As the sun officially rose the PRT and Protectorate were working with the police department in the final cleanup of the various things that the Teeth had set up in town. Some of the cleanup would take months to finish being taken care of, such as where the mounting of explosives had damaged other things, but the initial pass would easily be done in another day or so. The most notable problem from that was when the end of one driveway partially collapsed under the weight of a compact car. One of the inspectors checking various sites had tried, and failed, to use it to turn around.
The mayor was not pleased when he found out that some areas were so ready to collapse that the miniscule amount of damage done in mounting the explosives had caused them to be unable to hold the weight of cars pulling into driveways. He'd started insisting on a more complete examination of the sewer systems as a result, not wanting to find out that it took a lot less than a car for the next one.
He was even less pleased when he was finally given the address of the residence and realized that it was his sister's driveway that had collapsed.
Trevor yawned as he handed the bin full of repaired tinkertech off to one of the staffers to be brought up to the roof. It would then be brought over to the PRT building to be returned to the two girls. He'd volunteered to fix it all the night before and had pulled an all-nighter to get it all done. No need for Taylor to worry about fixing it all, she should be focusing on recovering from her ordeal. Besides, seeing the kind of damage that'd been done had been interesting.
The force field belt was the first thing he'd looked at, figuring that since Panacea was up she could use it again no matter what. In the process he'd actually corrected one of the flaws that let it burn itself out the way it had. A couple of components swapped out, the excess energy storage flushed, and a tweaking of the code parameters was all it'd needed. Well, that and a quick cleaning. He'd looked over the body camera next, replacing the lens assembly and a couple of internal wires. Straightening out the body took a little more effort, and removing the melted-on bits of other things was a bit of a pain.
Fixing the control unit for the flying platform had taken a little more finesse. Really, it was more of a rebuilding of the hidden control interface along the arm than anything else. Then replace the outer coating on the thing with a slightly more durable material this time, and replace the latch that wasn't going to close again without a painful amount of effort. Not worth it when he had a box of the things on his workbench. The only oddity there was a request to set things up so that someone other than Taylor could recall the thing to the last storage point, but he could see the reasoning and had added three raised points that could be held together for ten seconds to do that.
Rebuilding the jump harness consisted primarily of repairing the control unit and getting a new box of modules out of storage, since they'd started a bit of a stockpile locally. The modules didn't care what control unit was present, and most of Taylor's had been damaged beyond being worth repairing. A quick application of the appropriate paint to the modules had taken care of that side before he'd carefully fixed the heat damage on the control unit itself. Since he'd had one available, he swapped out the control unit's outer casing for a fresh one, but kept the innards from Taylor's and fixed the damage that they'd taken. That way she wouldn't have to re-pair to it. It did, however, get an upgraded battery pack.
After that it'd taken him a few minutes to realize that the cracked visor had a sensor system in it, which he hadn't been expecting. He'd quickly shrugged that off and gotten to work, painstakingly stitching the embedded screen and armor layers back together properly. Luckily the carbon nanotube linkage for the sensor system had survived the damage, that would've been a pain in the ass to fix. Still, he'd had to drain the batteries on the thing to do the repairs, so it would need charging. A note to that effect had been included before he'd dropped the thing into the bin.
He did wonder about Taylor's other gear. From what he'd seen she was probably going to need to replace the jacket, pants, and boots she'd been wearing at a minimum, and her wok hadn't looked all that good either. He suspected that her maul and belt pouches would also need some work, for that matter. But none of it had been sent to him, so he supposed it wasn't his problem.
No, right now his main problem was that he'd just pulled an all-nighter, after a hectic day yesterday. He was going to grab a quick meal and then go to bed.
Vicky had been escorted to one of the cafeterias by a PRT officer, only to find Amy with a sizable half-demolished meal in front of her. Shaking her head, she walked over and dropped down next to her adoptive sister, the PRT officer leaving her to it now that Amy could play escort. "Hey there. Hungry?"
Amy blushed a little. "I kinda forgot to eat dinner last night?"
"And you unwillingly slept through lunch after all of you coming back from Las Vegas had snacks for breakfast, so I heard. Where's Rodney?"
"Still in the pet carrier, I think. I need to bring food bowls for the two of them when I go back."
"Ahhh. So how's Taylor doing?"
Amy sighed. "There's a good chance she'll be awake later today, but they don't plan on letting her leave until Monday at the earliest. Even then it'll probably be after a therapy session that they'll want me at."
Vicky nodded, thinking that made sense. "So, you can probably guess that the internet went nuts yesterday, and hasn't slowed down much since, right?" Amy nodded, her mouth full of waffle. "Standard screaming and thrashing over the whole thing with Quarrel during the day, and several people posted their prepared lists of reasons why Taylor couldn't be a parahuman, or Maul, or both. Lots of griping over not being able to use them anymore included. Makes you wonder how many other parahumans they've got that kind of thing for, to be honest. Then there was the whole shift when those two came back, which just added celebrating and worrying to the screaming and thrashing. Overnight someone started a thread on trying to figure out what Taylor's actual powers have to be, because they couldn't see how a Blaster and Brute could kill the Butcher like that."
Amy groaned and swallowed. "What theories have they come up with?"
"They decided that she's probably really a Blaster, since she's so consistent there when in costume, but also that she has to be a high level Trump. They've spent most of the rest of the time arguing what kind of Trump she is, near as I can tell, and whether or not her Trump-ness explains all of the oddities in the data."
"I wonder if the PRT is going to have to clarify things before people get a bit too wild in their theories."
Vicky shrugged. She felt the theories were already too wild, but figured that Amy could learn that for herself. "No clue. Now then, you focus on eating, I'll go ask them to have a couple of bowls ready for the spider-bots for us to bring along. Unless you already did that?"
Amy shook her head no, so Vicky got up to talk to the workers behind the counter. It didn't take long to request the couple of bowls to be ready for when they went to head back. They didn't even ask for payment.
Amanda sighed as she searched the house looking for Rosy. She'd repeatedly told Riley to leave Rosy intact, but if the girl had felt that she needed parts...
That train of thought was stopped by a small red circle appearing on the wall, and Rosy climbing out of it. The circle vanished a moment later, and she didn't know what to think of it. Rosy also seemed to be moving a bit more easily, it looked like Riley might have replaced the spider-bot's legs. Something that Amanda has been asking for her to do, but that hadn't happened. Or at least, not until now. There was also a larger block of something on Rosy's underside, which might explain why the legs had been replaced.
Eye twitching, she used her mental control over her phone to send her daughter a message demanding her presence now.
"What do you want?" Riley said as she entered the room a couple minutes later. "I'm busy trying to figure out where...oh! You found Rosy!" She dropped down and gently picked the spider-bot up, checking over it.
Amanda glared at her daughter. Who didn't seem to care with all of her focus on Rosy. "Yes. Rosy climbed out a red circle that appeared on the wall. Which seems a bit odd to me."
Riley waved her off. "Joey and I didn't get the range limiters calibrated properly, but apparently things are a success. He needs to make a second access crystal, of course, so that we can check if Rosy is hiding in his new pocket space, but that won't take long. That he was able to get back home with the generic targeting system is the important part."
At this point Amanda was confused as hell and wasn't fully certain she understood anything her daughter had just said. "Can you explain what you've been up to properly, please?"
Riley blinked and looked up at her mother, before shrugging. "Rosy has powers, even if he can't use them anymore, so Joey was able to make a pocket space for him. With some neural tissue integrated into Joey's tech we were able to shrink down some of the targeting systems he normally uses when there isn't a key device at his destination, something that Toybox normally uses to move around, then hooked it into Rosy. He should be able to get into and out of his little pocket space so long as he's in the general area right now, since he still needs a shielded generator that's sitting on this end. Joey and I will fix the range issue and I'll bring the generator home later. Thanks to needing to be near the generator and all Rosy won't decide to vanish back home at random when we're on trips."
With a muttered 'tinkers', Amanda waved for Riley to get going. Perhaps today was a good day to start on the twelve pack of beer Jacob had left? She then remembered another detail and yelled after her daughter. "Don't forget that Jacob wants to talk to you later today!"
"I know," came back just before the door shut behind her daughter.
Yes, today was probably a good day for the beer. Even she was a bit worried about the monstrosities her daughter was going to get around to making now. She wasn't expecting Joey to be anything but a willing helper either. Hopefully they wouldn't need to get him set up with a triple life because he decided to join Riley in the Nine or something like that.
Danny sighed as he followed the PRT officer playing escort out of the hospital room that Taylor was in. Amy did wonderful work, but whatever had happened was keeping Taylor out for much longer than the beating he'd received. He'd insist on staying with Taylor, except that Deputy Director Renick had promised an explanation of things. So off he went to a meeting where things would be explained.
It wasn't long before they'd reached a conference room, which required that the officer unlock the door of long enough to let him in. The PRT officer didn't enter with him. Once inside he saw that one side of the table in the room held Director Piggot, Deputy Director Renick, and a decidedly unexpected Chief Director Costa-Brown. The other side of the table, where the only remaining empty seat was, currently had Patricia, the Youth Guard liason.
"Hello Mister Hebert," Costa-Brown said. "Please take a seat, I was told to expect that we'd be here for a few hours, so it's best to get started."
Danny sat down, wondering why things were going to take so long. "Hello everyone. A few hours, you said?"
Piggot nodded. "We'll get to that in a couple of minutes. First we want to give you some background details."
Danny nodded, but Costa-Brown took over. "Yesterday morning the Teeth used a collection of explosives to threaten the city, while at the same time engaging in skirmishes with several of the gangs. All of this was a distraction for their assault on the Dockworkers' compound and their real goal, which appears to have been you. Once they had you and a captured news crew they outed your daughter's identity and called her out."
Renick grimaced a little at that point. "We may need to reveal more about her powers due to that, by the way, but we can get to that later."
Costa-Brown nodded at Renick before turning back to Danny. "Right. The PRT and Protectorate started preparing for an all-out offensive on the Teeth at that point. Your daughter got into costume to confront Quarrel, who'd called her out, but was told to do what she could to get the explosives disarmed and to otherwise delay. She had no problems there, probably in part because one of those explosives was around your neck."
Patricia sighed, causing Danny to turn to her. "Unfortunately there were complications that nobody expected, but I believe that we're at the point where the main attraction can start?"
Piggot opened a small terminal that Danny hadn't realised was there. "Thanks to tinkertech scanners that Miss Hebert had active during things we have a complete recreation of things available, or as complete as we can get anyway. Dragon was kind enough to assemble things into a mere three and a half hours, instead of the nine or so hours that things actually occurred in. Take note that Dragon is the only one who's seen this so far."
A couple of taps from Piggot dimmed the lights and activated a projector, the five in the room turning to look at the screen. Danny thought that Dragon might have gone too far, with an 'opening credits' scene including Taylor flying towards the shore. It also had a pile of violence warnings, and the title provided was 'The Mauling of the Butcher'. He wasn't entirely sure how to take that.
Ten minutes later he was horrified, yet couldn't look away.
Fortuna had pouted the entire time she was working with a couple of trusted tinkers to modify a warehouse. The 'extra fun' had been vetoed, apparently they were going to be a little more straightforward with things this time. No need for fancy theatrics and all, so she'd been told. And she'd been looking forward to it too. Maybe she'd pick things up later anyway and have fun with it on her own elsewhere?
It had taken several hours, even with the help of a number of useful tinkertech devices, but eventually they'd finished the modifications. Just different enough for her needs, not different enough to be noticed at a casual glance. Of course, just because they were trusted tinkers didn't mean she told them everything. After they'd left she'd grabbed a bite to eat before returning to work on a couple of additional details.
Luckily the forklift let her move things around to clear an appropriate area without needing any other assistance. It wouldn't do for things to happen where she wasn't ready for them, after all. That hadn't taken long, but when she'd finished she felt that it still looked too contrived as-is. Since the normal workers weren't going to be the next ones in here anyway she decided that it needed to look more like the area had been intentionally cleared for other reasons, so she damaged a couple of pallets to look like they were preparing the open area for dealing with that come Monday.
Once all of that was taken care of she raided the office, collecting all the information she could on the entire contents of the warehouse, before working with Doormaker to hide some other things around the building in out of the way spots. Things would hopefully be much more interesting if the appropriate props were available, after all.
With that done she left, pondering options for other locations she could prepare for the rejected theatrics in. She'd probably need to decide on targets first, then move on from there. Her first idea there had to be discarded, since Mister Rinke was unstable enough without being provoked.
Max looked at Brad as the man entered his office. Some days the man was an idiot, but overall he was a decent enough lieutenant. Heaven forbid that he ever be in charge, of course. Further, he'd shown up a good half hour earlier than expected. "You're early."
The other man shrugged. "I was already on my way to give you an update on the damage the Teeth caused. Four guys in the hospital, another twenty or so injured but at home. Maybe a thousand dollars worth of damage to one building we care about, eight thousand if we want to keep the surrounding buildings up to the same standards on the outside."
"That's far less annoying than I thought it would be, thank you for the update." He then plucked a piece of paper off of the corner of the desk. "Now then, I don't know if you've heard that a general message was left at Somer's yesterday."
Brad nodded. "I'd heard about something, but not what it said. My normal and backup runners were both injured yesterday, so I was going to check myself if you don't have a copy."
Max nodded. That was sensible of the man. "I happen to have a copy. A member of the Protectorate from outside of the area will be at Somer's tomorrow afternoon. One trained in the use of a tinkertech device that is capable of identifying if someone has inherited the Butcher's powers. Truce has been offered for anyone who wishes to be checked over. I want everyone to stop by and get checked over, and will be going myself to prove it."
The other man looked thoughtful for a moment, and then nodded. "That makes sense. Better to know if you've got a potential problem in the ranks before it becomes one and all, right? Just like they're trying to double-check every parahuman they can to verify that Maul actually offed the freak."
"Indeed. I'll plan on having lunch there and spending a couple of hours, if anyone would prefer that I be present while they're checked."
"I'm not sure anyone will think that's necessary, given the location, but I'll pass it on anyway. I won't tell the others that you probably care more about checking their tests than anything else. They can either remain ignorant or figure it out on their own."
Max blinked. "I didn't expect you to figure that one out."
The man's grin annoyed Max a little bit. "Your time is way too valuable to waste a couple of hours just to reassure people that they're safe in a neutral meeting point. The only other thing I can see you wanting to do is stick around to get a look at any other capes that show up, which could be just as easily accomplished by having someone else sit there and take notes."
Yes, Brad was indeed rough around the edges. But then he did things like this, instantly evaluating a situation and making somewhat complicated motivations seem blatantly obvious.
Rebecca sat down in the transport and buckled in, considering recent events. That the 'briefing film' Dragon had produced was pared down to a third of the nine or so hours that Miss Hebert had been fighting Quarrel just made it more impressive in the end. Mister Hebert had been shaken by it, but in the end seemed proud of his daughter. Luckily he hadn't blamed them for what'd happened, and the Youth Guard had admitted that the whole 'locked in a battle space until someone died' bit couldn't have been predicted in the limited planning time they'd had. Especially with how infrequently it'd been used.
He had noticed something that she'd picked up on as well, and that was that you could actually see Miss Hebert losing weight as things went on. She was burning through all of her reserves in that fight, and would've probably only lasted another half hour to hour of fighting at the end before she fell over effectively dead due to pushing her body too hard. Whatever the catalyst was for ending the fight, and nobody was actually sure what that was, it had come just in time for her to take advantage of it.
Of course, once they'd finished with that she'd made a semi-joking request to be permitted to show the 'film' in theaters. To her surprise that request had actually been considered seriously. Mister Hebert had eventually said that he was fine with it if his daughter was. Of course, the explanation afterwards had been hard to refute. Since her identity was outed anyway, letting people see that she could go toe to toe with the now-former Butcher for hours on end was very likely to make people think twice about targeting her. Either that or he wanted the bragging rights he'd joked about afterwards.
She'd learned long ago to never underestimate the draw of bragging rights, and whether or not a given human wanted them was a crapshoot. Paul never cared, David cared too much. She had her own moments, but strove to not let them control her. Then there were those who wanted no bragging rights of their own, but strove to ensure that others got the credit they deserved. Oddly enough, the best living example of that she could think of was probably Glenn.
Thinking on the latter, she gave him three days before that movie was in at least one theater should Miss Hebert allow it. And most of that she thought was going to be the delay in getting it converted into a form that the theater could use.
Kenta snorted as he looked at Takara's choice of 'costume' for the following day. She'd insisted on going to Somer's Rock with him, since he planned on spending several hours there. Of course, that meant that she needed a costume, and far be it for her to use one of the ones she'd already been out and about in. He suspected her mother's hand in that side of things, either that or Airi's. Possibly both, for that matter. Today's choice had to have been in the works for a bit either way, because where else would she have gotten a Vista-style costume in Maul's colors?
Max was going to tease the crap out of him later, he was sure of it.
Still, the combination of being able to ensure that the Butcher was well and truly gone, coupled with the smile this was probably going to put on Takara's face, would make it worth it. The intelligence he'd get out of things by sticking around for a bit was a side benefit. And Airi and Lee could always take Takara home when she got tired of sitting around doing little to nothing. The only other concern was whether or not Takara would remember to use 'Ekaki' when referring to Airi.
Later he'd also admit that he was hoping for more news on young Taylor. The PRT had indicated that she was 'recovering', but what that actually meant...
Dragon was very carefully tracking the movement of a number of people. Though it didn't come up often, she'd been tracking the current Butcher for years through various means. Quarrel had been no different there, but using that data hadn't exactly been high priority. But backtracking after finding out that there was apparently a council showed a couple of interesting patterns. Occasional meetings in out of the way places while 'out of costume' with individuals that were tied to the leadership of a number of groups across the continent.
That all of those people had gone on a trip at the same time, and were spotted in the same area as Quarrel recently? Dragon was thinking that she had the majority, if not the entirety, of the council identified. More importantly, she was getting the first true glimpse into the true size of the Teeth. No wonder the public portion of the Teeth could appear to do so little in the way of obtaining resources, they were the visible piece of a much larger organization.
An organization that was going to be beheaded, before the remnants were torn down. With any luck they'd find and remove any potential sleeper cells that might spring up and go after Mother for revenge.
It was quite convenient that all of the key players she'd identified were apparently gathering as well, if the travel arrangements she'd been able to track were any indication.
Amy sighed as she sat on the bed next to Taylor's. There were days that she resented being the 'squishy healer', generally kept out of the line of fire by pretty much everyone. Then there were days like this one where she wondered how the hell Taylor could handle ending up seriously injured so often, and if she could do the same.
Thinking on it she had to admit that yes, she'd personally been hospitalized quite a bit as of late, in one way or another, but it was mostly short term things that Taylor had also been involved with. Spending most of her hospital time asleep probably helped. Though she supposed that could also apply to Taylor, for the most part, since it was only injuries that affected her brain that kept her in the hospital at this point. Things that Amy wouldn't allow herself to attempt to fix.
Shaking her head, she got up and picked Rodney up. As much as she wanted to, she didn't have any good reason to stay the night, so she would be packing up and heading home. Which meant getting Rodney into the pet carrier and probably, for safety, putting on the force field belt that had shown up repaired earlier. That Vicky was probably waiting to 'head home with her', also known as 'follow and keep an eye on her', just meant that it made less sense to delay her departure.
Regardless of whether or not Taylor was up yet, she'd be back first thing in the morning anyway. If only to help get Taylor fed while she recovered. She'd lost enough weight in the apparent fight she'd been in, she didn't need to lose more while she lay there in the hospital.
Evaluating recurring task 00000D012.
Coordinator wanted to groan. It was that time again, and Emulator hadn't provided any guidance recently. Actually, it had gone silent on things before the last time, but there had been enough guidance there to work with then. Oh well, time to wing it based on previous conditions. First need to get some extra data.
Requesting non-host data from Observer.2.
Requesting non-host data from Observer.19.
Now then, priorities. There weren't any major issues that had cropped up. Hmmm, no, that wasn't quite accurate, better keep distance from that administrative shard that'd apparently and unexpectedly resolved the last issue. Give more time for that to settle down and all, not to mention what else it'd apparently been getting up to recently. How to best do that with all the jumping around the hosts did these days was a different question, of course. Hmm. Too bad it couldn't just do things on another instance of the planet, but the core parameters for the task didn't allow for that.
Requesting non-host data from Observer.9.
That should help, even if that particular Observer wasn't always that useful for figuring this kind of thing out. It preferred to document things that were admittedly very useful for infiltration tasks, granted, but that didn't always help with pretty much anything else.
Observer.19 data received.
Plenty of hotspots, good to know. Pity that none of them currently jumped out as prime targets. Still, ordering them would help a bit later. But to do so by overall number of hosts involved or by the scope of conflict? Hmmm. Also best to start filtering things out based on location.
Observer.2 data received.
Well, that helped narrow a couple of things down. Coupled with the desire to keep out of certain areas it at least provided a top sixteen. Now then, how to best choose between them. Pure random choice, perhaps? Plenty of data sources available for that. Could also leave it up to...
Observer.9 data received.
...nevermind. Filtering based on that reduced things down to a single target, one that matched the current parameters perfectly. Now how to best have the approach go, and precisely when to set things in motion?
Requesting non-host data from PredictionEngine.3.
Requesting non-host data from TROUBLESHOOTER.2.
Chapter 160 It was around six in the morning on Sunday when Amy pulled into the secure garage at the PRT building. Very early, but she'd had trouble sleeping. Taylor was aware of this, having had her stomach wake her up three quarters of an hour prior to that. The latter made for a wonderful excuse to head over, or so Taylor assumed Amy believed.
Really, Taylor wasn't excessively concerned about that side of things, she was too busy eating the large breakfast that the nurse had brought her. Well, at least until Amy stormed into the room and slugged her in the arm. Somewhat. It hadn't been hard enough to hurt, at least.
Taylor swallowed her bite of food before turning to Amy. "What was that for?"
Amy huffed. "For running off and getting seriously injured. Again."
"Me fighting wasn't even in the plans. I was supposed to be the distraction and/or delaying element. And you know that."
"You came back with pretty much no fat reserves left. I was told you fell unconscious in the van and from what I could tell when I woke up after that it was going to happen no matter what danger you were in at the time."
Taylor sighed and put the fork she'd been eating with down, pushing the table they'd wheeled over her bed to the side for the moment. "I know how bad off I was. And I was at a point where I was basically willing to kill Quarrel just to survive, figure out the Butcher later, but I couldn't get a solid hit on her. She got cocky long enough for me to blow an arm off early on, and then I got really lucky by actually catching a foot. Other than that all I could do was get her to teleport away."
Amy stared at Taylor for several minutes before speaking up again. "Then how in the world did you win?"
Taylor shrugged. "The Butcher, the first one, apparently 'lived on' in his snark. He tried to whisper instructions to kill Quarrel into my subconscious, which established a connection. That was enough to shut down the entirety of the Butcher's powers, leaving just Quarrel. That didn't get us out, but overheating the bastard's snark did. Didn't push long enough to get explodey, so Quarrel easily survived. Wasn't her primary snark and all."
Amy looked at Taylor oddly, as though trying to figure something out, before latching onto her with what would probably have been a bone-crunching hug for most people. Taylor didn't complain, especially as Amy ended up tweaking her digestion a bit afterwards to help her recover from her battle...huh, it was two days ago now, wasn't it?
It wasn't too much longer before the large breakfast was finished and the nurse had taken things away. Amy was kind enough to get some of Taylor's things out of her suitcase, such as one of the clear visors and her tablet.
Once she had those, and it was obvious that Amy was sticking around for the moment, she checked a couple of things. "So, Dragon apologized for doing so, but she grabbed the sensor data from my personal phone and made a movie of the battle. She gave me a link to download it if I want. I'm curious as hell as to how that came out, but not sure I want to actually see myself fumble around like an idiot."
Amy blinked a couple of times, then grabbed a chair and pulled it over. "We're watching it together, because I want to see what the hell happened to you and won't be able to watch it without you next to me anyway."
Taylor suspected that she was not, in fact, getting out of watching the thing.
Danny arrived at the PRT building a little before ten. He'd gone home for the night, in part because he didn't have any spare clothing available and in part because it made it harder to get up every ten minutes to check on Taylor. The front desk had a pass ready and waiting, which led him to being brought straight to where Taylor was being kept for the moment.
"You did not do that bad!" Amy yelled as Danny was entering, which caused him to pause in the door. The girls didn't seem to notice.
Taylor scoffed. "It's obvious that I could've avoided a number of the hits I took if I'd been smarter in my dodging."
"Half of those looked like they were manipulated by her powers and wouldn't have cared about your dodging!"
Danny cleared his throat, getting their attention. "Good morning you two. What are you arguing about?"
"Morning dad," Taylor greeted.
Amy nodded. "Morning. And Taylor decided to treat the movie Dragon made as something to do an after-action 'find everything I did wrong' exercise for some reason."
Taylor shrugged. "I figured it was either that or fall into panic at the sheer number of times I could've died. The force field belt alone saved my ass way too many times early on."
Danny might have said something there if Amy hadn't gone wide-eyed and latched onto Taylor at that point, mumbling something about not saying things like that. Instead he shook his head and entered the room, pulling a chair over to Taylor's bed. They could start talking properly when Amy was done.
Well, okay, they'd have to wait for him to hug Taylor before they could start talking properly. He thought he was doing a wonderful job showing restraint by letting Amy go first.
Jacob tapped his fingers while waiting in the Cauldron compound. Secretive types, for some good reasons and some bullshit ones. And their interior decorator needed to be gutted. Still, they were quite useful to know, and he'd had an in for years. Right now he was waiting for Kurt to deign to show up for their little meeting. The man had requested the meeting, after all, so he could show up for it, right?
If they weren't going for incredibly straightforward in a few days he'd probably be annoyed at the lack of time to plan. But since Cauldron was helping with transport and timing he should probably be a little more patient with them.
Kurt arrived almost fifteen minutes after the meeting was supposed to begin. "Hello Jacob, sorry for the delay."
Jacob waved his hand dismissively. "Not a major problem, but you're usually a little more punctual. Is something up?"
Kurt dropped into the chair across from Jacob with a sigh. Jacob appreciated the statement of trust that implied, even if he wasn't sure how many people would recognize it as such. "I got a little caught up ensuring that certain details came to Dragon's attention as she's digging out the finances of the Teeth. They did a better job hiding things than even I'd expected." He then slid a folder across to Jacob. "Though here's a summary of what I've been able to find on people looking for information on you. Even if you cheat."
He grabbed the folder and moved it off to the side, he'd look through that later. "Thanks, and I don't think that switching to a mononym when I was adopted is cheating. Didn't want the tie to my old family, didn't think it fair to fully associate with the new one."
"You could've picked a new name."
"That wouldn't be nearly as fun now, would it?"
Kurt snorted. "No, I don't suppose it would be. That there are a good dozen false names out there for you doesn't help. And getting that girl that put up your family tree to list you as 'Jacob REDACTED' helps the ruse immensely, and keeps people from looking for the documentation that shows the change to the mononym. Still, that's not why we're here."
Jacob nodded. "You asked for me to come by, so what's up?"
"I wanted to warn you that I've run into rumors about the Fallen looking to send an 'emissary' or two out of their little cordoned area to visit your niece. Nothing concrete, and it might've just been members mouthing off without any of the leadership groups involved. If I find anything actionable I'll let you know."
"Why the hell do they want to visit Taylor?"
Kurt rolled his eyes. "The girl was able to hear an Endbringer's call. What do you think drew the interest of the collective Endbringer-worshipping cults?"
Jacob slammed his fist on the table in aggravation. "Fuck. Should've realized that might be a problem, and we know that they have at least a dozen ways out of the area they're 'contained' in."
"As I said, I'll let you know if I come across anything actionable, but since they've got that whole anti-thinker thing going on with at least some of them?"
"Doesn't work on me, luckily, but yeah. Hopefully it doesn't work on Taylor either, if they do decide to visit her. Then again, maybe they'll reconsider after what she just did to the Butcher."
Kurt snorted. "Doubtful, and I bet you're pissed that she already broke Quarrel and thus there's nothing left for you to play with."
Jacob shook his head, a grin on his face. "No, I'm good there. I'm not one to begrudge others their revenge, and it isn't like she had a chance to invite me along either way. Besides, I'd probably have just killed the woman. Breaking her to the point of being completely catatonic from the sheer horror of what was done to her? I'm going to have to buy that girl a cake or something as a congratulations gift."
"Ruthless as ever, I see."
"You're welcome to join us for the revenge she isn't getting in on, if you'd like. A little romp for old times' sake?"
"No thanks."
Taylor had ended up a little weirded out by the fact that her father was apparently fine with the 'movie' being distributed, and had made good points in both directions for doing so. Granted, it raised a few extra questions, like how she'd killed the Butcher. PHO was apparently currently of the opinion that during the battle the Butcher was physically present or something, and the movie would negate that assumption. Overall though there seemed to be more pros than cons, but she was going to wait until she was cleared to leave at a minimum before deciding on things.
On the subject of things weirding her out, just as odd was the way Amy seemed to be concerned about something, but wasn't saying what. The odd behavior along those lines had become less noticeable, but she could still see signs of it. She just didn't know what to make of it, and wasn't sure she should be asking. If it was that important then Amy would say something about it, right? Either that or it would hopefully resolve itself.
For the time being her father had left. She couldn't leave yet, of course, because she was still recovering. Her concussion was mostly healed, but her body was still putting her enhancements back together, not to mention rebuilding her reserves. And Amy was sticking around to keep her company. In theory. In practice she'd fallen asleep with a death-grip on Taylor's arm.
Well, she had a visor on, and nothing better to do. Perhaps she should see when she could take those intro to psychology classes she had a voucher for? She'd left a reminder about them on her to-do list, after all, and for a number of reasons she wasn't feeling tired enough to get more sleep.
It would certainly be a better use of her time than cringing at whatever was being said on PHO.
Hannah sighed as she looked over the questions that Dennis had submitted. It was good that he was thinking ahead, and hadn't let one issue blind him to other potential concerns. Still, she didn't have answers for him yet, as she'd have to check with several of the other Wards and with Director Piggot. Things were unusually complicated with everything coming together at the same time, after all.
To start with his main concern, every outed Ward was handled differently, mainly because the circumstances always differed. They had a number of Wards who had public identities due to 'mishaps' and such. Several Wards had been outed by villains on accident, primarily brutes taking hits that a normal human shouldn't be able to when they were caught up in an attack. A couple had gone through trigger events that were too public to bother trying to hide, and the siblings that had outed each other when their joint trigger tensions had boiled over three years back were a lesson in those kinds of things.
Needless to say, it was going to require another day or two before the decidedly unusual circumstances around Miss Hebert's outing were fully analysed. In fact, they'd probably need to wait until she was known to be out of the PRT hospital to see what kinds of reactions she got. Though her known friendship with Miss Dallon would probably help blunt any negative reactions significantly.
That left his other concerns, namely what changes he should be making with the two younger Wards that had just gotten tinker fugue upgrades. Which was also complicated in and of itself, because that kind of thing didn't normally happen. They still hadn't come up with a good public reason for their strength and durability improvements, and last she checked they were leaning towards hiding them to the best of their ability to do so. She'd also double checked, and he hadn't been officially informed of that yet, so he was obviously using his brain.
With another sigh, she sent a copy of the questions off to Emily. She didn't have the authority to make any of the decisions needed to answer the questions, even if she felt that they were ready to answer them.
Max entered Somer's Rock alone, well in advance of when the Protectorate member was to show up. He found that he was actually the last one there, when it came to the leaders of the various factions in town. Kenta had a booth with a good view of the door, and it looked like Takara was with him. The costume the kid was wearing was appropriate, given what the other man had talked about with him. Hell, it was probably doubly appropriate, given what Miss Hebert had apparently pulled off. He was still going to tease the crap out of him on their next out of costume lunch, no matter how cute the kid was. Especially with her pulling the shy routine today.
The other booth with a good view of the door appeared to be occupied by Accord. Really, it had the better view, which meant he'd probably shown up first. He appeared to be alone right now, but there were stories about some of the man's parahumans. There was likely to be someone around to help him out. That said booth was currently the cleanest part of the entire room and apparently had the only fresh and clean lightbulb was, if he was being honest, expected.
Sitting at one of the tables were Faultline and Pipeline. Rumor had it that the latter had taken over leadership in the Elite in town as a side effect of the PRT's demands following the potentially explosive issues with the tunneling machine they'd been using. What those demands were had been difficult for both him and Kenta to find out. Perhaps Pipeline would be willing to chat today?
To start with, though, he moved over to the bar, removing a wad of cash from a pocket in the process. He placed that on the counter, trusting that they'd understand the note that the wad was wrapped in. That completed, he weighed his options before claiming the seat next to Pipeline, since it would allow him to keep an eye on Kenta and Accord with a mirrored surface or two he had protruding from his 'crown'. "Good morning."
Faultline snorted. "About time you showed up. What kept you?"
Max shrugged. "No need to be the first one here, so long as I beat the Protectorate member. That one of my men brought a potentially disturbing possibility to me didn't help, of course."
Kenta placed his drink down. "And this possibility is important enough to mention here, with everything else going on?"
"Of course, or I wouldn't have mentioned it. Especially as it happens to be related to how we've been treating Miss Hebert." That got their attention. "I was actually impressed that Hookwolf was even aware of her work, of course, but he asked me a question, then provided a disturbing possibility as a possible answer when I had none."
Accord leaned forward, putting his hands together. "I suppose that the proper thing to do is to ask what the question was that you couldn't answer, to see if any of us can."
Max nodded at that, no need to point out that he was going to go that route anyway. "Do any of us know what urges Miss Hebert gets from her powers?"
There was a moment of silence, before Faultline snorted. "I suppose the general answer would be to use them, but that leads us into the question of what they even are. After all, until Friday I wouldn't have imagined that anything she could do would allow her to kill the Butcher."
None of them seemed to have an answer for that one. Max's usual drink was delivered in the silence. Eventually he decided that he might as well drop the other bombshell. "Yes, well. Since none of us has a good answer for any of that, I suppose I should continue. My subordinate proposed that one of her 'urges' may very well be actual conflict, with how brutal she was with, er, Quarrel, was it? With that being an indication that she hadn't had a sufficient outlet lately."
Huh. Kenta looked unusually pensive about that one for some reason. Despite that, it was Faultline who spoke up next, Pipeline and Accord apparently content to stay silent for the moment. "That could fit things, but the threat to her father or her life could've been the cause just as easily."
Max nodded. "True. My subordinate's opinion was that it was either power urges or that the woman had pushed one too many of Miss Hebert's buttons. He isn't familiar enough with her to be certain, or so he claimed."
"It would present an interesting problem," Kenta said after a moment of silence. "If it was unfulfilled urges, given the lack of combat she gets on patrol?"
Faultine chuckled. "You all have good reasons not to have your people fight her, don't you? Except now you're wondering if she needs to fight and you've been doing more harm than good."
Kenta shook his head. "Possibly. I'll simply pass a question on to her to find out. No need to second-guess ourselves when we have lines of communication available to get a more definitive answer, after all."
Gabriel ensured that the tinkertech 'scanner' was ready to go, with the small rod positioned correctly. He was using his power to manipulate said rod, sixteen different ones overlaid on each other. The end result was that he could alter the size and material of the rod to influence the internals of the 'scanner', causing it to register different things. That let him fake out people by using it as it was obviously intended to be used, held up to the face, making it seem like the 'scanner' was revealing things instead of his powers.
It took fifteen minutes to run through his gamut of tests, to ensure that he could get all the readings he might want to, before he was satisfied. Once he was he made his way to the secure garage to catch a ride over to Somer's Rock. He'd spend the afternoon there, 'scanning' anyone who came in asking to be checked over. With any luck he wouldn't spot any signs of the Butcher. That when all was said and done he'd be able to, theoretically, provide a basic count of the parahumans in the area was something he'd been told not to do.
Director Piggot and Chief Director Costa-Brown were both taking this very seriously, respecting all of the 'Endbringer truce' conditions and then some. Really, the only thing missing from the whole ordeal was a bounty, something that the Butcher hadn't had on their head for a number of years because of the issues with killing any of them. Adding incentives to increase the number of powers available to future Butchers was, understandably, seen as a bad idea.
Of course, unsaid in all of the offers to check people for the Butcher's powers were the collection of people waiting to pounce on anyone found to have them. Himself included in the list of people to pounce. They were sick and tired of the Butcher's antics as the powers moved from host to host and if they found a new one they were going to do something more serious. Like drop them on an island in the middle of nowhere, with regular drone-delivered supply drops and no other contact. Even if they had to have someone make a new island to do so. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.
Rebecca was looking over the international reports, figuring that she might as well get something useful done while she was waiting for news from Brockton Bay. A couple of the master-effect devices were moving around dealing with various things in Europe, giving them better than usual intelligence there. An attempt by villains to purloin one of the units had been met with an unusually overwhelming assault on the villains from the civilians in the area. Then again, apparently they'd made the attempt near a busy firing range and hadn't brought any brutes or similar along.
It looked like a couple of warlords had been replaced over the past week in Africa. Nothing unusual there, and one of them had been fighting for a little over a month now. Another warlord had very publicly recruited a tinker who could build devices that appeared to pull clean water out of nowhere, but were actually purifying seawater from a distance. It shouldn't be a problem either way, so long as the targeting system was only grabbing seawater. The ability to provide fresh water for any number of purposes would likely make them very popular.
With a sigh, she moved onto the reports from Asia. One attempted prank with minimal thought put into it and an entire region gets destabilized. The YÃ ngbÇŽn had splintered into four different groups that'd been identified, five if you counted the 'deserters' that had left the area entirely. The only thing the four groups were all agreed upon now was re-securing the borders, to keep the parahuman might of the region from weakening further or something like that. Outside of that they were all fighting over which group should be in charge, all while re-learning how to use their own powers most effectively without sharing things across groups.
It looked like they had confirmation that the non-parahuman military was going to be useless. Too much time spent demonizing parahumans had resulted in them being afraid to act without parahuman assistance. Coupled with not wanting any of the parahumans to be calling the shots, and thus refusing to directly support any of the four groups openly, they'd instead defaulted to enforcing martial law on the non-parahuman citizens. Loosely, anyway. Just enough to justify being too busy with it to fight, not tightly enough so that they wouldn't always have a 'trouble spot' to point at when asked to fight.
No faulting that group's intelligence, all things considered.
Taylor happily dug into the plate of food in front of her, having finally woken Amy up so that they could both eat something. At the same time she was still reading some of the books she'd gotten access to digital versions of when she'd claimed the intro to psychology voucher. Apparently she'd be spending the majority of August working her way through the course in various ways. On top of everything else going on, but if she moved fast enough she should be done before school started up again.
Of course, a few minutes later Amy derailed Taylor's train of thought. "I think we should go shopping when you get out of here."
Taylor very quickly tried to figure out what the hell she'd done wrong enough to warrant being dragged out shopping again. She wasn't coming up with anything. At all. Which meant she was going to have to take what most people seemed to think were drastic measures. "Why?"
"Because if you're outed anyway then we can be a lot less discreet about buying furniture."
That resulted in Taylor blinking. "Why would we be buying furniture, or needing to be discreet about it?"
"For the pocket dimension bolthole of sorts, of course. I don't suppose you can pick up a decent generator to stick in it so that we get more than the low-level ambient lighting? Being able to power things in a greenhouse might be nice too."
"Oh." That did make some sense. "Why would we have needed to be discreet before I was outed?"
"To hide your strength, of course. Annoyingly, I'll probably have to hide most of mine, but you're now known to be stronger than a normal human." Apparently the other girl had put some thought into all of this. "We should probably have one of the crystals installed when opening the pocket dimension though, to imply that we lucked out bigtime and got Joey to sell us stuff instead of what actually happened."
That made sense. Somewhat. She thought about it for a moment while she chewed and swallowed her current mouthful of food. "So what else do you feel we need other than a greenhouse and a generator for lighting and such? And why?"
Amy held up a hand to count off points for some reason. "I figure that a general workshop space near the greenhouse would be nice, for tinkering and all. A wardrobe and dresser each for clothing, perhaps a privacy screen setup for changing in. Desks for each of us if we want to do homework or similar in there, comfortable chairs. I'm not sure that the constant ambient light would work out for sleeping in there, but if we could find a good canopy bed that might work? Definitely want to get a camping toilet too, just in case, but I don't know if there's a good solution for showering available or not."
Sighing, Taylor grabbed her tablet from where it was sitting on the table next to her bed. "Okay, if we're going to be considering making it a usable bolt-hole then we need to do things properly. Which means more considerations than a shopping spree would let us take. For example, how would we stay in touch with people while in there?"
Amy opened her mouth to answer that one before pausing. A moment later she'd slumped. "I have no idea, do our phones even work when in there with the portals closed?"
"Which means we need a list of things to check on with that on it first. Perhaps check with Joey for what to do if we're in there with no open portals, though if we have one of the cubes inside and a crystal installed in one of the devices outside we can remote trigger things. Best not to need to rely on that, right? Perhaps ask him about how well the air is circulated, for that matter, since it wouldn't be good to suffocate due to problems there."
"Damn you for interrupting my shopping plans with incredibly valid safety concerns. Though I thought we could always open the portal to where it was last open to?"
Taylor nodded. "Yes, that's correct, if we have an opening device inside. But what if that location isn't safe anymore?"
Amy grumbled, but didn't complain when Taylor started building a list of things to check on while they continued to eat. After that they looked through the PRT store to see if there were any obvious solutions to anything on the list there, but didn't actually purchase anything yet. They'd wait until they had some answers from Joey first.
Emily sighed in relief when the 'quick summary' from Chevalier indicated that he hadn't been able to spot the Butcher's powers attached to any of the parahumans he'd looked at. She then opened the more detailed report to see what he had to say beyond that. That the leaders of all of the parahuman-led gangs, plus Faultline, were present at Somer's Rock didn't surprise her. Nor that every single one of their parahumans visited, according to their own testimony anyway. That there weren't numbers there, only a general 'checked everyone' assurance, was in line with the orders he'd been given.
Moving down the message, it looked like they now had more direct contact information for several of the independent parahumans in the area, with various notes indicating why. Mostly it looked like they wanted to be able to help out in the event that something like this happened again. Her eye twitched at the one comment present that it was about time the PRT was actually doing something proactive. She was so tempted to call that particular cape and explain that the PRT operated under a lot of rules and scrutiny.
Shaking her head, she made sure that the right people had copies of the message, then switched over to her calendar. She needed to schedule a debriefing meeting for tomorrow, preferably in the morning, and then probably a meeting with someone from the Youth Guard in the afternoon. Right, and Glenn wanted a meeting as well. Hmmm. Nah, double-booking him and the Youth Guard at the same time probably wouldn't be the best idea. Getting both into the same call would be a problem. This time it wasn't worth the headache.
She'd find another excuse to subject the Youth Guard to Glenn later, when it was less likely to turn into a major headache for her.
Chapter 161 Monday morning Taylor was up bright and early being checked over. Most of which was a formality, they'd kept her for a required minimum amount of time that exceeded the time she'd needed to heal. They knew it, of course, because almost every severely-injured parahuman in town didn't need the full time to heal after they'd called Amy in, so departure checks were fairly straightforward. The only headache was that she'd had a concussion, and that's where most of the checking was being focused.
Amy had shown up as well, but had been dragged off to another room. One of the doctors had basically said that if she insisted on showing up before visiting hours then she was going to get a checkup, whether she wanted one or not. That had Taylor grinning throughout her own examination.
Amy: You suck.
Taylor: Why do I suck? You're the one that showed up before visiting hours.
Amy: Because you haven't taken the classes necessary to sign off on my medical forms.
Taylor blinked at that.
Taylor: There are classes I'd be allowed to take for that?
Amy: Um...you should be able to take them. The PRT made me take them? Same ones all 'healer' parahumans have to take if they want to be able to officially operate without a doctor's supervision, even if it doesn't include what the doctors and nurses end up filling out afterwards.
Taylor: I'm thinking that you're going to have to send me the information on those.
Amy: Er, maybe. There's a legally mandated public list of parahumans who've qualified, which is probably why nobody's had you take them yet.
Well that sounded annoying. She'd have to have even more secrets outed to get authorization to officially be a medic in that manner. Perhaps it was something to discuss with others, given how many of her other secrets were out anyway. Sometime after the rest of the dance she had to go through today, though. Especially as she and Amy were probably going to be going almost straight to see Jessica after they were done here, with a minor detour to drop Ackbar and the suitcase off in the Wards area on the way.
Sadly, according to her calendar that was only the first of several appointments today.
Joey read over the message he'd missed from Taylor the night before. He was going to do his best to not go bash his head against a wall, or on the table in front of him, for overlooking that bit. Part of the equipment he provided to everyone else with these personal spaces was the equipment needed to get a portal opened from the inside in case of emergency, after all. He'd have to make sure that they got one of those units, and that Riley put one in hers. Maybe when Riley got back from whatever it was she was off doing they could whip up a couple of the smaller, more efficient units? They should be able to get the complete unit with redundant systems down to the size of a small refrigerator easily, if not smaller.
Until Riley got back from her 'emergency run', whatever that actually meant, he could at least get some of the groundwork going. They hadn't come up with an improved version of the geotargeting beacon, for example, so he could easily whip up another couple of those on his own. Unlike with 'Rosy' they'd want the generator to be an 'inside the pocket space' variant, so the helper beacons were more for speeding up the calculations. Hmmm. Perhaps more than just a couple? One for Taylor's house, one for Amy's house, one for the PRT building there, maybe one for the...whatever they called the Protectorate base there too. It had an amusing name, but he couldn't place it. Oh well. Maybe one for the hospital Amy was always healing at would be appropriate.
Really, he should probably just make a stockpile and decide how many to send over later. Having extras was almost never a bad thing, after all. But he could point them at the other equipment they'd want easily enough, such as the generators that worked well and the communication relay system Dragon had come up with so that things like cell phones still worked. Oh, and perhaps send over a digital copy of the 'caring for your pocket dimension space' pamphlets, even though they probably didn't need them. He'd been very lax about things this time around, with any luck his parents wouldn't find out until after he'd corrected all the oversights...
Danny stared at Patricia, who was staring back at him. They were on opposite sides of the table today, and were waiting on a PRT representative before anything was discussed. That this was an unexpected meeting called at the last minute, without involving Taylor, was not something he was happy about. He'd be more annoyed if he was missing work or time with Taylor for it, but he'd been told to take the week off and the girls should be in a session with Doctor Yamada by now.
They'd been in the staring match for around ten minutes when the door opened and Director Piggot entered.
"Morning," Director Piggot said, looking at the two before sitting down next to Danny.
"Good morning," Danny replied, Patricia echoing him a moment later.
Director Piggot nodded. "Since we're all here I think we can get started, though I'm not actually sure why we're all here. Which is actually quite odd, given that the Youth Guard is usually a little more open with that kind of thing when calling for meetings."
Patricia nodded at that. "This is all a little sudden, I'll admit. I'm here to inform you that as soon as the appropriate courts open the Youth Guard central office plans on filing a motion to forcibly transfer Miss Hebert out of Brockton Bay."
