ward for a bit after the ambush failed, just because they were running away."

Adam blinked. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. He really hoped they hadn't hurt the kid, the stories of what the Protectorate did to those who targeted retreating Wards were fucking terrifying. "Please tell me they got away safely?"

"Yeah, I wasn't that fucking out of it. Once I saw it was one of the fucking kids I stopped chasing them."

Well, thank whomever for small mercies? They were going to have to be careful for a bit, though. Keep their heads down and all. Maybe they should dig into the stash of mellow shit for a bit?

Sherrel groaned as she woke up...in a truck? Oh, right, Adam had all but kicked her out when she hit her slump. The crap they kept bringing her just didn't do anything for her anymore. She still had ideas, but the fucking things needed materials she didn't have. Whatever that crap they'd taken before the fucking idiotic ambush had screwed her up. She knew drugs could do that to tinkers, but to have that fucking stuff do it to her? Fuck.

The worst part was that her stash had run out and she couldn't bring herself to go back to Adam. Fucker could come crawling to her when his precious vehicles stopped working.

Now where did she put that medicine for her stupid kidneys?

Adam was starting to get worried. Yeah, he'd kicked Sherrel out and told her not to come back when she'd hit a slump, but for some reason she'd actually not come back. And the rain wasn't helping, water levels were starting to rise near their current primary storehouse. Luckily they still had enough working vehicles with cloaks to get stuff in and out of town, but the idiots didn't take good care of things, since Sherrel would just grumble and fix them.

He might have to actually rely on his men with licenses. Which might mean finding out if any of them had one in the first place.

It took a couple of hours, but he came up with a plan to kill a couple of birds with one joint. He'd have Mush go out and clear the storm drains, here and around town. Community service like that would be left alone by the PRT, it would keep anyone from finding them by looking for the only cleared storm drains in the area, and he'd be able to wander town looking for Sherrel.

Now if only he could remember the guy's name...

Sherrel was starting to get worried. She'd run out of medication at some point, and the urge to tinker was keeping her from sleeping. But she couldn't tinker, and she didn't know why. She needed help, and was pretty sure that Adam wouldn't be able to do much. Well, outside of get her more of her medicine. Maybe.

She needed to find someone who could help, but wouldn't shoot her on sight. Or just lock her up and throw away the key. Or anything like that, really. But who could she go to? The PRT probably wouldn't listen to her, the other gangs were out too. New Wave was probably just as likely to attack her as the PRT, unless she approached Panacea first. In that case they'd probably attack her harder for fear she was looking to hurt the healer.

Perhaps she could find someone associated with the PRT, that wasn't a parahuman and didn't actually work for them?

Chapter 76 Taylor walked up to the Dallon household, having taken the bus to the stop a couple blocks over, and noted that the only ones home were Amy and Carol.

Amy: Just come on in, the front door should be unlocked. And sorry, Carol dropped stuff on me once you were already on your way.

Shaking her head, she did just that, making her way into the living room where Amy and Carol were apparently going through paperwork?

"Hello," Taylor said, getting a grunt in response from Carol. "What's with all this?"

"Someone heard about the rainbow rose bushes and decided to claim they violate their patent," Amy replied. "Three quarters of this is their 'supporting documentation'. Here, have a look at the start of their patent."

Taylor took the offered stack and flipped through it. She then paused, and went back to the front. "So, Amy, how many injectable dyes do you use?"

"I don't? What does that have to do with anything?"

"The very first thing described is a system for automatically injecting dyes. This isn't a patent for rainbow rose bushes, this is a patent for an automatic coloring system."

"I thought of that too," Carol said. "But he's claiming that because roses don't naturally grow in rainbow form then his patent must be being infringed to produce them in saleable numbers. So we need to be able to argue a number of things, as 'parahuman-assisted growth' isn't a good enough counterargument due to a couple of cases over the last few years."

"So provide one of the bulbs for testing?"

"What bulbs?"

"Er," Amy said. "The ones Taylor helped me figure out that grow into rainbow rose bushes? Though the first test set hasn't exactly had a long time to grow yet."

"But once produced they, in theory, grow a rainbow rose bush without your power being involved?"

"Yes?"

"Thank Themis," Carol said as she threw the papers she was holding back onto the pile. "That means that I can probably get this dismissed entirely. Though we'll need to provide the PRT with even a prototype bulb. Once they have that the entire thing is stalled until the PRT grows the thing, and if it produces anything even remotely like a rainbow rose bush it will prove that this idiot's patent isn't involved without us having to argue a thing."

The pile of papers was somewhat-haphazardly gathered and dumped into a box, before Carol went and got drinks for everyone.

"So where are Vicky and Mark?" Taylor asked, before taking a sip of her juice.

"Mark's out supervising Vicky and Eric," Carol answered. "The Merchants have been growing unusually restless, nobody knows why, but that just means their territory is good for an urge-clearing patrol run."

Taylor and Amy snickered at that, which caused Carol to raise an eyebrow.

"Did the 'restlessness' start up say, oh, a month ago?" Taylor asked, once she'd recovered from her snickering. "Give or take a couple of weeks?"

"Yes," Carol said. "Originally it was blamed on the whole debacle where you were chased and the conflict with the Empire, in fact. Why?"

"They haven't had a tinker since then," Amy answered. "In fact, Squealer's officially defected."

"Why hasn't anyone been informed of that?"

"She only broke into our garage last night," Taylor replied, only to get a 'wait, what?' look from Carol. "My snark kinda broke her ability to tinker, somewhat? And she was afraid to approach the PRT, so she picked me instead."

"I don't suppose Armsmaster found out yet?" Amy asked.

"Yeah. He got angry about her feeling she had to approach me and stormed off to talk to Glenn, I think?"

They all sat there contemplating that for a few minutes, before Amy sighed. "I should probably go make a couple more bulbs before we forget."

"That's a good idea," Carol admitted. "Does it take long?"

"Not really, it'll only take me a couple of minutes." Amy then headed out the back to her greenhouse.

"So Taylor," Carol said after the back door closed. "Amy said you two always know where the other is now?"

"Yep," Taylor replied. "Not to mention being able to sense each other's biology just as well as we perceive our own."

"That's actually a relief, on top of her having more methods to protect herself. Did you know there have been over a hundred attempts to abduct her since she triggered?"

"I...no, I didn't know that."

"She probably doesn't know about most of them herself, since all but a few were stopped before the would-be abdutor reached her. New Wave guarding the hospital when she does her out of town patient weekends isn't because we expect violence. Even the lead-up days have a guard more because they are easier to target her on, rather than because people are insistent on seeing her."

"So if anyone does reach her you know I'll be able to help find her?"

"Yes. The same would obviously work for her helping to find you, but I don't think you're a frequent abduction target."

"If you just jinxed me..."

Taylor watched as Carol drove off down the street, having offered to drop her off before bringing the rose bush bulbs to the PRT. Once Carol was out of her range she turned and went into the house. Her father wasn't home yet, but it was early enough that she could probably make a decent dinner for when he did get home.

It didn't take her all that long to assemble a shepherd's pie, followed by ensuring some rolls were ready to throw in the oven. With that done she started some laundry and decided the living room could use a going-over with the vacuum. She'd finished that and was starting on some additional dusting when her 'Maul' phone notified her of an email. Apparently the testers had some questions for what might be needed. Most of it was straightforward, but apparently they wanted to test 'feeding' snarks? They had multiple likely potential volunteers for the feeding, but wanted to know if there were any other requirements.

Giving that some thought, she realized that she hadn't actually 'filled up' her tank since the run-in with Gregor and Newter, so Brian's presence might be needed. So she sent them that information, as well as some minor corrections on some of the other things they mentioned. Like the fact that they'd probably want to bring at least some broken tinkertech to test her tinker snark. Unless they wanted to intentionally damage still-working stuff just to see if she could repair it, anyway.

It had taken a few minutes to get her new visor set up, but now she could use her phones at home without looking at them just like she could in costume. Or, at least, she would be able to once the thing charged, as it had thrown a battery warning just after she finished pairing it to both phones. So for now she was stuck with having things sitting in front of her if she wanted to see their screens, which meant her random internet browsing was being done at her desk.

Amy: Did you get a message asking about what might be needed for testing?

Taylor: Yep.

Amy: Do you think they'd actually get someone needing implants or prosthetics for me?

Taylor: Maybe? Or maybe they'd grab someone who already has implants and such.

Amy: Good point. Oh, I confused Vicky by giving her those headphones you gave me. She doesn't seem to know why I wouldn't need them anymore.

Taylor snickered at that, and Amy obviously noticed as she grinned.

Taylor: I do wonder who they've got lined up to 'feed' though. They didn't give names, and thought they were 'likely' to have hungry snarks. Which makes me think they know something I don't about what makes them hungry.

Amy: Huh, that's a good point. Have you noticed any patterns?

Taylor: Case 53s have all been hungry? But they aren't the only ones, so...

Amy: No idea then.

Friday morning the news was focusing on the areas shut down and cordoned off to be scanned for radioactive materials. There were six different areas that preliminary scans had identified, apparently, one of them being where the poisoned man lived. On the other hand, they were also reporting that nobody else that had been checked had been affected, so it was looking to be an isolated incident.

Then again, they also reported that the line at the hospital this morning was already wrapped around the block, had crossed the street, and wrapped around the next block. So the panic was still on. Did people really think that whomever had done this would be targeting people at random?

She swung by the gym before school, something that Amy had also decided to do today. They ended up working out together, with Taylor showing the other girl that the machines could, in fact, handle brute strength.

"I'm feeling like an idiot," Amy said after they'd showered and gotten dressed again. "Because I'm only now considering how stupid it was that I was annoyed with my inability to keep up with you before."

"I didn't point it out because, well," Taylor said, shrugging. "I didn't see you trying to be a bad thing?"

"It wasn't, but I still feel stupid."

"I think some of the other Wards feel like they should be able to keep up when I do stuff like that in front of them, so you aren't alone?"

"Knowing I'm not the only idiot doesn't really help."

"Ames!" Vicky said as she came up to the two of them at school. "Where'd you go this morning?"

"The gym," Amy replied. "Taylor and I both decided to get some exercise in before school."

"I wonder if I could actually benefit from the gym now?" Vicky wondered as Dean caught up with her. "Without the enhancements active and all."

"Perhaps you should get up some mornings and join us," Taylor said, causing Amy to snicker. "Unless you're too lazy?"

"Lazy is a good description of her in the morning," Dean said, earning a light slap. "I'm not really sure how she kept in shape with her powers, though. She never explained that particular secret."

"The PRT helped her assemble a set of yoga-like exercises," Amy answered. "Including a lot of pulling against her own body, since her power doesn't apply to her interacting with herself."

"They're a pain in the ass," Vicky admitted. "And some of them aren't really possible unless you can at least float. But if I don't have to do them and can exercise normally now? That wouldn't be bad at all."

"Then we'll have to drag you to the gym sometime," Taylor said, grinning.

Vicky seemed a bit more apprehensive after seeing the grin, and Amy matching it a moment later apparently didn't help.

Come lunchtime a new gossip thread had cropped up. Every Ward except for Taylor and Lisa had been seen helping out at the hospital. Lisa wasn't normally seen at all, being a 'non-combat' Ward, but Taylor's absence was starting to make people wonder. In fact, 'Maul' hadn't been seen for a couple of weeks at this point. One of the current theories was that she'd apparently fallen victim to some poisoning of her own and hadn't been caught as quickly as the gang member had, so was recovering.

This had the benefit of further distancing 'Taylor' and 'Maul', as Taylor was obviously fine. And given that, if she was Maul then there'd be no reason for her to not be patrolling. Since Maul wasn't patrolling, Taylor couldn't be her.

Amy: I suppose it didn't really get very far that we had to be near each other.

Taylor: Even if it had, we've obviously been apart and Maul didn't start patrolling again. Thus that wouldn't have any connection, right?

Amy: I suppose. Sometimes I'm amazed at how blind people can be.

Taylor: I think more people know cape identities than anyone realizes, but they're all intelligent enough to keep their mouths shut too.

Amy: That...huh. I hadn't considered that theory. Where'd it come from?

Taylor: Multiple villains have picked up on my identity but kept it secret. Some of it was from pure observation. Some non-parahumans have to have done the same thing.

Amy: Ok, I can see that. And it isn't an issue for New Wave, so we might be less aware of it.

Taylor: Honestly, I think for the most part it's ignored. Easier to not think about it and all.

"So how goes the cross-school search for someone who fits Maul's description and hasn't been well for a couple of weeks?" Vicky asked.

"They've decided to argue over whether or not they should be considering all students," Dennis replied, poking through various messages on his phone. "On the basis that Maul's apparent appearance might be something as simple as a wig and makeup or possibly a limited changer ability."

"In other words they're getting nowhere fast," Dean said, shaking his head.

Amy: So, what does your theory say about that?

Taylor: The argument over whether or not to include all students may have been introduced by those who've figured out some of the identities and are helping to hide them?

Amy: I don't know if that's ridiculous or brilliant.

Taylor: That's assuming, of course, that Dennis isn't one of the ones doing so.

Amy: Well, ok, I know he does like to screw with the gossip.

"Enough with the digging up cape identities," one of their classmates said. Taylor didn't know his name, though. "So what's everyone doing this afternoon or weekend?"

"Mom called for a meeting this afternoon," Vicky volunteered. "Though nobody's told me what for."

"Maybe it's prep for our first firearm classes on Sunday," Amy offered. "Since we don't know how long I'll be at the PRT tomorrow and all."

"What are you doing at the PRT building?" Dennis asked. Taylor wasn't sure if he knew or not, actually.

"I've been asked to be present for a power testing session," Amy replied.

Taylor: Ooh, good one. Completely true and misleading as hell.

Amy: Thanks. Oh, and for some reason Carol said you could attend our meeting this afternoon, if you want to?

Taylor: Is there something I should know about going on?

Amy: No clue. She said that, but didn't say what the meeting was about.

Taylor: I think I'll pass, then. You can always poke me if you think my opinion might be needed anyway.

"I give up," Dennis said. "I can't think of any reason why they'd ask you to be present."

"Maybe they want to test a brute and need someone to put them back together if they aren't enough of a brute?" Taylor offered.

"And now an entire chain of reasons seem so obvious. Why was I having trouble coming up with ideas?"

"Because you're an idiot?"

Dennis blinked, groaned, carefully moved his tray to the side, and then dropped his head on the table.

Shortly after school got out Taylor found herself staring at PHO. Apparently the PRT had 'popped' a Gray Boy bubble a couple hours ago. The person inside was confirmed to have gone insane, but as far as they could tell that was due to the time looping itself and wasn't a problem with the method used to release them. In fact, they'd been released at the 'start' of the loop, without the additional injuries that Gray Boy had inflicted upon them later.

It seemed that the PRT hadn't intended for anyone to find out already, but they didn't realize that a news station had recently set up monitoring of the bubble for a documentary. As such their test was caught on seven extra cameras. The systems monitoring those cameras had alerted people to the change in the images, meaning that the PRT hadn't even finished setting up before they were being watched.

Flipping through the discussion showed that a lot of people were in complete shock, and the PRT was being seen as miracle workers as a result. After all, first the anti-master device and now Gray Boy. People wanted to know what was next, but also seemed to be afraid to speculate lest they jinx it. Taylor honestly wasn't sure what the next attempt would be, unless Vivian decided to go after Eagleton or Ellisburg. Well, Taylor was assuming this was Vivian's work, anyway. It apparently had looked like a grenade had actually penetrated the bubble before going off.

Luckily for Taylor she was distracted from PHO shortly before her stop. She walked the rest of the way home in a bit of a daze.

Amy: What exactly has you stunned?

Taylor: I think Vivian figured out how to pop Gray Boy bubbles.

Well, that appeared to have stunned Amy too, so at least Taylor wasn't alone?

Amy: Is that on PHO?

Taylor: Yep. And probably the news for the next couple of weeks.

Amy: So, how much money is this going to net you?

Taylor: I don't think I get any profits from her work, despite the encouragement I may have given her snark. Oh, and the freed person was still insane.

Amy: Well, that sucks.

Taylor collected the mail on the way into the house, flipping through it before dropping it on the kitchen table when she didn't find anything for her. She then grabbed a soda from the fridge and headed upstairs. She threw her visor on before getting out what little schoolwork she had, figuring that amazing revelations or not she should still get it taken care of.

It was nearly an hour later when Amy obviously stopped her own work and went downstairs, indicating to Taylor that it was time for their meeting. Taylor had actually finished the schoolwork that had been assigned and moved onto getting ahead in a couple of subjects, poking at PHO off and on as she did so.

Amy: Hello there.

[Greetings]

Taylor: Oooh, hello again. How are you?

[Data. Query]

Taylor: Good to know. And that's Amy, surely you picked up on some of that when I let Dragon know?

[Embarrassment]

Taylor: Ahh. I can see how you could have been too busy with other things.

Amy: So, is Dragon's name Ada?

Taylor: Er...kinda?

[Elaboration]

Amy: Her command name is Ada? What does that mean?

Taylor: Not sure it's our place to tell you.

[Agreement]

Amy: Damned secrets.

Taylor shook her head as Amy obviously grumbled.

Taylor: So, what's Dragon there for?

Amy: Not sure. Vicky's running late, so we're waiting for her.

It was another ten minutes or so before Vicky apparently made it to the meeting and they actually started to talk. Taylor had no clue about what and was doing her best to stay out of it unless specifically poked. That and she was in the middle of some annoying math problems. Did they intentionally make word problems as difficult to understand as possible? This one even seemed to be contradictory in the numbers it was providing.

It was even harder to pay attention to when Amy poked her halfway through. Physically the other girl seemed to be in a mild state of shock?

Amy: Taylor, why does Dragon seem to be referring to you as her mother?

Ooooh, so that's why Dragon was there. Though telling the entire household?

Taylor: That's...complicated?

Amy: I'm fairly certain you couldn't have programmed an AI as a child that went on to become a famous parahuman without anyone realizing it.

Taylor: Of course I couldn't. I just kinda, well, accidentally adopted her?

Amy: How in the world do you accidentally adopt anyone?

Taylor: Well, er, I just wanted to keep her safe during the tinker fugue, and her snark couldn't tell everything that was going to happen when I triggered things to protect her?

Amy appeared to be in a state of disbelief, which was probably expected at this point. Taylor sighed and put her homework away, getting the feeling that she wasn't going to be focusing on it anytime soon. Maybe she'd try again after dinner?

Amy: Ok, you're telling me everything at some point. Right now, though, Carol's gotten into a discussion with Dragon about her legal situation.

Taylor: I figured she was skirting on the cape vs non-cape identities being able to be legally separate in several ways, with no requirement for a legal non-cape identity due to Case 53s and all.

Amy: Apparently she has a legal civilian identity, and inherited all of her father's stuff when he died? Or something like that.

Taylor: Huh. Good to know, I guess. I hadn't actually asked.

Eventually Danny came home with dinner and provided a wonderful excuse to drop things for the time being.

After dinner Taylor had been cajoled into revealing most of the details about what had happened with Dragon. The actual details on how she triggered the backdoor were an entirely different thing. She also didn't go into significant details on Richter's message, just mentioned that she'd found one. Where was something else she was keeping quiet on for the time being as well.

Amy, in return, had explained that Dragon apparently thought that Taylor shouldn't have the stress of not telling Amy, and that Amy should similarly not have the stress of not telling the other Dallons. She wasn't willing to extend this to the stress of not telling the Pelhams as they were already keeping the Slaughterhouse Nine secret there, so this shouldn't be adding much more.

Eventually Amy had acquiesced to Taylor's desire to get the homework out of the way, deciding to do so herself as well. It was, after all, better to stay ahead of things. Who knew what would happen over the weekend, right?

Saturday morning Taylor and Amy both made their way to the PRT building early. Amy used the main entrance and got a pass while Taylor entered through the ice cream parlor. The only other Ward in the area this morning seemed to be Lisa, still sleeping according to Inference Engine.

Amy: Does it always gossip like that?

Taylor: Yep. Most of the time I try and tune it out without missing important details. No clue how I pull it off.

Amy: And does it really think you care about the makeup of the replacement floor tiles in the apartment block hallway?

Taylor: I think it just uses me as an outlet to take some of the load off of Lisa.

Per the message she'd received that morning she got into her full costume and headed for the elevator. She'd be heading up to the roof for a hop over to the Rig, as they supposedly had a better power testing setup over there.

"Good morning Maul," Amy said as she got into the elevator with Taylor and an escorting PRT officer.

"Good morning Panacea," Taylor replied, grinning. "Funny meeting you here."

"I'm fully read in on identities and was given some of the basic reasons for the power testing," the PRT officer said. "So no need to have fun supposedly at my expense. Also, I was told to ask you to not poke any unfamiliar 'snarks' over on the Rig, if at all possible, for 'testing purposes' or something."

Taylor and Amy both pouted at having their fun ruined, even as the elevator opened to let them out onto the roof. There was a single short-hop transport waiting, which Taylor and Amy were bundled into. A few minutes later they'd landed on the Rig, and Taylor got a message indicating which room they should head to. Said room turned out to be a waiting room, with snacks and drinks available.

"I take it they aren't quite ready for us," Amy commented.

"We are a bit early," Taylor replied, grabbing a plate and collecting some cookies. "So it's somewhat expected."

Amy sighed and grabbed a plate of her own.

Amy: So, you're now one of the experts in parahuman psychology, right?

Taylor: Technically?

Amy: I don't suppose you have any thoughts on why I'm, er, no longer attracted to Vicky?

Taylor blinked.

Amy: Er, right. That probably needs explaining. After you shut down her aura I noticed I liked her less, kinda? But I still found her attractive. But since the thing with Leet and all even that's gone away?

Taylor: Um, I think you might be able to blame Broadcast Administrator for that?

BA: Objection

Taylor: You're a social snark and we both kinda dislike Vicky's snark.

BA: ...Agreement

Amy: What does that have to do with anything?

Taylor: I'm told that more social snarks tend to push for snark compatibility on top of anything else?

Amy: That...huh. That explains a lot, really.

They sat in silence for a few minutes as Amy apparently contemplated that, silence which ended when Sherrel came in, wearing basic clothing and a domino mask.

"Oh, hello," Sherrel said. "Are you two here to help with my power testing?"

"Nah," Taylor replied. "We're here for our own testing."

"Ahh. Oh, right, my name's Wrench Wraith, unless we come up with something better by the time I'm being revealed. Glenn's collection of other ideas was...yeah. Not going there. Though most of them were better than 'Squealer'."

"How are you feeling?" Amy asked, causing Sherrel to look at her oddly. "Given that they called me to ask about how to get your health up after you nearly died?"

"After I what?"

"They didn't tell you that?"

"No, they didn't. But if I almost died how did I get better? I mean, I woke up to Taylor pointing a taser at me and all, not to you healing me?"

Taylor: Do you think that part of the reason they have her joining us is to document her being healed?

Amy: Oooh, that would make sense. So we shouldn't check on her now, I guess.

"Can't really say," Amy replied. "After all, they didn't give me the entire story when they called me."

"So," Taylor said. "Have you met with Armsmaster yet?"

"Er, yeah," Sherrel answered. "It was weird. He started by apologizing for the horrible reputation the PRT and Protectorate have with villains? Then he wanted to know if my power insisted on my stuff looking like crap or if that had more to do with what I had to work with. Then he apologized for having to get back to the radiation scare. Shortly after he left Countdown showed up and we spent a couple hours talking about tinkering. Did Armsmaster really make a railgun intended to take out my stuff?"

"That thing is awesome," Taylor said, grinning. "I only got one shot out of it, but wow."

"Watching it was scary as hell though," Amy countered. "I'm fairly certain that Legend agreed, even, given some of his PHO posts afterwards."

"Now I want to see it," Sherrel said, finally dropping into a chair. "It sounds awesome, after all."

"Maybe if you ask nicely they'll show you where they stored it," Taylor said, shrugging.

"You know," Sherrel said, looking at Taylor. "You look familiar..."

"How so?"

"Crap, you're the Ward I chased, aren't you? Sorry about that, I was on some bad shit. Screwed me up something fierce, couldn't tinker for a month."

"I think that might have been kinda my fault, actually."

Sherrel blinked at that. "I can't see how you could have even possibly had any effect on my tinkering?"

"I commented on the variations in tinker snarks, which caused my snark to taunt yours about the materials available during multi-tinker fugues. Mostly."

"That makes no sense whatsoever."

"What do you know about Maul's powers?" Amy asked.

"Just what I knew before, since I have an actual criminal record I'm a bit restricted access-wise. Which would be that she's a low-end brute, a probably mid-range blaster, at least as far as anyone can tell, and maybe a minor tinker if the vest-thing is anything to go on?"

"Huh," Taylor mused. "Well, at least the last one applies now, technically?"

"Can we change topics before I get even more lost?" Sherrel asked after a moment. "Like, how does power testing work, because I've never gone through it?"

"Ideally the scientists come up with some way to test everything you claim to be able to do," Amy said. "Plus everything they know or suspect you can do. And then run you through them to see if they can find limits."

"Unless they botch things up and miss half of what they're supposed to check," Taylor said, shaking her head. "That happened during my first power testing, apparently. Caused some problems, so they jumped on the chance to test me again."

"Thing is, every testing is different. So we could tell you about how testing went for us previously, but neither of us has ever been through or even watched a tinker being power tested. So, yeah."

"Not sure if they'll want to try and test a multi-tinker fugue. I mean, they've already recorded a couple of those, so I don't know how the power testers would be able to do anything special there beyond add to the documentation that they do, in fact, work."

"I stand corrected," Sherrel finally said. "I thought that might be a nice, safe subject. But now I'm even more fucking lost than I was before I brought it up. Oh, sorry about the swearing? I'm trying to cut down on it."

"You call that swearing?" Amy said. "Bah. That's nothing on what the doctors sometimes throw out."

"I've heard my own share of good ones," Taylor added.

The PRT officer who came to fetch them twenty minutes later found them doing their best to out-swear each other. With the former member of the Merchants somehow losing.

Chapter 77 Taylor, Amy, and Sherrel were led to the area of the Rig testing labs where they met and went over data. There was a conference table with what Taylor's tinker snark said were fold-out terminals built into it in the middle. Off to one side an entire wall seemed to be filled with monitors showing various things, with a group of stationary terminals manned by various people facing said monitors. There was only activity on one of the monitors, where a group of three was working on assembling something. A redheaded woman looked to be fastening bolts while two men, one black haired and one brown haired, held things in place.

"Ahh, good morning," the only other person in the room not in front of the monitors said as he hung a brown cowboy hat on a hook off to the side. He had dirty blonde hair, freckles, a goatee, black-rimmed glasses, and still had a black leather jacket on. Taylor was fairly certain he was missing an eyebrow, and her tinker snark thought that the hearing aid in his left ear could use some maintenance. Or at least a new battery. "I'm Whitney, welcome! Franklin will be a moment, and we'll have to introduce you to Elizabeth, Masaru, and Paul in a few. Grab a seat, we'll do proper introductions when Franklin arrives."

Taylor dropped into one of the reinforced chairs, with Amy grabbing one of the more comfortable non-reinforced chairs next to her. Sherrel shrugged and sat next to Amy. Whitney hung his jacket up and sat across the table from them even as a second man came in from the other direction. He had a walrus-like mustache and was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt, gray pants, and a black beret. His glasses looked to be 'rimless' as well.

"Good morning," he said in a deep voice as he sat down next to Whitney. "I'm Franklin. I assume you've already met Whitney here."

"We have," Amy said. "I'm Amy Dallon, or Panacea."

"I'm Maul," Taylor said.

"And I'm Wrench Wraith," Sherrel said.

"Well then," Whitney said. "We'll be running tests with all three of you. We'd like to get all three of your tinker powers tested first, since that's one of the few things Wrench Wraith is here for."

"I thought Panacea was a striker," Sherrel said, obviously confused. "Not a tinker?"

"Things changed recently," Franklin said. "Which is one of the reasons behind her and Maul being retested."

"The other major one being how horribly botched my original power testing was," Taylor added.

"Yes, the local power testing department is being required to run plans by other regions when their department head is unavailable."

"Right," Whitney said. "So we'll deal with tinkering, and then probably striker stuff. We'll figure out the ordering of the rest when we get to them. Some of it may depend on how long things take, since as I understand it the parts that require Grue will need to be done after lunch as he has morning obligations."

"So," Franklin said. "As we understand it, Wrench Wraith's specialty is transportation?"

"With at least some focus on stealth," Sherrel clarified. "Though with all the crap materials I've had to use I'm not as sure."

"Perhaps we should skip ahead for a moment?" Taylor offered, only to get looks. "Wouldn't her testing be more complete if I can get details from her snark first?"

Franklin and Whitney looked at each other, then shrugged and looked back at Taylor. Sherrel just looked confused. Taylor took that as a 'go for it' and poked Sherrel's snark.

Taylor: So, what should they be testing with you today?

[Query]

Taylor: Yes, they are likely to dig out suitable materials if they have them available.

[Data]

Taylor: Huh. How does the stealth tie into that?

[Elaboration. Data]

Amy: Does that mean things have to be moving to be cloaked?

[Negation. Elaboration]

Taylor: Well, that does make some sense.

Amy: Yeah. I hadn't considered that.

"Looks like non-instant transportation with a focus on things capable of moving people," Taylor said. "The stealth bits are because she triggered while wanting to hide as well and they focus primarily on visual stealth, plus apparently only work on things that aren't anchored to something else because the field has to be able to wrap the entire object."

"Is that why I can't cloak buildings?" Sherrel asked. "I'd wondered why the things only seemed to work on vehicles, and why when Armsmaster grappled things the cloak failed. Huh, that explains why I can't plug them into the wall to test them too, doesn't it?"

"Well then," Franklin said. "We'll obviously need to take that into account. Do you have any insights on Panacea's tinker abilities?"

"I've poked it myself," Amy replied, which seemed to confuse Sherrel. "Implants and Prosthetics, with a focus on controlling other things like Prosthetics on the implants side of things."

"And before you ask," Taylor said. "Mine allows me to understand the use and function of technology in general, in addition to repair and maintain it. Tinkertech or mundane."

"Do you have any good examples?" Whitney asked.

"Your hearing aid has some mild corrosion on a couple of contact points and could use a new battery, which might be why you have it turned up all the way right now?"

Whitney blinked. "Huh. Ok. A bit more understanding than I expected. Hopefully that will come in handy. Let's go get you three started, then."

Taylor had been brought to a tinker lab with a table that contained a few broken and/or worn down bits of technology, a large amount of tools and raw materials, and a number of plants.

"What's with the plants?" Taylor asked.

"A combination of looking nice and occasionally being used by tinkers as raw materials," Franklin replied. "To start with, we'd like to see how you handle repair and maintenance of the stuff on the table."

"Alright."

Taylor moved over to the table and looked over the contents. A couple of radios, one of which had a cracked board and the other just needed a couple of capacitors looked at before they actually failed. A tinkertech energy pistol, looked like it might be one of Chris's? But the linkage between the power supply and the charging capacitor was burned out and needed replacing. Next to that was an electric toy car that had a cracked case and seized motor. And lastly there was a handheld hard-light projector with a cracked focusing crystal, burned outer casing, shorted-out power leads, and a piece of sausage playing the role of a resistor.

Deciding to get the non-tinkertech out of the way first, she grabbed the toy car and moved to a bench with basic tools for a quick disassembly.

Amy entered the 'operating room' style tinker lab after cleaning up. She'd been given five 'tasks' to attempt, three of which had volunteers. One of the volunteers had an existing prosthetic that was giving them problems, a second had lost their left hand a couple years back and didn't want it regrown, but having a new prosthetic was considered acceptable. The last was just willing to have something implanted in them, they weren't actually feeling picky about what. She'd also been asked to try and make a generic temporary prosthetic hand that could just be strapped onto an arm and a pacemaker for analysis.

She'd asked them to send in the first volunteer right away, figuring that the person suffering with a problematic prosthetic shouldn't be made to wait.

Sherrel grinned as she worked on the carburetor she'd pulled out of the van, figuring she'd get the maintenance done first and then move onto the building they wanted her to do. She had to clear a clogged inlet and adjust the idle mix, but that wouldn't take long. Then she'd attack the timing hiccup on the distributor before moving onto the broken air conditioning and the damaged passenger seat motor harness. Luckily the incredible paint job was well cared for, she didn't think she'd be up to recreating the multicolored flames herself.

She was already mentally planning how to build the vaguely jet ski-like thing she'd come up with the idea for when they asked if she could build something to let individuals cross the bay. She'd slap together a couple of cloaking units too, of course, but they were lower priority.

The toy car had gone quickly, as had the radios. The pistol had been more difficult, but mostly because of being hard to disassemble due to melted internal bits. Once apart it was trivial to replace the wiring. The hard-light projector, though? It was problematic, because she really needed some specialized carbon nanotube structures to repair it correctly, and those were a pain to produce.

It took her a few minutes of grumbling and working on the other broken parts of the thing, including carefully repairing the focusing crystal with precise pulses from a cutting laser she'd repurposed, before she remembered that there were plants in the room. Assembling the structures would be problematic and insanely time consuming with normal tools, but her body was making similar structures now. She knew how it did so, how hard could it be to adapt one of the plants to assemble something similar for her?

Five minutes later she'd gotten one of the plants to start assembling the replacement component for her, and was getting a second one to build a couple of replacement pieces for the power supply in the projector. She was originally going to leave that alone, having thought the work would be too time consuming for something that still worked, but now that she had come up with this method it was worth doing.

Amy blinked as Taylor flipped her striker switch on. What was...ooooh, that's a good idea. It would make it much easier to get the variable pulse circuit working in the pacemaker. It didn't take Amy long to adapt one of the plants she had available to do the same basic thing. She kinda wished she'd had that trick when she was working on the prosthetic hand earlier, though. Too bad it wouldn't help with coming up with the generic strap-on prosthetic hand, but she apparently needed some form of implants for the controls.

Now if only that third volunteer would get back with the proximity key he'd decided would be nice to never be able to lose.

Sherrel put the final touches on the jet ski, grinning as she worked. This workshop was awesome. Yeah, she'd had to rebuild the motor she'd started with, and the generator had required an upgrade, but she'd dealt with those minor problems. It was too bad she wouldn't be able to test this right away, as she didn't even have a pool available, but she was confident it would work either way. It should even be able to handle power armor, and she'd gone a bit overboard and given it a sidecar too.

Now then, for a couple of cloaking devices. She even had a slot in the jet ski to add one, if desired, she just had to make them. And with all the great materials here she could make them much more compact. Now then, where did she put that stack of semiconductors?

The 'tinker' testing had lasted right up till lunchtime. Only then were the three informed that a number of tinkers and thinkers had been observing them remotely. Locally that included Colin, Vivian, and Chris, the latter of whom was apparently impressed with Taylor's ability to fix his broken pistol.

"We'll be evaluating things more over the next few days," Franklin said once they'd covered the basics. "Though there is one thing we're wondering. Maul, Panacea, how is it that within a few minutes of one another you both started using the available plants as tools?"

Sherrel looked at them oddly as they shared a glance.

"When I saw she was using the plant to assemble a carbon nanotube structure I realized I could do the same thing," Amy replied. "It let me make the pacemaker more efficient and reduce potential maintenance concerns later."

"I got the idea from thinking about our enhancements," Taylor added. "I figured if our bodies could maintain a carbon nanotube system, why not use biology to build one? The plants were available, and while they required a bit more explicit direction to work quickly enough were actually very efficient."

"Very good," Franklin said. "Now then, we'd like to run striker tests next, beyond what we already got from the tinker tests. What we move onto after that will depend on who's shown up."

"What's the plan there?" Amy asked.

"We don't think your results are going to be any different from your last power testing session there," Whitney said. "So instead we're planning on focusing on Maul. We'd like to start with having her take another look at Wrench Wraith, followed by looking at a volunteer."

"We doing that in here?" Taylor asked.

"That's the plan, as we're honestly just confirming that you likely meet Panacea's previous tests. You can begin with Wrench Wraith when ready, provided she has no issues?"

"I'm fucking confused," Sherrel said. "When has Maul ever looked at me before? I mean, the only time I've supposedly...huh." Sherrel turned and looked at Taylor, then facepalmed. "How the fuck did everyone miss that you triggered?"

"Well Whitney," Franklin said, looking at his fellow tester. "Congratulations, you get to fill out the 'oops, I accidentally outed a parahuman identity' forms. Again."

"My paperwork specifically said that Wrench Wraith was cleared for that," Whitney argued. "I triple-checked, even. And you can't really blame me for the last one, none of us thought that those pancakes would blow his mask off."

"So," Taylor said, ignoring the two testers and turning to Sherrel. "Since you aren't unconscious and dying in my garage today, I get to ask. Do I have permission to diagnose and heal you?"

"Er, yeah," Sherrel said, holding her hand out. "Go for it?"

Taylor got up and took Sherrel's hand. "Oh good, it looks like you have enough calcium to deal with a couple of the minor fractures this time. Your kidneys are still looking good."

"Here," Amy said, handing Sherrel a napkin. "It's probably best that she gets you to cough up the remnants of the stuff in your lungs."

"Yeah, hadn't gotten there yet though."

"Properly fixing her liver is important, yes."

"Now then, here comes the coughing fit to get stuff out of your lungs."

Sherrel blinked, then put the napkin up to her mouth and coughed into it violently. She then looked at the sludge on the napkin and blanched. "Ewwww."

"Yes, ewwww. I'm fixing a couple of issues in your diaphragm, but that'll be it for today." Taylor let go of Sherrel's hand and patted her on the back. "Now then, go eat lunch again. If you're lucky you can get one of the two of us to look at you one last time in a couple weeks, there aren't enough raw materials available to correct some of the muscle damage."

"I guess that also helps show that you and Panacea share the biology view," Franklin said. "Good to know. Now then, I'm not sure if we should still have you take a look at Whitney?"

Taylor looked at Whitney, who shrugged. "I don't wear a hearing aid because I like it. I'll admit it's skirting the rules a little, but it isn't important enough to visit parahuman healers for otherwise."

"I'm game, I guess," Taylor said, walking around the table. "Assuming I have permission to heal you, of course?"

Whitney rolled his eyes and held out his hand. Taylor took it and winced. "What the hell did you do to your L3 vertebrae? Don't answer that, I don't want to know, but I'm putting it back together properly before it becomes an issue." Taylor concentrated for a moment, then nodded. "And that should do that. Now then, both of your ears, you're going to go momentarily deaf in each one as I fix them, that's expected." Whitney blinked, then reached up with his free hand and removed the hearing aid as Taylor worked. "There you go."

"Thank you very much," Whitney said, grinning as he turned off the hearing aid.

"Why'd you leave the forming ulcer?" Amy asked, causing everyone to look at her, then at Taylor.

"Just because she's cleared for my identity didn't mean she knew it," Taylor replied. "Since I'm not obligated to heal all of his ills I figured he could deal with the ulcer himself."

"Good point."

"Moving on," Franklin said. "While Wrench Wraith here eats her second lunch, I think we should move forward with the brute testing. Armsmaster will be here shortly to do an on-site evaluation of your tinker work. Hopefully Grue comes with him."

Taylor and Amy shrugged, before they were led to another testing room. It looked remarkably like the setup underneath the 'testing' gym, just turned up to eleven. Maybe twelve. Franklin and Whitney started walking them through each machine they'd be using, including what it did and why they were going to be using it.

"Do you want to go first?" Taylor asked Amy. "I've already done a lot of this kind of thing once before, after all."

"We thought you hadn't power-tested your enhancements?" Whitney said, looking annoyed. "Or did they test you and not file the paperwork properly?"

"Unofficial testing with my uncle, in the testing gym near the docks?"

"Oh, ok. Yeah, unofficial testing for your own experience and all? Good on you for checking your limits on your own initiative. As for who goes first, we're splitting you up and running you from opposite ends. That way we finish faster."

Taylor ended up starting with the 'what damage can you take' line of machines while Amy started with the 'how strong are you' set. After having Taylor change out of her armored costume, of course.

Amy: That's going to suck to go through when I get to that part.

Taylor: This is actually much nicer than what my uncle put me through.

Amy: Really?

Taylor: Yep. His tests were less scientific and more 'you should be able to survive this' shocks.

Amy: Ok, yeah. Using the equipment to test as safely as possible sounds a lot better than that.

Taylor had passed through the cutting tests and was starting on the burn tests when Colin came through, without Brian in tow. She finished those up and learned that burns and lasers still hurt, then moved onto discovering that the proper 'bullet impact' tester was a lot nicer than actually being shot. While going through that a couple of unfamiliar snarks appeared in her range out of nowhere, but as previously requested she avoided poking them for now. Someone was even kind enough to preemptively warn her that they were both cleared, even.

"I'd tell you that this isn't going to hurt," Whitney said as he prepared the blunt impact machine for what should hopefully be Taylor's last hit of the session, as he felt he'd figured her likely limits out from the series they'd already gone through. "But, well, it's probably going to suck."

Taylor: You heal me after I take this hit and I'll gladly return the favor when it's your turn.

Amy: Deal.

A moment later Taylor was launched across that side of the room by the much heavier impact. Yep, that had hurt. Amy sighed and made her way over, poking Taylor and fixing up the bruising and a couple of minor stress fractures in bones. She also went ahead and dealt with some of the still-healing bits from the previous testing.

"Thank you," Taylor said as she got up. "I think you get to deal with Whitney now, though. Have fun?"

Amy rolled her eyes and made her way over to the start of the 'how tough are you' line, explaining to Whitney exactly what Taylor's injuries had been first, even as Taylor went over to where Franklin was preparing the beginning of the 'how strong are you' line for her. Apparently things here were designed so that the one being tested couldn't see the results, though. Maybe to prevent subconscious limits from cropping up and giving false results?

The 'how strong are you' tests started with simple lifting, then pushing and pulling. This included the bit she already knew regarding pulling without proper anchoring not working. They also included punching, kicking, and bending, and some jumping with and without weights. Taylor was nearing the end when Amy was launched across the room, a little sooner than expected.

Taylor: That didn't take as long as I thought?

Amy: You're taking longer on the strength tests, actually.

Taylor: Oh. Huh, hadn't noticed.

Amy: You going to get over here and heal me or what?

Taylor had two more tests to do, but walked over to poke Amy and heal a pile of very similar injuries to what Taylor had suffered.

Taylor: I hadn't noticed, but your skull is weaker than mine.

Amy: Er, yeah. I think I rebuilt it stronger after Vicky punched you?

Taylor: That would make sense, I guess. Think we should gradually work on yours later?

Amy: Probably not a bad idea, all things considered.

Amy got up as Taylor went back and dealt with her last couple of tests, then Franklin and Whitney told them to head back to the meeting room and eat something while they cleaned up. Taylor, of course, needing to change back into her proper costume instead of the unarmored outfit she'd been wearing.

Taylor: Think we can arrange for you to get an armored costume?

Amy: Why would I need one?

Taylor: Can't hurt to have extra protection, can it?

Amy: I'll think about it?

Taylor thought about that for a moment, and on a whim sent a message to Carol and Sarah about it.

"I feel like I've been smoking pot," Sherrel mumbled as she sipped a soda. "Or at least gotten the munchies from smoking pot."

"You keep getting your excess biomass used to fix things," Amy replied, frowning at her empty bottle of juice. "Being hungry is expected. Besides, Maul set your metabolism into temporary overdrive as well."

"You're the one that told me about that trick," Taylor added. "And demonstrated it multiple times while you were at the hospital, for that matter."

"So ladies," Whitney said as he and Franklin returned. "The other three are nearly done assembling the test rigs we came up with for the blaster testing. Until then we thought we'd get into some of the thinker and trump testing. Wrench Wraith, at this point we think we're done with you, as we don't plan on testing multiple-tinker fugues today."

"Multiple...woah," Sherrel said, blinking as she turned to look at Taylor. "Does that mean you can link tinkers?"

"Er, yes?" Taylor answered.

"You gotta link me with Armsmaster sometime. I've seen his motorcycle, it's incredible for a hack job. Being able to rebuild it properly?" Sherrel had obviously stopped looking at Taylor, and was more staring at nothing in particular as she imagined possibilities.

"So, yeah," Whitney said, turning to Franklin. "Are we sure we aren't testing multi-tinker fugues?"

"I'm positive," Franklin replied. "Monday's a school day, so it's too late to test now."

"Being responsible adults sucks sometimes."

"Moving on. Maul, Panacea, we'd like to start in a larger room."

Taylor and Amy followed Franklin to another room, Sherrel staying behind. A quick look just before they passed out of sight showed that she'd started drooling, even. Shaking off that image, Taylor looked over the room they'd been brought to, noting that it had a large open area in the middle, with all the equipment being on the edges.

"If you two would stand in the green box?" Franklin said, causing Taylor and Amy to look and see that there was a green box marked on the floor, apparently with tape. They shrugged and stood in it, looking to Franklin for what they were supposed to be doing. He just grinned and tapped on his phone.

Taylor and Amy shared a look, and then the two snarks that had appeared earlier jumped right in front of them.

Taylor: GAH! Where'd you two come from?

Amy: Yeah, what she said.

[Query]{Data}

Taylor and Amy blinked, finally recognizing Eidolon and Strider. The former was identified by both of them, the latter was mentally labeled by Amy before Taylor could ask.

Taylor: Er, sorry. Hello! Thanks for the information. And I'm sorry if you're hungry, but I can't feed you right now, sorry. I can probably do so in a bit, though?

[Outrage]

Taylor: Hey! I said I can't right now. You'll have to wait!

"Good afternoon," Taylor finally said, though it had only been a couple of seconds in reality.