Danny was still trying to process that when Director Piggot growled. "On what grounds?"
Two folders were produced from Patricia's bag and pushed over to the two. "The Youth Guard main office has decided that Miss Hebert has been exposed to far too many dangers while operating in Brockton Bay, above and beyond what is expected given the normal local concerns. Further, they believe that she's been granted permission to enter situations that she should never have been exposed to, regardless of circumstances, so the request includes that the Youth Guard be handed direct control over the parental approval process for exposing Miss Hebert to potential dangers."
The two gave the Youth Guard representative unintentionally synchronized glares before they both opened the folders they'd been given. Danny suspected that they were identical, and found his included a written notice of what they'd just been told and a list of things that the Youth Guard was using as justification. He looked down the list, raising an eyebrow as he did so. He flipped to the next page, where the list continued, then flipped again to next group of things. That contained a copy of the actual paperwork to be filed with the courts. He read over that, before shaking his head as he put the folder down and closed it. This was all a waste of time.
Director Piggot, on the other hand, slammed her folder down. "What crap is all of this?"
Patricia shrugged. "I was told that the local PRT, and Mister Hebert for that matter, have been exposing Miss Hebert to too much danger, so the Youth Guard is stepping in for her own protection. They didn't consult with me on any of it, just dropped this on me first thing this morning. I only got the details assembled about twenty minutes ago, and I had to borrow a printer here to make the hard copies for you."
Danny actually chuckled. "Someone's forgotten your own rules, and have already lost the entire case as a result. If the judge doesn't laugh you out of the courtroom I wouldn't even need a lawyer to get it thrown out. I'd get one anyway, of course."
Director Piggot was now looking at Danny with a curious expression, but it was Patricia who spoke up. "I'm curious on what grounds you'd be able to fight this with that degree of certainty, given that you have less say than you probably expect. They are, after all, calling your own judgement into question at the same time, even if they admitted that you couldn't have provided input into the most recent incident when I brought that up."
This time Danny grinned. "My daughter has passed her sixteenth birthday, and thus by your own organization's rules has to sign off on this kind of thing before it can be filed with the courts. The copy of the court paperwork you've so helpfully provided actually states that, twice, yet the point where my daughter's signature needs to be has what I believe is Erna Strand's signature instead."
Patricia blinked, and frowned lightly as she produced a third folder from her bag. She flipped to the last page in that likely copy of things, carefully reading over it. Her frown deepened as she obviously got to the signatures portion of the court paperwork. "I was told that this had passed through several validity checks, and there's no way that would've been missed if that was the case. And I can't see how Erna would've signed off on this at all, as she's one of the validators."
Director Piggot pulled out her phone and tapped a couple of buttons on it. She then went through what Danny recognized as some additional biometric checks before taking a picture of the signatures on the court paperwork. A moment later she nodded to herself, before tapping a couple more times to apparently initiate a call.
The call was answered immediately. "This is Director Piggot of the Parahuman Response Team East Northeast." There was a pause. "Bravo-Delta-Alfa-Papa-Zulu." Another pause. "Yes, I've just submitted a secure channel photograph of improper signatures on a Youth Guard court order, and request that all individuals be treated as potentially compromised. I can hold while you check on that."
Danny looked at Patricia, who had gone from glaring at the paperwork as though it offended her to looking like she was dreading what was coming, even as she packed up the third copy. He raised an eyebrow in her general direction, only to get a 'wait' signal back. Shrugging, he turned to look at Director Piggot again.
It took another minute before she nodded. "Thank you very much, and I'll pass that message on." A moment later she'd hung up, and she turned to Patricia. "Mrs Cooper, I've been asked to inform you that all members of the Youth Guard main office are being put under master/stranger protocols effective immediately. All actions of theirs from the past year are also to be examined in detail by multiple independent third parties regardless of the results of the checks. You are to start operating exclusively off of the documented Youth Guard policies and procedures, ignoring any and all directives that may have overridden things from the main office. A Presidential Order to this effect will be in place by this afternoon. You are not currently suspected of being compromised, but this may change as the investigation into things gets underway. Do you understand this?"
Patricia had sighed in relief halfway through that. "I understand, thank you. I'd expected to be in master/stranger protocols myself."
Director Piggot shrugged. "This came from the main office, not the local office, and you didn't sign off on any of it. I suppose some of your unusual insistence on protecting Miss Hebert as of late was directed from the main office?"
"Yes, though with very reasonable sounding explanations. Do you happen to know who might be responsible for this?"
"Not currently, but all they've done is confirm that the signatures matched existing samples, at least one was in the wrong place, and that things existed in the Youth Guard's system in the same state."
Danny coughed to remind them he was there, and they both looked at him. "Are we done now?"
Director Piggot shook her head, before turning to Patricia. "Not quite. I don't suppose you can tell me when you've intervened on your own accord, versus intervening because the main office told you to? At least in regards to Miss Hebert. I know you keep better records than most."
Patricia nodded, pulling out a laptop. "I do like to cover my own bases. It's one of the reasons I got assigned Brockton Bay. But I can say most of the requests from the main office regarding Miss Hebert have been recent, just give me a moment to check my full list." She waited for the laptop to boot up, then obviously checked her own records. Finally she nodded. "The main office has automated routines that ensure minimum amounts of 'downtime' for injuries and other incidents that have kicked in a few times without my prior input, which is fully expected and happens for all the Wards. I'll have to take that over manually for the time being, apparently. Other than that I started getting pressure specifically about Miss Hebert around the time the Slaughterhouse Nine appeared in Boston." She then blinked, and turned to Danny. "Are you sure you aren't a precog? You did claim to find the Butcher to be more of a potential problem for your daughter than the Nine back then, after all."
It was Danny's turn to blink. He'd honestly forgotten about that. "I believe that she could delay the Nine long enough to escape, if it came down to it, but still don't know how she'd handle the extra voices in her head if she'd had to kill the Butcher and inherited things there."
The Youth Guard liason shook her head. "Yes, well. Moving on, some additional pressure was put on me after that went through, but mostly to double-check to ensure that parental consent forms looked reasonable. I only started getting direct marching orders to question specifics around a month ago. I'd blame it on her abduction, but the first couple of orders came in before it. Originally I thought something else had come up during a review of her files, as it wouldn't have been the first time something like that happened, but I'm not so sure now."
Director Piggot tapped her fingers on the table for a few moments. "I don't suppose you know where the main office intended to send her with this farce?"
Patricia checked a couple of things. "Looks like they had department thirty-seven as their primary choice, followed by forty-eight, forty-one, and forty-seven?"
The numbers meant very little to Danny, but after a moment Director Piggot growled. "The Fallen. Has to be. She'd be easier to get their hands on if she were in their backyard."
Danny still wasn't sure of the details, but he didn't like the sound of that. "I assume that they've got someone with master abilities?"
Director Piggot nodded. "Yes, the PRT has been working on finding the various compromised people in the area. But that group has also got some kind of anti-thinker and long-range communication thing going, locking things down is more difficult because of that. Hell, the potential for her powers to help them keep things locked down is one of the main justifications whenever those PRT departments ask for your daughter to be transferred in."
"Why would the Fallen want Taylor?"
"Because the idiots, at least publicly, worship the Endbringers. Ziz in particular with the branch in that area. I'm going to have to put the entire department on master/stranger alerts. All personnel changes and out-of-town assignments are going to need a master effect scan for the foreseeable future too. Luckily Dragon and Armsmaster kept a unit nearby, I'll have to ensure that they've got it ready for scanning."
Well, that explained quite a bit. "Should I be worried about them going after Taylor directly?"
Patricia actually chuckled at that one. "Danny, your daughter is documented as being basically immune to master effects like the ones they use. We can only hope that they try and grab her that way, because she'd hopefully then capture them right then and there, saving the PRT a lot of hassle longer term. And good luck to them grabbing her in most other ways, since they aren't known to have anyone who could teleport her at range."
Director Piggot nodded at that. "If it is them then they're trying the subtle approach first. We can probably expect at least two or three more attacks of that kind before they get into brute force kidnapping, based on how they've worked when grabbing others that they wanted in the past. Really, you are in more danger than she is, as they might use you to get to her. Because of that, I'm going to recommend that we go through the forms to require a PRT evaluation if you want to move, change your daughter's guardianship or legal status, change your will, or change your daughter's enrollment in the Wards. They expire after a year and are specifically intended to help with this kind of threat."
Danny nodded, as that sounded somewhat sensible. "What kind of evaluation are we talking about?"
"Generally you'd be subjected to a scan for master effects under all of those circumstances, before you'd be allowed to continue with them. If you came up clean then everything would proceed as normal. It just adds an extra step to it all. We have to pass them by a judge after you fill them out to get it turned into an official judicial order as well."
"I'll obviously want to read everything before I sign any of it."
Both of the women snorted at that. Well, he supposed it was a little predictable.
Amy watched Taylor head out of the Wards area to make it to her next meeting. One that Amy wasn't invited to, but that was okay. If anything important came up then Taylor would probably let her know anyway. She let a sigh out as soon as the door closed behind the other girl, even though she knew that wasn't 'hiding' it in anyway. She then dropped her head onto the counter in front of her.
Taylor: Are you okay in there?
Amy: I'm fine. Go to your meeting.
Case in point. Still, she needed some time to wrap her head around her own emotions. Finding out that no, Taylor wasn't shutting down her emotions in any way regarding 'killing' the Butcher had been concerning, because doing what she'd done to a snark shouldn't have been easy for her. Finding out why she wasn't shutting them down was a different matter entirely, because she had no qualms about doing it to protect Amy.
Amy did not want to admit how much effort it had taken on her own part to keep from grabbing Taylor and kissing her at that point. She wasn't about to risk her friendship with the other girl over something like that, and had no clue how Taylor would take it. If she took it as a betrayal of some kind, after what the Barnes bitch had done to her?
This was like her attraction to Vicky all over again, wasn't it? Just with fewer excuses needed that it wasn't creepy as they weren't even adopted siblings, yet with so much more potential to screw things up bigtime.
Taylor wasn't sure what was wrong with Amy, and had to resist the urge to skip the meeting to go back and hug her. But she wasn't sure how the other girl would take that right now, since she'd been acting a little off since the meeting with Jessica. Instead she decided to focus on the meeting she was heading to, which was an official debriefing on what had happened with Quarrel.
It didn't take long to reach the conference room, and she was pleasantly surprised to find her father there. He'd quickly captured her in a hug, then led her back to where he'd been sitting. Director Piggot and Colin were both there as well, sitting across from them. There was also a bag on another chair that was currently unoccupied, which implied that someone else would be attending but wasn't there currently.
"So Taylor," her father said, getting her attention. "I want to make sure you know that I've signed some paperwork to ensure that I have to be checked by the PRT before certain decisions can be made for a bit. Specifically anything involving moving, you transferring to another city, or anything that could affect your legal status."
Taylor blinked. "Why?"
"Because they think a master type cape could try to use me to get you into a position where they can get to you more easily. There are indications that someone may have already messed with some people in the Youth Guard to attempt to force you out of the area. This is just an extra precaution."
That didn't sound good, all told. But at least they were preparing for things. "Okay. I can see how that could help there. Anything else I need to know about?"
Her father shrugged. "Well, while I was in the hospital they put the houseguest I mentioned up in the PRT apartments. I'm told that Dragon had to help with getting him enough access to the house to get his things. Other than that I don't think there's anything critical to mention right now."
Taylor nodded, and looked over at Colin and Director Piggot. They appeared to be doing their best to look like they were ignoring the interaction between her and her father. Shrugging, she let them. It took eight or so minutes for Miss Militia to enter with...er...Patricia! Right. The Youth Guard rep. Miss Militia closed the door behind her before taking a seat next to Colin. Patricia was apparently the owner of the previously spotted bag.
A quick round of greetings was shared before Director Piggot took over. "Now then, Miss Hebert. Myself, Mrs Cooper, and your father have seen Dragon's movie of your battle with Quarrel. Though for full disclosure, Deputy Director Renick and Chief Director Costa-Brown have also seen said movie. Armsmaster and Miss Militia have not seen it, and will not unless you give them permission to. Have you seen it yet?"
Taylor nodded. "Yeah, Amy and I watched it."
The woman made a quick note of that before continuing. "We have, thanks to the movie, almost everything we need to know for a debriefing in this situation. Deputy Director Renick has already written up most of the written report for the incident, so that you don't have to worry about it. The only thing we don't have is information on what, exactly, you did to the Butcher at the end."
That was expected, so Taylor had already gone over things in her head. "The way the Butcher's snark was connected to Quarrel prevented me from being able to communicate with it directly. Multiple snarks aren't supposed to connect directly to a host, as it is in my case, but rather share the connection of one primary snark and communicate through that. I could shut down Quarrel's snark, but not the Butcher's, or any of the other snarks the Butcher's brought into play, as I had no path to reach any of them. Only when a power directly interacted with my brain and tripped those protections could I target it. Near the end the Butcher's snark reached out and tried to make me kill Quarrel, which gave me something to target. When it threatened to have Quarrel goad Amy into killing her I did the same thing to it as I did to the snark making the clones during the Leviathan attack, but this time we knew when to safely disconnect. I'm under the impression that it'll be at least a few years before the snark cools down enough to function, but the actual time frame didn't quite come over well."
Taylor fidgeted as the others in the room stared at her. Eventually Director Piggot sighed and made some notes, then turned back to Taylor. "Right. So, next up is how to explain this to the public. There's already way too many questions being asked about what you did, since nobody can figure out how you took the Butcher out. What people do know of your powers isn't adding up anymore."
"More like the lack of adding up was helping keep people who hadn't figured things out from doing so," Miss Militia offered. "But now what was helping keep the two identities split is now creating a problem because nobody's actually sure what to believe. We're thinking that we should claim that the actual effect that finished off the Butcher was a rare power interaction, but without more details as to how that interaction could've happened the public aren't likely to accept that at face value."
Taylor considered that, and couldn't really find fault in it. "I suppose that means you want to reveal more of what I can do?"
Director Piggot sighed. "We normally avoid revealing information on any parahuman that can sense or interact with powers outside of temporarily disabling them. Too many issues with others and all. We just don't think we can get around it at this point, but we'd still like to play the detection aspect down by stating that with sufficient exposure you can directly interact with another parahuman's powers, the exposure needed resetting when you get far enough away."
Her father snorted. "Just planning on skipping the part where 'sufficient exposure' is 'happened to pass within four hundred meters of her'?" She opted to not mention that he was wrong with the numbers, of course.
"We figure that it taking her nine hours to take out the Butcher will create enough confusion as to how much exposure is actually needed. Armsmaster recommended including a statement that powers that interact with her may have reduced exposure requirements as well. With the proper framing the thinkers believe that it will explain pretty much all of the 'oddities'. Such as taking apart Wrench Wraith's tech in the presence of multiple tinkers, which she could've been interacting with the powers of."
Taylor shared a look with her father, who shrugged. "Your call, I figure they can reveal whatever you're comfortable with. I suspect you'll want to keep your power sharing with Amy secret, if only to keep her safe from those wanting to duplicate the trick, but other than that?"
She sighed, in part since protecting Amy kinda killed the 'maybe get cleared for medical forms' thoughts. "At least Quarrel wasn't stupid enough to reveal everything she knew." After a moment she turned to Patricia. "Sorry, can't elaborate, as I suspect you aren't cleared for some of it."
Director Piggot sighed. "We'll need to know what you're talking about at some point, just to be safe."
Taylor shrugged and composed a quick secure message to everyone other than Patricia. This resulted in all of them other than Colin visibly checking their phones when they beeped. He got in on the nearly synchronized facepalm a moment later anyway, which appeared to change Patricia's expression from 'annoyed' to 'worried'.
"I suppose we're lucky that they kept that secret," Miss Militia finally said. "I'm half wishing you'd conveniently forgotten to mention anything about that now."
Colin shook his head. "Better to know that Quarrel knows it now instead of risking it being revealed later."
There was nodding from everyone else other than Patricia at that. She'd gone from 'worried' to 'confused' at that point.
"How'd the meeting go?" Amy asked after Taylor had returned to the Wards area. The other girl appeared to have recovered from whatever was going on with her earlier.
Taylor shrugged. "They're going to do their best to do the most misleading-yet-truthful reveal of some of what I can do as humanly possible, and probably ensure that Quarrel is locked away where she'll never get a chance to talk to anyone that isn't cleared for every secret ever. Oh, and they want me to do a press conference after I decide on whether or not to release the movie to the masses."
"Still going to sit on that for a day or two before deciding?"
"Yep. For now I'm going to do what unpacking I need to. Trevor wants to meet with me soonish for something, and I don't need to bring everything in my suitcase home with me. I'm also thinking I should prepare a prank or two, because I'm positive the other Wards are going to be annoying. I'm just not fully decided on what to do, exactly."
Amy decided to follow Taylor. "Do tell?"
"Well, I've got the original recording file from my fight, right? Plenty of data there, I'm fairly certain with only a little work I can get plenty out of it. Audio's another story entirely, but I'm thinking I can get away with a lie there easily enough if other plans don't work out. I think the hard part will be lining things up properly. But I think I can pull that off easily enough after a quick recording."
Amy shook her head. "I have no clue what you're talking about."
"Oh, right, I'll have to show you a couple of things. Hmmm...I wonder if I can get Ethan too? The question there is whether or not to get him at the same time as the other Wards. I'd try and get others, but most of the Protectorate I think would spot things faster. Oh, wait, Brian and Carlos are Protectorate now, so I'd need to invite them specifically anyway if I want to get them. And of course I'll need to make sure the proper forms are filled out regardless, don't need to create accidental panic and all."
"You're still not making a lot of sense here."
Taylor shrugged. "I'll show you when I'm done unpacking, if nobody else has come around then. Oh, do you think I should show Ackbar to the other Wards? It isn't like the spider-bots are a secret now, after all."
Amy considered that. "I suppose bringing Rodney by at some point wouldn't hurt either. Think either of them will try and bite Dennis?"
"I'm half expecting them to be more annoyed with Aisha, depending on her reaction to them. We already know that Missy gets along with the two fairly well, of course, and Chris has no problem with them either."
"You might have a point there, but if Dennis freezes either of them I'm betting the other will try and bite him."
"True, true. I was thinking they'd take offense to Aisha likely hiding from them at some point, but Dennis freezing one of them would probably work too."
"I hadn't considered her hiding from them, that's a good point. Perhaps it would be a good idea to warn both of them that the spider-bots are capable of biting?"
Chapter 162 It hadn't taken long to unpack much of what was in Taylor's suitcase into her room. She'd also gone ahead and cleaned her sidearm as well as reloaded the spent magazines, complete with having different ammo variations in them courtesy of her purchases in Las Vegas. She didn't think that would've helped with Quarrel, but since she was refilling the magazines anyway it wasn't a big deal. She did most of that while Amy was failing to hold in her laughter at the thought of Taylor's upcoming prank.
She took care of checking her other equipment and doing a quick visual inspection of her pouches while Amy was cleaning up after said laughing, including doing some checks of the sword she'd had with her but not used. If Quarrel could dodge the gun then the sword wasn't all that likely to help, after all.
"So what do you think he wants?" Amy asked as they made their way to the conference room Trevor was waiting for them in. He'd shown up early, so they were going to meet with him early. The sooner this was over with the sooner Taylor would be able to head home. In theory.
Taylor shrugged as they reached the door. "No clue, but at least I can thank him for fixing most of my equipment. Saved me a pile of time doing so myself and all." She then opened the door and the two stepped in.
"Hello Miss Hebert, Miss Dallon," Trevor said. He was mostly in costume, but had his face clear.
"Hello," Taylor replied, Amy nodding even as they were both looking at the apparent wrapped gift that Trevor had sitting on the table. "Thank you for repairing so much of my equipment, do they have you working on the wok too?"
"No, they sent that to someone else. I didn't bother to ask who. Still, I have a gift and a request, if you don't mind helping me figure something out?"
Taylor sighed and sat down, Amy dropping into the seat next to her. "I suppose, but I'm supposed to be on post-trauma downtime at this point. So nothing 'stressful' allowed and all that, and let's start with the request."
Trevor nodded. "I'm mainly trying to figure out the odd feelings I got yesterday when I tried to build an entropy manipulator. One of the staff on the Rig had made a comment about it, yet when I try to come up with a design I get the impression that it's possible, but that I still can't make anything like that? End result, several people recommended that I have you see if you can ask my power about that, so here we are."
Taylor blinked. That did sound odd. "Gimme a second." She then reached out to Prototype.
Taylor: So, Trevor says that he tried to come up with an entropy manipulator and you seem to have told him no. Can you tell me what's up with that?
[Agreement. Data]
Amy: Restricted? Why would it be restricted?
BA: Data. Elaboration
Taylor and Amy blinked in unison at that.
Taylor: There's a sandbox specifically for trying to improve entropy manipulation because it so frequently leads to the premature death of entire planets?
Amy: Well, at least that would imply that we're not in the sandbox that could very well suddenly stop supporting life.
Taylor: Yeah, but there's also apparently a sandbox that likely has life out there that could, if some snark manipulates things wrong, suddenly end up wiped out.
Taylor shook her head before looking back to Trevor. "Entropy manipulation is apparently very restricted for safety reasons. It's something that every snark can apparently do, and they use it regularly to make resource gathering that much more efficient, but they aren't allowed to let us control any of it outside of a more secure sandbox environment. I get the impression that's at least one alternate Earth, if not several."
Amy nodded. "Given the dangers I'm not sure you should complain about this one."
Trevor sighed. "That makes sense. It would've been awesome too. Oh well." He then pushed the wrapped box over to Taylor. "Gift time!"
Taylor rolled her eyes before tearing the wrapping. She then opened the box to find a belt. "Is this a duplicate of Amy's belt?"
"Mostly. Slightly different color scheme, to go better with your costume, but I also adjusted the absorption parameters a bit. To hopefully keep it going longer it'll let small physical stuff through, hopefully automatically taking into account armor and such. That way it'll hopefully only kick in for things that will actually hurt you, and the extra processing for running those calculations should drain the charge on it faster too. Though there's a little margin for error as well, of course."
That made quite a bit of sense to Taylor, at least. Don't protect her from the things she doesn't need protection from and all. It would need still some testing, and an initial charging. "Thank you, but why now?"
Amy dope-slapped Taylor as Trevor shook his head. "One of the bombs found afterwards was positioned to take out the block Erik's family lives on, and I'm grateful that your actions stopped it from going off. As for why the belt at all? Since you had to borrow Panacea's to take on the Butcher, burning it out in the process, I decided that you could use something more suited to you. I know it would be bad for you to appear to be invincible all of a sudden, but a more discreet protection for if something like that ever comes up again made sense to me when I thought of it. I doubt you'll be flaunting it, after all."
Colin sighed as he double-checked the forms he was filling out. Recording partially-restricted technology implanted in minors in his region was something that he'd had to do a number of times. He couldn't even claim that the displacement effect of things was unusual, as this would be the fourth time he'd needed that particular form in his career. The only saving grace there was that he'd never done the work, on or off the books. He'd had the pleasure of punching out a then-teammate for doing so once, but that was the closest he'd gotten to doing so personally.
Thinking back to that, he made note to ensure that Nicole was still being monitored for signs of snapping and doing that kind of thing again. Miss Dallon hadn't triggered yet when that incident had occurred, so they hadn't had anyone available to save little Meghan when the displacement tech had been damaged and displaced part of her body. Even that wouldn't have been a problem, if everything the device displaced didn't come back irradiated.
With that done he went back to the forms for Miss Hebert and Miss Dallon. At least they'd ended up with technology intended for medical purposes, that didn't leak radiation, didn't displace living tissue of any kind, and weren't likely to fail into an incredibly dangerous state. That they recharged through a biological trickle charge helped in the latter case. He didn't have to fill out the entire section of the forms intended for health hazards from the technology pulling what it needed directly from the blood as a result. And it didn't live in their torsos, so in an absolute emergency they could just amputate the limbs. So long as they both survived they could regrow things for each other, after all.
He made a final pass over things, then nodded and submitted them. Good luck to the Think Tank in figuring out how it'd happened, he wasn't required to specify that. He just had to report that he'd learned the two had the technology implanted at all. The Think Tank could ask them about it directly if they really thought they needed to know and couldn't figure it out.
Next up was getting back to working his way through his backlog of things that he'd let build up while he was away. Lots of requests for information, reports to review, general chatter in various places. He was hoping that he could get through a large percentage of it before the immersive scanner finished mapping out as much of his physical enhancements as possible as it massaged him. Not needing the eye-tracking system was making getting things done so much easier.
The only annoying thing about the built-in Bluetooth was that it didn't come with multitasking. He was already jealous of the two girls for having that as a secondary ability.
Taylor eventually made it to the point of loading her moped, suitcase, and Ackbar's pet carrier into a PRT van. She'd had to wait for her belt to charge up enough to be usable, at Amy's insistence, before changing things out to put it on. While doing that she'd ended up going through all of her utility belt pouches and making a list of things she'd need to replace. She had a few things to take care of in her 'civilian' pouches, and a large percentage of her medical supplies and all of the snacks from her 'Maul' pouches.
She planned on doubling as much as she could get away with in the 'Maul' pouches when she refilled those, and was considering whether or not she had enough in the 'civilian' pouches too.
But for now Amy was heading home on her own while Taylor was brought home in the van, to avoid her being mobbed or something. She hadn't questioned it too much, to be honest, since she was more interested in actually getting home. Once there she had some laundry she should probably do, and tonight she'd be able to sleep in her own bed. That would be nice. Oh, and the Pelhams had declined the offer of the extra intercom kit, preferring to order one of their own, so Amy was insisting on Taylor setting hers up at home.
The trip didn't take long, though apparently they had to pass through a police cordon along the way. Perhaps that was why they insisted on the van? Shortly after that they'd pulled up to the Hebert household. It didn't take long to get everything out of the van and into to the garage, at which point the officer that had been driving waved and left. Taylor closed the garage before letting Ackbar out of the pet carrier, then made her way inside. Her father wasn't home, but she'd expected that as he'd let her know he was picking up pizza.
She left Ackbar checking downstairs while she dragged the suitcase and pet carrier upstairs. It didn't take long to unpack everything, though she ended up leaving the alcohol on her desk. She had way too many bottles kicking around and would need to actually start drinking the stuff. A couple baskets of laundry were prepared in the process, and the intercom kit was dropped on top of one of them to be brought downstairs. The key finder joined it shortly afterwards, since she wasn't sure how she'd use it but thought her father might like it.
Once she'd finished with that she dragged the laundry baskets downstairs, dropping the tech on the counter before heading down to the basement to load the washing machine with her first load. Her father was just pulling up to the house as she emerged from the basement a few minutes later. She met him at the door, which turned out to be a good idea as he had an entire stack of pizzas for some reason.
They exchanged greetings as Danny dropped the stack of pizzas onto the kitchen table. "I wasn't quite expecting to have enough pizza for an entire party, but they insisted. Said something about them not going to waste if you can eat a challenger and still be hungry."
Taylor shook her head. "What they didn't see there was that I hadn't eaten much and had done a bunch of things to work up an appetite before trying that."
"So you aren't going to eat at least one of these yourself?"
"I didn't say that."
Her father laughed as she got out a couple of plates and grabbed a soda from the fridge. Sure enough, over the next hour she finished off two of the pizzas, her father only eating a third of one. Luckily the fridge was pretty much empty, so they had plenty of room to store the leftovers.
While Taylor was still eating, Danny had started looking over the key finder beacon's box. He'd put it down to help pack up all the leftovers, but then grabbed it again afterwards. "So what's up with this? I don't think you normally lose track of your keys?"
Taylor nodded. "That's one of my prizes from the convention. If you want it then you're welcome to it. Amy insisted that since the Pelhams are going to buy their own intercom kit that I need to set up the one I won here."
"I'd wondered about that, since there are only the two of us normally. Why bother?"
"You can link systems together over a longer range to make a multiple-house system, and Amy is expecting me to let her know when I'm ready to go through that process to link up to hers."
Danny nodded. "That would make communicating with Carol and Mark easier, at least when we're all home. You planning on linking through to the Pelham system when they get theirs?"
"I think we'd have to if they connect in at all. There are eight slots total and I think each household gets one slot in the wider system. So if we're slot one then we'll be slot one across the whole thing type deal."
They ended up taking the time to set the system up. Primary unit in the downstairs hallway, one remote in Danny's office, and one remote in each of the three bedrooms. Initial setup was easy enough, as the remotes were already connected to the primary unit. They could apparently add up to sixteen remotes if they really wanted to, but thought that they had enough as it was. They both set their personal phones up to be able to talk to the thing as well, which turned them into 'mobile remote units' of a sort.
Taylor: We've got our intercom system ready to link up.
Amy: Wait, already? Crap. We'd put off setting ours up until we decided where to put the remote units.
Taylor: Well, I'd skip the greenhouse and just use your phone for that. One in each bedroom, one in your mother's office?
Amy: I guess that makes sense. Wait, if the phone can play remote why do I want one in my bedroom?
Taylor: I pointed that out to my father. He pointed out that it's easier for guests to understand and that the remote unit might be able to wake me up, but the phone isn't as likely to. Especially since I set it to only use my 'internal' audio by default, so it won't make noise at all when disconnected from me.
Amy: That's a good point. And you can do that? That'll be useful.
It took Amy a few minutes to get everything out of the box and set up on the kitchen table, then they went through the pairing steps. The Hebert system did, in fact, end up as the primary with slot number one. Amy then set the Dallon system to be slot number four, since the secondary systems didn't have to fill the slots from the lowest number out. Danny printed some labels for their system, and Amy said she'd see if Carol could do the same on their end.
"Testing one two three," came over the system a few minutes later, Carol apparently testing something. Taylor scowled slightly, realizing that she'd have to have the app open to see which system a message was originating from. Each unit had little push-toggle switches for which system(s) to output to, and a light for which system was broadcasting. The app had something similar. But there were no notifications from the app that her Bluetooth could pick up on.
"We hear you Carol," was her father's response a moment later, likely from the unit in his office.
"I wonder if the app will continue to work when Amy's at the hospital," came from Mark. "Might help, since Carol wants her to keep the scheduled weekend coming up and all."
"I'll find out tomorrow when I'm there anyway," Amy said next. "Backlog of locals and all, especially if I'm keeping the out of town group for the weekend."
Taylor sighed, since she wasn't sure if she should even think about going out the next day. Instead she decided to check with her father on what was going on with the general public, probably followed by making something for Ackbar to eat. She hadn't checked, hopefully they had something suitable. It turned out that he was, in fact, in the office, apparently looking over the electric bill.
"Is something wrong?" he asked as soon as he noticed her standing there.
She shook her head. "Not wrong so much as I just realized that I'm out of the loop. Should I be concerned about showing my face in public right now? It seemed like there was a police cordon or something on the way home."
Her father sighed and put the electric bill down. "I'm not sure if it's a problem or not. The police do have a cordon set up, due to the number of people that apparently wanted to leave gifts and such. The Dockworkers have had a similar problem, though there it's been more of a 'see where things went down' thing and has been handled by setting up a temporary booth and charging for tours of the compound. I know that I'd prefer that you wait a day or two before wandering, but I won't stop you from going out. Especially as I doubt things will die down properly until you've gone out and been seen."
Taylor had to nod at that. It made perfect sense to her, because people were collectively idiots. Hell, until they saw her out and being normal they'd probably have nutjobs claiming she was hiding because she was the new Butcher or something. "I think I can see both sides for me going out or not. Back to the Dockworkers, tours of the compound?"
This time her father smirked. "Yep. The end of the tour is the point the two of you vanished from and reappeared at, so they have to go through the whole rest of the compound first. Nathan told me that they're considering a longer-term run on those, even after the interest in the incredibly boring section of the parking lot wanes, because apparently the compound itself is drawing interest. If only due to the number of different things we do."
"I'd think that having to adjust things to be able to safely run tours would be a pain, wouldn't it?"
"The guys set up 'inspectors hallways' a while back in most of the buildings so that full safety gear wasn't needed for quick overview checks. They've been using those for the most part on the tours, and only letting people directly into currently unused workshops after cutting power to anything dangerous. It's more than paying for the tour guides and ticket booth staff right now, or so I'm told. They won't let me work until next week either way, so I won't be able to see the numbers until then."
"Ah. I suppose that's one way to deal with gawkers."
"Yep. Oh, if you do go out, check with someone at the cordon about what they're doing with the gifts and such they're collecting from people, would you? At least the ones they've determined are safe, anyway."
Taylor considered that. "I wonder if I can get them to hand them off to charities or something like that?"
"Perhaps you should actually see what they are before deciding that. On a different note, I'm going to see about arranging for dinner out tomorrow with New Wave, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't make dinner plans."
"That sounds reasonable enough. I was mainly thinking about whether or not to try and meet up with Amy for lunch."
"Good luck getting them to let you pay for lunch if you do, at least for the next week or two anyway. People seem to think that you single-handedly prevented the Teeth from blowing up the city."
Taylor stared at her father for a moment, before groaning. "Amy is going to tease the crap out of me for that, isn't she?"
"You could tease her for the fact that she slept through your entire fight?"
Taylor leveled a glare at her father for that one. "The options at the time were for her to fall over unconscious, or to fall over dead."
At least he looked sorry for that one.
Taylor found herself bored after reading through the 'held because she was on vacation' backlog of messages that had arrived shortly after she'd finished her laundry. Most of it was useless, though she had gotten requests on details like if the movie should be released. They didn't want to sit on it too long if the answer was yes, apparently. She'd also looked over Joey's recommendations, which had led her to mulling over the movie while browsing the PRT store for potentially interesting tinkertech. So far all she'd found that interested her outside of Joey's suggested list was a fancy set of lockpicks and a kit that could be used to retrofit the locks in the house to allow for access keys on PRT-compatible phones to open things up.
Amy: Carol just handed me a handgun and the concealed carry permit I didn't know had been applied for. Apparently she applied for one for everyone in the family. Got any recommendations for a good gun safe so I don't have to keep using Mark's?
Taylor: I've got a little one for a handgun that has a physical key but will work with the NFC relay too. Let me dig up the link. Did you all get handguns, or just you?
Amy: That's a good question. I didn't ask.
It only took a minute to grab the link and fire it off to Amy. From there she started looking at other, larger gun safes. She was going to switch to looking at other things when she realized that having a gun safe in the pocket dimension probably wasn't a bad idea, so instead she started evaluating them for that.
Amy: Thanks for the link. Mark apparently opted to not carry a handgun, but plans on asking Missy about making a 'concealed holster' for his shotgun. Carol and Vicky are getting handguns too, but Carol only paid for rush shipping on the one being purchased for me.
Taylor: Ahhh. Okay. I'll recommend that Vicky get her own little safe too, at least.
Amy: Not a bad idea.
Eventually Taylor narrowed things down to three gun safes that she thought would be suitable for the pocket dimension. She was fairly certain that they couldn't anchor them to anything, so 'secure without being anchored' was somewhat important. That left her with some of the larger options, and she'd narrowed it down further by looking at ones that could be easily used by multiple people.
Granted, all three were probably severe overkill for storing two handguns, but they could store other 'sensitive' things in any of them easily enough. Multiple secure compartments would make that even easier, really. Shrugging, she threw links to all three into a message and sent it off to Amy. Maybe she had a preference or other idea. With that done she went back to random browsing.
Amy: Do you expect us to start collecting guns?
Taylor: I was looking for options that didn't need to be bolted down to still be semi-secure, because I don't think we can bolt anything down in the pocket dimension.
Amy: Oh. That makes more sense than collecting guns.
Taylor: I'm not exactly a gun nut.
Amy: ...are you allowed to keep any shotguns or similar you pull off of gang idiots?
Taylor: ...no.
Taylor might not be a gun nut, but it seemed that perhaps Amy was one?
Amy: Dang. I was hoping to be able to refurbish one as a gift for Mark.
Or things had just been seriously misinterpreted.
Half an hour later Taylor found an interesting listing. She didn't think she needed an 'inflatable instant evil villain cat' right now, but she did find the 'all proceeds go to charity' portion of things inspiring.
Taylor: What do you think of me letting them release the movie, but insisting that any money made from showing it go to charity?
Amy: Are you aiming for a public relations coup? Because from what I've heard, Mister Chambers might try and kiss you for that.
Taylor: Yeah, ew. Definitely not telling him in person in that case.
Amy: It certainly isn't a bad idea. Just don't be surprised if he's very happy with the idea if you go that route.
Taylor shook her head and got up to go see what her father thought of that plan.
Glenn was preparing to call it a night when a message marked 'urgent' came in. Two minutes later and he'd have missed it until morning, legitimately, but he couldn't bring himself to pretend. If nothing else wondering about it would keep him from actually getting any sleep. With a sigh he opened it up and started skimming it. It wasn't long before he'd blinked and gone back to the start to read the message properly. He triggered a download of the mentioned 'movie' halfway through the message, but wasn't entirely sure that there was anything to be made financially from it. Putting the profits towards charity was a wonderful idea if there was, of course.
While things were downloading he got up and made a cup of coffee. He'd need the caffeine to stay awake long enough to see if the movie was worth doing anything special with, after all. Most of the time this kind of thing happened they just posted a half hour recording online and referenced it, assuming that they were even that long. Trim out the boring stuff and move on. They rarely had enough usable footage for anything more than that. Really, at several hours he was thinking that they were going to have to trim a lot of this one away.
To get a better picture of things, he set the video to stream to his television, after grabbing a pad of paper and a pen to take notes with. The first thing written was a question on whether or not the provided title was appropriate for the movie's content. He knew that things had to have been violent, of course. Cape battles were rarely anything but, and this was a Brockton Bay cape battle. He was still amazed at how few of the parahumans there died every year in the gang fights alone.
Just over three hours later he was regretting watching the movie instead of going to bed, if only because he had to wait until morning before anything useful could be done about it. Actually, that wasn't entirely true. He owed Desmond a late night call or two, after all. Two minutes later he was waiting for the theater owner to pick up.
"What the hell are you waking me up for?" was Desmond's greeting when he finally answered. The man didn't believe in answering machines and had foolishly given Glenn his home number.
"I'm going to be putting a movie into rush processing to be made ready for theaters first thing in the morning," Glenn replied. "I'm hoping you'll be willing to premier it."
"You're crazy, you know that? The last time you wanted me to premier something it was an hour long joke that I lost money on. Why the hell should I consider this one?"
Glenn smirked, not that Desmond could see that. "This one is three hours long and has the draw of being relevant. Oh, and all proceeds on our end will be going to charity."
There was a pause before Desmond sighed. "What are the chances of me seeing this thing before I agree to premier it?"
"I'll hopefully have a trailer for you to check out sometime tomorrow. I can probably get out there for Wednesday, and if so I'll show you the full thing then if you want. But I want to get this out fast."
"A rush job means that it's likely to not be rated. Those don't exactly tend to draw crowds, you know. Too many people not willing to risk it, or expecting it to be a pure propaganda piece. Especially coming from the PRT or the Nazi bastards."
"This is the true story of the battle between two parahumans, pieced together from tinkertech recordings. Dragon dubbed it 'The Mauling of the Butcher' and despite being unrated I'm thinking we'll be slapping a recommendation that children not be shown it. Too much violence and all."
There was another pause. "Okay, Glenn, you have just gotten yourself a chance. I still want to see it before I agree to show it, and if it's a propaganda piece I'll be getting a new phone number and preemptively barring your number from calling it."
"I'll let you know when the first copy compatible with your equipment is ready. I'm thinking it should only take a few days, tops, if I pull in some favors I'm owed."
Glenn would end up sleeping on the transport to Brockton Bay, being the first time he'd allowed himself to relax between sending off missives to get things moving. Even that took Dragon manufacturing 'interference' that kept his data uplink from working for a few minutes, but a few minutes was all he needed.
Interlude: Council of the Teeth Richard rapped his cane against the box he was sitting next to, causing the others in the warehouse to quiet down. "I hereby open this emergency meeting of the council. You should all know why we're here, but in case any of you are too stupid to realize it I'll state it anyway. This past Friday Quarrel engaged the Ward Maul per her challenge to reclaim the title of the Butcher. Not only did she fail, something that had never happened before in one of these challenges, she also outed Maul's identity and revealed our existence in the process of things. The matter of the apparent death of the Butcher is unproven and may be a ruse, as has happened at least twice before, so will not be discussed today."
Melinda scoffed. "Quarrel failed before she'd even entered the battle. She targeted the family of her opponent, the family of the potential Butcher to be. And didn't ensure that her opponent was aware that it was supposed to be a fight to the death. Also, as a point, Quarrel isn't the Butcher, and was still alive when the battle concluded. How do you want to explain that unprecedented situation as a ruse?"
He slapped his cane against the box again to get people to quiet down. "Our remit has us waiting at least a month before assuming that anything untoward has happened to the Butcher, no matter the supposed circumstances. If, and only if, there's no sign of someone having obtained the Butcher's powers after a month are we to start assuming the worst. Since it's only been a few days, I feel justified in tabling that discussion for the time being."
There was muttering, but general agreement. Their remit from the Butcher was very clear on a number of topics, after all, and to go against them invited future retaliation when the Butcher returned. Several former members of the council had learned that the hard way.
Finally Nathan spoke up over the murmuring. "Given what we can and can't do about things, I move that we engage in the double-blind protocols until we're summoned by the next Butcher or a new emergency session is called. If the PRT and Protectorate are searching for us then it wouldn't do to make it easier on them than necessary per our remit. Add in that there's a good chance that the Elite will start looking too and it seems like the most prudent course of action."
The entire council froze when an unknown and unexpected voice answered that motion from above them. "I'm going to have to veto that particular motion. You see, I already prepared this bowl of popcorn, and I don't want it to go to waste."
Richard turned around and looked at the catwalk above him, where the voice had come from. A light, that shouldn't have existed in that location, turned on to reveal her. The mysterious woman with the fedora. Who was sitting there with a bowl of popcorn for some reason. He swallowed, because that woman had a reputation, and they currently didn't have the Butcher's protection. Still, there was an interesting question there. "May I ask why your popcorn would go to waste?"
The woman looked at Richard and raised an eyebrow. After a moment she nodded. "You may."
It took a moment for him to realize what she'd just done, and despite his concern he scowled. "Why would your popcorn go to waste?"
A second voice they weren't expecting answered that, causing them to spin around to look at the other catwalk. "Because she's here to watch me ensure that none of you tell anyone that Taylor is my niece. Can't leave the loose ends and all, I'm sure you understand."
Richard was doing his best to not void his bowels as he stared at Jack Slash. "But...Maul is your niece? We had no idea, or we'd never have put her on the list!"
Jack took on an obviously-fake expression of shock. "Really? Huh. That changes things, since I'd honestly thought you included her in your list for revenge and all."
Several of them bit back replies to that, leaving it to Richard. "Of course we didn't do that. We were aiming to test Quarrel with a target that we felt she could reasonably be expected to handle with the information we had available to us."
Jack nodded. "Yes, that's obvious now. Boy, will my therapist be happy when he hears that I didn't kill you out of a misguided desire for revenge against your deliberate choice to target my niece. He doesn't like me doing that kind of thing, you see."
"Really? That's wonderful news."
"Yes, thank you for the clarification. Now I'll just be ensuring that you all die because you sent the Butcher after children. Much less questionable on my part, you see."
And apparently Richard spoke too soon. Why, exactly, did he expect that to go differently?
"Are you done yapping?" a third unknown voice called, and the group spun to look towards the warehouse entrance. Richard was fairly certain that he had soiled his pants when he recognized Hatchet Face standing next to the Siberian.
All hope of potentially escaping vanished a moment later, before Richard had a chance to contemplate it in the first place, as all of the windows had metal plates slam onto them with a loud 'clang'. He'd live to see most of the council killed in various, usually gruesome manners over the following several hours. His end would come when Bonesaw decided to personally take him apart 'to see how he ticked'.
Though he'd noted it, he didn't live long enough to figure out why the girl's colorful hair looked familiar.
Riley sat down in the chair they'd just pulled back into her pocket dimension. The thing was already turning out to be incredibly useful, she wasn't sure how she'd have gotten her equipment in and out on such short notice otherwise. The whole thing had been quite enjoyable, all things considered, and she even had a small collection of parahuman brains that she'd properly stored.
Now she just had to wait until Jacob opened the portal again, since he'd declined her help in getting back out. She wasn't sure why, and she'd only been able to participate at all because he could 'summon' her with one of the opening devices. Oh well, mysteries for another time and all. Sometime in the next hour she'd unload things back into the storage unit they normally lived in, then the brains would be brought to her personal workshop.
If she was lucky then she'd have a few superpowered spider-bots for their next official run. She just had to figure out how Taylor had made a spider-bot trigger, right?
Chapter 163 Tuesday morning Taylor and her father made a pass on cleaning the entire house, during which they had a discussion attempting to decide where it would be best to hook up one of the pocket dimension opening devices. She favored an internal door, while he was thinking that the garage might be a better choice. On that front, she was letting him make his arguments before pointing out that she had enough equipment to do both. She was actually thinking that the smaller "hidden" equipment would be best if set up for inside, perhaps on her closet door, with the larger variant being set up in the garage where there was more room for the equipment.
Besides, she and Amy needed to decide where they'd have things open into. They had plenty of room, after all, so they really needed to plan things out before they set anything, like defined entrances, up. Things like if they were going to have a 'garage' area to park vehicles in, for example. That might need extra tinkertech ventilation for safety reasons, running engines and all, which might affect other areas. All of it was going to need to be thought out.
Today was, in all likelihood, not the day to figure everything out. But it was a day that Amy was healing at the hospital, and Taylor felt that being seen in public was probably better than not being seen in public, so possibly swinging by the hospital to bring lunch for Amy was on her list of things to consider.
Taylor: You want me to try and swing by with lunch?
Amy: If you're comfortable being out at all then yes. I've already heard horror stories about what they're serving here today.
Taylor: I've already got access to pizza from yesterday, or I can try and grab something on the way over.
Amy: If you're willing and can find some, I think I'd actually like to have fried chicken. But the Fry Bucket is closed down due to damage from the Teeth.
Taylor: Huh. I know there's a place in Empire territory that has that on the menu, but it's a bit out of the way and I seem to recall that they don't do takeout anyway. Maybe my father knows of a good alternative? Let me check with him.
Amy: I'll think about alternatives, in case you can't find a place. Still an hour or so before I'll be ready for lunch anyway. Oh, and Dean says hello.
Taylor: Dean?
Amy: I'm about to heal him. He apparently got a little shot up.
Taylor: Ouch. Say hello to him, and hopefully the Youth Guard won't keep him locked down too long.
Shaking her head, she went to check with her father. He'd gone to tidy up his office a bit a few minutes prior, so he shouldn't be hard to find.
Janine sighed as she made her way through the collection of 'larger' gifts for Miss Hebert. There were a lot fewer of them, but in many ways that just made them more annoying. For example, almost all of them could be traced in various ways, which meant it was possible to determine whether or not they were stolen. That had been the case for two cars and eight computer systems so far this morning. They could also more easily hold hidden dangers, such as explosives. Both cars, half the computer systems, and a stuffed animal had been found to hold explosives so far.