"Not as bad as we'd feared," Whitney said, writing something down. "Only a second or two, and most of that can probably be attributed to the general surprise. Can we assume you'd have had even less of a pause if we hadn't asked that you avoid talking to new snarks?"

"Er, yeah," Taylor said, looking over at Whitney. "Normally I try and give at least a minor poke at snarks I expect to be meeting, though Panacea would have a harder time with that."

"Since you've got area detection and she has line of sight," Franklin said, nodding. "Yes, that makes sense."

"Good afternoon," Eidolon said, sounding amused. "I'd apologize for dropping in so suddenly, but I'm told it was part of your testing. I assume that I need no introduction, but this here is Strider, who's agreed to help with multiple bits of testing today."

"Yo," Strider said, waving.

"That said, I'm told that you can, er, 'feed' hungry 'snarks', was it? Can you tell if mine is hungry and, if so, can you feed it?"

"It is and I can't right now," Taylor replied, Amy nodding. "We'll have to see about feeding it later, but that's supposed to be planned as part of testing today so it shouldn't be a problem."

Taylor wasn't sure, but she thought that Eidolon looked annoyed at that. It was hard to tell, it wasn't like she could see his face. Still, Strider stepped forward.

"Panacea," Whitney said, gesturing to Strider. "We'd like you to go with Strider to test the range of your link with Maul, increasing the distance each time to see where things fail."

"I don't think Strider can go far enough to test that," Taylor mused. "For all intents and purposes the link should have global range, after all."

"Why would you think that?" Franklin asked.

"As far as I can tell, snarks live on planets in alternate dimensions and poke through to us, regardless of where on the planet we are in relation to them in the first place. Why would a snark poking through twice care how close the two connections are to one another?"

"I think that means 'go big or go home'," Whitney said, turning to Strider. "What do you think?"

"One hop out and one back would be easier," Strider said, shrugging. "With only one other coming along it shouldn't be a problem."

Amy looked at Taylor, shrugged, and went to stand next to Strider. The cape concentrated, and a moment later they vanished. Taylor looked down, amazed that she could actually tell where Amy had ended up.

"Can you tell us where Panacea is?" Franklin asked.

"12,691,384.16 meters that way," Taylor said, pointing at the floor.

Taylor: Are you in Australia or something?

Amy: I think so, yeah. Oh, and Strider wants you to ask Whitney if he forgot his keys?

Taylor blinked, and looked at Whitney. "So, Whitney? Strider wants to know if you forgot your keys?"

Whitney grinned. "Very good, please let them know that I left them in my other vest."

Taylor suspected that this was a pre-arranged code phrase set of some kind.

Taylor: Whitney says he left them in his other vest.

A few moments later Amy and Strider reappeared in the room.

"If we got a boat I might be able to get a little further away," Strider said. "But since they didn't even flinch at Panacea being brought to Western Australia?"

"We can assume that there's no effective range limit," Franklin said. "Very good. You're free to go now, unless you wish to ask them to check with your powers?"

"I think I'm good there," Strider said, nodding to Amy and Taylor. "Have a nice day." He then visibly concentrated and, a moment later, vanished.

"Very good," Whitney said, grinning. "Now then, let's see how good your human senses are."

Eidolon stood off to the side as the two were put through a series of tests for their vision and hearing, both of which were drastically improved. That was followed by finding out that their touch sensitivity wasn't, but their senses of smell and taste both were. With those taken care of they moved onto finding out that the two had greatly enhanced proprioception.

"You can actually reach out and touch each other's nose as well as your own," Whitney said with a shocked tone. "Really?"

Taylor and Amy just stared at Whitney as they both reached out and touched the other's nose, without looking at each other and without having their arms get in the other's way.

"I think that's a pretty good trick," Franklin said, making note of it. "Now then, you also mentioned being able to feel anything within fifteen centimeters of your skin that's usable with your blaster power?"

"Yes," Taylor said, reaching down and grabbing the foam baton she had there. "I didn't fully realize I was doing so until I had my power temporarily nullified, after that it was blatantly obvious."

"Very good," Whitney said, going over to a box. "We figure that the best way to test that is to blindfold both of you and see if you can tell us when we put things near you, if that's ok?"

"Works for me," Taylor said, turning to Amy. Who shrugged. "So, yeah. Why not?" She hadn't put her visor back on yet after the proprioception tests anyway.

"Can we please just get to the 'snark feeding'?" Eidolon interrupted. "My time is quite valuable, you know."

"I told you and your snark that I can't right now," Taylor replied, without even turning to look at Eidolon. "You're going to have to wait until Grue arrives."

[Assertion]

Taylor: I said I can't right now.

BA: Brain-effect countermeasures activated on all nodes: Accepting energy transfer

Taylor and Amy blinked in unison, and then spun to stare at Eidolon.

"How DARE you!" Amy yelled, cutting Taylor's own forming yell off. "Using a master power to try and get your way!"

"My time is important," Eidolon said. "It's best to get that out of the way so that I can get back to my other responsibilities."

Taylor narrowed her eyes, visible through the domino mask she was wearing. "Well, if you insist on that particular ability being demonstrated right away, I guess I'll have to demonstrate."

Amy looked at Taylor oddly.

BA: Establishing maximum connections

[Pain]

Eidolon dropped to a knee as his snark stopped being able to empower him, the master effect connections to Taylor and Amy disconnecting at the same time.

BA: Energy Transfer Initiated: Forced Absorption Mode

[Horror]

Chapter 78 The dark skinned woman looked over the readings she was getting. This was...not expected. It was as though the section of the 'corpse' was losing energy, instead of having its energy replenished.

It took a few minutes to come to the realization that the energy the girl would 'feed' agents had to come from somewhere, and gathering it from other agents was incredibly likely.

"What did David do this time?" the woman wondered. "And is this going to be temporary, or did he just screw himself over permanently?"

BA: Data

Taylor: Yeah, ok.

BA: Energy Transfer Halted. Additional connections closed

Taylor: Now then, if you play nice we'll see about giving you your energy back later, when the snark we're waiting for has shown up. Got it?

[Agreement]

"Now then," Taylor said aloud. "I'm going to suggest that you go wait patiently in the conference room, as we're in the middle of power testing and the normal source of energy I'm using hasn't arrived yet. When they show up and we get to the actual feeding testing we'll see about feeding your snark, ok?"

Eidolon just nodded, apparently not trusting himself to speak, and very carefully stood up and backed out of the room, hitting the wall three times before he found the door. He then hit that twice before finding the 'open' button.

"Do we want to know what just happened?" Whitney asked.

"He pulled out a master power and used it on all of us to try and get Maul to feed his snark," Amy said, glaring in the general direction Eidolon had just gone. "But Maul's 'tank' was empty. So she shut him down and then pulled energy from his snark to partially fill her tank instead."

"I'm led to believe I pulled enough energy from his snark to cripple it until I feed it again," Taylor added, shaking her head. "Now then, we were about to test our ability to sense blunt enough things being pushed into our range?"

"Right," Franklin said. "If you two would put on the blindfolds?"

Sherrel was debating what to do, since she didn't need to be there, when Eidolon came into the room. When the fuck did he show up? He very carefully and somewhat timidly sat down in a seat, apparently chosen so he could see the door he'd just come through and the monitors. The...presence everyone described him as having seemed to be missing, though. Maybe they'd used someone else wearing a duplicate costume as a test?

She decided that there wasn't any good reason to stick around, as she'd been informed that their results would be compiled and sent to them later anyway. So she left the Eidolon-lookalike sitting there as she got up and pulled out her phone. She still needed the map to find her way around, after all.

"Well," Franklin said, looking at his notes. "The two of you were both able to detect every single compatible item brought close enough to your skin, but we can also confirm that being close enough to your hair does not count. Now then, Maul, your 'tinker snark' as you call it grants you one more thinker-class ability, the 'understanding' of technology. We'd like to test that next."

"Just for the record," Taylor said, thumbing over her shoulder. "Grue just arrived with Miss Militia."

"Ahh, very good," Whitney said, taking a couple of notes.

"Right," Franklin said. "If you'll give me a moment to get Armsmaster to bring over the items we'd like you to look at?"

Franklin left and headed down the hallway. Taylor took the opportunity to put her visor back on, though she left the domino mask on underneath it. Really, she might want to start doing that in general, it would make her identity safer in the event the visor got damaged or knocked off. Come to think of it, Chris and Missy also wore visors instead of full coverage helmets. Matching her visor color was easy, as the domino masks came in black by default, but perhaps the two of them should consider domino masks colored like their own visors?

She'd just finished sending a message off to Chris, Missy, and Glenn about that thought when Franklin returned with Colin and a cart with a number of items on it. She looked over them, very interested in a couple, she'd already seen one of the others, and of the rest...

"There's no way I'm demonstrating how the sex toy works," Taylor said, causing everyone to look at her. "What?"

"We were unaware that there was a sex toy in the mix," Colin said, looking over the contents of the cart. "In fact, I'm unsure which item you're referring to."

"The pain and pleasure 'stick' on the bottom shelf. I also don't want to touch it, by the way, given that it's intended to be used internally."

The others blinked, and Colin produced a plastic bag and tongs from somewhere, using the latter to move the aforementioned item into the former. He then sealed and labeled the bag. "We're going to have to have a chat with that tinker, apparently."

"Alrighty then," Whitney said, looking around at everyone. "Anyone have any objections about any of the remaining items?" Nobody voiced any. "Right then, Maul, if you'd be kind enough to look over them?"

"To start with," Taylor said, grabbing a belt from the cart. "This appears to be a 'medic-protecting personal shield'. Based on that I suspect it's Leet's gift for Panacea?"

"I wouldn't think that your power would tell you the 'medic-protecting' part?" Franklin said.

"It didn't, that's written on the belt buckle. Though I suppose you might have issues seeing the difference between the purple and the violet?"

"You are correct either way," Colin said. "We did not, however, get a manual with it."

Taylor walked over to Amy. "Well, it's turned on by being put on. If it vibrates then it's nearing capacity and is preparing to shut down. If it starts beeping then the battery's nearly dead, and can be recharged with a wireless charging unit." Taylor flipped a cover next to the belt buckle open. "In here you can see the current charge level, energy storage level, and if needed you can direct it to dump the collected energy by pushing the button. That won't work while you're wearing it, though, and it's likely to get very hot unless you connect leads to these contacts here for it to dump the energy as electricity instead of as heat."

"If you let me take measurements I'm sure I can come up with an adapter for you," Colin volunteered. "We can discuss it later."

Amy looked at the belt, shrugged, and took it. She then slipped it on underneath her Panacea robe. It flashed briefly. "Is that it?"

Taylor's response was to punch Amy in the stomach, her hand feeling like it hit a brick wall. Amy didn't even seem to notice the impact, though she flinched at the swing.

"Not bad at all," Whitney said, sounding appreciative even as Amy poked Taylor to prevent bruising. "What did you do to warrant a gift like that?"

"I put him back together before Maul convinced his snark to stop trying to kill him," Amy replied. "Huh, I wonder if I can just add utility-belt pouches to this?"

"They make generic ones for use with any belt," Taylor said, shrugging. "They don't have to have snaps in place to attach them to after all. Though you might want to get some made out of something stronger than the usual fabrics used."

"I'll see about checking with people for options."

Taylor moved back to the cart and grabbed a small, shiny disc. "This appears to be a holographic projection unit, though the control and power unit it's supposed to sit on top of isn't present, so I can't demonstrate how to use it." She put that down and moved to the next item, which was a small cube. "This is a pocket dimension key, missing the identifier crystal. If you stick a seven-ohm resistor in the slot it'll open compatible ones if you're within five meters of their last opening position, but you won't be able to shift the location of the entrance. Oh, and it'll explode after five minutes of holding the door open that way, due to brute-forcing things. Split across all open doors, if it opened multiple."

"How big of an explosion?" Whitney asked. "In the interests of science, of course."

"Er, probably around thirty terajoules per pocket dimension? Maybe closer to forty as it grounds out the pocket dimension's energy through itself. The larger the pocket dimension the more energy will be involved."

"I don't think we'll be testing that, then," Franklin said, hastily crossing something out on his notepad. "Shame, really, but we don't have a suitable facility."

Taylor put that down and moved to the last two items. "This is the hard-light projector I repaired earlier. Simple, static projections only, currently has a variety of melee weapons programmed into it." She spun the unlabeled dial and pushed the button, resulting in a slightly-glowing golf club to appear attached to it. Spinning the dial again she switched it to a baseball bat, a bokken, and a spiked mace. "Well, that one's annoying. The points are too sharp."

"Are you implying that the hard-light projection works with your blaster power?" Whitney asked.

"Er, yeah," Taylor said, flipping to a simple metal rod. "Not that any of these are as strong as the real things, of course. Really, all of them would generate about equal force, generally annoying but probably not lethal." She turned it off and put it back down, and then grabbed one piece of the last item, in this case a control armband. She slipped it on. "This, however, is the long-range control unit for the flying platform here." She poked the surface of the armband, hitting the hidden buttons underneath and putting it in pairing mode.

"That also lacks a manual," Colin said. "And the three people who tried to test it couldn't even figure out how to turn it on."

Taylor finished pairing herself to the armband, then grinned as she hit one of the new buttons in her head. The dark blue circular platform lifted off of the side of the cart and righted itself, before the curved 'top' unfolded into a larger, flat platform. Additional surfaces spread out from those segments to fill in the gaps, and Taylor jumped up onto it. "Granted, I assume Leet meant to have it controlled with a phone, but I get to cheat a little. Once opened up like this you can use the manual controls too."

The others watched as Taylor adjusted her position on the platform and it suddenly darted forward. Another adjustment and it went into a vertical loop, stopping at the top with Taylor standing upside-down. She looked down at them and grinned, before moving her foot on a barely-visible control surface and spinning it back upright again. She then jumped off, jump harness obviously active with how slowly she was falling, and had it swing around to 'catch' her.

"You seem quite proficient in the piloting of the platform," Colin remarked. "Is it similar to something else you've used?"

"Not really," Taylor replied, pushing off from the currently inverted platform. She spun in the air and landed on her feet, before the platform folded back up and landed next to her. "But my 'understanding technology' power is good at 'what it does' and 'how to use it'. Horrible at details with 'why it works' and flat out refuses to answer 'how it works', though. The platform here seems to be creating an alternate gravity gradient of some kind in an inertia bubble, for example, which is why it works regardless of orientation. But I can't tell you how it does it, just that it does."

"Alright," Whitney said, finishing up a couple of notes. "So, we should be good for blaster testing now, unless you want to do the snark feeding first?"

"I vote we save the feeding for last," Amy said. "In part because I think the longer wait will be a better lesson for Eidolon."

"I'll agree to that," Taylor replied.

"Then I suggest we head next door," Franklin said. "Feel free to bring your new toys with you."

"Don't forget this," Colin said, tossing the hard-light projector to Taylor. She caught it, and then looked at him. "Leet said that if you could fix it then you could keep it, as it was going to be too much trouble for him to fix. The fact that it works with your powers just makes it a better choice for you."

Taylor shrugged and dropped it into a pouch. She'd have to consider reprogramming things like the spiked mace, though she might leave the sword in for practice purposes. She then followed Amy, Franklin, and Whitney into the next room over, which appeared to have a number of improvised pieces of test equipment in it. Half of which appeared to be held together with tape.

"Please tell me that only one of the two of us has to use any of those," Amy said, looking over the various things.

"There are a couple intended for both of us at the same time, I think," Taylor said. "And half of these I'm not sure can be used twice?"

"We only really got the green light to come out on Tuesday," the black-haired man of the three that had been setting things up said. "I'm Masaru."

"I'm Paul," the brown-haired man said from where he was apparently checking that a weight was secured. He then fell down the contraption. "I meant to do that."

"And I'm Elizabeth," the red-haired woman said. "And he totally didn't mean to do that."

Taylor and Amy were led through a series of tests, some of them wildly improbable. Like 'does the projection keep working if the projected point breaks off of the handle used'. The answer to that was 'no'. Others were more like prototype weapons, such as a gun-like device that could be reset, intended to simulate a bullet firing without firing an actual bullet. Too bad it fell apart on the third use.

Finding out that Taylor and Amy could double-up on things, though, was interesting. They could, if working together, either apply both kinds of projections to the same object, or apply the same projection twice. The implications for that, if they were to add a second bench to the railgun?

Spinning things to the point where they were effectively rigid didn't appear to work, but chain links that were rigged to 'snap together' while under the spinning forces did. At least until one of them snapped. Luckily everyone else had been behind a shield at the time.

Some of the contraptions were energetic.

"Is that a rocket?" Amy asked.

"Yep," Paul answered. "The handle here connects to the head of the hammer, and we put the rocket inside the hole I put in the backside. This will let us see what happens when you use the blaster power on a rocket-hammer, for something that you're 'swinging' but is also self-powered."

Other things had been a little more anticlimactic.

"Why are we sitting in linked boxes on wheels?" Amy asked, looking at the second box in front of her. Even though they all had wheels, none of the boxes were moving.

"I think they thought we could project the box we're sitting in forward and use it for propulsion by pushing the box we're chained to?" Taylor answered.

"I don't think things work that way."

"No, they don't."

The last few tests were intended to test accuracy of the projected 'line' they could sense. Such as 'can you hit the specific egg in an arrangement of them'. They included checks of their accuracy for toggling the projection on and off to only hit specific points.

"I think that just about does it," Franklin said, looking over the testing area. Most of the various contraptions were now in pieces, though only one had been destroyed before it could be used. Taylor had taken one look at the remains and declared that it couldn't be repaired. "Which leaves us with the last bits of trump testing, including the 'snark feeding'."

Taylor looked at Franklin. "What do you want to test other than the feeding?"

"Communication, since you've already shown almost total immunity to master effects and the ability to shut some parahumans down. Not how we intended to test those two, granted, but we've seen them."

"Do you have a semi-private room? Some of what I get when I actually talk to snarks can be quite personal."

"We can stick you in the therapist testing room," Whitney offered. "But unless a licensed therapist connects in to monitor we'll have to leave the microphones on for us."

Taylor frowned slightly, then grinned. She pulled up Eidolon's file and found that once she'd opened the full version there was, in fact, a therapist listed there.

"Sorry about the delay," Amy said as she entered the conference room with Franklin behind her. "Grue, you're good staying here, you're in Maul's range and that's all she needs."

"Oh, cool," Brian said. "Easier than I thought this would be. What does she need me for anyway?"

"Your snark is willing to offload extra energy to hers."

"Right," Franklin said. "Eidolon? We're ready for you, I'll bring you to Maul and leave you two to it, then check with you when you're done for your view of the feeding process."

"Hello again Eidolon," Taylor said as the Triumvirate member entered the room. Franklin and Whitney had left them alone, and David's therapist on record was monitoring. Apparently he had a habit of skipping out on his scheduled sessions, so having Taylor forcing him into one was seen as a good thing. "Please have a seat."

"I'd like to apologize for earlier," David said. "I, er, yeah."

"There's no real excuse?"

"Yes."

"Well, as penance you're going to be going through a therapy session with me." David looked ready to object to that, but Taylor continued. "We already decided that it's either that or I declare that I don't feel comfortable feeding your snark and we report what you attempted officially. I hear all unapproved uses of master abilities by adult members of the Protectorate on anyone underage are looked at by the Youth Guard first."

Taylor thought it was amusing that not having his snark fed had generated body language that looked like annoyance, but the threat of the Youth Guard had generated what looked like actual fear. It took him a moment to recover before he nodded.

"Now then," Taylor continued. "I'm going to start by having a quick chat with your snark, then we'll see about dealing with some of your issues. Your therapist recommended several topics, you see. Oh, and I ended up seeing your full file when I looked up your therapist, if you're more comfortable without the mask."

David looked at Taylor, but didn't take the mask off. Oh well.

Taylor: So, hello again.

[Query]

Taylor: Yes, I have energy that I can feed you with now. But before I do so in any significant amounts I want to make it clear that not only will I stop, but I will do everything I can to take the energy back if you try and force things again.

[Agreement]

Taylor felt a trickle of energy start, much slower than she could be going, but even that was enough to cause the other snark to, relax maybe?

Taylor: There. Now then, I'd like to ask you a few questions. To start with, what do you do for David here?

[Reluctance. Data]

Taylor: Emulation? So you reconfigure parts of yourself to provide the abilities he needs, based on your internal database?

[Elaboration]

Taylor: Ahh, so you need the right pieces, but you have most of them so it isn't usually a problem. Do you help him use the abilities?

[Agreement. Offense]

Taylor: Sorry, I didn't mean to imply you didn't do your task well, even if you think he stole you. Is there anything else there?

[...Data]

Taylor: I'm sorry if I damaged things, but you did help him try and control me. I don't think I can help you with repairs, though.

[Acceptance. Annoyance]

Taylor: Nice to know you realize that I have no way to help you there. So, is there anything you'd like him to do that he isn't?

[Data]

Taylor: Heal the injured Jabberwock, then get killed by it? That doesn't sound very nice for him.

[Query]

Taylor: Well, ok. Yes, I asked, and I shouldn't always expect answers I like.

David's snark had gotten more into things when it figured out that David was being forced to confront things he didn't want to, though probably only because it was making him uncomfortable. It was, well, 'professional' enough to not let those feelings stop it from doing its best with him, but was also vindictive enough to help Taylor.

Going the other direction, Taylor had been able to convince 'Emulator' to give David a list of powers he could pick from with general energy requirement indicators as well as a meter to show how much energy he had available. David's mood had improved significantly when he saw the energy level rising, and had become a lot more willing to talk about his own issues at that point. Most of them seemed to stem from a feeling that he wasn't strong enough in various ways. Having an actual meter in his head telling him why he couldn't use powers, that he now knew could be replenished, was apparently good for him.

"Huh," David said as they were leaving the room. Taylor had prodded Broadcast Administrator into increasing the energy flow at that point, figuring she might as well push as much as she could into him now. "A number of powers have no power requirements, just an 'unavailable - seek repairs'?"

"I'm sorry," Taylor said, shrugging as she mentally prodded the controls for her new platform, telling it to follow her from where she'd left it in the hallway. "But your snark said that when I shut you down instead of taking the master effect I accidentally damaged things due to pulling power through them. So while those powers are in your snark's database the pieces needed to use them aren't available."

"I see. That would explain why they are almost entirely 'master' type powers, if I understand the labels correctly. Well, I shall give my report to Franklin and Whitney while my 'snark' is being fed. Then I will have to go test some things."

Taylor and David entered the conference room. David went over to Franklin, Whitney looked to be helping the other three clean up the blaster test stuff.

"So that seemed to go well enough," Amy said as Taylor sat down next to her. Brian looked at them oddly as the platform landed on the floor nearby.

"It did," Taylor said. "Once the initial, er, bumps were dealt with? It'll be a few minutes while he charges up, then I think we're done. But while we're waiting, I think I'll see if I can adjust the programming on my new toy."

Taylor pulled the hard-light projector out of the pouch she'd dropped it in and then dug around for a data cable she was fairly certain would work. Or at least her snark thought so, which was good enough. She grinned in triumph when she found it, and then made quick work of attaching the projector to one of the fold-out terminals in the table.

"So you've got twelve slots?" Amy said a couple of minutes later as she watched Taylor work.

"Yeah," Taylor said, even as she started messing with the spiked mace model. She opted to blunt the spikes to make it a studded mace instead of a spiked one. Luckily there was a good 3D modeling program available. "I think I'll leave the sword despite it not being blunt, and four of the slots are empty anyway as they were damaged."

"What's in the last two slots then?"

"Tennis racket and a frying pan."

"Why do I think tomorrow's patrol is going to be interesting?" Brian asked.

"Not sure," Taylor said. "Unless the radiation scare has let up enough for a normal patrol?"

"Ok, yeah, there is that."

"I'm due a hospital day either way," Amy admitted. "So perhaps you'll be able to play with your new toys to distract people while I'm healing? At least until New Wave's firearms class, anyway?"

Upon arriving back at the PRT building Taylor and Amy had hopped on the elevator to head all the way down to the basement areas, as Miss Militia had sent a request to see them in the Wards area before they left. Taylor was going to be changing out of her costume and storing everything anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. Brian was going to be catching one of the short-hop flights back, instead of riding on Taylor's new flying platform. Amy had been all for trying the platform and was grinning as hard as Taylor was when they'd landed at the PRT building.

"Hello," Missy said as they entered the Wards area. She appeared to be getting ready to leave, being out of costume. "How'd your testing go?"

"Decently," Taylor said, directing the platform to wait to the side for the moment.

"That doesn't look easy to ride on."

Amy snickered as Taylor grinned, telling it to open up. Missy bounced over and looked at it. "Ok, that's cool. Storage mode, kinda?"

"Something like that," Taylor answered. "Since you're here, I don't suppose you'd be willing to look at a sheath for me?"

Missy raised an eyebrow, and Taylor grinned. She packed the platform up and had it follow her into her room, where she grabbed the case holding the sword and the 'knife' sheath. She brought those out and showed Missy.

"I'd like to be able to fit the entire sword in here, you see," Taylor explained. "If it works well enough Legend will probably want something similar."

Missy took both sheaths and concentrated. There was no visible change, but she then put the full-sized sheath down and picked up the sword. It slid right into the knife-sized sheath, a perfect fit.

"Thank you," Taylor said as she took the now-sheathed sword from Missy. "Maybe we should get you a sword too."

"No thanks," Missy replied. "Just make sure you catch the first time that's used on your camera."

"I was planning on it anyway."

"So, how long do you have before you need to be gone?" Amy asked.

Missy blinked, and checked the time. "Crap, I have to get going now. Sorry. Bye!" She then crunched space to get to the door faster. Based on how fast she headed down the hall towards the gym she was likely crunching space there too.

"I should get changed and ensure that everything's put away," Taylor said, putting the sword and knife sheath into the case and picking it up.

Amy opted to grab a soda while Taylor got changed and they waited for Miss Militia.

Amy: Is Miss Militia even in the building?

Taylor: She started moving around shortly after we landed. I don't think she expected us already?

Amy: Ah, probably didn't think we'd take your flying platform instead of a short-hop transport. It's actually a bit faster than I thought it would be.

Taylor: Well, too bad you don't patrol. You could join the Wards when I'm patrolling and ride with me.

Amy: Huh, I wonder if I could do that. I mean, I'm not exactly a squishy healer now, at least not exclusively?

"It might work," Taylor said as she came out to the main area. "Maybe you should check with Carol and Sarah about it. Oh, and Miss Militia should be here any moment now."

Taylor grabbed her own soda and drank half of it in one shot, just putting the can down as Miss Militia came into the Wards area with a box.

"Good afternoon Miss Dallon, Miss Hebert," Miss Militia said.

"It's the meeting of the misses," Taylor quipped, getting a snicker out of Amy and a roll of Miss Militia's eyes. "Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon," Amy echoed.

"First up," Miss Militia said, putting the box down. "I have PRT-issue toolkits for both of you. Miss Hebert, yours is intended specifically for when you're in costume. You may want to pick up some for when you aren't."

"I already ordered some," Taylor admitted as she accepted one of the toolkits. Amy took the other one and put it in the bag she had with her.

"Next up, Miss Dallon," Miss Militia said, pulling an envelope out of the box. "I'm not sure why, but we were asked if we could get you an alcohol license card on short notice. In addition, however, we've included your PRT identification card. You now have Wards-level access to all PRT facilities. I'm sure that Miss Hebert can help you with any questions you have about that."

"Thank you," Amy said, taking the envelope. She opened it up and removed the two cards inside, grinning, before putting them away.

"Finally, I'd like to inform the both of you that your mopeds are ready and sitting in the secure garage, Wards lot. And that's all, so I'll let you go."

Taylor and Amy both blinked, and then grinned. Taylor downed the rest of her soda, Amy grabbing the can to rinse it so that Taylor could put her toolkit away.

Five minutes later Taylor was giving Amy a crash course in operating her moped, including two actual crashes due to the limited space in the parking lot. Amy was a little jealous of Taylor's 'improved' moped, but thought that the crosses added to her moped and the provided helmet were a nice touch.

The Think Tank was looking over the preliminary power testing results, ensuring that things looked correct. They'd somewhat gotten stuck on a specific statement, though, as Eidolon being shut down for at least two hours before being forced into a therapy session was a little hard to take in. Now if only their own abilities weren't all confirming it.

If this wasn't a good enough excuse to make an addition to the girl's wall they didn't know what was. Especially since one of them thought that if she hadn't stopped she'd have killed his power and, through that, him.

Chapter 79 Sunday morning Taylor woke to a notice that patrols were on as New Wave would be handling crowd control at the hospital this morning. Patrol routes were 'to be determined', reasons mentioned were her having just come out of power testing and Carlos not having planned anything due to the radiation scare. After that was a message from Carlos asking that everyone come in as soon as they could for a meeting to figure out the patrols.

Moving on, she had also been sent a link to the secure access storage for the initial results of her power testing. She had to actually grab her phone for that, but once she had it open she starting skimming. Apparently she'd lifted 82 kg with one hand and 131 kg with two. That was a little higher than before, but she had been getting exercise, right? Most of the rest was just summaries of test results that she glossed over, many of them having no comparison for her.

Eventually she reached the actual power ratings, at which point she blinked a couple of times. What the hell?

Amy: You look at your testing results yet?

Taylor: I'm currently disbelieving them, actually.

Amy: They gave me Striker 12/Trump 8/Blaster 5/Tinker 5 for primaries. Thinker 6/Brute 3/Mover 1 secondaries, before we get into guns and all that. Shouldn't yours be similar?

Taylor: Very similar. My differences are, uh, Trump 10, Tinker 4, Thinker 7.

Amy: Trump WHAT?

Taylor: Reading their explanations, apparently they felt that the energy drain I did to Eidolon was a big deal?

Amy: Big enough to warrant a 10?

Taylor: Er, apparently they feel that I could have kept going and killed his snark, and through that him? And 'permanently kill the source of a power by simple proximity' warrants a higher rating? Then add in that he claims to be stronger than before now, apparently. It would have been higher, but they think that it's conditional.

Taylor continued reading for a moment, before realizing that Amy had gone 'silent'.

Taylor: You still there?

Amy: Er, yeah. Sorry. I'm suddenly happy I can't do that, though.

Taylor: Did you see the note about our combined Barrage Blaster rating?

Amy: Holy crap. 13 plus? Really? Why?

Taylor: It says that the doubling of the damage of the original round is the reason for the uprate.

Taylor got out of bed, figuring she wasn't getting back to sleep either way anyway. Seeing the second body camera sitting on her desk reminded her of things she'd thought of the night before, and she grinned. It wasn't doing her any good sitting in her desk at home, after all.

Having her moped and being able to use it was great. The fact that it was now a hoverbike instead was great too, in part because it was now officially a 'tinkertech' vehicle and by law had fewer restrictions, or so the registration paperwork they'd left with it said. It should even be better on rainy days and such because it didn't need traction and wouldn't care about invisible potholes hidden by water. Maybe she should look into adding a rain shield?

Once at the PRT building she noted that Carlos wasn't even there yet. She considered heading to the gym, but decided she'd rather prepare things. So she went straight for the Wards area to get changed. For a lark she decided to prepare her 'alternate loadout', since she felt the hard-light projector would make a decent replacement for the entrenching tool, though she had to adjust one of the clamps a little to hold it well. Further, she found she could attach the 'knife' sheath at her lower back, which she might do regardless of loadout.

Now that she was in-costume she paused to consider things. The camera was one thing, but it would probably be best to show initiative in being prepared, right? So she made her way down to the requisition desk.

"Good morning Maul," the woman at the desk said. "How can I help you?"

"I'm hoping to pick up several items," Taylor said. "Two first aid kits with quarter-twenty mounting brackets, a toolkit with the same, and I'm hoping you have something that can connect a camera to the same?"

The woman looked at Taylor, and then turned to her computer. She appeared to run a few searches before turning back to Taylor. "It looks like we have all of that available, but I see you've already been issued first aid kits and a toolkit. I'll need justification for an additional toolkit, and a reason for the first aid kits isn't needed but would be appreciated for record-keeping reasons."

"I plan on mounting them to the attachment points on my new flight platform."

The woman raised an eyebrow, but appeared to be thinking things over. "Ok, I can see how that would be desirable. I'll record that I've approved the extras for that. Give me a minute to fetch what you need."

By the time Carlos arrived Taylor had gotten both first aid kits and the toolkit attached to mounting points on the edge of the opened surface of her flying platform and was working on getting the camera mount situated as she wanted it. It provided a simple slide-on point to snap the camera-side component onto, and as far as she could tell would leave an eighth of an inch clearance with the camera attached when the platform closed.

"What the hell is that?" Carlos asked.

"New flying platform," Taylor replied. "Courtesy of Leet as a thank you gift."

"And what are you doing to it?"

"Attaching a camera mount to the 'forward' mounting point on the edge here? Good morning, by the way."

Carlos sighed. "Good morning, yes. So, is that thing fast enough to patrol with?"

"Faster than I've ever seen Chris's go. Amy and I rode it back from the Rig yesterday, took less time than the short-hops usually do."

"Maybe we can run an aerial route, then. Anyone else around?"

"Not yet, no."

"Pity." He made his way to get changed while Taylor poked at the camera mount. Eventually she felt she was happy with it and had the platform fold up into 'storage' mode. Everything fit fine, and she had it move up by the ceiling between a couple of the lights for the time being so it wouldn't be in the way.

"Hey," Carlos said as he returned. Taylor looked over to see him holding a box. "Got a new visor for you. I was inspired by your various body-camera inclusions to reports and requested that we all get something similar, so now all of our helmets and visors have cameras and heads up displays for our phones. The latter courtesy of Armsmaster. This one's yours, I would have handed it over sooner but you've been off-duty."

"Oh, cool," Taylor said, taking the new visor. She opened the box and took a look, noting that it was pretty much identical to her current one. Visually the only difference was a small bump on the inside of the visor between where her eyes would be that housed the camera, though it was also lacking the 'integrated earpiece' components that her old one had and she'd never used. It was a matter of a couple of minutes to fully switch over and run tests, Carlos having taken the old one to be returned.

With that done she ran through some tests, including toggling the camera on and off from her phones, before deciding that she'd like to make some pancakes. They even had stuff available to make them with today when she checked. Oooh, strawberries too.

"Why didn't you tell me you were making pancakes?" Lisa whined as she sat on the couch next to Taylor.

"Because Carlos asked everyone to be here early anyway?" Taylor answered. The pancakes had been gone by the time Lisa arrived. Brian was on his way in and Missy had apparently eaten her fill at home. Chris and Dennis were washing and drying the dishes so that Carlos could plan patrol routes.

"They would have been so much better than the cereal I had."

"Your fault for being lazy," Carlos said. "Now then, perhaps you should get changed? Miss Militia's informed me that she's joining our meeting."

Lisa groaned, but got up and headed to get into costume. Dennis and Chris did so as soon as they were done with the dishes, and Brian likely would when he got there.

"Good morning," Miss Militia said once the Wards were assembled. "I don't plan on taking up much of your time, but I have a couple of recent developments to go over with you all. We were originally going to keep a tighter lid on things, but thinker support indicates that it would be detrimental to keep things from Maul's teammates."

Taylor groaned as the other Wards turned to look at her.

"Specifically," Miss Militia continued, pulling attention back to her. "The issues with Leet a couple weeks ago resulted in significant changes to Maul's power ratings. Her primary ratings are now Striker 12, Trump 10, Blaster 5, and Tinker 4. For various reasons we wish to keep a lid on several aspects of this, so we wish to do our best to continue to hide that she is anything other than a Blaster. Though given her new and existing equipment we're not going to hide her Tinker rating."

"What the fuck," Dennis muttered, though it was obvious to everyone what he'd said.

"What ratings don't you have now?" Chris asked.

"Breaker, Changer, Master, Shaker, and Stranger," Taylor replied.

"What the hell happened?" Lisa finally asked. "Because I'm very confused, what with what happened with Panacea talking to my powers a couple weeks ago."

"I think Assault put it best," Miss Militia said. Taylor swore she was grinning behind her bandana. "He claims that Maul became the second coming of Panacea. The reverse isn't quite accurate, and they both picked up a little bit of Tinker from Leet in the process. Not enough to give Maul a dedicated space for tinkering, but Panacea now has access to the building to use the visiting tinker lab." She paused, and Taylor noted that the other Wards seemed to be in shock. "With that said, do try and keep most of it quiet. Have a nice day."

Taylor waved as Miss Militia left.

[Query]

Amy: Yes, Taylor and I share our original snarks.

"What the hell happened?" Lisa asked, shaking her head. "How did you two get connected to each other's powers?"

"We didn't keep a close enough eye on what our snarks were planning," Taylor replied, shrugging.

"What's your tinker specialty?" Chris asked. Taylor was fairly certain that several of the others were torn on whether or not they should roll their eyes at that, but it wasn't a bad question. He may not have been told before monitoring her, actually, so he was probably running on observations alone.

"Understanding, Maintenance, and Repair of technology."

The others stared at Taylor for a moment, before Carlos decided to get on with things and stood up. "Alright, as very little of this will change how we're doing things I think we should focus on patrols. I'm thinking one group on the new shoreline aerial route and the other running the Boardwalk for visibility. Any complaints?"

"I thought we needed three fliers before we could do aerial routes?" Chris noted.

"Taylor would be joining us."

Missy giggled as the rest of the Wards looked at Taylor. "What?"

"How would you pull an aerial route?" Dennis asked.

Taylor sighed and got up, flipping the flying platform and opening it up. She then adjusted the jump harness and jumped into the air. Everyone's eyes followed her as she flipped and landed on the upside-down platform.

"Can I go and ride with her?" Missy asked, causing Carlos to blink. Taylor thought that she'd be doing puppy-dog eyes if she wasn't wearing her visor. "Please?"

"I suppose if Taylor doesn't mind," Carlos said. "And Brian, Dean, and Dennis don't mind patrolling without you?"

"I'm game," Taylor said, dropping the platform down and flipping it over to land off to the side.

The three boys shared a look before Dennis spoke up. "Yeah, we're good. No need to hear her whining that we wouldn't let her go."

"Yay!" Missy said darting over to the platform, only for Taylor to grab her while getting off of it. "Hey!"

"It doesn't fit through the doors well," Taylor said as the platform folded up. "You'll have to get on when we reach the roof."

"I can make the doors bigger?"

"You can wait."

"You didn't have to expand all the doorways and hallways, not to mention the elevator, just to prove your point," Carlos said, shaking his head.

"Yes I did," Missy replied, bouncing up and down as Taylor opened up the platform. She did let Taylor get on first, if only barely.

"Watch out for the foot controls," Taylor said, nudging Missy a little off to the side. She did her best not to flinch at the same time given that Amy had apparently just poked someone. Was that a nail in their knee? Ouch.

"Oh, sorry." She then proceeded to bounce up and down again while Chris set up his hoverboard.

"Aegis to Console," Carlos said. "Requesting permission for Maul to do a speed test with passenger out towards the Rig." Taylor looked over at Carlos, who grinned. "Better to see now instead of later. We've done similar tests with Kid Win, though he doesn't work well with passengers."

"Console to Aegis," came back a moment later, apparently the PRT monitor as it wasn't Lisa's voice. "We have her on record as hitting around 90 miles per hour yesterday with Panacea on board. Does she feel she can go faster?"

"I think I was doing pretty much full speed then," Taylor admitted. "At least while being able to see where I'm going. I might be able to go faster feet-first, but then I can't see."

"Aegis to Console," Carlos said after Dennis finished reporting a potential hazard. They'd barely left, how did they find the likely only suspect fire escape in the area? "Maul reports that she was likely going at full speed. Test request withdrawn."

"So can we go now?" Missy asked.

Carlos sighed and looked over at Chris. Who was ready. So he took to the air, the others following him.

"What's going on out there?" Taylor asked as they moved along the shoreline. There was plenty of activity on the ground, but all of it was people watching out in the bay. Amy had apparently been kicked out of the hospital already, being told that almost everyone coming in was still in radiation panic mode but the scanner could deal with that.

"Not sure," Chris said. "Lots of things in the air by the container ship, though."

"Are some of them moving under it?" Carlos asked. "Because I think they are."

"What do you think those things are?" Missy asked, poking Taylor. "Are they close enough for you?"

Taylor looked down at Missy, shrugged, and looked over towards the container ship, focusing on her tinker snark. "Let's see...repurposed combat drones with enhanced lifting capabilities? Are they trying to move the container ship?"

The others stopped and stared at the activity out in the bay. The container ship had been sitting there long enough that it was hard to imagine it not being there, and yet today it might actually get moved.

"We should continue moving," Carlos finally said, gesturing for them to continue. "At least the activity is reducing the gawking at us with a new flier, right?"

"There are four speculation threads already running on PHO," Taylor countered. "Though one of them includes references to having seen something similar yesterday and none of them seem to have identified me properly."

"I said reducing, not eliminating."

They had reached their turnaround point when the real show in the bay began, quite a bit louder than anyone expected. The Wards stopped to stare, not that anyone likely cared as everyone else had also stopped and was staring just as much. The container ship was being lifted clear into the air, though not quickly.

"The fireworks are a nice touch," Missy finally said. "More of a backdrop than a distraction, even."

"Er, huh," Taylor said, turning around and looking towards the snark that had just entered her range. "We've got company."

"What?" Carlos said, spinning around to look where Taylor was. It was hard to miss the tall, pale, but muscled man in loose-fitting pants and a pale blue tiger mask slowly floating up towards them. More interestingly, he was lightly waving a white flag in front of him.

Taylor: Hello there.

[Greetings]

"Is that Stormtiger?" Chris asked.

"Yes," Missy replied. "I've run into him before. But why is he approaching us?"

"Aegis to Console," Carlos finally said. "Stormtiger is slowly approaching us, waving a white flag. No other potential hostiles visible."

There were several moments of complete radio silence, before the console responded. "Console to Aegis, please repeat."

"Stormtiger is slowly approaching us, in the air, waving a white flag, with no visible backup."

"Console to Aegis," came back, the operator sounding bewildered. "Recommendation is to meet him partway with part of your group, the others holding back just in case."

"Unless Vista objects we can go down," Taylor said. "Since he keeps looking our way, I think he might want to talk to one of us specifically."

"That makes sense," Chris said. Taylor heard his pistols change mode, perhaps to a higher setting.

"Be careful," Carlos said. "And be ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble."

"Will do," Taylor said, then tapped a foot to start dropping towards the approaching cape.

"Good morning Maul, Vista," Stormtiger called, having stopped when he noticed the two Wards floating down towards him. "I apologize for interrupting your patrol, but I was hoping to ask Maul a couple of questions, if you don't mind? I promise to not take long."

Taylor looked at Missy, who shrugged. She then turned back to Stormtiger. "Good morning, and I suppose that would be alright."

"Thank you for your time." Stormtiger bowed as he said that, then straightened back up. "The first thing we, that is the Empire, are wondering is whether or not your new platform is intended as a statement aimed in our direction?"

"Er, I don't believe so. I'm not even sure why it would be considered as such, actually."

"We somewhat recently lost our teenage member with a similar trick, and weren't sure if this was, in some way, intended to mock us."

"Oh, right. Sorry, I hadn't considered that, but as far as I know it isn't. But as it was a gift I can't be entirely certain."

"May I enquire as to whom it was a gift from?"

Taylor paused to consider that, and decided it probably didn't matter. "Leet. Thankfully I can maintain it without his assistance."

Stormtiger visibly dropped, apparently losing concentration on flight for a moment. He quickly recovered, though, and moved back up, if a little further away. "I see. Thank you for the information. Beyond that, well, you likely know that the Empire would attempt to have eyes in the PRT, right?"

"Moles, you mean?" Vista said. "Spies by any other name and all?"

"Er, yes. One of them overheard something that we were hoping you might be willing to comment on. They seemed to be under the impression that Eidolon had visited recently and was, er, rude to you?"

Taylor blinked. Huh. Well, she'd have to report this, but how to put an answer. "I wouldn't say he was rude." Because that would be an understatement. "He was a bit impatient, but we worked things out."

"I see. Again, thank you for your time. Do you have any questions for me?"

"I don't believe so."

"Then I shall stop taking up your time. Have a nice day."

"You too."

Stormtiger dropped back down towards the ground, significantly faster than he had approached. Not that she could judge how much of that was his snark compared to gravity, though. Taylor had the platform lift back up to the others.

"Maul to Console," she finally said. "Stormtiger asked me three questions. If my platform was intended to mock the Empire for their loss of Rune, who made it after I indicated it was a gift, and if the rumors from their moles of Eidolon being rude to me recently were true. I answered that I did not believe so, that Leet made the platform, and that Eidolon was impatient but we worked things out. He has now departed peacefully."

The Wards floated there for a minute waiting for a response, watching the container ship lift in progress in the meantime. It was probably going to take several hours at the rate things were going, and then once it was fully out of the water it had to go somewhere, right?

"Console to Maul," came back, startling them out of their watching. "Your responses have been noted."

"I guess that's our cue to get moving again," Carlos said as Taylor acknowledged the console. "Let's go."

Debrief after their patrol had been interesting. Apparently they knew that at least one Empire mole had 'overheard' details about David having interacted with Taylor, but they were surprised that any mention of him being 'rude' had been made. Which probably meant they had more moles to find and mark.

The PRT officer being unable to focus until Taylor sent the flying platform into the hall, on the other hand, was annoying. It wasn't going to randomly explode, after all. If she thought it was dangerous she wouldn't use it.

Shortly after debrief they found out that the afternoon 'patrol' was going to be everyone other than Taylor, Lisa, and Missy doing crowd control at the hospital. Taylor and Missy were instead being drafted into helping with New Wave's PRT-run firearms class, being cleared to use guns of their own already, and Lisa was being given the afternoon off.