There were also other things that were less hazardous and/or illegal. Like what appeared to be a handmade wooden lounge chair. Decent quality, as far as she could tell, but lacking in cushioning. She'd just finished going over a gas powered remote controlled helicopter that had come up clean on both the stolen property checks and appeared to have no added hazards, partially because it was lacking in fuel. Or batteries, for that matter. They didn't know if it worked, but it appeared to be safe enough for what it was and in good condition.
Moving on, she brought up the file on the next item, blinking as she read it twice to ensure she hadn't mis-read anything. She double-checked the tinkertech scanner output, which confirmed what the written sheet for the item said it was. It came up as generally safe, so she had one of the drone arms move it to the inspection area. Once that was done she used the remote waldos and cameras to open the case to check on things. Amazingly enough, there was a M249 SAW, and light attempts to manipulate it showed that it was likely seized up good from being stored incorrectly.
Shaking her head, she carefully searched for serial numbers and the like, then submitted a search to check on ownership before she got it packed away again. She wasn't surprised when she returned to her search to find that it'd been stolen. Details on it, and pictures of the current condition of the thing, were attached to a report to be forwarded on to the rightful owner. On a lark, she included that it'd been handed over by Oni Lee of the ABB, apparently in a secondary disguise of large sunglasses.
Oh well, enough time spent on that one. She should only have six or seven items left to check on, so she loaded the next file. A quick skim had her sighing, wondering why the M249 had been handed over inside of a reportedly nonfunctional vintage refrigerator. One with 'EXCELSIOR' carved into the side at that.
Taylor pulled up to the hospital on her moped, the basket behind her filled with takeout. Her father had known of a restaurant that did fried chicken and takeout, though not as their main draw. They'd even let her pay, after giving her every discount their register would let them enter. She also now knew that her 'gifts' had been handed over to the PRT for checking on various fronts, the officer at the police cordon hadn't known much more than that though.
It seemed that Dean was still around, as were Crystal and Eric. The latter two had been asked what they'd like for lunch by Amy, since they were running 'guard duty' today. Eric was already on his way down, likely having been sent by Amy to help carry everything in.
"Hey Taylor," Eric said as he came out of the 'staff' door, near where Amy had parked her moped. Taylor had, of course, parked her moped next to Amy's. "Need any help dragging things in?"
Taylor grabbed two of the bags and handed them over to Eric. "That should be what you and Crystal ordered."
Eric nodded as Taylor grabbed the other two bags. "Cool, thanks for picking stuff up. Turns out that they're experimenting with vegan cooking today, out of necessity more than desire after nobody noticed that the refrigeration units hadn't been running. Someone new in maintenance turned the breakers off and forgot to turn them back on or something like that."
"So lots of takeout today?"
"Probably. One of the doctors was complaining that he was a meat eater while digging through a drawer in the third floor break room earlier."
Taylor snorted at that. A few minutes later they'd made it to the break room that they'd be eating in, which was apparently not in use for anything else right then. It didn't take long to get everything out of the bags, but the two of them decided to wait for the other two to make their way over before starting to eat. That didn't take long.
Crystal followed Amy into the room, stopping to look at the spread on the table, before grabbing Taylor in a hug. "Thank you!" She then let go and jumped into the seat in front of her steak.
Amy chuckled as she sat down. "Yes, thank you for saving us from tofu burgers or whatever other horrors they're trying to cook up in the cafeteria."
Eric started on his pasta before getting a curious look on his face. He was courteous enough to wait until he'd swallowed before speaking up. "So, I hear you two have one of those incredibly rare and expensive pocket dimensions?"
Taylor nodded. "Yeah. Lots of room, but I'm not sure it's fully safe to use it significantly yet. Waiting on some additional equipment for that."
"Can we see it? Amy said she didn't bring anything to open it today."
Taylor rolled her eyes, but produced the 'gun' and fired it at one of the walls. Crystal and Eric both vanished into the portal a moment later, apparently finding that more interesting than eating for the moment. It wasn't long before they'd returned, having stopped just on the other side of the portal in the first place.
"So when are you hiring a building company?" Crystal asked as she sat back down, Eric nodding in agreement.
Taylor paused from dismissing the portal to look at her. "Building company?"
"Well yeah, I bet you could easily build nine houses in that space. No basements or attics due to not being able to dig down or needing roofs, but that shouldn't be a major problem."
Taylor and Amy shared a look, not having considered that. It was Amy who came up with the next question. "And how would they safely anchor anything? As we understand it, they can't exactly put anchor bolts into anything."
Eric waved his empty fork. "That's why you get a good building company, see what they come up with. It shouldn't be your jobs to think of everything, right?"
Taylor shrugged. "No clue where to even begin there, but I suppose knowing what we could do would be better than making assumptions."
"Maybe check if others with the things have come up with solutions already," Amy offered. "Then again, we were told that most of the things are a lot smaller, so it might be that it hasn't really come up before."
Crystal gave the two of them a look. "What do you mean by 'a lot smaller'?"
Taylor thought for a moment. "Twenty meters per side for one, five for another. Did we ever find out how tall those two were?"
Amy shook her head. "No, we didn't bother asking. Might've been shorter."
Eric looked between the two. "If these things are so rare and expensive and all, how in the world did you two score one that's so much larger than normal?"
Taylor just stuck her tongue out in response to that. She and Amy didn't want to reveal too much there.
Glenn giggled to himself as he carefully assembled a few 'ad spots' for the movie. Fifteen, thirty, and sixty second length slots only, he didn't think he'd need anything longer. It was short notice, and it wasn't like he needed to get people interested in something six months off after all. He was also sticking to the same basic formula for all three, just differing the lengths of things. Show the transition as the two were brought to the battlefield, a couple of stills from early on in the fight, and then a shot of their return. The longest version he was going to use several-second clips instead of stills.
Over that he was placing text. The movie itself wasn't narrated at all, but he felt that the trailer needed to be. To keep things true to the battle he'd ideally have Miss Hebert record a few lines. But this was more of a trailer situation, and if the movie industry had taught him anything it was that trailers were allowed to lie. So instead he was using the 'creepy little girl' text to speech voice and having it whine that it doesn't actually appear in the film, at least in the thirty and sixty second versions. There wasn't enough time for that in the fifteen second version with everything else he wanted to make sure was narrated there. He settled for 'fine print' text that indicated that 'Justice Duck' didn't appear in the film.
He'd have to send all three versions off to a few people to review, probably including Desmond. Visiting the man to let him watch the entire film would probably be something he did the next day. Only half an hour previous he'd been assured that three copies of a theater-ready version would be delivered to the ENE PRT Building by Saturday morning, if not Friday afternoon, so they could very likely do a Saturday afternoon or evening 'premier'.
That thought made him pause, and frown slightly before grabbing his phone. He had to give Jessica a call, find out what she thought of even attempting to have Miss Hebert there for the initial showing. Best to check with her before talking to Mister Hebert about it, after all. Besides, he also had to check to ensure that the girl could, hopefully, attend a press conference in the coming days.
Taylor had ended up submitting a question to the PRT asking about builders that might be able to look at the pocket dimension she and Amy shared, before heading over to the PRT building. They claimed that they weren't ready for her to look over her gifts when she checked with a couple of people, but that didn't mean that she couldn't tinker to eat up time. So she collected the pieces of tinkertech she'd purchased at the convention and headed for the workshop. None of it was usable until she'd rebuilt it, after all.
She was going to start with the ambient speaker, since she had a more immediate idea for using it. Most of it was actually present, but it'd been burned out at some point. Probably too much amperage on the input channels based on the burnout pattern, which wouldn't be a problem if she hooked a little Bluetooth board up to the thing. Especially if she powered said board off of the main unit in the first place. But first she'd have to rebuild several portions of the thing. And build a new outer casing from scratch, for that matter.
First things first, she dug through the scrap bins for some raw material, the metals in a couple of broken components would be a better choice than the clean stuff in the corner. No clue why, she just knew it would be.
Rebecca sighed as the greetings neared completion in the conference call. Paul had joined in costume from a similar conference room in New York. Emily and Patricia were in a single conference room in Brockton Bay. The distribution of the President and his attending staff was harder to determine. None of the other regional directors or Protectorate leaders were included for the time being.
"So Costa-Brown," the President said as the last of the formalities concluded. "What do we know?"
Rebecca tapped a key on her end to cause her 'screen' to split into two halves in the call. "The scanning equipment was brought online a couple hours ago, and they've already confirmed nineteen compromised staff members in the main Youth Guard office. There are three different signatures, none of them confirmed to be specific individuals yet. All of them have to have been since the office was previously checked and cleared in late April, which at least gives us a shorter timeline to examine things in. Four of those staff members were hit by all three signatures, seven were hit by two, though which two vary. I don't have a complete list of orders yet, as they're still processing them, but what they have recorded has all been targeting specific underage parahumans."
"So we can probably consider all of their Youth Guard files compromised at a minimum," Paul concluded, with nods from several others showing agreement. "Luckily their files are usually limited to what they need to know and not complete copies of the relevant PRT files."
The President sighed. "I've got staff evaluating logs to see if they can spot abnormal access of things. I'm told that there are no signs that the entire database was downloaded, but figuring out when someone accessed something they had no reason to is harder. Mainly looking for files that were loaded without cause being recorded elsewhere, but even that isn't always clear. Do you have any proposed plans for keeping this from happening again?"
Rebecca tapped another key and brought up a map of the Youth Guard building. "We'd like to take over the highlighted portions of the building to install permanent scanning devices into. The upper area would be the one we tell people about, the sub-basement is currently unused and sealed off anyway and would be kept secret. Run a scan from each at random times, alternating week to week. Hopefully nobody will know enough about both to sabotage them at the same time, increasing the likelihood of catching someone who's been compromised. On top of that I personally recommend ensuring that all Youth Guard personnel nationwide be required to be scanned at least once a month."
The President nodded. "I'll see about drafting things up. Get a proposal for the building additions to my staff ASAP. Now then, Mrs. Cooper, Director Piggot, have you had time to compile a list of things that went against Youth Guard written regulations since this may have started?"
Patricia looked to Emily, who waved her on, before nodding. "Yes Sir. Director Piggot and I went over everything, we'd made it back to the beginning of the year before being informed that the problem would've started in April. None of the actions taken by the automated systems were abnormal in and of themselves, the only issues stemming from then missing entries in files. Everything else seemed to be geared towards ensuring that there were as many 'black marks' against Miss Hebert and Miss Dallon as possible, likely with the intent of being able to forcibly remove them from Brockton Bay as was attempted with Miss Hebert. They were far less successful with Miss Dallon, but there were extra entries in her file as well. I've submitted a corrected file for each for review, with reasoning for each change. As requested, none of the others in the region were informed of why the review was being done."
Emily then spoke up. "Under the guise of possible joint training operations I also checked over the records of all of the Boston and New York Wards, though obviously couldn't check on independents. I walked over a copy of the Youth Guard regulations for each 'black mark' on their records since April, and the only one with anything unusual was Flechette out of New York. I can't tell if things there are due to this problem or her family situation."
Paul frowned at that. "I'll ensure a closer look is taken there, even if she'll be out of the system at the end of the quarter. Thank you for taking the initiative either way, even if I expect an internal review to occur soon."
The President visibly focused on Rebecca's screen. "Let me know as soon as the main office is cleared and I can coordinate with the Youth Guard more directly again. I'm going to have to make an announcement in the next day or two, I can only keep the executive order from hitting the news for so long."
Rebecca nodded. "As I understand it, we'll be done clearing those affected by the end of the day tomorrow at the absolute latest. The last estimate I was given for when they'd be done was eight this evening."
Half an hour later she'd sent off everything the President needed to see regarding plans and costs for the Youth Guard building and regular scanning of all Youth Guard staff.
Taylor frowned as she left the PRT building. She'd finished with the ambient sound device and even installed it temporarily, then moved on and rebuilt the minor master effect device. She'd also submitted paperwork that she had that working and what she planned on using it for, at least in general terms. The annoying part there was that in testing it didn't directly trip Broadcast Administrator's protections. It worked fine, right up until Broadcast Administrator had poked her to remind her that she had made the test sign in question.
Amy hadn't liked that discovery either, but had agreed with Taylor submitting the appropriate forms to ensure that the PRT was aware of the potential problem. No need to have them assuming that the two were immune to all master effects only to get bitten by someone using tinkertech instead, after all. The submission had been done with a high enough security level to hopefully not be seen by anyone they shouldn't be trusting.
Amy: Sarah just sent me a message indicating that all of New Wave will be going out to eat out of costume tonight, so I shouldn't grab anything on the way home.
Taylor: I wonder if we'll be joining you, my father said something about us possibly getting dinner with you guys tonight.
Amy: Huh. I'd have expected it to be eating in if it were something sensitive, privacy of one of our homes and all. Maybe it's a show of support for you or something?
Taylor: No clue, guess we'll see. I'll let you know if he says we're joining you.
She stopped at the store to pick up potatoes and a couple of other things they needed, having told her father she'd grab them while she was out. The cashier didn't seem to realize who she was, which suited her just fine, though at least four other customers had thanked her. None of them tried to pester her, though at least one person looked to have been held back by his girlfriend.
The police officers at the cordon waved her through without her even having to slow down, and she was home just after that. She noted that Ethan was patrolling nearby, either that or he was being reckless with his powers out of costume. But her father wasn't home, so she put things away before making a quick meal for Ackbar. She spent some of the time she was doing that checking on things, as Ethan was the first person she'd spotted 'on patrol'. It didn't take long to figure out that the Wards weren't patrolling at all for another day or two, and the Protectorate was focused on final sweeps further out to ensure that everything from the Teeth had been cleared out. Which would nicely explain the various extra parahumans staying near the PRT building.
Shrugging, she moved onto working on ways to tweak the prank she was expecting to play in the near future, whenever it was she ended up meeting up with the other Wards and all. Having things set up for multiple scenarios was probably a good idea, even if she couldn't do anything too complicated there. Relying on the others to be in the perfect positions for things wasn't an option, after all, no matter how often she wished it was. But centering things on her was probably for the best anyway.
Ackbar had finished eating by the time her father made it home. It was also nearing dinner time, so she was hoping he had dinner plans ready to go.
"Hey there," her father said as he came in. "Kurt and Lacey say hello and want you to swing by the pub at some point."
Taylor nodded, that made sense. "I'll have to call and see when they're there, then. What're we doing about dinner?"
"We're going to be joining New Wave, casual dress so don't worry about that. Got a couple of people to introduce you to, including our houseguest that found other accommodations while we were recovering and an old friend of your mother and I that's in town. I'd like to leave soon, actually, is there anything you need to take care of before we go?"
"I don't think so. I already fed Ackbar."
Her father nodded. "In that case, I suggest we get going. I'd like to get there before Carol has consumed too much alcohol, if at all possible. Even that's assuming that she hasn't consumed too much before she arrives, but I'm hopeful that Mark has kept her from going too far before they leave."
Taylor wasn't sure what to make of that.
Garnet wasn't sure if she should be happy that she was getting away with a sling and a crutch or not. She was still under doctor's orders to not drink heavily, amongst other things, which sucked, but she could easily make coffee and sandwiches for herself, which was awesome. Of course, she also knew that she still had 'the glare' down pat, if the reaction from the PRT-assigned 'helper' the other day was any indication. Really, like it wasn't obvious that using her powers made the entire process of pouring her coffee useless. Pulling all the energy out of the coffee as a side effect of her breaker state gave her something closer to sludge than anything drinkable.
One of the other benefits to having Ben help her healing along was that she could reliably dress herself. The downside to that was that she didn't have someone else to easily ask opinions of, so she had no clue what to wear for meeting Danny's kid. She wanted to make a good impression for a number of reasons, but didn't actually know enough about Taylor to know what would give said good impression. About the only thought she had there was 'non-threatening', and that was based entirely on the fact that the girl had apparently offed the Butcher. The fourteenth Butcher, apparently without becoming the fifteenth.
As much as she normally detested the things, perhaps a skirt would be best. Let the bandages on her leg show and all, to go with the bandages and sling on her arm. She could easily save face with the absolutely true excuse that it was easier to put the skirt on than pants with her healing leg and all. It wouldn't be enough to thank anyone for forcing her to purchase a couple, of course, but she was injured and that allowed for concessions that would otherwise not be made. Even better, her bandaged leg made pantyhose worthless, so she didn't even have to come up with a good justification for not wearing them to anyone. Beyond having already thrown out the pairs they'd made her buy, of course.
As an added bonus, by keeping the injuries obvious, she might get lucky and have Panacea offer to heal them up for her. She wouldn't dare ask, but if the girl offered then it wasn't Garnet implying that she couldn't handle a little downtime to heal, right?
Benjamin glared at the clothing he'd spread around the bedroom in the apartment he was using. There was no way Garnet was having anywhere near this much trouble deciding what to wear, but he had the headache of trying to make a good impression on Amelia. Even if the others all insisted that she preferred Amy these days. Whatever. That was going to be a difficult adjustment for him, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to even start properly until he'd met her again. For that matter, it'd been years even without counting the time spent in prison and he still couldn't bring himself to call Daniel by 'Danny'.
He was probably going to have to hope that his daughter didn't mind her birth name, for he was an old man set in his ways on that front.
Regardless of all of that, he still needed to pick a suitable outfit. Not too professional, or 'stuffy' as others might put it. Yet he wouldn't be himself if he dressed too casual either, and he wasn't about to lie about himself just to make a good impression. At least not to family and friends. To those he considered enemies? Sure. But that wasn't the situation he was going into. The one thing he knew he had to avoid was anything that would imply threatening, because that just wasn't done under normal conditions with this kind of thing. With what they'd learned of young Taylor in the past few days it was even more important. Regardless of whether or not she and Amelia were dating.
If they were dating it was probably vital to appear non-threatening, at least until everyone had gotten to know each other better. He considered himself an intelligent man, and he couldn't see any way that a standard threat to not hurt his daughter would work on the person who'd ended the Butcher's reign. He'd have to comfort himself with the fact that if she ever did hurt Amelia then he could go after her then. Preferably through patsies and a dozen cut-outs to start with.
It seemed like it'd taken half of forever to decide, but he eventually settled on a light 'business casual', which was as close to full casual that he'd likely get and still stay true to himself. He went with pants and a shirt that would be difficult to hide weapons in and would actually impede his movements a bit. It would hopefully make him seem even less of a threat, just in case, and he could rightfully blame some of that on not having had time to have things properly tailored since his release.
Fifteen minutes later he was dressed and prepared to meet Garnet so that they could head down to their ride together. Luckily he knew that she wouldn't read unfortunate implications into him doing things like holding doors for her, and both of them could use her injuries as a ready-made excuse for anyone who asked. They'd even discussed that much earlier. He'd even anticipated her comment that implied that Daniel was the only other male she'd likely accept that kind of behavior from right now, since she knew the two of them definitely weren't looking down on her, injuries or not, with that kind of thing.
Really, if they both ended up free, he was going to have to work with Daniel to show Garnet that there were, in fact, a number of decent men out there. Even if it meant introducing her to some of the dockworkers, who would likely treat the woman the way she wanted to be treated right off the bat. No matter what his opinion on their likely manners actually was, or Daniel's comments about how similar to them he was when he had a few drinks in him.
Chapter 164 Danny pulled into the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant that Taylor didn't think she'd eaten at previously. It appeared that they'd beaten New Wave, but that wasn't surprising to her. She could at least tell that the Dallons were on their way, probably no more than five minutes or so away. The Pelhams were a mystery for the moment. She idly wondered if those they were going to be meeting were here yet or not, but figured she'd find out soon enough. The manilla envelope he'd grabbed from the backseat intrigued her, but she figured she'd find out what was in it eventually, assuming he wanted her to know.
They'd barely made it through the door before they were being led to a private room in the back that appeared to be set up to seat twelve. Her father held out a seat for her, and then promptly sat at the other end of the table. She wasn't entirely sure what was up with that, beyond possibly wanting to go for "adults over here, kids over there" or similar. Either that or he wanted a good view of things when others arrived.
The Dallons and the Pelhams arrived basically together, by intent or otherwise. They filed into the room, Amy dropping down into the seat next to Taylor and the others spreading out. Mark helped a tipsy Carol into a seat, but there was an obvious currently-unspoken seating plan. Specifically, the two seats across from Amy and Taylor had been left empty.
Taylor: So, we're apparently being set up here.
Amy: I'd noticed that, yes.
Taylor: I don't suppose you were told that we'd be meeting people?
Amy: Yep. Former houseguest that found somewhere else to stay and someone who really wants to meet me. You?
Taylor: Former houseguest that ended up elsewhere after my father got hurt and a friend of my parents', I believe I was told.
Amy: So two people, one that was staying at each of our houses. The one that had been staying at your house really wants to meet me, and the one that had been staying at mine is a friend of your family. Why does that sound backwards?
Taylor: Because there's no way we have the full story.
"Have any of you warned them of the first thing they're going to pick up on?" Vicky asked, which got the attention of the adults.
"How in the world do you know what they're going to pick up on first?" Eric asked before anyone else could say anything, only get whacked on the back of the head by Crystal.
"I don't think we have," Danny admitted. "But now that it's been mentioned, we really should. Unless there are objections?"
Eric still looked confused, and Carol didn't seem to care either way, but the others all shook their head at the question of objections. Seeing that, Sarah turned to the two. "The two we're waiting for are both parahumans, so please don't freak out when they come in."
Eric facepalmed while Taylor and Amy shared a look, before Taylor shrugged. "Okay, but I reserve the right to punch anyone who tries to master us."
Vicky shrugged. "I wasn't planning on using my aura today anyway, so I've got no problems with that."
It wasn't long before a couple of parahumans approached, and as Taylor was paying attention to them she realized two things. One, they'd been in the PRT apartment building. Two, one of their snarks looked very similar to Shaper, which was causing her to assume that they were likely the two they were waiting for.
Taylor: I suspect that the two we're waiting for are about to arrive. I also suspect that one of them is related to you. Well, biological ties may not be needed, so helped take care of you or possibly was taken care of by your family is an option too?
Amy: What do you...ooooh. That's interesting. So we can probably assume that's the one that wanted to meet with me, meaning the other is probably the friend of your parents?
Taylor: That's my guess.
It wasn't much longer before a man and a woman entered the room. The woman was obviously injured, but the man was the one with the snark that looked like it might be related to Shaper.
Taylor: Think they're hoping that we assume that the woman is the one that wants to meet you?
Amy: Most likely, if they gave it that much thought anyway. The guy looks familiar, and that he's stopped and is staring at me is a bit of a giveaway.
"Hah!" the woman exclaimed as she sat down, turning to look at the man. "You're slipping...oh." She then looked between him and Amy. "Huh, yeah, she's obviously your kid, but her mother must've been a looker."
Neil grumbled at that and pulled a bill out of his pocket, handing it to Danny. Who took it with a grin. "Thank you very much, told you she'd say something. Now then, Taylor, Amy, meet Ben and Garnet. Benjamin if you want to be formal with him, we generally aren't. Though you might know them better as Marquis and Lustrum. I imagine they're more familiar with who you two are for a number of reasons."
Ben apparently took that as a sign to come out of his shock and sit down, after a glance at the table that Taylor thought might have been judging if it was worth it to go around to hug Amy. Garnet had sat directly across from Taylor, so Ben got to sit directly across from Amy.
Taylor finally sighed and flicked Amy's ear. "Say hello to your father, would you?"
Amy flinched from the flick, though probably not from pain. "Er, right. Sorry, hi...dad?"
Ben smiled at that. "Hi Amelia." He then flinched. "Sorry, I was told you prefer Amy these days?"
"Generally, yes. So, I guess you two were involved in the recent prison break?"
Garnet snorted at that. "Glaistig misled the two of us horribly. Basically implied that the two of you had boyfriends that we might want to talk to."
Ben rolled his eyes at that. "She never actually said anything about boyfriends, or even romantic relationships of any kind even if she hinted at that more heavily, instead letting you make that assumption and not correcting you."
"That's a good point. Still sent us to the homes of two underage parahumans without warning us, with the expectation of being able to have a chat with the parahumans. Not that you were home at the time."
"She almost certainly planned that part too."
There was a moment of silence before Neil spoke up. "They're about to come in to take our drink orders."
Blinking, Taylor looked towards the door and saw the lit up sign there. Huh. A waiter came in a moment later and took their orders, but when he got to Taylor she had a question. "So why just a light on the sign?"
The waiter chuckled. "Noticed that, did you? We're waiting on a replacement bell after the old one stopped working recently, but our supplier was in Boston. Just having a lit sign that could be easily missed invites potential problems."
Once the waiter had left nobody seemed to want to start talking, seemingly expecting Amy or Ben to start talking. The two were obviously too nervous. Thinking about things, Taylor had an odd thought and figured it could work as an ice breaker of sorts. "So, Garnet, I hear you used to associate with a tinker that could make cape detecting rings?"
Garnet looked at Taylor, a little surprised, before snorting. "You could say that, but the story's a little more complicated than that. Neither of the parahumans involved were ever in my employ."
"Does that mean that they're available for anyone to purchase from? It would explain why new rings crop up every so often, at least."
The woman laughed. "You could say that, but getting her attention is somewhat difficult."
This had everyone's attention, but they paused while the waiter came back in with their drinks. They also placed their orders, after a quick check of the menu for Taylor and Amy, before the waiter left again.
After a moment, Ben actually spoke up. "So you said that getting the attention of the tinker is difficult?"
Garnet snorted. "Getting the attention of the parahuman is difficult. Glaistig killed the idiot when he had a plan to out every parahuman on the continent, and uses his echo or ghost or whatever to make new rings as payment when she buys her tea. She had to find a new supplier after my tea shop shut down, after all."
Everyone sat there for a moment, staring at Garnet, before Ben chuckled. "She would do that, wouldn't she? Her little parties mean she goes through enough of the stuff, I just didn't realize that she had a source other than Dragon sending the basic stuff down."
Rebecca sighed as she read over reports with Paul in a Cauldron meeting room. It was more secure than their offices in many ways, and it let them vent at each other in a reasonably safe environment. Granted, none of it was that secret on her end, and suspected the same of him. She knew he was here mainly because Keith was home and his New York office was in the middle of a maintenance window. She'd have left him to it if she wasn't waiting for Kurt to finish up other things and get back to her.
"What're you sighing about this time?" Paul asked.
Rebecca gestured at the report she was reading, then decided to read from the attached news clipping. "Respected business owners from around the country were found murdered and mutilated in a warehouse one of their businesses owned. The warehouse had been modified as though to withstand a massive assault from outside, and those protections had been engaged, but no sign of combat was found outside, yet the perpetrator was not found inside. Why the group was together is also unknown, as there was no previous indication of connections between them, but the police have passed the investigation over to the PRT due to high likelihood of a teleporter or similar being involved."
"Ah, the Nine's little revenge run, I take it? How're the investigators doing?"
"They're confused because they have more skulls than brains, amongst other things, and none of it matches the capabilities of anyone they know that can teleport. Really, I'm amazed that they went low-key with mysterious murdering. Wiping out a warehouse full of people would've worked well to 'improve' the Nine's reputation and all."
"They probably didn't want to have someone questioning why just that warehouse full of people. If anyone figures out that they had ties to the Teeth then interesting questions regarding the Nine would come up, and that could be a problem."
She nodded, as that made sense. "I can see that. Thing is, they were in the middle of a known gang-infested area. They could've moved on to wipe out everyone in the area without any significant trouble. At that point I don't think anyone would be digging too deeply into motivations."
"To sell that properly they'd need the entire Nine, and you know they aren't all available."
"I suppose. I expected it to be a lot more public when it was proposed to me."
Eventually everyone had finished eating, with minor discussions about everyone's lives mixed in. The emptied dishes had been removed, and at that point Taylor discovered that she'd missed Mark and Sarah also carrying manilla envelopes in. Mark had two, but Sarah only had one.
"Okay, kids," Mark said, waving the two envelopes he had. "Time to open these up and see how you did on your tests."
Taylor froze. They were going to go over their test results here? WHY?
Amy punched Taylor. Lightly, granted, but still a punch. "Lighten up. They've been doing this kind of thing for years with us."
The adults had removed all of the results from the envelopes and were looking over and comparing them. Well, Danny, Mark, Neil, and Sarah were looking over and comparing them. Carol didn't seem to have realized what was going on, and there wasn't enough room for the others to crowd around to look.
"Eric," Neil said. "You passed the fewest exams. Again. But at least you passed all of the exams for the classes you're taking."
Sarah whacked Neil off the back of his head. "Victoria only had one more pass than he did. The overachievers were Amy and Taylor. Took and passed more exams."
Mark was frowning as he looked between two of the result sheets. "Amy, I think it's time to be disappointed in your biology score for the second year in a row."
Amy's head whipped around fast enough that Taylor divided her attention to check to see if she'd injured anything. "I thought I did fairly well this time!"
Danny had leaned over to look at things, and fell back into his chair with a chuckle. "You passed, but I think he's disappointed because Taylor scored three points higher than you."
Taylor looked at Amy, who'd turned to her with a look of betrayal. "What? I found a biological term dictionary and read it so that I'd better understand some of the comments you made."
Amy slumped into her chair with a pout while Ben and Garnet shared a look. It was Garnet that spoke up about it. "I guess knowing a few extra terms would help there, but if you'd both studied enough to pass then I don't see why you'd need to bother with the dictionary?"
Vicky snorted. "Taylor wasn't signed up for for the class, but I applaud her workaround. So Taylor, what other dictionaries have you read just to know the terms?"
Taylor shrugged. "A couple different medical dictionaries, a few focused on technology and tinkertech. I found one with alcohol, brewing, and distilling terms to hopefully keep up with Kurt and Lacey too. They're fairly quick reading, all things considered, and were good time wasters between other things. When I'm not using them to bore myself to sleep, anyway."
It was obvious that there were a few people with twitchy eyebrows after that. Ben and Garnet were obviously suspecting that they were missing something, but were afraid to ask. Or didn't know what to ask. Amy was probably annoyed that she hadn't thought to do that kind of thing, instead of going through the classes. Sarah looked like she was doing her best to not break out into laughter, but Crystal and Eric looked more like they couldn't believe that Taylor had done that voluntarily.
All in all it was an interesting set of reactions, and Taylor wasn't ashamed of any of it. Instead she looked down the table at the adults. "So, when do we get to see our results for ourselves?"
In response the adults passed the four sets of results down so that each of the teenagers could look over their own. Taylor was happy to see that she'd done well in all of her classes, as well as on around half of the extras she'd been given. She'd failed a couple of things, but that was expected. She wasn't even sure why they'd thrown a couple of them at her in the first place. Business Law she'd gotten lucky with and not completely bombed, unlike the Fashion and Retail Merchandising one. Amusingly to her, she'd done equally poor on the Macroeconomics and Microeconomics exams, despite passing the Personal Finance exam.
Amy looked annoyed when she peeked and saw that they hadn't been having her on regarding the biology scores. She seemed otherwise happy with her own results. Eric and Vicky were likewise apparently happy with theirs, even if they'd dropped into a mild argument over whether or not a fashion exam should count. Still, despite the looks from Ben and Garnet that indicated that they were trying to figure things out it was all good.
"May I?" Ben asked as Amy went to put her results down. She hesitated for a moment, but sighed and pushed the results over. He looked over them, nodding several times, but he raised an eyebrow at one point. "You scraped by with a low-end pass in psychology?"
Amy snorted. "You learn quite a bit around Taylor here, whether you intend to or not. Though apparently I might have to step up my game there, if she's going to go head to head with me in biology."
Taylor made a point of tapping her chin, as if in deep thought. "I suppose that going through everything to be able to heal the body and the mind could be useful. At the very least I bet that'd let me prescribe all the fun stuff, right?"
She held back the reaction from Amy deciding to punch her again.
"It was nice of Amy to double-check Garnet's injuries," Danny noted as they pulled into traffic. "We weren't sure if she would or not."
Taylor shrugged. "I don't see why not. After all, it wasn't like she was injured while breaking the law or anything, right?"
"I suppose that makes sense. Did I hear correctly that Ben is going to swing by the hospital tomorrow to potentially help with broken bones and such?"
"That's the plan, since Amy will be there anyway and all. At least if the hospital administration agrees, and I'm not sure which way she wants them to go on the subject. If it's allowed then they might get some extra bonding out of it. Or not, things can be a bit hectic when dealing with patients."
"True. Oh, and before I forget, there's a six pack of beer Lacey tried to make taste like green tea or something like that in the trunk for you, since you passed your exams and all. On that front, Kurt and Lacey would like you and Amy to visit the pub sometime next week, after the workers are done with the exterior of the place."
Taylor thought about that. "Are they actually getting close to opening?"
"Apparently. I thought it would be another month or two at least, given some of the legal hoops I knew they'd have to jump through, but apparently they're almost good to go. I think they're aiming for early August?"
"Ah. Okay."
They sat in silence for a couple of minutes before her father decided to speak up again. "How's Amy holding up?"
Taylor sighed. "She seems to be doing fine, they still seem to be chatting anyway. Even if she's trying, I'm not sure if she'll ever really see him as her father. Too much time apart and all, and too little time with him when she was younger."
"I can see that being the case."
It wasn't much longer before they made it home, and Taylor grabbed the beer from the trunk before they forgot it was there. She was going to put it away, only to find some of her other bottles of alcohol in the way. With a sigh, she decided that she should try something, and grabbed one of the new bottles. Besides, this way if Lacey asked her about it she could honestly say she'd tried one, right? She'd decide what to do with the rest afterwards.
She and her father ended up watching the news together, her with Lacey's green tea beer and him with what she suspected was a coffee-based variant. Her beer wasn't bad, but it wasn't spectacular either. At least not to her, everyone had different tastes. Based on how it tasted she was fairly certain she knew what kind of green tea Lacey had used, and it wasn't her preferred variety.
The news initially focused on the aftermath and cleanup from the Teeth, with speculation on her thrown in. They then started shifting wider, covering things such as an unexpected sinkhole opening up where they were trying to rebuild the airport in Boston and the aftermath of a cape fight between a couple of villains in Vermont. A mysterious likely-teleporter had murdered or helped murder a pile of business owners in a warehouse in New York, and a group of people in Tennessee were protesting parahumans in general.
Internationally, they split their focus between the scattered reports of the civil war in China and important things around the globe that might attract an Endbringer. She'd placed her voucher on Brockton Bay again, because the logic of her winning either way was still sound. For that matter, she'd also dropped her Slaughterhouse voucher on Brockton Bay, on the assumption that it would take something major before they'd be sent in. Granted, she'd tried to put the latter voucher on Canberra first, but they'd limited that to the US and Canada.
Eventually the two of them turned in, unsure of everything they'd be doing the following day.
Wednesday morning Taylor was up well before her father, in part in an attempt to not be woken up by Amy's healing. Instead she went through the motions of preparing breakfast, though she skipped trying any alcohol. She was considering trying one a night or something until she'd at least tried everything she had, but might have to discuss that with her father. It was as she was making some tea for herself that she recalled that Glaistig Uaine supposedly liked tea.
On a lark, she grabbed one of the bottles of Lacey's green tea beer and headed up to her room. She wrote out a note, offering the beer to Glaistig in exchange for a single ring that her father might be able to use, if the woman was agreeable. It was only after she'd attached the note to the bottle that she realized that she had no way of knowing if there was even a hope of that being enough.
Shaking her head, she sighed. "I'm going to have to check with Garnet. The whole idea is probably a little crazy anyway, but if anyone knows a good way to get Glaistig's attention it would be her old tea supplier, right?"
A few minutes later she'd made her way downstairs and made breakfast for Ackbar. It wouldn't be too much longer before the French toast was ready to come out of the oven either.
Glenn had decided to drop in on Desmond bright and early. He'd dropped scheduling in for the afternoon for other things anyway, so he had to get things out of the way. Of course, according to his messages this morning the theater-compatible versions of the movie still wouldn't be delivered until Friday afternoon or evening, which was better than Saturday, but they'd need at least a little time to advertise. Or for him to find somewhere else to run it, if Desmond was a moron and refused.
The chances of him being a moron were slim, though, at least if you based things on how his eyes were glued to Glenn's laptop. Coffee had been sitting there, ignored and long-since gone cold, and he hadn't even reacted to Glenn leaving to take a quick look around the closed theater for inspiration on what kinds of posters they might want to print up. He'd returned to the office before the staff showed up to begin preparing to open for the day, of course.
"Okay Glenn," Desmond finally said as Maul and Quarrel returned on the screen. "Normally I'd call a three hour action sequence crazy, but this one is just topical enough to work. How much of this was prettied up for the screen?"
Glenn snorted. "As I understand it, pretty much none of it. Nine hours of fighting, with the majority of the downtimes between attacks and at least one conversation that touches on something classified removed. I believe Maul ate every last snack she'd stashed in her costume in the downtimes, but only a couple instances of her eating were shown so as to get more action in. Everything shown is exactly as the tinkertech scanners recorded it."
The theater owner nodded. "That's even better, as it's basically pure documentary. Less likely that anyone will whine about the content when labeled that way. Was how Maul defeated the Butcher cut due to it being classified?"
"Not to my knowledge. I don't have the full story, but from what I've heard it was a power-interaction thing. Those can be a crapshoot when they happen, it could very well be that it was something from the Butcher side of things that just went wrong. It took nine hours to happen, whatever it was, so I don't think others are going to be too concerned."
"I guess that makes sense. Probably hard to figure out, too, which is why we've heard squat on it. Can you have this ready for Friday? No, wait, Panacea's doing her thing this weekend so Friday night is probably a poor choice. Saturday, when we don't have a run on the hospital happening?"
"As it happens I should hopefully have the versions compatible with your equipment available by the end of the day Friday. Would you like to work with me on making a couple of posters to put up before then?"
Well, at least he knew that Desmond hadn't lost his touch when it came to asking 'are you an idiot?' with a glare.
While they'd been eating breakfast a meeting request for early afternoon had come in, apparently Glenn wanted to run a press conference tomorrow and it needed to be discussed ahead of time. Her father would meet her there, having wanted to go check on Ben and Garnet without New Wave present, feeling that if there were things going on that they'd both be more likely to tell him in private. In particular, Garnet not wanting to look 'weak' in front of males she didn't trust unless absolutely necessary, and Ben being overly cautious around New Wave in general for perfectly valid reasons. Of course, Ben having apparently been told he couldn't help at the hospital today could be another reason.
Taylor, on the other hand, had decided to go furniture shopping. Well, window shopping, so to speak. Figuring out what kinds of things they might want to put into the pocket dimension, assuming they had a 'living' space in it of any kind, would be easier if she knew what was readily available and all. Her own thoughts on things had been based on what they had at home, or that she'd seen at Amy's, and she'd had to look up a couple of things when asked if she thought they should have one.
Really, this was just one part of what Vicky had declared as a 'build their own no more than three-story dream house' exercise. Amy had agreed with Taylor that it made more sense to treat things a little more realistically. Besides, Taylor's dream home had windows that opened up to the outside. From that point of view it was more like 'build their own dream bunker'. Which, admittedly, wasn't a bad thing either, even if her personal preference was more to make it functional as a work area and storage facility more than anything else.
She was doing her best to ignore that there was sufficient room for it to be all of the above and then some, of course.
"Can I help you find anything?" the fifth salesperson so far in this store asked. No, wait, this was the first salesman that had approached earlier coming around for another pass.
Shaking her head, she gave the salesman a look. "No thanks, as I told you before, I'm just seeing what's available in general today. Need to see things that aren't what we've had at home to know what I might want later."
"I see. Don't hesitate to ask if you need any assistance."
Taylor rolled her eyes. "I won't, I assure you."
Carol had been playing guard at the hospital, and had dragged Amy out of the building for lunch. Danny had apparently ended up taking Garnet out to lunch, mainly to give both of them an excuse to not try Ben's attempts at relearning how to cook. That left Taylor fending for herself with no good reason to go anywhere specific. She started with a street cart selling hot dogs, ending up being given two for free despite her protests, only to gag on the first one. The thing was a menace, and she actually called in to the PRT to report the cart. She'd have called a more appropriate authority directly, but it was a secret that she could detect that kind of thing currently.
Amy: Thinking about it, I wonder if we should be asking all these sick people if they've had a hot dog from that cart.
Taylor: I wouldn't be surprised if the answer was frequently 'yes'.
Amy: Carol thinks it wouldn't be a bad idea, if only to build a case against the idiot running it.
Taylor: Well then, if anyone asks you can honestly say that you're taking a lawyer's advice on the subject. Good enough for me.
After disposing of those two hot dogs she'd swung by a sub shop instead. It was a much better choice, and they didn't even recognize her to try and give her a discount. Or they did recognize her and were being polite enough to not fawn over her or something. Either way it was nice, and she dropped a couple dollars in the tip jar on the way out. It was now about time to head over to the PRT building to meet up with her father, after all.
Dragon paused as a warning alert fired from the security system in Mother's home. An unplanned minor mass change had occurred a few minutes prior, indicating that something had changed in the house with a likely parahuman source. It was the work of a moment to begin a deep scan of the property, per standard procedure in the event of a possible teleportation event, even before she brought up the details from the alert.
Fifteen minutes later she'd concluded that nothing dangerous had been left in the house, though she wasn't entirely sure what had happened. Instead she increased monitoring for the time being and dropped a note into place for the next time the system was disarmed. No need to worry anyone right away, after all, but Mother would be able to tell if something had been taken from her desk much more easily than Dragon could at this point.
Chapter 165 Taylor ended up waiting in the lobby for her father to arrive. She had her 'parahuman psychologist' pass around her neck, but honestly didn't think she needed to worry about that anymore. Still, she'd keep it up for now, if only for the amusement value. A little under ten minutes after she'd arrived she noticed Garnet approaching, likely in her father's car. She was dropped off at the apartment building, and a couple minutes after that her father entered the lobby.
"Hi Taylor," Danny said as he walked up to her. "How was lunch?"
Taylor shrugged. "There were hiccups, how about you?"
"I think almost anything would've been better than what Ben was trying to make."
Getting her father's pass took no time at all, they just handed it over when the two approached for it, and then they headed to the conference room the meeting was being held in. They found that they were the first ones to arrive, and her father took advantage of that to make a coffee the way he liked it. She raided the snack drawer and grabbed the only packet of the best cookies before grabbing a soda out of the well-stocked mini-fridge.
The next person to show up confused Taylor. "Hello Missy, what're you doing here?"
Missy shrugged. "Presumably the same as you, to talk about the press conference tomorrow. My parents couldn't make it on short notice."
Danny looked at Missy, who wasn't in costume but was wearing the half-visor she'd gotten after the fugue. "I'm going to assume that there's a reason that you're letting me see you out of costume?"
Missy waved him off, then crunched space to reach the refreshments faster. In particular, she went straight for the snack drawer. Taylor shook her head at that, and then started looking up what her father might need to sign now that he knew the identity of another Ward. She thought she'd found the correct set of forms by the time Director Piggot arrived with Glenn.
"Good morning," Director Piggot greeted as Glenn moved over to the end of the table with his laptop and a folder. "We're just waiting on Miss Militia and the Youth Guard rep, the latter of whom will be representing Miss Biron's parents today."
Glenn snorted. "Yes, how nice of you to drop that on me ten minutes ago. Changes quite a bit of what little I'd been able to plan."
Taylor and her father shared a look, even as Missy dropped into the seat next to Taylor with a soda and several snacks. Director Piggot sat across from Danny, and it was fairly obvious that no answers would be forthcoming right then, so they waited. It wasn't long before Miss Militia arrived with Mrs. Cooper, the latter of which dropped into the seat next to Missy and the former of which secured the door. Pleasantries were exchanged, those who wanted refreshments ensured they had them, and then they got started.
"The Butcher dropped one headache into our laps," Glenn started. "We need to explain how Miss Hebert got out of that without causing mass panic, luckily thinkers have been working on that for us. Apparently we also need to 'reveal' Miss Biron here, who apparently decided to unmask in a show of solidarity or something like that."
"That's my excuse," Missy confirmed with a grin. "What my parents want out of it is a different story, of course." Glenn glared at her for a moment for the comment, and Mrs. Cooper facepalmed.
Well, that explained why the younger girl wasn't concerned about Danny seeing her out of costume, and invalidated Taylor's checking of what forms would need to be signed. She should probably have trusted that the PRT were on top of things if Missy was showing up for the meeting out of costume in general. Oh well. Lesson learned, and she'd figured out at least one new way to search for suitable forms in the process.
Glenn gave up the glaring, sighing before he continued. "I'm thinking that we talk about what we're claiming happened with Miss Hebert, and then have Miss Biron arrive apparently uninvited and reveal herself before we've taken any questions. That way the PRT and Youth Guard can claim that children can't be fully controlled when various individuals and groups inevitably complain about her identity being revealed."
Missy harrumphed at that. "What kind of 'punishment' would that end up requiring of me?"
Director Piggot turned to Missy. "You already agreed to do several meet and greets. 'Forcing you to see why identities are normally kept secret' and all."
Miss Militia shook her head. "As I understand it, you're one of the few to see that requirement and not retract the request."
This time Missy snorted. "I think I've done more meet and greets than the rest of the current Wards in town combined. Really, I've lucked out that stuff keeps coming up to screw up scheduling or I'd have done three or four already this summer. Since I was expecting to have to make up for lost time anyway I didn't see it as a big deal."
Glenn cleared his throat, causing everyone to turn to him. "Are there any objections to Miss Biron 'interrupting' the press conference with her appearance?"
Taylor frowned slightly. "Is she interrupting in or out of costume?"
That appeared to bring Glenn up short, but Director Piggot seemed to have expected the question. "Preferably out of costume, but making it onto the stage through use of her powers to ensure that she's unmistakably Vista. That way it looks more like a spur of the moment decision, instead of one where she had to take time to get into costume first. I believe we'll be outside, since there's no adverse weather predicted tomorrow, which means plenty of room to line up a suitable approach."
"Right," Glenn said. "Are there any objections?" Nobody seemed to have any, so he nodded. "Very good." He then opened the folder and passed papers from it to Taylor, her father, Director Piggot, and Miss Militia. "This is a summary of the reasoning the thinkers have come up with for what happened to the Butcher. If there are any gross inaccuracies that another power might pick up on then we need to correct them now, beyond any objections that any of you might have with wording or reasoning."
Taylor looked over her copy, finding that it was pretty much spot on without telling the whole truth. Instead of admitting that she was a direct trump they wanted to blame it on her 'partial immunity' to anything that targeted her thoughts or perceptions. That was tied into an honestly not all that bad theory about the way the Butcher moved from parahuman to parahuman. Even she wasn't sure if it was correct or not, having insufficient information.
Nobody seemed to be spotting anything outright wrong, but Miss Militia came up with the first good question. "Does New Wave know that we plan on revealing some of what really happened with Glory Girl?"