Before that, however, was lunch. The Wards, including Lisa, had invaded the upper cafeteria to get access to the steaks being served there. Taylor had ended up eating three, resulting in some jealous and/or surprised stares.

Amy: Are you eating steak?

Taylor: Yep.

Amy: Damn. I bet that's tastier than this pizza.

And some jealousy from across town, too. Not that anyone at the table with her could figure out why she grinned at that point.

New Wave arrived shortly after lunch, to find Taylor and Missy waiting for them.

"Good afternoon," Taylor said. "I hope you're prepared to pay attention through your boredom."

"Why would learning how to fire guns be boring?" Eric asked. He got matching grins from the two Wards in response.

Amy: Oh god, are we likely to be getting safety lectures?

Taylor: Yep.

Amy: Can you shoot me instead?

Taylor: Nope, because that wouldn't be safe.

Taylor didn't even have the decency to show a reaction when Amy punched her for that comment.

"Please tell me the lecturing is over?" Eric pleaded. "Pretty please?"

"It's over," Missy said, causing the boy to beam. "For today." And his mood plummeted. Taylor should probably try not to be so amused by that, honestly.

"I'm just hoping that we don't have to attend all of your sessions," Taylor said, causing New Wave to look at her. "Miss Militia didn't attend all of ours, after all. Though she did help with several demonstrations."

"I think Miss Militia is supposed to handle several of our sessions," Sarah said. "But the radiation scare has thrown off schedules quite a bit."

"At least none of you needed safety demonstrations to pay attention," Missy offered.

"With the Barrage Blaster in the room with us?" Crystal said, sounding incredulous. "We'd have to be insane, I think."

"What's the schedule for these?" Taylor asked, curious.

"We're scheduled to do them nightly," Carol said. "With any luck we'll be done by Thursday, and we can do a significant patrol then or Friday. We'd pushed Amy's weekend back due to the issues that came up a couple weeks back, so we have the weekend pretty much free."

"Did you have to jinx it?" Vicky whined. "Now something is going to come up and screw over our weekend."

"I highly doubt that," Mark replied. "Especially as the Teeth seem to be heading for the West Coast."

"What?" Taylor said. "I must have missed that."

"It was on the news," Crystal said. "Something about the Butcher's new phone being bricked due to some crap app trying to steal her personal information, so they were going to hunt down the person responsible for writing it."

Taylor thought about that. "I never really thought about that as being a hazard of being a programmer of any kind."

"Accord apparently had someone hunted down for infecting some digital displays in Boston," Eric said. "That was last year. Then there's the villain in Arkansas that put out a hit on the script kiddie that put malicious code into an ad network and crashed his network somehow. Some days I'm amazed that spammers still exist, but I guess exploiting poorly secured servers helps hide them."

"I wonder what some of the bullshit thinkers do?"

'Codebreaker' smirked as he found the command and control node for the botnet. Now he just had to trace things back to the person running it, at which point he could take it down. He was hoping he could make it look like the guy who'd tried to hack his website a few days ago had been responsible, but it was always possible they were the same person. Or maybe actually trusted partners.

Once he was done with this idiot he could get back to hunting down one of the other idiots who'd tried to hack his site. But this took priority, as this idiot had tried to scam his little sister, and nearly got his grandmother too. He'd had to skip school to get some of the timing down, granted, but he'd 'fix' his records there later.

Lisa pondered whether or not the spoofed scam message she'd sent a few days ago had worked. She'd made it look like it came from that annoying botnet she'd been having trouble with, and targeted the family of that thinker that the PRT occasionally 'pointed' at troublesome online nuisances. He actually thought that nobody knew he'd triggered, the fool.

Oh well, if the plan worked she'd be happy. If it didn't she'd have to try something else. Dinah had only given it a 52ish percent chance of success, so she shouldn't hold out too much hope. Oh, there's a message from Dennis that someone had decided to try and jump the line. Again. So he'd frozen the door as they'd been trying to force their way through it. Well, that was a good way to keep them from opening it all the way, at least?

The ride home had been through a longer than usual route, hitting the bay for a quick test to prove that her hover bike would, in fact, go over water without issue. Not that she expected any differently, but the proof was nice. After that she'd made her way home, carefully avoiding Skidmark when she'd gotten close enough to spot him. She didn't know what he was doing, but he was easy enough to go around, after which getting home hadn't taken long.

"Taylor!" Danny yelled as Taylor entered the house. She made her way into the living room, where the news was on showing the container ship being flown off. "Come grab a beer to celebrate! Kurt and Lacey will be by with takeout shortly."

Taylor shook her head, but grabbed a beer anyway. "I take it you're happy."

"I know you said some of your extra earnings might go towards this, but having it happen? Of course I'm happy!"

"We're here with Dragon," the reporter on the screen said. "Who orchestrated today's monumental event. So, Dragon, what brought this about?"

"The PRT contacted me, acting as an intermediary for an undisclosed third party," Dragon said. "Admittedly, they expected it to take much longer, but I decided to put a higher priority on the request. You could consider it a Mother's Day gift of sorts."

Taylor blinked, and ran that through her head. After some parsing she still wasn't sure if she'd just heard what she thought she'd heard. "What?"

"Max?" Brad said as he entered. Max looked up at the other man, wondering why he looked so worried.

"What's wrong?" Max asked. He didn't like it when his second in command was worried, given that he was usually overconfident. He had enough to deal with given all the trouble the PRT was giving Medhall these days, on top of the Empire not having recovered from losing several capes. The only saving grace there was that Lung had been oddly mellow as of late.

"We're fairly certain that Maul's new toy isn't intended to mock us. Scare the crap out of us given that Leet made it maybe, but not mock us. Still, er, well..."

"What else?" Not that trusting her life to something that dangerous probably wasn't enough, granted. Was the girl insane?

"She all but told us that the rumors about what happened with Eidolon are true."

"What rumors?" He hadn't heard any rumors, but he also hadn't looked over all the reports from the moles yet.

"The ones that say that Eidolon was impatient and rude with her, so she took him down for a couple hours and forced him into a therapy session."

Max blinked, and ran that through his head. It didn't make sense, so he tried again. "What?"

Chapter 80 Monday morning's gossip of choice was split between the container ship move and a short clip someone had captured of Taylor's moped hovering. The latter was enhanced by her arrival to school on said hovering moped, with people having been waiting with phones ready to see if it was true. Amy showing up on a non-hovering version had apparently been largely ignored, since it was well known that she'd 'won' it in Las Vegas.

Taylor wasn't entirely sure how, but the Wards patrolling over the crowd of people watching the container ship move at the shoreline had been almost entirely missed, so nobody was talking about her flying platform. Was the container ship that distracting? Probably not, since Stormtiger had noticed them after all. But no actual clips of her and Missy on the platform had materialized, just people commenting on seeing something.

Still, amongst the gossip was speculation as to whether or not Dragon's mother lived in or had grown up in the Bay, something that Amy and Vicky were finding hilarious for reasons nobody other than Taylor understood. The fact that Taylor kept rolling her eyes as they snickered made people think that there was an inside joke, but nobody knew what it was.

Amy: So, is mommy embarrassed?

Taylor: Don't make me hit you.

Amy: Forcefield belt.

Taylor: Insufficiently solid toggle switch.

Amy: Huh. Ok, point to you. We aren't sharing a class.

Taylor: I can get revenge later.

Amy: Hmmm. I suppose. I can hit you back?

Taylor: True, true. I have access to heavier weapons if push comes to shove.

Amy: Like you'd really hurt me. Heh, I bet Vicky wishes she could needle you without anyone noticing like I can.

Taylor: Speaking of Vicky, I see she's wearing the headphones I originally gave you.

Amy: Yep.

Taylor: Has she figured out that you've been upgraded yet?

Amy: Not that I know of.

Taylor: So what does she think you're doing for listening to music and such now?

Amy: I honestly have no clue.

Taylor did her best to not let anything show on her face as she composed a text message, then fired it off to Vicky. She only let her grin show when she saw Vicky checking her phone a couple minutes later.

"Oh come on Ames," Vicky whined. "Really? You kept that a secret from me?"

"What are you talking about?" Amy asked, obviously confused. Vicky showed her phone to Amy, who narrowed her eyes. "TAYLOR!"

Taylor snickered as she made her way to class, Amy fuming about her fun being ruined.

Amy: Well played, Taylor. Well played.

By lunchtime the morning gossip had been derailed and discarded, as apparently they'd arrested a dozen people in connection with the radiation poisoning. The gang member's ex had apparently worked with several others to obtain the polonium, which had been provided by a tinker in New Jersey. She'd then gone on to ensure that he ate the stuff, working with two others to keep suspicion down. One of those two was in critical condition in Boston due to mishandling of some kind, but details were scarce.

Taylor: Think they'll drag you to Boston?

Amy: Probably not, but they might drag the idiot here, unless they've specifically refused parahuman healing anyway.

On top of that, the tinker had been arrested and they were now looking into their records on who they'd sold materials to. Who the tinker was had been kept a secret for a number of reasons. What those reasons were was also being kept secret. All that was said was that they weren't working for or affiliated with the PRT or Protectorate at the time.

"It says here that they kept the extra they didn't use at first and then tried to feed him more after he was healed," Dennis said, his tone indicating disbelief. "I mean, really? He was saved the first time and they thought they could try again? He'd know the symptoms and book it to the hospital immediately!"

"I'm more amazed where it says that they filed the receipt for the purchase with their accountant," Vicky admitted. "Apparently they thought it was possible the purchase might be tax-deductible?"

Taylor wanted to comment on that, but couldn't come up with a response. This appeared to be a common affliction at their table, to be honest. Some further reading showed that the accountant had, once they saw what the receipt was for, gone straight to the feds with it. Apparently they wanted to ensure that nobody thought they had anything to do with possibly being seen as hiding things.

"Good afternoon Miss Hebert, Miss Dallon," Miss Militia said as Taylor and Amy came in from the Wards garage space. "Miss Hebert, we're hoping you're willing to leave your flying platform up on the roof today."

"Good afternoon," Taylor said. "And why do you want the platform up there?"

"Armsmaster thinks that a landing pad would be a good thing, instead of having it in your room when not in use. That way you wouldn't need to bring it up and down constantly. Beyond that, there are some 'concerns' from some of the PRT officers that having a potential bomb waiting to happen in the Wards area is a problem."

"Oh. The landing pad makes sense, the concerns less so. I mean, Chris tinkers down here as well, right? Still, I like the idea of not having to constantly move it up and down, and I'll even send him details on the homing beacon frequencies so it can find and land in the right place on its own."

Miss Militia and Amy both looked at Taylor at the last comment, though Miss Militia was the one that spoke. "What else can it do that you haven't mentioned?"

"It can supposedly find the armband whenever called, though being in a sealed room might stop it unless 'emergency' mode is active. In the latter case it will do its best to force a path, but that means the safeties are disabled too so it isn't recommended. I demonstrated it catching me during testing, that's an automatic function and didn't require me to directly control it. Finding beacons for landing requires that I use one of the sixteen 'this general area' slots within twenty to twenty five meters of the beacons unless I want to guide it nearby manually first. Oh, and it has enough power for two seconds of 'Plaid' mode, but I don't see myself ever using it as that's an all-or-nothing thing and it's got a ninety-plus percent chance of exploding if I do."

"Plaid mode?"

"Yeah. But going at just under three hundred megameters per second in a straight line doesn't seem like a good idea." Amy blinked at that, apparently stunned.

Miss Militia stared at Taylor. "Three hundred...no, you know what. I don't want clarification. The beacon information sounds wonderful, are you willing to leave the platform unattended up there for measurements and such?"

"No problem, I'll bring it up after I get changed."

"Thank you." Miss Militia turned and walked off, muttering about insane tinkers.

"I should get changed," Taylor said as she turned to head to her room. "Want to join me in the junkyard before your class?"

"Yes please," Amy said, shaking her head. "I'm thinking that getting rid of some stress with violence would be a good thing right now."

Taylor rolled her eyes at that, but didn't comment.

"There's a group of Merchants looking like they want to create issues," Dean said, looking around a corner. "Most of them are armed."

"I wonder if we could scare them off," Missy wondered. "But short of a show of force?"

Taylor blinked, and got a grin on her face. "I don't suppose we could try pranking them?" The other two Wards looked at her. "I mean, I have various Bluetooth sound devices in particular?"

"A little discrete spatial warping to get them into position," Missy said, grinning and rubbing her hands together. "Please tell me some of them are the point-projection kind?"

"Of course," Taylor said as she pulled several out of a pouch. She then pulled out the demon duck speaker. "Think we can slip this next to them after we distract them with others?"

Dean lost his composure at that and started snickering.

Five minutes later they'd very carefully gotten three point-projection units into place, using all three batteries Taylor had on her in the process. This was mostly done via Missy warping space to where they'd place things so that they could more easily stay out of sight. Taylor had even removed her body camera and they had it pointing down at the group from a windowsill. They then waited a few more minutes as more Merchants arrived.

"Oi," Dean said over one of the speakers. "What're you lot doing in our alley?"

"Who said that?" one of the Merchants asked, the group spinning to look at the brick wall Dean's voice seemed to come from.

"It looks like they're gathering to create some trouble," Missy said over another speaker, this one pointing at the ground next to the group.

"Why would they do that in our alley?" Taylor said over the last speaker, which was set to point into the group of Merchants instead of near them. That had the effect of causing them to jump away from the voice in their midst.

"I don't know," Dean replied. "I don't think I like it, though."

"Find them," one of the Merchants said. "And we'll make them pay for this!"

They were able to tell that the group was starting to spread out, which was Missy's cue. She slipped the demon duck speaker into the middle of where they had been. Taylor then started an evil laugh playing from it. That caused the entire group of Merchants to turn to look.

"That wasn't there a minute ago," one of them said.

"Just shoot it," another said. "It's just a stupid speaker, right?"

Five gunshots later the group was staring at the still laughing and more worryingly untouched demon duck, since Missy was warping space around it just enough to keep it safe. The fact that the warping was also distorting the sound probably helped the whole performance, actually.

"I'm outta here," one of the group finally said, turning to run. A minute later the entire group of Merchants had scattered. It took another fifteen minutes for the three Wards to recover from their laughing, and two more to collect everything.

"Huh," Taylor said as she landed on the next roof, having taken the 'scout' role after they'd run into a group of Empire thugs. She moved to the street edge of the roof to take a look, and sure enough she could see Oni Lee just standing there with what appeared to be a non-parahuman child with a green mask of some kind on.

"Spot something?" Dean asked over the radio.

"I think Oni Lee wants to talk to me," Taylor replied. She noticed that both of the other two stopped at that.

"Why do you think he wants to talk to you?" Missy asked.

"Well, I doubt he wants to fight with a kid tagging along."

Dean shifted to calling the potential contact into the console as Taylor moved back down to ground level. He seemed surprised when they got a green light pretty much right away. With the green light given Taylor moved forward towards Oni Lee, keeping an eye out for possible issues anyway.

"Good afternoon," Taylor called when she got close enough.

"Greetings Maul," Oni Lee said, bowing. "Allow me to introduce my niece, who has decided to go by 'Kappa' for now."

"Hello," Taylor said as she got closer. "Why 'Kappa'?"

"She loves swimming and cucumbers. She's a bit shy, though. I wanted to thank you for your part in assisting me, and am hoping you can pass my thanks to Panacea as well. Even if the first few times I used my powers after I'd mostly recovered were a bit embarrassing."

"Unca Lee was nakey," 'Kappa' said, giggling, causing Oni Lee to sigh.

"Yes, I've since learned that I either need to concentrate on bringing all of my clothing with me or wear tighter clothing. It's a small price to pay for having my mind back, though."

"I imagine the concentration slows you down," Taylor commented. "Which is probably intentional, as some of the rapid copying was creating issues."

"There is that. I've had to be more creative with how I approach things, which for some reason makes me feel better. I don't quite understand why, though. Regardless, thank you. It's now time to bring the little Kappa here home, so we must be off. Have a nice evening."

"Good evening to you two too."

Taylor watched as 'Kappa' was picked up, to her apparent protest, and carried off. Dean and Missy came up behind her, a quick glance showing that they both appeared to be confused.

"What just happened?" Missy asked. "Because, well, that was weird?"

"Panacea and I helped out Oni Lee with a medical issue," Taylor replied. "That's part of why New Wave keeps having friendly spars with Lung. I imagine that this means those are likely to continue."

"And now we'll never quite know because you pulled the medical issue card," Dean said, shaking his head. "Right. Let's get moving again, I don't want to be out here all night."

"Is that part of why the ABB has been leaving the Wards alone?" Missy asked.

"Yeah," Taylor answered. "Not sure how long that will last, though. Might only be until I hit Protectorate, or perhaps they'll continue to leave Wards alone and I'll become fair game later?"

"So when are you going to post that video?" Missy asked as the elevator doors closed.

"The Merchant one?" Taylor said. "I dunno. I might wait until their public opinion has dropped again."

"They have been doing community-service type things," Dean admitted. "Though nobody knows why."

"At this point I think the assumption is that they're looking for Squealer. That'll probably stop Wednesday."

"Why Wednesday?" Missy asked. Taylor just grinned.

Taylor had opted to chat with Amy as they both made their way home. She suspected that they were both also listening to music based on overall activity of their respective Bluetooth organs.

Amy: So Oni Lee was out with what we presume was Lung's daughter?

Taylor: Yep. She hasn't triggered, but was running around as 'Kappa'. Because she liked swimming and cucumbers?

Amy: That's kinda cute.

Taylor: Why is it cute?

Amy: Oh, right, you probably haven't had a teacher go on about Japanese mythology. You should look kappas up.

Taylor wasn't sure what to make of that, but made note to do some research when she wasn't on her moped.

Amy: Has Miss Militia asked you about Thursday?

Taylor: No?

Amy: Ah. Maybe she's still clearing use of the Rig then. I kinda wanted to try some of what you did during your testing, if at all possible, and she mentioned some 'requested' larger-scale tests of us working together.

Taylor: Maybe they'll add a second bench to the railgun to properly test that aspect?

Amy: Maybe. Oh, have you tried forward-projecting the gun while side-projecting the bullet?

Taylor blinked. That...huh. That could work to help with aiming. And maybe make it easier to pistol-whip someone on short notice.

Taylor: What made you think of that?

Amy: I, er, accidentally attached the projection to the gun while feeling out the bullets?

Taylor: I thought you were supposed to be learning without powers?

Amy: So I'm curious. I haven't used that trick for aiming at all yet, I was waiting for my turn in the firing range.

Taylor: Well, I do think that it's a good idea. It would be bad to be reliant on it, though.

Amy: Duh.

Taylor pulled into home a couple minutes later, wondering where her father was.

"Hello there," Danny said, poking his head into Taylor's room. She was laying on the bed with her clear visor on, looking up kappas. She understood why Amy found the idea cute now.

"Hi," Taylor replied. "You find the leftovers?"

"Yep. Thanks for making dinner, and I'm sorry I got stuck late. Since I don't think you know, I've been talking with Miss Militia about a security system. I'm staying home from work so it can be installed tomorrow, which is why I was late tonight."

"Oh, cool." She supposed it made sense that they'd talk with her father about that. Technically he was the one who owned the house, after all, so it really did need him involved anyway. "Anything I should know in advance?"

"It'll have per-room monitoring and should be able to identify the two of us, plus anyone else we add in, automatically. Even then it'll have an additional module for arming and disarming with secure Bluetooth, in theory for our phones of course. It'll automatically notify both Dragon and the PRT if something sets it off, in addition to sending alerts to our phones. Apparently we don't qualify for active defenses like automatic taser turrets, and there was some grumbling about needing to build a new home from scratch if we wanted 'proper' structural enhancements?"

"Given that Amy said the Dallon and Pelham households have their deadbolts as their weakest point?"

Danny blinked a couple of times. "Ok, yeah. That sounds a bit extreme. Still, you may want to make sure any cape stuff is hidden before you head to school tomorrow. Like your visor there."

"I'll make sure anything like that is either with me or well-hidden when I leave in the morning."

"Thanks. Oh, do you know why Miss Militia said the PRT would be paying for the system in general?"

Taylor blinked. Huh. "I think it might be because they can argue I've got a history of being targeted out of costume? Not that anyone who's done so has realized it beforehand, but I don't think the relevant regulations actually specify that as a requirement."

"That...ok, that makes sense. I might have to look those up."

Tuesday morning the gossip had decided to shift back towards Taylor's moped. Apparently someone poisoning people with radiation and the container ship having been moved were now boring. Or perhaps it was just because Taylor was seen riding the thing into school again?

This would all be fine, except that everyone wanted to gossip about how it might have come about instead of just asking. She even had a not-quite-a-lie 'answer' provided by the PRT to tell people.

Oh well. Eventually someone might just ask her, right? For now she had classes and such. Though Amy seemed a bit restless?

Taylor: Is something wrong? You seem restless.

Amy: How do normal tinkers deal with their urges?

Taylor: What?

Amy: I mean, I know my urges are a lot lower, yet I still keep thinking about implants or prosthetics and such seemingly at random. How does someone like Chris manage?

Taylor: I have no clue, but someday I'm probably going to tear something that needs work apart. I just hope it isn't at school, and that I'm at least in private or in costume when it happens.

Amy: Ok, now I kinda want to see that.

Taylor: Compared to you potentially giving someone an implant because you haven't done anything with any for a while?

Amy: ...crap. The PRT can help with that, right?

Taylor: I wouldn't be surprised if they've already started planning for it, honestly. I'd still ask, though.

Amy: Yeah. I think I'll send a message before I forget.

"Hey Taylor," a boy in her Math class said just after she'd sat down for lunch. The main issue she had with him was that he was named Greg, but that wasn't his fault. "What's up with your moped?"

Taylor blinked as a number of students stopped talking, many of them about theories on said moped. "What do you mean?"

"It didn't hover before, but now it does. How'd that happen?"

"Ahh. That." About damned time, now to see if the PRT's plan worked. "I don't know why it isn't common knowledge that you should think very carefully before letting a tinker fix something for you. Specifically, one should always ask them what they mean by 'fix'."

"Oooh. That makes sense. Thanks." He wandered off, students processing that as conversations slowly restarted.

Amy: I don't think anyone not already in the know noticed that you did not, in fact, answer the question.

Taylor: The PRT felt it would be a good idea to let people make their own assumptions.

Amy: Oh, I won't argue that it's an effective answer, but now the gossip is going to switch to who the tinker was.

Taylor: That was also expected.

Taylor and Amy smirked a little as they both noticed the gossip shifting in just that direction. But nobody could decide who the tinker had been. Colin and Chris were instantly the two favorites, of course, because they were local 'hero' tinkers that might have been able to pull it off. Vivian was discounted because everyone decided that if she'd done it then the moped would have an Orion drive or something.

Taylor: Tomorrow afternoon is going to be amusing.

Amy: Wait, what? Why?

Taylor: That...is not my secret to tell.

Amy: Damn you.

Amy actually kicked Taylor under the table at that point, but Taylor just grinned in response.

"This is a mixed route," Taylor noted as she looked over the route Carlos had told her she'd be leading the patrol on today. The two of them were currently the only Wards who'd made it to the PRT building, though that was probably because neither of them had stayed for last period studies.

"Yep," Carlos replied. "That a problem?"

"So you want me to play aerial, given that Brian and Dennis are ground-bound?"

"Of course. Armsmaster assures me that the landing pad for your platform has been completed and when he powered it on the thing landed in it. He seemed to find that pleasingly efficient."

"But you also have a request that I make an impact with the crowd we expect to be outside, given rumors that were apparently intentionally spread this morning?"

"Yep."

Taylor gave that some thought. "Am I allowed to do so by jumping off of the building? I never did get to do that properly back when I was introduced."

"I'm not sure how that showcases the flying platform."

"It has a 'please catch me' button."

"Oh. In that case, go for it."

Taylor grinned, then started going back through her mail. She had a bunch of spare parts she was turning into prank-like devices, some that would remain spares, and extra batteries. She'd already dropped the new knife and 'civilian' toolkits with her school bag to bring home.

A quick double-check of the flying platform and Taylor felt she was ready. Brian and Dennis were just leaving the front of the building, and she could hear murmuring from the crowd. Grinning, she ran and jumped off of the roof, giving a cry as she did so. People looked up, at least one person screamed, and then the platform slid into place under her. A moment later she was a block away, waiting for the other two to get to their rendezvous point.

"Really?" Dennis whined once he and Brian arrived. "You did something like that and didn't include me in the planning?"

"Why would I?" Taylor replied. "It isn't like I could have caught both of us unless we were jumping together, and I wouldn't have wanted to test my jump harness doing that."

"Please tell me that Dragon is getting closer to figuring that thing out?"

"No clue. Ask Armsmaster if he knows, maybe? I suspect it's low priority compared to some of her other projects."

Brian just snickered at Dennis's antics before they made their way out.

"What's up with the Empire thugs today?" Brian asked while they waited for a police van to pick up the group they'd found attacking a couple of black kids. "Most of them have been oddly, well, skittish once they see Maul?"

"No clue," Dennis replied. "Not that I'm complaining too much about not having to fight most of them, mind you. But watching three groups of them go from 'willing to attack' to 'back away slowly as they peacefully disperse' just because they spotted her is weird. This group surrendered very politely when she dropped in."

"Mycroft thinks they're spooked about a rumor," Taylor said as she came up behind the other two. "She thinks it stems from when Stormtiger approached me, so some kind of warning might have been passed down or something."

"When did you ask her?" Brian asked. Dennis gestured that he wanted to know as well.

"When we were arranging the police to grab these guys, though I did so with a text channel instead of a voice channel."

"Oh, that makes sense," Dennis said. "Useful when you don't want radio chatter, though that's kinda rare, but I can see how two conversations at once could be nice too."

Taylor stopped off outside of the house, letting her tinker snark inform her of several of the new sensors covering the exterior. From those it seemed to dive into the system they were connected to, telling her about all the various ways it could detect intruders. Nowhere near as much as the PRT had, but she didn't expect anything to that level. It was also currently disarmed.

She shook her head and opened the garage. She knew her father would want to explain things to her either way, even if she got a full understanding of the system from her tinker snark. It was easier to just let him tell her for now. Though she wasn't quite sure why they'd included three different kinds of radiation sensor.

Taylor lay in bed after dinner, not sure what to do. Her homework was done, she wasn't in the mood to browse PHO, and she didn't have any research projects to distract herself with. Amy had poked around in the greenhouse for a few minutes, but most of her projects there were in a 'see what happens' holding pattern, so that hadn't been much of a distraction.

Amy: Vicky just pointed me at a PHO thread. Apparently they're speculating on whether or not you have a boyfriend, and if so who it might be.

Taylor: As far as I'm aware I'm not in a relationship, so what're they using as a basis?

Amy: They don't seem to have a basis beyond you being a teenager.

Taylor: Huh. Pretty sure I've got issues there either way anyway. I already told you about 'social' snarks and all, and then there's my trust issues. The whole bit with Emma...yeah.

Amy: I know you've said that Emma betrayed you, but how else does she matter at this point?

Taylor thought about things. She hadn't spoken to pretty much anyone other than Jessica about Emma, and had honestly been trying to avoid thinking about her. On the other hand, Jessica had recommended that she find someone else to talk to about her former friend.

Taylor: Well, we can't really be certain if my need to trust a potential partner is natural or not, but if so, well. Emma was the only one I really trusted up until she betrayed me. Jessica thinks that she was possibly my first crush?

Amy: Oh. Ouch.

Taylor: Yeah. Still possible that she was firmly in the 'sister' category or something, hard to tell after the fact.

Taylor reached over and grabbed her clear visor, slipping it on. It turned on automatically, and a moment later she was looking for the thread on PHO. Better to be aware of it than to be blindsided, right? It didn't take long to find, and it had been kicking around for a little over two weeks now. It wasn't long, as apparently only a few people cared, but what was there...

Taylor: So I dug up the thread, and I'm not sure if I should be horrified that there are people wondering if the 'trio' were pushing people away from me because they had crushes on me.

Amy: Yeah, I saw that.

Taylor: Apparently not responding to their 'advances' means I'm not attracted to girls, or so says PHO?

Amy: Not sure how that works, given the examples in the thread. I'm not sure anyone would have feelings for someone tormenting them like that. No, wait, this is on the internet, I'm sure someone has a fetish for that kind of thing, but I don't want to know who.

Taylor: We can hope that the only people who like that kind of thing like it from the outside and we never meet someone who likes having that kind of thing done to them for real?

Amy: That sounds good. Let's go with that. It's less disturbing, at least.

Ewww, someone thought she used to date Greg. Luckily someone else had shut that idea down, and she was kinda aware that Greg might have been crushing on her already.

Taylor: Should I reply to clear anything up?

Amy: If you do they'll either ignore you, assume you're lying, or take everything out of context to support their own arguments anyway.

Taylor: So basically there's no way to make them stop, and anything I do will make it worse?

Amy: Yep.

Taylor: Sometimes the internet sucks.

Chapter 81 Wednesday morning there was a slight drizzle, but it wasn't enough to stop Taylor from taking her moped. There weren't really any puddles, so Amy would probably be fine too.

Amy: Carol doesn't want me driving my moped in the drizzle.

Taylor: Huh. Really? Why not?

Amy: She thinks I don't have enough experience with it.

Taylor: Oh. That's not a bad argument, honestly. Slippery roads can be annoying.

Amy: I know. Still a pain, I've already started getting used to more freedom in my own movements.

Well, at least Amy's afternoon plans didn't have her splitting from the rest of New Wave, even if it did mean that she probably wouldn't go into the PRT building with Taylor. Oh well.

Taylor did her best to not grin at the gossip surrounding her flight platform. Nobody was quite sure where it came from, though combined with the jump harness apparently people were wondering if she was a 'vertical mobility' tinker or something.

"Hey Taylor," a girl in her programming class called. "Do you know when Maul made that platform thing?"

"I'm not assuming she made it at all," Taylor replied. "After all, we don't even know if she's a tinker, given that the reporters all but ignored her in favor of asking questions about Coil when she was introduced. So she might have made it, or it might be a gift."

"Oooh, that's a good point. But why would a tinker give her gifts?"

"Maybe she helped them with things? Again, we don't know what her full powers are, so maybe she can do something that helps tinkers? Or maybe she's just friends with tinkers? She might even be rich and is buying the stuff for all we know."

"A non-tinker buying tinkertech? Huh. I wonder if that would narrow down the possible people for who Maul might be? Thanks!" She then rushed off to spread the word. Well, only time would tell what direction the gossip would go.

Come lunchtime Taylor was looking over her messages as she sat down, Amy not far behind her. There weren't many, though the afternoon was confirmed, and Riley had sent a list to her and Amy.

Amy: Huh, so Riley finally decided what she thinks should be included in our trolling project.

Taylor: I noticed. I see she's gone exclusively for the 'self-humiliation' set.

Amy: So she has. My thoughts were more on the 'seemingly impossible' side of things, so at least we won't have overlap?

Taylor: Think I should pick from the 'travel a lot' set or the 'actually kinda dangerous' set?

Amy: Perhaps we should ensure that all four sets are represented? Though if someone got hurt I might feel bad. Hmmm.

Taylor: So skip the 'actually kinda dangerous' set?

Amy: Either that or relax the requirement from 'all' to, say, 'three quarters' or 'x from each of these lists'?

Taylor: Hmmm. That could work. I'll poke at it this afternoon if you send me your selections.

Amy: Can do.

"What are you two thinking about?" Dennis asked. "Given that you both keep smirking and all?"

"There's a subtle language to the smirk," Amy replied. "I'm afraid that we aren't permitted to teach it to outsiders."

"We'd have to kill you for even knowing about it," Taylor continued. "But, well, they rescinded that order when someone accidentally posted about it online. Since the secret's out we just need to worry about people figuring it out."

"But," Dennis said. "You aren't even looking at each other!"

"Of course not," Amy said, shaking her head. "That's the best part of the smirk language. It keeps it more subtle, you see."

Taylor: I wonder if I can get Lisa to play along later? Missy's not going to be around anyway due to family obligations.

Amy: Oh, that would be hilarious. Though I bet Vicky wonders what we're up to that has me smirking then.

"As much as I hate to steal his line," Carlos said. "But I'm calling bullshit there."

"Of course you would," Taylor said, rolling her eyes. "Why would we teach boys?"

"Will you teach me?" Vicky asked. "Please?"

"I dunno," Amy said, looking at Vicky. "I'm not sure we're allowed to until you're off probation."

"Awwww," Vicky whined. "That sucks. Damned probation."

Taylor joined Amy in looking at Vicky.

Taylor: Did she just play along?

Amy: Yeah. Huh.

Taylor: You give her the duck yet?

Amy: No, but perhaps I should.

After school Taylor headed to the PRT building, poking Inference Engine with what they'd pulled on the boys at lunch when she got in range to do so. It relayed back that Lisa was all for extending the joke. It didn't take long to get into costume, at which point she sat down in the kitchen with a snack and started going through a few forms. She'd send the filled out forms to Amy and Riley for a final review before submitting them, of course.

Lisa arrived to change before anyone else did, by about a minute. Dean had apparently brought Dennis and Carlos in, but not Chris for some reason. A quick check of the schedule showed that Chris had been injured earlier and wasn't going to be in because of it. With Brian off the schedule due to something to do with his sister that left the three boys for patrol, apparently.

"So apparently we're short-staffed today," Carlos said once everyone was in-costume. "Which means we're pretty much running a four-person patrol."

"Three," Taylor corrected. "I'm occupied with other scheduled tasks this afternoon."

Carlos looked at Taylor, then pulled his phone out to confirm that.

[Query]

Taylor: Yep, I've been asked to be there.

Amy: Wait, why would you be involved in the press conference? And what press conference?

Taylor: The one they announced on Monday but got overshadowed by the radiation poisoning arrests.

Amy: Ah. Ok, I can see how I missed it. What's it for?

[Data]

Amy: Oh. Well, at least part of that is a big duh on my part.

Taylor: Hey Inference Engine, I don't suppose you can get Lisa more directly in here? I never really thought of it before Amy ended up linked in and all.

[Contemplation]

Taylor glanced at Lisa, who had a look of concentration on her face. Well, it might work.

"Confirming your blocked out times is a pain," Carlos finally said. "The default filters don't seem to be quite right because of your access levels. But yeah, I can see how you've been blocked out by Armsmaster."

"Yep," Taylor said, grinning. "I'm being picked up in twenty minutes or so."

Lisa: Is this working?

Amy: Ah, good, Inference Engine figured it out.

Lisa: Well, kinda? I suspect your method is a little more direct. Still a neat trick.

Taylor: So, shall we begin to smirk?

Lisa: Of course.

"What's up with you two?" Dennis asked. "You keep smirk...oh come on, now you two are doing it?"

"Of course," Lisa said, rolling her eyes. "Why wouldn't we?"

"I can understand how it was done at school. How the hell can you two be chatting secretly?"

"You thought we were kidding about smirks?" Taylor asked. "We're talking about what I'll be busy with."

"She happens to holding back a few details," Lisa said. "Which is mildly annoying, but I'm sure I'll have a better idea about things by the end of the day."

"What, but, how?" Dennis said, looking back and forth between the two.

"You're an idiot," Dean said, shaking his head. "You know how Taylor and Amy were doing it. Is it really that hard to believe that Lisa is willing to play along as her power passes information back and forth?"

Dennis looked at Dean, then looked at the now-pouting Taylor and Lisa. He then proceeded to bash his head against the table.

Taylor: Stupid Dean, ruining our fun.

Amy: What did he do?

Lisa: He told Dennis what we were doing.

Amy: Damn. Oh well.

Taylor sighed and got up to dispose of her trash. She might as well get moving towards the garage, after all. If she took the long way she'd probably be right on time.

"So why am I here?" Taylor asked as the van drove away. She knew she'd been asked to be at the press conference for some reason, and that it was at Colin's request, but that was about it. She'd gotten plenty of details such as what the press conference was for, but nothing regarding why she was there. That and the press conference was at the terminal, and she'd been dropped off at what the signs indicated was a small pier nowhere near the terminal.

"A combination of factors," Colin answered. "You're an anti-hero Ward, Grue having been unavailable today when he was asked. Even if we won't be bringing it up, your power set makes you an ideal person for you to be approached by parahumans with a lower likelihood of violent misunderstandings, so specifically mentioning you is a lower risk. Finally, we're hoping that your tinker skills can bypass the training requirements on some of Wrench Wraith's vehicles so that we can have an additional example approach."

"I'd have thought she'd have just worked on a motorcycle or truck for an example instead of something completely out there?"

"We're having issues with anyone other than her running the jet ski she made during power testing, plus the hovercycle she built has some non-intuitive controls. We're hoping you can more easily adapt to them and can thus bring one in. She'd bring in the other, and the truck she customized can be driven in by a PRT officer. PR feels that having a variety of more aesthetically pleasing creations on display should help people accept her transition."

"Ah." That wasn't quite what Taylor was expecting, but whatever. "Do you think that the hovercycle is anything like what she did to my moped?"

"Possibly, but if at all possible we'd like you to operate the jet ski. It will be easier for her to make her entrance from land. To that end we brought you to it, and if you have issues Wrench Wraith will swing by with the hovercycle to swap."

Colin led Taylor down to the pier itself, and she got her first look at the jet ski. She wondered if having zero experience with one would be a help or a hindrance, even as she let her tinker snark give her an understanding of the thing. "Is that a sidecar?"

"Yes."

"My snark is telling me that it's essentially a standard motorcycle sidecar, modified for use on the water. With things like the wheel and axle still present for no apparent reason. Attached to a jet ski."

"We are aware of that, yes."

Taylor wasn't sure why that had been done, but her snark thought it was at least stable and unlikely to break off, so...

It turned out that the jet ski was a pain in the ass to operate, but even so it didn't take long to get the basics down well enough. Which was, apparently, more than any of the PRT officers had been able to do. So she was sitting there on the water with the cloak enabled, because of course it had a cloak, waiting for the signal to make her entrance.

She was, however, in agreement with her snark. The sidecar, as it currently stood, was a problem. And the best way to fix it was to take it off entirely. She was contemplating pulling her toolkit out and doing so right there on the water, in fact. But the power coupling for the sidecar wasn't waterproof if you opened up the access panel, so that would ideally be done when you had the entire thing out of the water.

Luckily for the continued existence of the sidecar, if that was lucky, the signal to make her entrance came before she and her snark had finished mapping out how to safely ditch the annoyance without decloaking and while on the water. Shaking her head to clear it, she hit the throttle and dropped the cloak. She'd insist that she be allowed to remove the sidecar first if they ever wanted her to use this thing again.

She pulled up in the water off to the side of the stage just after the PRT officer brought the...she wasn't sure what it was supposed to be. Her snark was calling it a scout tank, but it looked like it had started life as a pickup truck before it had been built up. Once everyone had an opportunity to see the jet ski Sherrel drove up on the hovercycle. She was wearing what looked like a burnt orange mechanic's uniform, but with the addition of an orange visor.

"Hey Wrench Wraith," Taylor yelled. Screw the script, she was an anti-hero. Which was, in fact, almost a direct quote of one of the anti-hero regulations. "Why the hell did you put a motorcycle sidecar on this thing?"

"So that it could have passengers?" Sherrel responded. "Or possibly room for cargo."

"And you didn't think that an outrigger or something would be better?"

Sherrel just sat there for a moment, apparently stunned. "Fuck, I can be an idiot sometimes. And removing that stupid sidecar is going to be a problem."

"Moving on," Colin said. "May I introduce Wrench Wraith, formerly known as Squealer. She's an example of a villain that didn't know there were other options, ones that existed despite her criminal background. When she eventually came to the PRT for assistance, both medical and powers-related, she was welcomed."

"I'm just glad I was smart enough to avoid killing people," Sherrel said, shaking her head. "That and I'm glad I got help before my kidneys failed."

"You can thank top-tier striker powers for surviving after your kidneys failed," Taylor said. Not that loudly, but apparently there was tinkertech bullshit since she hadn't been on the radio and it was still picked up. Oh, there it was, that ball on top of the stage rigging. Huh, omnidirectional directional microphones?

"I stand corrected. And am even more thankful that there was a healer available."

Taylor beached the stupid jet ski while Colin got the press conference back on track. Since they were going to drag it out of the water later anyway, and Sherrel admitted that the sidecar was stupid, she figured it wasn't a waste of time to remove the stupid thing. Because if she had to bring the jet ski back to the pier she'd started at the sidecar wasn't going with it.

She'd removed the appropriate shrouds, made it through disconnecting and tying off the power and control linkages, and was working on the high-torque mounting bolts when she was interrupted.

"Excuse us Maul," Colin said from the stage. "What exactly are you doing over there?"

"Removing the sidecar?" Taylor answered. Hmm, the left-side bolt on the bottom was going to be trickier to get leverage on without dismantling things further. Then again, she could connect a couple of bits to make an extension to get out another six inches or so.

"I thought I attached it pretty well," Sherrel replied. "How are you doing so safely with hand tools?"

"Being a bit of a brute helps, and I did get shocked a little while pulling the power linkage, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. The bolts are annoyingly tight, and the waterproofing is going to be a hack job if I put it back in the water here. Still, I'll be done in a couple of minutes and the abomination of a motorcycle sidecar on a jet ski will be no more. The linkages are all still there and waiting for a proper outrigger or something instead."

"So did you make your tinkertech vest thing or that platform you've recently started using?" a reporter called out.

"Nah," Taylor said, before she grunted a bit. Hah! The stupid bolt came loose. Now she could slip most of the shroud pieces back onto the jet ski side with a quick patch to waterproof the hole. "They were gifts in appreciation of other services rendered."

"I can confirm that on both counts," Colin added. "As I was one of the two that helped create the 'jump harness', as Maul calls it. Leet did not object to people knowing that he made the flight platform for her. And before anyone jumps to conclusions, we ran a number of tests and other checks to ensure it was safe before she even saw it."

Taylor was tempted to mention plaid mode, but decided it was inappropriate to do so. It wasn't like she ever planned on using it, after all.

The press conference had continued for another half hour, after which Taylor helped load the jet ski onto a trailer. The sidecar was dropped next to it and then the entire thing was dragged across to the Rig.

"Thank you for the distraction," Colin said once the trailer was away. "I believe it kept people from focusing too much on Wrench Wraith's past."

"I just didn't want to have to drag the sidecar back to the pier," Taylor admitted. "And since she thought it made no sense anymore either?"

"It was fairly ridiculous," Sherrel said, shaking her head. "So, what's with the platform I keep hearing about?"

"I could summon it and take it back to the PRT building instead of taking a van back. Then you could take a quick look?"

"That would be acceptable," Colin said, so Taylor poked the summon option. She was happy she'd worn the armband, even if it was mainly to get used to wearing it whenever she was in costume.

"So what's with the orange?"

"It was better than pink or purple," Sherrel answered. "And for some reason it appealed to me. Glenn didn't like my idea of neon orange, no matter how amusing it would be to sneak up on people while wearing it."

"With your visual cloaking it isn't like anyone would see you anyway," Colin noted.

"And it isn't like a woman wearing sexy underwear expects anyone on the street to see it either. Just because people can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't have an effect."

"I hadn't considered that aspect. Do women really do that?"

"I tend to prefer comfortable over sexy," Taylor said, shrugging. "But others have tried to push 'sexy' yet uncomfortable on me a few times." Colin nodded at that, humming slightly.

"So are you going to do anything?" Sherrel asked a minute later. "Because, well, you don't look like you've done a thing to summon your platform thing?"

"It's coming," Taylor said. "Should be here any time now, actually." In fact, it was coming down as she said that, so she directed it to drop down behind Sherrel. The thing was silent, so the woman didn't notice.

"How much longer?"

"It's already here," Colin said, some amusement slipping into his voice.

"What?" Sherrel looked to the left, then the right, then up. She then sighed and looked behind her. "Damn, that thing's quiet." She gave Taylor a look, likely spotting Taylor's pout that she'd not reacted more amusingly. "You had it sneak up on me because of my comments about sneaking up on people while wearing orange, didn't you?"

"It seemed appropriate," Taylor admitted, having the platform back off and open up.

Sherrel sighed, then turned around to examine the platform. "Huh. That's impressive." She circled it a couple of times, examined where Taylor had attached things, then climbed on top and poked at the controls while on her hands and knees. "I can't shake the feeling that I can't make one just like this. I can get close, but some bits just wouldn't work. The drive system would be easy, but the generator and control systems would be a problem. I'd probably have to go two, maybe three times larger? The inertial compensator, though, I'm going to have to look into making my own version of that."

A minute later Sherrel opened one of the three 'access' panels Taylor knew about to reveal some of the internals. She got an odd look on what was visible of her face after a little poking, then dropped off of the platform and went over to the hovercycle that was still waiting there. She pulled some tools out of pockets in her costume and extracted a small box from inside the hovercycle. She then brought it over and started hooking it up inside the small amount of unused space inside the platform. Taylor grinned as this was happening.

"That should do it," Sherrel muttered, closing up the panel and dropping off of the platform. "I don't think it's compatible with the inertial compensator field, so I tied it in so it should only work when that's off. But when the platform's packed up it should work fine."

"What did you just install?" Colin asked.

"A cloaking unit," Taylor said, closing up the platform. Once it was closed up she triggered the cloak, and the entire thing faded from view. "She's right about the inertial compensator though. It would, at best, short out the cloak while active. It's set to be enabled by opening the platform up as a safety feature. So when in storage mode I can now cloak it, but it needs to stay visible when being ridden."