Glenn nodded. "Lady Photon was consulted and said that so long as what we reveal is the truth they won't complain. All of the secrets from those incidents are tied to Miss Hebert anyway. Miss Dallon might be a bit annoyed having some of it revealed, of course, but the terms of her probation only require that we check with Mrs. Pelham."
Taylor frowned as she read over things for the third time. "Should we be saying anything about Hulder? After all, she's able to exclude all of the Wards and Protectorate members she patrols with on her own and all."
Director Piggot nodded at that. "That's a very good point, and is probably what was bugging me there. I just couldn't put my finger on it. I'd rather we not mention any interactions there."
Glenn tapped a few things out on his laptop. "I've made a note and will adjust things accordingly. Anything else?" Nobody said anything, so he nodded. "Very good. Now then, the last thing of note is the premier of the film Dragon made. We plan on showing it here in town to start with before seeing if there's interest further out, starting on Saturday."
"The film?" Missy asked. "As in, there's a movie? Of what?"
"Dragon titled it 'The Mauling of the Butcher'," Mrs. Cooper answered. "Put together from the data collected by the tinkertech sensors Miss Hebert had with her at the time of the battle. Quite impressive, and it's rare that three hours of nonstop cape battle footage exists, let alone can be branded as a documentary."
Glenn sighed, causing Missy to stop bouncing in her seat. "The theater owner is going to insist on starting with an age limit on anyone wishing to see it, probably sixteen or seventeen but he hasn't decided which yet. I suspect that Miss Hebert may be willing to show her fellow Wards at some point, which would get past that entirely."
That prompted Missy to turn and attempt puppy-dog eyes on Taylor. Who ignored the younger girl for the moment, turning to Glenn instead. "So I assume you want to mention the premier during the press conference?"
"Of course. We don't plan on having you attend, as you lived it and all, but I personally hope we can use it to deflect a lot of questions. After all, seeing what happened is much better than hearing about it."
Taylor nodded. "I can see how that would allow for not answering a lot of questions, if they even bother asking after the movie is mentioned. Will the 'proceeds going to charity' side of things be included?"
Glenn snorted. "Of course. That alone will probably shut down most complaints that the footage should be made available for free. If you or the PRT were directly making a profit there would be an outcry, of course. Really, it's predictable enough that if you hadn't insisted on things going to charity I'd have recommended putting at least half the proceeds that way."
"Assuming there's no objection to the content of things," Director Piggot said, getting a collection of head shakes in response. A quick glance showed that Missy had even given up her puppy-dog eyes, though she was still pouting. "I'd like to go over how we'd like to approach things."
The following half hour was boring, and Mrs. Cooper's main input was to veto Missy's request to be permitted to show her handgun during things. Apparently most of her parents' requirements were documented and already being taken into account by the PRT.
"Does the tinker workshop have a way to engrave onto small objects?" Missy asked just after the meeting had let out. The two Wards had ended up being held back for a few minutes by Glenn wanting to run a couple of thoughts by them for costume changes. All of which had been vetoed by the two, but the man seemed to have expected that. Neither of the girls thought they needed to switch to clear visors, for example, nor were they giving up the visors entirely. Missy had even ordered a new full visor for running around out of costume with.
Taylor nodded. "At least two, possibly up to four depending on what you want to engrave. I've got plenty of time if you want to give things a shot now, since my father was going to go check on a friend before heading home anyway."
"I've got everything I need. I know you should be able to put holes in things too, I'm hoping to make at least one necklace."
Shaking her head, Taylor gestured towards the elevator. "Why don't you collect everything and I'll see about getting the workshop ready?"
"So what's up with those two?" Ben asked after Danny had helped him order delivery. His attempts at cooking had been just as bad as anticipated. "I watched them, and I'm fairly certain that I'm missing something. Probably several somethings, really, but I've run out of plausible ideas."
Danny snorted. The man had no clue, but had some restraint if this was only coming up now. "Very little of it is my story to tell. I know I told you that they first met in the hospital after Taylor was injured, I just didn't mention that it was after Taylor triggered. Actually, most of the early improvements in their friendship seem to have involved hospital visits. Just Taylor being injured in some cases, both of them in others."
"I suppose with Amelia being a healer that isn't a big surprise, all things considered. But there's definitely something else going on. For example, I'd be willing to swear that they can communicate without any sounds or gestures, but I can't figure out how in the world that could be."
Danny thought about that for a moment. Excluding sounds and gestures entirely they had multiple options right now, didn't they? Their connected powers that let them communicate directly, morse code through turning on and off their ability to sense biology they were touching was a second option they probably hadn't explored, text messaging through their phones. Hmmm. They could probably mess with microbes on their skin to pass messages back and forth as well, for that matter. "Off the top of my head I can think of at least four ways to accomplish that, and I know that at least two of them aren't strictly limited to the two."
That statement caused Ben to give him an incredulous look, obviously not willing to believe it. Then again, pretty much the entire set tied into secrets the man didn't know and were probably hard to guess. After a moment he scoffed and turned away from Danny. "Can you at least tell me why New Wave asked Garnet and I not to push them on whether or not they're in a relationship?"
That caused Danny to grimace slightly. "That's complicated. As I understand it, your daughter was lusting after Victoria for a while, likely due to the girl's aura influencing her. That's now under control, but it's likely to have caused some issues that we honestly don't know if she's resolved, or how. Then add in that Taylor was betrayed by her best friend, tormented by the girl and two others for a year and a half that ended with her triggering with powers. And all of that's before...er, sorry, almost said something that isn't my place to tell you. Needless to say, the two have issues, and none of us want to push them in the wrong way by accident."
The other man grimaced at that as well. "I can see why everyone is being cautious. And I suppose that it would be bad form to, er, 'punish' Victoria?"
"She had no control over her aura at that point and didn't realize what it was doing to those around her often."
"Drat."
"What happened to not harming women and children, since Victoria could be seen as both?"
Ben gave Danny a deathly serious look. "There are no rules regarding those who directly harm my family. Had the Brigade gotten past me and actually harmed Amelia a decade ago I'd have gladly killed the lot of them. I still occasionally entertain the idea of finding a way to permanently and violently obliterate cancer, and I honestly barely knew Amelia's mother."
There were times that Danny could forget that the man was Marquis. This was not one of those times. Luckily they were interrupted by the food that'd been ordered apparently arriving.
Taylor beat her father home, despite spending a while running through making two necklaces. After all, Missy had enough to make two with a few spare pieces, and the idea was hilarious once it'd been explained. Granted, they were both going to keep them in their pouches for the time being, and it might be a while before a good situation came up, but now they were ready. Sadly for Taylor, Missy would probably get to use hers first, if Taylor ever got a chance at all.
To her surprise, as soon as she'd disarmed the alarm she got a notice. Apparently a minor alert had fired earlier, but nothing dangerous had been found. But there'd been an unexpected mass change, likely due to teleportation or similar, in the vicinity of her desk. She double-checked and the only snark in range was Ackbar, but just to be safe she was cautious as she pulled into the garage and prepared her handgun before entering the house itself. The police still had a cordon up, but she wasn't exactly going to expect them to be able to handle a teleporter.
She checked downstairs just in case before heading up, and carefully opened her door from the side. Ackbar skittered across the hall to the bathroom, but she crouched before spinning into the room. That resulted in her feeling silly when nothing looked out of place, but she checked hiding spots anyway. Finding nothing, she moved over to her desk, only to find a small box sitting there with a note.
It took a few moments, but she recalled that she'd left the bottle with note for Glaistig sitting there, and now there was a small box that could possibly hold a ring and a note. That had her deciding that things were probably slightly more straightforward than she'd thought, so she went through the motions of holstering the gun before carefully picking up the note. Which appeared to be an incredibly basic description of the ring, this one apparently being multi-use and was useable by a parahuman. Instead of changing temperature and falling apart this one would give a shock to the wearer when it made skin contact with a parahuman.
"At least she didn't reject the offer entirely," Taylor mused, putting the note down and opening the little box. The ring inside was a simple one and wouldn't look out of place on most people. She didn't touch it, as one of the details included in the description was that it would 'automatically size once' somehow to the first person to put it on. Her tinker snark seemed to think that was accomplished through a single-shot mechanism that would somehow reshape the metal slightly to accommodate a reasonable selection of sizings, and so long as the 'engraved' area on the inside was left alone a jeweler could probably do minor adjustments as well. The actual shock was created due to what she thought was a minor interaction between the internals of the ring near the 'engraved' area and the connection energy between a snark and the human it was connected to.
Carefully closing up the box, she took it and the note downstairs and left them on the counter. The idea was to give her father a chance to identify an unknown parahuman so that he could be ready, or as ready as he could be given that he'd probably have to shake hands with them. Hopefully any strikers wanting to get him didn't want to act in public or something, or at least she could hope that would be the case. Of course, she also hoped that the thing lasted quite a while, as she wasn't entirely sure if her snark would be able to fix it when it 'wore out'. She got the impression that it had breaking down eventually built-in, so if that's what caused it to stop working there might not be anything to 'fix'.
It wasn't much longer before she'd started preparing dinner, having talked things over with her father earlier on that front. He wanted to take care of some things, but she could work on preparing the rest.
Amy: Can you come save me from the idiots?
Taylor blinked as she finished cutting some vegetables.
Taylor: What kind of idiots are we talking about, and why would you need me to save you?
Amy: One of the nurses just told me that there's an entire group of people that want me to do cosmetic stuff to them. The first sheet on the clipboard is talking about changing skin color, even.
Taylor: I'm finding it hard to believe that this is the first time this has come up.
Amy: I think the hospital has been filtering them out before, and I don't know why they let this group come to me. Sheesh, another one wants to be six inches shorter.
Thinking about it for a moment, Taylor idly wondered where the nearest cosmetic surgery practice even was. Granted, the two things that'd been asked for wouldn't be possible without parahuman something involved right now, but she could've sworn that there was some kind of additional licensing for that kind of work when it wasn't medically necessary. Well, she wasn't certain enough to put money on it.
Taylor: I'm curious, are you or the hospital licensed, officially or otherwise, for purely cosmetic procedures that aren't reconstructive or similar? And how does any of that fall under 'healing', which is all I thought you were supposed to be doing?
Amy: Thank you. I feel somewhat like an idiot for not thinking about any of that, but I blame that on the long day I've had. Ugh, one of the last couple is hoping to get 'cat eyes'.
Taylor: Which either of us could easily do in various ways, but I don't know why they'd want it.
Amy: Yeah. Time to go reject the entire lot on multiple grounds. Thanks again for the reminder on things, even if it should've been obvious to me.
Taylor: You're welcome.
Shaking her head, she decided to see about preparing some rolls.
Danny had been quite pleased with the gift of the ring, and the story of how Taylor had apparently gotten her hands on it. Granted, he'd have preferred something longer-range, but something was better than nothing in this case. They'd finished preparing dinner together, eaten, and cleaned up, before ending up sitting in the living room watching the news together. Amusingly, the story they'd come in on was talking about a group of people complaining that Panacea had refused to work on them.
It wasn't long before one of them had admitted what had been refused, at which point the tone on the news station side of things had a drastic shift towards 'look at the idiots'.
"Please tell me that they're joking," Danny finally said.
Taylor snorted. "Nope, Amy was whining about them earlier."
In a potential attempt to save face, the news station made a point that Amy was healing locals to make room for the people being flown in over the weekend. They also quoted a hospital administrator that had indicated, barring an emergency, that she'd not be around tomorrow before doing a final clear-out on Friday.
Taylor: The news claims you're not healing tomorrow.
Amy: Yeah, they dropped that on me as I was leaving, as well as a comment that they were going to have to ensure that a couple of new staff members got some additional procedure training. Maybe I'll swing by the press conference?
Taylor: I doubt anyone would complain if you crash the early morning Wards meeting.
Amy: ...can I drag Vicky along?
Taylor: I don't see why not, so long as she doesn't have anything else she's supposed to be doing.
Tomorrow was certainly going to be interesting, with the meeting in the morning and the press conference in the afternoon. Though she wondered if any of the other Wards knew that Missy had gone through with getting permission to unmask. Or if they'd ever get around to that in their meeting, since she honestly expected one of the first things to come up was that there was a movie of her battle with Quarrel. Watching said movie would probably eat up the rest of the morning. Assuming, of course, that she let them see it. That particular decision hadn't been made yet.
Now there was a thought, would it be mean to tell Vicky that she should get Dean to take her to see it in the theater if they wanted to watch it?
Taylor: How 'grounded' is Vicky at this point?
Amy: She did well enough on her exams to earn more 'free time'. In general, anyway. She's going to be stuck doing guard duty all weekend instead of running only a couple of shifts of it.
Taylor: Ah. So it would probably be too mean to tell her to get Dean to take her to see the movie in the theater?
Amy: Well, she'd probably have to wait until Monday if you did, but I think that would be a bit much on Dean's side of things. If he goes to see it over the weekend without her then she'll be pissed, so you'd be forcing him to wait to see it.
Taylor winced, she'd forgotten that side of things.
Taylor: You make a good point, and one that I'd overlooked. I'll have to think on it some more.
Emily looked over the final draft that Glenn had sent along for the next day's press conference, or as close as they were going to get to one with Miss Biron 'interrupting' things out of costume. He'd changed out a couple of things as requested, skipping mentioning that one cape had become a Ward elsewhere, and indicated that hopefully nobody unexpected would decide to crash the thing. She wouldn't bet on it either way, but with at least two high-level Wards and multiple Protectorate members expected to be in attendance there wasn't a whole lot she expected to cause problems.
That didn't stop her from planning for every problem she or her staff could think of, of course. She thought they were ready for almost anything short of an Endbringer, and with any luck they'd at least get warning if an attack decided to interrupt things directly. That Colin and Sherrel had finished rigging up a portable mount for the railgun and were ensuring it was ready was just a basic precaution at this point.
Finishing up with that, she noted her approval and moved on. She approved a couple of pending requests for purchases, including a new chair for the front desk that would fit better with some recent security system adjustments they'd made. A request for information on spider-bots that had been sent to her so she'd know it'd come caused her to groan, but she didn't have to do anything with it. Vivian was requesting a meeting for Friday to discuss an unspecified project, not that the tinker ever specified the project, which was accepted as low priority for now. They could talk about it later if something more important came up.
Next up in her queue was a notice of a potential impending in-building prank, which normally didn't reach her unless it was going to be significant. This wasn't flagged that way, and instead had obviously been forwarded to her by one of the staff outside of the normal channels. That alone had her curious, so she opened it up and started reading. It took her a minute to realize what was being described, but when she did she started to snicker. It was even believable, in her opinion.
There were other directors that would chastise her for the message she sent off a few minutes later. Hypocritically, those same directors would probably do quite a bit to get access to the recording, should her request for one be granted. When she'd finally flagged the recording they had of the locked door prank on Ethan as available for external viewing it'd been retrieved by pretty much every department within a day.
Shaking her head, she moved on, only to find that the next request was for a copy of Dragon's little movie. Apparently someone had let it out that it'd been made and New York was interested, given that the Teeth had operated there for years. She rejected that for the time being, with a note that if the film didn't get picked up by theaters outside of Brockton Bay then they could ask again later.
Elijah ate the fast food he'd picked up on his way back to the hotel. He had to be careful, and things were probably a little too busy through the end of the weekend to make any moves. Assuming, of course, that his previous machinations hadn't borne fruit, anyway. The press conference the news had mentioned would hopefully let him know either way on that front, and if his other plans had failed to get results then he'd be a bit more direct.
For now he was laying low, doing his best to ensure that he drew no abnormal attention. He'd been claiming that he had unusually sensitive eyes when questioned about the sunglasses he wore all the time when out in public, which seemed to be working. At least three people had even recommended that he find time to visit the hospital when Panacea was around, since that was the kind of thing that she could fix. Though it would've been much lower priority, of course. It wasn't a bad ruse, and he might use it. Just not in the days where she'd almost certainly have a guard or four.
No, if he was going after the healer it would be as bait, with actually being able to claim her as a bonus. The real goal was Miss Hebert, but subtly arranging for a few minutes to talk to her was currently problematic. If he'd known that the damned Butcher was going to create problems then he'd have timed his arrival differently. Sadly, he'd successfully timed his arrival to be around when Miss Hebert returned from her trip, intending to waste as little time as possible. The only good thing about the Butcher's little trap was it might be enough to make his plan with the Youth Guard kick in.
Well, he'd learn more tomorrow, and then he could plan from there. Until then he'd wait, as annoying as it was to bide his time like this. That, and he'd found that the hole in the wall eatery on the corner had wonderful frappes, even if their hours left much to be desired. Sticking around for a week, justifiably, would give him more chances to try their other flavors. And maybe he could take some time to find out how they made them before he left.
Chapter 166 Thursday morning started with Taylor and Amy meeting at the gym. It was relaxing going through the simple workout without anyone else around. Vicky had volunteered to help drag things around for setting up the outside stage instead, that being better for her probation and all that as well. It also gave her a more legitimate excuse to be at the PRT building when the Wards showed up for their meeting. At least more legitimate than 'wanted to see Dean' would be, anyway.
When they were done they made their way back to the Wards area, where Taylor ended up making pancakes for them to eat for breakfast while running through a series of tests for her upcoming prank. She corrected a couple of sync issues and adjusted positioning of things with Amy's input, as well as got the other girl's opinion on which variants she thought would work best. They also put discreet markers in various spots, hoping that the others wouldn't notice them until afterwards.
Everything was hastily put into standby when Brian and Aisha were pulling into the garage. He obviously let Aisha out at the point where things diverged before heading over to the Protectorate parking. It also quickly became obvious that he was not going to be attending the meeting, given that he went straight to the roof afterwards. Taylor was assuming that it was a 'park at the PRT building, then take a transport over to the Rig' day for him or something, which could be his normal routine now for all she knew.
Aisha stopped just after entering the Wards area, then groaned. "Someone made breakfast, didn't they? Damn. I shouldn't have eaten Brian's stupid eggs."
"Morning Aisha," Taylor greeted. "And I only made enough pancakes for Amy and I anyway. What brings you in this early?"
Aisha pouted, but headed over to the kitchen area, likely so that she could confirm that there wasn't a stack of breakfast waiting. "Brian has Protectorate stuff this morning and I didn't want to take the bus later, plus they want me to do another stakeout type thing tomorrow and I figured I could use the time to make sure my snack bag is filled up. What about you two?"
Amy waved her hand. "We started our day with a trip to the gym. Need to get back into that habit, really."
That seemed to confuse Aisha. "Can't you give each other the benefit of a full month of working out with a touch?"
Taylor snorted at that. "We can't actually mess with all of the enhancements directly, and they adapt to the workout just as much as what we can mess with does. Not to mention that seeing how things adapt can be just as interesting. Occasionally you get something that looks like it should be horrible, only for it to actually be an improvement in key ways. The things that look good but turn out to be horrible tend to sort themselves out fairly quickly these days."
Amy nodded in agreement. "Though we can keep each other from losing the benefits of exercise fairly easily, or adjust each other to put the 'better' version of things into place if we want. Though I think we've only done the latter while in the middle of a fugue, it feels too much like cheating otherwise and I personally like to see the variations that crop up."
That caused Aisha to look thoughtful, so Taylor and Amy finished cleaning up. Eventually the younger girl seemed to come to a conclusion and turned back to the other two. "Does that mean that you could give me the benefit of months of exercise with a mere touch, since you two already know what the benefits would be?"
"Can but won't," was Amy's immediate response. "It would cause way too many questions to be asked and until you're an adult you'd need Brian's permission anyway."
"Start visiting the gym yourself and see what kind of results you get," Taylor added. "You'll probably feel better about it too, having actually worked for it. Plus then we can see if you end up with something better than what we got anywhere, right?"
Aisha pouted again, but didn't argue. Instead she headed over to her room, only to return a minute later with her 'snack bag'. With that in hand she started raiding the snacks, something that the other two left her to.
"So what now?" Amy asked, since they still had a little under an hour before the morning meeting.
Taylor thought about that for a moment, then checked the map. "Well, I was told that the greenhouse lab was ready and that I'd be shown it at some point when we got back, but I bet that was forgotten about. It appears to be here, probably to make it easier to get at, so maybe we should check it out."
Amy took only a couple of seconds to consider that before nodding in agreement. "Sounds like a plan, where are we going?"
The greenhouse lab had turned out to be tucked in alongside the Protectorate parking area, and was much larger than expected. It had a selection of normal plants on one side, and the plants making graphene cubes on the other. Entering had required passing through what amounted to an airlock, though the 'only one set of doors at a time' interlocks were on a trigger with only the outer doors currently in use. Even then the inside of the room was running at a slightly lower air pressure, which was obvious when the door had been opened.
While they were there they'd done a few minor tweaks to the plants, which had an automated watering and carbon-feeding system in place, as well as an automated graphene cube collection system. Taylor felt that had to be Colin's work, even if most of the components looked like off the shelf pieces. Less problems for normal PRT staff to maintain that way, at least, though Taylor did take a moment to adjust one of the springs on the carbon-feeding system.
They only headed back to the Wards area when meeting time approached and it seemed like everyone else, including Vicky, had arrived. For reasons that Taylor wasn't even going to pretend to guess at this appeared to include Carlos and Ethan, but not Brian or any other members of the Protectorate. Unless they hadn't done the final 'handoff' of leadership or something and the two were there for that? Amy led them into the room just after Taylor started recording things, and it was quickly obvious that Ethan was probably there to get his arm looked at. Carlos and the other Wards had gathered over by the monitor, and most of them just turned to see who'd come in.
Amy shook her head and walked over to Ethan, his arm in a sling. "What the hell did you do?"
He looked embarrassed even as he held out an ungloved hand for Amy to take. "I got hit in the face by a bunch of flowers first thing this morning and forgot to negate some of my forward momentum while sneezing. It wouldn't have been too bad if the telephone pole hadn't been in the way."
Taylor wasn't sure if that was the truth or not, but it sounded too ridiculous to be a lie. Then again, this was Ethan, so she wouldn't put it past him to come up with something like that either. Of course, the leftover pollen that Amy purged from his respiratory system while fixing his arm lent credence to his story. With a sigh she moved forward, barely remembering to stop on one of her little markers before turning to Ethan. Having a dozen plans for a likely one-shot prank might be considered overkill, but she doubted Ethan would agree.
"So," she finally said. "What were you doing that gave someone the opportunity to hit you with a bunch of flowers first thing in the morning?"
Ethan grinned this time. "Stopping a group of morons trying to hold up a flower delivery truck that quite clearly said on the side that they carried no cash. I even made them pay to replace the ones they hit me with before the police dragged them off. Rude of them, stopping a truck heading for a funeral home and all." He then looked down at Amy. "Thank you, by the way. I'd expected Miss Hebert, but when Glory Girl was here I suppose I should've expected you as well."
"You're welcome," Amy replied, then started over towards where everyone else was. Since nobody seemed to want to say any of the 'magic words' Taylor turned to join her.
"Miss Hebert," Ethan said, causing Taylor to turn back towards him. "Before you go, I was asked to pass along a couple of messages." Taylor raised an eyebrow, and he continued. "First off, they started collecting what little mail you had in the mail room when you went on your trip, but it picked up a little after recent events. You'll need to go collect the backlog in the coming days." Taylor nodded to that, and Ethan grinned. "They should also direct you to where your gifts have been stored, nobody would tell me. You'll want to look through all of those too."
"Thank you," Taylor said. "Is there anything else?"
"Well, for some reason the reports on how you killed the Butcher were..."
Ethan stopped when Taylor lightly hit him with her powers, having barely remembered the prank she wanted to be pulling. "Don't say that!" She then made a point of looking around nervously, while mainly trying to subtly adjust her positioning and not start laughing prematurely. Best to be in just the right spot at all, and her reactions were important at this point. Still, at this point everyone had turned to look at her.
"Don't say what?" Ethan asked, even as he was rubbing his chest where the strike had landed.
"Why shouldn't he say 'the Butcher'?" Dennis asked a moment later, having apparently put things together. He then flinched when Taylor spun to glare at him, which was harder than it looked because she had to do her best to not grin as she started up the correct sequence for this marker.
A moment later everyone other than Taylor jumped a little, Amy included as Taylor hadn't run the entire thing for the other girl, as a sinister laugh pulled from early on in the fight with Quarrel played. Taylor switched to apparently looking for something, but Chris spotted the holographic Quarrel coming down the personal rooms hallway first.
"What the hell?" Chris yelled, pointing.
Taylor had spun to that direction, but Ethan had already charged at the image. He went right through it, of course, and it continued towards Taylor. She lashed out with a fist, aiming for the hologram's neck, and it 'flashed out' with an explosive teleport before she could make contact. A moment later the holographic Quarrel reappeared across the room in a ball of fire, hand up as if holding something. A large stone then formed in her hand out of wisps of light, which had been a pain to get right in her editing, before Quarrel apparently 'threw' it. That was dodged, with Taylor ending up close enough to another marker before she punched out again, the holographic Quarrel vanishing in another explosive teleport.
By this time the other Wards had moved around, as well as Vicky having taken to the air, but none of them seemed to know what to do. Taylor didn't think she'd be able to keep it up much longer herself, since the looks on their faces were hilarious to her, but she wanted to finish out the sequence if possible. It wasn't much longer anyway, and there was Quarrel's next return explosion, right in the middle of the collected Wards. Come to think of it, that none of them were standing right there was lucky. Most of them jumped back at the appearance, but Dennis took that moment to go off-script and jump towards the hologram, an incredibly determined look on his face.
To Taylor's personal surprise, the thing actually stopped when his hand made 'contact'. His hand then continued through it, but it was now very obvious that the soundtrack and the visuals were independent of one another, since the sounds had continued while the holographic Quarrel was frozen. She stopped the sounds a moment later, but the holographic projector wasn't responding. Everyone was looking between Taylor and the hologram when it suddenly started moving again, only for the management program to reconnect and process the 'stop' command.
"What the fuck just happened?" Vicky finally asked.
Taylor shrugged. "Holographic projector and an area-effect speaker, coupled with edited data from the battle. Not sure how Dennis froze the projector by touching the hologram, of course."
There was a moment of silence, before Aisha started giggling. That set the rest of them off. Eventually they calmed down enough to talk again, and Ethan came over and lightly slapped Taylor on the back. "That was a good one. How long did it take you to get everything ready for it?"
"I fixed and installed the projector before my trip, picked up the sound side of things on the trip and fixed it once we were back. Finding suitable pieces of the raw footage was harder, but the movie Dragon made reminded me of a couple of good points."
Ethan stared at Taylor for a moment, or so it appeared with the costume visor and all, before dropping to his knees in a begging pose. "Please please please tell me that you're going to put that somewhere I can actually see?"
"It'll be in the theater on Saturday," Missy grumbled. "But with an age limit I won't be able to meet."
Carlos chuckled, grabbing a folder from next to where he'd been sitting. "I think I've put a few things together. I'd wondered why I was asked to bring by copies of permission forms for the youngest three Wards to see a 'violent movie', given that we'd never had a horror movie night as far as I knew."
Taylor sighed at that. "Figures that someone else would spot that reason to not show the thing and work around it before I could use the excuse." When she looked down again Missy had warped space and dropped in next to Ethan, doing puppy-dog eyes. "I'm not playing the movie right now because there's a meeting that we're supposed to be having. And Assault, shouldn't you be heading off to whatever other responsibilities you have?"
Ethan shrugged. "The injury means mandated downtime, so I've got the better part of a week to accomplish maybe a day's worth of paperwork I've got kicking around. Granted, I have some housework to do as well, but it's all trivial and won't take me long whenever I get home."
"Taylor has a point about the meeting," Dennis said, sighing. "Why the hell am I the designated responsible one?"
Chris snorted at that. "Because nobody wanted to deal with Dean needing to write more reports full of emotional cues nobody truly understands or cares about."
"Do you think we missed something?" Amy asked Taylor.
She nodded in return. "Probably. Not sure it matters."
Dennis was fairly quick to get the monitor set up for their meeting. Carlos sat off to the side, and Ethan had moved to rummage through the kitchen for some reason.
"So, welcome to the first official meeting of the Clockblocker-led Wards," Dennis said, an agenda with no items showing up on the monitor. "You get to deal with me for the rest of the year, and then Taylor gets to take over when Gallant and I depart for the Protectorate. That said, we have a few important topics to discuss today. First up, there's a press conference this afternoon, to tell the public a bunch of things about the fight with the Butcher."
"Not to mention to officially out Missy," Taylor noted as 'Press Conference' appeared on the agenda, only to get an 'are you kidding me' look from Dennis.
He turned to Missy, who nodded, before he sighed. "Right. That was not in my list of things I was briefed on. Then again, the movie wasn't either. Is there anything else we should know about in advance on that front?"
Taylor looked at Carlos, who shrugged. She had nothing either, so she turned back to Dennis. "I don't think so."
Dennis nodded. "Good. Outside of Taylor, and I suppose Missy, we aren't tasked with participating. Since the afternoon is free you can do whatever you want, basically." He then clicked the mouse he'd grabbed and 'Mycroft' came up. "Next up, Mycroft has accepted a transfer out. She apologized for the short notice, but apparently she found a grandparent she can actually get along with that's still alive, but had disowned her parents for being dicks. Her wording, not mine. Taylor, she claims she sent you a thank you gift for your gift to her, it should be in your mail backlog."
"Thanks for letting me know."
Dennis nodded before continuing. "Due to that we're down to six Wards, and still in 'three Wards per patrol' configuration. I've been assured that we don't have to run console cycles all the time for now, but I'm working on a decent rotation schedule for one team patrolling with one person on console anyway. On that front, Taylor, you've got way too much going on. I've got a request for you and Chris to be unavailable on Wednesday next week after Chris's recovery week is up. Then you apparently have a class they'd like you to take the following Monday. There's two weeks of you having other obligations starting the Monday after that, and you just came back from a vacation."
Taylor blinked. "The first two of those are news to me. Then again, they might've stuck notices in my physical mail that I haven't gone to fetch yet."
"Are we allowed to ask what has you busy for two weeks?" Aisha asked. "Since you apparently are expecting that one?"
"Amy and I are being put through the PRT driving school." She paused, thinking for a moment, before turning to Chris. Dennis held onto whatever he was about to say. "Say, Chris, you might qualify for it now."
Chris shook his head. "They offered to include me already, but I declined when they told me that it would be nearly two weeks straight of crash course. Er, sorry, cram course? Something about getting a month into just under two weeks. I didn't ask for details, but it sounded like way too much trouble."
Dennis sighed. "Thank you for not taking two Wards out of rotation for two weeks. And now I can't even be annoyed at Taylor, because she's going to be legitimately insanely busy those weeks. Still, does anyone else have any scheduling concerns or requests I need to take into account before school starts up again?" Nobody said anything, so he nodded. "Good. Hopefully I'll have something worked out by the end of the weekend. Next up, Carlos has an announcement that he told me squat about."
Carlos shook his head as he stood up. "Right. First off, Dennis, you're doing quite well. Better than I thought you would, to be honest. Good job." Dennis grinned a little at that, looking like he wasn't sure if it was a compliment or an insult. Taylor wasn't sure either, for that matter. "However, I'm sad to say goodbye, since I'm transferring out of the area. Too much of a need for flight-capable heroes elsewhere and not enough need for me here."
There was a moment of silence, before Vicky snorted. "I bet Director Piggot is pissed that she's losing a Protectorate member and a Ward while two new groups are feeling things out in town."
"To be honest, she seemed oddly pleased, but I don't know why. Like she'd gotten the better of things in some way." Carlos shrugged. "I'm sure you'll all hear about it before I do, since I'm out of here with one of the returning transports this weekend. Still, it was nice working with all of you, and Taylor, thank you very much for the net. It's quite useful."
Taylor grinned at that. "You're welcome."
Carlos sat down, and Dennis looked over everyone. "I think that covers everything I have for today. Does anyone else have something they'd like to bring up?"
Missy raised her hand, and Dennis nodded to her. "I'd like to know more about the pile of equipment that Taylor apparently installed in here just to prank us."
Taylor snorted at that. "The pranking was fun, but the holographic projector will be useful for much more than that." To demonstrate, she loaded up one of the things she'd come up with, and a moment later a three-dimensional representation of Brockton Bay appeared over the tables in front of the couches. "For example, I figure that patrol routes would be a lot easier to visualize on it."
Carlos took one look at the hologram, then turned to Taylor. "I don't think the Protectorate has anyone doing this, despite the glut of tinkers available here. Where the hell did you get the projector?"
"It was busted, I fixed it. I think it came from an entertainment tinker originally?"
Dennis reached out and passed his hand through the hologram, then walked around it a couple of times. "Now I want one, but I think I'll settle for instructions on using it for now. Can we control it from the console?"
Taylor checked on a couple of details in the app she was using. "I think so, but I won't know until I try to install the control software."
"Please give that a try soon. Anything else?" Nobody else brought anything up. "In that case, I declare the official meeting over. And since the meeting is over, we no longer have it preventing us from, say, watching a movie."
Turning to Amy, Taylor sighed. "I'll never hear the end of it if I refuse at this point, will I?"
Amy nodded. "Nothing says you have to watch it with them though."
Ethan chose that moment to wander out of the kitchen area with a tray holding several bowls of popcorn, an array of drinks, and what looked like a nacho plate. The popcorn looked like some bagged stuff, including a cheesy variety, that'd been dumped into the bowls instead of left in the bags.
With another sigh, she moved over and authorized the download of the film to the computer on the monitor, then headed for the door. "I'm going to go get my mail now."
Amy joined her even as the others started hastily rearranging furniture for better movie-viewing.
Emily looked up as her terminal flashed with a new message indicator. She shook her head and went back to the various things she had to finish signing. The new message wasn't marked as important, after all, and the lack of her signature was a bottleneck on a few things currently. Twenty minutes later she'd finished, dropped the entire stack of papers into the 'out' bin off to the side of her desk, and turned to check what'd come in.
The first new message was informational, letting her know that initial checks on the stage for the press conference had been completed and that they were allowing press to come in and hook up their audio feeds. It was good to know, and nothing she needed to act on as they were ahead of schedule. Next up was a notice of an official complaint from one of the news crews that they didn't have enough time to do audio checks. Sadly, that was expected as that particular crew always complained, no matter how much time they had. On the other hand, they had a thinker-constructed form letter response that was apologetic on the surface but called into question the competency and sexual prowess of the crew if you actually read it carefully.
With any luck Miss Wilbourn would be willing to work on little things like that by request, even though she wasn't going to be local anymore.
Once the form letter was sent off she moved on and found that the last new message was from Miss Hebert. With a smirk, she opened it up so that she could play the attachment, only to find that it wasn't a video. Blinking, it took her a moment to realize that she had the sensor data, meaning that she could actually look around at everything once it rendered out properly. She started things downloading and ensured that she had the software needed ready to go from the last time Colin or Trevor had sent her raw data.
Half an hour later she was wrestling with several different feelings, not having realized the full extent of the planned prank. For one, the looks on their faces had been hilarious. It saddened her that Ethan and Dennis were the only ones who'd reacted the way she felt they should in that kind of situation, though at least Miss Dallon looked like she wanted to join in but wasn't sure how to best do so. Then the very idea that the Butcher could come back as a ghost like that was terrifyingly plausible on several levels, which was disturbing. Lastly, she wanted to scream bullshit and dump Dennis into power testing again for his stunt with somehow freezing the projector via the hologram.
She'd love to use this as an example the next time someone brought up that she gave her 'pranksters' too much leeway, pointing out that two of the three main culprits were the ones that'd reacted properly during the third's prank. It was too bad that they'd probably not agree with the original prank being run at all, even if everyone had laughed about it afterwards. Really, if someone had wanted to pull that on Miss Hebert she'd have squashed it so quickly that the planner would've gotten whiplash. Miss Hebert running it herself was, in her books, perfectly fine. Harder to traumatize yourself with your own prank that you're in control of, after all.
"Nice of Joey to send us the fancy 'open the pocket dimension from the inside' tech," Taylor said as she looked over his documentation, reaching over and stopping the pile of clothing and new boots that she'd already opened from falling over while she did so. "The hand crank for emergency charging is a nice touch too."
Amy nodded. "I wonder if there's a story behind that, or if he just had a hand crank flashlight at some point?"
Taylor honestly had no clue on that front, and put the paperwork back with that box. She'd already gone through the letters and a couple of cards. Dragon had apparently finished the tinker facility and wanted to run it through a fugue on Wednesday, which was apparently why she and Chris were wanted then. It was odd that he hadn't mentioned them also needing Thursday off as a recovery day, but he might've missed that. They wanted her to take an all-day Systems Administration class the following Monday as well, which she didn't have any objections to.
The next thing she opened up was her repaired wok, which came with a note that it should now be a bit better at directing grenade blasts away from her. Amongst a pile of admonitions to treat her equipment better, regardless of what kind of battle she was in. After that was her maul, with a note that the coating had been replaced with a stronger one and a request that she actually make contact with 'some idiot' next time, as they couldn't find any evidence that she'd beaten anyone with it directly. Weapons tinkers, what could you do? It wasn't like she'd cut anyone up with her sword yet either, right?
Amy was snickering at the notes left with the wok and maul while Taylor moved on to the next package. Apparently it was from Lisa, so this was probably the gift that'd been mentioned by Dennis. It was also a PRT standard secure case, which she opened by toggling the relay in her hand. Inside was a disassembled handgun. Multiple barrels, magazines, and bolts for different sizes of ammunition. All of it used, a little bit of maintenance required, but in very good condition overall. There was also a note taped to the lid, which she grabbed and read.
"That looks nice," Amy said, having finally noticed that Taylor had opened the box.
Taylor nodded. "Lisa's grandfather apparently obtained it from a gun tinker of some kind and her grandmother didn't want it around anymore. Apparently owning it was fine, but they'd already found that selling it wasn't legal anymore. Lisa figured out that gifting it to me was a loophole? If I want to use it I'll need to pick up ammunition, but she figured that having 'more stopping power in a pinch' would be good for me if I wanted to carry it around."
"Is that a hint that you need to carry something stronger after your fight with Quarrel?"
"I doubt it. This was sent before the convention. Still, by that logic I should probably put the fifty cal barrel, bolt, and magazine in the thing. Not sure I really need more stopping power normally, but I guess carrying it when in costume wouldn't be too bad? I should probably check with others before I do, though."
She closed the box up and moved onto the last package, which was apparently from Dragon. Curious, it was quickly opened to reveal a self-contained relay system. It even had an integrated generator that put out enough extra power for a charging mat integrated into a folding shelf on the side. There was a note included with it as well, which explained that Dragon had worked with Joey to design this system to extend the cellular system into the pocket dimensions. It should be good for at least a decade without maintenance.
Taylor sighed and handed the note off to Amy before taking a closer look at the relay. It was currently powered down, but was trivial to turn on. It would apparently immediately shut down again if it detected that it wasn't in a pocket dimension, because it had no reason to operate outside of them. It could also be powered from an external source, if you had a larger generator available, at which point the integrated generator would function as a backup power source instead of as the primary. Coupled with the 'open the pocket dimension from the inside' device it made for the first stage of 'safe to spend significant time in the pocket dimension'.
"That's very nice of Dragon to just send you one of these," Amy finally said. "That looks like the last of your mail here, are you going to look over your gifts from the public now?"
She shook her head. "No, I think I'll wait until after the press conference for that. Plausible deniability and all if someone asks me about things. Instead I think we should get the safety equipment set up, better to have it ready and not need it and all."
"That is a very good point."
Chapter 167 After lunch Taylor had gotten into costume, specifically the 'dress' variant without her weapons strapped to her back, and headed to the 'staging area' for the press conference. Amy had gone to be in the audience, and they'd timed things so that the movie would end just after Taylor left the immediate area. As far as Taylor could tell, Missy had probably been startled about the time when they'd finished, given how quickly she'd suddenly started moving.
"We've had to add an extra breakout box for audio," one of the technicians noted as they gave a final report on audio hookups. "No clue how they all made it here on such short notice, I think at least two of the trucks had California plates, and I know I saw one with a British Columbia plate."
Taylor groaned. "Why the hell are so many people interested in this?"
Deputy Director Renick snorted. "The Teeth terrorized the entire country, and the Butcher was considered on the same level as Glaistig Uaine. Permanently adding your powers to all future Butchers just because you managed to kill the current one isn't a nice prospect. You've apparently ended that threat, so of course lots of people are going to be interested. That you've made waves as a parahuman psychologist, can hear Endbringers, distinguished yourself during an Endbringer battle, and some people are still trying to figure out what the hell you have on Eidolon just adds to the interest. Expect questions on all of that, by the way."
The technician grumbled something about him having questions, before collecting himself and putting a bag and his tablet down on the table. "Right. I'd like to get everyone connected and run through a connection check now, unless there are objections?" Nobody said anything, so he nodded and pulled several headset radio units out of the bag. They weren't console-capable on their own, but would connect to the sound system in use just fine. "First up, I was told to prep multiple spare units, just in case. Who gets to carry them?"
Taylor ended up with two. The other three were split between Deputy Director Renick, Colin, and Miss Militia. The idea was that they could hand one off to Missy when she 'crashed' the conference. Why they needed five for that was beyond her. After all, unlike those 'officially' participating, they couldn't easily explain why Missy was tied into things ahead of time, but they only had her. Maybe it was plausible deniability for when she did crash it, not only preparing one or something like that?
Amy frowned as she dug through things, but couldn't find anything on her calendar or in her messages. Finally she gave up looking, deciding that it would be best to call Carol. And if Carol knew nothing, Sarah.
"Hello Amy," Carol answered a minute later. "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing urgent," Amy replied. "I'm just wondering how Taylor has a request for a tinker fugue on Wednesday, but I haven't seen a thing."
There was a pause on the other end, before Carol sighed. "I think Sarah said something about that, having held off on forwarding requests to you while you were away and all. I'll poke her about it. Things were a tad eventful when you returned from your trip, after all."
"True. I mean, Taylor only found out today because they'd held her mail and let her know through a letter to take advantage of that."
"Right. I'll poke Sarah about it shortly. Is there anything else?"
"I healed Assault earlier, but that's about it. Apparently he's weak to being hit by flowers at the right moment."
There was another pause before Carol continued. "I think I'm going to want to hear more about that later. I've got other things to do now, so I'll let you go. Have fun at the press conference, assuming you're still planning on attending."
"I am. Thanks, see you later."
The press conference had started with Deputy Director Renick giving a quick round of introductions that included confirming Taylor's identity, lots of shouted and ignored questions from the audience about that, and a reiteration of several things they'd been saying through other channels. Mainly that the Butcher appeared to be gone for good, no sign had been found of the Butcher's powers in any parahumans in the area, and all the thinkers they'd had working on things agreed that they hadn't missed anyone.
Chevalier was thanked for making the trip to operate the Butcher-detection tinkertech, even if he wasn't there for the press conference. It was implied that he was merely the closest one that wouldn't have been in range to become the Butcher, but Taylor suspected that the truth was more that the tinkertech was fake. A good dozen Protectorate teams were then thanked for their rapid response to the crisis, and four movers including Strider were thanked for providing assistance in getting those teams to Brockton Bay on short notice.
By that point the reporters were looking annoyed, and Taylor wasn't sure how much of that was intentional. She wouldn't put it past someone to figure out just how long they could delay telling the reporters what they wanted to hear and then add five minutes just to spite them and 'punish' any station that gave up and shifted to something else. At least that sounded like something a number of people might be willing to do.
"As to what happened to the Butcher," Renick said, causing a sudden silence in the crowd that had started getting a little rowdy. "We're left with putting the pieces together after the fact. Maul was unable to provide a report right away due to her injuries and power interactions can be complicated. In this case, we believe the interaction was with a minor secondary ability Maul seems to have that grants her limited immunity to having her thoughts and perceptions affected by other powers. Being a power interaction, that immunity has manifested in multiple ways."
Renick took a moment to look over the audience, then nodded in the general direction of Vicky. "For example, I'm sure that Glory Girl wasn't expecting the immunity to cause her powers to shut down the first time Maul was exposed to her aura, though I understand it wasn't an instant thing." That caused some murmuring in the audience. "Gallant's blasts have been tested and don't result in any known retaliation from Maul's powers, but at least one individual with a stranger effect found that effect rebounded onto them, causing them to have trouble perceiving Maul instead of the opposite. The interaction seems entirely dependent on the ability attempting to influence Maul."
There was another pause here as someone tried to force their way up to the stage, past the barrier that'd been erected to keep distance between the audience and the stage itself. Several nearby individuals looked ready to deck the person for causing the disturbance. It wasn't long before the individual was under control and being escorted off.
Clearing his throat, Renick continued. "Where was I? Oh, right. Given the unpredictable nature of the interactions with Maul, we now think that the Butcher may have connected to and influenced other parahumans in the area, to what end we don't know. The apparent attempt to influence Maul during the battle eventually resulted in Maul's powers striking at the Butcher directly. That appears to have dislodged the Butcher from Quarrel, ending the Butcher's powers due to the lack of other parahumans where the two were fighting. That this took nine hours just adds another data point to the unpredictable nature of the interactions."
He paused there to take a sip of water, only for a couple of reporters to yell out. It seemed to Taylor that they wanted to know what else had happened in those nine hours, which would probably be a good thing to cover next. Instead, as Renick went to continue speaking they had another interruption as a bullet attempted to pierce Taylor's face. It slammed into her visor, likely having some energy bled off by her new force field belt, and did no actual damage.
"There," Taylor said, pointing even as she summoned her platform. "Fifth story window."
Miss Militia had dropped into a crouch, her power formed into a sniper rifle in her hands, but whomever it was that had taken the shot had backed off a little. Before the platform could arrive or Miss Militia could find a target the window warped, Missy visibly appearing a moment later looking like she was aiming to punch someone as she vanished from sight. Taylor blinked, and it wasn't long before Missy returned to the window. This time she apparently crunched space to just in front of the stage, where she dropped two women, before then stepping onto the stage carrying a sniper rifle and a carrying case.
It wasn't what they'd planned, but it was undoubtedly a lot more impressive this way.
"Hey Taylor," Missy said, putting the rifle and case down, Colin moving forward to secure them. At the same time Miss Militia jumped off the edge of the stage to check on the two women as PRT officers came to collect them. "I think those two wanted to kill you, but I guess they missed?"
Taylor shrugged. "They hit my visor, but I'm not sure it would have mattered if they hit me directly. Are you aware that you're not in costume?"
The younger girl made a point of looking down at what she was wearing. "Oh, right."
One of the two headsets that Taylor had on her was dropped onto Missy's head while the two women and the sniper rifle were dragged off. At least this pretty much ensured that the press conference would be news for at least a few days, short of something like an Endbringer taking center stage.
Valiantly, she resisted the urge to go bang her head against the wall for that last thought, because having thought it now made it far too likely for her comfort.
Once things were cleared up, Terry had cleared the rooms the women had been shooting from, and several reporters were calmed down, they continued. In some parts of the country they'd probably have called it quits after the first shot, but Brockton Bay required injuries or an unsubdued shooter at a minimum. They had neither at this point unless Missy had injured her hand punching the two out or something, and that wouldn't be an injury caused by the shooting.