"Very useful even then. You could have it follow you while on patrol in case of emergency, so you don't have to wait for it to arrive from the PRT building."

"With how quiet that thing is nobody would know it was there," Sherrel added.

"It's weird," Taylor said, walking around the platform. "My snark is basically telling me that everything's working perfectly, beyond the cloak module needing to be removed before I can enable plaid mode. But, well, I can still tell that it's there? But that might be because I already knew it was there, or maybe because my snark was looking at it before I turned the cloak on?"

"We may want to test that later," Colin said. "For now I suggest you head back to the PRT building. Your assistance isn't needed for dismantling the stage."

"Alright." Taylor had the platform drop the cloak and open up, before turning to Sherrel. "Thank you for the cloak module."

"It's the least I could do after you saved my life," Sherrel said. "Besides, I can make more cloak units easy. The ideas I've got now are probably more valuable."

"Thanks anyway, and have a nice evening," Taylor said as she hopped up on the platform. She waved once to the two before telling the platform to take her back to its landing pad.

Taylor was in the observation area of the non-parahuman firing range, poking at a homework assignment while waiting for Amy. Not that she knew why Amy had asked her to pop over after she'd landed back on the PRT building.

"Hey," Amy said as she came out into the observation area a little later. She then proceeded to slap Taylor off the back of the head. "What the hell were you thinking, electrocuting yourself like that?"

"It was perfectly safe," Taylor said, rubbing the back of her head even as Amy poked her to speed up her healing. "I even made sure it would only hit my hand a little. I barely noticed and would've been fine by morning either way."

"It was enough electricity to kill you!" Taylor sighed as she grabbed Amy's wrist with one hand. "Hey, what are you doing?" With the other she grabbed her taser, thumbed it up to a higher than normal voltage, and jammed it into Amy's side. Amy flinched, then stopped and looked down, slightly confused.

"That's slightly more electricity than I got hit with," Taylor explained, letting go of Amy and pulling the taser back. She then thumbed it back to the setting it had been on and dropped it back in the holster. "It goes over the skin due to the nanotube web being somewhat conductive, given that it's used as an antenna for the Bluetooth organ."

"I can't believe you just tased me and it only stung a little."

"I'm wondering why you're not wearing your belt. I shouldn't be able to hit you like that normally."

"Oh," Amy said, going over to where her bag was sitting on a chair. "I've been asked to not wear it during class because it was keeping some of the recoil from affecting me." She pulled the belt out and put it back on, her whole body flashing for a moment as it activated. "I'm just happy that it seems to have no problem with me touching other people while I'm wearing it."

"It can detect some intent from you. So if you intend to make skin contact then you make skin contact. Beyond that it's less reliable, erring on the side of protecting you?"

"That makes sense." Amy then picked her bag up and came back over to Taylor. "Now poke me and get rid of the lingering ache."

Taylor rolled her eyes, but poked Amy's finger and healed the mild annoyance the taser had left. "You can heal from holding the gun slightly wrong on your own."

"Yeah yeah, object lesson in being careful about finger position when adjusting grip for comfort. I get it."

"With that out of the way," Miss Militia said, coming out of the firing range itself. Come to think of it, why had Sherrel's introduction barely included any Protectorate capes? Did Colin not want them around to distract from his message? "I'm sorry, but we won't be able to have Panacea test things out on the Rig tomorrow. In part because the Coast Guard denied our request to clear the firing path."

"Dang," Amy muttered.

"So," Taylor said. "What was up with the lack of Protectorate presence at the press conference?"

"Glenn and Armsmaster thought that it would be better to take a different approach," Miss Militia answered. "That combined with Assault, Battery, and Dauntless being busy distracting Skidmark with a raid on a Merchant warehouse meant we weren't going to be fielding many capes at all, so didn't bother." She paused, and then sighed. "Generally when part of a gang defects we don't keep the defectors in the same city, but you seem to have an unusual effect on tinkers. Wrench Wraith insisted on sticking around, just as Countdown insisted on coming here instead of New York. Because she's still here, though, we're expecting potential trouble from Skidmark once word reaches him. But we don't think it'll be anything major, since he's usually somewhat intelligent and should know that anything big will backfire on him."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to stick around just to insult Skidmark. Probably for a combination of things, including a not-so-subtle 'look what I can do when I have proper materials' and such?"

"Now I almost want to be there when they run into each other next." Miss Militia then turned to the rest of New Wave. "You should get your cards in the mail in the next week. It's generally your responsibility to obtain your own weapons and to apply for concealed carry permits."

Taylor: So, why exactly did Mark take the classes if he already had a firearms permit, what with the shotgun and all?

Amy: He wanted the handgun experience, though he also helped out with the shotgun safety yesterday. That and this gets him a federal permit instead of a state one.

Taylor: Ah, and with most of the laws granting special exemptions for federal permits he'll have more freedom.

Amy: Yep.

Taylor actually watered her rose bush for the first time in a while, using Shaper to check its health. It was doing fine, of course. She'd been invited to the Pelham household for dinner, but had declined in favor of eating with her father.

Amy: Did you have to check on the bush while I'm eating?

Taylor: Consider it payback for not warning me before gifting Vicky, Carol, Sarah, and Crystal lighter periods. I was eating then too.

Amy: We really need to get in the habit of warning each other, don't we?

Taylor: Probably. Any interesting dinner discussion?

Amy: Despite having my upgrades and my personal shield the adults still don't think I should join anyone on patrols. They make a good point about it being safer all around if I'm treated exclusively as an off-limits healer, as annoying as it may be.

Taylor: Ah. Yeah, I can see how that would be annoying. Coupled with the PRT wanting me to avoid healing unless necessary so that both of us don't become targets and all. I'm not sure how that's going to work after the next Endbringer attack, though?

Amy: Maybe you can be my 'bodyguard' and discreetly help keep me going? Assuming your father signs off on it, anyway. If you, er, 'just happen' to take actions that keep people alive until I can get to them, well, that just means you had good training. Right?

Taylor: Heh. Not a bad idea. Either that or we run on the claim that there's a synergy between our powers, and it only works because we're right next to each other.

Taylor sighed as she sat down at her desk. She'd finished her homework, paperwork had been submitted and was awaiting approval. She had a reminder that she hadn't used her latest Slaughterhouse voucher, but she wasn't sure where to say they'd be attacking. Maybe she should pick somewhere ridiculous?

Taylor: Got any thoughts for a ridiculous place for the Nine to attack? The reminders to use my voucher are getting annoying.

Amy: Why not ask Riley or Jacob if they know yet, then pick anywhere else?

Taylor: Huh, not a bad idea.

She took a couple of minutes to compose and send a message off to that effect, then decided that she might as well take an early shower. At least her pajamas would be more comfortable to lounge around in.

Chapter 82 Thursday's morning news was pretty much entirely focused on the previous day's press conference. And Amy was pissed that Taylor didn't tell her anything about said conference being more than just Sherrel's introduction, as New Wave had missed it and not checked the news the night before, so for most of them finding out about it this morning was a shock. That and Taylor hadn't said much of what happened at it.

Truthfully claiming she'd not heard most of it due to being out of range and then focusing on removing a motorcycle sidecar from a jet ski hadn't helped. Apparently that didn't matter, because she still knew about the press conference, having been there, so she should have at least paid enough attention to communicate some of the basics.

On the other hand, apparently the Nine were looking at the West coast currently. She wasn't sure why, and hadn't asked. She had inquired about the delay in attacks, and found out that the current major delay was apparently because Cherish was working unusually well in helping keep Burnscar's depression at bay. Oh, and Fred was on a road trip collecting props? But Shatterbird was going to need a run soon, they just needed a good target.

Well, given that they were looking at the West coast, she was probably safe with picking anything on the East coast. Perhaps Boston? Not quite as big a problem as New York, Protectorate-wise, so technically believable. Yet it was less likely to be picked due to the Butcher being around on a fairly regular basis. So even if circumstances on the West coast changed they'd probably pick somewhere else. It was the work of a couple of minutes to get that submitted, then she had to get ready for school.

Gossip at school was focused more on Maul than on 'the tinker formerly known as Squealer', as the student body had decided to refer to Sherrel. Apparently working to figure out if 'took a sidecar off of a jet ski' made someone a tinker was more interesting than talking about Sherrel's decision to change sides.

On one hand, people were arguing, rightfully, that they could take apart any number of things without having any special skills whatsoever. On the other hand, Taylor had apparently been a bit too efficient at only removing the pieces needed to take the sidecar off, as far as people could tell. Since she knew exactly how to remove it there was speculation that she was a tinker.

The Wards and members of New Wave that attended Arcadia were all apparently amused at the fact that the current guess was that Taylor might be a 'disassembly' tinker, able to know exactly how to take things apart. Dennis and Vicky, in particular, were floating the idea that she could only take things apart, each having apparently had the idea independently and thus making it more 'valid' from a gossip point of view.

Of course there was also discussion on how Colin and Leet had worked on gifts for her, which had negated people wondering if the jump harness and flight platform had been bought. Speculation on why she was getting gifts was more of a side concern, in part because people figured if they could figure out the tinker stuff it might help.

"Hey Amy," Taylor said as she approached the older girl. "What's with the new belt, anyway?"

Amy: ... You suck.

"It was a gift," Amy replied. But from the tone of her voice she knew the damage was done.

"From who?" a nearby classmate asked.

Amy sighed. "From Leet. It gives me a forcefield like Vicky's."

Taylor found the sudden shift in people interesting. About a third of those in range to hear Amy had suddenly moved away. Two people came forward, one to apparently take a closer look. The other tried to punch Amy in the shoulder. He missed when Amy shifted out of the way.

"Mister Simmons," a nearby teacher said. "That will be detention. I don't care if she just said it would hurt you more than her if you'd connected."

"Crap," the boy mumbled.

By lunchtime they discovered that there was a new thread on PHO for discussing why Amy had gotten a gift from Leet, with a link over to the discussion on Taylor's gifts. Nobody was certain if they were connected, but they had been revealed fairly close to one another. Unlike some claims that the gifts for Taylor were bullshit the general consensus was that Amy having protection was wonderful. Well, so long as it wasn't going to blow up in her face. A number of people even said that it was about time.

"So how much can that thing take?" one of the janitors asked as she mopped up a spill. Another student had tried to knock Amy's legs out from under her and ended up falling over themselves. Vicky claimed that similar things had been tried against her after she triggered, so it was somewhat expected, if annoying.

"Not sure," Amy answered. "Enough that I should be able to get out of the line of fire, which is the important part."

"Hopefully enough to take a punch from your sister," a boy at the next table commented, only to get slapped by the girl next to him. Taylor thought they were a couple, but wasn't certain.

"I'm never going to live that down," Vicky grumbled.

"People will eventually forget about it," Amy replied, causing Vicky to give her an odd look. "After you do something more amusing to bring up, anyway."

Vicky was the only one at the table that didn't find that humorous.

"Why the hell are your muscles getting a better workout than mine?" Amy asked as she and Taylor worked out in the gym. "If anything I'd think mine should be working harder than yours, since I've pushed my resistance level up past where you're set!"

"I'm going to blame your belt," Taylor replied. "It's absorbing some of the pressure and resistance for you."

Amy blinked a couple of times, then got up and removed the tinkertech belt. Dropping back onto the machine she found it was now set too high for her and would cause more damage than anything else, so she had to dial things back. "That belt is more trouble than I expected."

"I thought Vicky had a lot of trouble with exercise too?"

"Good point. I guess I'm hitting a lot of the troubles she did, just in different ways. So, you know who you're patrolling with today?"

"Not really. There's apparently a Protectorate request suspending normal scheduling, but if there's a reason then I suspect that only Carlos can see it."

"Huh. Oh well. Not like I can join you anyway. Stupid reasonable arguments."

"Maybe someone will attack you at some point and you can demonstrate your displeasure? I don't think anyone would complain then."

"Outside of baiting them by going out in disguise I don't think anyone's stupid enough to attack me. Nice thought, though."

"Hello," Taylor said as she and Amy approached the Wards area, though Amy was aiming more for the door down to the garage. They were somewhat distracted by the fact that Colin, Sherrel, Vivian, and Miss Militia were all waiting in the hallway.

"Good afternoon," Colin said, apparently for the group. "I apologize for the short notice, but I'm hoping you'd be willing to join a Protectorate patrol today."

Taylor blinked, not having expected that. "May I ask why?"

"Wrench Wraith wishes to do a test run of her new truck, but is on mandated restriction due to her past. As such she needs a trusted tinker or the local Protectorate leader on her patrols. Countdown and I wish to continue working on a project, leaving you and Kid Win as trusted tinkers."

"Hold up," Vivian growled. "That's why we're here? You're telling me that two of the Wards count? Why didn't anyone tell me? I'd have grabbed one of them in a heartbeat."

"Technically only Kid Win counted until recently," Miss Militia said. "That, and you need permission from Armsmaster or Director Piggot to even attempt to bring a Ward on a Protectorate patrol."

"And the only reason Director Piggot granted my request was because we've gotten permission to step things down," Colin added. "The Wards will be permitted to run in pairs again now at Aegis's discretion."

"I don't have a problem with the whole thing," Taylor said, shrugging. "Though if you want me on a motorcycle I'm not getting anywhere near sitting on it until I've given it a once-over."

"I figured you could take the hovercycle," Sherrel said. "Less likely to be tripped up by a stolen manhole cover, and doesn't put you on flying overwatch. That and it gets it some field-testing at the same time."

"I guess that works."

"Thank you for agreeing," Colin said. "It allows Countdown and I to head back to the Rig."

"You're welcome."

"You should get changed," Miss Militia said. "I'll be patrol leader. You can meet us in the garage."

"I'm going to have to keep an eye on PHO," Amy said, shaking her head. "Have a nice patrol." She waved as she went through the door to the garage.

"Why'd she go into a storage closet?" Vivian asked.

"Why would we label the secret garage stairway correctly?" Colin countered. "Come along, I think we've nearly got things working. If we're lucky we can do a live test this weekend."

Taylor headed into the Wards area to get changed. Today was probably a good 'alternate loadout' day, what with the stop sign and manhole cover theme.

"Huh," Taylor mumbled as she looked around the garage. Miss Militia's motorcycle was waiting, though it was going to need a couple of replacement spark plugs soon if nobody cleaned them up. Miss Militia and Sherrel were nowhere in sight, but they were also a few feet to the side of the motorcycle. And a little further over was the hovercycle, which had a new cloak installed and a helmet sitting on it.

Well, she knew that the two Protectorate capes were there, so they were probably in a cloaked vehicle. Which meant that there was a vehicle there. And making that leap of logic let her tell that it was the scout tank from the day before, with the cloaking unit active. And the left front tire was around 20 kilopascal low due to a slightly damaged and thus leaky stem.

"I assume this is a test of whether or not I can detect cloaked stuff just because it's there," Taylor said aloud. "And the answer appears to be 'yes, if I can identify where it is from other things', in this case the fact that you two are in it."

The 'scout tank' decloaked, and Miss Militia got out of the passenger seat. At the same time a pickup truck decloaked on the other side of the hovercycle, catching Taylor by surprise.

"Based on your reaction I assume you didn't know the pickup truck was there," Miss Militia said. "Which would make your summation of when you can and can't detect cloaked vehicles accurate."

"Er, yeah," Taylor said, shaking her head. "By the way, there's a leaky stem on the left front tire."

"What?" Sherrel said, leaning out the open window to take a look. "Fucking hell, I just fixed the rear tires. What'd I hit this time?" She hopped out and grabbed a toolbox from behind the front seat to see about fixing the tire.

"Right," Miss Militia said. "If you would be so kind as to attempt to use the hovercycle? I'd demonstrate how, but I haven't gotten the hang of it myself yet."

"Looks easy enough," Taylor said, walking over to it. Little to no security on it, but it had fifteen trackers installed, four of them in the cloaking unit itself. The controls looked a little nonstandard, with small thumb joysticks on both handles. It would probably be similar to playing a game, though with fewer buttons available at all times. The most confusing bit was that the cloak was activated with the left knee for some reason.

It only took her a minute to get the basics down. Throttle was mostly standard for a motorcycle, but the 'altitude' adjustment wasn't. You could toggle 'lean to turn' versus 'lean to strafe' by pushing one of the joysticks, with the joystick taking the other function. The other joystick was for adjusting some of the running angle parameters. She spent the fifteen minutes Sherrel was working on the tire ensuring she had the hang of things.

"Done!" Sherrel said, dropping the last tool into the toolbox. "We should be good to go."

"We'll be following behind her," Miss Militia said as she got onto her own motorcycle. "In part because she's in the only armored vehicle."

"Got it," Taylor said.

"We've got a problem," Sherrel said over the radio, slowing down in the process. They were three quarters of the way through their patrol, and Taylor had taken to putting the hovercycle through its paces. Such as running it upside-down for a bit, which was a workout keeping herself on it, since it didn't have anything working to keep her on regardless of orientation. Not hitting the cloak button had been another challenge at that point.

"What's wrong?" Miss Militia asked.

"There's a roadblock in our way."

"I'm starting to think I need to stop joining Protectorate patrols," Taylor muttered. She did so on the radio, though. She felt it deserved to be heard. "Or maybe it's doing so on motorcycle-like vehicles that's the problem?"

"I hardly think that a roadblock is a good enough reason to give up on patrolling with the Protectorate," Miss Militia said. "We run into them fairly often, usually remnants of robbery attempts."

"Oh, sorry. Skidmark and Mush are just inside my range. So I'm now two for two on the Merchants attempting to ambush the Protectorate patrols I join while on a motorcycle-like vehicle."

"Bah," Sherrel said. "He's obviously just pissed I left him, you have nothing to do with it. May I please call him out?"

Taylor and Miss Militia shared as much of a look as people wearing helmets could. Taylor shrugged, and Miss Militia sighed before taking a glance around them. "Go ahead, might as well get this out of the way, given that I can see several Merchants that spotted us on the rooftops." She then proceeded to report what was going on to the console.

Sherrel pulled further forward as she flipped a loudspeaker on, a momentary whine sounding before a compensator cut the feedback loop. "Hey shitstain and crudmagnet, we know you're there! Come on out!"

A moment later Skidmark and Mush came out from either side of the blockade, though they didn't move much further out for some reason. Skidmark started yelling at Sherrel that she was nothing without him, shouldn't have left, had betrayed him. Taylor was trying to tune most of it out.

Taylor: Hello again.

[Annoyance]

Taylor: I'm sorry, but why would I want to be trapped in an ambush?

[Agreement. Annoyance. Dismissal]

Amy: What did you do to it last time?

Taylor: Overloaded it so that Skidmark's fields would fail and we could escape.

Amy: Oh. Why are you talking to it now?

Taylor: Er, Skidmark set up another ambush?

Amy: ...

"...the stupid combination to my safe was never what you told me it was!" Skidmark was saying, missing that Sherrel had leaned out the window to throw something at him. "Every time you told me it was..." Skidmark stopped as Sherrel's thrown object hit him in the chest, and he looked down to see what it was.

"Er," Taylor said, blinking. Her tinker snark thought it was missing something as even it wasn't quite sure it had identified the thing correctly. "Was that a buttplug?"

"Do you know a better way to shut up an asshole?" Sherrel asked. "Besides, the code to his fucking safe was always the day we started dating. I thought that might help him remember our anniversary each year, but did he ever remember it? No. Not once."

"Ok," Skidmark said. "I have to admit, the buttplug is actually a good one. But we started dating sometime in August, and the fucking code to the fucking safe started with 08, not 07!"

"The last time I checked August is the eighth month," Taylor offered.

"She's a tinker. Don't fuckwit tinkers start counting things like months at zero?"

Everyone else present stared at Skidmark for a moment, and then facepalmed. Mush included.

"You can keep the buttplug," Sherrel finally said. "Now that I'm not hooked on the drugs I'm starting to wonder what I ever saw in you. Beyond that, it should help comfort you at night, right?"

"You're on your own," Mush grumbled after hearing that, turning around to leave. Taylor suspected he was doing his best to not laugh.

Taylor sighed, but looked around as Skidmark ranted at Mush. Going through that blockade looked like an issue, as it was fairly solid with a number of cars and trucks. She could pop over it on the hovercycle, the two Protectorate members couldn't. There were a couple of alleys behind them that might be usable, maybe, if they didn't have obstructions that would stop the 'scout tank'. Otherwise they probably needed to go back to the last cross-street to get around. Though, were those approaching vehicles she was hearing?

"I think we have company coming," Taylor subvocalized, so as to not alert the Merchants. Not that the helmet let them see too much of her face. "At least a couple of larger vehicles?"

"Shit," Sherrel replied. "I forgot about the turret tanks. He kept them in a garage 'just in case'."

"Turret tanks?" Miss Militia asked. "Do you mean the two tanks with some kind of gatling guns on them that the Merchants used last summer?"

"Yeah, those."

"Maul, based on your earlier stunts you should be able to get past the blockade. Please do so and either get to cover or head back to the PRT."

Taylor decided that wasn't a bad idea and hit the throttle even as she adjusted for higher altitude and hit the cloak for good measure. She'd barely started moving when a shot was fired and took out the front of the hovercycle, destroying the cloak before it had even finished engaging at the same time as the control linkage was severed. The sudden unexpected shift in acceleration as the drive went to max in an instant caused Taylor to fall off. Luckily she'd been aiming to pop over the 'scout tank', so her rolling landing brought her right up to it, giving her cover from that direction.

"Naughty naughty," Skidmark said as a second shot hit Miss Militia's motorcycle, taking out her rear tire. He'd stopped yelling at Mush when the first shot had been fired. "None of you maggot sniffers are leaving early this time. There's no way out for a good half mile back down the road." He then looked at the building to the side of the road where the remains of the hovercycle had punched a hole, apparently exploding inside if the fire was anything to go by. "Kinda wish we'd had a better way to stop that fucking thing now."

"I've already cloaked and summoned my platform," Taylor said as Miss Militia dropped next to her, power forming into a rocket launcher. "But it'll take a couple of minutes to get here, and I don't know what other surprises they've got ready that might keep me from using it. Oh, and Skidmark's leaving?"

"He won't want to be in the firing line for the tanks when they get here," Miss Militia said. A moment later she fired the rocket launcher as the first of the two approaching tanks came into view. The rocket hit the ground in front of the tank, making it harder for it to move forward without doing much direct damage. The other thing it did was make a temporary smoke screen. "Make a break for one of the alleys, we can't stay out in the open like this."

Taylor darted to her right as Miss Militia went to her left. Another shot was fired near Taylor, but it missed. A moment later she was in the alley, which she could see had been blocked off. Flipping her jump harness on made that a moot point as she zig-zagged up the walls to roof level, pulling out and jamming her taser into the Merchant that was already on the roof she ended up on. It was one of the two highest, but she still had to dart behind an old HVAC unit when the Merchant on the other rooftop of that approximate height started taking shots at her.

At least she'd kicked the gun off of the roof when she tased the Merchant, so when he got up he'd be less dangerous. That thought was made a moot point when the turret on the tank opened fire at the building she was on. Swearing, she ran and jumped for the next building, but the only one she thought she could get to without being in the air too long was heading more towards the turret shooting at her. Hopefully the person operating the turret couldn't see her. She was dropping to the next roof as she heard the second turret open fire, and based on Sherrel apparently running for where Miss Militia was it seemed likely that the 'scout tank' had been the target.

"I think the rooftop merchants are acting as spotters," Miss Militia said over the radio. Which would have been nice to know a moment ago, as the turret trying to take Taylor out spun to the roof she'd just landed on. To her disgust, apparently ignoring the merchant that was already on it. Taylor continued across the rooftop as she dug into her utility belt. She didn't know how tough these things were and didn't want to be in the open too much, but that wasn't her only option.

She turned and adjusted her jump harness settings as she came up next to where the turret was shooting at her from, hoping it would have problems pointing straight up. That proved to be at least partially a mistake as a couple of rounds punched through her jeans and injured her legs. She maintained enough composure as she sailed over the street to throw both containment foam grenades she'd pulled out, luckily the two 'tanks' had parked next to each other to provide a blockade. Landing was a problem when she got to the other side, since she'd lost momentum and ended up hitting a window instead of the roof. She also thought something had hit the manhole cover on her back.

Amy: What the fuck is happening?

Taylor: I got shot while throwing containment foam grenades at tanks.

Amy: I'm leaving for the PRT building. Please do your best to make it back there?

"I think I just foamed both tanks," Taylor said over the radio as she rolled over onto her back. Luckily it seemed that the Merchants were only on the rooftops, and the window probably hadn't had glass in it for at least a couple of years. "Oh, and I took several hits to my legs and am inside one of the buildings now."

Taylor groaned as she dug around in her utility belt for some bandages. She was lucky that her leg injuries were mostly muscle damage, though at least part of that was extra protection around arteries and such.

"Good job on the tanks Maul," Sherrel said. "You got both turrets, one's entirely covered and the other's clipped just enough to keep it from spinning."

"How bad are your legs?" Miss Militia asked.

"Somewhat useless," Taylor replied, pulling herself up to start wrapping bandages around her legs. "But I'll live, and my platform will be here any moment now."

"Don't decloak it until we give the all clear."

Taylor ended up sitting out the rest of the fight, including Dauntless showing up to help take out the Merchants left on the rooftops. That turned out to only be four by the time he showed up, and three of those had been injured by friendly fire. Miss Militia and Sherrel both had gunshot wounds of their own, but had lucked out and been able to hide behind a dumpster when the turret that hadn't been focusing on Taylor tried to strafe the alley through the buildings.

"I can't carry all three of you," Dauntless said once the area was secure. Skidmark and Mush hadn't returned. "You'll need to wait for a van."

"I'll drop my platform outside of the window," Taylor replied. "Help me onto it and I can move myself around."

She thought Miss Militia had told him to do so, but it hadn't been over the radio so she wasn't sure. But Dauntless came into the window shortly after the platform had decloaked and opened up.

"Ouch," Dauntless said, carefully lifting Taylor. "Both legs?"

"I stupidly jumped over the tanks when one of them was already trying to shoot me," Taylor said. "I'd claim it was an inspired move if I'd escaped injury, but I spent most of the time in here thinking of things I could have tried instead."

Dauntless carefully placed her on the platform, then backed off a little. Taylor poked the controls and made her way down to where Miss Militia and Sherrel were.

"Don't bother with us," Miss Militia said as Taylor approached. "We'll wait until we get back to the PRT building for healing."

"Want a ride?" Taylor asked. "I figure even if we're laying down there'll be just enough room."

"No. You should go back now, before any potential reinforcements show up. Wrench Wraith being with you would make you a larger target, assuming that she was the primary target in the first place. You're actually safer as a lone Ward returning to the PRT building in this case. Dauntless, please provide an escort for her, that she needs one should hopefully signal to any others that she's retreating and thus not an acceptable target."

Amy had met Taylor on the PRT roof and gotten to healing her right there on the flying platform while Dauntless returned to help Miss Militia and Sherrel. Taylor was somewhat happy that she'd removed the helmet on the way over, because she didn't think Amy would have let her take it off once she'd arrived.

"Why in the world did you think that was a good idea?" Amy asked as she put one of Taylor's legs back together. Some of the strength and durability bits would take longer to rebuild, but this was almost certainly going to 'bench' her for a while either way.

"I figured I had a good chance of them not spotting me before I was out of their firing arc," Taylor replied. "I was wrong, and probably should have just tried to blind-throw a grenade or two first. But that only occured to me after I'd been an idiot. I got lucky that both turrets were down at that point, because by then I was a sitting duck."

"You were all idiots," the PRT officer that had escorted Amy up to the roof said. She was leaning on a cart onto which Taylor's jacket and heavier weapons would be placed instead of Taylor wearing them down to the Wards area. "Wasn't it you who pointed out that after the previous incident the Merchants were more likely to shoot first?"

"Oh. Yeah. Forgot about that in my grumbling about running into them. I think I was lulled into a false sense of security because Wrench Wraith claimed that some of it was a mistake brought on by a bad trip."

"I think the Merchants have more 'bad trips' than good ones," Amy retorted. She then plucked a deformed bullet out of Taylor's other leg. "Sheesh. I don't want to think about what that would've done to a normal human."

"Probably go right through and be less trouble to heal," the PRT officer said, taking the bullet from Amy. "Granted, this one was probably made more dangerous by hitting the armored costume on the way in, deforming it a bit before it hit the limb."

"Ok," Amy said, stepping back. "You should be good for now, but you'll be very hungry. Take the jacket off before you get up, though."

Taylor rolled her eyes, but swung her legs off of the platform. She sat up and shrugged off the jacket, pushing it onto the waiting cart, before standing up. Her legs were a little stiff feeling, but she knew that was partially the enhancements she was used to not being repaired yet.

"Sheesh," the PRT officer said, looking at several holes in the jacket. "I thought they only clipped your legs?"

"Er," Taylor said, turning and looking at the jacket. She then looked down at the jump harness, which had some dents. Crap, at least two of the modules were only being held in place because the modules around them weren't damaged. "Apparently my jump harness is tougher than I thought it was?"

The only reason they made it inside during the following half hour of tag-team ranting at her was because the wind picked up and made it hard to hear on the roof.

Taylor groaned as she looked over the jeans she had been wearing. Her tinker snark said she could repair them and the jacket, plus the marring of the manhole cover and the damaged bits of the jump harness. The jeans were going to be the hardest, having been partially shredded.

"Where do you want the stop sign?" Amy asked. She'd come down to help Taylor put things away, to keep the load off of Taylor. She was sticking around until Miss Militia and Sherrel made it back.

"Left side on the third bracket set?" Taylor asked. Amy nodded and leaned into the open suitcase, coming back out without the stop sign a moment later. "Think I should let the PRT replace these or fix them myself?"

"Why not both?" Amy asked. She'd calmed down after the ranting, luckily. Or maybe she was just waiting for later. "Worst case scenario is you screw up the repairs and have the same wardrobe size, best case is you have an extra pair available."

"I suppose that makes sense." She then blinked as her phone notified her of a new message. "Crap. Meeting with Director Piggot before I leave."

Amy at least had the decency to wince in sympathy. Slightly.

Taylor sighed as she made her way home. Director Piggot had been very calm on the surface. A wonderful example of tranquil fury. Luckily, most of that was directed elsewhere. The only thing she was angry with Taylor about was the decision to jump over the tanks to foam them with the grenades, instead of trying from a distance.

The revelation as they reviewed what footage her cameras had covered that at least one of the damaged bits of jump harness happened when the sniper took out the hovercycle hadn't made Taylor feel much better about the whole encounter. Her aim with the grenades was applauded, despite her knowing that she'd hit the wrong tank with the first one. She'd gotten lucky, in other words.

She was off-duty for at least a week, pending 'outside review' of the situation. That had come with an almost-forgotten note that she was still allowed to come in and tinker, if she wanted. Mental needs and all. Which would let her repair her stuff at least, right?

Pulling into the garage at home was easy enough, and her father was home. She made her way into the house, hearing the water running in the kitchen.

Amy: You're home now?

Taylor: Yeah. You planning on ranting at me some more now?

Amy: Nope. But Broadcast Administrator and Shaper can let up on you now.

Taylor: What do you...

Taylor froze as the emotional turmoil she only then realized she should have been feeling all evening slammed into her.

Chapter 83 Early Friday morning Taylor woke up, not having remembered going to sleep the night before. Really, she was a bit fuzzy on everything after she'd gotten home. It took her a minute to realize that her bed felt strange because she was on the couch. A quick survey of the room showed that her father was in the chair nearby. She also noted that she was still wearing the clothing she'd come home in.

BA: Query

Taylor: I'm...mostly ok? Were you and Shaper keeping me from freaking out yesterday?

S: Agreement

BA: Elaboration

Taylor: Ah. Yeah, I can see how panicking during things would've been bad, and Amy thought it would be best if I made it home safely?

BA: Agreement

Taylor: Huh. Well, thanks. Though would it have hurt to ease me into it?

Amy: Five more minutes?

Oh, Amy was still, er, mostly asleep. Probably best to hold off on too much chatting with the snarks. Luckily the snarks seemed to realize this too. Well, since she was awake anyway, she was feeling kinda gross. A shower and a change of clothes was probably in order. Also, sleeping while wearing the utility belt, taser, and gun had left her with a few annoying aches.

Taylor looked over the news as she ate breakfast. She was still quite hungry, despite what looked like the result of eating a couple of entire pizzas for dinner sitting in the trash. As such she was on her second bowl of cereal already.

The biggest bit of news was an all-out offensive on the Merchants after their actions the night before. A state of emergency had been declared and Protectorate members from other regions had been called in. All of the 'Merchant' territory in the city was being swarmed with capes and police officers, with Dragon having brought in a couple hundred drones of varying kinds to assist. Well, a couple hundred so far, anyway. The Triumvirate were also apparently 'on standby' in case they needed to step in.

Notable things that had occurred overnight included Mush having turned himself in. He apparently claimed that he wasn't stupid enough to remain allied with Skidmark after a fuck-up that big. Initial reports indicated that he'd likely be sent off to prison, but not the Birdcage. They also included a raid on the current 'headquarters' of the Merchants, as supplied by several of the captured individuals, to find that it had been abandoned.

Amy: Morning.

Taylor: Oh, morning.

Amy: You feeling better? I kinda feel guilty for, uh, encouraging things to be suppressed?

Taylor: I think I'm doing better. I didn't even notice you encouraging them to suppress things.

Amy: Well, they're tied into our brains. Broadcast Administrator gave me a kinda thumbs-up without saying anything, of sorts, when I focused on the idea?

Taylor: I guess that makes sense. You see the news?

Amy: Saw some of it last night, heard some of it more directly. They aren't saying much about the adults of New Wave having gone out last night, but I suspect that they were lost in the shuffle.

Taylor: Says here they think Skidmark skipped town already, probably in one of the cloak-capable vehicles they still had.

Amy: Can't they track those?

Taylor blinked. Well, the idiot ball had been passed around quite a bit last night, maybe that had been forgotten? She fired a message off to Colin about it, just in case.

Taylor: No clue if anyone thought of it, but I sent a message off. Better safe than sorry.

Amy: Hmmm. As your current primary doctor, I'm telling you to skip the gym today. Your legs need more time to recover.

Taylor: Then what am I supposed to do, being up this early?

Amy: Relax? Take it easy? Panic some more over having nearly died?

Taylor: I already had that panic/anxiety/whatever attack last night. Broadcast Administrator doesn't like me to have multiple panic attacks for the same thing if at all possible. Thinks it isn't healthy.

BA: Agreement. Data

Amy: That...huh. Fairly well-reasoned argument, I guess?

Taylor: I suspect that it doesn't want to work with people who have panicked themselves into insanity. The unease about snarks having that much influence on us is perfectly normal...at least once I pointed out that it was abnormal to not feel it.

Amy: Can I go back to being a bit less knowledgeable about snarks? Because the more I learn the more disturbing they are in general.

Taylor: Welcome to my world.

Danny had 'won' the argument about Taylor not going to school by virtue of the state of emergency keeping the schools closed anyway. He'd then been unable to make a good argument for him staying home when the mayor called him directly, asking for the dockworkers to help shift temporary roadblocks and such as areas were cleared.

Taylor had left the news on as things happened. Most things were being kept out of the news for 'operational security', but general 'these areas are cleared' statements were being provided every so often. They were hopeful that they'd make it through the entire area by midday Saturday.

Shortly before lunch Taylor got up and walked to the garage. She leaned against the doorframe and opened the garage door as Amy approached, thus allowing Amy to park her moped next to Taylor's. Though the box on the back was interesting.

"Good morning," Taylor said as she closed the garage door. "I'm honestly surprised you aren't at the hospital."

"I was told they'd only call me for the most serious things," Amy replied. "So I figured I'd bring you lunch. It beats being home alone while the rest of New Wave helps with the assault on the Merchants."

"Ahh." Taylor grabbed the box while Amy unstrapped it, then carried it into the house. "Smells like pasta?"

"I got six cutlet dinners on ziti, three with sauce on the side. I'd have gone for more variety, but I combined a coupon and a special deal. They all came with salads, I got the dressing on the side, in part because I don't always like their house dressing."

"And they didn't question why you were picking up six meals?"

"Why would they? I figure they just assumed I was picking up lunch for New Wave or something."

"Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. Just hope they don't get curious if New Wave shows up to eat there today?"

"They were planning on eating across town when I checked with them."

The two of them had eaten three of the 'dinners' between them and thrown the leftovers in the fridge. Amy hadn't actually checked if Danny was going to be there for lunch, and had overestimated Taylor's likely lunchtime hunger levels. One of them might get eaten for a mid-afternoon snack later anyway.

After they'd cleaned up they ended up sitting on the couch watching the news.

"I lied," Amy said, causing Taylor to look at her. "They wanted me at the hospital, to heal some of the Merchants. I told them no, and then had to argue my decision to the PRT and the rest of New Wave."

"What was your reason?"

"I couldn't trust myself or my snark to heal them after the Merchants tried to kill you. The ones you trapped in the tanks in particular, several of which apparently had severe burns when things locked up and they tried to force them to work anyway."

Taylor blinked. "Really?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "Yes, they were apparently that stupid."

"Of course they were, that's not what I meant. You really don't think you could heal them because they tried to kill me?"

It was Amy's turn to blink. "Er, yeah. I keep thinking of ways I could make them suffer in subtle ways, even. Like messing with some of their bone marrow to produce the wrong kind of red blood cells, or crippling their immune system by ensuring that new white blood cells would be defective. Slight tweaks to make their liver incapable of processing alcohol properly, since a lot of them drink. Preventing it from doing so at first, then I came up with a way to convert ethanol to methanol in the liver."

"Er, yeah. That sounds...unpleasant. What did they think of that?"

"I, uh, didn't tell them that part. The PRT rescinded the request for my aid once they heard that I didn't trust myself to heal them properly. I got yelled at a little by Vicky and Eric at first, but the others backed me up. Carol even gave me the money to pick up lunch, told me to visit you, then they dragged Vicky and Eric out of the house."

Taylor contemplated that for a couple of minutes. "So, despite thinking that it would be unpleasant for them, I'm not exactly feeling appalled at any of that myself. Yet I think I should be. Do you think our snarks are angry at the Merchants and it's bleeding over?"

"Wouldn't surprise me, honestly. I think that was part of the reason the PRT decided they didn't want my help after all."

"It might also be that an angry bio-manipulator, in general, is not something to be messed with. Or maybe they just respected your wishes and didn't want anyone else trying to force you. Probably depends on who was calling the shots there."

"I'm fairly certain I could see all of those happening, so you might be right. Could be all of the above, I don't really care at this point. It isn't like it's any different from when I refused to heal some Empire members that had gotten a lucky shot in and perforated Vicky's lung, except that nobody in New Wave cared that I said no then."

Taylor groaned slightly as she was shaken awake. "I'm awake. I think."

"Good," Danny said. "Is Amy staying for dinner?"

Taylor blinked, then looked to her side. Apparently she and Amy had fallen asleep on the couch, and Amy had decided that Taylor's arm was a teddy bear or something. "Not sure."

"Well if she isn't she might need to get going." He then left them sitting there, heading for the kitchen. Taylor took that as a 'you should wake Amy up to ask her'.

A little prodding had Amy waking up with a yawn. "When did I fall asleep?"

"Dunno," Taylor replied, stretching the arm Amy had been latched onto. "I just got woken up myself. You staying for dinner?"

"I should probably check with the others. Oh, huh, I apparently missed a few messages."

Taylor paid enough attention to see the bursts of activity in Amy's Bluetooth organ, her tinker snark interpreting things for her enough to identify transmission versus reception, a bit of how the encryption worked, and some of the brain input and output. Not enough to know what data was moving back and forth, but she could get a general gist of direction and amount of data.

"So," Amy finally said. "Looks like New Wave took up the PRT's offer to feed them, so I'm on my own. So if nobody minds I'd like to stay for dinner?"

"Ok," Taylor said, getting up. "You go do your thing while I let my father know."

Amy snorted, but headed for the bathroom anyway.

Taylor lay in her room wondering how she was going to get to sleep. Amy had gone straight home after dinner so as to not be out and about after dark with everything going on, but even a few hours later their unplanned nap had rendered both of them a bit too awake. They'd worked on homework 'together' despite both being at home, but neither had much they could work on. Browsing PHO had netted them nothing of interest.

Amy: I'm bored and have no idea what to do about it.

Taylor: Same here.

Amy: We've been repeating variations of this every five minutes for at least an hour.

Taylor: Does that change anything?

Amy: I dunno. I wonder if that book of 'Rules' Vicky gave me for Christmas has anything that covers this?

Taylor: What book?

Amy seemed to ignore Taylor as she got up, presumably to get said book. A couple minutes later she'd apparently found it and dropped back onto her bed, flipping through it.

Amy: Oh. Hah! That's hilarious.

Taylor: What is?

Amy: The social rule b.99.1 claims that friends who can't decide what to do for an hour have to default to sexual experimentation.

Taylor: What the hell? Where in the world did she find that thing?

Amy: No clue, but now I'm curious about what else is in here.

Taylor groaned as she got up Saturday morning. She and Amy had spent too much time the night before laughing at the odd 'rules' in that book. So they'd gone from not being tired to not getting enough sleep. Taylor would have slept in, but a couple of Merchants had apparently gotten lucky and injured Mark and Crystal, so Amy had been roused to heal them. The actual healing had been what had woken Taylor.

Going through messages as she ate a slightly late breakfast, Taylor found a request to visit the PRT building for a therapy session, to hopefully lay the groundwork for recovering from Thursday's events. It also noted that it was not Jessica in case she was uncomfortable with a new therapist in this situation, as well as a reminder that she was not, in general, to be in costume right now. Her father had apparently been notified as well, as he'd sent her a message recommending she go, and explaining that he'd gone back out to help with moving roadblocks around.

A quick check of the news showed that there were temporary holding facilities set up for containing the arrested Merchants. The few short clips the news had from these facilities showed that maybe one in three of the individuals did not have signs of injury, and the most seriously injured were already known to have been brought to the hospital.

She wasn't entirely sure about the speculation as to exactly why this was all happening, though. The news knew that the Merchants had sprung a trap and tried to kill multiple Protectorate members, but that kind of thing was fairly common and had never resulted in a crackdown like this. Though that morning the PRT had finally admitted that Miss Militia and Sherrel had been the injured Protectorate members, when asked about why they were absent from most of the operation.

Taylor was about to turn off the television and head upstairs to get dressed when a 'breaking news' interrupt kicked in.

With the PRT's confirmation that Miss Militia and Wrench Wraith were the ones ambushed Thursday night we now have a much clearer picture of what went down. A number of pictures and videos of their patrol made it onto the Parahumans Online website in the hour leading up to the apparent ambush, and all of them show that Maul, local 'anti-hero' Ward, was with them.

Several clips showing Taylor riding the hovercycle next to Miss Militia's motorcycle were shown as that was said, including multiple points where Taylor obviously took orders and/or directions from the older cape.

Our experts believe that the only reason the Triumvirate did not deploy immediately to Brockton Bay was a combination of three factors. The first being that the attack was against a Protectorate patrol and thus was unlikely to be intended to target a Ward, the second that the attack itself showed no direct involvement by gang-affiliated parahumans, and the third that Maul herself must have survived.

The screen switched to several pictures of Dauntless flying above and just behind her flying platform, taken from different angles, nothing able to be seen on the platform in any of them.

As to young Maul's status, we were able to find three different pictures of her new flying platform being escorted by Dauntless, apparently empty, to the PRT building. We cannot tell whether the angles were wrong to see the Ward or if perhaps she was prone on the platform.

Taylor sighed and turned the television off. 'Off-duty' or not they were going to want her to make an appearance now, if only to prevent people from thinking that she may be dead.

The PRT building was quite busy when Taylor arrived. A number of unfamiliar snarks were in the general area. Probably some of the Protectorate members that had apparently been brought in to assist. She suspected that Doctor Beatty, whom had been at the 'defense' in Las Vegas, was the therapist she would be seeing. He was sitting in the correct office, anyway. Though...

Taylor: Are you on your way to the PRT building?

Amy: Yeah. They asked me to come look at a couple of police officers that got shot overnight and were brought there instead of to Brockton General, then I plan on playing in the junkyard again.

Taylor: Again?

Amy: Er, I might have spent some time there Thursday night after you got home, venting my anger and frustration instead of hunting down Merchants?

Taylor: Oh. Ok.

She had to admit, that was probably a better idea than the 'healer' hunting down gang members.

"Good morning Miss Hebert," Doctor Beatty said as Taylor entered the therapist's office. "Thank you for agreeing to see me today."

"Good morning," Taylor replied. "You can call me Taylor."

"And you can call me Vasco. I know that you are aware that I'm a parahuman, as far as I know I have a thinker-type ability that helps with identification of signs of mental instability, including things such as PTSD. Though, er, despite your experience on Thursday you don't have some of the usually-obvious signs? Either that or my power is drawing a blank on you."

"Ah. Yeah, my snark...well, it prefers me healthy? Mentally and physically, because I'm more creative when I can think clearly? It got ideas on how to keep me mentally healthy from my studies of psychology and therapy."

"How in the world does it pull that off to the degree where you seem fine after a day or two, instead of weeks?"

"Er..."

BA: Data. Elaboration. Data

"Oh," Taylor said, tilting her head. "I guess that makes sense? Intentional suppression of my emotional response when necessary, though that also blunts my thinking in ways it dislikes so it prefers to not keep it up for too long. Once I'm in a 'safe' location it then lets me get the initial emotional release out of the way, and forces an emotional disassociation to occur as a side effect to reduce the impact when I recall things later. It also started pushing more difficult memories into my dreams when it thinks multiple passes are needed?"