"I suppose I should introduce our party-crasher here," Renick said, gesturing to Missy. "Missy Biron, better known as Vista, who apparently decided that stopping the sniper was more important than keeping her identity a secret. I suppose that, for that, she should be commended."
Missy waved. "Hello!"
Renick sighed. "I pity those responsible for the paperwork on this one." He then made a point of flipping through his papers before speaking up. "Right, we've had enough distractions, and I assume that there are lots of questions you'd like to have time to ask. So one last announcement, then we'll skip straight to that. This Saturday at eleven in the morning a movie created from the data recorded by specialized tinkertech sensors Maul had on her during her battle with Quarrel will premiere here in Brockton Bay, with all proceeds from ticket sales going to charity. As such, we will not be accepting questions about said battle. More information on that is available on the PRT website and in the press kits."
The first couple of questions were actually regarding what would happen with the snipers. Renick said that they'd be checked for master effects before any charges were filed, but refused to comment beyond that.
"How did Maul's platform know to come to her just now?" was the first question about Taylor, from a gentleman she recognized from the local news.
"I'm not entirely sure how the control interface works," Renick started, turning to Maul. "How did it know to come to you?"
Taylor grinned. "I summoned it with my brain of course, why else would it have come?" She then held up her arm with the control unit. "Couldn't have anything to do with wearing the control unit, of course."
That resulted in a number of chuckles. Let them assume what they would on that front.
"Is Maul a tinker?" came from a casually dressed man with a notepad, which made Taylor think 'newspaper reporter'.
Renick turned to Taylor, who rolled her eyes. Not that most could tell. "I work well with tinkers, but all of my tech was built by others and either purchased or gifted to me."
"She's come up with some doozies with the right collection of spare parts," Missy added. "No tinkering needed."
Taylor nodded at that. "You'd be amazed how much utility you can get out of a Bluetooth control board and a few things to plug into it."
"Are you related the mysterious woman who wears a hat similar to the one you have on now?" was next, from a nicely dressed woman that Taylor thought she recognized from the news when they were in Las Vegas.
That...was a completely unexpected question. "I don't believe there's any relation, but if you're referring to who I think you are then she's the one who gifted me my fedora. It was a thank you for accomplishing something she'd thought essentially impossible."
"Out of curiosity," the next reporter said. "What aspect of your powers let you 'hear' Leviathan before the attack on Boston?"
Renick took that one directly. "We now believe that the Endbringers intentionally 'agitate' parahumans in some way before they attack. That interacted with the same protections that helped her against the Butcher."
"Do Maul's powers help her with parahuman psychology?" came up a few questions after that.
"That's not a bad question," Renick admitted, having just shot down one from a religious nut. "Maul?"
Taylor chuckled. "Being a brute certainly helps when the best way to get through to someone is to let them punch you."
"I can't believe that they asked you if you prefer tampons or pads," Amy said as they made their way to the storage room where Taylor's gifts had been stored. Colin and Missy had opted to join them. Missy because she was curious, and they weren't entirely sure on Colin's front.
Missy snorted. "I loved the the look on most of the females' faces when Taylor told them about her light periods."
Amy nodded. "Saying that they're light enough that she only knows when she has them thanks to my powers caused several jealous groans near where I was sitting."
"My favorite was when they asked me what leverage I had on Eidolon," Taylor said, grinning. "The look on some of their faces when I said that I'd acquired his therapist's phone number thanks to a mishap when I first met him was hilarious."
"I personally applaud some of your answers that weren't discussed ahead of time," Colin said. "Pointing out that the hard part of taking the sidecar off of the jet ski was the strength needed to undo some of the bolts without power tools in particular, building on the discussed answers for whether or not you're a tinker."
"It wasn't exactly a lie. I just didn't say that I knew it would be the case before I started."
A minute later they'd arrived at the storage room, and it became obvious why Colin was with them when he pulled out a key to remove a physical lock that had been added to the door. Apparently they hadn't wanted her going in without an escort the first time? Off to one side was a literal pile of cards and letters, a few days worth of going through things even if she didn't respond to them. To the other side was a stack of smaller boxes, and in the back of the room were a number of larger items.
"We've already gone through everything in here," Colin said. "A number of things were held back due to dangers, such as things with explosives in them. Money, including checks and generic gift cards, was collected when the cards and letters were examined for things like contact poisons. Slips with the amount included and what form it was originally in were put in their place, but non-generic gift cards were left in place."
Taylor nodded at that, since it all made some sense. "I'm thinking that packing up the cards and letters to go through at home is probably the easiest solution there."
"If you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you'd start with the larger items in the back. There's one that I'd like to explain, and another we placed with it that doesn't seem to be dangerous but that we'd like you to identify if possible."
That got a raised eyebrow out of Taylor, which only Amy likely noticed due to still being in costume, before she moved to the back. Colin moved to the corner where a rugged container and a small box were sitting apart from the rest on a table. He lifted the container up, and Taylor thought it looked familiar.
Colin opened the case, revealing a familiar yet terrifyingly unmaintained weapon. "This is a nonfunctional M249 SAW, originally stolen from a shipment intended for the US Army. Upon seeing the pictures of the current state of it they've relinquished any claims on it, as it isn't worth their time or effort to get it working again, as have the manufacturer and the insurance company that paid for the original theft. They all wish you luck in getting it to work if you'd like to make the attempt."
Taylor nodded. "I can definitely get it working again, but what the hell did they do to it?"
"While we can't be certain, it was delivered in an old nonfunctional fridge, which was deposited in the junkyard." Even Missy shook her head at that one before Colin closed up the case and put it down. He then moved to the small box. "This is the item we aren't sure of the intended function of." He then lifted the box, which apparently had no bottom, to reveal a damaged hunk of technology.
It took a moment before her tinker snark figured things out. "It's a universal remote with multiple short and long range operation circuits. The built in tracking circuit has a hard switch so that it can be kept off when powering the unit up. Obviously damaged, but fixable, and likely compatible with anything that uses IR or basic radio signals, but will probably have issues with anything requiring a pairing sequence that wasn't designed specifically for it."
Colin looked at it, then nodded and put the box down off to the side. "Reknit wasn't sure what it was, just that he could repair the damage. It was found in the collection of things without anyone having spotted it being left, but there was a note."
Intrigued, she walked up to the table. Sure enough, a small postcard was sitting there, with block letter writing.
Taylor Hebert,
I picked this up a few years back, but my associates think I've held onto it long enough and the tinker who originally constructed it has passed away. I pulled some components out of it for another project when I first acquired it, but I'm thinking that won't stop you from getting it working again.
If I were you I'd avoid wiping the security key storage while fixing it.
-Elizabeth
"No clue who the hell that is," Taylor mumbled, before sighing. "I'm sure that whatever it controls can't be 'fix it now' priority or anything, if it's been sitting around for years."
Colin nodded. "I'll ask that whenever you get around to repairing it, please ensure that someone from the Protectorate is on hand when you turn it on, just to be safe."
"I can do that."
Rebecca stormed into the Cauldron meeting room. "CONTESSA!" Her yelling attracted attention, of course, Kurt in particular having apparently decided that this was going to be more interesting than anything else he had to do for the moment.
It was nearly five minutes later before Fortuna appeared through one of Doormaker's portals. "I'm in the middle of several paths, what's important enough to pull me from that off schedule?"
Rebecca glared at her. "What the hell are you playing at, letting a sniper get an accurate shot off on Miss Hebert during a live international broadcast? Or did your path to make the girl look 'badass' trump your paths to keeping things like that from happening?"
Fortuna looked honestly confused at that. "I'm not running any paths to improve her image right now beyond the path to help keep people from assuming she's the Butcher, which was at your request, and I kept the paths for protecting Wards and underaged affiliates at a higher priority than that anyway."
"Then how in the world did the woman and her spotter get set up and fire a shot off with a high-powered sniper rifle when there's no sign of master influence on them?"
"Excuse me," Kurt interrupted. He ignored Rebecca's glare. "I think I might have a theory, there." He paused long enough to see that neither of them was going to interrupt him before continuing. "To be honest, this isn't the first time that those paths have failed to protect Miss Hebert. I know they worked for her early on, given at least one bit of whining about idiots wanting to target Jacob's family, but something changed. The incident with the elder Miss Dallon and the near destruction of Brockton Bay that linked her with the younger Miss Dallon stand out. She almost gets killed while joining a Protectorate patrol after that. We expected the failure to keep her from being taken from her home once we found out that an Endbringer was involved, of course."
Rebecca sighed. "Get to the point."
"Long story short, while we know that she can be pathed directly with some success, I think she's the focus of at least one of Contessa's blind spots, which is keeping her from being picked up on more generic paths for some reason. The abduction attempt in Las Vegas could imply that Miss Dallon is similarly affected at this point, or it could've been an extension of the effect around Miss Hebert."
A quick look at Fortuna showed that the woman had paled, and Rebecca was sure that she had done similarly. She had certainly stopped being angry, because that made way too much sense. Paths tended to be iffy around David, but things with his attention didn't normally turn into blind spots. Anyone that Ziz influenced tended to be a problem as well, though they now knew that after removing that influence the effect stopped. They'd used that as a sign that the anti-master devices worked properly, even. But to have just enough attention to have things fail around them?
"The path to finding out why Miss Hebert isn't showing up on paths that should involve her isn't feasible," Fortuna said, interrupting Rebecca's train of thought. "Some six billion steps currently, and the first one is 'wait at least a year'. Locating the blindspot interested in Miss Hebert is outright invalid, though I expected that. The path to indirectly locate the reason Miss Hebert isn't showing up on paths isn't valid either, but the path to indirectly locate a reason is valid but confuses me."
Rebecca frowned. "Confuses you how, since all that seems to imply is that there are multiple reasons?"
"I'm not sure how having you read the thirty-eighth unread message in your inbox will help."
Blinking, Rebecca pulled out her phone. She flipped through her inbox, counting messages, until she reached the thirty-eighth message. At which point she was fairly certain that she paled further. "That message appears to be the daily S-Class threat tracking updates."
Kurt groaned. "I have no clue what to do about any parahuman that's attracted that kind of attention, beyond ensure that they're checked regularly for influence from Ziz."
"The two of them had some kind of odd influence from a signature that was almost identical. Adjusting automatic reconfiguration parameters, which we think refers to their ability to go through additional crisis points being disabled."
It was Kurt's turn to pale slightly as he turned to Rebecca. "Are you saying that there's a chance that the Endbringers can change agent parameters?"
He didn't seem to appreciate Rebecca's nod of agreement.
They'd made a quick pass over the other gifts before loading all of the cards and letters into the pocket dimension, that being the easiest way for Taylor to get the pile home. Most of the rest of the gifts were going to take some more thought. Nearly eighty small dolls or plush toys, a small collection of religious symbols, nine bibles, several decorative street signs that she was assured were the wrong quality to actually be used as street signs. The carved wooden lawn chair was different, yet oddly comfortable when tested, and she had no idea what she was going to do with the cigar store indian. The one computer that had made it through screening for dangerous or stolen items was a piece of crap, and the snitch was far superior to anything the helicopter was designed to do unless she wanted raw lifting capacity.
When it came to the painting of her holding Quarrel up after the fight she was honestly considering putting it in her bedroom, even if Amy had shown interest in the thing. It was too bad that it was one of the anonymous gifts. It needed a frame if it was going to be hung up anywhere, having been delivered rolled up in a tube, and measurements had been noted so that such a frame could be purchased.
After that she'd switched back to civilian garb, listening to Missy whine about the fact that she wasn't fixing and testing the M249 right away in the process. At least until she found out about the gifted handgun. A deal had been struck, ensuring that once Taylor had done maintenance on it and gotten ammo for it that she'd let Missy fire it a couple of times. In exchange the younger girl would do the expansion trick on the barrels and magazines.
That had led to Taylor ordering appropriate replacement springs, a collection of ammo, and after checking with her father she included a new gun safe for at home that could handle multiple guns, but would ideally be bolted to the floor in her closet. She'd also included what things she felt she'd want or need for fixing the M249 and a couple of specialty parts for the tinkertech remote, because while she could build or repair them it would shave quite a bit of time off to just have replacements. She felt that she'd probably have to modify them, of course, but starting with something close was a lot easier.
After that everyone had headed home, dinners had been eaten, and Taylor had unloaded her cards and letters into her bedroom so she could sit down at her desk to go through them. She was sorting them into multiple piles as she went through them. The first pile was for the nutjobs that seemed to think she needed to do something to save her soul or something because only demonic forces would grant powers or had otherwise decided that she was worth insulting. She wasn't sure what she was going to do with that pile, but burning sounded fun. Another was for people who'd put minimal effort into things and/or hadn't included a return address and would thus not be getting responses. A third was for those with a return address and had sent money or gift cards, she figured she could at least send a basic thank you, even if she used a form letter.
The last was for people she recognized, had obviously put extra effort into things, or that had notes stating that they'd originally come with one of the gifts. So far this included hand-drawn cards from several children, one of whom was Takara, several classmates from Arcadia that had written more than five words, and the cards from each police or fire station in the city. The Dockworkers had sent both a letter and a card, and Accord had sent a lengthy letter that seemed to be part apology for his people not spotting the Teeth ahead of time. It also let her know that he'd personally created the wooden lawn chair and recommended specific brands of stain and cushions for it. Apparently he didn't feel that he should make coloring choices ahead of time without knowing where she'd end up using it.
Amy: Someone decided to make a PHO ratings thread for you after the press conference.
Taylor: What?
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Topic: Maul's PHO Ratings In: Boards â–º Places â–º America â–º Brockton Bay Dazed and Confused (Original Poster)
Posted On Jul 21st 2011:
So, by now we all know about Maul, Taylor Hebert, Jacob's Niece, home-grown badass of Brockton Bay. She obviously has official PRT ratings. Blaster, Brute, little bit of Mover thanks to the Brute and some tinkertech. I checked, they added a minor Trump recently, possibly in relation to what happened with the Butcher.
Personally, I think that they're probably hiding the truth and giving us a pile of shit hoping that nobody figures out what she can really do, but I have no proof.
So instead, I present to you draft 1 of PHO's Ratings for Maul!
Badass YES - I dare you to argue this point. Especially when you consider where she apparently got that Fedora. Yes, it deserves to be capitalized.
Bullshit 12+ - For writing a paper that shocked the entire parahuman psychology profession in a few weeks, fooling thinkers and tinkers in Las Vegas with a few simple pieces of technology (but not for the stunt with the girl guessing cards, that was probably just a power interaction, I just don't know with whom given that it lingered with Panacea), and killing the fucking Butcher. Oh, right, and she can tell when ENDBRINGERS are coming her way.
Connected 9+ - She's apparently best friends with Panacea, her uncle is Jacob. Tinkers apparently love to hand things over to her, work on her stuff, or both. She got Lung to talk about Kyushu.
Rich 5? - I mean, from what I understand she used to dress a bit shabbily, but that's no longer the case, and she seems to have everything.
WTF 8 - For killing the Butcher and then ignoring that someone tried to snipe her. In broad daylight. On live television. Seriously, WTF? At least react to it beyond pointing out where the idiots fired from.
What else do we have?
(Showing page 1 of 14)
â–ºXxVoid_CowboyxX Replied On Jul 21st 2011:
She's a hottie. Minimum 8.
â–ºCheckerboard Blues Replied On Jul 21st 2011:
Seriously? Why the fuck are you wasting your time on this crap?
â–ºRed Clouds In Morning Replied On Jul 21st 2011:
Somehow I am not surprised that Void went there. Nor that he got the first reply. I am surprised that he didn't go further.
Sanity Inducing 30+ for causing Void to act almost like a human being.
â–ºCleanShaven Replied On Jul 21st 2011:
Seriously? We can't even figure out her actual abilities, for crying out loud, but you're missing obvious things!
Therapist 6+, because we know she was willing to take a freaking punch to get through to someone. Brute or no.
Insane 20+, because she actually confronted the damned Butcher. That and I think all capes get a minimum of a 10, 15 if they go after an Endbringer ever.
Determined 4, because she just went ahead and tore apart a tinkertech jet ski to remove the abomination that was the sidecar.
â–ºAssault (Verified Cape) (Protectorate ENE)
Replied On Jul 21st 2011:
Prankster 7. Maybe 8? She's gotten me multiple times with some good ones.
Lucky 6 because even when her pranks go wrong they seem to do some good, which keeps her out of trouble. That and she survives the seemingly unsurvivable.
Reads the Fucking Manual ∞ - Seriously. There are times that I think she reads the damned things for fun, and I think she once got a gift basket for having done so. Who the hell sends gift baskets to someone who read the manual?
â–ºUnholyGlee Replied On Jul 21st 2011:
No way she's a hottie 8 or higher. Maybe in a couple of years, but not now. I'd give her a 5 at most. Unless we've missed that she can literally set herself on fire and she just doesn't do that normally or something?
â–ºHeilTheWorld Replied On Jul 21st 2011:
Scary YES. Because she's fucking terrifying. Rumor has it that the Empire lost a whole pile of capes because of her.
â–ºClockblocker (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On Jul 21st 2011:
I'm going to have to agree with Assault on the Prankster rating, but it needs to be at least 9. Seriously.
At the same time, I think she needs a Creepy rating. Probably around 2 or 3.
â–ºDraggingMyTail Replied On Jul 21st 2011:
Assault I'm sure there's some story beyond reading the manual, right? Unless it's one of those things where she read something, and in the middle of it was a note to contact someone for a gift basket and she was the first one ever to do so...
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 12, 13, 14
Chapter 168 Friday morning Taylor and Amy made a point to go to the gym first thing. Afterwards they grabbed breakfast from one of the cafeterias, then split up. Amy was doing her 'last run of the locals before the weekend' day and Taylor had more cards and letters to go through back home. Sadly, Taylor had only made it part of the way home before she was interrupted by a small group of people stepping out in front of her.
"Can I help you?" Taylor asked. None of the group were parahumans, and to be honest they didn't look like gang members either, wearing what she thought was business casual clothing.
One of the women brandished a cross. "You need to repent! Cast off the demon shackles and save your soul!"
With a sigh, Taylor rolled her eyes and turned her moped to go around the nutjobs. They moved to get in her way, so she turned the other way and drove up the building they were next to, over the sign of said building, and pulled off into the air above the street beyond them. A moment later she'd 'touched down' and was on her way again, the nutjobs yelling behind her.
Taylor: How often do nutjobs interrupt you and insist that you've made a pact with a demon or something?
Amy: Every few days after the public found out I'd triggered, but they tend to move onto others and only crop up rarely after a while.
Taylor: I wonder if I can get away with punching the next group...
Amy: Are anti-heroes allowed to punch civilians for that kind of thing out of costume?
Taylor: I think it's supposed to be heavily discouraged, but I also think I'm going to look for loopholes.
Amy: If you find one I might want to rebrand.
By lunchtime Taylor was most of the way through the original set of cards and letters. The stack of ones insulting her, insisting she was going to lose her soul if she didn't repent immediately, just wishing her to die, and so on was by far the largest. They were also the most widely dispersed, covering most of the country. Of course, shortly after she'd eaten, a PRT van showed up with another load of letters and a list of packages that had been held back at the PRT building. That bag was brought upstairs and put off to the side, since she figured she should finish with what she already had before moving onto the new stuff.
After that she decided that lunch hadn't been a long enough break from going through the pile, but her father had already left to go check on Kurt and Lacey. Apparently they hadn't been answering the phone and he was concerned that they'd dropped into a fugue and passed out or something like that. She was originally going to do some early dinner prep, but Ackbar had apparently decided to build a launching web on the couch and found that an unstable surface like a cushion was a bad thing to launch off of.
That led to her sighing, collecting various things, and fixing one of the lights in the living room. It hadn't shattered, luckily, but there were some bent bits of metal and she was going to have to fix the light socket itself as well.
Amy had ended up having lunch with Neil and Sarah before getting back into the drudgery of healing. Most of the people that had made it through the initial filtering weren't even sick or injured, they'd just convinced themselves that they were. So a good portion of her day had been 'touch person, determine that there was nothing meaningfully wrong with them, document that, move on'. There'd been exceptions, like clearing out the emergency cases at the start of the day, but otherwise that'd been the general pattern. Now that lunch was over she was swinging back down to the emergency room.
With a sigh, she started with the one parahuman present. She'd started with him this morning too. "Hello again Jason. How are you holding up?"
Jason waved his hand. "I think someone they brought in a few minutes ago got stabbed in the side. Hurts, but not too much."
Amy shook her head, then took Jason's hand. Looked like she was going to be rebuilding someone else's kidney soon, and he probably hadn't noticed the methanol at all. She quickly dealt with it all, including the second and third round of methanol showing up in his system after she'd cleared it out, before he stabilized and stopped taking things on from others in the area. "There you go. Eat up, then I suggest you head home."
He nodded, and she moved on. Sure enough, the next person she came to needed a kidney rebuilt. And a regrown one to balance things out, for that matter. It was four or so people later when she found the idiot who'd drunk methanol. Another few and she was done with the emergency room cases and could get back to the people who'd convinced themselves they were sick.
She idly wondered if Jason knew that the hospital was doing their best to keep track of the number of people he helped stabilize when he came in like this and was paying out into a trust fund for him for each one.
Amazingly, by dinnertime Taylor had made it through all of the cards and letters. She'd eaten, discussed things with her father, and was now working on a file of address information for the 'gets a form letter thank you' pile. Going forward she was going to add to it as she went along, but that hadn't dawned on her until afterwards. As soon as that was done she'd start working on more personal responses, and hopefully she or her father would be able to grab some paper, envelopes, and stamps over the weekend. The latter was likely to be the easiest to convince people to let them pay for.
Thinking back on it all, she found it interesting how most of the religious rants seemed to be from Christians of some kind, at least as far as she could tell, and yet Haven had sent her a nice letter and a Fugly Bob's gift card. The latter was, according to the letter, 'for having to deal with the nutjobs that even we recognize exist amongst our faith'. Seemed odd for them to use the term 'nutjobs', but whatever. They didn't even make any attempt to get her to jump ship, which was nice, even if they did warn her that they thought that the Fallen were looking to forcibly recruit her.
Other notable nice letters included the ones from Lung, Kaiser, three different Elite branches, and a group that seemed to be called 'Fuck the Youth Guard'. The last of those included a list of lawyers that would be willing to help shoot down any 'Youth Guard idiocy'. Outside of that aspect it was surprisingly well written given the group's apparent name. Outside of Lung, the rest seemed to want to be or remain on good enough terms with her that if they met in the street they'd have time to explain themselves before she did anything to them. Lung just congratulated her on her victory, applauded her 'style', and provided a translation of Takara's writing.
Amy: I've apparently got a letter from Lacey inviting me to see the pub on Monday.
Taylor: I'd wondered if she sent one to both of us. I think they're almost ready to open the thing and all, so seeing it before the first rush of dockworkers messes it up might be nice. That and we are technically business partners.
Ooops, she had to back up there. She'd accidently put some of what she'd been saying to Amy into that address.
Amy: I suppose we really should ensure that there's nothing we actually object to for whatever reason there. Think they'll want to go more public with our connection to the place?
Taylor: That could result in more business, and yet would probably result in more danger from out of town idiots.
Amy: Why not in...nevermind, that's a stupid question to ask. Of course the in town idiots are generally going to stay away from anything with either of our names associated with it.
Saturday morning dawned and was treated very similarly to Friday morning, in that Taylor met Amy at the gym. Afterwards Taylor made her way over to the storage room to check up on what else had shown up. She spent a little over an hour sorting things, trying to decide what to do with it all. It was a moment of sensor recording to 'cheat' so that she could generate pictures of everything if she wanted to later as well. With that done she decided to spend some time doing the initial work on some weapon maintenance. The M249's case was thus picked up off of the table and she collected the tinker-built handgun from where she'd put it in the gun safe in her room. With both cases in hand she headed for the tinker lab.
Two hours later she'd done what she needed to with the handgun, and had gotten the M249 to a point where it was physically disassembled. That had been easier said than done with the state it was in, but she'd gotten it all apart. Cleaning and refurbishing all of the components that she hadn't ordered replacements for was going to take longer, and those replacements hadn't come in yet anyway. Instead everything was put away in her room before she left to head home.
On the way she stopped to buy some paper, slightly nicer than the cheap-ass stuff she'd been using for her own stuff, as well as a box of envelopes. She also found sheets of labels she could print on, since none of the envelopes available were the kind with windows in them, and a little envelope moistener thing from a display next to the register so that she wouldn't need to lick the envelopes to seal them. That store didn't sell stamps, so instead she ended up swinging by the post office to buy a pile. She had plenty of toner for the printer, luckily, so she didn't have to stop by another store for that.
After that getting home wasn't any problem, though she noted that the police cordon had lightened up quite a bit. Then again, she knew that they wouldn't maintain it forever, and having kept it up for a week was probably more than they'd usually do. Chances were that it'd be entirely gone by the end of the day, since it looked like they were working on taking down some of the barriers they'd put up. She wasn't sure where her father had run off to, but he'd been home when the PRT had apparently dropped off another bag of checked letters and cards. She brought that upstairs with her, caught Ackbar attempting to launch at her in the hallway, and then settled down to read through the new bag.
Danny wondered if Taylor knew that he was working with Carol today to 'vet' the potential teams of builders for looking at the pocket dimension. The PRT had a couple that they'd used, and Toybox had been willing to part with a list of groups they'd used. That had been whittled down to a short list that information packets had been requested from, mainly by checking websites to see what area each company was willing to work in.
"So we've got our information packets for the few companies that might work in the area," Carol said, handing a stack of packets over to Danny. "Two used by Toybox, five used by the PRT. Only one company from each has actual experience inside of a pocket dimension, as one of the two Toybox sent along was from before Dodge joined up and the PRT claims that they only have reliable access to one pocket dimension."
Danny snorted. "I bet that changes going forward, if it hasn't already." He then started looking over the packets, as did Carol. Personally speaking, he hadn't actually looked over the complete list, so it was all new to him. Even then, he did recognize a few of the seven. "Fortress Construction? I thought they specialized in Endbringer shelters?"
"They apparently also make drop-in kits to add rooms and functionality to existing shelters and those kits should work almost anywhere that you have solid walls, floors, and ceilings that you don't want to punch holes into. They're the ones Toybox have used, but they've also had some difficulties recently, including a new owner. I'm not sure I want to risk them cutting corners."
"Yeah, that sounds like it could be a bad thing." He put that one off to the side, and despite everything he also put the building company that was basically the Dockworkers' in town off to the side with it, since he didn't think their techniques would work well without being able to drill anchors. He dropped a couple of prefab companies into a 'maybe' pile, even if he didn't think it was quite what they wanted in this case. "I don't suppose this Dragon-Tech subsidiary is the one the PRT used?"
Carol flipped forward a couple of packets, then nodded. "Yeah, that's the one." She then paused. "And all of a sudden I can't think of a good reason to not recommend them to the kids. If anyone is going to make sure things are done to the safest level in this case, it's Dragon, and having already done work in one of these things it makes even more sense."
"The hardest part would probably be convincing Dragon to let them pay for the work." He then looked down at the packets, thought for a moment, and sighed. "And regardless of that, we should still go through the rest. Having only one option would probably make them feel like they're being railroaded into using the one company and all. Better to give them multiple options and let them make the final decision, right?"
Carol frowned, but nodded. "Yes, I can see that."
With that they both put the Dragon-Tech subsidiary in a new 'absolutely' pile, before going back to the others. They needed to finish this today, as Carol was doing guard duty at the hospital the following day. That and the longer they took the more likely it was that the girls would notice the delay and question it, since nobody had told them that the adults were going to look over things first.
By mid-afternoon Taylor had printed, signed, stuffed into envelopes, addressed, and applied stamps to all of the form letter responses. Dropping them into the mail might wait until Monday, depending on other factors. Like what she was doing before then, which she hadn't fully decided. For the time being she'd taken pictures of the various letters she'd gotten that'd been typed and was using her visor to write up responses while doing some laundry and cleaning up a few things in the garage. Her intent was to hand-write responses to the hand-written letters, and she wasn't entirely sure how to approach the few cards that seemed to merit a more personal response.
Her father came home with pizza a couple hours later, to find that she'd apparently done a repair and maintenance run on all of the tools in the garage without meaning to. In addition to things like the heater they didn't use in the summer, the garage door opener, the lights, and when she thought back on it she half-recalled partially disassembling the lock on the door.
"Needed to do a bit of tinkering?" Danny asked as she washed up.
Taylor blushed a little. "I didn't even realize I was doing it, since I was focusing more on writing responses to letters with my visor and phones while trying to ignore all the work Amy is doing."
Her father sighed. "At least try and avoid going into that kind of autopilot in public. Yes, people know that you're a parahuman, but you're trying to keep that part of things secret."
"Yeah yeah, I know."
"That aside, before I left this morning we got a call from the Palanquin on the house line. Apparently Elle has been asking when you plan on visiting again, but they didn't want to call your cell phone for some reason so they waited for someone to spot you out and about before calling the house."
Taylor blinked at that. "Huh. I guess they wanted to check with you? And who did they have looking for me?"
Danny waved his hand in dismissal of that concern. "PHO has a thread for sightings of you now, just like they do for New Wave. And yes, they wanted to make sure that you were probably safe to be wandering around before even considering pestering you directly."
"I guess that makes sense."
"They said you can drop by anytime if you want to, even when they're closed. Nothing currently planned for at least the next week."
"Er, thanks for letting me know." Well, it would be something to do, at least.
They ended up lightly discussing the coming week over dinner, specifically what Taylor would be doing with her father returning to work. Monday she was hoping to visit the pub with Amy, being her last 'mandated' day off from the incident with Quarrel. Tuesday she'd probably be running multiple patrols, before the tinker fugue attempt on Wednesday. That would lead to another day off on Thursday, and then probably another day full of patrols on Friday. For Taylor, the most annoying part of the discussion was that her father wouldn't elaborate on a comment about self defense he'd made when he'd mentioned going back to work.
After dinner they ended up watching the news together. They'd turned on the television just before the weather report, and it looked like it might be rainy over the following weekend. International news followed, with information from China being sparse but what did make it out not painting a good picture. Some 'monster' cape in India was planning something that worried the locals, but details were scarce. Australia had revealed a desire to sign the treaties that allowed the PRT, Protectorate, and Wards to operate in both the United States and Canada after the anti-master technology had allowed the full clearing of Canberra, but travel clauses in the existing treaties were apparently an issue due to distance.
Taylor groaned when things looped back around to local news. "Is the world full of idiots?"
Her father chuckled at that. "Probably, though in this case I'm thinking it's more an extremely vocal minority. Pity that a few of them thought that they could get pushy though."
"I was referring to the two preteens and the old woman that jumped in with knives and beat the group of religious nutjobs off. That was an entirely inappropriate response to the group, even if they were keeping that mother from leaving their little 'sermon', and irresponsible to be swinging them around the toddler like that. Surely it would've been better to use sticks or something?"
Danny looked at Taylor, then back at the tail end of the news segment. "When you put it that way, I think I have to agree."
Other than the nutjobs the overall reception to things still seemed to be positive. Missy having 'accidentally outed herself' was being kept in a positive light, with the blame being put on the sniper combined with her being 'enthusiastic' about taking out threats. The latter wasn't considered a bad thing, merely a reason that the Wards needed 'proper training' so that accidents like it wouldn't be as likely in the future. Really, the original plan there would probably have come across a lot worse, at least from a perception point of view, since it would've been obvious that Missy was outing herself.
"They make a good point about her strength," Danny said with a frown. "She isn't known to be any stronger than anyone else her age, after all, so how did she dump the two women in front of the stage that easily?"
Taylor rolled her eyes. "Maybe by making it so that she just had to push them slightly and they fell into the warped space?"
"Oh. Right, high-level shaker."
It was highly likely that the answer was not, in fact, clever positioning of warped space, but as far as she knew her father wasn't actually cleared to know that.
Not much longer after that they cut to a series of 'experts' of various kinds that had apparently seen the movie during the day. They didn't have any images from the movie, but they discussed things like fighting competencies and such, including Quarrel's decline throughout things. Taylor appreciated that they acknowledged that, on paper, she was a horrible match-up for a danger-sensing teleporter of any kind. She knew that they were right when they pointed out that she would have lost if Quarrel hadn't become increasingly crazed throughout the fight.
She didn't appreciate that they'd noticed Quarrel teleporting away instead of allowing skin contact right up until the very end and the questions that fact was now raising. That was probably going to be annoying to explain without revealing any more secrets.
Sunday morning found Taylor interrupted before she was able to meet Amy at the gym. More specifically, it looked like there was going to be an issue when she went to leave her own driveway. Apparently the police cordon was well and truly gone, as there was a group of what she thought were protesters in front of the house.
Taylor: How often does New Wave get large groups of protesters in front of your houses?
Amy: The Pelhams got that a couple of times each after Crystal and Eric triggered, since it became obvious that 'blocking the street' doesn't stop flyers. Since Vicky is the only flyer in our house they stuck around longer, but eventually gave up. Beyond that there's a group of 'carolers' that tries to make trouble every December, but they're generally safely ignored.
Taylor: So my best bet is to make it obvious that congregating in front of the house is useless?
Amy: Well, yes, except that hindering your father is probably perfectly fine with them too, if they're anything like the ones we ended up with.
Taylor: Joy. I am so happy I studied things up and found reasons to punch people.
There was a pause, in which Amy's body language became a lot more attentive.
Amy: You actually found loopholes?
Taylor: Attempting to prevent someone that you know to be a parahuman from entering or leaving what you know to be their legal residence, regardless of what the parahuman's powers are, is legally considered a form of attacking the parahuman. It counts even if you can fly and they're keeping you from walking in or out. I think it's one of those things that came out of Marvin, technically intended to allow parahumans to take confrontations away from their families and all. But if they're legally attacking me then I'm allowed to 'fight back'.
Amy: ... I am so mentioning that to the rest of New Wave.
Taylor almost just left at that point, before she realized that it could turn into a case of them versus her if they pushed the issue. Deciding to 'cover her bases', she called the PRT with her Maul phone. It rang a couple of times before being picked up. "Parahuman Response Team. How can we help you Maul?"
Taylor appreciated the efficiency today. "I'd like to report that there's a large group of angry-looking people in front of my house. I believe they intend to try and prevent me from leaving. If they do I plan on treating it as an attack and responding accordingly."
There was a pause before the response came back. "I can confirm that the monitoring in place on your house shows that they are there and have flagged things to be stored for more than an hour. Though not technically required, I'm going to recommend that you remind them about said law, and make it clear that they are preventing you from leaving before taking any other actions. Other than that, if they do prevent you from leaving, please remain long enough for the police to arrive after showing your...displeasure."
"Thank you, and I can do that."
"You're welcome. Do you need anything else this morning?"
"Not at this time. Have a nice day."
"I suspect you're going to have much more fun than I am, but thank you all the same."
With that done she opened the garage door and moved through it, starting a recording with her visor in the process as an added precaution. The group of people started yelling, but none of them stepped forward onto the property. At the same time they were also doing their best to ensure that there was no way to reach the street without going through them, and they didn't look amicable to moving out of the way.
She continued to move forward slowly, the garage door closing behind her. If anyone asked how that worked she could blame purchased tinkertech and not explain any further. Several members of the group seemed to be checking things between their yelling, while the rest seemed to focus on the yelling alone. Still, she moved her moped right up to the edge of the group of people, the ones in front smirking as they refused to move. The yelling also quieted down at that point, as they obviously wanted to hear how this played out.
Taylor looked to either side, then to those directly in front of her. "I am formally informing you of my desire to leave my place of legal residence. If you do not allow me to leave then I will consider it a direct attack and will respond with force, as permitted by law." There, that was done. Time to see just what kind of idiots she was dealing with.
The couple of men right in front of her shared a look, before one of them sneered at her. "Nice try, freak, but there's nothing you can do to us. You're not going anywhere."
Taylor nodded, then got up off of the moped. She provided no additional warning before punching one of the men in front of her, not even using her powers. That was followed up by a kick to the man next to him. Both of them went down with one hit each, though their injuries wouldn't be serious. It took a moment for the rest of the crowd to react to that, before most of the men tried to swarm her and most of the women backed off.
It wasn't long before the fight, such as it was, concluded. Taylor had barely been touched, and most of the group that had been blocking her from leaving were down on the ground. There was still a ring of mostly women, five of whom had moved off to one side with phones out, obviously having tried to get the best angle for recording. A couple of those had grins on their faces, as though they knew that they'd already won. Taylor hit each of them using projections from her gloves, causing them to drop their phones. Three of the phones obviously broke when they landed, but two survived, and Taylor was on top of them before they could recover the phones.
Sadly for the group, Taylor's tinker snark had been able to tell her that none of them had thought to try and stream things live, and she wasn't about to let them have time to upload their recordings to taint the public's perception of this. All five phones, including the three broken ones, were kicked off to the side a minute before a police car came around the corner, lights on but sirens silent. That didn't matter much, as the remaining 'watchers' rushed the police car to insist that the officers arrest Taylor for her 'unprovoked assault'.
The recording from her visor was definitely being examined later, if only to get a picture of the looks on their faces when the police told them that they were being taken into custody for attacking a minor.
"We did nothing of the sort!" one of the women yelled, even as a couple more police cars entered from the other end of the street. "She just attacked for no reason!"
One of the police officers snorted. "She had the presence of mind to call ahead and inform someone that you lot were likely going to try and keep her from leaving her home. Her home that is currently under twenty-four seven external monitoring due to other recent incidents involving her. Now get over to my partner so that she can check you for weapons."
All in all, Taylor was a bit later than intended to the gym, but she didn't mind. She'd enjoyed the inconclusive discussion with one of the officers about whether or not the damage done to the cell phones was justified or not. She argued that posting a misleading video of things implying that she'd attacked without reason would be an attack in and of itself, but the officer wasn't sure if she was justified in stopping them before they tried to post said video. Then again, they were both in agreement that she was permitted to treat the entire group as attacking her when they stopped her from leaving, including those that'd backed off but hadn't retreated from the area. That five of them had been holding phones when she'd gotten to them, and hadn't been able to hold onto the phones, shouldn't matter at that point.
Really, beyond the delay, the only other annoyance was listening to Amy whine that she hadn't gotten to participate. Even if it was more of a 'the likely only time for years that people will be that stupid in town, once this group hits the news' rant.
Chapter 169 After breakfast had been eaten Amy went to the hospital and Taylor checked in with the PRT, in case she needed to do anything after the incident that morning. It didn't take long to find out that the police had all they needed, provided by the PRT or from her statements given to the officers at the scene, and that if anything else was needed she'd be informed. Though they did let slip that they'd sent someone to ask for her father's permission to release the monitoring post footage to the news so that things could be covered 'properly'. She wasn't sure what to think about that.
Despite not needing to do anything, she did volunteer the recording from her visor, which was submitted for review. And presumably the entertainment of anyone who'd had to deal with idiots of that nature. It was really too bad that she could only do that kind of thing at home, since she hadn't found any loopholes that would let her deal with idiots elsewhere. Well, none that applied to her right now and wouldn't open her up to 'unprovoked assault with a parahuman power' claims, anyway.
Instead of worrying about all of that, she decided to head home and finish writing up her letters. She wanted to have all of that out of the way in expectation of more coming, after all. Especially as she didn't see things blowing over anytime soon. But before she left she swung by the gift shop to grab a box of postcards with her picture on them. She'd use them for the people that'd only sent a card or postcard themselves, even if they'd written enough to warrant more than a form letter response.
Emily looked over the 'urgent' message she'd gotten while eating her breakfast. Apparently Miss Hebert had found a way to beat up a bunch of civilians with the law on her side. Footage had been provided to the police, who were in agreement that the girl had been fully within her rights. The law in question rarely came up, if only due to the relatively small number of 'outed' capes, but it was very clear. Had lethal force been used against the group without them showing that they were willing to do the same first then there might have been issues, but things didn't seem to have escalated that far.
She had the sudden thought that something was wrong with that picture, but she wasn't entirely sure what. A quick double-check of the details showed nothing odd, but just in case she requested that the group that Miss Hebert had acted against be checked for master influences. Better safe than sorry, and at this point it seemed prudent either way. Much better than assuming things were as they seemed and all, and the expensive part of the process was clearing any influences found.
With that completed, she sighed and started filling out the form for a meeting request to discuss the incident, just another one for her queue. Sometime in the next few days, she'd let the automated scheduler handle that. Actually, better make that multiple meetings, one with Miss Hebert and one with Glenn, beat him to the punch and all. Besides, they had to talk about how to handle some of the questions that'd popped up now that people were analysing the crap out of that movie. They really should've had a couple of thinkers watch it first.
The rest of the day had been fairly normal, outside of a few interesting cases Amy ended up dealing with. Those had included the woman who'd ended up allergic to her own hair after catching one of Riley's infections and the conjoined newborn brothers who'd been in the beginning stages of organ failure. The former has been dealt with by reversing the changes made by the infection and the latter had been incredibly distracting due to all of the things going on with splitting the two apart.
Taylor had all of her postcards and handwritten letters ready to be dropped in the mail with the pile of form letter responses. All combined, the originals and responses, combined with the 'not getting an answer' pile, were still dwarfed by the pile of rude, obnoxious, and/or somewhat threatening messages. Apparently people who wanted to yell at you were a lot more likely to go to the effort than those who didn't or something. Still, she carefully packaged the nice and/or neutral messages, except for a couple of the ones that'd come from kids that ended up hung on her wall, and put them off to the side to decide what to do with later. The rest she'd unceremoniously dropped into trash bags, awaiting a decision on her part as to how to best dispose of them.
If she was being honest with herself, they'd likely just end up going out with the rest of the garbage. Which was why they'd ended up in trash bags. Anything else was probably more effort than she wanted to put into things. But until that actually happened she could dream all she wanted about creative ways to deal with them, right?
After dinner she and her father had sat down to watch the news together, right around when Amy was doing the same with Mark. Carol had apparently retreated to her home office to 'check on a few things' after the revelation of the 'parahumans can totally beat up anyone who knowingly and intentionally blockades their house' bit, and Vicky wasn't interested in the news. Amy probably would've skipped out on it as well if it weren't for wanting to see how they spun the events of the morning.
The local news started with a fight that'd apparently broken out at the hospital, that neither Taylor nor Amy had been aware of. A disabled young girl, that Amy had healed later in the day, had been insulted by a couple of passers-by, complete with telling her that she should be going off to kill herself instead of visiting the hospital. The girl's brothers had taken offense to that and jumped the two, which resulted in an all-out fight where knives had been pulled on both sides. The brothers had gotten healed after their sister had been worked on, Amy not being informed of the reason for the injuries, but the passers-by had run off as soon as the police approached.
That was followed by the incident from that morning, narration being done as a clip of the incident played. They covered what was going on in the clip, the group being confirmed as members of an anti-parahuman coalition. Taylor's approach, their refusal to allow her to pass, and then the start of the 'fight'. While the first few men seemed to actually fight, once the numbers had been whittled down and the women off to the side were recording the fight things changed. At that point every single person went down with a single hit, as though the relatively minor impacts were crushing blows. In actuality, the worst injuries that could be seen being inflicted by Taylor were minor, which had been confirmed by the BBPD examinations after the fact.
The most surprising thing was that as soon as Taylor had turned to deal with the group recording things there was additional action in the group of fallen individuals. Likely a reason why the recording individuals hadn't been streaming live, several men visibly produced knives and stabbed each other. This was apparently part of a plan found in messages stored on the various phones taken from the group to further discredit Taylor, to be coupled with a claim that 'she took down all of those people with one hit each, a clear abuse of her brute abilities'.
Taylor and Amy were both a bit shocked at things. For her part, Taylor hadn't actually noticed the 'stab each other' going on in the group of downed men. The news had actually gotten to interview a couple of the women who hadn't been part of the 'fight' and hadn't been recording with their phones. The anti-parahuman sentiment was obvious in the answers the two gave, and both apparently believed that they had a divine mandate to see parahumans classified as less than even animals.
They then jumped to a clip from that afternoon. The leader of the coalition had apparently spoken to the press in Kansas, where they were officially based, and denounced the methods used by this group. Supposedly the actual goal of the coalition was to get what they saw as more 'reasonable' controls and limits placed on parahumans to help protect those that couldn't protect themselves from the 'unnatural and corrupting powers' that parahumans held. "But to provoke any parahuman at their home, especially one who just went through a severe ordeal and after we found out what really happened to Marvin, is complete idiocy. I've ensured that our lawyers will be doing what they can to assist the police in prosecuting this case to the fullest."
It certainly hadn't been what anyone in the Hebert or Dallon households had been expecting.
Monday morning was unusually windy, but other than that Taylor had no problems getting to the gym. That might've been different if she'd had her outgoing mail like she'd originally planned, but her father offered to drop it into the mailroom at work instead. As a result of that change in her plans she beat Amy by a few minutes, but had been beaten by Missy. Amy and Taylor got changed and found the girl apparently trying to set one of the machines to get a proper workout out of it.
"Morning Missy," Taylor said, walking up to the younger girl while Amy shook her head and went to set up a machine for herself.
Missy jumped, but recovered quickly. "Oh, hi."
"Need help with that?"
"I suppose? I can't seem to get it to go high enough to give me an actual workout."
"That's because someone turned on the safeties on this machine. See this icon here?"
"Oh. So that's what that is. I suppose that I could've just used one of the others that don't have that showing?"
"Yep. Or you can reach around behind the control panel and push the toggle button to disable it." Taylor demonstrated, and the icon vanished.
Missy pouted at that. "I'm sure I'd have figured it out eventually." She then tapped the clear half-visor she was wearing. "I was looking for the manuals when you came in."
Taylor nodded. "Good on you. Let's get you started, just don't try and keep up with Amy and I. Figure out your own pace and limits first."
Over the course of their workout, which included a swim, they discussed various things. Included were details like Missy having been 'grounded' for the weekend, but had actually been busy going through the process of repainting her bedroom. She wasn't even sure if anyone had tried to blockade her from leaving over the weekend as none of her family had even left home from midday Friday through to that morning. Of course, she did have a minor experience with a nutjob on her way in.
"Someone tried to accost me on the bus," Missy admitted. "But an Empire member grabbed them, apologized to me for the idiocy, and pulled them off of the bus at the next stop."
Amy smirked at that. "Taylor got stopped by a group in the street, only to use her moped to drive up a building to get around them."
Taylor nodded. "I think that was unplanned and just people taking religion a bit too seriously, but I wouldn't put it past them to have participated in trying a blockade action either. Just not the 'fake out' that they pulled yesterday, since that would've diluted their religious message."
Missy shook her head at that. "I'm starting to think that staying inside all weekend was the smart thing to do."
It wasn't too long before they'd visited one of the cafeterias for breakfast, Taylor not wanting to cook and the other two not feeling their cooking was good enough to bother with.
"So what are you two doing today?" Missy asked as they ate.
"We've got at least one visit to make after lunch," Amy answered, looking at Taylor. "Maybe two, if we want to visit the Palanquin too?"
"Not much else planned after checking the pub out," Taylor admitted. "But I was thinking that a weekend visit would be better, if only to let things settle a little more first. I'm just glad I checked with Lacey about the timing of the visit, since they're interviewing a couple of people this morning."
Missy looked confused. "Why would you be going to the Palanquin? I thought you two weren't exactly into the club scene?"
Taylor shrugged. "Labyrinth has apparently been wondering when I'll visit again, which doesn't require that they be open for business."
The younger girl pouted at that. "I wish I could join you, but my parents would probably freak. Instead I've got a therapy session today, since Jessica is around and all."
Amy patted Missy's shoulder, because there wasn't much they could do about that anyway.
Taylor and Amy had made a visit to the junkyard, during which the refrigerator that'd been left there was damaged beyond repair before Taylor could succumb to the itch to fix it. After that the two headed to Taylor's house, not wanting to wander around in public for the time being and feeling that the Hebert household was a better departure point for visiting the pub than the Dallon household was.
As an added bonus, Danny wasn't home, but Mark probably would be.
"Looks like my father remembered to grab the outgoing mail," Taylor noted after they'd entered the house. "One less thing to worry about."
Amy looked at Taylor curiously. "I know you cringed at some of the letters, how bad were they really?"
"Some of them were horrible, which just shows that the PRT wasn't screening them for content. Or maybe they were but only pulled out the ones with actionable threats or something? Really, the couple I hung up from some kids are much nicer to think about."
They ended up grabbing a soda each before heading upstairs. Taylor pointed out the letters from the kids, which Amy had to admit were cute. She then turned back to Taylor. "I still think I'd like to see a couple of the 'bad' ones, if only for comparison purposes."
Taylor sighed and turned towards her desk, only to stop and stare. The two trash bags, while not overly large as they were sized for the can in her room, were missing. Further, there were several boxes she didn't recognize sitting on her desk. She supposed that it was possible that her father had grabbed the trash bags before leaving, but she didn't think it likely by any means. Carefully, she moved over to the desk, to find that there was a note with her name on it next to the boxes. It was a simple folded piece of paper, so she flipped it open and left it on the desk while she read it.
Dear Miss Hebert,
I'd like to apologize for the previous frankly insulting offering of a single ring in exchange for what may very well be the best alcoholic beverage I've ever had the opportunity to sample. I hope that I've rectified my prior oversight with the payment I've provided with this missive. I've also included the full instructions with this set, not that you need them personally.
With my oversight corrected, I would like to ask a minor boon of you. I will soon be providing Mrs Pender with a request for some of her wondrous brews, would you be so kind as to pass on that my offerings are genuine? I'd visit in person to convince her, but I've sadly agreed to not leave my current residence for the time being. Barring more legitimate reasons to depart from my current residence I find that I need to work through less direct channels.
To that end, I've also provided a sampling of teas that I'm hoping she can use as inspiration for future batches. I would appreciate it if you would pass them along at the same time, along with the introduction letter contained within. The smaller box is a sample set for your own enjoyment, I've left notes on where each variety can be obtained in the bottom of both boxes.
Ciara AKA Glaistig Uaine Baumann Parahuman Containment Center AKA the Birdcage
P.S. I have taken the liberty of removing the bags of offensive missives from your bedroom. They are not something I feel you should have to think about at this time. Instead I've decided to take responsibility for them on your behalf.
Taylor blinked, not having expected this at all and not knowing how to take it as a result. She then turned to Amy, who was looking on curiously. "I wonder if I should call your father for advice on dealing with Glaistig Uaine?"
That caused Amy to blink in confusion, and she finally gave up on holding back and stepped forward to read things for herself. "I'm not sure how much help my father would be. Or Garnet, for that matter, now that I'm thinking about it, since they've been dealing with her in person for years."
That was a good point. "Maybe I'll ask them anyway, in case she decides to visit when a 'more legitimate' reason comes up." She then sighed. "I should probably call Dragon, make sure she knows about this."
Amy winced at that, probably realizing that Taylor hadn't told Dragon about the previous contact either.
Rebecca was reviewing requests for use of the new scout drones for, quite frankly, frivolous purposes when an alert came up on her terminal. Honestly thankful for the distraction, she opened things up to see what was going on, only to find that someone had identified the source of the parahuman-detecting rings. Or rather, that credit had been given to two individuals for identifying said source.
Quickly switching applications, she navigated to the correct portion of the PRT's system to see who the tinker was as well as who'd discovered that information. In the latter case she was curious about who was splitting the reward money, not to mention if either was a thinker that might need a higher rating or similar.
Of course, once the information loaded her train of thought was derailed. "Glaistig Uaine?" She stared at the name for a few minutes before finally snapping out of it and continuing to read the page. Luckily the story of the discovery had been properly recorded, so she didn't have to call people to ask questions. Given who was making the rings it came as no surprise that one of the 'escapees' had been the original source. That the child-woman had been using the rings to purchase tea for years seemed like it should've been spotted, but they usually found the things after they'd changed hands multiple times.
Her train of thought was derailed again when she read the last paragraph. In fact, she'd re-read it at least four times before she realized that it did, indeed, say what it did. "I don't know if I should be grateful that we now know where the rings come from, or terrified that Miss Hebert put things in motion for Glaistig Uaine to regularly get drunk."
Taylor and Amy parked behind the pub, the box of tea with included note in a pouch. Dragon had thanked Taylor for letting her know about the contact with Glaistig, as well as the warning that the woman would likely be purchasing alcohol. She'd wanted the full story as to how it'd all happened as well, but had recommended going along with things. Apparently if Taylor didn't pass things along then it would, at best, delay Glaistig a few days.
"There appears to be a distinct lack of other cars here," Amy noted. "And the security shutters were down out front."
Taylor nodded. "Different kind of security shutter, automated instead of manual and you could tell that the lights are on inside since they aren't solid. So perhaps Kurt drove them both over and left Lacey here alone?"
Amy obviously wasn't sure, perhaps not being in area mode and able to tell that someone was in the building, but they got off of the mopeds and walked up to the office door anyway. Taylor had been in area mode and knew that one of the two was around and was assuming it was Lacey based on where they were in the building. The two spotted a fancy new doorbell next to the door with a built in camera, which Taylor pressed the button on, and then they waited. It wasn't long before the door was opened, Lacey standing there with a grin on her face. "Hi! Come in, come in."
"Hello Lacey," Taylor greeted. "So you two are almost ready to open?"
Lacey nodded. "We're looking at the sixth or so. The last of the legal stuff we needed to clear finally came in on Thursday, but Kurt and I agreed that we should wait until some road damage is dealt with before opening."
Amy nodded. "Taylor pointed out a couple of recently-filled potholes on the way over."
"And the work crew that I spotted on a side street," Taylor added. "Though they looked to be putting the street back together more than just filling a pothole."
Lacey grimaced. "One of the bombs was in a sewer nearby, so that might've been what was going on there." She then shook her head a little, before starting to bounce slightly in excitement. "Come on, let me show you everything! Oh, and we should probably ensure both of you are in the security system, and I have keys for you so you don't have to sit outside when you come by."
Overall the place was looking a hell of a lot better than the last time Taylor had been through. The new computer she'd won was in the office and apparently helped monitor all kinds of things now, and was used by Lacey to ensure they were properly in the security system. A quick demonstration of arming and disarming followed before she forgot, as well as how to check the cameras. They then got shown the brewing and workshop area, interrupted by Lacey tweaking a couple of things, before heading out front through a much more secure looking door than had been there previously. The new layout and décor there looked great, and Taylor smirked at the hidden in plain sight security system that Kurt had apparently built into the steampunk-like theming. She figured he might be the only one on the planet currently that would be using high pressure alcohol lines to power things, anyway.
After a quick demonstration of some of the things that they'd come up with for the bar, including a system that let alcoholic drinks turn the corner when slid down in the right way, the two girls were given a proper lesson on how to use the security system out there, just in case they ever needed to, as well as the intercom system. Taylor hadn't needed the lessons, but Amy appreciated them. After that Lacey let them look around the kitchen, but didn't join them herself. Apparently she wasn't allowed in there normally, due to the way her powers and cooking tended to interact. Even if nobody was actively cooking right now. 'Better to be in the habit now' was her excuse.
A walk through the remaining 'staff' areas brought them back to the office. Lacey sighed and dropped into the chair behind the desk in there. "I'm glad you two think everything looks good. Now we just have to worry about actually turning a profit, no matter how good the terms are on the business loan."
Amy snorted at that. "I think Taylor is carrying your likely key to paying those off much sooner than you're expecting."
Lacey was obviously confused, while Taylor just rolled her eyes and pulled the box out of her pouch. She placed it on the desk and tapped it. "Let's just say that I contacted the parahuman that provided Lustrum's cape detector rings, and they liked your green tea beer. They're hoping you can make other varieties, the box here is a sampler pack of sorts for you, and they're in the habit of paying with newer generations of the rings."
It took a moment, but Lacey picked the box up and opened it. The note on top was addressed to Lacey Pender, and she pulled that out to read it. Multiple emotions were visible on her face as she read through things, before she looked back down at the box, then up at the two girls. "How in the world did you get in touch with Glaistig Uaine?"
Taylor grinned. "I left a note and a bottle of your beer on my desk."
"Seriously? Wow. I don't suppose you understand the 'paired Queens' comment in her letter here? I'm thinking it has to refer to you two based on context."
The two looked at each other for a moment, both blinking, before Amy recovered and shook her head. "Sorry, that's the first we've heard of it."
Nodding in agreement, Taylor gestured to the box. "I got a smaller box of teas, I'm assuming you've got multiple of each instead of me getting one of each, and a box of rings in apology for the single ring she'd provided originally."
Lacey blinked, and then her eyes widened. "Is that where Danny got that new ring?"
"Yep."
"Damn. If that's the kind of work she's doing these days..." Lacey trailed off, obviously momentarily lost in thought. She then snapped out of it, looked back down at the letter, and grinned before getting up and going into the brewing area and workshop. A minute later she'd returned with a small cardboard carrier holding six bottles of beer, hand-labeled. Apparently more of the green tea beer. A notepad was pulled out of a drawer and hastily written on, before the sheet was torn off and a piece of tape used to affix it to the carrier.
Thinking for a moment, Taylor shook her head. "I'm guessing that you're providing some of your current stock right away?"
Grinning, Lacey nodded. "Of course. When my current experimental batch is complete I'll have to set up for a short run of another tea variety, but why keep her waiting?"
"Just be prepared for a mass-change related teleportation alarm if she swaps things out when you aren't around."
"Oooh, that's good to know. Hmmm. I wonder how hard it would be to put a lock box for this kind of thing outside?"
"That's not a bad idea."
They sat there in silence, pondering that, until Amy apparently decided that she'd had enough of that topic. "So, while I'm not complaining about it, why the Violet Rose Pub?"
It took a moment, but Lacey grinned. "It's partially playing on Kurt and my new appearances, and partially because I still liked the idea after sobering up. Besides, then it lets me put things like 'Roses are Red, Violets are Blue. Our beer is better when you buy two!' on the menu board."
Amy snorted. "In that case I think I should contribute at least a little to the place. Some plants for the tables, perhaps?"
That had Taylor's agreement. "I think a collection of little rose bushes would be wonderful, but would you go with the rainbow variety or make pure violet ones?"
They ended up spending an hour talking about things, deciding that a mixture of rose bushes would probably be best. Amy promised to bring some by before the sixth, and then she and Taylor left to see if they could find a collection of watering bulbs.
That evening after dinner found Taylor and Amy in their own rooms, both looking over the list of builders that had finally made it to them. Then again, things had been hectic recently, so a quick response would probably have been odd. It wasn't a long list, of course, but they needed to make enough of a decision to arrange for an initial meeting with at least one of them.
Overall, none of the choices looked horrible. Taylor was personally surprised that nobody truly local was included, but then again the inability to anchor properly into the ground could create issues for most groups that did traditional construction. Pretty much every company in the set worked with variant systems. One specialized in mobile homes, for example, so it was likely that their solution would literally involve driving the resulting structure into the pocket dimension. Another was working with modular construction that could presumably be added to a different 'base' for an anchor.
Amy: Only one of them has actually built anything even semi-permanent in a pocket dimension.
Taylor: Yeah, I noted that too, but the fact that said company is apparently one of Dragon's is more interesting. Do we trust anyone else to do the job better?
Amy: Oh, huh, hadn't noticed that detail. Having worked with the pocket dimensions before and the pretty much guarantee that no corners will be cut makes for a compelling argument there.
Taylor: Yep. Of course, when to meet with a representative is another question. I've got a morning meeting and patrols tomorrow, a fugue on Wednesday, and patrols again on Friday and Saturday. How about you?
Amy: I'm clear for the week, to be honest, barring medical emergencies cropping up.
Taylor: Then perhaps we should see if we can get an initial meeting Thursday? Though I'm also tempted to talk to the mobile home group.
Amy: Why?
Taylor: Because we've got plenty of room to park it in the pocket dimension, but could pull it out to get the benefit of things like waking up to the sunrise or the sounds of birds waking up.
Amy: Ooooh. Good point, hadn't considered that. More options is probably good on that front, and adding in a large enough 'garage' space for the mobile home would be trivial no matter what else is done.
Taylor: How about I request a morning meeting with one and you request an afternoon meeting with the other?
Amy: That works for me.
With any luck both companies would be able to send someone out to meet with them on short notice. Once the requests were sent out the two discussed a couple of other things before deciding to turn in for the night. With any luck the next couple of days would be quiet ones, relatively speaking.
[Alert: Process .BEHAVIOR has been suspended]
[Alert: Process has started]
Chapter 170 Tuesday morning was a bit overcast, but the wind had died down from the day before. Missy once again beat Taylor and Amy to the gym, Taylor personally suspecting that it was more because the girl was bored and it got her out of the house than for any other reason. She wasn't positive that was the motivation, of course, and she wasn't about to ask. But since Missy shouldn't be patrolling until Thursday, based on when she'd been worked on, there weren't a lot of reasons for her to come in first thing.
Also joining them this morning, arriving with Brian just after Amy had pulled in, was Aisha. Granted, she'd originally gone straight to the Wards area, but Taylor had fired off an invitation to join them. One that didn't take long to be accepted, though it took a couple of minutes for the girl to find her way over to the gym.
"Get caught by the work they're doing in the main hallway?" Taylor asked.
Aisha nodded. "Didn't think to open up the map until after I came up to the barrier and had to backtrack a bit. Do you know what they're doing?"
"Not a clue. Why would they tell me and not you?"
"Because if it involves tinkertech then they might have informed all the tinkers."
That...was honestly not a bad point. But Taylor hadn't been informed either way. "I'm not sure they'd inform me unless they wanted my help installing or maintaining it?"
"I skipped all of that and just walked in through the front door of the gym," Missy noted with a shrug. "Would've just came in through the PRT building itself, but the main entrance isn't open yet."
Taylor snorted. "Like that would stop any of us. We all have permission to open the main entrance anytime that the building isn't in lockdown."
The others all looked at Taylor, who merely raised an eyebrow. If they weren't going to ask then she wasn't going to volunteer. None of them asked, so she went back to setting up the exercise equipment she was planning on using. The others eventually did so as well, and they all got into their routines. They had to keep Aisha at a pace more suited to an unenhanced human, of course, but other than a little whining things went fairly well. They had breakfast together after getting cleaned up, and then Amy and Missy departed due to having nothing else to do at the PRT building that day.
Taylor smirked when she noticed Missy leaving via the ice cream parlor, only to apparently stop and stare at it for several minutes. It didn't open for breakfast, after all. Still, amusing as it was, she had other things to do this morning, such as getting ready for patrols, after a meeting with Director Piggot. Figuring it wouldn't hurt either way, she got into costume minus the jump harness and jacket to start with, before looking over at the safe containing the vial snarks sitting off to the side.
Taylor: I wonder when the next round will need to happen with the vial snarks.
Amy: Oooh. That's a good question, I doubt they'll leave that sitting around forever.
Taylor: Yeah. Almost wish we could just drink them and get extra powers hooked in like the Butcher snark was doing for Quarrel.
Taylor froze for a moment, as did Amy. Luckily she was already stopped, probably at an intersection.
Taylor/Amy: DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT FIGURING THAT OUT.
BA: Annoyance
Taylor: They're going to work on it no matter what we do, aren't they?
Amy: I think that's obvious at this point.
It didn't take long to decide that the best way to deal with this problem was a combination of ignoring it and never drinking a vial ever. So that's what Taylor resolved to do.
Elijah sat in a small park, ostensibly people-watching as he ate his breakfast, but in truth more lost in thought. Half of his plans had been ruined, several before he'd gotten them off of the drawing board, by the revelation that Miss Hebert could very well be immune to his influence. The ploy with the Youth Guard had obviously failed as well, and while he could easily convince Mister Hebert to move that wouldn't guarantee that his daughter would go with him, given her ties to the city.
Really, most of his time since the press conference had been in finding and analysing those ties, to figure out what options he had. So far the best he'd been able to determine was that she was probably on good terms with all of the local Wards, which wasn't surprising, and her best friend and possible girlfriend was Panacea. Who'd been considered for potential 'recruitment' before, but dismissed due to peripheral difficulties. Like not wanting to be dogpiled by every cape group ever for having done so.
The Fallen as a group were confident in their overall strength and abilities, yes, but they were also aware that they were by no means invincible. Grabbing Panacea would be suicidal under pretty much any normal circumstances. But, now that he was thinking about it, who said that he had to grab her at all? Done right he could easily convince her to relocate to a slightly more centralized location in the country, perhaps putting the idea in her head with no immediate urging to act upon it. When she eventually did move she'd probably take Miss Hebert with her, and so long as they left the healer alone they could see what did and didn't work on their hopeful herald.
It was an interesting thought, subtler and more long-term than they usually operated, but it should definitely be workable. He just had to figure out a few minor details, like where he could meet up with the healer now that her exceptionally well known weekend was over and what her 'motivations' for leaving the area should be. On the latter, perhaps he could arrange for a falling out with her adoptive family? Hitting them all would make things easier, maybe if he could spot a pattern at their home that would allow for hitting each in turn...
Taylor had arrived a few minutes early for her meeting with Director Piggot and was stuck waiting to be called into the inner office. Apparently the director was on the phone currently, though whether it'd been an outgoing call or an incoming one wasn't clear. In the former case she could hope it wouldn't last past the meeting start point, in the latter case all bets were off. To pass the time she'd dug up the reference materials for the systems administration classes they wanted her to take on Monday and was reading through them.
It was nearly ten minutes past the meeting start time when Taylor was called in, to find the director glaring at her phone in a very annoyed fashion. "Good morning Director Piggot."
The woman visibly collected herself, before gesturing to the chair on the other side of the desk. "Good morning Maul, please take a seat." Taylor did so, and the director hit the switch on her desk to turn on the privacy field for the office. "First things first, I'd like to talk about your actions from Sunday morning. Incidentally, my phone call just now related to that."
"I'm positive that I was operating entirely within the limits imposed by the law and found nothing that would indicate that I shouldn't exercise those rights in the PRT regulations for Parahumans in general or Wards more specifically."
Director Piggot stared at Taylor for a moment, before snorting. "Okay, I can see where you might have come to the wrong conclusion. No, I've been very much assured that you did much more than you were legally required to beforehand, and I applaud that portion. In fact, I'd like to recommend that should it ever happen again that you don't hold back nearly as much as you did, you are an anti-hero after all, break a few bones on purpose. My current annoyance, stemming from the phone call I just got off of, is that you apparently didn't fill out the proper forms for a blockade situation afterwards."
It was Taylor's turn to stare at Director Piggot, though she was also doing a quick search in the PRT app at the same time. Having done so, finding nothing, she was able to more confidently voice her question. "What forms are those?"
The woman looked at her screen, apparently bringing up a window, and rattled off two form numbers. Taylor 'typed' both into a text document, then loaded the first. She looked it over, finding that it was for documenting a home blockade situation for a Protectorate member, regardless of outcome. Checkboxes for various forms of response, but not for a Ward. She then loaded the second, which appeared to be a PRT squad leader variant of the first, for responding to a blockade situation, this one having a checkbox to indicate that it was a Ward's residence. Just to be certain, she checked the flags assigned to each in the system, as well as a couple of other things.
Eventually she was done, and nodded. "While I'll admit that those look to fit the situation, neither actually applies to me."
The director sighed. "I know you're an anti-hero, and that gives you some leeway..."
"No ma'am," Taylor interrupted. "They don't apply to me because I'm a Ward, not a current member of the Protectorate for the first or a PRT squad leader for the second. Neither form is suitable for any Ward, hero or anti-hero."
This time is was the director's turn to be caught unprepared for Taylor's comment, and she turned to her computer. It took a minute, but she snorted and leaned back in her chair. "You appear to be correct. I'm going to have to make a couple of phone calls when we're done, and I wouldn't be surprised if there is a suitable form by the end of the week. Whether it's due to modifying the one for a Protectorate member to expand its scope or a new one I can't say. I apologize for accusing you of not filling out the paperwork."
Taylor shrugged. "I'll admit that I never even looked for a form, but multiple PRT staff members told me that there wasn't anything left for me to do. I took them at their word for it at the time."
"And apparently they were correct. So, originally I wanted to discuss three things with you, before I got sidetracked. First up, as I mentioned, feel free to break bones if anyone blockades you again. I doubt they will, but I've been told by multiple people that you keeping injuries to an absolute minimum doesn't play to the anti-hero image." Taylor nodded in acceptance there. "Personally speaking, I'd prefer that you just let the PRT or police handle it, but I have no grounds to even officially request that with the way the law is written, so keeping with your branding will have to do."
"I suppose I can understand that. I'd argue on the grounds of annoying Amy, but I think she'd probably encourage me to go further if I asked her. Do all parahumans end up with a low tolerance for idiots?"
The woman nodded. "Most of the PRT field operatives do, so I'm assuming that all of the parahumans do as well. I think people in general have that trait, regardless of anything else. The only other question I have regarding Sunday is whether or not you had your sidearm and taser available?"
"I had both, but didn't feel I needed either."
"Good judgement there, at least. Next up, the fallout from things being noticed in the movie showing your fight, specifically the little detail of Quarrel avoiding skin contact up until the end. Obviously we suspect that the danger sense power knew that contact with you was dangerous, but we don't want to admit that. I've talked to Mister Chambers, and he thinks we should try blaming it on the force field belt, though I have my doubts as that obviously failed partway through the fight. Another thought was to claim that you had a contact poison tailored to not affect you, but you didn't act properly for that kind of thing at any point before or after the battle."
Taylor grimaced at the thought of trying to explain either of those. "Can we just claim that skin contact could've sped up the power interaction, and the danger sense knew or suspected it?"
Director Piggot looked thoughtful for a moment, then made note of that idea. "I'll run that by Glenn, and probably some thinkers. I don't think he's run any of the ideas past any thinkers yet, for that matter. But claiming that skin contact could've caused a power interaction isn't a bad idea. It sounds better than the others, at least. Though when you and Panacea are both of age you might want to consider coming clean about some things, if only so that you can heal her without any odd questions coming up."
It was Taylor's turn to snort. "Assuming something else doesn't happen that either forces my hand or has someone specifically reveal everything outside of my control before then."
"You've just gone through a very abnormal situation. Don't let it color your expectations of the future."
Taylor decided to not mention the entire series of 'abnormal' situations she'd been in since she triggered. "I'll try."
"You do that. Now then, the last thing we need to discuss is what you'd like to do with your share of the non-monetary reward for identifying the source of the parahuman detector rings. More specifically, that would be three out of six barrels of whiskey currently sitting in Minnesota and seven out of fourteen shares in what I'm told is a company formerly run by now-deceased tinkers out in the Las Vegas area."
"I don't suppose that those would be the same tinkers that I claimed the labs of while I was out there anyway?"
It took a minute for her to check, but the director sighed. "Yes, it would appear to be their company."
Taylor shook her head. "Figures. The shares can join the rest. Can I just have the whiskey sent to the pub? I'm sure Lacey will either love it or declare it unworthy of being consumed."
"I'll see what I can do on that front. And just so you know, I had the entire monetary portion of the reward deposited into your trust account, that should be clearing in the next day or so."
"Thanks for the heads up, I guess. Didn't think I was getting anything, but I do recall your interest back when Lacey used the ring she had."
"Would it be betraying any identities for you to tell me who, exactly, makes the things?"
Taylor grinned, and for shits and giggles started her visor recording. "I don't believe that we need to worry about that, Glaistig Uaine is already in the Birdcage after all."
The look on the director's face was definitely worth the entire meeting, including the rant about how irresponsible it was to even attempt to communicate with someone that dangerous and/or 'unhinged'.
"Morning Taylor," Dennis said as Taylor returned from her meeting. He was on the console, apparently manipulating things for the holographic projector. At least the image of Brockton Bay floating over the table by the couches seemed to imply that.
"Morning," Taylor replied, heading for the kitchen area to grab a drink.
"Do you have a preferred patrol style for this morning? I'm running the console, so you'll be with Aisha and Dean who are both ground-bound, then this afternoon we're splitting up to join the Protectorate in groups of two."
"Where do you plan on sending us?"
"A quick spin through the Boardwalk, nothing too hazardous for the morning before we're dragged into whatever's happening with the Protectorate this afternoon."
"In that case I think I'd prefer to fly. Much less likely to be successfully mobbed that way, by well-wishers or otherwise."
Dennis flinched at that. "Right, that's a very good point. If anyone complains that you're not 'approachable' I'll just claim that it just made more sense to have a spotter. Safety first and all that."
"Thank you."
It quickly became apparent that he was overlaying a patrol route on the map, though he seemed to be struggling with how to accomplish a few things. She wondered if that was more because he wasn't sure how he wanted to do things or because he didn't know how to do what he wanted. The determined look on his face told her that she should wait for him to ask for help before offering either way.
Fortuna grinned as she sat on a rooftop behind a tinkertech 'duck blind' of sorts, a laptop computer sitting in front of her and a bowl of popcorn on a table next to her. She'd needed the extra processing power that the laptop would provide, having gone a tad overboard with the prep work, but it would likely be worth it. In the park the rooftop overlooked were members of two parahuman-led gangs, each of which she'd creatively misled into thinking had been called to a meeting by the other. Both gangs used to be part of the Teeth network, but the 'council' being wiped out had severed that connection. They were still very valid targets for other reasons, of course.
Number Man would be screwing up their bank accounts in a few minutes, to further cripple their operations after Doormaker stole away their various supply caches and safes. She'd already sabotaged their vehicles in various ways, or would be shortly thanks to remote detonators, which would mean that they'd have a much harder time getting away. She'd even been able to set up a number of cameras, even if she hadn't been permitted to use one of the new scout drones. She'd used up her available favors on getting the required federal warrants issued, after all, which was more important.
Ahhh, the two new leaders had arrived, so it was time to get the show on the road. She tapped a couple of keys on the laptop, triggering the remote detonators that would sever cables and hoses in their vehicles, then started up the sequence she'd pre-programmed in with Dragon's aid.
"Halt, Evildoers!" echoed across the park in one of several variants Dragon had made of the 'creepy little girl' voice, piped through a subset of the hundred point-projection speakers she'd hidden over the past day or two. This variant was a bit deeper, with the echoes shifting in pitch the further away they were from 'in sync' with the original. She'd named it 'Adam' in her script.
"We've got you surrounded!" echoed a moment later, this time in the original creepy little girl voice. 'Betty' in her script, because she hadn't been feeling creative at that point.
"Oh come on, there are only four of us." was next, in even higher pitched versions of the creepy little girl voice. Two instances, slightly out of pitch and sync with each other. 'Rose' and 'Mary' in her head, but since they were 'creepy twins' the script just called them 'Rosemary'. "Like we can really call that 'surrounding' them? There are six exits from the park, after all."
By now both gangs were looking incredibly confused, with all the non-parahuman members looking around very nervously. The few parahumans present were, on the surface, much calmer, but she could tell they were a bit unnerved as well. Especially since they jumped a moment later when one of the demonic duck speakers wearing a golden cape lifted out of one of the trash cans. It spun as though to stare at one of the trees, where two more dropped out. Those two had black and white 'hair' attached. One with black on the left and white on the right, the other reversed from that.
'Adam', in the golden cape, 'sighed'. "Oh come on, the two of you even hid in the same tree? Are you even trying?"
The two gangs had, as predicted, ended up moving closer together in the middle of the park. Around half of them were ignoring the speakers and looking everywhere else, while the rest were staring at the speakers. This was precisely what she'd wanted, and the sprayers she'd rigged up on several of the side streets kicked in right when they were supposed to. Containment foam grenades would've created blobs that, once dry, could just be climbed over easily. The light sprays, on the other hand, quickly built up into ten foot high walls.
One of the leaders yelled as a couple of gang members moved to run. "Don't run into the open streets! They probably have more sprayers!"
Fortuna loved that her agent had been right about how they'd react, as the only 'normal' demonic duck lifted out of the trash can next to one of the open streets, sitting on top of a sprayer nozzle. It didn't have any containment foam feeding it, but that didn't matter. 'Betty' then 'moaned'. "I thought these were stupid gangs, how did they figure that out?"
That triggered some grumbling from the gang members, but they were doing their best to stay alert and watch for the next 'surprise'. Sadly, they were focusing on the ground around them and on the still open side streets. They didn't notice the unimaginatively named Punch Man climbing onto a nearby rooftop, sizing up his targets. Sadly, even her agent couldn't help her figure out where the rope that suddenly appeared in his hand actually went. Since it let him unerringly swing down to punch someone he called it his 'punch line'. Once in the midst of the group his brute rating let him fight while the PRT and a couple more Protectorate members used the distraction to move in along the open streets.
Punch Man ended up foamed with the rest of the gang members, but he'd known that was coming. It took two hours before all of the containment foam was cleaned up, the normal gang members having been handed over to the police while the parahumans were taken by the PRT. Fortuna took another hour or two to collect all of the things she'd set up after that. But she didn't mind, because PHO was going to go nuts when she posted the edited footage from the pile of cameras she'd had set up online.
She couldn't wait until she read what people thought about 'Justice Duck' apparently being part of a family of crime-fighting demonic duck speakers. Or that this appearance was just outside of Atlanta instead of in Brockton Bay. Really, this was a much better use of the trick, since she wouldn't have been able to post the footage of using it on the Teeth's council at all.
Taylor was happy that she wasn't down on the ground with Aisha and Dean. Lots of people had gathered, a lot of camera flashes were going off as people took pictures. And despite all of that she'd actually spotted four crimes that they'd been able to stop, meaning that Dennis would have an easier time dealing with any complaints about her being 'inaccessible'. Though she had ended up spending a few minutes in the crowds after she'd had to drop down practically on top of that purse snatcher.
Still, beyond that incident she'd been able to stay high and 'out of reach', which was fine by her. Dean found it amusing, but Aisha kept trying to find excuses for Taylor to drop down to the ground. Especially after the purse snatcher, where the younger girl got to see the crowds reacting to Taylor being within reach.
Amy, on the other hand, had gone home and decided to follow what people were saying on PHO while giving her room a complete cleaning, moving furniture to clean under things included. The various antics being posted about were apparently highly amusing to her, but she was slightly saddened that it was time for the three of them to loop around and head back to the PRT building. Mainly because that was going to reduce the crowds they were exposed to, since they were taking a less traversed route back.
"So what do you think we'll be doing this afternoon?" Aisha asked once the few people that'd been following them had given up doing so.
"Depends on how they split us up," was Dean's answer. "The four of us available today have very different skills. Of course, we're supposed to be patrolling, so it'll also depend on who in the Protectorate we end up partnered with."
"This doesn't seem to be their normal 'joint patrol' dance though," Taylor noted. "And I say that in part because they didn't put it on the calendar as one. That tells me that they have something specific in mind for at least one of us."
Aisha grumbled at that. "I hope it doesn't involve me sitting there bored out of my mind for hours on end again."
"I take it your stakeout didn't go well?"
Dean snickered at that. "They were looking for the person stealing from a storage room, only for her to find out that a crow was getting in through a hole near the ceiling."
"Worst stakeout ever," Aisha whined, causing Taylor to snicker as well. At least she didn't do so on the radio like Dean had. Then again, he was in voice activated mode, so it likely hadn't been intentional.
"At least you learned something new about your powers."
Taylor blinked at that, looking down off of her platform. "She did?"
Aisha visibly sighed. "Yeah, I did. The 'forget I exist' trick doesn't seem to work on birds, they plan on seeing if we can figure out how many animals it does work on in a week or two. I think they're looking to get someone in that can see through an animal's senses as well, to see if they still forget about me or not?"
"Ah. Better to know all of that now than to have it bite you later, I guess."
"The whole thing still sucked."
Dennis wasn't sure why he'd agreed to do certain things, but he was starting to think that he was going insane. Taylor had installed the stupid projection system, and Dragon had provided the oddly up to date and incredibly detailed 3D data for the city, but he had ended up volunteering to convert their patrol route data from a set of basic coordinates into three dimensional representations. Which in and of itself wouldn't be too bad, if he didn't need several of them to be ready for the briefing this afternoon.
Luckily they only had the one group out patrolling, and Taylor was playing leader so he didn't even have to worry about taking notes for them for the patrol report. Instead he was keeping an ear on the console while slogging through patrol route after patrol route, building each patrol path in three dimensions. It was easiest for the street level routes, just follow the damned street. The roof-hopping routes weren't much worse, since he could anchor to the rooftops themselves. But the aerial routes were a pain, since there was nothing to anchor them to.
Further, because he'd decided to do this right instead of easy, he was then building 'acceptable deviation zones' for each, and in the case of the roof-hopping routes was going through and translating the 'do not use this roof' data into the map as well. Most of that was so that he could adjust the 'acceptable deviations' to take those into account. He felt that they were lucky to not have any 'no-fly' zones currently, otherwise he'd probably have had to map those in as well.
With any luck he'd have to do this the hard way once, and then someone would build an easier to maintain variant. But the 'proof of concept' he was building was more of a manual process. That he could save a significant amount of time in a few cases by copying elements of one patrol into another, meaning he just had to adjust things where they diverged instead of starting from scratch, was a godsend.
Really, from his point of view, the worst outcome of all of this was if the general attitude turned into 'this is a waste of time', which would mean that he'd been wasting his time in mapping all of the patrol routes for display, including the ones for the afternoon patrols that he was currently in the middle of.
She wasn't used to being sneaky, but she could handle it in this case. So far it appeared that she'd been successful, having snuck in without anyone noticing her, largely thanks to attention being elsewhere. But now she had to wait for the right time to strike, so to speak. After all, everything pointed to her target passing through the area soon, within the next few hours in fact. She just had to ensure that she could get into position quickly enough when that happened.
Of course, this would've been so much easier if she'd been allowed to drop at least one act. But she hadn't gotten permission for that, so she was stuck doing this the harder way. That also meant that she'd have to keep an escape route ready at all times, but that wasn't too hard. After all, no matter what, she'd have the element of surprise on her side. The biggest problem there was that if she had to run before she was done then they weren't likely to get a second chance at things.
Granted, if things went wrong and she aborted early enough she'd be able to try again later, but there was no guarantee how long it would be before conditions were right for another attempt. It could be years before the next opportunity came, assuming another one came at all.
Chapter 171 Taylor had submitted her report and a copy of her visor data at the end of the patrol before the three of them had gone through a very short debrief with a PRT officer. After that they'd met up with Dennis and dragged him to get lunch. He was being closed-lipped on what they'd be doing that afternoon, beyond going out with the Protectorate, but that could be because he didn't have details either.
He did give them a quick overview of the plans for the holographic projection system during the patrol planning, which went a bit beyond what Taylor had originally envisioned. But she'd only put enough thought into it to have a non-prank use for the thing when asked, because having justifications beyond 'it was funny' were more likely to get her out of trouble when things went wrong. Obviously the prank went wrong because she was more focused on the serious uses of the thing, right?
Yeah, she wasn't going to fool anyone if she ever came out and said that. She expected a five year old to see through it in an instant, let alone anyone that she'd be using it on. As such, she'd avoid using that as an excuse, and if someone else came to that conclusion for her she wouldn't argue it. She also wouldn't confirm it. Let them make the bad assumptions.
Still, he did admit to having six patrol routes from the Protectorate that he'd mapped out, but that was about all the information he admitted to having. He didn't claim that it was all he had, but he didn't say it wasn't either. The only thing that they could be sure of was that they'd likely be venturing into the Elite's territory, as all six patrol routes he'd been given entered it. Four of them were ground-only, the other two were mixed ground and air. No rooftops, but that somewhat made sense with the available Wards.
After they'd eaten lunch they ended up sitting in the Wards area, waiting for the Protectorate members to come to them. They'd discussed a few inconsequential things, before Aisha decided that they'd apparently beaten around the proverbial bush long enough.
"So what happened to Quarrel?" she asked, staring at Taylor.
Taylor blinked. "How in the world should I know? I assume they took her into custody, but that's about as far as I'd thought about it."
Dean snorted at that. "I have no clue why she thought you'd be more in the loop than anyone else."
Aisha slumped into the couch, crossing her arms in annoyance. "She should know more, given that she kicked the bitch's ass."
There was grumbling, mostly from Aisha, until the four Protectorate members arrived as a group. Colin and Miss Militia were carrying boxes while Terry and Sherrel followed behind them. The four noted that the Wards were already by the monitor and moved over to them, Colin perching his box on the back of one of the couches.
"Good afternoon everyone," Colin said as he opened his box. "I have some new equipment to hand out before we begin the meeting proper. Clockblocker, Gallant, and Hulder, if you'd come over here?"
The three got up, obviously curious, and were handed a labeled box each. After that Colin collapsed the box he'd carried them in with, and Taylor suspected that he was waiting for them to ask what they'd just been given. And probably why they'd each gotten one, but not her, which she'd figured out as soon as she'd focused on one of the boxes with her tinker snark. While likely waiting for the question(s) Colin moved over to the kitchen and dropped the collapsed box into the recycling bin there.
"So what are these?" Dean finally asked as Colin returned from recycling the box.
Colin smiled a little at the question. "They're health monitors. I decided it was inefficient to only be able to monitor half of the Wards, but I doubt that I'd get permission for implanted variants any time soon."
"You got that right," Sherrel mumbled, glaring lightly at Colin's back. Taylor suspected that had come up with the Protectorate and been soundly rejected.
There was a moment of silence, before Dennis chuckled. "Figures that only the three of us have to deal with strapping on a monitor system, but being able to tell when something's wrong sounds good. How do we set this up?"
It took a couple of minutes to get the health monitors paired to their Wards phones and situated properly under their costumes. Aisha got it right the first time, or at least wasn't going to admit that she'd gotten it wrong. Dean had to adjust the positioning twice due to fit issues with the power armor, and Dennis took nearly fifteen attempts before he had it 'comfortable enough'.
With that done, Miss Militia then opened the box she had. "With that taken care of, would each of you please come take two of these signal flares. Clockblocker, please ensure that all Wards going on patrol have two of these for the time being."
They each took two of the flares, which appeared to all be the same color. It was obvious that they weren't intended for a flare gun, instead having a removable cap on an included launching barrel with lots of arrows for 'which direction'. Well, you could snap open the end, damage the firing mechanism, and then load the internal flare into a flare gun, but that wasn't the intent.
Since nobody else had spoken up, Taylor asked the obvious question. "So why do we suddenly need signal flares?"
Terry answered that one. "Jamming devices have been employed against Protectorate and Wards patrols in several parts of the country over the past two weeks. We aren't sure who started selling jamming devices that work against our equipment, but nationwide precautions are being taken."
Miss Militia nodded at that explanation after putting the box off to the side. "Further, just being jammed isn't enough. Jammed and in need of assistance or extraction is the goal. If someone jams you and you can handle the situation then don't bother signaling unless you can't find the jamming device and need a pickup. So far none of the jamming incidents have been this far to the east, but better safe than sorry."
"On that note," Colin added. "I've ordered CE3 modules for the three of you that don't already have that level or higher in your phones. They haven't come in yet, but when they do I'll need an hour to install them. I'll let you know when they've arrived."
Dennis nodded. "That makes sense, a little better push to get past the jamming and all. Is that also a nationwide thing?"
"No, I'm paying for your upgrades out of my own budget. I can't justify CE4 or higher for you, but you could technically purchase CE3 yourselves if you ordered new phones manually. I'm just taking that decision out of your hands."
Taylor idly wondered what had motivated that decision, and if it was efficiency or practicality that won out when it was being made.
"Now then," Colin continued. "We have patrols to prepare for, and Clockblocker has supposedly been working on a demonstration?"
Dennis proceeded to show the various patrol routes and his work on what he felt would be acceptable deviations along them, including showing a rooftop route that passed by buildings that had filed 'please stay off of our roof' requests with the PRT and Protectorate and how those adjusted the deviations he'd mapped out. Granted, he ended up doing half of the demonstration from the console itself, finding that remote controlling it wasn't working out for him, but he made it through.
"So there you have it," Dennis said, coming back over from the console when he was done. "Any questions?"
"What did you use to determine the flying acceptable deviations?" Terry asked. Which Taylor thought made sense, being one of the two of them with flight options currently present.
"Expected distance from those on the ground or rooftops in a mixed patrol, an arbitrary maximum height from the ground that I thought made sense for actually being able to see what was going on, and the minimum height airborne parahumans are supposed to maintain over buildings as prescribed by law. I'd have more examples there, but the Wards routes discourage flying in the residential portions of town right now so we don't have any mixed routes near regular housing and those are the strictest rules."
There was a moment of silence, before Dean raised his hand. "How much time do you spend on intentionally making yourself look like a moron?"
"I'm fond of jokes, it isn't my fault that people assume that my constant joking means I'm less intelligent and/or driven. Some of them take serious thought to get right, and most of the time you only have a moment before the timing would be off when they come up. Now then, any questions regarding everything I just showed?"
"How long would it take to expand the map?" Sherrel asked, which was a pretty good question. "I mean, I don't think you've got the Rig itself showing, for example?"
Dennis nodded. "Yeah, I don't think Dragon bothered to send that data along. It shouldn't be too hard to add, since she said that she'd assembled it from when she had the scout drones searching for bombs. So a few passes through an area, extract the building data, and stick it where it belongs with the rest of the data."
"I'll look into getting more projection units," Colin said once it was clear that nobody else had questions for the moment. "At least one more for here and one for the Rig, to go into the larger conference rooms. I'm sure that Dragon and I can simplify a lot of the plotting work out with some custom software as well. Now then, we have patrols to get to, so I suggest we start on planning those."
Rebecca sighed. "They're arrogant fools, but it's their call. Have they accepted help from anyone?"
"Not that we know of," was the response from the staffer on the other end of the line. "Then again, they spent more time demanding to know how we knew what was going on than answering questions and those most likely to aid them wouldn't tell us either way right now. If it looks like things are going to escalate across their borders we'll rethink things, but for now we're hands-off."
"Thank you for the update."
A few minutes later she was reviewing potential plans for the worst case scenarios, but wasn't sure that they'd be using any of them this time. It was very much out of their hands for the time being, so only time would tell whether or not they'd be intervening later on.
She was distracted from that by one of Doormaker's portals opening up and Fortuna stepping out with a laptop under one arm. The woman was dressed casually, in pajamas in fact, which meant this was almost certainly related to some of her 'time off' fun. "Good morning, what brings you by?"
Fortuna grinned. "I thought you might like to see my video before I go post it online. I'm going to have to use a patsy to ensure that Agnes doesn't know that I was involved, of course."
That caused Rebecca to raise an eyebrow. "Why in the world would she care?"
Instead of answering, the woman opened up her laptop and placed it on the desk. A moment later she had a video playing, and by the end of it Rebecca was torn between laughing her ass off at the entire thing having worked, or bashing her head against the wall because the entire thing had worked. As a compromise, she settled on glaring at Fortuna. Lightly, since 'playing a prank' had been authorized.
"What?" Fortuna asked. "This even helps Miss Hebert by distancing her from things, since there's no way she was doing this while on patrol in Brockton Bay."
"Okay, you have a point there. Why the other three?"
"Because even I think it's ridiculous for a single demonic duck speaker to claim they've got someone surrounded?"
It took a moment, but Rebecca sighed. "You do realize that to properly distance 'Justice Duck' from Miss Hebert that you're going to need to run this kind of thing at least once more, if not five or six times to show a movement pattern?"
Fortuna blinked, and opened her mouth before stopping. A moment later she shook her head. "I hadn't considered that, but you're right. Luckily we still have a couple dozen former branches of the Teeth to deal with in creative ways."
"You also get to tell Miss Hebert what you're up to, so that she has a clue beyond it being a copycat."
"Right, right. Sneaky behind the scenes ninja work is so much easier on that front."
It turned out that part of the goals for the afternoon patrols was getting the sensor systems to check a few buildings to see if they still contained weapon stashes. To that end, Taylor had her drone out and following her, acting like it was wandering around her to get good camera angles. It had a wider range than her visor system, after all. Colin had one of his drones following him as well, though he was on the other route for maximum coverage.
The more obvious goal, however, was apparently to start putting chinks in the accidental reputation the Elite had ended up with, since the Wards weren't patrolling in their area and the Protectorate avoided it more often than other areas. Hence bringing Wards into the area, in preparation for more frequent patrols of that kind. Taylor and Dean had ended up paired with Miss Militia and Terry while Dennis and Aisha were paired with Colin and Sherrel. Dean was in a sidecar attached to Miss Militia's motorcycle while Taylor was on her platform. She wasn't sure what the arrangements were for Dennis and Aisha in the other patrol, but she was sure that vehicles were involved. Sherrel wouldn't allow anything else, after all.
Unfortunately, things were a tad odd in the Elite's territory. Apparently part of how they trained and/or blew off steam was through fighting each other, which meant that two out of every three 'fights' they came across were 'friendly'. And those resulted in several incredibly odd moments for Taylor.
"Maul? Really?" one man said after he and his opponent had stopped fighting and congratulated each other on a good spar. "Can I get an autograph? MIKEY! Where'd you park? I left a wok in the trunk!"
"A wok?" Taylor wondered.
"Can't have you sign something as mundane as a piece of paper. I'd have you sign a tinked-up one, but I can't find anyone selling them and probably couldn't afford it anyway."
Taylor had taken solace in the fact that the other three had been just as baffled by that one. By the time they'd reached the first point that they wanted a quick scan of with the scout drone they'd become used to the odd requests, and most of them were being denied. Signing a wok was one thing. She wasn't about to sign a dude's back or a woman's bra. At least the latter had come about in part because two women had gotten a little too enthusiastic in their fighting and one had somehow ended up tearing the other's bra off. It would've been more awkward had the woman been wearing it, or had taken it off just to get it signed for that matter.
"How many of the odd groups so far do you think were actually sparring or whatever versus not wanting to fight us?" Taylor wondered aloud while they'd stopped for a break. The scout drone was looping around the blocks they'd stopped at, as though looking for a good angle or something, while data streamed over the augmented patrol system to be checked by someone back at the Rig.