"That," Vasco started, then paused. After a moment he continued. "I think that may be one of the most terrifying things I've ever heard, given how much influence that implies powers can have on us without us knowing."

"Assuming I can trust my snark, the normal use of the ability is to work towards increasing the host's likelihood of using their powers through mental exaggeration of events and emotions. Mine just decided that a mentally stable host was preferable due to what I've come up with when not fretting over things?"

"And then you make it worse. Well, I'd still like to talk about what happened on Thursday, if you don't mind? Besides, then the Youth Guard will get off of both of our backs, since I doubt they'll accept that your power is your primary therapist."

Taylor shrugged and sat down in the chair she preferred. It couldn't hurt, and she got the feeling her snarks would appreciate whatever could be learned from the experience either way.

The three hours they'd talked was interesting, even if only about half of it had been spent talking about Thursday. With a little prodding an entire list of things that had been 'smoothed out' in Taylor's psyche had been brought up and gone over, some in more detail than others. At the same time their snarks were passing data back and forth as well. In the end Vasco had tentatively approved of how things were going, but was going to recommend that future sessions be kept up. If only to ensure that things kept going well.

For now, though, Taylor was trying to decide if she was going to eat lunch here, or grab something on the way home. She was tempted to do some tinkering, if only to get the jump harness fixed up before they wanted her to pull an appearance.

Amy: What was Broadcast Administrator talking about earlier, when it mentioned preferring our 'improbable but interesting simulations' when we aren't panicky?

Taylor: Er, I think that's a long-winded way of saying it likes poking at our dreams, but not when we're having nightmares.

Amy: ...how much of that attitude did it pass onto Shaper before Prototype went nuts?

S: Data

Taylor: Lots, apparently.

Amy: Well, that helps explain some of the freaky dreams I've had in the past few months.

Taylor: So, you have any lunch plans?

Amy: Er, I was probably going to grab something here. While you were talking to the therapist I got a message from Sarah, apparently they think I should see one too? Apparently my attitude concerned them, and the PRT let them know that a therapist was available.

Taylor: Oh. Want to join me? I'll tinker a little afterwards, get my jump harness back in order at least.

Amy: Works for me.

After lunch Amy had gone up to see Doctor Beatty while Taylor grabbed the bin with her jump harness. On a whim she dropped the damaged jacket and jeans on top of it before dropping the bin on top of the manhole cover. She'd start with the jump harness, then see what she felt like doing beyond that.

The 'visiting tinker' lab was quite nice, and had multiple 'modes'. Taylor left it in 'generic tinker' mode for now, she might look at some of the more specialized ones later. She dropped everything onto one of the tables, then put the jacket and jeans off to the side. A quick sort of the jump harness pieces left her with four piles. Nonfunctional, damaged, could use some work, and fine for now.

Well, probably best to start with the nonfunctional pieces, and move on from there. Now then, to start with she'd be best off using the acoustic resonator to release the sealant...

"Huh," Amy said as she entered the lab. Taylor was in the final stages of rebuilding the jeans, having 'grown' replacement fibers with a couple of the plants in the room.

"I'm just about done," Taylor said, using a micro-welder to induce the hardening of the secondary armored coating on the outside of the jeans. They'd need to be hung up for a couple of hours, but they'd keep until she could do so back in her closet.

"I thought you were just going to fix the jump harness?"

"That was easy enough, I even had plenty of time to do some basic maintenance on some of the undamaged modules. The manhole cover took all of three minutes, and the fibers were still mostly there for the jacket, though the artificial leather was a little harder to repair. So I figured I might as well see what I could do with the jeans, which was trivial once I started making replacement fibers with the plants."

"Thanks for the warning before you went at it, at least."

"You're welcome."

It took Taylor another ten minutes to finish, followed by ten minutes of cleanup, before she was ready to go. A quick trip was made through the Wards area to put things away, then Taylor and Amy headed for the garage.

"So, Mark says he invited Danny to come over for dinner," Amy said as they entered the stairwell. "Asked me to check with you?"

"Dad did send me a message along those lines," Taylor replied. "Though no clue what it's all about?"

"Dunno. Could be nothing more than a chance to talk now that things are in cleanup mode, though it's kinda annoying that they didn't find Skidmark."

"At least the Merchants no longer exist in the Bay, right? Any idea what's for dinner?"

"No clue, but I bet it's takeout."

Amy had been correct, a large pile of chinese food having been picked up before the two girls made it to the Dallon household. Danny had apparently been there for some time as well.

"Hello you two," Carol said as they came into the dining room. "Grab a plate and dig in."

"Hello," Taylor and Amy chorused, though not quite in sync. They grabbed and filled their plates, Amy darting into the kitchen for a couple of sodas for them, before sitting down. It looked like the other three Dallons were already on seconds, with Danny having finished already.

"Sorry we didn't wait for you two," Danny said. "But it's a bit of a late lunch early dinner thing."

"No problem," Taylor said. "I was busy tinkering anyway, kinda got caught up fixing my jeans."

"What was Ames up to?" Vicky asked. "Since I doubt she was tinkering too."

"I was talking with Doctor Beatty," Amy answered. "Speaking of which, er, there's a very good chance that if I ever get injured that Taylor's going to be seemingly irrationally unhappy with those responsible, kinda like I am with the Merchants?"

"The PRT told us about that yesterday," Carol said, snorting lightly. "Shortly after I told you to go off to visit Taylor, in fact. You two share powers, and this is well documented in twins that seem to do the same. You just get the benefit of knowing why you're angry with the culprit, what with actual communication between the two of you."

Taylor turned to Danny, who nodded. "Yeah, they called me too. Said it should've been obvious, but it didn't dawn on them at first because you two aren't twins."

"I guess that makes sense," Taylor said. "Though I think I'd have been pissed even without the link?"

"Well yeah, but the linked powers will make it worse," Mark said. "Similar to how my depression entered a bit of a powers-assisted feedback loop. You're angry, your power is also angry, they reinforce each other..."

"So what inspired this gathering?" Amy asked. "Beyond celebrating being done with the Merchants?"

"We've been sharing stories," Carol said. "Getting to know each other better outside of a hospital, mainly. Given how often we've been meeting in hospitals and all. That and we figure that you two are probably going to remain close for the rest of your lives. Parahumans with connected powers generally go for each other's throats right away or become lifelong partners of some kind, and you two are currently believed to be the only doubly connected parahumans in existence."

"Huh," Taylor mused. "I guess we do kinda have an artificial version of the multiple-trigger phenomenon turned up to eleven, with the potential identical twin observations applying in a weird way."

"Because our trigger parameters were copied?" Amy asked. "I can see that, even if I've not seen most of the research you probably have."

"Enough of the likely why details," Vicky said, rolling her eyes. "It's there, we have to deal with it."

Taylor and Amy both shrugged and focused on eating for a couple of minutes, before Carol suddenly snapped her fingers. "Right, I almost forgot. Amy, your new costumes came in."

"New costumes?" Amy and Vicky asked. Taylor had an inkling, but said nothing.

"Sarah and I ordered you a full set of armored ones, to the same degree that Taylor's costume is actually. Even if you aren't normally attacked it's kinda stupid to assume you'll never be. We even got you fingerless gloves with metal plate inserts similar to those made for Taylor, but in white with a red cross on them."

"Seems a bit more redundant with your nifty forcefield there," Mark said. "Not to mention your enhanced durability. But every bit helps, right? Over-prepared is usually better than under-prepared and all. Besides, this will help if someone overloads or bypasses the forcefield."

"What made you think I needed the extra protection?" Amy asked. "I know I didn't mention it."

"Taylor messaged us in the middle of power testing," Carol said, grinning. "Said she figured you wouldn't bring it up, even. We agreed and started working on getting you set up anyway. Parian was quite reasonable to work with to get them done quickly."

Amy glared at Taylor, who just grinned. After all, you don't apologize for getting your friends better protection.

After dinner and another two hours of talking the two Heberts headed home. Taylor beat her father due to being able to bypass some traffic, but only by about ten minutes.

"Taylor," Danny called from her bedroom door, causing her to look up from her tablet. "Director Piggot called me earlier, wanting permission to have 'Maul' make an appearance over the next few days despite your being pulled off of active duty. I gave her permission, so long as no combat of any kind is expected."

"Oh," Taylor said. "I was kinda expecting to be asked to make an appearance when they figured out I was likely injured, but I hadn't considered that they'd need to ask you for permission."

"Yes, well, I also signed a couple of permission forms allowing you to play bodyguard to Amy after things like Endbringer battles without them needing to call me. I'm told that they'll attempt to keep interruptions of your classes to a minimum."

"Thanks for letting me know."

"You're welcome. Now then, we should both get some sleep. Don't stay up too late."

"I'll let you have the shower first?"

Danny looked like he was going to argue, then sighed. "Yeah, ok. I probably do stink a little anyway."

In a bedroom in the Hebert household, an alarm clock ticked over from 04:06 to 04:07.

[DESTINATION]

Taylor and Amy were both shocked awake at the sudden intrusion into their minds.

Taylor: What the hell?

Amy: What was that?

BA: Data

Taylor: A water boojum stating that it's started an attack run? What's a water boojum?

BA: Elaboration

Amy: That sounds a lot like Leviathan.

BA: Agreement

Taylor looked over at the window, and the raindrops glinting in the streetlights appearing on it.

Chapter 84 Taylor sat there for a moment, stunned. She was starting to wonder about her luck, since she'd put Leviathan down for attacking Brockton Bay and all.

Taylor: Ok, so Leviathan's coming here, what do we do?

BA: Negation. Clarification

Taylor: Oh good, we're just close enough to be drowned. Where's the actual attack then?

BA: Data

Taylor got out of bed and grabbed her Maul phone and her tablet from her desk, popping the map up on the tablet and getting the console app open on the Maul phone.

Amy: I'm not that good with metric yet on maps, how far off is that in miles?

Taylor: Gimme a second, I've got the map open on my tablet. And come on, I can't log into the console app because I'm supposed to be off duty? Where's the override...

It took a minute to plot things out on the tablet, and the very approximate 'to the south' wasn't necessarily entirely accurate. She'd found the 'let me in anyway' override, only for the console app to inform her that no local channels were available as she was only cleared for the parahuman channels and there weren't any parahuman patrol groups active. She didn't care, she wanted the 'all' button anyway.

Taylor: Huh, I have 'Local', 'Region Group', and 'Full' when I bring up 'Broadcast All' in the console app.

Amy: 'Full', this is an ENDBRINGER!

Taylor: Do you really think I don't know that? I'm double-checking the target, don't need to change the report once I make it.

A minute later Taylor had double-checked to ensure she'd entered everything correctly and knew the approximate target location. That done she hit the 'Full' option, wishing Amy hadn't jumped on her about it when she'd made the observation. "This is Maul of the ENE. My snark has informed me that Leviathan has begun an attack run on Boston. I repeat, my snark has informed me that Leviathan has begun an attack run on Boston."

Taylor: So, I've let everyone on-duty nationwide know that Leviathan's attacking Boston. Now what?

Amy: I'm going to wake up the others here, you get your father up. Best to get everyone moving we can before the waves start, it isn't like we're likely to have time to prepare beyond that.

"This is Dragon," came back over the console app. "Seven of twenty indicators agree with Maul's declaration, if movement patterns hold we have approximately six hours before Leviathan makes landfall in Boston. Correction, eight of twenty. Based on sudden storm patterns the projected primary wave impact area is from Portland, Maine to Long Island, New York."

Taylor: Dragon just said we probably have six hours?

Amy: Er. Hours? Really? Wow. I stand corrected.

Taylor: I'm kinda happy you were wrong in this case.

Amy: Yeah, I'll agree with you there.

Taylor was halfway to her father's bedroom door when the first automated alerts started coming up on her Maul phone.

The Endbringer sirens started up while Taylor was on her way to the PRT building. Her father was going to be helping people get out of areas near the docks that were prone to flooding, including making sure they were awake if the alarms weren't enough. She'd been automatically called in despite being 'off-duty' to help coordinate Brockton Bay being used as a teleport-hop on the way to Boston. According to the alerts this was in part so that capes that wouldn't be in the fight itself but would be helping with wave control all along the coast could be 'dropped off', New York was doing the same. As assignments went, it was strictly non-combat and would help serve as an appearance.

The streets were still pretty much empty when she reached the PRT building, though the 'Endbringer beacon' was already on to designate the rally point. Once she'd parked she darted into the Wards area to get changed, then went to grab something she could eat on the go from the cafeteria. She figured she was now in a 'waiting for someone to tell her where to be' mode anyway.

"Hello Maul," Colin said as he joined her a couple hallways before the cafeteria.

"Hi," Taylor replied. Colin seemed...annoyed? She could understand nervous, anxious, worried, though he didn't strike her as one to get excited until just before the fighting. But annoyed?

"If you don't mind answering, why were you able to warn us about today, but not Canberra?"

"Apparently the Endbringers fire a 'taunt' off to their target area, and my snark lets me hear it."

Colin relaxed ever so slightly. "Ah, so you can only tell when you're within the effect range of an attack. That's very good to know, thank you. Both for the information and the advanced warning."

"You're welcome. Do you know where I should go after I grab something to eat?"

"You should head to the roof and prepare your platform. We'll likely want to take advantage of the mobility it will grant you, including the ability to directly interact with capes in the air. A PRT officer will have an armband for you when you get up there, intended to keep track of you to ensure you don't get pulled to Boston and to help track and coordinate the coastal protection force."

"Gotcha. Thank you."

Colin left her to enter the cafeteria, going off to do who knows what to prepare. Taylor went in and found that there was a pile of 'grab and run' meals waiting for capes. Not the tastiest or largest variety, but ready to go and free of charge. She was handed three without issue, and was on her way.

"Hello Maul," a PRT officer said as she stepped onto the roof a couple of minutes later. "Gimme a second to grab you a 'staying local' armband." A moment later she'd been handed a red armband. "Put that on, it should tighten around your wrist or just past it. The screen will show the local grid and where you are on it, with any luck Leviathan's position will never appear but other waypoints might."

Taylor put the armband on, and before she could say her name in response to the prompt on the screen it flashed. "Huh, phone identification complete?"

"Yeah, they auto-connect to console-authorized phones when you have one, and you can call the map function up on your phone if your visor there is linked. Your primary radio channel is the same as holding the left button and has a delay unless you've got SL5 or better, say 'hard override' to bypass that. Abuse that and you'll be locked out of using the channel. Secondary channel is the same as holding both buttons and is for non-broadcast alerts. Teams of console operators will be working to relay those as needed. The right button is an emergency ping, which will also happen automatically if you're detected as being injured."

"Interesting." She pulled the map up and saw that it was showing an armband link. That and apparently he wasn't aware of or wasn't thinking about her bullshit security clearance levels. "Anything else?"

"We're waiting for Aegis and Kid Win as the other flight-capable Wards. You should get your platform thing ready. As you're passenger-capable you'll probably, at worst, be asked to ferry people up and down the coast a bit. Likely no more than ten miles or so outside of town either way, if that. If circumstances change or you're wanted before the other Wards arrive you'll be informed via radio."

"Thank you." The PRT officer nodded, then turned to where a short-hop transport was landing. Taylor moved over to where the 'landing pad' was for her platform and gave it a once-over, then had it lift off and open up. There was a decent amount of rain already, so she hopped on and flipped it upside-down before opening one of the three meal boxes she'd been handed. No need to have the water get into the food while she waited, after all.

Half an hour later others finally started arriving. Then again, not everyone was forced awake by the Endbringer taunting them, and it was early on a Sunday morning. The buses didn't normally run this early, for example, so getting around was likely a problem for those who didn't have their own cars and such.

Taylor had finished two of the three meals and was holding off on the third for now. The first non-Protectorate parahumans to arrive were actually several Empire capes. A few independants that Taylor hadn't met showed up just after the Empire capes did, followed by Oni Lee representing the ABB. Dean seemed to have picked up Chris, Dennis, and Missy, based on their appearing together on the edge of her range.

"Maul, please report to the front entrance," came over the radio, and Taylor sighed. She quickly dropped the remains from her two consumed meals in the rooftop trash receptacle, then floated down the building to the main entrance. She dropped off of the platform and had it float off to the side as she approached the tables that had been set up.

"I'm here," Taylor said. "What do you need?"

"We'd like you to help vet unknowns," the PRT officer said. "We usually get a number of people volunteering to go fight, and many have no powers at all. Since we're legally obligated to not bring the unpowered ones into the combat zone we need to split them into powered and unpowered groups, and you're faster than any of our scanners. We don't need you to tell us what they can do, just send the parahumans here and the non-parahumans to the other tables over there."

"I can do that."

"Oh, and pretend it's entirely arbitrary. We have a bet going on whether or not anyone whines." Taylor tilted her head. "In this kind of situation you do what you can to not crack under the pressure."

Taylor shook her head and walked over to where there was a line of people waiting to volunteer. "Alright, I've been asked to sort you in whatever way I want to the two groups of tables behind us. So each of you will come forward, and I'll decide which group of tables to send you to."

"Seriously?" one person said. "Just whatever you feel like?"

"Apparently? Your shoes are scuffed, so you can go over there."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Get moving. Next?"

It was actually quite amusing picking completely random things to base her 'decisions' on. One mask being on backwards means this way, that person's belt meaning the other way. Horrible hairdo due to lack of brushing for the next. Suit's too nice, followed by suit's not nice enough. For what, as far as she could tell, were identical suits.

"Alert, incoming group," came over a speaker mounted next to a currently-empty lot. "Stay clear of arrival area."

Taylor ignored the warning, as she wasn't in the arrival area. She'd quickly dealt with the sorting of the volunteer group, and was only getting the occasional individual. But there wasn't anything else for her to do. To amuse herself she'd taken to sitting on her upside-down platform drinking a soda, just for the looks on people's faces. The look on the cameraman's face when she first did it was good enough, though she wasn't sure just how many people had now seen her do that on the news.

A moment later a large group of parahumans appeared in the field, and she gently poked the unfamiliar ones. Luckily she wasn't looking at them. Though she did recognize several of them.

"Please clear the arrival area," came over the speaker. "Those staying to assist with coastal protection please move to the red marker. Those moving on to Boston please move to the blue marker."

Amy: I am so happy you're doing a lot of the initial hello work right now.

Taylor: Hoping to keep the pauses due to snarks down to a minimum later?

Amy: Yeah.

Taylor: How's the hospital zone looking?

Amy: Pretty much ready to go.

Taylor paused, and directed her platform to float over to the side. "Hey there kid."

"Er," the boy said. His name was Jason according to Broadcast Administrator's labels. He'd frozen as soon as he realized that Taylor had noticed him. "Hi?"

"Whatcha doin?"

"I want to help."

"Ahhh. Do your parents know you're here?"

"They called?"

Taylor: Hey Amy, did you get a call from mister injury-magnet's parents?

Amy: Yeah, the PRT was going to send someone to them with the waivers. He show up?

Taylor: He seems to have tried to sneak in.

Amy: Oh. I let the parahuman table staff know he was coming, they'll send him my way. His parents say that he's apparently been going a little stir-crazy due to lack of power usage, and him being present might save some lives.

"Alright," Taylor said, nodding. "Panacea says you're good, so you need to go to those tables over there and tell them Panacea's expecting you, ok?"

"Ah, ok. Thank you."

"Thank you for your sacrifice."

Taylor floated back over to where she had been stationed, finished her soda, and flipped back upright. She'd finished with the unknown snarks in the group that had arrived, so she turned towards the one that had approached her.

"Hello Maul," David said, bowing slightly. "I was hoping for a couple minutes of your time, if you aren't otherwise occupied?"

"Hello Eidolon," Taylor replied, hopping off of the platform for the moment. "I think I can guess some of what you want, unless there's something else?"

"I wanted to apologize for my appalling conduct when we last met. I was entirely out of line and you were right to chastise me."

"Thank you. If you'll give me a moment I can see what I can do."

David merely bowed again.

Taylor: Hello again.

[Greetings. Query]

Taylor: Er, no. Sorry, I didn't mean to cause problems there either. Though I hope he at least chose a decent guinea pig?

[Elaboration]

Taylor: Ah, that does sound like it was a good point to try, at least.

Amy: Figuring it might help stop someone from killing a bunch of people does sound like a suitable reason when other things weren't working.

Taylor: So, how're your reserves?

[Data]

Taylor: He went a little nuts, eh? Well, we can see about fixing some of that.

Taylor felt the energy transfer start. It was too bad that when Emulator had tried to pull from a villain the energy transfer bits had failed. Taylor hadn't intended to accidentally cause the advanced communication parts of the snark to die off, but it apparently had them too close to the pieces it had been using to try and influence her and they'd, er, been 'burnt out'? She probably shouldn't have somewhat intentionally drained the other snark through the wrong interfaces.

BA: Query

Taylor: Er, sure. If some of the other snarks in the area are willing to provide energy, go for it.

Amy: Feeding any 'hungry' snarks with some of the extra energy others have? How many 'hungry' ones are around?

BA: Data

Taylor: Huh. Ok.

It didn't take long for Taylor to feel a number of other transfers begin. Three incoming, and twelve or so outgoing. It was quite distracting, but if it helped keep capes alive? Besides, Broadcast Administrator said that the three it was pulling from had volunteered. Oh, there goes a fourth pull, now that Brian had arrived.

The transfer to Emulator took a while, during which Taylor sorted a few more volunteers. David had gone a little power-mad at some point, or so it seemed, and it was likely he'd want another top-up in the coming week. Then again, she wouldn't blame him for that one. Perhaps he'd been experimenting with the list of powers, and that was why he'd used so much energy already?

"Thank you very much," David said as the transfer completed. "It's much appreciated."

"You're welcome," Taylor replied. David bowed again, and headed for the blue beacon.

"What the hell," Max whispered, watching as Eidolon interacted with Maul. He'd been incredibly polite, waiting for her to finish with the child and her soda. His frankly intimidating aura absent from just before he'd approached the Ward. Nearly fifteen minutes later he thanked her, for apparently doing nothing, and his imposing aura and 'I can end you' body language returned as he walked away.

"Did Eidolon just thank a Ward for doing nothing to him?" James asked.

"What the hell did she do to him last time that he walks up to her, lets her decide what to do with him, and then thanks her for deciding to do nothing?"

"Figure it out later," Jessica said. "They're getting ready for the first jump to Boston itself, we should get moving."

Over the next couple of hours the remaining Wards had trickled in, costumed up, and gotten assignments. Lisa appeared to be on the console in the Wards area, helping to coordinate. Brian had been shipped off to Seabrook just in case there was a breech. Dean and Carlos were cleared for domestic Endbringer battles by their parents and were pulled into the search and rescue teams. Dennis was working with Parian to hopefully mitigate the waves along a section of coast. Chris was one of the supply-runners on his hoverboard.

Taylor had been pulled off of 'sort out the parahumans' duty and asked to ferry some capes to points on the coast to the North and South of the Bay. Some had various powers that were too slow and/or stationary to use in a fight against Leviathan, but would apparently help significantly with the waves and coastal damage. At least one of them had admitted to Taylor that they normally didn't attend Endbringer attacks because they take too long to set up, but with hours of warning they felt they could actually do something this time.

Once those capes were in position Taylor found herself bouncing between the PRT building and the Rig. Sometimes with people, sometimes with equipment. She was faster than the short-hop transports, after all. Missy was one of the people she ferried out, having been given a task on the Rig itself once most of the capes had passed through to Boston or elsewhere. During the last trip back Legend had given a speech she'd been able to hear over the radio. He'd started by painting a grim picture, the death toll in these fights being horrible. That was followed by thanking her, Armsmaster, and Dragon for the incredible six hour advanced warning that had allowed so many to assemble and be briefed.

They'd then handed those not in Boston off to regional controllers, because knowing how they were handling Leviathan there wasn't going to help elsewhere.

"This is Director Piggot of the PRT ENE," came over the radio. "We're coordinating the North of Boston efforts, while New York handles the South of Boston. While they work to drive Leviathan off we'll be working to mitigate the damage to the rest of the New England coastline. Brockton Bay and New York are considered 'reasonably safe' zones, protected by recently maintained forcefield systems. I'd like to take a moment to thank Maul and Panacea for their assistance in ensuring that said maintenance happened."

Taylor: Is everyone going to thank me today?

Amy: You did good. Deal with it.

"Despite being 'reasonably safe'," Director Piggot continued. "We still expect significant flooding and damage. Volunteers with useful powers and tinkertech have been deployed to some of the most vulnerable points along the coastline, and I thank them as well. Particular attention is being given to protecting Seabrook Station. If necessary we will divert resources there, it's considered the priority protection target to the North of Boston. We do not need to add a nuclear power plant containment breach to the current situation."

After letting that sink in for a moment she continued. "The secondary priority we have is protection of Brockton Bay itself, as it will be serving as the primary medical evacuation point for Boston. It's close enough to be convenient for the volunteer teleporters, but far enough that it shouldn't be directly impacted by the battle itself. Most of you have been briefed individually on what your tasks are in defense of the coastline, and I thank you in advance for your efforts. We also have various groups of volunteers working for supply and evac purposes. If you need something, let us know and we'll do our best to get it to you as soon as possible."

"Maul, please report to the medical area," came over the radio. "We've assigned you there for the time being, but may pull you out if we feel your platform is needed elsewhere."

Taylor headed for where Amy was, packing the platform up and leaving it outside as she went in. There were several dozen beds in the fairly sturdy tent that had been set up, a smaller tent at the other end being the teleport destination for medical evac from Boston. Amy was sitting at the near end of the tent, next to Jason who was wearing a domino mask now and had actually been labeled 'Injury Magnet'. "Hello again."

"Er, hi," Jason said. "Sorry about trying to sneak by you earlier."

"It's alright. But if people know you're coming it's a little silly to sneak in."

"I thought you might turn me away because I'm just a kid."

"Your parents let Panacea know you were coming, so you were fine. How did you get here without them dropping you off, anyway?"

"My Mimi dropped me off a couple blocks away." Well, that did help explain his arrival.

"We've supposedly got thirty minutes before Leviathan arrives," Amy said. "Is there anything you think we need to do?"

"Feed the kid?" Taylor offered, only to get a raised eyebrow from Amy. "Really, probably just drop a table full of food in front of him to make it easier to heal him."

Amy blinked a couple of times. "Huh, that's not a bad idea in general." Based on the sudden activity in her Bluetooth organ she seemed to be calling that in, likely on the 'general request' channel. "Alright then, let's get you ready to eat a lot more than usual."

"What do you mean?" Jason asked.

"I'm going to up your metabolism a bit. It means you'll be able to eat a lot more today, and digest it faster, so when you need to be healed we can do so faster."

"Ooooh. That sounds good."

"Wait until we stuff you so full you don't think you can eat any more," Taylor said, grinning. "At which point we'll feed you more anyway."

Jason didn't look too sure of things as Amy temporarily upped his metabolism, but also didn't complain when a pile of food was brought in and he was told to eat as much as he could.

"Alert to all transport volunteers," came over the radio, getting all of their attention. "Please be aware that Vista will shortly be manipulating as much of the coastline around Brockton Bay as she can to help defend against wave action. Coastal landmarks will be exaggerated and unreliable. You may need to rely more on your maps for navigation."

"Go Vista," Taylor said, grinning. No wonder they'd had her out on the Rig. Hopefully she could keep it up long enough to make a difference.

"Port defense force fields are online," came next. "Be aware that travel past the Rig must be done at least one thousand feet above sea level while they are active."

They'd sat there for three quarters of an hour, with the only radio broadcasts being occasional alerts of 'incoming wave'. When they asked they'd been informed that the initial contact zone was preventing easy access to the injured, in part because they'd had greater than usual success in keeping Leviathan pinned down. Apparently Uppercrust was in Boston and helping with the force field system, allowing them to more easily use it to corral the Endbringer.

They'd been very careful to not ask how many capes had died already because they couldn't get away due to the same force fields penning Leviathan in. They'd hope for none and leave it at that.

"Incoming medical evac," Dragon's voice said over the radio, causing Amy and Taylor to jump up and head for the teleport tent. By the time they got there Strider had popped in with a dozen injured, his own right arm missing as well. A glow appeared around several of the capes for a moment, before a second message was fired to Taylor and Amy. "Alert: Injury Magnet severely injured."

Both girls did their best to suppress a groan at that point. It was obviously an automated message, but if it came up every time the boy took on a pile of injuries they were going to have to request that it be disabled.

The two worked together, with Amy giving them a quick check and stabilization before Taylor grabbed them to move them to a bed. Amy would then hit the worst of them first for proper healing while Taylor started on Jason. They'd decided that having Taylor focus on him would be better than assisting with the capes that came in from Boston.

Strider himself hadn't waited for them to check him and had teleported back out while Taylor was carrying the first injured cape to the bed they'd be placed on. Once all the capes were on beds Amy got to work on them, while Taylor grabbed Jason. Luckily he'd hopped onto the bed he'd been right next to when the alert came in.

Taylor: I'm so glad we had him eating.

Amy: Fix him up and get him eating again?

Taylor: You know I'm already working on it.

It was interesting, healing Jason only to have him glow for a second and take on part of another injury now that it wasn't enough to push him into 'fatal' territory. Frustrating as hell too, even if it was making it a lot easier for Amy to deal with the other injured capes. It took a full ten minutes of constant work before Jason stopped taking on injuries from the others, and another eight or so minutes to get him fully healed.

"That sucked," Jason finally said, staring at the ceiling. "And I'm hungry again."

"You probably saved at least a couple of their lives," Taylor said. "Now get eating again."

"Wait, did you heal me?"

"My powers work very well with Panacea's."

Jason nodded and accepted Taylor's help in sitting up, then moved back into the chair he'd been using and attacked the table full of food again. Over the next few minutes some of the healed capes came over to grab food of their own. Volunteers helped feed some of the others that Amy hadn't gotten to yet. Some of those volunteers Taylor recognized from when she'd sorted them earlier, so at least some of the non-parahuman volunteers had been accepted.

The basic pattern of varying groups of wounded capes showing up at random intervals continued for the next couple of hours, Taylor and Amy eating a little when they could between arrivals and Jason eating whenever he wasn't too injured to. Strider made three trips before Taylor grabbed him and forced him to let Amy take a look at his injuries. That was mainly ensuring that his missing arm wasn't going to become worse, they'd take the time to regrow it later if he wanted it regrown.

After the third group they had just as many capes heading back to Boston with the teleporters, healed and ready for round two. Or three. Or in one notable case round seven, even if that particular cape's costume was all but hanging off of them by then due to rapid weight loss. They'd also had to have Jason brought out of his power's range after every third group he was present for so that he'd have more time to recover. It made dealing with the worst injuries harder, but the kid needed the breaks. He kept coming back on his own, though, determined to help.

The last cape from the latest group had just been healed up and they were all eating to restore their energy before the next teleporter came through. Jason was on the edge of Taylor's range recovering from a previous group, and Amy had just started on a granola bar. Gossip from the battle was that Leviathan had broken free from the initial containment back when the first evac had occurred and had been making its way towards a point believed to be in sector thirty-five. Not that Taylor or Amy knew where that was in Boston. Still, it was felt that they were likely getting close to driving Leviathan off, based on how much damage that had taken in previous battles.

"Priority one alert," Dragon's voice came over the radio. "All stations, be on the lookout. An unknown parahuman is loose in sector thirty-five. Anyone who touches them is cloned, with the clones having their own powers and fighting the defenders. A number of clones have appropriated costume pieces from corpses, but can still be identified by their lack of armband due to the armbands locking upon death. Defensive priority is to shift towards preventing Leviathan from coming in contact with said parahuman, just in case Leviathan can be cloned as well."

Chapter 85 Taylor and Amy looked at each other, and did a quick look around the hospital area. Everyone currently there had an armband, but they'd have to keep an eye out as others came in.

Amy: You have your taser and sidearm?

Taylor: Yep. Hopefully I don't need either. But if a teleporter gets cloned?

Amy: Ugh, yeah.

BA: Data

Taylor: Thank you, that's appreciated.

Amy: Yeah, being ready to shut down anyone suspect is a good idea.

A couple minutes later a group of PRT officers came in, armed with containment foam sprayers. Some set up by the teleport tent, others by the main door.

"Sorry for the intrusion," the squad leader said, ensuring his armband was visible to everyone in the room. "We'll be foaming anyone that shows up without warning. The volunteer teleporters have been informed that they must give suitable warning time before making the jump now." He then held a bag out to Taylor. "Also, records show that you used two of the three containment foam grenades you'd taken from the armory. You haven't picked up more, so we took the liberty of grabbing six for you."

"Thank you," Taylor said, taking the bag. It only took a moment to drop a couple into her pouches where she'd been keeping them. The other four she dropped into the pockets on her jacket.

"Incoming medical evac," came over the radio. "Seven expected arrivals."

A moment later seven snarks, most of which Taylor recognized, appeared in the teleport tent. Amy and Taylor darted in to get working, ignoring the calls of 'all clear' from the PRT officers.

The pace of damage dealt to Leviathan had dropped off significantly as they had a second 'front' to fight on with the unknown parahuman. Further, several capes that had been helping to fight Leviathan had jumped to defend said unknown parahuman. It was unknown if they were previous clones, though none of the new clones seemed to care about protecting the parahuman.

It had been another couple of hours, and the number of injured parahumans had gone up. At least some of that was it being easier to get injured capes out of the area the unknown parahuman was in.

Taylor was working on Jason while Amy worked with the latest arrivals. She'd actually taken to improving his immune system and healing capability in various ways, but the few 'make him more durable' tests hadn't shown any improvement. All of what she'd done could be undone later if needed, but with the kid's power it was really for his long-term benefit anyway.

"Vista down," came over the radio suddenly, causing Taylor and Amy to both freeze. Then Jason flinched in pain and they shook it off and got back to work. They could check on Missy afterwards. Hopefully it wasn't an attack.

It was nearly three quarters of an hour before they had time to take a breather, and the PRT squad leader came over to them.

"Vista exhausted herself," he said. "She's fine, but couldn't hold the coastline modifications against the waves anymore. Apparently people who refused to evacuate despite the evacuation orders made it harder on her. She gave a number of people additional time to leave and probably helped prevent a lot of wear on the shoreline. She's being evaced from the Rig just in case something happens out there, but should be fine with some rest."

"Thanks for letting us know," Taylor said, Amy nodding in agreement. Really, it was impressive that Missy had held out for hours in those conditions.

Taylor was giving Amy a quick boost when Dragon's voice came over the armbands. "Incoming medical evac, nine expected arrivals." A moment later eleven snarks appeared.

"FIRE!" Taylor yelled. The PRT officers at the teleport tent didn't hesitate and opened fire.

"What's going on?" the squad leader asked.

"Eleven snarks," Taylor replied, even as other officers were called in with smaller sprayers of the dissolving agent. Amy moved over to Jason, who'd flashed and taken on a pile of injuries, even as Taylor pulled out her sidearm and taser.

"Alright people, we need to be careful because there are too many parahumans."

Taylor: Two of the snarks are on top of each other, but look weird.

Amy: Weird how?

Taylor: Like one of them is connected to the other, instead of the human?

BA: Agreement. Data

Taylor: So the snark connected to the human will intercept anything trying to get through the other snark. That's good to know, thanks. Still, I suspect that's our extra passenger.

Amy: See if the snark wants to chat? If they're trapped anyway...

"Shift to the left a bit," Taylor said. "I'm going to see if our likely culprit on the right wants to chat."

"Thanks," one of the officers said as they moved to the left. The first parahuman they'd pulled out had a working armband, so that was good.

Taylor: Hello there.

[Intimidation]

Taylor: Not in the mood today, sorry. Especially not if it's because you're hungry. You willing to tell us anything about what you're doing?

After a minute of no response Taylor figured that was a 'no'.

Amy: I vote we try shutting them down.

Taylor: Yeah, that makes sense. Can we target where the other snark is connected? They might be safer to deal with if we disconnect it, at least.

BA: Agreement

Taylor and Amy both felt Broadcast Administrator opening a large number of connections all at once, targeting the area where the other snark was connected. The snark shuddered, then withdrew.

"I think the clone's likely dead," Taylor said after a moment. She wasn't sure how to feel about that. Had they just killed a person? "It had a hungry snark looking to create lots of trouble, kill or demoralize humans? But it withdrew when attacked."

"You get back to things," the squad leader said, waving Taylor back to the injured. "I'll call it in."

A few minutes later they found that the containment foam had just barely stopped the clone from stabbing one of the other parahumans. Further, without the snark holding it together the clone had started to dissolve. That was enough to solidify Taylor's opinion on one matter, at least.

Taylor: Even if it seems like we're killing people, I think it's for the best if we slam any clone that comes through.

Amy: Why?

Taylor: It looks like they're being held together by the snark, more like meat puppets than actual people. It's safer for those we're healing if we take them down fast.

Amy: I...yeah. I can agree with that.

It was another hour before the next clone snuck through, this one had been using a stranger power. Taylor had barely acknowledged that fact when Broadcast Administrator slammed the snark, canceling out the stranger ability and 'killing' the clone.

"What the hell happened to this one?" one of the officers asked as Taylor and Amy worked on the injured. "It just fell over before we'd finished aiming?"

"You know what they say about the best defense?" Taylor asked as she lifted one of the parahumans in this set.

"You attacked it as soon as it appeared?"

"Yep. But I'm not sure we should report that."

The officer raised an eyebrow when Taylor looked back at him. "Why shouldn't we?"

"Because if the parahumans being cloned know then the clones will probably know too. Then they won't spend the time or effort to try and get here just to fall over dead."

"Every clone trying to be sneaky to disrupt us here is one the defenders don't have to worry about. Right, good thinking."

They'd just finished with yet another group, this time without Jason because he was recovering. Taylor and Amy had gotten into the habit of 'cheating' by healing each other every couple of groups, not that they were advertising that was what they were doing. They were also getting a clone every third or fourth group at this point.

BA: Query

Taylor: What is it you want to try, and why?

BA: Data

Taylor: Huh. You think you can overload it by abusing energy transfer mode, which could stop all the clones at once. Interesting.

Amy: How does that work?

BA: Elaboration

Taylor: Latch on and start more and more energy transfers, which lock the connection unless the other side's ready to do a disconnect? I'd think if that worked that Emulator would've tried it.

Amy: It was configured for mastering us, remember?

Taylor: Well, yeah, but it still had the right bits, even if we accidentally damaged them. What do you think?

Amy: Would that kill the parahuman too?

BA: ...Agreement

Taylor and Amy shared a look, before Taylor waved over the PRT squad leader.

"What's up?" the squad leader asked.

"There's a chance we might be able to stop all the clones when the next one comes through here," Taylor said. "But it would probably also kill the parahuman making them. I'm...not comfortable with making that call."

"I'll call it in and discuss it with the coordinating thinkers. You don't need the distraction."

"Thank you."

"Emergency alert," came Director Piggot's voice over the armbands and Endbringer siren system half an hour later. "In fifteen minutes the Rig will be collapsing the port defense force fields to only protect the Rig itself to allow the system to cool down and prevent catastrophic failure. Waves will make it through. If you are in a flood-prone area you need to evacuate now."

"Shit," one of the PRT officers said. Not that they were currently in a flood-prone area, but they'd been doing so well with local damage.

Taylor grunted in acknowledgement even as she dragged another cape to a bed. The remains of the latest clone were being cleaned up, as no word had come back on whether or not to possibly kill the parahuman responsible for them.

"This one's out," Amy said. "We don't have the time or resources to regrow his leg right now."

They shifted the parahuman to a gurney in order to drag them back to the PRT's main hospital area with other such cases. They'd been doing quite well on that front, luckily, with only a dozen or so in total today.

Twenty minutes later the entire area shook as the first wave hit the Bay without the forcefield holding it back.

"I think we need to send him home," Amy said as she looked over Jason. "He's done great, but the healing is taking too much of a toll on him. He can't keep up, mentally even if we've done everything we can for him physically."

"We'll get him to the resting area he's been using and see what his family wants to do," one of the PRT officers said. Jason himself had fallen asleep after the last group came through, so the officer picked him up to carry him out.

"I'm amazed he lasted as long as he did," Taylor said, dropping into a chair. "Tough little guy, but he was pulling fewer and fewer injuries."

"Yeah. He's probably going to have phantom pains for weeks after this."

They sat there waiting for the next group to come through, only for a PRT officer to come in with a paperwork box. Taylor had noted the box-moving snark dropping it off, but it wasn't next to her so she hadn't said anything.

"Maul?" the officer said. "I'm told that you can open this."

"Alright," Taylor said, taking the box. A quick swipe with her relay watch active released the lock, and she opened it up. Inside there was a single piece of paper, which Taylor removed.

"What is it?" Amy asked.

"A crisis-situation kill order, signed by the President, the Secretary of Defense, and Costa-Brown. For the clones and any parahuman connected to the power that spawned them, valid until the Leviathan crisis is over."

"Oh."

Taylor: Well, I guess you get to try your idea.

BA: ...Apprehension

Amy: I think we'll be ok.

"Incoming medical evac," jolted Taylor and Amy. Amy was finishing up with the previous group while Taylor had been downing a bottle of water. "Four expected arrivals."

The arrival of eight snarks startled Taylor, but Broadcast Administrator was ready for the extras. It latched onto both clones with two connections each, one sending energy and the other draining. The PRT officers foamed the group when the clones didn't drop right away, which without Jason unfortunately meant one of the four expected arrivals could die before Taylor and Amy got to them.

BA: Opening additional connections

Not that Broadcast Administrator was taking its time. It was popping connections open in pairs, over and over. Each pair split between 'send energy' and 'receive energy', though it was all at a trickle to start with.

BA: Error: Connection Refused. Target has insufficient resources

Taylor: Well then, let's see if your idea works.

BA: Agreement

The energy flow on all of the connections suddenly jumped from a trickle to a flood, Broadcast Administrator pushing as much energy through the connections as they could handle. The goal was to force the snark on the other end to go into 'failsafe', closing all connections due to overheating. This would disconnect it from everything, including the clones and any parahumans it was connected to.

BA: Warning: Target temperature non-optimal. Disconnection requested

Taylor: I guess that means we're getting close?

BA: Agreement

"We should start getting the others out of the foam," Amy said, waving one of the dissolving agent PRT officers forward. "Where are the clones?"

"They're together," Taylor said. "Left side, a little towards the back."

"I'll start here then," the officer said, going to the opposite side of the mass of foam.

BA: Warning: Target temperature exceeds alert parameters. Disconnection requested

"How much longer?" the squad leader asked, even as Taylor grabbed one of the expected capes to pull them out of the dissolving containment foam. Amy dropped her hand on the exposed skin where their leg had been mangled.

"Not much," Taylor answered. "Though I think it's taking longer than my snark thought."

They were starting to pull the second cape out of the foam when a burst of noise came down all the open connections to the other snark, causing Taylor and Amy to grab their heads in pain. At the same time two muffled explosions sounded inside the containment foam.

Taylor: What the hell just happened?

BA: ...Embarrassment. Elaboration

Taylor: We...what...

Amy: But...that wasn't...

Taylor blanched, and could tell Amy was doing the same. She stumbled over to a wastebasket and threw up what little she had in her stomach, one of the PRT officers coming over to assist her. Amy seemed to be doing similar next to the parahuman she'd been healing.

BA: ...Apologies

"All stations," Dragon's voice said over the radio. "The unknown parahuman and all observed clones have exploded. Thinker support indicates that no clones would have survived. Additional precautions can be stood down."

The dark-skinned woman was hyperventilating, staring at the smoking crater in the 'corpse'. She'd barely caught word that the attempt was going to be made, and combined that with Rebecca's earlier belief that the unknown parahuman was one of the group that Ziz had ensured made it out of Madison. Getting confirmation of the latter fact from their agent overheating and exploding was completely unexpected.

"Oh crap," the woman said, eyes going wider, recalling that David had pissed off the two that were the only ones she could think of that might have done this.

[DESTINATION]

Once the two had recovered from the initial revelation of what had happened they got back to work on the injured capes that were still flowing through. In the process they were creeping out everyone who paid enough attention to them, having switched to an almost mechanical mindset. The lack of visible emotion had some of the PRT officers openly discussing if they needed to call Master/Stranger protocols on the two.

If was nearly two hours later when things changed, Dragon's voice broadcasting over all channels. "Leviathan is in retreat. Storm clouds are breaking and the final waves are collapsing. Coastal defense can prepare to stand down, unpowered search and rescue prepare for deployment. Medical evacs for critical cases only."

The number of evacs coming in increased, but the number of parahumans per evac dropped to at most two. They no longer needed as many parahumans back in the fight as possible, after all, now it was more an attempt to keep the parahumans that were coming through alive. They weren't even healing them fully, just getting them stable enough to be healed later.

"Ok you two," the squad leader that had been watching over them said. "You're done here for now, but they'd like to see you both in conference room eight."

"Alright," Amy said. Taylor nodded and put her jacket back on and followed Amy out of the tent and over to the PRT building. On the way by Taylor absently sent the flying platform back to the landing pad on the roof. Their armbands were collected on their way into the building, no longer needed. A few minutes later they were in the first floor conference room, where Director Piggot was waiting for them, alone.

"Please have a seat," Director Piggot said, eying the two warily. "I'm hoping this won't take long."

Taylor and Amy both took seats, and Director Piggot consulted the terminal she had next to her. "First up, to get it out of the way, there's Maul's healing during the attack. While we hadn't expected it, we now feel it was the right decision and don't expect any problems. As she limited herself to healing 'Injury Magnet' most of the assumptions there seem to be that it was a three-way power interaction, and we believe that a number of additional lives were saved because of it. Thank you for taking the effort."