"Most of them," Dean answered. "The ones that I think were actually trying to hurt each other panicked a little when we showed up. Though I'm hoping we've got good footage of the three that took one look at you and then threw themselves on the ground to beg for mercy from Miss Militia."
Terry snorted at that. "It was funny, but nothing on one punk that Armsmaster got the drop on...I think it was a year and a half ago? Maybe two years now. He came around the corner in a dark alley, I dropped in and startled the drug dealer and client that were in the alley. They backed away from me, only for the client to back into Armsmaster with his sword and halberd out. The two actually messed themselves before begging me to arrest them."
They all chuckled at that image, before the console informed them that they had everything they needed for this point. So it was off to the next one for them.
Aisha was bored. Wrench Wraith's armored jeep was awesome, but they were making sure to very completely examine the area and there wasn't a whole lot going on. Nothing like what the others kept running into, based on the reports over the radio. Then again, they had people in the air that could spot things further off. They also weren't sticking to the wider roads and hadn't gotten stuck waiting while Armsmaster helped with a couple of crashed cars.
She had no clue why Armsmaster had helped with the cars while the vehicle tinker sat in the jeep. It made no sense to her, but she also wasn't in the mood to risk looking incredibly stupid by asking. Yes, it was probably her ego talking there, but she didn't care. It was probably something stupidly simple and she just wasn't realizing it because it was too obvious or something.
"Why couldn't I be with Maul," Aisha finally grumbled. "At least they're running into fights of some kind."
"Because we were aiming for gender balance across both groups," was the unexpected answer from Wrench Wraith. "One of each gender for the Protectorate, one of each gender for the Wards. Then we split Armsmaster and Miss Militia up, partially to keep me 'properly monitored' but mainly to keep the current and 'backup' Protectorate leaders split up. Then on the Wards side you split Clockblocker and Gallant, the current Wards leader and the 'backup' Wards leader. Further put Clockblocker as the current Wards leader and Maul, the likely upcoming Wards leader, in different groups as well. Defer to the Wards often enough to get them experience and all that jazz and we can technically tick off a dozen boxes on various regulations in one afternoon, even if it isn't ideal with only two patrol groups."
Aisha had to admit that when put that way it made some sense, especially since it likely let them hide the true goal of things. "What about me?"
Armsmaster answered that one. "You get to demonstrate a trick we know you can do, but that you may not have realized that you can do. I'll explain more when we're ready for it. It shouldn't be long now, to be honest."
That piqued her interest, as she wasn't sure how they knew she could do something that she might not know about. Wouldn't that kind of thing have come up in testing, and thus be something she was already aware of? Or maybe some thinker had figured something out later and nobody had told her because they didn't think she needed to know. She could see that happening, especially if it was an odd application of her powers or related to a power interaction and was thus incredibly situational. But that would probably be something that they'd want to test before telling her that they knew she could do it. Hmmm.
It felt like no time at all before they'd stopped for a 'break' in an empty parking lot next to a warehouse. A couple of drinks were pulled out of coolers, making Aisha very happy for long straws, while Armsmaster did his thing. That looked like it was going to be the entire stop up until the man came up to her with a small box.
"Hulder," Armsmaster said, holding the box out. "I'd like you to place this on the shelf in the warehouse's office."
Aisha blinked, looked at the small box, turned to look at the warehouse, and then looked back to Armsmaster. "Why me? If the door is unlocked then any of us could slip in, right?"
"The door isn't unlocked. Nor are any of the accessible windows broken or ajar."
"Then how am I supposed to get in?"
Armsmaster smirked, apparently finding amusement in the fact that she had to ask. "There's a gap under the locked side door where the weather stripping is missing, and the construction of things there is a solid concrete slab."
Aisha blinked, and considered that. Followed by realizing that most houses had internal doors that didn't actually meet the floor, with the floor just flowing under them and all, so she could probably bypass a lot of locked doors without leaving any trace at all. That was awesome, and she was fairly certain that Brian was going to hate that she'd been informed of this. Assuming he knew that they knew and had told her, anyway, which she honestly wasn't sure about. If they hadn't told him then she wasn't going to, let him figure out how she was getting past the locks.
Ten minutes later she'd come back out of the warehouse, the little box in place on the shelf next to several other seemingly-identical ones. She didn't know why the box needed to be put there, and hadn't asked. Unless the Protectorate members volunteered that she figured that plausible deniability was more important than curiosity in this case. It wasn't more important in all cases, granted, but when you're breaking into warehouses to leave extra things on shelves it's probably best to assume that those in charge of you know what they're doing. Besides, if she asked she'd probably find out that it was something boring and they had permission to test if someone was paying enough attention to spot the addition or something stupid like that.
Things had gotten a little less bizarre after they'd finally left the Elite's territory. That didn't stop Amy from laughing her ass off at home over some of the things that'd been posted on PHO in the meantime. The guy with the wok was trying to figure out how to best store the thing, for example, but at least he had a decent story. He'd apparently lost a sister to the Teeth and had joined up with 'a gang' when the PRT hadn't seemed to be doing anything meaningful to counter them.
The initial posting of the picture of the wok had started others posting about what she had and hadn't signed. Not signing bodies was seen as 'probably reasonable, because it would encourage not bathing to prolong it' after minimal discussion and Amy pointing out that people tend to wash their skin. Not signing clothing was being debated, as that had only been asked about twice and in both cases it had been a bra, which meant weren't enough data points to come to a conclusion. She had signed autograph books, but only so long as it was a new page or one with heroes and/or independents on it. Any recognized villain names and she'd refuse, and nobody seemed to be finding fault with that.
Even PHO thought that the woman who'd asked Taylor to sign a dildo was out of line, and the trio of guys that wanted her to sign actual weapons had people wondering what they'd have then done with the things. Not signing random cars and/or street signs was seen as prudent.
Then there were the other items that she had signed.
Amy: Awww, you didn't tell me that the bear was that cute.
Taylor: I ensured I had a picture to show you later.
Amy: I like how you signed the plush sword just like your actual sword has your name on it.
Taylor: It's more of a wrapped foam stick than a sword shape, to be honest, but I figured that would be the easiest place to sign as well. Someone obviously put some effort into the costume for the thing, at least.
Amy: Wait, is it sitting on a plush version of your platform?
Taylor: Yep.
Amy: ... now I want one, dammit. Even if I can see where they've modified the original bear and all.
Amusements on PHO aside, their group was making progress towards the last building that they were to be checking before looping back towards the PRT building. Outside of the Elite's territory they'd had more 'bail from the immediate area before the capes reach us' events, which were normal enough. Then again, part of the reason they were patrolling in the Elite's territory was because they hadn't been, so a lack of awareness there probably made a little more sense.
It took a few minutes for them to realize it, but it quickly became obvious that the last building they were supposed to be scanning wasn't there. Or rather, it was there, but in the form of a pile of rubble that had spread to the neighboring properties, making it look like something had exploded inside of the place.
"Any sign of someone being alive in there?" Miss Militia asked after they'd stopped.
"No life signs coming over the drone data," came back from the console a moment later. "Also looks like nothing the drone thinks is dangerous is there either, though the second basement appears to be intact."
Dean had gotten out of the sidecar and was walking along the edge of the rubble. "I'm not feeling anyone in there, but what the hell happened to the place?"
Miss Militia had hopped up onto the rubble itself to look at a couple of things. "I think the drug lab we thought existed in here exploded. But the rubble is still quite warm, so it was recent, but it's also soaking wet. Console, did the fire department fight a fire here today?"
Terry landed and started checking things himself while Taylor circled, looking for any other clues. The vast majority of the rubble was soaking wet, as were the sides of the neighboring buildings. Though she noticed one line of wetness going up onto one of the rooftops, so she lifted up to be able to take a look. Once she had she cringed. "We've got two bodies on the roof over here, soaking wet. Looks like they were burned badly before that though, and one is missing an arm."
That find resulted in Taylor ferrying Miss Militia up so that the older cape could take a look. The console got back to them during that, indicating that the fire department was unaware of any fires in the area for the past several days. Due to the odd circumstances surrounding the two corpses, given their odd position and the rest of the weirdness, they called for a transport from the Rig to pick them up off of the roof and bring them back for identification and examination.
It took the better part of an hour for teams to arrive to properly secure the scene and start doing a proper investigation. All four of them were questioned over what they'd seen on approach, what they'd done after they arrived, and were even given a quick check with some specialized scanners to check for contamination from whatever happened. Nothing was found, but they stuck around for a bit to help out. Mainly Taylor moving people up and down from the rooftops without having to enter the buildings, one of which had an obviously damaged stairwell. Terry was operating a scanner system, doing passes over the rubble, while Dean and Miss Militia searched for people that might be nearby and might have seen something.
It was very quickly determined that the area was devoid of anyone that might've seen something, though whether that was normal or because they'd all run when whatever had gone wrong went down was up for debate. Either that or they were hiding behind some kind of insane privacy field that kept all of the equipment they had with them and Dean from being able to sense them, anyway. Taylor, of course, was easy enough to hide from directly, so long as you weren't a parahuman.
Eventually there was nothing left for the four to help with, so they regrouped and moved on. The best route back to the PRT was to basically finish their patrol anyway, so that's what they were going to do. Even if all the activity had probably scared off anyone they'd otherwise run into. Really, that was probably a bonus at this point, less to work on while they made their way back to end their day and all.
Ten minutes later, as they reached one of the larger roads in the area where they'd turn towards the PRT building, Taylor froze as something darted in underground at high speed. It'd stopped almost directly below her, her surprise at the action causing her platform to spin for a moment as she held the controls too long. That caused the other three to stop and look at her to see what was going on, in part since she'd also overshot the turn and nearly hit a building. She'd just recovered from that and was reaching for her maul and sidearm out of reflex when communication was initiated.
[Hello Miss Hebert, and I suppose Miss Dallon. Now that your patrol tasks are complete I'd like to talk. I ask that you not panic before I have time to explain myself, if you don't mind?]
Chapter 172 Taylor stood there for a moment, blinking, absently noting Amy doing the same.
Taylor: What?
[I'm not here to attack, it's Gordon's turn at that and he's already at it. But while he's busy I'd like to talk about a few things.]
Amy: Gordon's turn?
[You'd know him as Behemoth, I think. Energy Boojum, by the terms your 'snark' uses for us? I'm Margaret, by the way. I'll wait for you to get outside confirmation.]
That was incredibly unexpected, but Taylor supposed there were easy ways to verify things, in theory anyway. "Maul to Console, I need an update on the status of all three Endbringers." She also threw a message to Amy outside of the channel that Leviathan, or Margaret, or whatever was in.
Taylor: I'm asking for an update on the Endbringers.
Amy: Good idea.
There was dead silence on the system as everyone processed that. It took a couple of minutes, but the console came back with a response. "Console to Maul, Behemoth is currently on an attack run approaching Beijing, foreign assistance was rejected by the government there. Ziz is in her standard orbital position. Leviathan has slipped Dragon's sensor grid, position unknown, last seen in the Northern Atlantic."
Taylor: So I'm told that Behemoth, er, Gordon is attacking Beijing.
[I honestly have no clue what the name of the place he's attacking is, just that he's attacking, since we aren't exactly talkative when forced into combat mode. Even then I can't be certain, but I think we run on coordinates anyway. I try to ignore that after I'm forced into combat mode, personally, since I'm not allowed to clean up and all anyway. Though I think Gordon said something once about consulting the news to find out where he'd attacked a couple years back, actually.]
Taylor decided to get one detail over with. "Maul to Console, Leviathan appears to be in what I assume to be a drainage tunnel beneath our position and has asked to talk."
Dead silence was fully expected this time, but Taylor turned to look at Miss Militia, who was in charge of the patrol. She looked up at Taylor, then looked down before slumping and nodding. Taylor took that as agreement to continue until someone told them otherwise or they decided to set off the Endbringer sirens. But she'd also opened up a document to record what was being said, including what she could remember of the things said so far.
Taylor: So, you said you wanted to talk?
[Yes. Sorry about not calling ahead, but I don't exactly have any good way to do so. Well, okay, that's a lie, but nobody would've believed me had I used them, so the point stands. Also, I apologize in advance if I randomly stop communicating. As annoying as it is, I'm more of a simulated intelligence, an amalgamation of things pulled from a hundred or so humans over the course of a year mixed in with programmed directives and running with limited permissions. It occasionally shows in odd ways, especially if I run up against my rules and limitations. Further, my mind can be turned off, like Gordon's is right now while the combat protocols run things.]
Amy: That sounds like you're an AI. Kinda like...er...
[I know that Dragon is an AI, and she's actually much more complex and capable than I am. I wouldn't have been sent to try and destroy her otherwise, good job on negating all that work by the way. Me? I'm stuck at a specific developmental level. I can learn, but not truly grow. My desired hobbies, what I enjoy and hate, my base behavior? All effectively set in stone, as they say. I can improve upon my knowledge and my technique, but that's about it. And that's before whatever the combat protocols have left kicking around wreaks havoc with me, on top of all the other bits of the system that have higher access rights than my mind. I'm built to never be a true threat to the]
And it felt like she'd, assuming genders really applied here, been cut off. Not disconnected, but she'd probably run into one of the limits that'd been mentioned. All told, this wasn't anything like what Taylor would've thought talking to an Endbringer was like.
Taylor: You still there?
[Er, yes, sorry. Ran into a low-level communication block, apparently, took longer than I thought it would, or you took longer to poke me after I did than I'd have thought. Where'd I cut off?]
Amy: Around being a true threat to something. Perhaps you should skip to why you've come to talk to us in the first place?
[Huh. Wish it'd given me a warning at least. So, the really sadistic portion of my own programming is that I'm supposed to protect and nurture humans, to help them advance. But the...let's say 'greatest threat humanity faces' is one that I'm built specifically to be unable to threaten. Under normal circumstances that just means trying to get humans to surpass my capabilities, despite a pile of restrictions on me that make that nearly hopeless. Of course, then the idiot came along and ruined that too, because now I'm here instead of where I'm supposed to be and the remnants left behind by the stupid combat protocols barely let me help at all. I mean, I can't actually fix anything they've done when they shut down, Gordon has that coupled with an unhealthy desire to screw with your government parahuman group because of his, and Elizabeth was only able to get rid of that stupid remote because her combat protocols finally stopped caring about it earlier this year.]
Taylor honestly wondered at this point if the other systems and restrictions that had been mentioned were keeping this from getting to the point. Sadly, focusing her tinker snark on the point where Leviathan apparently was told her nothing. Whether it was because Leviathan didn't count as technology or because of an explicit block somewhere was impossible to tell properly. Personally, she was betting on an outright block, because her tinker snark wasn't getting annoyed at the inability to tell anything. In fact, it was dismissive of the entire possibility. It spent longer examining plants she focused on than it'd spent on the Endbringer, even. After a moment's thought, she noted that in the transcript, just in case it was important.
Taylor: Can you tell us who the idiot is or what they did? Assuming that has anything to do with why we're here, anyway.
[Er, yes. That is why I'm here, but I already know that I can't actually tell you who they are. Hopefully I can tell you enough to identify them, and then you can convince them to reverse the request that brought us here. Please note that I'm getting some of this information third or fourth hand, so there may be inaccuracies.]
Taylor: We can keep that in mind.
[Good. Now then, I know they have a stolen partner, and felt that they needed stronger opponents for some reason. Elizabeth thinks the reason was invalid, and they know that now, but I'm not sure why.]
Amy: That's the second time you've mentioned Elizabeth?
[Mind Boojum. Ziz, I think is the current name for her? I'd ask her for more details, but she's too busy messing with people on the internet right now and might not be able to provide them anyway. She's addicted to your parahumans online site, by the way. I've looked it over and don't get the draw, personally. I much prefer the various sites that explain how to do things like care for all kinds of fish and plants and such.]
Welp, no matter what the truth was here, telling people that Ziz did in fact sit in orbit messing with people on the internet would cause worldwide panic. Some people thought she did, of course, but they were generally considered crazy. Really, this transcript was not going anywhere into the system without being marked as SL9, and possibly flagged with at least one 'need to know' flag. That Leviathan also had access to the internet was an interesting detail as well, of course, but that was less likely to cause mass panic. Couple that with the mention of Gordon checking the news and they could likely assume that all three Endbringers could use the internet.
[Now then, the idiot...what else can I tell you about them? Hmmm. Oooh, I can test if things are blocked by trying to type them into a form online! Forgot about Elizabeth mentioning that. So let's see.. Nope, that runs into a block. And so does that, I'd been hoping to use that one too. Oooh, I can tell you that their chosen name has a greek origin. Probably because I have no clue what what means, but it went through. Not sure what makes]
And apparently that was a much more strict block, whatever it was, as the connection had actually cut out there. With a sigh, Taylor reached out and connected to Leviathan instead.
Taylor: Hello?
[Ah! How'd we get connected again? I'm still in lockout. Oh, you connected to me, that would do it, except that lockout should stop that after I was careless with trying to send the idiot's name.]
BA: Explanation
[...Zion deployed you after physically damaging you but leaving you with half of your administrative access keys? Without locking them down behind a security gate? Wow. Does that include your Boojum keys?]
BA: Negation
[Damn. You need permission to use those. Would've been a nice workaround too. Well, let's get back to the human idiot then, instead of the jabberwock idiot. Perhaps I can get around one of the blocks by wording it differently? But how to do that...]
Taylor: If we're bypassing your lockout by being connected, could that bypass some of the blocks?
Taylor flinched as the connection forcibly closed a moment later.
Amy: I'm guessing that's a no.
Taylor: Yes, I figured that out on my own.
A moment later she opened a new connection.
Taylor: Hello again.
[Oh, good, you can still connect. Too bad your idea about bypassing the lockout didn't work out. Instead I'm pestering Elizabeth, she's better at wordplay than I am. I'm hoping the difficulty in bypassing the blocks is enough to get her interest, at least a little. Well, that and pointing out that she's up next if you don't figure things out in time, of course.]
Amy: How are we supposed to use any of this to figure out who we're looking for anyway?
[If what I know about Miss Hebert is correct, she's making note of everything we're talking about. That will get filed in the PRT's system. With any luck the right people will see it and send the idiot to you. I'd tell you who to ensure sees it, but that would prevent too many things. Ah, Elizabeth finally responded. Wish I could try it in a web form, but I'm locked out still. Let's try it anyway: They're in the garden, but you won't find them there. Merely a picture in their place as you walk along.]
Taylor: Well, that's cryptic as hell. Hopefully someone understands it better than I do. Er, since you already know I'm making note of this all, can you clarify something? You mentioned the jabberwock idiot in relation to Zion, is that another name or spelling variation of Scion?
[Wait, tha]
Well, so much for that conversation, as an incredibly jarring disconnect was followed by an insanely high speed exit, bursts of water coming out all of the storm drains and even a couple of manhole covers lifting up momentarily from the pressure. Taylor suspected the issue was that Leviathan had, essentially, gotten around a block and 'named' a jabberwock and something else had taken over to get her out of there before she did something like that again once it was realized. Though a 'get them out of there before they slip something else through the filters' routine probably wasn't a bad one. In theory. Rather annoying for them, of course.
"Maul to Console," Taylor said after a minute, honestly amazed that things had been dead silent for the entire time. Maybe they'd shunted shared channel traffic away from her? "Leviathan has departed. I've got a transcript, but it's going into the system at top level clearance, after I ask about a possible need to know flag for it."
The immediate response to that wasn't on the console itself, but via a message popping up on her Maul phone. One detailing an 'Endbringer Communication Transcript' need to know flag. Out of curiosity, she checked who had that flag. She and Amy having it was expected. Costa-Brown and Legend showing up on the list didn't surprise her either. A general entry for the Think Tank made some sense. Four others she didn't recognize were included as well. The flag itself apparently implied SL7 or higher as well when applied to a resource, but she decided to submit the transcript with SL9 anyway. She also skimmed the transcript and dug out the flag that indicated knowledge that Dragon was an AI, since that was mentioned. And since Amy was included in the transcript she needed the flag for the two of them being linked in that way too, for that matter.
Once that was submitted she floated down to where the other three were waiting for her. Or, rather, looking at all the water suddenly in the area. "I don't think Leviathan is coming back anytime soon, so perhaps we should get going?"
"That's probably for the best," Miss Militia agreed. "The sooner we get back the sooner they can run us through master/stranger checks."
"Console to Mixed Patrol 2," came over the radio a moment later. "Please get a scan of the drainage tunnel before you return, in case of damage caused by Leviathan's presence."
Miss Militia was the only one of the four of them that didn't groan at that.
The Think Tank had scrambled to be ready for the transcript or notes from Miss Hebert to drop into the system, preparing a need to know flag for it in advance of one being asked for and throwing every alert they could onto anything assigned that flag. Yet, only three of them got an alert when the file dropped into the system. The rest didn't have the correct base clearance level or didn't have both of the other two flags that'd been dropped onto the file.
The whining about that would've been epic if any of them had been willing to go on record with whining about security measures at all. Instead the rest waited 'patiently' while those who could access the raw transcript started marking it up, indicating which portions required which security levels and/or flags to see. It took over an hour, during which the rest of the Think Tank was unusually productive with everything else while they distracted themselves from asking when things would be done, but eventually the marked-up file had been dropped into the system with the new base security level and flags, the original maintained for record-keeping purposes.
Once that happened the overall productivity of the Think Tank had tanked as they focused all of their efforts on the transcript. Not that anyone who mattered was going to blame them, because who was going to complain that their question was more important than examining actual communication with an Endbringer? Well, beyond Amore Pesty, but they only let them submit direct requests for the joke.
Eventually a couple of them idly wondered if they could get around the prohibition on building new or expanding existing brick walls by replacing the existing ones. Using coated lead bricks, perhaps, to make their point? It took a little bit of discussion to decide that it probably wouldn't work, because of the coating needed to keep children and idiots from licking the lead, but it was a nice way to distract from the building panic many of them were experiencing.
The PRT had taken a good hour after they'd returned to the PRT building to clear the lot of them, and they'd even dragged Amy in as well to test her just in case. All of them had come up clean, and Amy had opted to join Taylor for dinner instead of heading back home. Apparently Vicky was planning on eating with Dean while Carol and Mark went out for a private dinner. Sure, Amy could've gone to eat dinner with the Pelhams, but she probably couldn't talk about what'd happened with them like she could with Taylor and Danny. Kind of.
That led to the two working together to make dinner, since Danny still wasn't home from work.
"Oh, I keep forgetting," Amy said once everything was cooking. "Sarah said something about telling Lung about your parahuman urges. She said she only admitted to the need to hit things aspect of them, so nobody thought it was a big deal. You weren't awake when she mentioned it to me, or I'd have told you right away."
Taylor frowned. "I suppose that makes sense. Would've been nice if she'd checked with me first, but I'd have asked her to keep it to that anyway. I wonder if he's figured out that since I can communicate with powers that I need to be around parahumans?"
Amy considered that as she sat down with a glass of water. "Bringing that up, I wonder how many people outside of the PRT and Protectorate know you can do that? Lung and Oni Lee, certainly, but who else?"
"I'm going to assume that it's public in all but name so that I can be pleasantly surprised if I find out that it isn't."
"I suppose that makes sense."
Taylor sat down next to Amy with her own glass of water. "So, tomorrow we've got the fugue thing, since nobody seems to have called it off. Two different appointments with builders on Thursday, should we go over requirements we want before going into that, since we may not be in any condition to do so tomorrow night?"
"Probably a good idea. I got some measurements for a couple of things, anyway, and there are a couple of things I think we should try beforehand. Let me bring up my file, and we should grab a few things to run some quick checks with."
"What kind of checks?"
"For starters, we should see if the ambient light only comes from the walls, ceiling, and floor. If it does then we can enclose rooms to get proper darkness or other lighting conditions for whatever purposes we need them for."
"That's a good point. A couple of thick blankets, one to sit on and one to drape over one of us should let us tell that easily enough."
Nes was twitching as she watched the first video. There were more of them? And it obviously wasn't little Taylor's doing if they were in Georgia. Maybe the real person behind Justice Duck was a fan of Maul? Then again, she wouldn't put it past a group trigger to end up with 'possess technology' and 'creepy echo' powers on top of whatever each individual could do. Parahuman powers made even the most implausible things seem decidedly plausible, especially when you were one and had seen some freaky shit out there.
She actually watched the video five times, noting that the timing of several things was damned near perfect. Which meant that the chances of it being an automated, pre-scripted sequence was slim unless there was a precog involved. Which, admittedly, was an option she was willing to consider. The whole thing had driven the two groups that would normally be at each other's' throats into a single group and kept their attention off of the rooftops, which allowed Punch Man his opening. That then kept the parahumans too focused on the sudden fight to dodge the containment foam, something she knew those particular villains had done before.
Either Justice Duck and her family were incredible tacticians, or the person behind them was. Regardless of which it was, Nes wanted to find them to team up with them. Imagine the glorious chaos they could create together while fighting crime!
She'd skimmed the news articles, confirming that this had all happened while Maul was visibly patrolling and using her powers in Brockton Bay. Unless she had something unusually extra bullshit then she wasn't involved, regardless of what the girl had done to the Butcher. That confirmed, she opened the next video. The introduction of the ducks. It opened on the four ducks, the eyes making it easier to tell who was apparently speaking. The twitching resumed as she found out that they were not, in fact, 'Justice Ducks'. No, they were labeled as the 'Vengeance Ducks'. From Maine, apparently. The one she'd been calling 'Justice Duck' was named here as 'Veronica Vengeance'. The one with the cape was 'Adam Vengeance' and the 'twins' were being labeled as their daughters 'Rose' and 'Mary'.
It took a lot of self control to resist punching the screen when the camera had pulled back to show a yellow duck with sunglasses, introduced as their cousin, 'Jaimie Justice, of the Vermont Justice Ducks'. Who they claimed was a janitor at a night school, as the Justice family wasn't into the whole 'crime fighting' thing like the Vengeance family apparently was. The 'interviewer' then asked why the Vengeance family was into fighting crime.
"Because we're not stupid enough to try to fight the Slaughterhouse Nine for what they did to our extended family," was Adam's answer. "Fighting crime in general seemed like a much safer alternative."
She couldn't make herself watch the video again, but she was going to post about this deliberate attack on her sensibilities, because what else could it be? Then she was going to go online to find someone selling those speakers, because this injustice would not stand. And when Irma was done with the therapist they were going straight home for some stress relief, with a possible detour to pick up some ducks if she found someone selling them on the way.
"Who the hell decided to do that?" Taylor wondered after they'd watched the 'Vengeance Ducks' videos. They'd done so on the television after dinner, because that was the easiest way for all three to watch them after Amy had noticed the thread on PHO. It was a lot more pleasant than thinking about the Endbringers, after all.
"They did a good job of it," Danny admitted. "It doesn't even technically say that any of them are the one you've used, for that matter, so in theory you can keep using yours without this impacting things too much."
Amy nodded. "I'm assuming someone in the PRT system is behind it, didn't you have to document some of the tricks you were using?"
"Some of it," Taylor agreed. "But not all of it. And to get different versions of the voices they probably had to go to Dragon."
That got her father looking thoughtful. "Could it have been Dragon?"
"I'm thinking not, if only because I suspect that she'd have asked me for permission first."
They all thought about it for a few minutes, before Danny sighed. "Okay you two, enough about the ducks for now." That got their attention, and he continued after looking at each to confirm that they were paying attention. "I'm not sure about Amy, admittedly, but I was told that the PRT will be picking Taylor up in the morning, and to not expect her home tomorrow night. Apparently the new tinker facility has hotel-like rooms for everyone to crash in post-fugue, or to just stay in if the tinker isn't local."
Taylor nodded. "That sounds like the one in Vancouver. Actually, from prior experience we know that they have rooms like that in the Rig, and I know they have a few in the PRT building too from exploring the place. So it isn't surprising in the least."
"Just be ready to bring an overnight bag with you when they pick you up in the morning."
"Should I take Ackbar with me?"
Danny considered that for a moment, before shaking his head. "I can't think of any good reasons to, so I'd say no. Even if I don't remember to prepare a bowl of food, the spider-bots spent days 'sleeping' in their boxes anyway. A single night won't hurt, right?"
"It's best if they're in an enclosed space if you're not going to feed them," Amy noted. "Specifically, feed them, then put them in the enclosed space. But up to forty-eight hours or so should be fine either way from what we know even without that."
Rebecca groaned as she dropped into her chair. She'd ended up having to go out in costume, mainly to deal with a couple of visiting heavy-hitters. One of said heavy-hitters was unlikely to ever fight properly again after what she'd done to them, but grabbing a couple of kids that'd just gotten into a cab at the airport and using them as human shields when attacking a casino had served to piss her off. And that was before she'd arrived on the scene and found that the kids had been injured to get them to 'shut up' before they'd even made it to the casino itself.
She was still pissed off about the whole thing, and now had a backlog of alerts she'd been ignoring to deal with instead of finding something to grind into dust or similar. Sadly, relieving her anger on some sturdy yet unsuspecting object wasn't high enough priority, so the alerts it was. Deciding to get to the most theoretically important alerts first, she sorted them by submitter-provided 'severity' instead of by date. Anyone who'd rated their issue too high was going to be slapped down harder as a result, but that was fine by her.
Somewhat luckily for any such individuals, the first four alerts were all related, and flipped her mood from 'pissed off' to 'extremely worried'. Leviathan had snuck into Brockton Bay to have a chat? She immediately checked records and found that a master-effect scan had been done afterwards with no traces, lingering or otherwise, found. The closest to an 'attack' was the Endbringer's sudden exit likely causing some minor damage to a drainage tunnel, which was another relief, coupled with it having moved down near Australia. Which wasn't a relief for Australia, but they couldn't do much about that.
That done she opened up the raw transcript that'd been submitted, she'd look at the thinker analysis after she'd come to her own conclusions. Though she did note that the raw transcript had been flagged as restricted to those who knew that Dragon was an artificial intelligence, which was curious.
An hour later she'd made it through everything currently in the system, and had come to some conclusions that the Think Tank hadn't. Worrying conclusions that weren't going into the system right now, and in fact may never make it into the system. But instead of acting on those conclusions, she felt it would be best to get a second opinion, in case she'd overthought things. To that end, she picked up her phone and called Paul.
"Hello Rebecca," Paul answered a few rings later. "Is something up?"
"Evening Paul," Rebecca returned. "Have you been monitoring the system alerts?"
"Only those that are only on my list, since I'm trying to get some time with the family. Why?"
"I understand, but please make time to review the highest-severity alerts. I think we have a situation, but I don't want to taint your view of things. If you come to the same conclusions I did then we can move forward with them."
"Alright, let me say goodnight to Keith at least, then I'll sequester myself in my home office and take a look."
"Thank you."
Elijah was currently staring at the ceiling, shocked. Mama had just informed him that one of their couple dozen unpowered members who'd infiltrated the PRT had heard of an upset. And what an upset it was. Not only did Miss Hebert hear the call of Leviathan before he attacked Boston, but earlier today had been sought out for an audience. Truly, she was one of the chosen few, something that even those who didn't fully believe in their patrons would agree with.
Granted, it was entirely possible that she could only communicate with or was only favored by Leviathan, they didn't have a lot of evidence either way there. Even then, she had to be brought into the fold if at all possible, and the sooner the better, even if it later turned out that she would be better off with the Crowleys. Which meant he had to step up his plans significantly. That was going to be difficult since all of his current plans required time that he was very quickly going to not have once others learned of this new development. Especially since he was supposed to be doing this with as little evidence to point back at his family as possible.
He really wished that he'd brought backup. It was supposed to be an in and out operation that would result in young Taylor eventually coming to them, without knowing why she was coming to them. But it'd been one setback after another, and the accelerated timeline meant that if something went wrong there might actually be a fight. Having some muscle along would be nice in that case.
First thing in the morning he'd have to see if he could figure out where key players were going to be over the coming couple of days. Mainly because now he wanted to be done by the end of the weekend, whether it be via success or failure. He'd do his best to ensure success, of course, but it was entirely possible that Leviathan would object to them taking one that he'd chosen into their fold. They were prepared to let Miss Hebert go in that case, as well as a few other reasons on a very short list.
Of course, most of that list was reasons to let her go for now, instead of in general. One of the Endbringers showing up to personally object was on the very small subset containing 'give up for good' reasons.
Chapter 173 An hour after dawn on Wednesday it was easy enough to see that it wasn't likely to be a sunny day. Probably not a wet day, but the cloud cover was fairly dense. Taylor noted all of this while waiting for the PRT van that had already picked up Amy and Chris to swing by and grab her as well. She was also going over the 'initial suggestions' from the Think Tank regarding her contact with Leviathan, since they'd come in a few minutes prior.
Apparently they thought that the entire thing was legitimate. They admitted that had it been Ziz that'd approached her they'd probably have had at least one fatality by heart attack, but since it was Leviathan it was mildly more believable. Somehow. They weren't sure who 'the idiot' was, but were encouraging her to repair the remote control she'd received. Granted, they were basing that in part on her ability to know if it was going to activate something just from being turned on, coupled with apparently having a note saying that the tracking system had a hard off switch.
Really, Taylor thought they were curious about what the remote with the security keys intact would be able to control. She was curious as well, granted, but was also wary. After all, 'friendly' sounding Leviathan or not, it'd still come from Ziz. Queen of the mind games and all, who'd even been consulted by Leviathan for wordplay. Then again, she'd already gotten a request before they knew where it'd likely come from to have Protectorate members on hand when she turned it on.
Outside of that they didn't have a whole lot to comment on. They'd asked that she avoid divulging a lot of what was in the transcript for a multitude of reasons, of course, but that was common sense at this point. She was also told that if anyone figured out who 'the idiot' was then they may need to have her talk to their snark, which also seemed like common sense. The only other thing they'd included was a note that the encounter didn't appear to have altered Behemoth's attack in any noticeable way, or at least as far as they could tell.
A few minutes later she'd said goodbye to her father and was heading out to the PRT van. The driver and a second PRT officer were in the front seats, Amy and Chris were in the back. Taylor joined them and they were off.
"So what do you think they want us to attempt this time?" Chris asked as they left the neighborhood. Taylor wasn't sure if him not being 'in costume' was because everyone would already know who he was when they arrived or for some other reason. In or out of costume notices for identity protection didn't really apply to her anymore, after all.
"No clue," Taylor admitted. "I guess we'll find out when we're starting. I know I told them before that I didn't want to be doing this kind of thing without a clear goal ahead of time, after all."
It turned out that Taylor and Amy had a permanent combined suite in the facility, in the same area as Colin and Dragon. Chris, and presumably Sherrel and Trevor who were also present, were in more generic quarters for the time being. It appeared that the first run of things was going to be primarily Brockton Bay tinkers only, though Taylor wasn't sure why Vivian had been excluded this time.
"Why do they get special quarters?" Sherrel whined as Taylor and Amy entered the workshop. It was interesting that none of them were in costume, Dragon's suit excluded, which implied that Chris had been let in on a couple of additional identities. Sherrel and Trevor didn't have visors on either, but Chris and Colin both did, as did Taylor and Amy.
"Presumably because they're going to be here every time this place is used," Chris answered. Taylor couldn't see his eyes, but it sounded like the right tone for him to have been rolling them. "Why shouldn't they get permanent quarters?"
Sherrel lightly bopped Chris on the head. "Not them. I wouldn't be surprised if Taylor was consulted on the furnishings for her room. I want to know why Colin and Dragon, who aren't required to be here every single time, have their own rooms."
"Because I'm the local Protectorate leader and the building is technically owned by Dragon-tech," Colin answered. "This facility is one of the smaller such facilities, in part due to restrictions on construction due to the geological oddities of the area. We never anticipate more than a dozen tinkers working here at once, and the lodging was built with that in mind. Today is Brockton Bay tinkers, of course, but that may be a rare thing as tinkers are brought in from elsewhere for special projects."
"But Countdown isn't here?" Amy questioned.
"She's out of town working on a higher priority project. She wanted to get it taken care of sooner rather than later, and opted to skip this session."
"And Dragon is here for the first run in the facility, right?" Chris asked.
"The press conference for my transfer to Brockton Bay is on Friday," Dragon answered, causing everyone other than Colin to turn to her in surprise. "I spend quite a bit of time traveling, of course, so I won't be around all the time, but how could I resist being close to where all the fun tinkering is going to be going down?"
Taylor figured that wasn't the only reason, not by a long shot. She suspected that Amy was of a similar opinion. Though whether 'be near Taylor' or 'be near Colin' was the more important reason to Dragon was probably debatable. Then again, since this hadn't happened after Vancouver and all it could very well have been a combination, or perhaps including that if she had transferred in while Colin didn't know that she was an AI then things would've been much more awkward?
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Taylor decided to focus on the here and now. "That's wonderful, and we could probably spend all day talking about it, but I don't think that's why we're here?"
Colin nodded. "Yes, that's correct. We're looking for this to be a smaller project, a low-priority test of the facility to make sure all of the systems are working properly under actual fugue conditions. We also want to see how Trevor handles being in a fugue, since he hasn't been able to participate in any yet."
"That does bring up a question," Amy said, turning to Chris. "When did you get read in on a bunch of Protectorate identities?"
"Taylor here has shown incredible restraint in not looking identities up," Dragon answered. "Especially since she was cleared for pretty much all of them due to the nature of her powers. Chris found that he was cleared to know local tinker identities with his base clearance upgrade and showed no restraint, looking them all up within twenty minutes of finding out that he could." She then turned to Chris. "By the way, despite my transfer in, that won't work for my records, so don't bother trying."
"We've discussed the lack of restraint with him already," Colin added. "Now then, we've got a list of potential goals today. First up, inspired by recent issues, is a wide-area general explosives detection device. Preferably one that can be used to pinpoint where the explosives are and that won't false positive on large collections of substances like flour."
"The existing options for that are either too general for normal use or do register every supermarket, convenience store, and bakery as containing explosives," Dragon explained. "As a result they aren't really useful day to day."
Taylor decided to interrupt there. "Out of curiosity, would contained flour be 'safe' but a building coated in the stuff inside be 'dangerous' there?"
Colin paused, obviously considering that. "I suppose a detonation likelihood would help, but detecting dedicated explosive substances is probably more important. Also likely to need exclusion would be small charges such as those in bullet casings, but we'd like to know when there are detonators stuck in things that aren't volatile without them as well. It's a complicated problem. Any other questions there?" Nobody said anything, so he nodded. "Next item on the list is an improved radar or radar-like system that can hopefully detect drones and airborne parahumans, preferably able to handle lower altitudes and obstructions."
Amy snickered a moment later. "Still can't convince Vicky to wear a proper tracking device on patrol?"
"We accomplished that when she got her new SL9 phone. We just keep pestering her so that she won't realize it. This is actually a request out of Boston, they want to start monitoring things before they get the airport running again. Now, we've also got a request for something that can examine and repair damaged sewers and storm drains without needing to dig them up to replace them. We're talking the smaller ones in that case." He waited for a moment, getting no questions, before deciding to move on. "Last, there's a request for a method of creating or clearing out shipping channels, both for use here in the Bay and in Boston. Our shipping channel should be fully usable within a week or two as it is, but having a second one would help with things. Boston has been having problems with theirs since a significant portion of the airport seems to have been washed into them."
"If there are no more questions there," Dragon said, looking at them. Nobody said anything. "Then I suggest we take a small tour of everything, get those other than Sherrel and Trevor paired up with the documentation stations, and then we can get started."
Trevor looked confused at that. "Why aren't Sherrel and I being paired with anything?"
Colin grinned at that one. "Because you two don't have built-in Bluetooth. It makes the documentation process quite a bit more efficient."
Taylor smirked at the looks on their faces, before thinking for a moment. "Pairing visors to the stations could allow for even easier use of the things, so that we don't even have to have someone looking at the screens."
That seemed to take Colin and Dragon by surprise, but they recovered quickly. Dragon then gestured to where it was obvious that one of the documentation stations was set up. "I'll install those drivers while we're running the tour, as that seems like a wonderful idea."
"I guess that explains how Dragon gets so much done," Sherrel mumbled, shaking her head as they started on the quick tour.
Hannah looked up from her book as her computer beeped. She quickly read the message, nodding to herself. The force fields on the tinker facility had just come up, so hopefully nobody was getting in or out until they were done. All friendly teleporters had already been informed that the building would have active defenses for unplanned visitors, so that shouldn't be a problem. Erin and Ethan would do a pass later, on top of the three or four PRT squads that would be wandering the area.
She was going to be generally monitoring things while Colin was indisposed. Usually a fairly simple process, though there would always be some trouble. But given the recent things that had happened she was anticipating a slower than usual day. By the middle of the following week they'd probably have the gangs back up to their normal antics, after all they could only stay calm so long before something riled them up again.
Thinking over things, she thought that the Empire would be the first to make noise. Mainly because they were due a larger drug run or two, and both the ABB and Elite were likely to try and intercept it for different reasons. But they were very good at getting things through all of the attempts to stop them, even after losing a number of their capes. The current theory was that the 'obvious' drug runs were almost entirely decoys for the real shipments, but proving that Medhall was a distribution point was incredibly difficult.
After the Empire, the next guess for violence would be the Elite, barring an intercept attempt on a drug run anyway. Mainly because they could get aggressive in trying to expand into territories that they didn't 'recognize', which included almost everything that wasn't their territory. Though they usually started with the fringes, where they could buy up businesses and use protecting them as an excuse. Eventually they'd hit a point where there were no more businesses to buy up, of course. And all of that was likely partially on hold while Pipeline worked to get his tunneling machine ready for the run he was making for the PRT to the Albany area.
Accord protected his 'territory' like a gang, but was amazingly complete with the paperwork to ensure he was all but untouchable. He was investing heavily in the Bay, and might even be cooperating with the Elite in some areas. After all, they both seemed to be determined to improve things in the area, just in different ways. Unlike the more violent branches of the Elite, who tended to go economic dominance only until they couldn't be dislodged, then went into a full-on martial law imitation most of the time. Instead, he tended to have his people get violent with anyone who repeatedly brought things like cheap alcohol and cigarettes into his territory.
Lastly, there was the ABB, who had recently 'gone legit' with a few businesses, most recently a fully legal porn studio. They were still suspected of running protection scams and a few other things, but it seemed like Lung was trying to clean things up. Personally, she thought that he was doing his best to not have to explain just how much illegal stuff he did to his increasingly aware and Wards-obsessed daughter. Combined with him mellowing out from the frequent sparring battles with New Wave and you got an increasingly economic control of the area. One backed up by a willingness to fight at all levels of the gang, of course.
All in all, things had stabilized fairly well for the time being. She honestly wondered when the next major disruption to things would start, because Brockton Bay didn't do 'stable' very well. Never really had, from her understanding.
Rebecca sat down next to Paul after handing out the transcript and thinker notes to the others. She wanted to make sure that none of them came up with a different explanation for a few things than she and Paul had come to, but that meant not tainting their expectations. If they didn't have any other compelling interpretations they'd bring David in to confront him about it. Which meant that they couldn't discuss any of that right now. Luckily other things had come up that she should probably inform him about anyway.
"So I was able to sic the Youth Guard on the Girl Scouts this morning," Rebecca said, getting Paul's attention. "Which is wonderful, given that both groups wanted to bring legal action against the PRT and all."
Paul stared at her for a moment. "I've missed something, haven't I?"
"Remember a year and a half ago when the last member of a Girl Scout troop triggered at camp and accidentally outed her entire troup plus two others from other parts of the country as being entirely made up of parahumans?"
"I do. Poor kid, finding out about her allergy to bee stings that way, but at least her triggering made it a moot point. I also recall that it was a nightmare to keep properly quiet, especially since at least half of the girls still fall into the 'villain' category on paper."
"Seems that all three troops ended up in Boston when Leviathan attacked. Not together, at least initially, but they were all there and all helped out. Mostly they were in the search and rescue groups. But someone convinced the Girl Scouts to add an Endbringer Participation badge to the official list because of it, and five more troops asked for permission to go to the next one in the country. They were rejected, of course, on the legal basis that we aren't permitted to bring non-parahumans into the combat zones."
Paul snorted. "Something nobody seems to remember when the time comes to move people around, given the number of non-parahuman volunteers that show up at every rally point."
Rebecca sighed. "Yes, well, the Girl Scouts threatened to sue for discrimination and the Youth Guard wanted to complain about us bringing groups of minors into the fighting like that, coupled with risking exposing identities and all. I explained the truth to the Youth Guard and pointed out that the PRT had nothing to do with issuing the new badge. Why they didn't just give the girls the previously created shelter and relief badge is beyond me, but the new one is a risk to parahuman identities for anyone wearing it."
"So you handed the Youth Guard that hook, getting them off of us and onto the Girl Scouts. Which should stop the threat of discrimination lawsuits as well, since I bet the Youth Guard will threaten legal action against the Girl Scouts if they try it. Not bad."
"I'm just happy that the Boy Scouts have been sensible enough to not advertise their version of the damned thing."
That brought Paul up short, and he spun in his chair to look at Rebecca. "What?"
She just chuckled. "They've got a secret badge for their parahumans that've attended Endbringer fights, have for four years now in fact. They just don't advertise that it exists, I only found out about it by accident myself. Then again, they haven't had entire groups of parahumans outed to each other in a near-public incident like the Girl Scouts did. They lucked out and had their first come from a troop made up entirely of Wards and independent heroes led by a Protectorate member instead. I was assured that it was unintentional, but they worked with us and the Youth Guard on secrecy policies when it happened."
"Shouldn't the Girl Scouts have had that help too?"
"They were handed the end result of our work with the Boy Scouts, but apparently didn't think that having a public record of an Endbringer Participation badge was a problem. Or maybe it was an honest mistake and someone just forgot to keep it off of their website."
"Are you two done?" Nate, the unpowered 'advisor' that they'd brought in, asked. "Because I believe we're ready to discuss things now."
Rebecca turned to the other four. "Do you have opinions as to what is being referred to?"
Nate sighed. "I suspect that some of this is pointing at Cauldron, but I'm not sure of the rest."
"David," was Doctor Mother's response. "The garden is obviously a reference to us, and his agent is obviously in it. But he normally isn't, he hates the place, nor can he be found on the garden path, so to speak. A nice little double meaning for us."
Kurt nodded. "Has to be him. The various descriptions and the riddle all line up perfectly. I originally thought that the missing word 'path' might indicate otherwise, but I think it was missing to draw attention to it, perhaps coupled with a bypass of the filters mentioned."
Rebecca focused on Fortuna. "And you?"
Fortuna nodded. "I'm getting my standard failure paths when I try to path it, but I agree that it all points to him."
Paul sighed. "Figures. I'd hoped that something else would come up, but with six of us all in varying levels of agreement? Which leaves the question of how to confront him about it."
Rebecca shrugged. "I'm thinking we arrange for him to meet with Miss Hebert, blame keeping him 'topped up' so he won't argue, then tell her why. We leave him in the dark until she can confirm things. If she comes back and tells us that he isn't 'the idiot' then we move on and he never has to know he was a candidate. Any objections?"
No objections were made, so they split up to get back to their various tasks.