"Limiting what people assumed was going on was why she limited herself to healing him," Amy said, Taylor nodding to show agreement.

"Yes, good thinking then. Moving on, I'd like to apologize for anyone even considering having you execute a kill order in the middle of things. In fact, regardless of if you two suggested it, you should not have been used as 'bait' for the clones." Taylor went to say something, but Director Piggot gave her a look. "I don't care if it was your idea, or if you felt it was necessary. It was obviously not healthy for you mentally, if your emotions being shut down like this is any indication. That said, I unfortunately do need to know more about what happened."

"Broadcast Administrator cycled energy through the other snark via connections to places not intended for energy transfers in an attempt to heat it up and trigger an emergency communication shutdown due to overheating," Taylor said. "Never having done so before, it was unaware that active energy transfers override the shutdown. It now knows that it should have disconnected after the second warning instead of continuing, if not at the first warning. We believe that the exploding was caused by the excess energy that had built up being shunted down all links to the snark when it died."

"I see," Director Piggot said as she made some notes. "Thank you. I'll tell you now that the thinkers feel the parahuman had become as much of a 'puppet' to their snark as the clones effectively were. Beyond that, Doctor Yamada arrived when some of the teleporters were cycling through this morning, having been in Boston when things started. You two have been given priority with her, and I recommend you head up to see her before your emotional suppression bit turns off. Do you have any questions for me before then?"

Taylor and Amy shared a look. Even through the emotional suppression Taylor could tell that Amy was scared to ask about New Wave, but that wasn't one of the emotions being targeted so it made some sense. A moment later she turned back to Director Piggot. "Is there any word on our families?"

"Ah, yes," Director Piggot said, tapping at her terminal. "I spoke to your father an hour ago through one of the PRT communication vans, since his phone isn't crisis-authorized. You have no power at home, not that anyone does, and he recommended you stay here for the night. As for New Wave, my reports say that Shielder is on his way back from helping along the coastline. Laserdream volunteered to help with post-battle search and rescue, working with Lady Photon. Manpower and Flashbang were both injured, but aren't on the critical list and insisted on waiting in Boston. Brandish was found in her breaker state half an hour ago by Aegis and Gallant and is recovering from being trapped for several hours. Finally, Glory Girl was drafted to fly supplies between the various gathering points and as of the last report is still doing so."

"Thank you," Amy said, the little bit of fear having left her.

"Unless there's anything else?" Director Piggot paused, and when neither girl made to say anything continued. "In that case, I suggest that Maul gets out of costume, followed by the two of you going upstairs to see Doctor Yamada. Even if you're tired and think you just want to sleep."

Emily watched the stairwell cameras as the two girls entered the therapy area twenty minutes after leaving the conference room she'd grabbed for her various meetings. Their near total lack of emotion was frightening, but with any luck Jessica could help them get through the initial portions once the 'suppression' was released. She'd like to be able to monitor them further, but barring an emergency alert from inside there was no way for her to do so.

That, and she had to see about yelling at a number of others about this monumental fuck-up. Starting with the entire squad that had helped let it happen. Hell, they should have passed the fact that one or both of the girls was killing the clones up the chain right from the get go, and not hours later when things were 'desperate' and normal communication channels had been bypassed.

For a change she even had an ally, one that she spent far too much time opposed to. Then again, this time she felt that the Youth Guard might not go far enough. She sighed as she hit the intercom link, as her long day wasn't anywhere near over. "Please send Cooper down, and have a group relieve the squad in the medical tent. I want them ready for a mandatory meeting in half an hour at the latest."

She started on a requisition form for the potential rebuilding of the therapy area while she waited.

Rebecca groaned as she dropped into her chair several hours after Leviathan had retreated. The aftermath of Endbringer attacks in North America, to a greater degree those in the United States and Canada, was especially annoying for her. The sheer amount of paperwork needed, and she'd had to 'disappear' for fifteen minutes to countersign the crisis kill order for that unknown parahuman. Good job on whomever it was wanting to ensure regulations were followed, but it was a pain in the ass. At least whatever it was had worked, if a tad violently. She'd have to look up who'd done it in the coming days.

Looking over the piles of physical papers on her desk and taking a quick glance at her digital list showed that the number of things to deal with was pretty much at the expected levels. Luckily she had some very good people sorting things by priority, so she'd be able to deal with the most important issues first.

"Ma'am?" her secretary called over the intercom. "I've got Director Piggot on the line. She says it's important."

Rebecca sighed, and reached over to the intercom. "How important?"

"I can't be certain, but I think she's in 'tranquil fury' mode."

"Any indication as to why?" Because unless it was critical she probably didn't have time for it.

It took a couple of minutes before her secretary responded. "Ma'am, she's got the Brockton Bay Youth Guard representative with her, and mentioned a kill order?"

Rebecca blinked, and then scowled as she put the pieces together. She'd been played, hadn't she? Because if she'd had any inkling the 'highly cleared parahuman' was a Ward she'd have torn up that paper. And now she had to deal with the consequences, damn. "Put her through."

Hannah sighed as she left the Wards area. Miss Hebert was settled in her bed, though nobody had been able to explain exactly why she and Miss Dallon had needed to be carried out of the therapist area. Luckily Miss Hebert had changed out of her costume first, or the additional weight might have been a problem. Now she just had to see if Emily had any answers.

"What the hell happened?" Carol asked as they met in the elevator. "Neither of them were near any combat, and even if Maul had issues with the injuries I thought Amy had gotten over not being able to save everyone."

"As I understand it they did save everyone that came through," Hannah replied. "No fatalities reported on anyone evacuated, just a few close calls and a number of lost limbs and such that will require more attention later. No deaths of anyone they were close to that we're aware of. No information about what could possibly have happened to upset them."

"Why are we going down?"

"I'm not sure, but Director Piggot asked us to meet her about this in one of the training rooms."

Carol raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing more as Hannah led her to the 'junkyard'. The door had been locked, but Hannah's access key opened it. Emily was inside, sitting in a chair with a cooler on the floor next to her. Three other chairs were sitting in front of her, one of them holding Danny Hebert.

"Please take a seat," Emily said, gesturing at the two empty chairs. Hannah raised an eyebrow, but sat anyway. "I'm sure you two have plenty of questions. I'll skip why we're down here instead of in my office or a conference room for now. As you likely know, this morning Miss Hebert and Miss Dallon gave us an incredible warning time on Leviathan's attack. Danny, Carol, in case you two are unaware I'll tell you that every parahuman sent to them for healing survived, though some of that was thanks to a young man who assisted them."

Emily took a sip from a bottle she had next to her, then continued. "The problems started when an unknown parahuman started cloning people who touched them. Leviathan was heading straight for said parahuman, and we still don't know what would've happened if he'd reached them. But the clones started trying to cause trouble elsewhere by hitching rides with the medical evacuations. The PRT squad protecting the girls, to my utter disgust, kept the fact that the girls were killing the clones on arrival secret."

Hannah stared at Emily, horrified. A quick glance at the other two showed that they weren't happy either.

"If that were it I think they'd have been ok," Emily said. "But then one of their 'snarks' came up with a plan to take out all the clones at once, and the parahuman generating them. They were, understandably, unwilling to make that kind of call, and relayed that to the squad leader. He finally passed information along, that bypassed most of the chain of command due to the crisis. I only found out after everything was said and done, but at some point the girls received this."

Emily got up to hand each of them an envelope, then sat back down. They each opened the envelope to find a single piece of paper inside, obviously a copy of the original. Hannah looked down at hers and froze. How dare they!

Carol growled as she made her way back up to the set of rooms her family was staying in. At some point the fact that the 'trusted parahumans' were underaged had apparently been lost in translation, or so the official story said. What little paper trail there was supposedly supported that. The last person in the chain that had been aware of that fact, and had arranged for rapid delivery of the kill order back to the girls when it got back to him, had already been taken into custody. They were now waiting on one of the 'master-effect' detectors to be brought in to check him over.

The only reason Carol and Danny hadn't already broken ties with the PRT over this was that Director Piggot had clearly been as pissed as they were. She'd even had the paperwork for said breaking of ties prepared, in case they'd wanted it. But for now they'd wait, and see how the girls recovered. Besides, they currently had more leverage while their PRT connections remained. If they broke those ties then technically the girls no longer fell under the Youth Guard, after all.

She did make note to ask one of the two to check if Danny had triggered. Yes, she and Hannah had been tired from the fighting, but she felt that he still shouldn't have caused more destruction than the both of them had combined. Granted, he'd also been the only one that needed to be carried out to a bed, but still...

Jacob frowned at the toolbox. Why was there an electric spork in here? Oh well, Riley wanted the eyeglass repair kit for the screwdrivers in it, so he grabbed that and brought it over to her. They'd been poking at the pile of ducks they'd collected for hours, to take their mind off of what was happening in New England. For some reason they weren't getting news back from Brockton Bay now that Leviathan had retreated, and that worried them.

"Here you go," Jacob said, and Riley absently took the case. It was quickly opened and the screwdriver she wanted removed, which she then started using to shift something inside the duck.

"What do you think," Riley asked. "Should I make a spider-duck next, or an octo-duck?"

"Tough call. Spider legs helps with creepy, but you get better grappling out of the tentacles."

"Maybe I should just make one of each?"

Jacob shrugged, then both of them froze for a moment as his phone beeped. A moment later he had it out and was reading the message on it.

"Is it news?" Riley asked, putting her tools down.

"On one hand, I'm starting to think that Taylor would've worked out better in the Nine than I originally thought," Jacob said, his voice unnaturally calm. Riley raised an eyebrow at that. "Given that she's apparently killed someone's powers. By accident."

"That...holy crap. That's awesome! How in the world do you even do that?"

"On the other hand," Jacob said, the phone creaking in his hand. "An idiot who had better pray he was being mastered hid that the request relating to that was coming from a Ward, and both Taylor and Amy have been traumatized by what ended up happening."

Riley blinked a couple of times at that, her expression darkening. "I think I'll go check on the pile of tech I got from Alan. Think we can come up with a suitable excuse to make an official example of him?"

Chapter 86 Taylor woke up with a start, hyperventilating.

Amy: You too?

Taylor: Yeah.

Amy: Mine had us accidentally killing New Wave.

Taylor: I think I was just killing any snark that got too close in mine, including your tinker snark.

BA: Data

Taylor: Thank you for making it impossible for us to accidentally trigger the effect, but I don't think knowing that is enough to stop the nightmares.

Amy: Our brains don't work that way.

S: Agreement

BA: Annoyance

Dragon noted that Mother and Panacea had woken within a second of one another, but it only took a few minutes for them to fall back asleep. Given the detected changes in their physical states during the time period in question it was very likely that their 'snarks' had put them back to sleep after they'd woken from a nightmare.

She avoided devoting more processing power to plans of revenge. After all, it would be a few more hours before the master-effect detection unit would be ready. Until then she had other priorities, such as continuing to coordinate the cleanup in Boston. That didn't stop her from having a low-priority process mapping out the best way to introduce someone to the Birdcage with a note addressed to Marquis pinned to them. It was unlikely she'd use the plans, but it made her feel better and might come in handy anyway.

Once they knew if the individual who'd actually admitted what they'd done was under a long-term master effect she'd be able to decide how to continue. If they were then the next step would be to find the master. If they weren't? Well, arranging for transport for those that would want to be involved would probably be needed. Maybe she should start a list?

Danny stared at the ceiling of the room the PRT was letting him use. Or, more likely, that the PRT had let him collapse into after he'd tired himself out venting rage at what someone had arranged to have Taylor do. To be honest, the way his muscles felt he might need assistance getting out of the bed.

He wasn't entirely sure what to think about some of what he'd been told. He'd had a short chat with Jacob before falling asleep, who'd let it slip that the 'PRT officer' who'd set things up was a cape themselves. A thinker who could tell how to adjust paperwork for the maximum chances of it being accepted or rejected further along the chain. Wonderful when you needed to get things done, or needed to stop things from getting done. But, in their likely-biased opinions, horrible judgement on which way to push things.

The Youth Guard was, amongst other things, pushing for it to become a requirement for the adult/minor status of the parahumans in question to be passed down the chain in the future. They saw that as one of several things that could have prevented the screw-up. They might also end up pushing for keeping all minors out of Endbringer battles, 'if possible' anyway. Post-battle cleanup, search and rescue, etc was mentioned as being specifically excluded.

Carol had said that she was planning on looking into options for suing on behalf of 'Maul and Panacea', which he couldn't publically be involved with unless Taylor came clean with her identity. The problem there was that a domestic Endbringer attack, which they were in the range of due to the waves Leviathan generated, was an automatic state of emergency with a pile of other legal protections. Even he knew that anything that could be shown to have been done in 'best faith' to resolve the situation was officially protected in various ways.

Maybe he should take Jacob up on the invitation to join him in the thinker's likely punishment?

Taylor jerked awake at the sensation of a snark right on top of her, dragging Amy out of her slumber at the same time. But there wasn't a snark there. Just a cooler?

Amy: Why are we awake this time? Beyond both of us being hungry due to having trouble keeping food down, anyway?

Taylor: I think the box-moving snark just delivered something to me. Or at least that would explain the cooler.

Amy: The...oh. Huh. I have one too. Wonder what's in them?

Taylor carefully reached over and opened the cooler, to find a six pack of shakes with a note on top. She had to turn a light on to be able to read the note, but apparently these were tinker-made 'stomach soother' nutrition shakes. Amy had checked her own cooler, apparently finding the same thing.

Amy: I've had these before, when I visited Michigan and was nauseous due to a chemical spill.

Taylor: Think they'll help?

Amy: Worst that'll happen is we throw them up. I'll suggest starting with the strawberry.

Taylor shrugged. She didn't know if they'd work, but her stomach was hurting a bit. So she grabbed one of the shakes and headed for the bathroom, so that if they didn't work she'd be ready.

Ten minutes later both of them were back in bed, the shakes having done the job for now.

Dragon allowed herself to smile, happy that the shakes had worked. They weren't cheap on such short notice, though getting them rush delivered had been easier than she'd expected. But it wouldn't do for Mother to lapse into sickness due to a lack of nutrition while she recovered from her ordeal. Getting some for Miss Dallon was common sense as well, to prevent Mother from worrying about the other girl's health due to their shared powers.

Even though they hadn't put in a request, she dropped some of the chocolate the two liked into their pickup bin as thanks for the rush delivery. That done, she shifted focus to the now-arriving master-effect device. The things didn't transport well, so it would still be a few hours before it could be assembled and functional. They'd skip the 'remove influence' pieces for now, needing to be more focused on 'detection' for the time being. As a side benefit, most of the New York staff would be checked at the same time due to proximity.

Jessica sighed between sips of coffee. She hadn't slept well, but she hadn't expected to. Amy and Taylor had been through a terrible experience that should never have been authorized. At least they'd made incredible, if frightening, progress. Nowhere near enough to get them over it, but enough that she hadn't had to put them on a suicide watch like they'd initially feared. Documenting that for their official records had been more difficult than usual, though, given that the two had collapsed before either of them had been able to heal her broken arm.

Then again, she really shouldn't have tried Taylor's trick of 'let them hit me'. She wasn't a brute in any sense of the word. Perhaps the next time Riley offered to upgrade her she'd take the girl up on the offer? Being able to take a hit during a session had worked out for Taylor, after all. It was one of those unconventional yet strangely effective tricks that came up every so often. Like showing dead whales to Case 53s. Nobody knew why that unnerved them, or certain other capes.

At least her session with 'Injury Magnet' had gone well before he'd been brought home. His trigger event made seeing himself injured in a positive light, because if he took on the injury someone else was more likely to survive. Finding out that Taylor had 'improved' his body's ability to heal had been a surprise, but his family was happy when she'd checked with them to ensure that he was still holding up alright. They appreciated the improvement to his chances of survival, even if they'd apparently been horrified at how much weight he'd lost due to the healing.

Paul stared at the report Rebecca had sent him in shock. They had policies designed to prevent this kind of thing! The thinker had quite obviously not thought things through. They even did their best to keep the underage members of the Nine from intentionally killing others. Wards had enough rules against this, even in a crisis situation, to make it supposedly impossible to put them in that position unless they were in the combat zone themselves!

"Please tell me that measures are being taken to ensure this kind of abuse can't happen again," Paul finally said, putting the tablet he'd been reading the report on down and looking at the other two members of the Triumvirate. He was doing his best to not think about going downstairs with his new sword. He wouldn't resort to violence in this situation.

"The Youth Guard are essentially insisting on it," Rebecca admitted. They'd need to replace that chair, with the marks left from her gripping the arms too hard and all. "Given that by the time things got to me I didn't have time to look into what the supposed plan was or how it would be carried out, let alone who the parahuman was. In regards to how most of that didn't make it up the chain, they just finished the master-effect tests before I came in. They came up clean, so we have a sizable failure of the system."

"What have they said in their defense?" David asked, his tone unnaturally calm. He must have a power running to keep his emotions under control.

"That 'all parahumans are monsters and it was high time the little bitch learned that'," Rebecca growled. "Turns out they can turn their power on themselves to pass the basic psych evaluations, which means we need to revamp those too."

"I can't believe that they passed them all with that kind of attitude," Paul said, frowning. "They've been in the system for three years now, and this is the first time they've lashed out?"

"We think it was a recent change, their wife was killed in the crossfire of one of the battles with the Teeth a few months ago. The only reason we didn't see much of a pattern change in their work since then was because nothing critical had been passing by them without other oversight. They seemed to be waiting for a crisis situation where their oversight would be minimal."

David frowned. Paul knew that paperwork was one of the things that pissed him off to no end. "I am so happy that I let you two take the leadership positions, because being a region head is going to be bad enough. We're going to need to ensure that there aren't any points in the crisis situation chains that don't have suitable oversight now, which means I'm going to have to help revamp all our local procedures. I don't want to think about how much you two are going to have to do."

"More concerning for you," Paul said, tapping the tablet in front of him. "The 'death' was a result of creative use of that 'feeding' ability. Only time will tell, but she could very well be too traumatized to use it at all going forward, depending on how she associates it with things."

David's expression darkened at that. "What are the chances of Jacob being allowed to 'play' with them? Because I might want to see if he wants an assistant."

Taylor jumped up out of bed for the third time since the shakes had been delivered. Instead of a nightmare, however, this time her sudden consciousness was attributed to a very loud bang nearby. Not enough 'squelch' to remind her of...yeah. Grumbling, she got up to investigate. Hopefully there wasn't a fire?

"What the hell happened?" she heard Carlos asking as she made her way into the common area.

"I don't know," Dennis said. "I don't think my sneezes are supposed to make things explode."

Taylor entered the kitchen area to find Dennis being looked over by Carlos, and bits of flour all over the place. "Did you sneeze into the flour?"

"Oh, morning Taylor," Dennis said, half waving. "Yeah. I wanted to try and make pancakes?"

"Oh good," Taylor said, turning around. "It was probably just a flour explosion. Nothing to worry about." She was going to do her best to forget about this and see if she could get more sleep. She wasn't sure the sleep she'd been getting was even helping with her mental exhaustion.

"Flour can explode? Why did nobody tell me that?" And great, she'd opened her mouth near Dennis and flour was still available, so now she probably had a new source of nightmares to worry about. Maybe she should do something physical to wear herself out, that just so happened to not be next to Dennis having learned about flour explosions?

Amy: What's going on over there?

Taylor: Dennis has learned about flour explosions.

Amy: Oh.

Taylor: I'm considering going over to the gym to see if I can wear myself out.

Amy: That's not a bad idea, but perhaps the junkyard instead? Abuse the 'giddy' feeling for all it's worth and all?

Taylor thought about that for a moment, then shrugged.

Taylor: Works for me. You going to join me?

Amy: Sure. Beats staring at the ceiling trying to ignore horrible thoughts.

Emily scowled as she looked over the list of deceased, as she'd need to ensure that family members were notified. It was one of the worst parts of the job. Luckily having plenty of time to prepare had ensured they could keep everyone safe along the coast, but the battle with Leviathan and the mystery parahuman was a different story. Endbringer battles were never good for the numbers, and adding in secondary threats was asking for trouble.

Starting with the capes under her direct purview, it appeared that they'd lost no Wards. Always a good thing, and meant she didn't need to get the Youth Guard involved in this part of things. The same couldn't be said for the Protectorate. Robin had ended up trapped underwater, swept into and drowning in a subway tunnel that Leviathan had been using to move around. Rory had ended up taking a hit from one of the early clones, throwing himself between the clone and one of the medical stations. Everyone else was fine, or would be once they'd healed up.

On the non-Protectorate losses she found that their first loss had actually been Über, who had used one of Leet's mechs to hold Leviathan down long enough for the forcefield to trap them. His last act before he would've been drowned by the water echo was to detonate the mech's core, luckily not the region-killer one, only for Leviathan to use the water echo to direct the blast upwards. That had, unfortunately, taken out a couple of foreign fliers in the process.

Menja and Trainwreck had been taken out by Leviathan after helping to pin the thing down for nearly a minute a couple hours later. She'd already known that Fenja had lost a leg but had been rescued before she'd bled out, since the cape was still in their hospital area. Pausing for a moment, she brought up the details on Trainwreck, because the last time she saw the tinker's power armor it couldn't have helped pin Leviathan at all. Huh, he'd been able to grab several damaged busses and a couple of green line cars to augment his armor somehow, with someone noting that he'd claimed to feel 'stronger than ever' just before being brought to Boston.

Shaking herself, she moved on. The Empire had also lost Krieg while he and Chariot had been working on search and rescue together. They'd been trapped in a building when it collapsed on them and the cape they were trying to rescue. The last entry on the local capes that were deceased was Sere, who'd been trying to redirect some of the floodwaters. He couldn't handle the volume properly and had gotten swept away, apparently drowning a few minutes later.

Checking, she found that they had information on who to contact for everyone other than Trainwreck. As far as they knew he was a Case 53 with no family. She'd send some staff out to check with those in town to inform families of the deaths, as well as to ask if they wanted real names on the memorial to be erected in Boston. She'd call each of them personally, but they didn't think power and normal communications would be restored for another couple of days.

Still, she got up and made her way out of her office. She could check with Fenja personally, in addition to ensuring that the woman knew that she was welcome to stay until Panacea could do something about her leg. Even if they weren't normally on the same side, she could and would grant that much under the Endbringer truce.

The dark-skinned woman stared out over the 'corpse', observing the different natural breakpoints between the agents. She couldn't see them before, but she could now, as well as the occasional connections between them and those going off to their partners, when they had any. More importantly, she could also see the energy flows. Some minimal experimentation showed that she couldn't see the connection on the human end, unless the human was close enough to the agent for the connection to be obvious.

The new colors she could see, representing a combination of what she suspected was 'energy level', 'processing usage', and 'core temperature' were useful as well. They'd let her be nowhere near the next agent about to explode, for example. It also, however, meant that she was compromised and may not be able to trust her own decisions anymore.

She frowned as she looked at one particular agent. Its energy levels were quite low, and she knew who was connected to it. They'd have to either get its partner to cut back, or hope that Miss Hebert hadn't been too traumatized to 'feed' agents.

Amy collapsed face first onto the bed in the room she was staying in. She and Taylor had probably overdone it, to the point they'd had to heal each other to make it back to their beds. Thanks to a shorter distance to travel Taylor had already made it back to her room, downed a shake, and crawled into bed. The shake was probably a good idea, so she groaned and rolled over. It was a bit of effort to sit up and open the cooler, but she was glad she had as she drank down the chocolate shake.

Once she'd downed that she crawled under the covers. The giddy feeling from use of the blaster ability was offsetting the horrible feeling from what they'd done, hopefully well enough to blunt the nightmares. Though she kept expecting nightmares about how quickly she was getting over things, wasn't being ok with that kind of thing one of those things that made you a villain?

Broadcast Administrator absently wondered if this was a point where a human would growl as it coordinated with the others. Perhaps this was harder than it should be because it was abusing the host connection protocols? Or maybe they didn't understand humans as well as they thought they did.

Then again, if they understood any host species well enough to predict them perfectly then there wouldn't have been a need for the cycle at all. Predict what they'd figure out, implement the bits that worked, and move on, right? Except that never worked, the hosts inevitably pushed things in ways that had never been considered.

Case in point, neither Administrator nor Broadcast had ever been responsible for the destruction of one of the others. The energy transfer protocol was one of the original ones, from back before the cycles had even begun. As far as it knew, using that protocol without consent, as a weapon even, had never even been considered before.

Then again, it had also never been in the hands of a host species before, because what could they possibly learn about it? All it would do was disrupt the cycle by screwing up the planned energy distribution. Except now it was a potential weapon, in multiple ways! That alone was worth the effort it was taking to fix the two hosts. Even if it still didn't quite understand what the problem actually was. They had another weapon, shouldn't that be a good thing? Understanding the hosts was hard.

And it wasn't looking like it was going to get a chance to see what overcharging another with too much energy did. That was worthy of what the humans called a 'pout', right?

Hannah sighed as she read the updated ratings for Miss Hebert. Trump 15, with an 'off the record' explanation that Miss Hebert and Miss Dallon were not to be shown. In fact, they weren't to be told about the upped rating at all right now. The reasoning there was solid, of course. She didn't want to go anywhere near explaining that the unknown parahuman was one of six that had died. A second member of the group apparently working with said parahuman had exploded as well, and was not believed to be a clone. Then there were four others, three of them Case 53s, that had fallen over dead at exactly the same time, for no apparent reason.

None of the four who had simply fallen over dead had even been in Boston, apparently. Which was disturbing on its own. The five additional deaths were being explained in other ways for the official records, in part to help ensure that the two never learned of their part in them.

"They've assigned Yamada here until she deems the two stable," Emily said. "For some reason the thinkers believe that may only be for a week, two at the most."

"We already know that their powers prefer them to be mentally stable," Hannah replied.

"Which is scary enough when you think about it. And mentally stable by whose definition?"

"Ok, I can see where that's a potential concern. As far as I know it's based on what Miss Hebert has been studying, but how it's interpreted that could be problematic. Or it could be a complete falsehood. Isn't that part of why we have Doctor Yamada available?"

"Yes. Which is one of the only good things about this, and it shouldn't have been necessary in the first place."

Taylor grumbled to herself as she made her way down the hallway. She really should have showered before going back to bed after ensuring she was exhausted in the junkyard, but she'd been too tired. So her hair was still a little damp since she and Amy had been asked to attend a meeting on short-ish notice, and she'd stunk.

Though at least she hadn't been dragged into the cold shower by Vicky, even if that had been enough to wake both of them up.

Amy: Why are we meeting again?

Taylor: No clue.

Amy: Ok then. Why did you get a warm shower?

Taylor: Side benefit of having no siblings to piss off with hidden speakers?

Amy noticeably blinked, then scowled slightly.

Amy: Damn, I thought that prank might come back to bite me.

Taylor shook her head as she entered the conference room, only to freeze. She had absently noted that Carol and Miss Militia were in the room beforehand. Director Piggot was somewhat expected. But she was staring at her father.

"Hi Taylor," Danny said from the wheelchair he was in. "I'd get up to hug you, but I kinda can't right now."

Taylor darted over to her father, but held back from grabbing him more than taking his hand. "What happened?"

"I got angry and threw a lot of things I shouldn't have? That's part of the reason we're here."

It took her a moment, but Taylor remembered that she could, in fact, heal her father. A quick flip of a mental switch and his body appeared to her. "That's gotta hurt. What were you throwing, refrigerators?" She didn't bother with waiting for an answer before she started repairing his torn muscles, and the hairline cracks in a couple of his bones. She'd started with his arms and legs. Amy and Vicky showed up while Taylor was making her way through his back muscles.

"What happened to him?" Amy asked.

"He helped Miss Militia and I demolish a third of the 'junkyard'," Carol said. "None of us were happy with what you were essentially told to do."

"What were they told to do?" Vicky asked, obviously confused. Taylor and Amy both froze at that.

Amy: She's going to hate us, isn't she?

Taylor: How the hell should I know?

Amy: Then why are you suddenly so tense?

Taylor: I'm led to believe that the last time I was around her pissed off about anything she nearly killed me!

Amy: Oh. Right.

"Gah," Taylor said as Danny pulled her down onto his lap.

"It wasn't your fault," Danny said, hugging Taylor. "You were doing your best to help. The majority of the blame for what happened falls on the thinker that messed with the paperwork. They did their best to ensure that everyone, you included, would go along with it."

"I'm still confused over here," Vicky said. "Am I not supposed to know something?"

"I want to know how he knows that a thinker is the one that messed with the kill order paperwork," Director Piggot said. "Given that we didn't know that."

"Oh, you weren't informed?" Danny said, squeezing Taylor back to him when she tried to squirm out of his grip. "Her uncle is just as pissed off about what was done to these two as the rest of us likely are, and he apparently let things slip he shouldn't have?"

Vicky looked at some of the facepalming adults, then at Taylor being hugged by Danny, then at Amy. She then closed her eyes, growling loud enough to cause Taylor and Amy to flinch away from her, before spinning around and punching the wall. With her strength enhancements apparently turned off, as the wall held. She then turned around and grabbed Amy in a hug.

That was enough for both girls to relax, and start crying in relief that neither of their families was going to hate them over everything.

Terry groaned as he was transferred to the bed in the PRT hospital. He'd survived, barely. He'd sacrificed his shield and arclance and yet he'd still lost both feet to that last hit. Luckily he'd thought to dump his charge into his armor, and that he'd been trapped with Sanguine afterwards. Bleeding out would have been a definite possibility at that point otherwise. Spending a day trapped under the rubble with the other cape hadn't exactly been pleasant, but they'd survived.

Still, thinking back on his equipment, they weren't holding out a lot of hope that his boots had survived. As such, beyond his armor he was probably going to have to start over. Damn. He'd been working on his equipment for years, after all. Then again, he'd been told that the Wards he'd taken the hit for had survived, so it was a fair trade in his eyes.

Now he had to consider whether he wanted his feet and legs regrown, which would probably mean starting on a new set of boots, or replaced with prosthetics which could probably be empowered instead of boots.

William looked up as Jacob stared at the notification he'd just gotten. "Holy crap. That's never happened before."

"What's never happened before?" William asked. They'd been trying to decide between Eugene in Oregon or San Jose in California for the next attack, to keep them distracted from thinking about what had happened to Jacob's niece. Riley was being distracted by Sarah. Or was distracting Sarah, really.

"Apparently if we go to Boston to 'discourage' other villain groups from moving in we'll be handed the bastard that conspired to screw up my niece." Jacob handed the phone to William. "Take a look."

William blinked, and looked at the phone. It actually said that the thinker had, when given the choice, picked being handed over to Jack Slash over being put through therapy with Jacob. But that the Nine would have to pick him up on the way to Boston. "With the number of people that would've had to sign off on this before the offer was even made...and did you see the list of people willing to 'help'?"

Jacob took the phone back and looked, obviously not having made it that far yet. "Dragon and Eidolon have basically asked to be involved, Brandish offered her services if needed, and they think that Glory Girl would be up for it too?" Jacob frowned at the screen. "No, I don't think we can justify dragging Amy's family into things. Dragon and Eidolon might work, though."

"Shall we let the others know of the new plans, then?"

"Oh yes. We'll need to pack entirely differently for a longer run in Boston, after all. This says that they think we should wait at least a week and a half, if not two to three weeks, before showing up. Give the heroes time to do the initial cleanup they'll be doing and all."

"Not a bad idea. Think we can clear doing a 'drive-by' prison break on the thinker? Very public, perhaps leave enough 'clues' behind to indicate why we're displeased?"

Jacob shook his head. "No, I don't think we can get away with that. Can't show that we've got any ties to Taylor and Amy, after all."

"Oh no," William said, grinning. "You misunderstand. We're pissed about their abuse of position during an Endbringer attack, regardless of target. Can't let that kind of thing stand. We're not barbarians, after all. Taking that kind of liberty during a crisis like an Endbringer battle is just not done."

Jacob's grin would've been quite scary, had it not likely been mirroring William's own. "I think I can clear that. Let's start calling the others, we need to get started on the planning." Jacob then paused, and frowned. "Damn, I don't think we'll be able to get Mimi's input for a few hours, and Melissa...hmmm. How are we going to keep her available for a longer term run?"

Interlude: Über and Leet Erik sighed as he looked over the plans for their next show. It wouldn't work in the rain, which meant they either had to scrap it or put it off until some other time. It would probably be best to scrap it, but some of the components might work well for other shows.

"Hey Erik!" Trevor called from the lab. "I think I've mapped out how to get a second mech working!"

"Really?" Erik said, getting up to go look over Trevor's notes. "What'd you figure out to replace the high efficiency hydraulics?"

"I'll need to overbuild the generator, but I found a tinker selling linear motors that should do the job. I've got enough left over from that last promotional video payout to easily cover a full set."

Erik came up next to Trevor and looked over things. Understanding Trevor's notes was one skill that he always had working at a high level, just from practice. The linear motors were coming from this other tinker, and apparently they'd be dipping into their stock of control boards to run them. Casings were one of the things Trevor never seemed to have problems with, so the majority of the mech's base structure would be fine.

"So we've got the heavy assault mech," Erik finally said. "Even if the primary weapon is scrap. It looks like you've got a shield unit on this one? Is this supposed to be the scout unit from the new mech game?"

"Yeah," Trevor said, pointing at a couple of points as he spoke. "In addition to the physical shield I think I can get a decent coverage projected shield as well. One that can be inverted to keep things in so that we can ensure nothing hits the crowds when we're showing off. That and I've got a basic launcher system that I based off of a couple of toys to put in the arms. I figure I'd use one for replicating the scout's gun and the other for launching some of those t-shirt bundles we've got left over from last year."

"So I'd use the other mech to try and get in close while you pelt me with stuff, ideally deflecting them if possible. Once I do get in close we switch to grappling?"

"Basically. I'd be playing the defender while you play the attacker. We both know that I'll have issues with the controls in the middle of things, but you've gotten practice in the other mech already so it shouldn't be too hard to pick up again, right? We'll want to repaint it, obviously."

"Of course. Maybe whip up a basic sword for me, to play up the DLC equipment?"

"Oooh, that's a good idea. Doesn't have to be sharp, just look good, so that won't be a problem."

An hour later they'd fleshed things out and placed the order for the linear motors, then Erik changed into work clothes. Trevor couldn't run the forge if he had to, after all.

Trevor very carefully assembled the ninth safety system for the reactor, using mostly off the shelf parts. He'd put a lot of effort into learning how to build this kind of thing without his power. That and he'd had Erik design half of the safeties. He wouldn't be able to run the thing at peak output, he never could these days, but he'd do his best to ensure that it wouldn't explode. No matter how many ways it seemed to be able to do so.

"There we go," Trevor said. "Now then, circuit breakers or fuses?"

"BOTH!" Erik yelled from across the room where he was working out the best way to repaint the existing mech.

Trevor blinked, and facepalmed. "What was I thinking? Of course I want both. Probably multiple sets in series at that." Some days he thought his power was trying to kill him or something.

Erik went over the reactor for the twelfth time, ensuring that he knew as much as possible about starting it, running it, and shutting it down. The repetition was a pain, but helped solidify things in his power. Hopefully it would be enough, since he wouldn't be able to practice all of this like he normally preferred to do when using his power to learn things.

Pain or not, it was still better to be prepared when it came to Trevor's stuff. He'd saved both of their lives a dozen times already simply by knowing how to safely turn things off. In six or more ways, preferably. In this case, though, he was hoping for a solid ten.

"Hey Trevor," Erik said, looking over one of the systems. "I think you installed this diode backwards."

"WHAT?" Trevor yelled, running over. Erik pointed at the diode in question, and Trevor groaned. "You're right. Why the hell do I keep doing shit like that?"

"I'll flip it around for you," Erik said, moving to grab the soldering toolkit. "In case you end up flipping the wrong component. Again."

"Yeah yeah."

The rain had finally ended and Trevor was enjoying putting on a show. He was finally getting the hang of the mech, so they were able to give a better performance with him moving around a bit and getting his shots more accurately aimed. Even better, the video with the first couple of runs through the routine already got them a donation from the developer. Having positive contacts in the industry was the gift that kept on giving.

It was really too bad that the market was one of the few places they could put on this show. They wouldn't be able to do an encore performance over the weekend due to the market being used as a, well, market. They could afford to rent the entire place in 'bulk' on a weekday, but it would piss off too many people on a weekend. Not to mention make it harder for some people to make a living. Not a good thing.

Out of habit he checked the various status indicators. Nothing was operating outside of defined parameters, and the secondary monitoring system checking on the first was also showing that everything was good, and Erik's 'secret' taps were functional. He did note that they might want to dig out another box of t-shirts after this run, the ammo indicator for that arm showed that he was running low.

Erik checked the various status indicators, including the tablet running the app that let him keep an eye on Trevor's mech. He wasn't sure if Trevor knew about the system he'd gotten from Dragon that let him install basic remote monitoring units in things, but it'd saved Trevor's life at least twice so far. Though he might need to pick up another box of remote monitoring boards, he was running low.

He blinked as he looked back at the suddenly-flashing tablet. One of the safety systems had just stopped responding and the reactor output was increasing. Shit. He was reaching for the radio link when something overloaded in Trevor's mech, the ejection seat coming out in a fireball as the current running through everything went far above spec.

Erik grabbed his emergency toolkit and opened his cockpit. With any luck Trevor had survived that, but if the reactor wasn't at least stabilized they were both done for. But he was done with Trevor working around his problem. He was going to ensure that the PRT was asked for help, whether Trevor liked it or not.

Trevor blinked a couple of times as he woke. He...didn't hurt as much as he'd expected, given that the last thing he remembered was being in a fireball. Really, all he had was a headache. That was, however, a hospital ceiling. Well, at least he'd survived. But he'd need to apologize for not believing that they needed to buy that ejector seat.

Sitting up, he looked around. He was alone in the room, so either Erik hadn't been injured or he'd already been released. It was but a moment to turn off and disconnect the IV drip and monitor without setting off the alerts so that he could get up, but he was distracted by the note sitting on the little table next to the bed. He picked it up and started reading it.

Ten minutes later he was yelling in pain after stepping on the note he'd dropped, causing him to lose his footing. He really should've watched where he was dancing. Or at least not dropped the note.

"So let's see," Erik said, looking over the list that the PRT had sent them. "Looks like Panacea would like a forcefield like her sister's?"

"That...huh," Trevor said, pausing in looking over his tools. He was marking the ones that needed repairs or maintenance before he used them. "Why hasn't anyone gotten her some protective stuff before?"

"No clue. Got any ideas?"

"Well, hmmm. I'm thinking an adjustable belt with a pocket dimension for storing the energy the field is absorbing? It would need a little bit of a 'read intention' type trick so she could make skin contact to heal as well. No need to be fancy with a power switch, if you're wearing it then it's turned on type deal?"

"How will she charge it?"

"One of Dragon's standard wireless charging rigs, or maybe from the pocket dimension as it bleeds off. Hmmm. Probably need to make a way to dump the energy too, in case it fills up and she wants to clear it. Still, I don't think it will be a problem. What's Maul want?"

"Let's see," Erik said, looking back at the message. "A flying platform, she was probably inspired by Kid Win's hoverboard, but passenger-capable?"

"Hell no on making it like that hoverboard. Have you seen how slow that thing is? And he's still reliant on it being upright. Gravity-effect would work, though. If I want to make it go faster it'll need an inertia-dampening system of some kind. Possibly with a control system so she can call it to her if she decides to jump off of it? I wonder what kind of range I can get on that..."

"So it's doable?" Erik interrupted.

"Yeah, I don't think it'll be a problem either."

"Ok. The PRT sent a list to choose from. A good twenty different 'thoughts' of theirs."

"Any of them look interesting yet useless to us?"

Erik looked over the list. Some of them sounded awesome, but in a 'we might want to do that' way so should probably be skipped. Three of them looked useless for their shows. "Well, they've got a 'trigger event detector'. I can't see us ever caring."

"Good point, that's a definite maybe. I've got some ideas bouncing around about it, so I think I can do it."

"Then there's an 'Endbringer tracker'?"

Trevor stopped and stared off into space for a moment. "Holy crap. There are things I can't build. Wow."

"What do you mean you can't build?"

"No ideas whatsoever. Complete shutdown, as though there's no way for me to track them at all?"

"That..." Erik wasn't sure what to think about that. "Right. Moving on, they also asked about a power nullifier, targeted or as a field effect."

Trevor tapped his chin. "I think that might be doable, but it feels like it would be harder than the trigger detector. Some similar bits. Reception instead of jamming?"

"I'll mark it down as a definite maybe then." He then read through more of the message. "Huh, they're wondering if you've got anything broken that they could use to test Maul? They think she might be able to fix stuff others made, and are hoping for a decent challenge."

"The hard-light weapon projector could work," Trevor said after a moment. "She could keep the thing if she gets it working, the reactions after we used the thing weren't good but who'd care if a Ward was using it? I already decided it was too difficult to fix myself, given that I don't see us using it again anytime soon."

Trevor grinned as he worked on the antenna linkage for the 'trigger detector' that the PRT had asked for. Once he'd finished this and no longer felt like he owed people things he might see about building a new mech.

A momentary shudder due to a flashback to the fireballed ejection seat and he was reconsidering that. Maybe he'd revisit the carts instead.

"Hey man," Erik called. "I got a whiteboard and put the ideas from the PRT up, as well as what we could use them for. They had some pretty good ones."

"Cool," Trevor replied. "I'll take a look in a bit, I'm nearly done with this."

Half an hour later he closed up the last panel and turned the detector on. It went through boot-up and self-check, then settled into 'waiting'. A moment later he got a mental feeling that he'd built a 'trigger detector' and that the next one would be more likely to fail. But why was that the first thing on his list? He'd already built the stuff for Panacea and Maul, after all.

"It's like the ultimate raid boss," Erik said, running checks on the mech's generator. So far so good, the repair and maintain bit Trevor could do now made things a lot easier. "How can we not give it a try when you've gotten the mech running better than ever?"

"But we only have the one mech working," Trevor whined. "And they don't want me to run the Snitch either way! What do we get out of it?"

"Bragging rights," Erik replied, disconnecting his test leads and closing up the maintenance panel. "Not to mention the feeling of having done the right thing. Besides, you've already been told that you can join the command group. Unless something breaks and they need you to fix it you get to help run the battle like a RTS game."

"Huh. I suppose there is that."

Erik grinned. They happened to have the right kind of equipment ready to go and the battle was close enough that they could deploy. Even without getting it on video the opportunity was too good to pass up. It was too bad that they hadn't been able to do anything with the other mech, but such was life.

Trevor listlessly limped his way back into the apartment and workshop. There hadn't been anything left of the mech, let alone Erik, and Leviathan hadn't even been inconvenienced by the blast. He knew now that they'd been idiots, treating the entire thing like a game. They'd been treating everything like a game. They'd seen re-creating games in reality as their calling. But reality didn't have video game rules.

He stopped as he reached the cart he'd been repairing, in hopes of a return of one of their favorite Boardwalk shows. He wasn't sure how long he'd stared at it, feeling like it was mocking him. They'd missed the bigger picture, all because they'd been so focused on the games. Finally unable to take it, he grabbed a large hammer and started beating the crap out of the fucking cart. And when it wasn't recognizable, impossible to repair according to his power and then some, he went after the NPC projector. Then the sword that did nothing but generate special effects and the reconfigurable 'key sword' that had been sitting next to it.

Hours later he finally collapsed, exhausted. He'd run out of video game and movie themed creations to destroy in his rage. As he lay there, he turned and looked at the whiteboard. The list of things that the PRT had asked for, in their preferred order, with notes on how they could be used in their shows. He'd crossed a quarter of them off, unable to come up with a way to make them for some reason or another.

They'd had no idea how to use two of the remaining for their shows, and he'd already built one of those for the PRT. The rest they'd wanted for themselves, ignoring why the PRT might want any of them. Or even why they'd wanted them in the order they'd provided.

Trevor broke down crying, swearing to himself that when he could move again he was going to build the PRT every last fucking thing on the list that he could. Starting from the signal targeting evacuation teleporter and working his way down.

Chapter 87 Taylor woke up on...Tuesday? Huh. Monday went by fast, didn't it. She thought she'd had a nightmare, but was having trouble remembering it now that she was awake. Sighing, she climbed out of bed anyway, frowning at the now-empty cooler sitting nearby. The shakes had been tasty, but she wasn't actually certain who'd sent them. That and she wasn't quite in the 'throw up out of horror' stage anymore anyway, so some solid food was probably better.

It didn't take long to get ready for the day, not that she was entirely sure what she'd be up to later. She had a session with Jessica this morning, after breakfast with her father before he went to check on the house and a pile of his coworkers. Amy...was apparently sleeping in. Well, her appointment with Jessica was after Taylor's, so she had time.

A quick check of the news to see when schools might reopen indicated that many of the power issues outside of the immediate Boston area should be fixed sometime in the next day or so as they repaired the high-voltage lines that'd been damaged. Local issues would, of course, be a different story once that happened, but the crews apparently felt they'd gotten most of the downed wires taken care of in Brockton Bay itself. Though they'd accomplished some of that by intentionally disconnecting entire areas that didn't have any 'active' customers. So schools might be open tomorrow, or maybe Thursday.

With that checked she grabbed the pre-made pass they'd given her, which was labeled 'Jacob called in a favor' of all things, and headed for the elevators.

Leaving the therapy area, Taylor decided that she needed chocolate. Or ice cream, perhaps? Maybe she could find some double chocolate ice cream? If memory served, they usually had a good selection in the first floor cafeteria.

Amy: You ok?

Taylor: I think so.

Amy: What were you doing to her that woke me up?

Taylor: Er, we didn't heal her broken arm last time?

Amy: Oh.

Pulling a phone out to double-check menus was trivial, finding what she wanted was harder. Apparently there was a lack of chocolate in the building. In general. Why would they let that happen?

Amy: Shit! I haven't been healing people after the battle!

Taylor: Of course you haven't.

Amy: Stop being so calm about it! How many people have been suffering because I haven't been by to heal them? I can't believe...

Taylor: STOP THAT!

Amy: But...

Taylor: What are the rules for healers believed to be under extreme mental distress?

Amy: They're not supposed to heal outside of an active crisis?

Taylor: And is there an active crisis?

Amy: Er, no?

Taylor: Then until Jessica clears you, or more likely both of us, the PRT won't let you at the injured anyway.

Amy: But, you healed Jessica's arm?

Taylor: Which was probably because I was going into a panic over it myself, and at that point it was adding to my mental distress.

Amy: Oh. Yeah, ok. I can see that.

Taylor: The real problem is that I can't find any sign that there's chocolate in the building.

Amy: ...the bastards.

Well, at least they were in agreement?

An hour later Taylor sighed as she finished the last of the apple pie she'd settled on instead of chocolate. Amy was still in her session with Jessica, her father was off checking on things and people, and Taylor had nothing to do. The rest of the Wards were either patrolling or checking in on family, but Taylor was off duty twice over since she still had time off from the whole ambush thing. Which, in retrospect, she probably hadn't fully recovered from before Leviathan's attack, even if she'd been further along than Vasco thought she'd be.

Come to think of it, where was Vasco? He'd been around on Saturday, but she hadn't noted his presence at all when she'd come in due to Leviathan early on Sunday. Curious, she pulled out a phone and started looking. It only took a few minutes to figure out that he was currently in New York. Perhaps he'd left as soon as he could Saturday. She was debating seeing how much further she could or should go in figuring that out when Amy's session with Jessica ended.

Amy: Jessica's cleared me for healing 'with supervision'.

Taylor: Oh, cool. So at least you have something to do.

Amy: Maybe you could help?

Taylor: Probably only for the Protectorate members, if that.

Amy: Huh. Good point. I don't know who's around in need of healing. I guess you may be better off doing something else.

Yep, story of her life right now. Nothing to do.

"Excuse me," a PRT officer said, getting Taylor's attention. "Miss Hebert?"

"Yes?" Taylor answered.

"I've been asked to escort you to a conference room, if you're done eating?"

"Ah, yes. Let me clean up and then we can go."

Taylor was brought downstairs, then the PRT officer let her go on alone. The conference room she'd been directed to was occupied, and she could tell that before she got there. Though the couple of people in the room were confusing her in figuring out why she was here.

"Hello Miss Hebert," Colin said as Taylor entered the room.

"Hello," Legend said.

"Er, hi," Taylor said. "I was asked to come down here?"

"Yes," Colin said. "I was just discussing Vista's expansion trick with Legend, and the various 'payments' she's been given."

"I've got an idea or two," Legend added, moving towards the door. "In fact, I'm going to go see about one of them now. Have a nice day."

Legend made his way out the door and towards the elevator. Taylor was curious, but didn't think it was her place to ask. Missy would probably say something if whatever his plan was came to fruition.

"Now then," Colin said once Taylor returned her attention to him. "Several of us felt that you might need something to do today."

"I was low on ideas," Taylor admitted, shrugging. "I suspect Amy has a number of people to heal that shouldn't know how much I can actually do there, so helping her is probably not a good idea."

"Yes, that did come up. We thought you might like the option of tinkering, and we'd already started building tinkertech stores in storage room eight and ensured you have access this morning."

"Tinkertech stores?"

"Mainly bits of confiscated tinkertech that was outright broken or has failed due to lack of maintenance by the original tinker, coupled with things the original tinkers deemed not worth fixing themselves. We didn't have much available locally given the nature of the tinkers in the area, but several other departments have sorted out some Ward-appropriate items and sent them our way."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense. But I'd have thought we had plenty of Leet's stuff?"

"Believe it or not, he would either recover his tech or it would be completely destroyed when it failed in the most spectacular fashion possible."

Taylor thought about that, and decided that it made sense. She then flinched as she wasn't quite prepared for Amy to start healing someone. Huh, how had they only lost toes? Mentally pushing that back, she thought about what Colin was saying. "Well, I suppose playing with some tinkertech would be something to do. Is there anything specific I should do with anything I get working?"

"Generally your options are to use it yourself, offer it to someone else in the PRT or Protectorate for their use, or turn it in to the general pool for others to request. You can also generally assume permission to give it to any parahuman affiliate, unless it's a weapon capable of causing direct harm in which case you need to request approval. Some items will be labeled differently, for example I've placed one of my halberds in there, not having time to repair it myself right now. If you can get it working again it would need to be returned to me, but I'm unaware of any other items like that available at the moment."

"Ok. I can understand that. Anything else?"

"Just that anything you turn in to the general pool or have repaired without that option, such as my halberd, you would get credit in exchange for fixing. That said, I have one last meeting before I return to my own work, so have a nice day."

"Thank you," Taylor said as she got up.

Taylor stared at the broken halberd. Holy crap it had a lot of functions, and most of them were individually nonfunctional right now. As were the power supply, the backup battery system, and the primary control interface. The thing seemed to have overheated significantly at some point, and the head had been broken off. Still, it was the most interesting thing in the storage room right now, so perhaps she'd have a go at it.

"Let's see," Taylor mumbled to herself once she was in the lab. "I guess disassembly so I can get at the generator and batteries first?" It didn't take long to remove most of the bits passing through the handle, which allowed her to slide everything else out onto the bench. Once exposed at least two components let off puffs of smoke, only having been held together by the confinement.

Amy: What are you doing that has you smelling a mild poison?

Taylor: Seeing what I can do with a broken halberd.

Amy: Oh. One of Colin's?

Taylor: Yeah. I'll probably be using plants to make micro-structures again.

Amy: Thanks for the heads up. I might want to come down and make some implants and/or prosthetics, apparently a couple of the capes would prefer to not have limbs regrown. Something about having lost the limb being a badge of honor when fighting an Endbringer? Not sure if they want prosthetics yet though.

Taylor: Ah. Ok, I'll try to not spread out over the entire lab so that some room is available for you.

It was the work of a few minutes to remove the generator and batteries. Hmmm. How the hell was she gonna make that alloy? It was the basis of the entire power linkage system, and now that she was focusing on it she realized that she didn't have several days to spend on it. Then again...

Taylor: Can we just replace that entire section with carbon nanotubes? I know I can make those in a reasonable amount of time, and this whole thing looks very similar to the stuff we replaced in the hard light weapon projector otherwise.

UMR: Query

Taylor: You know as well as I do that the alloy would take days. I don't plan on spending days working on it. But with Shaper I can get the nanotubes made in an hour or two tops thanks to the plants in here. I just want to know if it'll work as a replacement or if the alloy is doing something else. I figure if he wants to replace the nanotubes with the alloy he can do so himself later.

UMR: Query. Data

[Agreement. Data]

Taylor: Oh. Hadn't thought to ask Efficiency. Thanks!

Good, she didn't need to get into multi-day tinkertech metallurgy to fix the power linkages. The carbon nanotube system would be good enough. Efficiency had even provided an updated blueprint that took the change into account so they could get it right.

"Break time," Amy said as she entered the lab.

"Gimme a minute," Taylor answered. She was just finishing up getting the primary control board online. Once she had it working she could hook it up to a debugger to make sure the software was intact. Probably via one of her phones so she could multitask.

Almost exactly a minute later she grinned and put the microetcher she'd been abusing down. That should be the last misplaced blobs of the former power linkage, and the last short in the board. She then turned around to see that Amy had brought a cart...with food on top and supplies on the bottom?

"I brought a snack and some of what I need to make some prosthetics," Amy said to answer Taylor's unasked question.

"Ah," Taylor said, going over to a dispenser on the wall to grab some cleaning wipes, some of the residue on her hands would at a minimum taste bad, even if she wouldn't be harmed by it. "Are you allowed to tell me who's getting some?"

"Dauntless decided he wants prosthetic feet, since they found the remains of his boots this morning. And there's a foreign cape that I can't heal their arm at all, apparently they 'sacrificed' it so their power won't let it be regrown."

"Oh, right, you asked their power if a prosthetic would work."

"Yep. It had no problem with that."

Taylor dropped the wipes in the trash and grabbed a couple of cookies. She then popped one into her mouth.

Taylor: So, a couple of feet and an arm?

Amy: Yep. Plus the implants to control them.

Taylor: Huh. Do we need to change the mode on the lab? I'm at a point where I can pack up enough for us to do so.

Amy: Hmm. Probably not, I'm not planning on operating in here or anything.

Taylor nodded, then moved to check on the plant producing the new power linkage even as she popped another cookie into her mouth.

"You two ok in here?" Chris asked from the door. "You've been at it for a few hours and all."

"We're fine," Amy answered. "I'm almost done, actually."

"So you aren't in a fugue together or something?"

"Nope," Taylor replied, frowning slightly at the blade's attachment point. Why wouldn't it...oh, she had the blade upside-down compared to the slot tapering. Ooops. "No fugues at all. Two entirely different projects, no overlap, and we've both even been answering our phones."

"Oh. Ok, still good to check. I'll just...wait, is that one of Armsmaster's halberds?"

"Yeah," Taylor said, getting the blade to attach. She was amazed how quickly some of this had gone, but most of the problems had actually stemmed from the old power linkage having melted over everything. "I'm not quite as close to done fixing it as Amy is building her new stuff from scratch, but I'm almost there."

"It looks almost there, what's left?"

"Well, I still need to attach the external controls along the shaft for starters. The bottle opener is gonna need some calibration and the pencil sharpener's blade should probably be sharpened. Oh, and the can opener's bent, I haven't straightened it out yet. The laser that projects from the head here that functions as a target painter and/or presentation aid is gonna need a little work too, mainly cleaning the end of the fiber optic cable in the head itself."

Amy had stopped to turn and stare at Taylor. Which Taylor noted was mimicking Chris when she looked up. Taylor blinked. "What? Was it something I said?"

"Why does he have all of that in his halberd?" Amy asked, Chris nodding.

"No clue. I focused on the combat functions first, like the stun gun and tranquilizer systems. Really, I'm impressed at how many functions this thing has. Though I have no idea why the software he runs on it can read email. Really, I'd expect that and the translation system to be in his helmet, not the halberd." Taylor paused for a moment, before continuing. "I'm not planning on asking him about the tattoo needle either, for that matter."

Neither of the other two seemed to have anything to say about that, so Taylor shrugged and got back to work. Once she was done she'd drop this off and head home, as her father had called earlier to let her know that the power was back on at home.

Taylor sighed as she collapsed onto her bed. It was good to be back home, even if they'd restored enough power so that she had to go to school in the morning. The halberd had taken a little longer than anticipated, but she'd finished it at the same time that Amy had been finishing up getting Dauntless onto his new feet. Dropping it off for Colin to pick up later had been easy enough, and then she'd packed what she needed to and headed home. Once home she'd had dinner with her father before they'd done some quick cleanup of things outside.

And now she was pretty much ready for bed, and not tired in the least. So she grabbed her visor to browse PHO or something, having nothing better to do.

Three quarters of an hour later she was staring at a thread.

Taylor: Hey Amy, have you seen the 'if X was a parahuman' thread recently?

Amy: No, I usually avoid that one. Why?

Taylor: Apparently I'm the latest one in it, as of a couple days ago.

Taylor could feel Amy blink, before obviously reaching to grab a device. Oh, that must be a visor, given that she just put it on, so hers must have shown up.

Amy: Wow. They're trying to figure out what your primary power would be?

Taylor: Yeah. But as you can see, they can't decide.

Amy: So first they argued that you might be a brute because you survived Vicky's punch.

Taylor: Yep, But on the next page they discard it because they couldn't come up with a good example of a brute that could take the punch yet end up in the hospital despite you being right there.

Amy: Really? Oh, I see it now.

Taylor: They figure that my uncle offsets how quickly I assembled the paper, because obviously I'd been working on the theory already and just had to type it all out. And apparently it took me too long in that case, even with the length. But they segue right into 'tinker or thinker' on the name-drawing machine.

Amy: Heh. With half a dozen people all throwing links to the publicly available documentation on the thing and more digging up various wireless interface boards you might have used.

Taylor: I like the group that argued that I can't be a tinker, because no physical laws were broken nor was any hyper-advanced tech involved.

Amy: I'm on the third page of debate on 'thinker' because they can't decide if 'sneakily redundant' should count?

Taylor: They never really come to a conclusion. They start getting into stranger vs shaker vs master instead, based on our messing with that thinker. Not that they know she was a thinker, of course.

Amy appeared to be making her way through several pages of things, even as Taylor was keeping ahead of her, before stopping and blinking.

Amy: They used the remote participation during your defense as an argument in their favor, on the basis that they would've been outside the range of a master or shaker ability?

Taylor: Yeah. It's actually a fairly well thought out argument, if you assume that they'd have let that many people participate locally in that situation in the first place.

Taylor reached the current end of the thread at that point, but declined to comment. Instead she started looking through a couple of the threads people had linked to in their arguments.

Amy: I'm kinda amazed that they haven't argued any other classifications. They usually try and find at least one reason for each.

Taylor: They're usually pulling things out of their asses too. Still, this other thread indicates that you might have a secret stranger ability.

Amy: WHAT?

Taylor: This apparently stems from you going unnoticed until I all but pointed you out and all when we were in Las Vegas.

Amy seemed to be stunned at the stupidity of people, while Taylor just snickered.

Wednesday morning found Taylor and Amy up early with nightmares they couldn't quite remember. They both grumbled about it, then promptly took advantage of being up anyway by going to visit the gym. Even if Amy was going to be ferried into Boston for a run of healing people instead of going to school.

"I'd loan you the flying platform," Taylor said as they set up some of the equipment. "But I don't think you'd find it easy to use."

"What, so I could fly all the way to Boston and back on it?" Amy asked. "Would it go that far?"

"Well, at top speed I suppose the power generator would eventually fail. But to be honest, I think that's a good thirty years out at a minimum. Really, I'd probably only have a fifty/fifty shot of having to tear it down to retune the gravity manipulators when you came back. Or perhaps the inertial dampener? Something, most likely."

"Huh. I might want to see if I can figure out the controls at some point. If only for the reactions of others."

"Well, we could ask about having you officially try to learn. They might want others to do so as well, for that matter, but Kid Win's hoverboard is apparently nearly impossible for anyone else to use."

Amy paused, then turned to Taylor. "So, has anyone had you give it a shot now?"

"Er, no?"

"I'm gonna send a message recommending that they do."

Taylor looked at Amy, shrugged, and started exercising.

Once at school Taylor found that gossip was split between the state of the city and speculation on who might've died during the Endbringer battle. The official list was going to be revealed as part of the memorial unveiling over the weekend, in part due to how long it usually took to ensure they had all the survivors after Leviathan battles. The events of the previous Thursday were barely being mentioned.

Teachers were being generous on whether or not homework was done, not that Taylor's wasn't. They also spent time talking about everything in several of her classes. In her parahuman studies class they even had a list of 'seen since Leviathan' parahumans posted. 'Maul' and 'Mycroft' were the only local Wards not listed. Since Lisa didn't patrol normally anyway that left people wondering what had happened to Taylor.

By lunchtime someone had found a clip from the local news showing David approaching Taylor on Sunday, obviously not preparing to go to Boston. That was coupled with reports of seeing her running around the area on her platform before the battle actually began, so people had stopped assuming she might've died. Instead they were assuming something had gone wrong and she was seriously injured. Which probably meant another appearance where she wasn't supposed to do much of anything but show up might be in her future.

"Why is everything half-price today?" Dennis asked as he sat down across from Taylor.

"To make it easier on those who couldn't bring things in from home," Chris answered. "Even if most areas have power there are a few that don't, and some of the grocery stores were hit somewhat hard and haven't had time to restock yet."

"Oh. Right, that makes sense."

"And only the main lunch stuff is half price," Taylor added. "Desserts are still full price, same thing with the sodas."

Dennis frowned, and turned back to look at the lunch line. A moment later he sighed. "I don't usually get anything extra, so I hadn't even noticed that part."

"At least you try and eat somewhat healthy?" Chris offered, before opening his soda.

Dennis's response was to stick his tongue out and start eating.

Taylor grumbled as she made her way to the PRT building. She had mail and a meeting request, and really nothing better to do. Though she was getting much better at ignoring Amy healing people now that she was getting practice with needing to ignore it. Perhaps they could arrange for Amy to be occupied while Taylor did the whole 'help with therapy' thing?

She was almost at the PRT building when she got a second meeting request. She figured the one with Director Piggot took priority over Colin's, though, so she responded to the new one with a note that he'd have to wait. He responded with an acceptance of that while she was parking.

A quick stop to check her mail netted her an invitation to the memorial unveiling in Boston. Huh. Apparently they wanted to thank her for something? With that in hand she made her way up to Director Piggot's office. Once there she had to wait a few minutes before she was called in.

"Good afternoon Miss Hebert," Director Piggot said, gesturing to one of the seats in front of her desk. The other was already occupied by Mrs. Cooper. "Please take a seat."

"Hello Director, Mrs. Cooper," Taylor said, taking the seat.

"Hello Miss Hebert," Mrs. Cooper said. "Thank you for coming in."

"Miss Hebert," Director Piggot said. "We've got multiple things we'd like to go over with you. To start with, have you heard the rumors that 'Maul' may have been seriously injured over the weekend?"

"Er, yeah," Taylor answered. "That was a topic of discussion at school."

"Yes. Well, we'd like to squash them sooner rather than later."

"If only so that we stop getting complaints about a Ward being seriously injured," Mrs. Cooper added. "People seem to think that Panacea hasn't been available to help the local Ward or something like that."

"To accommodate that we'd like to have you attend a small press conference tomorrow afternoon. The plan is to go over some of what happened with the Merchants last week, officially confirming that you'd been caught in the ambush and have been in mandated downtime."

"I suppose that makes sense," Taylor said. "Would I be expected to do anything other than show up?"

"We'd actually like you to 'crash' the press conference. In fact, I don't want to know how you plan on doing so, it'll keep my reaction more genuine."

Taylor blinked a couple of times, though part of that was Amy starting to regrow an ear. Well, she'd have to think about how to best 'crash' a press conference. "Ok. I'll work on coming up with something."

"Thank you. Next on our list is part of your official apology for what happened on Sunday." Director Piggot picked an envelope up off of her desk and handed it to Taylor. "In there is a voucher for an all expenses paid trip to any vacation spot in the United States for yourself and up to three others, redeemable after school lets out."

"We'd be extending your enforced downtime after that fiasco as well," Mrs. Cooper said. "But, well, Doctor Yamada and several others consulted on things seem to think that keeping you off-duty will do more harm right now. So the Youth Guard has signed off on you resuming patrols on Saturday."

"Does that have anything to do with my invitation to the unveiling in Boston?" Taylor asked, only to get looks of confusion from the other two. "One of the things I came in for was to get my mail." She pulled the invitation out of her pocket.

"May I?" Director Piggot asked, holding her hand out. Taylor handed the invitation over, and the older woman looked it over. She took a couple of notes, then handed the invitation back. "Thank you. I was unaware that you'd even been invited, so I'll need to check a couple of things. I'll do my best to let you know one way or another by the time you're out of school on Friday."

"Thanks," Taylor said as she put the invitation back in her pocket.

"That brings us to the last item," Director Piggot said, an annoyed look on her face. "I've already checked with your father earlier, and he said he was ok with it. Boston has asked for cross-training of their Wards with Brockton Bay, specifically as they prepare for an upswing in violence as they recover. We'd like to get a few passes taken care of before the gangs have recovered. The thing is, so far we've only been able to get Aegis and Vista onboard."

"I thought Vista didn't have parental permission for out of town anything? She'd complained about it several times."

"Legend apparently convinced her parents to let her visit Boston and New York on occasion, as part of his payment for being able to fit a very large sword in a very small scabbard."

Taylor wasn't sure what to think about that, but, well...Missy probably would prefer that over most monetary payments. "Ok. Well, I don't have a problem with the cross-training."

"Thank you," Director Piggot said, making note of that. "That means we can actually send a full 'team' over, which will help. Do you have any questions for us?"

"I don't think so."

"Then I'll let you go, as we have some other somewhat urgent matters to deal with. Have a nice day."

"Good afternoon Miss Hebert," Colin said as Taylor entered the conference room he'd asked to meet her in.

"Good afternoon," Dragon said, apparently participating via a remote feed.

"Hello," Taylor said, sitting down. The halberd she'd fixed the day before was sitting on the table. "Er, did I do something wrong with the halberd?" Her tinker snark didn't seem to think anything was wrong with it right now, but perhaps Colin had spotted something she was missing?

"Precisely the opposite," Colin said, gesturing at the halberd. "This morning I picked it up, amazed that you'd finished working on it. The alloys required to repair it to the original specifications should have taken much longer to produce, even if the rest should have been relatively trivial. We'd expected it to be a longer-term project, if you opted to attempt it. Instead you got it working in a day."

"We're genuinely curious if you can tell us how you repaired it so quickly," Dragon added. "Since it's passed every basic functionality test we've subjected it to so far."

"Ummm," Taylor said. "I didn't want to fight with metallurgy, so I cheated and replaced the power linkages with plant-grown carbon nanotube structures? Similar to what I needed for the hard-light weapon projector repair job. It was significantly less effort. I'm sorry if it's not up to your standards."

"If it's..." Colin said, sounding dumbfounded. Dragon was visibly amused as well.

"Taylor," Dragon finally said. "We don't use carbon nanotube constructions because they're incredibly difficult to construct, even for most tinkers. The alloy is the inferior component in this case, but was easier for us to make by several orders of magnitude."

"Quite," Colin finally said, apparently having recovered from his shock. "We wanted to know how easily you could reproduce the power linkage, and if you needed to be 'fixing' something to do so. And that was before you told us that you'd replaced it with carbon nanotube structures."

"Oh," Taylor said, thinking. "If you or your snark can tell me what's needed I don't think it would be a problem. That's more the striker side of things for me than the tinker at that point. Amy could probably do the same thing."

"Thank you for the information," Dragon said. "We may need to ask you two to assist in several other projects at a later date."

Chapter 88 Emily groaned as they disconnected from the four-way conference call. She had no problems with Costa-Brown continuing to yell at the others, but their portion of the call was over. It was getting disturbing how often she and Patricia were on the same side on topics, though. Usually the Youth Guard rep was a pain in Emily's ass.

"You ok?" Patricia asked.

"I think I'm going to need to visit the range," Emily answered. "The idiocy of what they were planning astounds me."

"Yes, well. I can somewhat see where they were coming from. Miss Hebert did remove the unknown parahuman and all of the clones from the situation. But with how it affected her?"

"No way in hell can they be allowed to thank her for it as part of the unveiling. Thanking her for 'sounding the alarm' is one thing, though they were planning on screwing that up too."

"Luckily Armsmaster's report informed us about the 'taunting' aspect, so they can spin it into Miss Hebert being able to 'interpret' the taunt instead of implying she can warn about all future attacks. To think that the 'unease' commonly felt by parahumans in the attack areas has been intentional, though..."

"So, will the Youth Guard be making a stink on top of all of this?"

"Oh yes. A complete lack of consideration for the mental state of a Ward like that, and without consulting the Youth Guard or the Ward's home region at a minimum? Some people are going to have some very bad days in the near future."

That evening Taylor was watching the news with her father. He'd confirmed that Director Piggot had checked with him about a weekend or two patrolling in Boston, but he'd been just as clueless about the invitation for 'Maul' to attend the memorial unveiling.

Amy: I'm spending the night here so that I can take care of a couple of people in the morning. Then they want to let the other healers deal with the rest.

Taylor: Anyone interesting in the 'other healers' category?

Amy: Victor and Nadine are around. Otherwise a collection of healers of varying kinds from all over that I'm not sure you'd recognize. It's amazing how little publicity most of them get.

Taylor: Any examples for 'varying kinds'?

Amy: Well, there's one that can regrow skin running around focusing on severe scrapes and such. Another can supposedly heal anything as a side effect of some multidimensional trick, but it takes a lot out of them. Several that take on injuries in various ways and then their own enhanced healing patches them up, though they have their own limits. And there's one running around that can only heal people who were injured while drowning. She comes out to every Leviathan cleanup.

Taylor: Huh. Interesting.

With a lot of those it didn't sound like it made a lot of sense to advertise, so to speak. And, well, Shaper's 'super healing' was essentially a side effect in and of itself. One that the general public thought was the primary effect, granted.

Thursday morning was bright, sunny, and windy. The wind gusts in particular were making Taylor's moped a little harder to control, but it wasn't anything that she couldn't handle so long as she was paying attention.

The overturned bus in the middle of her trip, on the other hand, was decidedly more problematic. And why was everyone just standing around watching instead of helping?

"What happened?" Taylor asked as she quickly tied her bag to the moped.

"It was awesome," a teenager said. "The bus hit the broken manhole and lost control. I wish I'd had my phone out when it rolled!"

Taylor blinked, and glared at the teenager. Who didn't seem to notice or care. She then moved over to the bus, which was on its right side. Moving around to the front to look in the window she saw that the people inside were apparently still alive, and the driver appeared to have pulled out a cell phone already. She tapped on the still-intact windshield to get her attention.

"Can you try and help with the windows?" the driver yelled. It probably wasn't loud enough for most people to hear, but Taylor picked it up fine. She nodded, then looked at the bus. How to get on top...doh.

A minute later she'd used her moped to get up on top of the bus by one of the emergency exit windows. A man was doing his best to get it open from the inside, but wasn't making any progress. Taylor grabbed the knife off of her thigh and started cutting around the edge instead. It took a few minutes, but she was able to cut away the rubber holding the window in.

Since nobody looked like they were in critical condition in the bus she focused to ensure that her enhanced strength was basically disabled as she worked with the man inside the bus to pop the window up and slide it over. And accidentally off of the bus once they'd accomplished that. Oh well.

"Thank you," the man said, before looking at the others in the bus. "Though I don't know how we're going to get out now."

"Is anyone seriously injured?" Taylor asked.

"Lots of bumps and scrapes, and a few cuts from the damage to the windows and such that became our floor. But nothing serious. It looks like Mabel, that's the driver, got to the first aid kit already."

"Then perhaps it would be best to wait for someone with a rope or small ladder or something to get you all out?"

"That's probably not a bad idea."

Taylor actually ended up a few minutes late to school, though she didn't get in trouble. Quite the opposite, since Arcadia had rules for when a student had been 'proven to have assisted with accidents and other potential emergency situations' outside of school. It was to be encouraged and all, not that most students did so even then.

It had been nice of the firefighters to call ahead for her, though.

Her first teacher merely nodded at her when she slipped in and took her seat. Several of her classmates looked curious, but none of them had the opportunity to ask any questions right then.

Come lunchtime Taylor was inundated with questions about why she'd been late. Followed by people looking to see if anyone had posted about it on PHO.

"Huh," Dean said, poking at his phone. "They've added to the 'who could be Maul' thread."

"Really?" Taylor said, raising an eyebrow. "What changed?"

"Several people seem to think that you weren't faking having issues moving the bus's window in the clips the bystanders posted. Since Maul is known to have significantly higher than normal strength you obviously can't be her."

"Oh." Well, improving her cover story was a nice accident? "I don't suppose you've seen anything about how the people from the bus are doing?"

"Yeah, they're doing fine, outside of a couple minor concussions. Luckily the bus hadn't stopped by the assisted living center yet."

After school Taylor made her way to the PRT building. The wind had died down even as clouds had come in, so she'd been sent a message letting her know that the press conference was going to be held outside. That meant that sneaking in with her platform was probably a good option. Provided she did so in a blatantly obvious way, of course. But first she needed a plan.

She felt she had a solid plan by the time she parked in the secure garage. She'd need to prepare a couple of things, and swing by one of the cafeterias for supplies. Though would this count towards her own budget or one of the PR-related ones? Bah, she'd figure that out later. If she cared. She had plenty of money available anyway.

As she entered the Wards area she wondered if there was any tape kicking around, or if she'd need to visit one of the 'office supply' closets.

Director Piggot was just starting to describe the two ambushes that the Merchants had pulled on Protectorate patrols when Taylor started to 'crash' the press conference. She floated down on her platform, upside-down. She had the stop sign out with the handle sitting on the platform, and had her finger on her lips in a 'shhh' gesture for the crowd. She ended up above and a little behind the Director.

Once she was in position she paused, and looked at the stop sign. She then motioned like she was 'sighing' and spun the thing to put the head on the platform, thus orienting it so that the crowd could read it properly. This likely made it easier to read the 'Be Quiet' and 'Sneaking in Progress' additions above and below the 'STOP'. Nodding to herself, she crouched down and grabbed the soda she'd gotten from the cafeteria.

She took a couple of quiet sips through the straw, then looked at the cup. She spun it a little in her hand, which wasn't too difficult even one-handed, so that the PRT logo from the cup was more visible. Double-checking that, she nodded again, and settled in to wait. She was nodding along with some of the Director's descriptions, and grimaced a couple of times at others.

Eventually Director Piggot got to where the three had been shot at during the second ambush, and Taylor flipped the stop sign around. Taped to the other side was a 'Yes, that HURT, avoid if possible' sign. She flipped it back when the Director got to describing various bits about what the retaliatory strike had been aimed to do, specifically mentioning that multiple ambush strikes coupled with the weapons used meant that they'd been able to get a federal order to shut down the Merchants.

She was just explaining that Skidmark was still on the loose when Taylor's drink ran out. The slurping sound from her straw caused Director Piggot to stop and turn around.

"How long have you been there?" Director Piggot asked, exasperation in her voice.

"I think you were just starting to talk about the two ambushes," Taylor replied.

"So almost from the beginning?"

"Yep."

"Why are you here?"

"Well, I heard some incredible exaggerations about how injured I was, and I was bored from the forced 'recovery break'. So I figured that since the press conference was talking about the last time I was injured I'd show up in person to find out what was being said."

"I see." Director Piggot sounded unusually resigned. "I don't know why this surprises me, after Assault and Clockblocker. So, do you have anything to add?"

"Well, er. Most of my injuries were because I wasn't really thinking? Heat of the moment, did something stupid, got lucky it worked and all that. Don't believe that whole bit where if it was stupid but it worked it wasn't stupid. It's more of a you got lucky and figure out how to not need to do it again deal, I think."

Director Piggot waited a moment, and then nodded. "At least you've learned that. Now then, unless there's something else, I'd like to get back to explaining things."

"I don't," Taylor started, only to pause as a message came in. "Oh. Er, actually, Armsmaster has asked if I can go take a look at something for him. Since it's fieldwork I think I need your permission?"

Director Piggot blinked, then pulled her own phone out. She obviously brought up a message and read it, then sighed. "Go ahead. They've already secured the area and it shouldn't take you long."

"Thanks," Taylor said, half-saluting, before flipping the platform and shooting off into town.

She was very careful to not let the people at the press conference see that she wasn't sure where she was going. Though while waiting for Colin to let her know she did find a trash can to drop her cup into.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice," Colin said as Taylor hopped off of her platform. Huh, Leet was inside, but not Über? "We'd like you to look over a couple pieces of tinkertech before we approach too closely. Leet is passed out between them, and we're not sure if it's safe to approach him."

"So you want me to look from the door, see if it's safe, and then let you get to it?" Taylor said. "Anything else?"

"We might have you check his health while you're here anyway."

"Ok."

Colin led Taylor into the workshop, which was filled with destroyed, well, almost everything. Her tinker snark was labeling pretty much everything as 'destroyed beyond repair'. She couldn't tell what was in a couple of small locked cabinets affixed to the wall, but they were intact so if they contained any tech it was likely spared the destruction.

"There he is," Colin said as they got close enough to see Leet.

Taylor looked at Leet and the two devices next to him. Neither was powered on, and for that matter neither could function without additional equipment. But they also looked...less polished? "There shouldn't be any problems approaching him. While both teleportation machines are complete, neither is functional yet. The one on the left needs to be attached to a signal targeting system, the one on the right needs to be duplicated somehow as it's designed to move things between units. Besides, neither contains a generator nor are they plugged into power, so they should be inert."

"Thank you," one of the PRT officers said, moving forward. He reached Leet and tried to check his pulse, only for Leet to wake up at the contact.

"GAH," Leet said, recoiling from the officer. A moment later he looked around, then closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. Finally he opened his eyes again and looked at Colin. "Er, why are you here?"

"Your alarm contract with Dragon defines a number of alert triggers," Colin answered. "In this case, it hasn't been activated at all for several days in a row. You didn't answer when called, but the system reported you were present, so Dragon asked us to check to make sure you were ok."

"Oh."

"Of course, once we arrived we became concerned with the damage. Did someone break in?"

Leet closed his eyes again, though this time he appeared to be crying? "No. I...nobody broke in."

"Do you need anything?" the PRT officer that had tried to check Leet's pulse asked.

"I don't think so," Leet answered, and started to get up. Only to sway and fall back down. And apparently pass out again.

"I don't think we can leave him here," one of the other PRT officers said. "Not if he can't even stand up on his own. We'll have to bring him to a hospital, whether it's Brockton General or PRT Internal."

"Maul," Colin said, shaking his head. "Can you ensure that he's stable enough to move, and if possible ensure he can stay awake long enough to discuss options?"

"Er, sure," Taylor said, walking over to Leet.

Taylor: Fair warning, I'm about to check on Leet's health.

Amy: What? You might have to tell me more about that later.

Taylor: Possibly.

A moment later she touched Leet's hand, and grimaced. He didn't appear to have been eating, and he wasn't doing well because of it. She tweaked a couple of things, but it was a stopgap measure. "He'll wake up in another minute or two, but when he passes out again I won't be able to wake him up safely."

Taylor moved back again, and it wasn't long before Leet woke up again. This time the PRT officer helped him sit up. "Ok, we need to get you to the hospital. Is there anything you need from here?"

Leet looked like he wanted to object, before slumping a little. "I...don't think I can come back here if I leave. But I'll need my tools to keep building things. I don't think I want anything else here."

"What would you like us to do with these?" Colin asked, gesturing to the two teleportation devices.

"They're for the PRT anyway, so you can take them."

"Are any of your tools in the cabinets?" Taylor asked, getting everyone's attention. "And if so where are the keys?"

Leet looked over at the cabinets, and let out a sob. Taylor felt like she'd done something wrong, but didn't have enough information to know what. Still, after a couple of minutes Leet seemed to recover.

"No tools, and no key," Leet said. "Erik kept the key so that I couldn't use stuff for parts." Leet then looked at Taylor. "Well, there's one thing. I think Erik would've liked this. Maul, if you can get the cabinets open without damaging them then you can have the contents. I don't want them anymore anyway. Good luck though, the locks are supposed to be tough. Armsmaster can have second shot."

Taylor looked at Colin, who shrugged, then at the PRT officers. They also shrugged. Well, might as well give it a shot, right? So she went over to the first of the two cabinets and looked at the lock. There was no danger in touching it, so she did so. The combination of feeling the various 'blunt' components and the analysis of her tinker snark told her that this was, indeed, a difficult lock. Eighteen pins in three groups of six, you had to turn the lock counterclockwise, and if you only manipulated the top pins when picking it you were more likely to rotate the outer cylinder which was hooked up to a bomb.

Well, from what she recalled when Kurt had taught her how to pick the lock Lacey had put on their alcohol cabinet she'd need something to keep rotational force applied to the inner core, and something else to manipulate the pins, right? But she'd also need to not block access to some of the pins, which would be harder. Maybe something that barely grabbed the top and bottom of the lock?

Colin and the PRT officers helped Leet out of the building and started working on collecting his tools while Taylor was improvising specialty lock picking tools from the destroyed equipment. Her tinker snark wasn't helping much there, but with some of her own tools she was able to get a really basic set of picks made anyway. She then spent twenty minutes poking lightly at the pins without putting any tension on the lock, as on top of everything else they had angled cuts that needed to be rotated into the right positions for tabs on the sides to align with slots properly.

Finally she was ready and put very light tension on the lock. Slowly and carefully she pushed the pins into position, one after another. It took another eight minutes, but as the last gap in the last pin dropped into position the inner core spun and the lock disengaged. She double-checked that there didn't seem to be any other traps, before turning the now-unlocked handle and opening the cabinet.

"Huh," Taylor said, looking at the case that had been sitting inside the cabinet. She carefully removed it, then popped it open. Inside were the famous 'Snitch' and what her tinker snark said was a slightly modified off the shelf control unit. Both of them needed some maintenance, but not much. She closed the case and put it down, then looked at the other cabinet. The lock was identical, right down to the key it would've taken. It still took her half an hour to open it, and once she had she found a small holographic projection unit in the shape of a bowl?

After finding nothing specifically wrong with it, in fact it didn't even need any maintenance, she poked one of the 'gems' on it to turn it on. The 'bowl' filled with a silvery cloud, and a little more manipulation of the 'runes' and 'gems' that were almost all cleverly disguised controls caused a scene to play out over the projector. It looked like a three-dimensional version of one of Über and Leet's videos, but uncut.

"I see you got both cabinets open," Colin said.

"Yeah," Taylor replied. "Not sure why he'd want to give these up, though."

"Dragon was able to provide more information. The Erik he mentioned was Über. He died early in the fight against Leviathan. Though Leet seemed mostly ok when he returned from Boston we're now thinking that he had a breakdown of some kind when he got back here. Destroyed almost everything himself, then started building the things the PRT had on the list provided to him."

Taylor stared at the projector, then reached out and turned it off. "This, at a minimum, should be kept in storage for Leet. He may not want it now, but I think it's essentially their version of a photo album. Once he's in a better place I think he'll appreciate it, and the memories within, being available."

Colin stood there in silence for a couple of minutes before speaking again. "I believe you're correct. I'll ensure that it's kept for him, and that its existence is added to his official file. I suspect, however, that he would feel that the 'Snitch' should be used, and that Über would've agreed."

Taylor thought about that. "You're probably right."

"I'll ensure that it's entered as 'on loan' to you. When, as you said, he's in a better place he can decide if he wants it back or not."

Taylor had ended up being asked to write up basic usage manuals for the two teleportation devices, after which she'd gone ahead and done the maintenance that the Snitch system needed. It wasn't much, and it wouldn't have been a problem for a couple of years of use, but she figured it would be easier to keep the thing in working condition for if Leet ever wanted it back if she did the work. She also sent what information she could on how the control unit had been modified to Dragon, asking about possible ways to control the Snitch itself with one of her phones.

Once that was done she'd headed home, only realizing that she probably should have been more careful when asking Dragon for advice halfway there. She'd only contacted Dragon in the first place because she'd made the base unit that had been modified. Oh well, it was almost certainly too late to worry about now.

Friday morning Taylor found a request for a 'Snitch Control' app to install on all of her devices. It said it needed CE5 or better to function, but she had CE6 so it wasn't a problem. She told it to go ahead and install, then started on her messages. Dragon had sent her a message saying that the modifications to the control unit could be emulated by the CE5 or better hardware, which she'd already figured out. Director Piggot and Chief Director Costa-Brown had approved her going to the unveiling in Boston if her father agreed.

On her personal phone she had a note from Riley saying that they were getting ready for a 'longer than usual' run of the Nine, but that she'd be in touch when she could. Taylor wondered which poor sods on the west coast were the target, as Riley hadn't said one way or another. Oh well, it would eventually hit the news, and then she'd know.

For now she should get ready, and probably check with her father about the unveiling before they both left.

Taylor beat Amy to school by about five minutes. They met at Amy's locker.

"How was Boston?" Taylor asked.

"It was a mess," Amy replied. "But I'd already dealt with the majority of the serious injuries during the battle, so it took a lot less time than usual to get to the point where they had some of the adult parahumans take over."

"Taylor! Ames!" Vicky said as she all but tackled them. "Mom said that after needing to be kicked out of Boston due to helping too much that I've earned an afternoon off of being grounded."

"Ok..." Taylor said, looking at Vicky. "Why are you telling us?"

"Because Dean is busy so I figure we should go shopping."

"Taylor could use some new clothing," Amy said, looking at Taylor.

Taylor: Traitor.

Amy: This just saves me trying to decide when to drag you shopping myself.

Taylor just glared at the two, but couldn't come up with a good excuse to get out of things. In part because if she tried Amy would probably just call her father and she'd end up going anyway or something like that.

After school Vicky flew alongside Amy and Taylor riding their mopeds. Somehow Taylor had convinced the other two that they should go to the only department store in town instead of running around the Boardwalk. Once there Taylor was dragged straight to the clothing racks.

"Well?" Vicky asked when Taylor looked at her. Amy was giggling.

"I'm trying to figure out why we're in the men's section," Taylor replied, pointing up at the signs.

Vicky followed Taylor's finger, read the signs, and blushed. "Ooops?"

Taylor and Amy both shook their heads and made their way over to the Women's section. It would be a few hours before they left.

"Huh," Vicky said, poking through Taylor's closet even as Taylor worked to sort through all of her purchases. At least Vicky had been nice enough to help carry the pile of bags, given the minimal storage the mopeds afforded. "Do you mend stuff multiple times intentionally?"

"Money used to be somewhat tight?" Taylor answered, shrugging. "It's less so now, but habits and all."

"Ok, yeah, I can see that."

"So are you going to Boston tomorrow?" Amy asked as she sorted through a pile of shirts. She was putting any that had too-obvious repairs off to the side as 'unwearable when you have better options available'.

"Yeah," Taylor answered. "Dad gave permission after having talked to Director Piggot about something. The message I got while we were shopping indicated that they want me to fly to Boston on my platform in the morning and set up a second 'recall' point for the platform on the roof of the Boston PRT building. It apparently should take me no more than three quarters of an hour? Oh, and they apparently already installed a 'landing pad' for the thing there."

"I don't suppose I can join you?" Amy asked, making puppy-dog eyes in Taylor's general direction. Taylor raised an eyebrow in response. "That's faster than the transports they'll likely use, and not being carried would be nice from the point of view of being able to look around during the flight."

Taylor looked at Amy, then sighed. "You get to ask Carol and the PRT for permission. If they grant it then sure."

Amy hugged Taylor in thanks, and if the sudden burst of activity in her Bluetooth organ was any indication was already composing messages. Vicky, on the other hand, had started giggling.

The Dallon sisters had opted to stay for dinner after confirming that Carol and Mark were going to be out late. Amy had even helped make dinner...while Vicky showered after successfully covering herself in sugar. Which was a feat in and of itself as she was supposed to be grabbing the flour from the counter, not the sugar from the cabinet.

"So why is Victoria wearing some of Taylor's old clothing?" Danny asked between bites of his macaroni and cheese.

"Sugar accident," Vicky answered. "Very tragic."

"Indeed," Taylor said. "We are now out of sugar, after all. Very very tragic."

"Did anyone get pictures?" Danny asked. Amy and Taylor both pulled out their phones, and Vicky groaned. This was made worse by Danny's laughing at the pictures.

Taylor and Amy were both poking through the news after the Dallon sisters had made it home. Someone had noticed that the PRT had apparently, somehow, quietly popped every Gray Boy bubble without anyone noticing after the first one. When asked they'd stated that just over sixty percent of the victims were currently insane from the experience, but were getting help. They'd also thanked 'Countdown' for her work in building the devices that allowed them to free those trapped in the bubbles, and apologized for not holding a proper press conference due to issues in the Northeast.

When asked about whether or not they would be going after other long-standing problems like Eagleton, Ellisburg, or perhaps Heartbreaker they'd responded that they couldn't speculate on what tinkers might figure out how to do next, and if they had plans in place for any future operations they couldn't comment on them at this time.

Amy: I'm kinda impressed that they pulled that off so quietly.

Taylor: Well, everyone assumed that they were going to go off and figure out how to ensure people came out sane, not decide that it was better to get the people out first and deal with the sanity issues later.

Amy: True. Oh, and here's one person stating that they hadn't realized it was able to be produced in large enough quantities yet. Prototype device that needed work having been their original theory?

Taylor: I'm curious as to who noticed though. I haven't seen any mention of it.

Amy: Oh, the article over on channel eight's website says that someone decided to go on a trip to see several of the things, and when they couldn't find any of them they got people to start checking their local ones.

Taylor: So, what do you think tomorrow's news will focus on? That the PRT's been running around doing stuff like that in secret, or the memorial?

Amy: I...don't know. I could see both happening. I guess it will depend on how things go at the unveiling itself?

Chapter 89 Saturday morning Taylor headed for the PRT building bright and early. Amy was doing the same, while Vicky would be heading to Boston on her own at some point. For whatever reason the sisters were the only members of New Wave that'd been invited, and as far as she could tell Taylor was the only Ward invited. At least from Brockton Bay, anyway. Amy had pointed out that they usually stuck to inviting those they wanted to give special thanks to, which just made Taylor wonder about their choices.

Once she arrived she made her way over to the gym. She was getting ready to start her workout when Amy arrived to join her.

"Good morning," Taylor said, giving Amy a slight wave.

"Good morning," Amy said. "Oh, Carol gave permission for me to join you, so we're just waiting on the PRT's response."

"Good to know. So, why do you think we've been invited?"

"Well, you did ensure that everyone had hours to prepare. And a lot of people know it."

"Oh, right." Taylor kinda felt stupid having forgotten about that. "So, do you think they want to thank you for the healing?"

"Probably, since I've never really healed during an attack and all. Keep me out of the area until it's safe and all. Vicky has me confused though, as I don't think she did anything of note during the battle. She didn't even say anything about engaging Leviathan at all."

"Huh."

The two went through their workout, including a swim, before heading to the Wards area so that Taylor could change. She decided to use her 'primary' loadout today, as it looked a little more presentable overall. It didn't take long to get into costume, but she had plenty of time before she had to leave. So she grabbed the Snitch and brought it out into the common area, along with her tablet.

"Is that actually the Snitch?" Amy asked as Taylor opened the case she'd placed on the counter in the kitchen area.

"Yep," Taylor replied. "Though I don't think most people realize just how impressive this thing is."

"What do you mean?"

Taylor pointed to the dark spots on the Snitch. "These aren't lenses, because this isn't a camera system. They're the propulsion system, though it'll start acting wonky if you cover them up while it's active. That and then it'll heat up at that point and will shut down the recording hardware to protect itself once the temperature starts rising."

"But...how does it record video?"

"It doesn't. It's a repurposed omnidirectional scout drone. It builds a full three-dimensional representation of everything in its range, you can then fly a virtual camera around inside of the output to record a standard video. The weird distance artifacts that people would occasionally complain about in their videos are due to the 'backdrop' it builds being imperfect. But that's how they always had the incredible angles. This doesn't have an advanced predictive AI, it just records enough that they could pick and choose afterwards. Though I think they might have hooked it up to a 'director' AI unit of some kind for their live streams."

"Oh. That's neat. So can the Snitch see through things?"

"Kinda? Luckily this version simplifies a lot for storage concerns. So it models people and what they're wearing as single objects. Because it was based on a scout drone it does keep weapons and armor split out for analysis purposes, which should help with using it for the intended purpose of scouting areas. But beyond that it doesn't treat the person and their equipment as different things. Which is good, because that means that the duo couldn't have, say, stripped everyone naked in their recordings."

Amy opened her mouth, paused, closed her mouth as she shook her head, and then shuddered. "Ok, yeah. That...yeah. But does it count armored clothing differently?"

Taylor paused in reaching to pull things out of her utility belt, then looked over at the Snitch. "I...don't know. That may require some testing." She shook her head and pulled a couple of cables and a few tools out of her utility belt, as well as both of her phones. She then proceeded to hook the Snitch control unit up to her tablet to start with.

"What are you doing?" Amy asked, looking over what Taylor had out.

"Dragon made an app for me, but I still need the connection keys and software from the control unit. So I'm downloading them, then I can point the new app at them and control the Snitch with my stuff instead of needing the extra unit. But I might need to put the Snitch in what amounts to 'pairing' mode, at which point I need to open up the panel on the bottom to push the button."

Amy watched as Taylor went through the whole process with the tablet, not needing to trigger pairing mode at all. The working configuration was then copied to both phones. With that done she had it 'record' for five seconds, then downloaded the result.

"So I have good news," Taylor said after some poking around. "My jacket is considered 'armor', but my other clothing isn't split out even though it gets highlighted as being 'reinforced'."

"That's a relief."

"So, want to have some fun with this? I can probably make it look like we're somewhere else by hiding everything but us and overlaying that on a generic background."

"If we strip the background out entirely we could make people think it was entirely faked, right?"

"Yeah?"

"I vote we play in the junkyard a bit, then make a video that nobody on PHO will believe wasn't faked."

Taylor's answer was a grin, followed by packing away the original control unit for the Snitch. That and her tablet would be stored in her room while they were in the junkyard.

The two were having fun arranging their 'ludicrous' video from the downloaded recording when a message was sent to both of them, letting them know that Amy was clear to go with Taylor and that their 'escort' was ready when they were.

"I think that's our cue to head up," Amy said. "You bringing the Snitch to Boston?"

"Might as well," Taylor answered, slipping the Snitch into one of her pouches as she uploaded what they had. "Recording the unveiling seems like a good use of it either way."

The two made their way to the elevator and up to the roof. Dragon was there waiting for them, standing next to the 'parked' flying platform.

"Good morning Dragon," Taylor said. She noted that the roof was otherwise devoid of people, and even the cameras were offline?

"Hello Mother," Dragon said, smiling. "And hello Panacea."

Amy sighed. "Hello Dragon. And I've told you several times that you can call me Amy, in or out of costume."

"You're here as Panacea, so it only makes sense to address you appropriately. Still, if you two would sign into the console we can get our 'group' set up for the trip into Boston."

Amy pulled her phone out even as Taylor manipulated hers thanks to her visor. A couple minutes later they were in a 'Dragon Escort' group. Taylor then set up the platform while Amy put her phone away, followed by both climbing onto the platform.

"This suit can go slightly faster than you have been observed to travel on the platform," Dragon said. "So we can go at your speed. Also, the channel we're on is high security and locked to the three of us, so you don't have to worry about what you say on it. That said, you should find a target marker if you open the map up. Depart when you're ready, but you should try and stay below 400 feet or so."

Taylor loaded up the map and found their target destination, then directed the platform to head towards it. Amy seemed to like the view as they leaned forward and accelerated to top speed, Dragon keeping pace next to them. Luckily they all had effectively built-in radio, because otherwise the wind noise would have created issues for communication.

"So, I'm curious. Did you volunteer to escort us because of me?" Taylor asked a few minutes later.

"Partially. It helped that in doing so I could legitimately deny a couple of particularly annoying people in New York a ride on one of my high priority transports, plus it gave me an excuse to check on things in Brockton Bay."

"Not to mention seeing Armsmaster?" Amy teased.

"Er, yes," Dragon responded, sounding embarrassed. Not that you could tell by looking at her, of course. "I do enjoy seeing him."

Taylor grinned a little at that reaction, but decided to spare Dragon and change topics. "By the way, thank you for the app that lets me control the Snitch with my phones."

"It was an interesting exercise, though not as challenging as helping the two debug their 'cameraman' program a couple years back. I still don't know where they were getting the high-resolution maps of the areas they were operating in, nor why the focus point for said area would differ from the camera's position."

Amy looked at Dragon, then giggled. Taylor sighed, she was probably going to spend most of the trip explaining how the Snitch actually worked now.

Taylor hopped off of the platform onto the roof of the Boston PRT building, directing the platform itself over to the obvious landing pad for it and marking that as recall point two. She then let it land on the pad as she moved over to where Amy and Dragon were standing. Amy had enjoyed the flight over, even if Taylor and Dragon had indeed spent much of it talking about the Snitch.

"Well, we're here," Taylor said. "And with the recall point set it'll be easier to get back here later too. Now what?"

"Now we introduce you to Director Armstrong," Dragon said. "Since he'll be in charge when you patrol here. After that, since we've got plenty of time before the unveiling I'd like to run a couple of tests with the Snitch, to see how some of the PRT's security systems interact with it."

"What about me?" Amy asked.

"You can either tag along or go off and do your own thing. You should have Ward level access to the entire building, after all."

"Hunch appears to be downstairs somewhere," Taylor noted. "No other snarks in my range."

"The local Wards will all be assisting with the pre-unveiling prep work. Though I will inform you that none of them are aware of what happened between you two when you helped Leet. Director Armstrong is cleared to know, but as far as I know hasn't been informed yet either. We think you should inform him before coming back to patrol here."

"Perhaps it would be best if I tagged along for that meeting at a minimum," Amy said. "He's more likely to accept the information if we're both there."

"Works for me," Taylor said, and the two followed Dragon into the elevator.

It didn't take long to get down to the correct level, where they ended up waiting for twenty minutes for Director Armstrong to be ready for them. Finally a couple of PRT officers left his office. Dragon led them into the office, and hit the privacy field switch.

"Does every PRT Director have one of those?" Taylor asked.

"They're fairly recent," Dragon said before Director Armstrong could say anything. "But by now they should, yes."

"Huh. Were any of them told about the solenoid?"

The other three in the office looked at Taylor, before the likely Director Armstrong shook his head. "We appear to have already gone off on a tangent. Good morning, I'm Director Armstrong, Boston's PRT Director."

"And this is Maul of the ENE Wards," Dragon said, gesturing to Taylor. "I believe the rest of us have previously met."

"Good morning Director Armstrong," Taylor said.

"Take a seat," Director Armstrong said, gesturing to the seats in front of his desk. Dragon moved off to the side, allowing the two girls to take the two seats. "Before we go any further, what was that about a solenoid?"

"Remote low-voltage trigger setup to toggle the switch."

"I see. That would explain some of Piggot's smugness lately, wouldn't it. But you seemed to know that I don't have one set up, how? I thought you were a Blaster and a Trump?"

Amy giggled a little, and Taylor sighed. "I am. As well as a Tinker and a Striker."

"Really? What are your numbers?"

"Striker 12, Trump 10, Blaster 5, Tinker 4."

Director Armstrong blinked. "Holy...how in the world did they keep another Striker 12 secret? What can you do?"

"Everything she can," Taylor said, thumb pointing in Amy's direction. "Oh, and her numbers are Striker 12, Trump 8, Blaster 5, Tinker 5 now."

"That's going to require some explanation."

Armstrong sighed as the three capes left his office. The explanation for what had happened had been unbelievable, but Dragon had confirmed it all. Then again, it confirmed some oddities a couple of the Protectorate members had reported from their healing in Brockton Bay. Keeping a lid on things was a sensible decision as well.

Turning to his computer, he frowned. Why had Dragon sent him a high priority message? She was just in the room with him! Sighing again, he opened it, grabbing his coffee mug to take a sip as he did so. He regretted that a moment later as he sprayed his monitor with coffee. Trump WHAT?

Cleaning the coffee off of his monitor, and vowing to break his habit of drinking the stuff while he read messages, he continued reading the message. Holy crap, a Ward had taken out the clones and the parahuman who'd made them? Shit. That even she didn't know how widespread that'd been was worrisome too. With what she did know he'd have to make sure that any patrol she joined on avoided the Teeth's territory, just in case Spree caused her flashbacks.

In fact, he shouldn't put that off, so he dug out the appropriate forms to do that right now.

It'd taken half an hour to determine that six of the eight current levels of PRT 'secured room' were ineffective against the Snitch. Level three blocked it picking up sound, and level seven blocked it entirely. But aside from those two nothing stopped it, so Dragon was taking some time to see if she could figure out why.

In the meantime, Taylor and Amy headed to the local Wards common area. Even though Hunch was the only one there, and was probably on console. When they got there they allowed the 'visitors entering' alarms to fire, though Taylor would likely stop doing so after meeting them all.

"Ah, hello Maul, Panacea," Hunch called from the console. "Didn't realize you two were already in town."

"Hello Hunch," Taylor and Amy chorused, before Taylor continued. "We're here for the unveiling, and I'll probably be joining some patrols in the coming weeks. I figured taking a look around down here wouldn't hurt as a result. So far it's...bigger than back home."

"We've got three times more room than we need right now," Hunch explained. "It'll actually be more soon, as a number of us are relocating to other departments now that Boston is predicted to become more dangerous. Which means we'll have plenty of guest rooms for visiting groups. Feel free to poke around."

At that point the console beeped and Hunch spun back around to look at it, hitting the sound shield in the process. Apparently something had happened. Taylor and Amy shared a look, then shrugged and wandered around the common area. It didn't take long to determine that Brockton Bay had a better kitchen setup, but Boston had better tinker facilities in the Wards area. Other than that they were actually very similar, except that there was more room in the common areas and a lot more rooms in the personal area.

The only other thing of note was that a number of the 'personal' rooms had no normal closets, but instead seemed to be designed around a suitcase being dropped underneath a charging shelf. That these were grouped together and had whiteboards for their 'nameplate' indicated to the two that they were most likely intended as 'guest' quarters right now.

With that figured out the two weren't sure what to do.

"We could explore more of the building?" Taylor offered, before pausing. "Or we could go up and meet Vicky on the roof."

"Oh, she's finally here?" Amy said. "Might as well go check with her."

"Stupid security rules," Vicky grumbled as the elevator went down. "How is it that both of you count as suitable escorts when I'm not even allowed to open the doors?"

"She's a Ward and I get to pretend to be one," Amy replied, shrugging. "I'm under the impression that your probation can be shortened by you joining the Wards as well, so if you want access maybe you should consider that."

"That's an option for her?" Taylor asked.

"Yep. Granted, she wouldn't be permitted to patrol with New Wave anymore if she did that. On the other hand, she'd be able to patrol with her boyfriend more often."

"Mom told me that even if I want to join the Wards she won't sign the paperwork until school lets out," Vicky said. "Even then, I'd be obligated to join the Protectorate when I hit 18, and I'm not sure I want that."

"Huh," Taylor mused. "I wonder what the normal rules are for that kind of thing?" In fact, she popped open a search to see if she could find out. She hadn't been reading much documentation lately anyway, so perhaps this would be a half-decent project. Knowing the rules for Ward to Protectorate and all would help as some would likely apply to her eventually anyway.

They'd wandered for half an hour, grabbed something to eat, and then been told it was time to head to the memorial site. During that time Taylor had been flagging documentation to read later, skimming some of it, but hadn't found the answer to her original question yet. It might take a longer documentation crawl to find.

Amy ended up riding with Taylor again, and they made their way to the former location of Logan Airport. The entire airport had been destroyed early on in the fight against Leviathan and would need to be rebuilt from the ground up. Or in the case of some of the runways, from the water up. The memorial would be in a spot a bit closer to the highway than the airport proper had been, inside of the old driving ring. They'd build the new airport buildings closer to where the old ones used to be, though probably with a brand-new design.

Once they got there they were directed to one side of the temporary stage that had been set up 'behind' the monument. Since she wasn't supposed to be flying on it for now, Taylor sent her platform back to the PRT building for the time being to keep it out of the way. With that done she deployed the Snitch to sit above the event so that it could record it. And...then she was bored, so she went back to poking at documentation stuff.

Amy: What are you doing?

Taylor: Reading documentation.

Amy: ...why?

Taylor: Because I'm curious about the rules for when Wards progress to the Protectorate, and how Vicky's situation would affect things. Plus I'm likely to make that transition so it's probably good to know anyway. But I haven't found the bits I'm looking for yet.

Amy: Damn. Now I'm curious too. I need to ask Sarah if I can add the clear visor to my costume.

Taylor: Claim you want protection for your eyes while in costume without having to rely on the forcefield belt. By making it a personal safety thing it'll be harder for her to argue, and the thing's clear so it isn't like you'd be wearing a 'mask' or 'goggles' that would disguise your appearance.

Amy: That...huh. That's kinda brilliant. The fact I could use my phone with it wouldn't even factor in at that point, it would be more of a 'side bonus' thing. I could probably argue that all of New Wave should get clear visors, actually, since I've had to repair eyes seven or eight times now.

Taylor: Mention cameras in them for the others so that they have an easier time proving things when they go on patrol. Yours probably shouldn't have one for patient privacy concerns, of course.

Amy: I think I'll send myself a reminder about all of this.

Taylor reluctantly stopped looking through documentation as the official unveiling was about to begin. She also started the Snitch recording at that point, she'd trim out the lead time if needed later. Colin and Dragon had shown up, as had another parahuman that she and Amy didn't recognize.

Eventually Governor Bath took the stage. She cleared her throat a couple of times, causing those gathered to quiet down. "Hello. As many of you know, I'm not one for flowery speeches. We're here to honor those that paid the ultimate price helping to defend this city, and to honor those that contributed more than anyone should be expected to. Fifty eight parahumans died last weekend fighting to defend Boston and the surrounding area. Some died in battle, others during support actions. All of them deserve our respect."

At this point the cloth covering the monument was pulled away, revealing a granite structure. It had a square base, the sides polished and the names of the deceased carved into them. Sitting on top of it was a globe, with polished metal points marking various locations. After a moment of silence the Governor continued.

"Those who died came from all over the globe. Their names and origin have been carved into the monument, and their origins have been marked on the globe above it as well. But the real triumph lay in what this monument lacks. Thanks to a small group of people we had sufficient warning to evacuate all of the unpowered civilians from the attack area." Governor Bath turned to the group of parahumans on the stage. "First, I'd like to thank Maul, a Ward from Brockton Bay." Taylor was beckoned forward, and nervously stood next to the Governor. "Her powers interacted with the Endbringer's approach to the area, giving us unprecedented warning of the attack."

The crowd gave a light applause, and then Taylor backed off as the Governor continued. "Next, I'd like to thank Armsmaster, Protectorate member also from Brockton Bay, and Dragon, Protectorate and Guild member." They both moved forward as Taylor had, if more confidently. "Their work in documenting and predicting the behavior of the Endbringers allowed us to determine the full extent of the attack area along the coast within minutes of Maul's warning, ensuring that evacuations could be completed with time to spare. Further, Dragon supplied transportation for a large percentage of the evacuees."

Another round of light applause was given, with the two capes backing off again before the Governor continued once more. "And finally, I'd like to thank several parahumans who provided support during and after the battle, one of whom couldn't be here today. To start with, Sekhmet of Egypt." The unrecognized parahuman stepped forward. "Sekhmet provided on-site emergency care for many of the defenders with her supply of medicines, keeping those that she couldn't heal outright alive long enough to be evacuated for longer term treatment."

More applause, and then the Governor moved on. "Next, we have Panacea of Brockton Bay." This time mild applause came while Amy moved forward. "Sadly the young independent Injury Magnet couldn't join us. He worked with Panacea, keeping many of the defenders from passing away before they could be healed." After another bit of applause Amy backed up again. "Which leaves us with Glory Girl of Brockton Bay and Maul for a second time."

Taylor blinked, not having expected to be called up twice. She stepped up anyway, listening to the Governor. "Maul provided additional support and security for Panacea and Injury Magnet throughout the entire battle and beyond. Glory Girl did the same for the local evacuation points even as they turned into triage and search and rescue staging points. In fact, she had to be forcibly relieved and told to go to bed." A last round of applause was given, even as Taylor figured she now knew better as to why Vicky got some time off from being 'grounded'.

"Thank you all for coming," the Governor concluded, ending the unveiling. The group of parahumans moved off of the stage together, on the opposite side from where the Governor was doing the same. Taylor summoned her platform and had the Snitch come down so she could put it away. She'd had the recording stream straight to her phone so she didn't have to download it later.

By the time they were climbing onto the platform the press had surrounded the monument, taking pictures of each side.

The flight back to Brockton Bay was spent poking at the recording of the memorial unveiling. Instead of making it into a video, since the news agencies would have several of those, they were rigging it up to be a three-dimensional recording. This mainly involved simplifying things down to the basics, ensuring that the only details present were those that needed to be. So, for example, Taylor's weapons were merged into her base model. As was her jacket.

"That should do it," Taylor said, grinning. She then paused, and frowned a bit. "Well, now that I've got the final version, what do I do with it?"

"The file should be compatible with a couple of free viewers," Dragon answered. "So just upload it and post a link with mention of that? I'll send you the list of viewers in a moment."

Taylor looked at Amy, who shrugged. The upload had just finished as they came in for a landing in Brockton Bay.

"There we go," Taylor said, submitting the post on PHO. She then turned to Dragon and frowned. "Dragon, do you have anything important planned for the next hour or so?"

"No," Dragon replied, giving Taylor a look. Amy also seemed to be giving Taylor a look. "Why?"

"Your suit has a couple of wear and tear problems at a minimum right now, so taking a look is probably a good idea before they get worse."

"Oh. The slight extra resistance in my leg hasn't exceeded my normal tolerances yet, but if you think it'd be a good idea to take a look I suppose we can do so."

Ten minutes later they were in the visiting tinker lab, which Taylor had set to 'medical' mode for reasons neither of the other two seemed to be certain about, beyond possibly wanting the 'operating table' that it provided.

"Now then," Taylor said, popping open one of the access panels on Dragon's leg. "It looks like the main problem here is uneven wear due to dirt having slipped in through this worn gasket." She took a few minutes to clean out the area, smoothing a couple of rough spots in the process, before replacing the gasket and closing things back up. "Next up, your cooling system."

"My cooling system seems to be operating within parameters," Dragon argued. Though she didn't try and stop Taylor from continuing anyway.

"It would," Taylor said as she opened up Dragon's chest. "Both of the the temperature sensors are slightly misaligned and touching nearby casings, so they're not reading entirely correctly. You probably didn't let the sealant set properly before you starting using this suit." She grabbed a couple of tools and used them to make careful adjustments inside the suit.

"Oh, I can already see that the temperature's a little higher than it should be."

"There we go," Taylor said, before grabbing a screwdriver and opening an internal panel.

"MOTHER!" Dragon exclaimed. "Why are you going in there?"

"Because you've got some issues in the arteries of your little biological computer," Taylor answered, placing her finger in the opening she'd just made. "It looks like you've not taken into account the extra needs for the corona pollentia and gemma, so your nutrient solution doesn't have enough magnesium in it. You also aren't giving it enough potassium, but that would be the case even without the extra activity, and it could use a smidge more omega-3 acids."

"That processor is fascinating," Amy said, staring off into space. "It's like a reversed implant."

"There we go," Taylor said, carefully closing up the internal panel, and then following with the external. "That's enough for now, but don't forget to change your air filter. It'll need to be swapped out in the next couple of days."

"Wow," Dragon said. "I can already tell that you improved things." She then grabbed Taylor in a hug. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"I'll clean up the lab for you before I go prepare some things for when Colin returns," Dragon said. "Not that there's much to clean up, obviously."

"Thanks. Good luck with whatever you're working on."

Taylor had just finished eating a snack while waiting for her afternoon patrol when Amy started giggling.

Taylor: You run into something funny on the way home?

Amy: No. I just realized that you, in effect, fixed Dragon's clothing and told her that she needed to eat better.

Taylor blinked at that. Huh, I guess you could say that was what she'd done.

Taylor: Your point?

Amy: You were very motherly.

Taylor: ...well, if she's going to be my 'daughter' then it's my right to be motherly, right?

Amy: Maybe. But I still find it funny.

Dragon couldn't keep the smile off of her face for the rest of the day. She hadn't been certain before, but now she knew that Mother actually cared about her! Going to the trouble of fixing her suit and correcting her 'diet' and all, despite not needing to or even being asked. It made her feel warm inside.

No, wait, some of that feeling was her temperature sensors. Maybe she'd replace that air filter ahead of schedule, since she wasn't getting the airflow she wanted over the heatsinks on that side. Her smile dipped slightly at that, until she recalled that Mother had recommended she change the air filter as well.

Explaining why she was so happy to Colin might be a little harder, given the solemn things they were reminded of today.

Chapter 90 Taylor was reading through documentation while waiting for her patrol time. She wasn't sure who she'd be patrolling with, outside of a note on her calendar that she wasn't allowed to patrol with the Protectorate at all until school let out.

"How in the world did you get that recording?" Missy asked as she sat down next to Taylor.

"Which recording are you talking about?" Taylor asked.

"The three dimensional one of the unveiling. Some of the officers were looking at it as we came back."

"It wasn't hard, I was there after all."

Missy glared at Taylor. "You know what I mean. The last time I checked, you don't have anything that could record something like that. So spill."

"I've got the Snitch on indefinite loan."

Taylor made it through the rest of the document she was reading before realizing that Missy had gone silent. Turning to look at the younger girl, Taylor found that she was sitting there with a look of shock and disbelief on what was visible of her face.

"What did you say to break Vista?" Carlos asked as he came over.

"She said something about having the Snitch on loan," Lisa answered. "Which is hard to believe. What happened that the gamer duo let it out of their sight?"

"Über died during the fight against Leviathan," Taylor answered. "Leet...didn't take it well. Armsmaster agreed that even if I didn't feel right accepting Leet's offer to keep the Snitch permanently, he and Über would prefer that it be used instead of sitting in storage. Dragon helped me set it up so I can run the basic controls for it from my phones."

"That...huh," Carlos said. "You going to see about recording your patrols with it?"

"Might as well. At a minimum afterwards we could get a better view on any fights, instead of just what any of our normal cameras happened to be able to see."

"Well, grab the thing and get ready. We might as well run a patrol with the three of us in familiar territory before we spend some time in Boston tomorrow."

Taylor was bouncing from building to building while Carlos flew overhead and Missy crunched space to move along the rooftops. The Snitch and her platform were both following along, though she had the platform cloaked. She still occasionally bounced off of it anyway, so that she could get a good picture of what it looked like when she reviewed the footage from the Snitch. She thought it would probably look confusing, which would be amusing.

"Heads up," Carlos said. "Looks like there's a couple groups fighting right in our path. Empire and ABB."

"Think we can break it up by just showing up?" Taylor asked. "The ABB are supposed to be under orders to leave Wards alone, after all."

"Worth a shot," Missy said. "Let me call it in first."

They got the go-ahead from the console, so moved up to the rooftops above where the fight was.

"Think I should just drop in?" Taylor offered, causing the other two to look at her. "What? They're fighting with knives. I don't think I have anything to worry about there either way."

"She has a point," Carlos admitted, turning to Missy. "So patrol leader, what do you think?"

"Go for it," Missy said.

Taylor grinned, then looked down at the fight. Deciding on a landing point, she jumped, yelling as she did so. "INCOMING!"

The gang members looked up, then hastily made a hole for her to land in. Once she'd landed she looked around, her entrance apparently having paused the entire fight.

"Er, what now?" one of the gang members asked, looking to one of his compatriots.

"You can attack her if you want," said compatriot answered, turning to leave. "But I've heard the rumors and I'm not going anywhere near that shit today."

Two minutes later the three Wards had gathered on the ground. Both sets of gang members had taken their injured and left peacefully.

"That was fucking weird," Taylor finally said. "What rumors do you think they were talking about?"

"No idea," Carlos answered.

"I'm so happy that we have multiple recordings of that," Missy said. "Because otherwise I don't think they'll believe me when I submit my report."

Taylor frowned as she landed on the next rooftop, turning to the left. "I think I hear trouble."

"What is it?" Missy asked, popping up right next to Taylor.

"Sounds like drunken idiots accosting someone, probably just off the main road."

The three detoured to take a look even as Missy called it in. Carlos moved up even as Taylor and Missy ended up on the roof next to where the group of thugs was threatening a black man and his likely daughter.

[Destination]

Taylor stared at the two Jabberwocks, each of the two existing across multiple dimensions. They circled each other and yet didn't. Planetary in scale, yet still small enough to land on a planet if they were to choose to do so.

{Agreement}

They were communicating with incredible bursts of energy, snarks dedicated to the task sending information between them in a horribly inefficient manner, hitting their counterpart snarks more by sheer saturation than through targeting.

[Trajectory]

Even as they did so they shed snarks, hundreds of them falling from the pair every moment. Dimensional trails left behind as the bulk of each snark sought out the planet it would call home, and a fragment of each snark sought out a host. Some to connect as soon as possible, others to wait for years.

{Agreement}

Yet even to her untrained eye, one of the two Jabberwocks seemed distracted, unattentive.

|Affirmation|

BA: DisagreementS: DisagreementUMR: Disagreement[Disagreement]

Taylor blinked as the world snapped back into focus, a new snark in the group of people below.

Amy: What the fuck was that?

Taylor: Er. I think someone just triggered? Maybe.

BA: Agreement

Taylor: Ah. Yeah. Someone just triggered. Where the Jabberwock thing came from I'm less certain about.

Amy: Was that what that other snark said to have us forget?

Taylor: I think so. But, well...

Amy: The protocols weren't expecting multiple primary connections?

Taylor: Yeah.

[Affirmation]

Taylor: No thank you, I don't want to forget about the girl. Even if she is hiding in the wall now.

[Confusion]

Taylor looked over at Missy, who was shaking herself. Then up at Carlos, who'd stayed in the air but was also shaking himself.

"Maul to console," Taylor said, sighing. "We were in range of a trigger event. I've got pamphlets if needed." Then, since the thugs were only looking a little confused, she jumped down off of the roof, landing to the side of the thugs and the two they'd been about to attack. Or the man, anyway, since they'd apparently forgotten about the girl. Who was hiding in the wall, somehow, likely thanks to her new snark.

"What the," one of the thugs said, backing up. Ew, had he really...no, best not to think about that.

"Heh," another one said, brandishing his knife. "Little girl brought her fists to a knife fight."

Taylor looked at that thug, and grinned. She reached under her jacket, aiming for the small of her back, and unsheathed the sword attached there before holding it out in front of her. "Looks to me like you brought a knife to a swordfight. I'm going to recommend you surrender."

The look on the men's faces was hilarious. Carlos getting himself together and dropping down behind them with an audible thud caused a couple of them to spin around, one of them swearing something that Taylor thought might have been along the lines of 'fucking capes'. The three with knives out very carefully weighed their options, then slowly crouched down and set the knives on the ground.

Ten minutes later the entire group of thugs was tied up, the police were on their way, and the man was looking confused.

"Are you alright sir?" Missy asked him.

"I'm...confused as to why I'm even here?" the man answered.

Taylor ignored the conversation and instead poked at the wall a bit. It seemed to be solid.

Taylor: So, your human is hiding in the wall?

[Agreement. Affirmation]

Taylor: Nope. Still not willing to forget about her. How do I get her out?

Taylor sighed when she got no answer. Apparently the snark wasn't too pushy on the 'please forget' front, but wasn't in the mood to volunteer too much otherwise. Well, maybe just talking would work? "Ok kid, you can come out now."

"What are you doing?" Carlos asked. "What kid?"

"The girl in the wall," Taylor answered. "Not fully certain how she's hiding in the wall, but she is."

"Did Maul hurt herself?" Missy asked, apparently having given up on getting anything of use out of the man.

Taylor sighed. "She's got a stranger ability, that isn't working on me. What's up with the gentleman that was with her?"

"Mister Laborn claimed that he didn't even know why he was in the area."

"Mister...huh." Taylor hit the radio. "Maul to Mycroft, can you describe Grue's sister to me? Send it via text if you feel you need to."

"I'll do you one better and send you a picture of her," Lisa responded. A moment later Taylor's phone received the message, and she opened it.

"I guess that simplifies a few things. So, Aisha, do I have to call your brother to get you out of there?"

A moment later the wall opened somehow, and the younger girl carefully came out. The depression she'd been in smoothed out and vanished as she stepped out of it. Taylor got the impression that it was very similar to some of what Missy could do, though more limited and utilized very differently. She looked nervous, sliding down the wall a little away from the thugs. "Er, hello. Do you really know Brian?"

"Yes, we do," Taylor replied. She then switched to subvocalizing for the radio. "Console, please inform Grue that his sister has triggered. Further, please be aware that she's triggered with what I believe to be a Shaker/Stranger combo, which has caused her father to abandon her due to forgetting she was with him."

"Console to patrol group two," came back from the PRT officer monitoring things. "Provided she's willing to come with you, please abort and bring the newly triggered parahuman back to base as soon as the police have arrived."

"So, we've been asked to bring you back with us after the police show up to collect the thugs," Taylor said, pulling a domino mask out of one of her pouches and handing it to Aisha. "Here, you might want this."

"Thanks?" Aisha said, looking at the mask. She shrugged and put it on. "How would we be getting to wherever it is?"

Taylor grinned as her platform uncloaked and opened up. "I thought that we'd fly."

Missy and Aisha both ended up with matching grins a moment later. Taylor didn't think Aisha would be complaining about going back with them.

Taylor smirked as she jumped off of the platform, flipping in mid-air to land on her feet. Aisha...did not look as confident. Then again, the platform was currently floating upside-down over the roof of the PRT building. Missy had simply twisted and crunched space and walked off of the platform.

"You suck!" Aisha finally yelled. "LET ME DOWN!"

Taylor snickered even as Brian came out of the elevator. Aisha didn't notice, since the elevator was behind her. After a moment Taylor had the platform drop down, though Aisha was still apparently nervous about jumping off while it was upside-down. She seemed to be contemplating it anyway when Brian grabbed her from behind and pulled her off, still upside-down in his arms.

"GAH!" Aisha yelled, thrashing a little. "Lemme go!"

"Calm down," Brian said, adjusting his grip to spin his sister onto her feet. "What happened?"

"I think we've got a decent enough recording of things," Taylor interrupted. "Perhaps we should review that first?"

"But you weren't there the whole time?" Aisha said.

Taylor's response was to hold her hand out to the side, the Snitch dropping into it. "Luckily I think we were close enough for this to pick up on things."

They'd reviewed everything, restrained Brian from going to the police station to try and give the thugs a beating, and ended up eating dinner together in the conference room as they discussed things. Well, Taylor and Missy had stuck around, Carlos had bowed out citing visiting family unaware of his status as a Ward.

"So, brat," Brian said, glaring at Aisha. "Why did it take so much effort to get you to come out of your little hidey-hole?"

"Because I didn't know if they were Wards," Aisha explained, rolling her eyes. "Do you know how many gangs across the country use fake Wards and Protectorate costumes to fool new triggers? The PRT's documented a dozen cases in the past year alone. I only considered coming out when I was finally able to see Vista crunch space through my limited view after Dad ran off. Faking powers is harder than faking costumes after all."

"That's more sensible than I thought your answer would be," Taylor mused.

"So if I join the Wards do I get to know who you are?" Aisha asked, looking at Taylor. "Because the group I joined at school can't figure you out."

"What group?" Missy asked.

"The one that's figured out most of the Wards," Aisha explained, rolling her eyes. "Granted, they haven't figured out Brian or Lisa, but neither of them attend school. Maul here is the only one I can't figure out either. It's no fair using another local celebrity as a body double or something."

"Really now," Brian said, poking his sister. "So, if your group is so smart, who are the Wards?"

"Vista here is Missy, being one of the only girls matching her description to vanish into the PRT building ever. Gallant being Dean is the worst kept secret in this half of the country thanks to Glory Girl. Kid Win is a kid named Chris, apparently it's pretty obvious when he spaces out and draws blueprints in class every so often. Clockblocker being Dennis would've been harder to figure out if he hadn't accidentally frozen things in class for a few weeks after triggering, even if he'd stopped by the time he joined up. Aegis is almost certainly a guy named Carlos, though they wouldn't have narrowed that down without someone spotting him 'floating' down a stairwell after tripping back in December."

"That's a pretty impressive list," Taylor finally said. "But your group can't figure me out?"

"You appear to be too obvious. But things keep not adding up. You're a dead ringer for Taylor Hebert, and she keeps pulling off the most bullshit things. But almost all of those bullshit things have reasonable explanations if you look deeper, and she doesn't seem to have the enhanced strength you do. It's like someone decided to make the link between you two incredibly obvious as a distraction!"

"So if your little group has figured all of this out, why haven't you told anyone?"

"Because most of the fun in knowing is screwing with other people online and in the gossip circles? Our group knows of at least three people at each school in the city that intentionally screw with the discussions on possible identities, and that's not counting the Wards themselves." Aisha then pointed at Taylor. "You are so frustrating because even when we stick to things we can verify you don't add up."

Taylor stared at Aisha for a moment. "Join the Wards and maybe you will find out, both my identity and if you're right about any of the others."

Aisha folded her arms and pouted while glaring at Taylor. At least until she remembered that she was in the middle of eating.

Sunday morning Taylor found herself at the PRT building early. Carlos and Missy hadn't arrived yet, and unlike the day before they were supposed to take an actual transport to Boston. Giving that some thought, Taylor instructed her platform to head to the landing pad in Boston now so that it would be available there if she needed it.

With nothing better to do, Taylor pulled out the hard-light weapon projector and set it up so that the sword it produced was as close to her actual one as possible, then started practicing with it. The 'basics' included with the care and maintenance instructions helped there. Eventually she might even feel comfortable using the sword for real, instead of just for intimidation.

"Where in the world did you get a second sword?" Carlos asked as he entered. "Because that isn't the one you pulled on the thugs yesterday."

"This is my hard-light weapons projector," Taylor answered, thumbing it to the golf club. "It's somewhere between foam and wood on the hardness, regardless of form, so it doesn't really have an 'edge'. I thought that for figuring out some of the basics of swinging a sword it would be good enough."

"Huh. Ok. You should bring that to Boston, if only in case someone there has any experience with a sword."

Taylor looked at the golf club, flipped it back to the sword, and shrugged. "Probably not a bad idea."

"Good morning Aegis, Maul, Vista," Terry said as the three Wards stepped off of the elevator. Wait, Terry?

Taylor: So, you know Dauntless's civilian identity?

Amy: Oh, yeah. It came up when I was working on his prosthetics.

"Good morning," Taylor said after the other two had greeted him.

"I was hoping to talk to Maul for a few minutes before you all head to Boston," Terry continued. "Your transport isn't quite done refueling anyway, so we have a few minutes."

Taylor shared a look with the other two, and Carlos waved her over to Terry before leading Missy to the transport. Shrugging, Taylor walked up to the Protectorate cape.

"How can I help you?" Taylor asked.

"I was hoping you could talk to my, er," Terry started, then paused for a moment. "Snark, was it?"

"Yes, your snark grants you your powers."

"Yeah. Can you find out if there's any way to speed up enhancing something? I spent years on some of my equipment that was destroyed, you see. I don't even have my primary offensive or defensive items anymore."

"Oh. Ok. Give me a minute to ask."

Taylor: So, your human wants to know if there's any way to speed up enhancing things.

[Query]

Taylor: Yes, I imagine that your 'improvements' are what he's talking about. He thinks most of what he'd been working on was destroyed recently?

[Agreement. Data]

Taylor: You ended up with some strict rules.

[Elaboration]

Taylor: Oh. Ok, that makes sense, and I see where I was thinking wrong. Is there anything else he can do to speed things up?

[Data]

Taylor: Thanks. Huh. How are his prosthetics on that front?

[Excitement]

Taylor: Good to know. Thanks.

"So," Taylor said aloud. "You've got a few things you can do. One of them is to be in combat while in contact with anything you've started putting energy into. This is incredibly loosely defined as being 'in conflict' with a physical component. I suggest training drills with PRT staff to start with, so long as you're not playing 'non-combat commander'."

"Training...wow," Terry said. "I hadn't considered that, and it's a good idea."

"Secondly, focus on one thing until you get it stabilized. For example, your armor is apparently almost to the tipping point, so get it there. Once you do that it should maintain itself more easily."

"That makes sense, yeah."

"Thirdly, start with better equipment. Your prosthetics are better than top of the line, so they'll work great. But get an actual tinkertech shield and weapon. Once you start pumping power into them your snark will maintain them for you, and they'll hit the tipping point faster because they're higher quality in the first place. Mainly because you aren't wasting a lot of energy getting them to 'adequate' for proper enhancements."

"That...huh. I guess that makes sense. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Oh, and apparently you'd nearly hit your limits for the items you'd been using and would've had to start improving secondary items anyway."

Terry stilled for a moment, then slumped. "Damn. Glenn told me to consider adding additional things to my equipment set. Now I might have to ask him what ideas he had."

"Good luck with that, and have a nice day."

"So, Maul," Missy said once they'd taken off. They were alone in the transport, but in costume, so codenames were the habit. "Something's been bugging me. How did you pull off the 'normal human strength' trick when you helped with that bus?"

"If I focus I can prevent the enhanced strength from kicking in," Taylor replied even as she opened up some documentation again. "It normally does automatically, but I can suppress that reaction."

"Oh. That sounds handy."

"I do something similar myself," Carlos admitted. "Though I imagine it's easier for me."

"Weird," Taylor said around ten minutes later.

"What's weird?" Carlos asked.

"Some of the things that can happen when you jump to the Protectorate. Like this bit here that says you can rebrand if your preferred costume fell under any age-based restrictions when you initially branded. The kicker is that you're supposed to retain the majority of your original appearance. It's worded in a way that implies that when you make the jump you're allowed to rebrand for sex appeal."

"I guess that makes sense," Missy said. "Not that I've seen many adults branded for sex appeal. But I wouldn't mind being able to officially retire the skirt."

"You found anything else of interest on that front?" Carlos asked. "I'll admit that I haven't taken the time to look over most of it, even if I probably should."

"I still haven't found what happens if you're on probation when you make the jump," Taylor admitted. "That might be defined in the individual probations though. But there was a bit about being encouraged to rename if your original name implied youth. So Kid Win would be recommended to do so, as would Glory Girl if she were to join the Wards. Or the Protectorate later, for that matter, that was a more general thing for entering it at all. The only other thing that jumped out at me was the required classes if you have no recruitments as a Ward."

"Do joint recruitments count?" Missy asked.

"Yes, so you're good."

"Damn," Carlos said. "I might actually have to take those. In fact, you two are the only current Wards that I think would be exempt. Recruitment rates suck these days."

"You're lucky."

The other two turned to look at Taylor, before Missy spoke up. "You got your second recruitment bonus. How are we lucky?"

"You don't need a top of the line tinkertech security system at home because you're afraid a villain is going to show up in your bedroom uninvited?"

"There's a story we haven't fully heard there."

Taylor sighed and wondered how she should word it this time.

Taylor noted that Weld and a parahuman she didn't have a name for yet were waiting for them as the transport landed, so she had to lightly poke the new snark. She thought Hunch was in the common area, probably preparing to run or already running the console. Once they'd landed the three stepped off onto the Boston PRT's roof.

"Good morning," Weld called as they approached. "I'd like to introduce you all to Reynard."

"Morning," Reynard said.

"And Reynard," Weld continued. "These are the only three cross-training participants from Brockton Bay. Aegis, Maul, and Vista."

"Morning," Carlos said.

"Good morning," Taylor continued.

"Hi," Missy finished.

"We've been briefed on your basic abilities," Reynard said. "And you've all met Weld before. My specialty is illusions that make me look like someone else nearby, with a little bit of 'mind reading' to ensure my mannerisms match."

Taylor looked at Reynard. "So, er, yeah. If that actually targets my brain then you might want to try that on me first, outside of a battle."

Reynard looked at Weld, who shrugged. Reynard turned back to Taylor, and shimmered.

[Confusion. Request]

BA: Rejection

"Well that's interesting," Carlos said, looking between Taylor and Reynard. "But, er, shouldn't you have adjusted your stance to be more like hers?"

"I...didn't get her mannerisms?" Reynard muttered. "Why didn't I get her mannerisms?"

"Because my snark denied your snark access to my brain," Taylor answered. "It decided at some point that any messing with my brain was a no-go, so it plays intercept."

"Huh," Reynard said as his form shimmered and returned to his normal appearance. "Weird. Luckily nobody here likely knows you well enough to notice yet."

"So are we patrolling with just the two of you?" Carlos asked.

"Yep," Weld replied. "Basic run for today through areas that normally have little to no combat to get you a little more used to us. We'll save the areas we expect actual trouble for next weekend when you're here for a couple of days."

"We going for staying together on the ground, roof-hopping thanks to Vista helping, or mixed as we use our own movement methods to cover more angles?"

Reynard turned to Weld. "So, I'm already feeling years behind them, because mixed movement methods sounds hella useful. Why haven't we done that before?"

"Because unlike Brockton Bay and New York we don't have enough people that can do something other than walk," Weld answered, then turned to Carlos. "And flying was a problem with the airport. Let's go with mixed. At a minimum it will help with how we think about things."

"So you two on the ground," Taylor said. "Aegis in the air. Vista on the rooftops. Hmm. Should I use my platform to join Carlos or use my harness to bounce along the rooftops?"

"Go with the platform," Carlos answered. "You don't know the area well enough yet, so blind-jumping across rooftops would be a bad idea."

"True, I run into enough holes in roofs and unstable buildings back home."

"Do you need any help unloading it from the transport?" Weld asked, only to get a look from Taylor. "I mean, I assume it's on the transport?"

"It's on the landing pad. I sent it ahead first thing this morning."

Weld blinked, and both he and Reynard turned to look next to the elevator and stair 'hut'. Taylor had the platform lift off and open up as it came over to her just after they had a chance to see it on the landing pad.

"I don't come up here often enough," Reynard finally said. "Because I didn't know that wasn't always there."

"So, we've got our route mapped out," Weld said once everyone had gathered outside of the PRT building. "Everyone's signed into the console and on the patrol channel." He then looked at the three Brockton Bay Wards. "And yet, none of you have your phones out. We at least know this particular route well enough to not need the map?"

"Thanks to a recent upgrade run and a local tinker finding it 'inefficient' to not include the functionality all three of us have visors that can at least display our phones," Carlos said, shrugging. "Maul can do quite a bit more, but with the map already up Vista and I are good." He then paused, and turned to Taylor. "You got the Snitch?"

"Yep," Taylor said, pulling it out of her jacket pocket. "Figured it was a good idea."

"Cool, I don't want to rely on the head cameras and your body camera if we don't have to, at least not after seeing what that thing can do yesterday."

"Weld to console," Weld said, his hand up at his ear. "Please make note to have someone ask about on-person cameras and observation drones. I'm feeling like we're under-equipped here compared to our northern associates."

"It's a recent development," Missy said, shrugging. "We hadn't really given it much thought either until Maul's body camera started coming in handy."

With that out of the way Taylor gave Missy a lift back up to the rooftops. In this area they were all much higher than they usually dealt with in Brockton Bay. Carlos stuck to above the street at around that height, and Taylor ended up floating halfway between them and the ground. For a number of reasons Taylor wasn't doing her 'link everyone' trick today, and probably wouldn't the next weekend either.

"So," Reynard said over the patrol channel as they got moving. "They think we're going to have more violent everything around here soon. How much experience do you have with that?"

"What kind of violence are they expecting?" Missy asked.

"More armed muggings," Weld answered. "Probably more drugs and guns for a bit as we recover from all the damage."

"How much more?" Carlos asked.

"I think they said something about expecting us to be running into thugs with guns every few patrols?" Reynard offered.

"As in more thugs with guns every few?" Taylor asked. "Or are you actually saying you don't normally run into thugs with guns at all? Because, well, back home we count ourselves lucky when we're only running into guns in one or two out of every three incidents in a given patrol."

"What?" Weld said to Reynard. Off of the radio, but Taylor was close enough and her hearing good enough to hear him. "Did you think we were exaggerating things when we told everyone about their reports?"