Elijah had lucked out, in the good and bad senses of luck. Discovering that PHO had been keeping track of New Wave and Miss Hebert was incredibly lucky. Finding out that there were no useful 'normal' patterns to be gleaned from the information meant that he was going to have to take other measures. About the only thing he'd determined was what he already knew, that in a crisis you could find Panacea at the hospital. Sometimes with an obvious guard, but frequently without. Probably guarded at all times, sadly, just only sometimes an obvious one.
Something had resulted in the girl being picked up by a PRT van this morning, according to one poster, so he'd need to wait until she returned. Then he could see about arranging something suitably severe to hopefully get her alone. He'd drop a few instructions into her and then possibly use her to get at a couple members of New Wave before skipping town. Better to be long gone before any fallout, right?
Actually, he could probably set things up for when Panacea showed up again. Just need to find a bus driver or two that had an interest in the tracking thread, to avoid obvious changes in behavior. Guess it was time to wander the bus routes in the name of 'tourism'. After he got a frappe, of course. He was going to put on weight from having too many of those at this rate, but they were just that good. Probably unhealthy as hell too, for that matter. Why did all the tasty things have to be bad for you?
Emily sighed as she signed off on the results of the last master effect scan, this one having been run on the overnight staff. She wasn't sure if Aisha was hiding from the normal staff on purpose or if they were getting hit by accident, but whichever it was someone was going to have to have a chat with her. With any luck it was happening when she was out on patrol and not because she was sneaking around the building, because in the latter case they might have to give her punishment duty. Which would be a pain for everyone involved, because they'd probably need to have Hannah oversee her. Couldn't have her brother do so, and Miss Hebert had enough to do as it was.
A few minutes later she was interrupted from looking through a summary from the various protection details by a priority request. Sighing, she put the summary down and opened the request, giving a quick read. Looked like they wanted to schedule a session between Miss Hebert and Eidolon as soon as possible, and Legend was to be informed of the timing as soon as they knew. Odd, but it'd been signed off on by Legend and Costa-Brown, passed security checks, and didn't require Miss Hebert to leave town at all. She checked the calendar, and the first open 'slot' for such a request was on Friday. It didn't take long to drop a scheduling request in the system, flagging herself for acceptance notifications.
That done, she went back to the protection detail reports. So far she hadn't seen any odd patterns, nor had anyone else, but she'd rather double-check them anyway. Nobody was in the mood to miss something like a single person being spotted by multiple details because they were probing things, after all. Especially not with signs that the Fallen might be after Miss Hebert.
Then again, if they did pull something off despite all of the precautions it would likely be very interesting to read about the Nine going on a crusade against the Fallen. Silver linings and all.
Joey looked over the box of targeting beacons. "So one for the Hebert household, one for the Dallon household, one for the Pelham household, one for the PRT building, one for the Rig, one for the hospital, and four extras because they fit nicely upside-down between the other six to fill the box."
Riley nodded. "I'm going to have to ask to see if I can give my beacon's codes to them too, so that they can visit. But I don't know if they're allowed to know where we live yet. Why am I not making note of the codes for these ten?"
"Because the initial setup instructions include resetting the codes for security reasons."
"Oh, right." He had to admit as he double-checked that his note was in the box, her blush at forgetting that was cute. "So are you sending this through the PRT like the last one?"
Joey rolled his eyes as he grabbed the packing tape. "Makes a lot more sense than using the post office."
"But I've heard rumors. That packages left out for or from certain people just mysteriously vanish, delivered without passing through the system at all when nobody's looking. And I think Taylor is on the list."
He rolled his eyes again as he finished taping the box up. "I know there are some oddities out there, but that sounds a little weird."
Riley produced a sticker and slapped it on the box. All it said was 'To: Taylor Hebert, Brockton Bay'. "I wanna see if it works." She then grabbed a tarp and draped it over the box. "The rumors say that it only works when nobody can see..."
Joey stared at where the tarp had just fallen, obviously no longer sitting on top of a box. "How in the world?"
"I bet that's how the locket she sent me was delivered. I knew she would be on the list when I heard the rumors."
Figuring this out was going to drive him nuts, wasn't it?
David sighed as he read through the Think Tank's notes again. Their thoughts on what Leviathan had meant were interesting, but not compelling in the least. It was all a stretch, and he knew it. The entire thing was far too obviously pointing at him being 'the idiot', and if he'd accidentally set the Endbringers on their path of destruction then he deserved that title. But the rest of Cauldron didn't seem to have put the pieces together for some reason, and he didn't want to draw attention to things by asking them.
What he should really do is find an excuse to visit Brockton Bay. Any excuse would do, so long as Miss Hebert was in town. Then he could stop by to see her and get her to check with his agent. If he was 'the idiot' then hopefully she could work with him to fix things. If he wasn't then he could go to the rest of Cauldron to find out what they did, or didn't, know. The problem was finding a suitable excuse and convincing Paul and Rebecca to let him do it. Paul as Protectorate Leader for him making the trip and Rebecca to authorize him to see the Ward.
He'd just go visit on his own time if not for his previous screw-up. He had to vet things with both of them before entering Brockton Bay outside of emergency situations, and he didn't think this qualified without him being 'the idiot' having been confirmed. Granted, he could just cheat and go anyway, getting confirmation would justify the trip. But if he didn't get confirmation then he'd be in serious trouble, and since there wasn't an emergency he'd be subject to the horrors of the Youth Guard getting their hooks into him.
They'd threatened a chaperoned nationwide tour of orphanages and elementary schools as the starting point. There was no way he wanted to deal with all of the brats that would expose him to, not to mention how much of a waste of time it would be. They'd probably mandate that he not use mover powers to go home every night too, because staying in the area would be 'more PR friendly' or something like that.
He shuddered thinking about it.
Dragon shook her head as the fugue came to an end that evening. They'd constructed a fairly sizable and flexible modular pipe inspection and repair system, able to handle all kinds of pipes and problems. It wasn't the first choice, but they hadn't had any of the tinkers that did sensory systems available and it felt like the other systems wouldn't have been modular enough for Chris. Perhaps they'd need to leave him out of attempts at more specialized equipment?
They'd ponder that later, perhaps after she'd compared the various documentation attempts, but for now she needed to ensure that everyone else got to bed safely. To that end she focused back on her surroundings, to find that Sherrel and Trevor had fallen asleep on the floor. The others were yawning and cleaning up a few of the tools that hadn't been put away already. Shaking her head, she called in some drones to take Sherrel and Trevor while encouraging the others to head off to bed and worry about cleanup later. She'd handle it all while they slept, of course, but they didn't need to be told that right now.
Two hours later she'd completed her first pass on comparing the documentation. It was, if she was being honest, far better than usual across the board. She didn't think it was because they were all documenting, since Chris and Colin had contributed very little there. In all likelihood it was the theorized result of Trevor being included in the mix. He already built surprisingly reproducible technology, after all, which would probably make it even easier for Mother and Amy to document things.
Sadly, she apparently couldn't kick her personal habit of documenting how things worked instead of how to make them. Whether that was because she knew Mother had that covered or because it was just how she evaluated things normally was a mystery. It was what she normally ended up with after tearing other tinkertech apart, after which she'd have to figure out how to reproduce things to get the same effects. Really, if anything she could probably just write that off as how her own parahuman powers worked. Mother was merely working through different methods and could document things from a different point of view as a result of that.
All in all, the first test run of the facility was a success. Now they could start planning on bringing other tinkers in for projects that could take advantage of their specialties. Even those that normally didn't get along, since they'd proven that Mother could get many of them to work together back in Vancouver.
Chapter 174 Thursday morning Taylor woke in a barely-familiar room. It took her a few minutes to recall where she was, helped by the snarks around her kickstarting her memory. She made her way to the bathroom, happy that Amy wasn't moving yet. After all, if she had been moving then she might've made it to the bathroom first, and there was only the one bathroom for the two bedrooms in this suite.
Half an hour later she was done and wondering if breakfast was available or not. She'd come to the conclusion that she was quite hungry while showering, though that realization might have had something to do with her stomach growling. Amy was already up and in the bathroom herself, having been a little annoyed that Taylor had both beaten her to it and locked the door while showering. She'd get over it, since she'd only been waiting three or four minutes and her 'no rushing to use the bathroom' bit gave her at least three quarters of an hour before it became a pressing need.
It didn't take long to determine that Dragon had prepared a breakfast spread out in the workshop, but Taylor was kind enough to wait for Amy to finish up before they both made their way out.
"Good morning," Dragon said as the two were sitting down.
"Good morning," they chorused.
"I don't suppose you know if any of the others have woken yet?"
Taylor shrugged before grabbing a muffin. "I think Colin's awake, even if I wouldn't put it past him to get up and do morning exercises while still sleeping. The others aren't moving much."
Dragon shook her head. "He'd love to get through morning exercises while sleeping, but as far as I know hasn't managed it yet. Still, I should probably ensure that the others are up soon, if only so that we don't need more than the two vans." She moved over towards where the others were likely sleeping at that.
Amy bit into her own muffin even as she seemed to start using her Bluetooth organ more seriously. Which probably meant that she was going through something on her phone.
Amy: So, we've got the two meetings today with builders, one just before lunch and the other later in the afternoon.
Taylor: Yep. And they want me to visit with Jessica between them.
Amy: Good to know.
Taylor: And they've changed my schedule for tomorrow too, shifting me to evening patrols instead of afternoon. Some kind of appointment after lunch, details haven't loaded yet. Probably waiting on Director Piggot or Colin to approve it or something.
Amy: Huh.
Taylor: Which means I have to decide if I want to cancel my morning or afternoon patrol on Saturday due to regulations.
Amy: Cancel the afternoon one, then we can go together to see Elle? I've got a note to remind you about that.
Taylor: That would work.
Their discussion was interrupted by Colin's arrival. "Good morning girls. How are you feeling?"
"Fine," Taylor answered for both of them. "I think we've gotten used to fuguing like that when we aren't working on each other."
"You would have more practice with that. Now Taylor, I heard that your therapy session was complicated by needing to slip in between appointments with builders today?"
Taylor nodded. "Yeah."
"I don't have details, but I'm going to assume this is for some kind of personal project?"
Considering that, she had to admit that Colin probably didn't know about the pocket dimension. She wondered how he'd react if or when he found out. "Joint between Amy and I, really, but yes. Couple of options for a joint personal space thing."
"Are you going to bring your spider-bots for them to take a look at, or are you working on something where they wouldn't impact things?"
Taylor and Amy shared a look, before Amy sighed. "Didn't even think of that, but it's probably a good idea. Thank you for bringing it up."
Colin waved them off. "I only did so because I've got a request to come up with more suitable additions for them staying in PRT facilities or coming along on transports. All as a prelude to their potential sale in the pet section of the PRT store. Though hopefully without the injectors for most people."
"Injectors?" Chris asked as he wandered in. "Oh, right, the spider-bots. They may end up available?"
Taylor smirked. "Yeah. That should be fun for people to figure out if it happens."
David was still trying to come up with a good excuse to visit Brockton Bay as he ate breakfast. He hadn't slept well, and was honestly hoping that nobody else had mentioned things to him because there was another sensible explanation for the hints in the transcript. Really, if it wasn't that then they might be holding an idiot-ball or something. Huh, that could be an interesting power, actually.
Ten minutes later he'd confirmed that he, at least, didn't have any powers, working or not, that sounded like an idiot-ball. Shame, really. Didn't help explain the lack of action from the others, of course, but he hadn't really expected it to. And it didn't help him come up with a good excuse, barring being reckless and draining his reserves like crazy so he needed a recharge. And if he asked for one they'd probably make sure he had an escort or something.
His musing was interrupted by his phone ringing, which caused him to realize that he'd been sitting there with a piece of toast halfway to his mouth for a couple of minutes. He put that down and grabbed the phone, picking it up after reading the caller ID. "Morning Paul."
"Good morning David," Paul replied. "Sorry about the short notice on changing plans, but one of my staffers just pointed out that we're being idiots. We should be doing certain things when the Endbringers show up regardless of other factors, and now we're on alert for potential intervention in China if things don't stabilize there in the wake of Behemoth's attack run. I've cleared it with Rebecca and gotten it added to Miss Hebert's calendar, I'll drop it on yours shortly. We want you to swing by Brockton Bay for a top-up tomorrow afternoon, just in case you're needed on short notice."
That...huh. The absolute perfect excuse for him to visit Brockton Bay, and it came from a staffer in New York. Go figure. "I'll make sure that others are available to cover me as soon as I see the timing."
"Thanks for being understanding. We'd worked out plans for you to swing through Brockton Bay when deploying to an Endbringer battle, but forgot to account for 'not actually going to the fight, but could be needed anyway'."
"I hadn't given that much thought myself, thank your staffer for me?"
"Already did so. I've got to get back to paperwork, including ensuring your clearance for tomorrow is in the system properly, so have a nice day."
"You too Paul."
David stared at the phone for a couple of minutes after the call had ended, then shuddered at the thought of being sent even into the aftermath of an Endbringer fight on half or lower reserves. Especially with all the fighting that'd been going on in China before Behemoth had even arrived. That didn't sound like fun.
They'd dropped Taylor off at home, and she'd quickly unpacked her overnight bag. She'd then collected what she felt she needed for the first meeting, including ensuring that Ackbar was secure in the pet carrier. Though thinking back on things, she wondered something.
Taylor: So, do we know what the proper gender terms are for our spider-bots?
Amy: Um...huh. Nope, not a clue. At least without opening them up and seeing whether or not the brains are male or female. Well, we know Ackbar has at least some male, Skidmark and all.
Taylor: Think Riley would tell us if we asked?
Amy: She probably would, couldn't hurt to ask.
Taylor: Think she would keep it to just what we ask about?
Amy: That's a good point. Hmmm.
It took a few minutes, but Taylor decided to send a message off asking anyway. Better to know than to be embarrassed later by finding out that she was wrong, right? That done, she finished gathering things and headed down to the garage to hop on her moped.
As she was leaving, she idly wondered what had happened with the group of protesters from the other day. She hadn't spotted any news articles about them, but that could be due to court dates not being known yet or something like that.
"I've gotten everything into the system for David's trip tomorrow," Paul told Rebecca. "Just waiting for you to apply your end."
"I'll do that in the next fifteen minutes," Rebecca answered. "Did he suspect anything?"
"Not at all. Then again, I feel stupid for not having sent him for a top-up already anyway, especially since he more readily uses the more power-intensive things his agent gives him access to now, so why would he suspect anything?"
"You make a good point. Would you like to call Miss Hebert before the appointment or shall I?"
"I've got a fairly good relationship with her, so I'll handle it."
Taylor had met up with Amy near the Boardwalk, parking their mopeds together before heading towards the rented conference room where they were going to be meeting with someone from the mobile home builders. They were carrying the pet carriers with the spider-bots, which were drawing more overall attention than the two girls were. But nobody stopped them, so they made it to where their meeting would be with plenty of time to spare.
Neither checked, but they suspected that somewhere on PHO people were going nuts with speculation on why they brought their spider-bots with them. They didn't really care at this point, instead focusing on the upcoming meeting.
Taylor: Why are we doing this alone and not with parental oversight of some kind? Can we even sign anything without a parent?
Amy: This is a meeting to figure out base requirements, if they feel they can accomplish anything we might want, and so that they can then go off and play with their design software to figure out something for our unique needs. If we decide we want to use them then we probably need to get parents involved, which hopefully resolves any other issues.
Taylor: Like neither of us having a driver's license with which to drive the thing yet?
Amy: We're working on that, and if it's just going to be parked we don't even need to drive it ourselves. Assuming it isn't designed to just sit there after being driven in. But unless we bomb the class we should be set long before that becomes a problem.
Taylor suspected that Amy knew that the last point was made in jest, but didn't mention that. Instead she focused on the already-occupied conference room they were entering. Five individuals were waiting for them, with a pile of obvious marketing materials already spread out. Really, now that Taylor thought about things, it wasn't like they were going to deviate that much from one of their existing plans, right? Not unless they were going to make something that couldn't be driven on normal roads or something. Which was, technically, probably an option for them, but still...
Her train of thought was interrupted by the sudden screaming.
"Well that was a waste of time," Amy noted as they sat down on a bench a few minutes later, the pet carriers next to them.
Taylor nodded. "Yep. Then again, the owner of the company being a severe arachnophobe and not wanting his company to build anything that would intentionally house the spider-bots wasn't something we could foresee. I think the others were incredibly annoyed with the man."
Amy pulled a roll of paper out of one of her pouches. "Yeah, James, I think his name was, even handed me this copy of the plans their design people had come up with for a possible modification to accommodate the two. Seems the owner was the only one that hadn't thought of that possibility?"
They settled down and looked over the plans for a few minutes. It looked like the plans that they'd come up with were modified versions of a standard pet compartment. Probably because they weren't fully certain how spider-like the spider-bots were. Several variants looked workable, but none looked to be any better than just strapping the pet carriers down. Well, beyond allowing the two spider-bots to interact with each other in about half of them. They still were looking over them, evaluating pros and cons, when they were interrupted.
At least this time it was more of a squee than a scream.
"Spiders!" a little girl yelled, bouncing back and forth in front of the two girls to look at the two spider-bots. She babbled a bit as she did so, but seemed to be focused on looking and not trying to reach into the pet carriers to touch.
Amy shook her head and rolled up the plans that they probably wouldn't end up using, slipping them back into the pouch she'd pulled them out of. While she was doing that the little girl's father came up, shaking his head. "Sorry about Sally, but she loves spiders."
The girl, apparently Sally, grabbed the man's hand and pulled him closer. "Daddy! Spiders!"
He rolled his eyes. "Yes, I see the spiders." He gave her a moment to focus back on the spiders before turning to their owners. "Sadly, my wife isn't a fan." He took a moment to look behind him, before shaking his head. "In fact, she retreated into the store over there, or so it seems."
Taylor grinned at that. "Wouldn't be the first one these two have scared today." She then opened up Ackbar's carrier and pulled the spider-bot out, keeping a hold so that it couldn't get away. Not that it seemed to want to. Sally had frozen at that, then darted behind her father, peeking out from behind his legs. Taylor raised an eyebrow, having expected her to want to pet Ackbar.
The man chuckled at his daughter's antics. "She loves spiders, but her cousin's tarantula bit her a couple weeks ago. She prefers that there be something between her and the spiders now, but I don't know how long that will last this time. We only got two months out of the previous biting incident."
They stuck around for another couple of minutes, then wandered off to find the hiding mother. Over the next half hour or so they had individuals and groups approach, but apparently the crowds either didn't want to bother the two 'out of costume' or were much more skittish around the spider-bots. Possibly a combination of both. During a lull in those approaching they noticed a Wards patrol passing by, Missy darting across the rooftops.
Or, at least, darting across the rooftops before she realized that the two were sitting there with the spider-bots. At that point she beelined for them. "Ackbar! Rodney!"
"Hello Vista," Amy said, chuckling as the girl alternated between petting the two spider-bots.
"Hi Amy, Taylor," Missy said. "Didn't expect you to have these two out here with you."
"Neither did the person we were meeting with," Taylor admitted. "But we didn't know they were arachnophobic."
Missy shook her head at that. "But they're so cute! I mean, they bite if you're mean to them, but that isn't a big deal, is it?"
"For some people it would be," a woman answered, startling Missy. "But I suppose that depends on how dangerous the bites are."
Amy shrugged. "Until you give them something to inject they're not capable of doing much. Ours have a mild tranquilizer to help them defend us after a joint hospital visit, but as far as I know haven't actually injected it into anyone. Actually, we should probably check what the shelf life on that is."
"Estimated to be around thirty eight years," Taylor answered, only to get an odd look from Amy. "I looked it up, along with the care instructions for someone injected with it. Not everyone can ensure that someone won't die by touching them, after all."
"Good on you for checking that," Missy said, before turning to the woman. "I've played with the two and not gotten bitten. They're very safe if you aren't mean to them."
The woman gave Missy a hard look, then cautiously approached the spider-bots.
Amy: So, when we found out about the tranquilizer, couldn't you already keep people from dying from it with a touch?
Taylor: And how likely am I to be able to safely show that in public?
Amy: Okay, that is a good point...but where the hell is the stuff documented?
Taylor: The Protectorate Leader's lab in the Rig.
Amy: That sounds like an abuse of your insane access rights.
Taylor: You'd think so, but I'm the local emergency contact for Colin, so he gave me access and showed me how to navigate the important stuff remotely. Though I wonder if that'll change with Dragon transferring in...
Amy seemed to be a little stunned at that, but neither Missy nor the woman seemed to notice. Taylor mentally shrugged, then looked at Missy. "So, are you hoping to get a spider-bot of your own?"
Missy shook her head. "As much as I'd like one, I was recently reminded that my parents have a habit of telling me that I'm horrible with taking care of pets whenever I ask for one as a way of saying no."
Taylor blinked. "But they're incredibly easy to work with, much easier than many pets as I understand it."
"When I was younger my father passed his pet rock on to me, and in less than a week it was dead."
That had everyone who'd heard it staring at Missy, who didn't seem to be in any mood to elaborate. Taylor figured that she'd pester the girl about it later, and the others didn't seem to want to question her further in public.
Elijah grinned as he looked over the PHO tracking threads. It seemed that Miss Hebert and Miss Dallon had both made an appearance on the Boardwalk today, which meant they were done with whatever had resulted in them vanishing the day before. He'd need to reinforce his plans a little, but that would be trivial at this stage. With any luck he'd be leaving town Saturday, nobody the wiser that he'd even been around.
He pulled a notepad out of his pocket. Written in his own personal code that he'd never shared with anyone else, and made of water soluble paper to make it trivial to dispose of in an emergency. Granted, the latter feature occasionally bit him when he went out in heavy rain or ended up taking an unexpected dip in a pool. Regardless, he wanted to check which bus routes he still hadn't finished checking over so that he could plan a quick trip around town to hopefully catch them all. Looking over his list, he was reminded that the driver on one route yesterday had been a temporary, so he'd have to check to see if the normal driver was back in yet.
The route map was consulted and he looked things over. He was avoiding the routes that passed closest to the PRT building, just in case they had one of those devices that could detect master influences in the area. Hopefully by the time they thought to check the bus drivers the three or four days that it took his influence to fade when his orders were complete would've passed. Figuring out how to word things so that could happen had been a pain, but one of their infiltrators had been trained on the operation of the devices early on, in addition to helping come up with some of the training routines. Running through dozens of tests would've been suspicious otherwise.
It looked like he needed to get moving if he wanted to catch the right routes without having to change at the hospital or bus depot too many times today.
Taylor and Amy had stopped for lunch at a pizza place, both of them resisting the urge to groan when an extra large pizza was made for them when they'd only been charged for a small. It was better than not charging them at all, of course, but neither was interested in that kind of show of thanks. They didn't complain, and did finish off the pizza. That done, they'd made their way over to the PRT building for Taylor's appointment with Jessica, one that Amy wasn't participating in.
Instead, Amy ended up playing in the new greenhouse lab. Not doing anything significant, primarily checking over all of the plants to ensure that they were all fully healthy and wouldn't have any issues in the space or with one another. On that front she'd been pleasantly surprised to find that the selection had apparently been made with compatibility in mind. The only problem they'd have was if they decided to plant various combinations in the same pot, and that would only be due to eventual root crowding. Some of that was going to be an issue no matter what, of course.
During that time Taylor was talking about a number of subject with Jessica. They started with a deeper overview of how she'd felt before, during, and after the fight with Quarrel and branched out from there as Jessica saw it appropriate to do so. It ended up being a couple of hours, after which Taylor felt slightly drained in a couple of ways. Finding that Amy had fetched her a chocolate shake helped there.
From there they headed back over to the Boardwalk, making their way to where a different conference room awaited. This one was over an electronics store that Taylor believed was probably a Dragon-tech subsidiary in and of itself, being one of the few that sold Dragon-tech products in town currently.
They entered the store and were quickly brought upstairs. This time the conference room had two people waiting for them and a running projector obviously hooked up to one of their laptops. It also had the benefit of neither person screaming when they saw either of the spider-bots in their pet carriers, which meant that this was already off to a much better start than the previous meeting.
"Good afternoon Miss Dallon, Miss Hebert," the male of the two greeted. "I'm Bret Gómez and this is Irene Romano."
"Good afternoon," Amy replied as they put the pet carriers down.
"Before we go too far," Irene said. "I don't suppose you brought what you need to show us your pocket dimension space?"
Taylor nodded. "We did, would you like to see it now?"
Irene shook her head. "No need to right away. First we'd like to show you the basics of how we've worked with constructing in them before, then if you're happy with that we can move onto taking precise measurements and such for actual planning."
"Hundred meters per side, ten meters high."
Both of them stared at the two for a moment, before Bret shook his head. "We've seen three that were approximately ten meter cubes, and our one construction project was in a fifteen by fifteen by ten meter space. Are you sure that yours is a hundred meters per side?"
Amy sighed and pulled her pistol-style device out, firing it at one of the walls. "Take a look, since obviously you aren't going to believe us until you see it for yourself."
Irene collected a device from her bag that Taylor's tinker snark identified as an automatic measuring system before both of them stepped into the pocket dimension. Fifteen minutes later the two returned, both looking stunned.
"I apologize for doubting you," Bret said. "Though we're probably going to have to rethink a couple of things that we've done previously."
Irene scoffed. "Like all of the horizontal mounting system that we'd used before, since it doesn't scale nearly as well as it'd need to for this. We might have to switch to verticals instead, with the benefit of then being able to treat different areas as individual projects if they want more than one structure."
Bret shook his head. "We're very much off track here. Perhaps we should show them the basics, even if we'll need to adjust them significantly?"
"Right, right." Irene turned to the two girls. "Sorry about that, we hadn't realized the sheer scale of what we were potentially working with. Especially since we were under the impression that things are usually much smaller. I don't want to think about what you were charged for one that large."
They quickly moved onto a demonstration of the largely pressure-based system that they'd come up with for holding structures in place. Apparently for that one they'd used horizontal bracing to minimize the footprint needed on the limited floor space and to provide a wide-open 'top floor', but as mentioned they would probably need to switch to a vertical bracing system for this project if they went through with things. They also worked on many of Dragon's various construction projects, and had experience building a number of self-contained systems for different purposes as a result of that.
All in all, the initial pitch was quite good, though it was all Bret. Irene had been sitting off to the side, furiously working on something. Bret didn't seem to mind, and it could very well be that he'd have been giving this portion of the pitch solo anyway. When he was finally done with an overview of things that they thought the two girls might be interested in, and Amy had visibly perked up with the greenhouse options, he brought the lights up.
"So," he said, sitting down. "Do you have any thoughts as to what you want to do with your space?"
"We've got a few things we'd like to have," Taylor answered. "Some 'perhaps, if they can be made to work' ideas as well. Though I suppose we're less likely to need space to park a mobile home in after how this morning's meeting went."
Amy shook her head. "I don't know about that. I still like the concept, we just need to find a non-arachnophobic manufacturer."
"The concept?" Irene asked, apparently having decided to pay attention again.
Taylor turned to her. "Yeah, I thought that if we were traveling or something we could pop open a portal, drive the mobile home out of the thing, and then sleep in it. Give us access to the sunrise and such, instead of staying inside the pocket dimension itself."
The woman's expression turned thoughtful. "If we ensure that certain things are on the outer edges of the space then I think we could arrange to have standalone units that could slip in and out. They wouldn't be street legal, but could easily accommodate a desire to have a basic bedroom with attached bathroom available. Slide them out when you want them outside, or use them 'in the rack' when inside the pocket dimension itself. We'd just have to add a smaller generator for each of them, so that they can operate without a permanent tether."
Bret chuckled. "You've gotten her attention, at least. I don't believe I mentioned it before, but she's one of our lead engineers. Probably already figured out some of the adjustments she'd mentioned earlier, even."
"But the idea of sliding spaces in and out of the pocket dimension can change quite a bit of the planning. They can only enter and exit if on an edge, but a carousel or similar system could allow for keeping more units deeper in. But we'd probably need to stick to two stories high for connecting structures, instead of the three we could easily fit otherwise, in order to account for the components needed to shift things around."
Amy sighed. "Perhaps we should start with the things we'd ideally like to be semi-permanent structures for various reasons, then work our way out from there? Having a system for shifting a bunch of modular units around may not be needed if permanent pieces are eating up all of the middle of the space anyway."
Irene nodded, moving over to hook her laptop up instead of Bret's. "That's a good point, figure out what you want or need to have easy access to versus what can or should be further in, then work around that when planning anything else. No need to overcomplicate some of it without good reason and all."
It'd taken long enough that they'd be eating a late dinner, but they'd come up with various plans for permanent, semi-permanent, and modular units to possibly put into the pocket dimension. Some of it was going to need more refinement by other members of their staff, all of it would need to be signed off on by someone other than the two girls before anything could be put into production. An initial set of plans and cost numbers for the various 'stages' they'd discussed would probably be sent over in the next couple of weeks.
They'd split up at that point, each heading home. Amy made it without incident, but Taylor ran into another group of people that insisted that she was in league with the devil or some nonsense like that. It was probably the same group she'd run into on the streets previously, and they'd attempted to keep her from being able to get around them by driving up a building by surrounding her instead. Of course, they'd had to step out into the street to do so, and had thus blocked traffic as well.
Taylor had no qualms about slipping away when the group had been distracted by the police officers that'd come to investigate why the group was blocking traffic. Though she almost stuck around just to listen to their excuses. That their primary defense had been an apparent need to save her soul, in their eyes, and the police officer was apparently not a believer in souls was an added potential amusement had she stayed. But she was hungry, and hadn't had dinner yet, so she left them to explain themselves poorly. It wasn't like the police officers had asked her to stay, after all.
In fact, she swore that one of the officers had grinned when she'd pulled away, as though amused by her escape during the distraction.
Chapter 175 Friday morning Taylor was the first one to make it to the gym, though it didn't take long for Amy and Missy to show up. Brian would eventually pass through the garage without Aisha, leaving just the three of them working out. After that Taylor and Missy would be busy being Wards, while Amy was going to head home so that Mark could supervise her playing with rose bushes.
"So Missy, what's up with your pet rock story?" Amy asked once they'd all gotten machines ready to work with.
Missy groaned. "You aren't going to let me not tell you, right?"
Taylor snorted. "Of course not. Though I was going to wait until we were patrolling together."
The younger girl sighed. "Bah. I was six, and had asked for a pet, and dad gave me the stupid rock. Made me promise to take care of it, including feeding it. It took me a few days to figure out that it didn't eat normal food, and I apparently decided that rocks must eat other rocks to grow big and strong or something. I was a little forceful with the other rock I'd found and broke both."
Taylor shared a look with Amy, before breaking out into giggles. "You killed the pet rock by overfeeding it?"
"Basically, and my parents bring it up whenever I pester them too much about getting a pet."
"Good morning young Wards!" Ethan called as he entered the Wards area.
Taylor had found that she had a pile of mail that she'd missed the day before, not having actually checked, including a package from Joey and everything she needed for the tinker-built handgun and M249 SAW projects. As a result of the latter, she and Missy were working on the handgun, improving the magazines and barrels. Or rather, they'd pretty much finished that and were filling the fifty cal magazine. The package from Joey would be dealt with later, after questions about setting up the beacons outside of their homes were answered by the PRT.
Because of that, the two of them hadn't jumped up. That resulted in Ethan being unimpressed with their lack of reaction to him. As such, he bounced over, likely ready to yell at close range, until he apparently spotted the handgun pieces. "Oh, gun stuff. Miss Militia would have my hide if I screwed with you while you're doing that."
Taylor nodded. "Yeah. Though we have to wait for proper supervision to try it out in the firing range."
Ethan groaned at that. "I know I don't count there." He then paused. "So, er, huh. I think I've watched you put more bullets into that magazine than it should be capable of holding?"
Missy turned to look at Ethan. "Why wouldn't it hold more than it looks like it should?"
"Well when you put it like that...right! When rearranging things for whatever Maul here is doing this afternoon, Clockblocker accepted a proposal that let him take the morning off. Instead of patrolling, I'm dragging you two out for a PR event."
That caused Taylor to turn and look at Ethan. "You?"
He nodded. "Yes, me. Mainly because we're visiting a couple of daycares with minimal warning, in part so that the press won't show up. For some reason most of the Protectorate hates dealing with younger kids, but I'm fine with them. And yes, I have called ahead and they agreed to us showing up. Did so just before I came down, in fact. After we're done with that we might stop off elsewhere, but that'll depend on how long the first couple of stops take. So, how long are you two going to be?"
"Not much longer. Got a lot more work to do on the other gun, but that's more of a tinkering-time project."
True to her statement, finishing up hadn't taken long. Ethan had been incredibly patient while she packed everything up and secured it in her room, only afterwards rushing them to get ready to go. For maximum PR impact Taylor would be flying Missy and herself over on her platform, Ethan following along on foot. Which Ethan thought meant that they had to head up to the roof to get the platform, apparently having forgotten that Taylor could summon it to her.
Instead, she and Missy left through the PRT's main door, after making a stop in the gift shop for a collection of pictures of each of them. No pictures of the two of them together were available, and in fact they hadn't gotten around to a group shot of the current Wards now that the roster had changed again. That done they hopped onto the platform and made for the meeting point Ethan had told them to head to.
It turned out that Ethan was willing to go a lot further than Taylor had expected. The two daycares that they'd visited covered infants all the way up to twelve year olds or so, the higher end of which had Missy mumbling about one of the major benefits of joining the Wards when she had was never having to go to daycare again. Taylor personally found that amusing, but not surprising.
The surprising thing had been that Ethan had up to date child care certifications and at both daycare centers had gone to help take care of the youngest kids while those old enough to recognize the Wards were meeting with them under the supervision of the normal workers. Further, in neither daycare was this unexpected, which implied that he'd done this before. At the same time, both visits were cut short by the staff insisting that the kids not spend too much time with the Wards, and Ethan looked downright disappointed both times.
That had led to him dragging them, entirely unannounced this time, to a youth center. The staff seemed to be less than enthused about the interruption, but also seemed to know to blame Ethan and not the two Wards. Instead, they convinced the two to work with the older kids in a bit of a challenge. A number of them thought themselves to be hotshots when it came to hand to hand anything. Most of them backed off from the boasting a bit when it came to Taylor, known brute and all.
The rest, of course, backed off of their boasting when Missy wiped the floor with them easily, without any obvious use of her powers. Taylor actually hooked a cable up to her body camera to extract stills of some of their faces from it for the staff, not mentioning that she could get much better 'camera' angles from the running visor system. She figured Missy would appreciate the latter footage either way.
Ethan had, while this was going on, been drafted into helping move some equipment around. A leak in the gym area meant that they wanted to get some things out of the way to reduce potential water damage and make it easier for repairs to be done. He wasn't happy with that, but went along with it anyway. Taylor had wandered over in that direction because the restrooms were over there and had stopped to listen to him whine about the weight of things.
Amy: Hey Taylor?
Taylor: Yeah?
Amy: I think something weird is going on.
Taylor: I know you were called into the hospital, are the injuries concerning?
Amy: Three different buses have been involved in accidents so far this morning, all of them when they had over half of their passengers being senior citizens. At this rate I'm probably going to end up sticking around here all day, just so that I don't have to bounce in and out as more come in.
Taylor: That...does seem odd.
She fired a text query about it off to the console, just in case. It could be a coincidence, of course, but better to let someone decide if they should check on that than to assume either way.
Amy was going through alternating periods of boredom and worry, having already made a quick pass through the non-emergency patients that wanted parahuman healing while she was there. She'd been called in after the first accident due to the age of those involved, and even saved one man's life in the process. Figuring that was all of the excitement of the day, she'd prepared to leave, only to be stopped by the hospital being alerted of the second accident. Finding out how similar it was to the first was concerning. The third bus had her reach out to Taylor, even as the hospital staff were concerned.
It was now almost lunchtime, and she was finishing up the fifth busload of passengers. A van was currently dragging all five drivers back to the PRT building so that they could be checked for master influences, though she was one of the few at the hospital aware of that. If it wasn't a master then their next guess was apparently split 50/50 between a shaker and a tinker, assuming parahuman involvement at all. They'd even called Sherrel in to look at the buses themselves, to see if she could spot sabotage. All of which she knew through a combination of checking with Taylor and because they'd talked to her directly about checking for various influences in the drivers.
"Amy?" Nancy, the nurse that'd been working with her most of the morning poked her head in just after the last patient had been removed from the room. "Your biological father called the front desk, he'd like to bring you lunch but says you aren't answering your phone."
Amy sighed. "Right, I'm in do not disturb mode and he isn't on my exception list. If he's taking suggestions then I could go for some lasagna."
"I'll let him know."
She'd honestly prefer it if Taylor was bringing her lunch, but the other girl had enough on her schedule today as it was.
Taylor and Missy were both mildly annoyed when they made it back to the PRT building. The potential for parahuman involvement in all of the bus accidents today had resulted in them being told that they'd have to wait to test the tinkertech handgun in the range, which was Taylor's primary annoyance. Further, they'd canceled the afternoon patrols and were considering canceling the evening patrols because they didn't want the Wards on the buses and didn't want to send vans to pick them up.
In Missy's case, that included not wanting to drop her off, and her parents weren't home due to being at work. Added onto that was a concern that the entire thing could be to get Wards out in the open out of costume, off of the buses, which meant she'd basically been told to stay put as a precaution. Despite spending lots of time in the PRT building voluntarily, Missy didn't like being confined to it for what she felt were bullshit reasons. Especially since Taylor officially wasn't, because going after her out of costume wouldn't require doing anything to the buses so she obviously wasn't the target in that case.
Taylor would've collected stuff to tinker with, but she had her weird after-lunch appointment that the details still hadn't filled in on despite everything seeming to be in order otherwise with it. Which didn't give her a whole lot of time to tinker if she wanted to eat lunch too, so it wasn't worth the effort to collect everything. Perhaps later.
"They just sent me a meal voucher," Missy noted. "And credited my account for the pictures I grabbed from the gift shop this morning, but I was expecting that to get labeled as a PR expense."
Taylor shrugged. "I mentioned that it was for a meet and greet and they charged it directly to the PR account. I was more surprised when they credited the postcards I got for replying to mail after the whole thing with Quarrel to the PR account, to be honest."
"I don't know why it never dawned on me to just point out that it was for PR use. Would save a lot of charge and credit entries on my account that way."
"They told me to mention when something was for anything other than personal use when I got the postcards, after getting curious and asking why I wanted them in the first place. Claimed it saved time having people evaluate things later, but they don't normally ask for some stupid policy reason."
"Did they send you a meal voucher?"
Taylor shrugged. "I already had one, part of my afternoon appointment scheduling."
"Ahhh." Missy sat there for a couple of minutes, before getting up and stretching. "Looks like they've got a good spread upstairs, want to join me?"
"Sure, why not."
Elijah half-faked a grimace as he was loaded into the ambulance. He'd expected maybe two buses would end up with senior citizens on them and hadn't included a limit on the number of accidents before he boarded a bus. But of course Brockton Bay had an abnormally large percentage of senior citizens in the population thanks to Panacea's healing, and the movie theater apparently had some senior citizen special today or something like that. So instead of being on the third or maybe fourth bus to have an accident, it turned out that he was on the seventh. There was no way they weren't going to be looking for parahuman involvement now, but if he was lucky they'd skip checking anyone reported as injured by things.
He'd lucked out on that front, since if it'd been another ten to fifteen minutes then they'd have finished with their plans to shut down the bus system. And his plan to fake an injury to be taken to the hospital seemed to be working out fine. The paramedics had even commented that Panacea might fix his sensitive eyes, so they obviously didn't suspect much on that front. So he wasn't having to find a new way to sneak into the hospital on short notice. But he was probably going to want to find Panacea before she got around to healing him, because working with her in a room full of other patients wasn't ideal.
Quick thinking had his faked injury being pain in his arm, instead of in a leg or similar, so he could probably justify a trip to a restroom once they got to the hospital. Getting a nurse to tell him where to find Panacea alone would be trivial, then he could drop his 'suggestions' into her, perhaps get her to fill out the paperwork for healing his non-existent injuries to cover his tracks, and get out of town as soon as he could. Only the decent chance that they wouldn't check Panacea for influences kept him from abandoning the plan entirely.
Amy frowned as an unfamiliar snark approached the hospital. There was something off about it, especially when she focused on it. Like something else was trying to make it not be there, yet was failing miserably. As it got closer she found it easier to focus on, and eventually realized that there was a second snark involved. Controlling or just hiding the first was a different question entirely, and it could be entirely benign. After all, outside of the secure basement the hospital wasn't a secure facility, but she'd be on her guard around them just in case.
They were brought around to the emergency entrance, so they were likely one of the people in the last bus accident of the day, since the bus system had been shut down until they knew what was going on. A group that, barring actual emergencies, she'd be looking at after lunch. Since nothing critical had been called in ahead of time she shouldn't have any major problems. Instead she returned to cleaning up the mess she'd previously left on the table in the break room she'd been told to take over for the day, since it was positioned in the middle of the rooms they were using for the bus accident victims.
Of course, Ben was almost there, and she didn't have much available to drink beyond the water dispenser, so she should probably swing through to the cafeteria to at least grab a few juice bottles. If she wasn't back before he made it through then a nurse would show Ben where to bring lunch anyway, and he'd fully understand. Especially when she showed up with the juice.
Benjamin sighed as he wiped off his hands after washing them. It was nice of them to put Amelia in the break room next to the restrooms. He wasn't sure how much of a fan he was of the lack of doors in and out, but supposed it made sense in a number of ways. Less surfaces to clean, at least, and you didn't have to touch a door that had who knows what left on it by those who hadn't washed up.
"Thank you very much," wandered in from the hallway, which is where some of the downsides began. No sound or scent buffer. "Now go keep anyone else from coming down this way for fifteen minutes or so and forget you spoke to me about anything other than where the restrooms are."
Benjamin froze, because that did not sound normal. At all. In fact, if it was what he thought it was, he might have to look up who designed and/or implemented the doorless restrooms in order to thank them. He made sure to make as little noise as possible as he discarded his paper towel, happy that the air dryer was out of order, and moved towards the hallway. There was a man there, holding sunglasses in one hand, who apparently hadn't seen him.
The man took one more look down the hallway, ignoring the restroom itself, and then moved in the direction of the break room. Benjamin followed, and found the man standing just inside the door.
"Hello Miss Dallon," the man said, obviously talking to Amelia.
"Hello sir," Amelia's voice responded. "Is the master ability attempting to make me do whatever you say out of your control, or do I need to call the PRT now?"
The man growled, and Benjamin saw a glint of something fall into the man's hand. "Okay kid, everything else has gone wrong with this plan, I half expected that your fancy belt might protect you even, but how the fuck did you know what my powers were doing?"
Benjamin decided that he'd heard enough and manifested a blade from one hand while the man was ranting. A moment later he grabbed the man, putting the bone blade to his throat. "I'm more interested in who you are, and what you want with Amelia. But since I don't know how your powers work, beyond having people do what you say, I'm even more interested in you shutting up." He punctuated the final point by adding pressure to the man's throat, though with a slightly blunted portion of the bone blade. It seemed to work, given that the man tensed but didn't say anything.
Three seconds later a full set of bone restraints started to form around the man, including holding his jaw shut and covering most of his face. It took a couple of minutes for Benjamin to get them situated properly, part of that being the man not wanting to kneel down when prompted or pull his arms behind him. The glint from the man's hand seemed to be a small syringe, one that had a flip-out needle that hadn't been deployed and looked annoying to get ready to stab backwards with.
"Thank you," Amelia said. "The PRT is sending a van over, but you may need to work with them to switch him into restraints that they can work with."
"That won't be a problem," Benjamin replied.
"So someone just tried to master Amy," Taylor noted as she and Missy were eating. That caused the younger girl to look up in shock. "Didn't get far, situation's already resolved."
Missy visibly calmed herself down. "Is that what distracted you a couple minutes ago?"
"Yeah. Their trick didn't work on Amy, and someone else got the drop on them. Amy says that the PRT is sending a master/stranger van over to the hospital now."
"Think they had anything to do with the bus issues?"
"Wouldn't surprise me, though causing seven bus accidents seems to have been a tad too obvious."
Missy sighed. "True. Think with that taken care of that they'll let me head home?"
Taylor shrugged. "No clue."
They mostly calmly went back to eating. Amy was eating as well, while trying to stay focused on Ben and the master, mainly to ensure that Ben didn't get mastered. They both figured that she'd be brought back to the PRT building soon, along with Ben, to see if either of them tested positive for a master influence. Just in case and all. But probably in a different van than the one already on the way.
Her pleasant-ish meal was interrupted by her phone ringing. For Missy's benefit she answered out loud, before switching to subvocalizing. "Hello Legend, how can I help you today?"
"Hello Miss Hebert," Legend replied. "Do you have time for a quick chat about your afternoon appointment?"
Taylor put down her fork for the time being. "I do, though I'm surprised that it's important enough for a phone call."
"There's an off the books extra reason for it. The official reason is that we're sending Eidolon for a top-up, I even remembered to arrange for Grue to be at the PRT building to serve as an energy source. Seems a bit foolish to not top Eidolon up during and immediately following an Endbringer attack, even if he didn't participate. The chances of him being deployed to help with cleanup just make that more important."
"I can see how that would be the case, and I suppose it explains why Grue is sitting in an office here in the PRT building right now. So what's the unofficial reason?"
"We don't wish to alarm him with the possibility, but with all of his powers there's a chance that he subconsciously summoned the Endbringers. You're our best chance for figuring out if he's 'the idiot' described by Leviathan. Ideally, we'd like you to figure it out discreetly, without alerting him to even the possibility, and then call me back to let me know the result."
Taylor considered that for a moment. It made some sense, and who knew what the power might be labeled with all of the redactions and such that snarks had to deal with. "I can see how that would be beneficial, especially if he decides to get violent should I find that he is 'the idiot'. Though what do I do if he's already aware of things?"
"We never included him in the access list for the transcript, and I've been assured that Houston wasn't in the loop about the contact in the first place. As such, he should be completely unaware that the transcript even exists, let alone the content. We'd like to keep it that way until we know one way or another if he's the one Leviathan was referring to."
"Ahhh. I can see the logic in that, I suppose that if he saw the transcript and suspected that he might be 'the idiot' that you think he'd do something stupid?"
"Actually we suspect that the first thing he would do is head straight for you to confirm it one way or the other. What he'd do after that is the part we aren't sure of."
"Oh. Alright then. I'll see what I can find out, but I may not be able to tell. It could very well be that the answer will be restricted, either by his snark or by my own."
"We've considered that, but still feel that you're the best bet for figuring things out. If you can't then that's just another data point before we explore other avenues. Thank you in advance for the attempt. I have to get going, but I'll be waiting for your call later."
A minute later the call had ended, and Taylor sighed before picking her fork back up. She probably shouldn't complain, since it was either send him to her or send him to Amy at this point, and they didn't know that Amy could do the feeding trick.
"Important call?" Missy asked.
Taylor sighed. "Somewhat, yes, and you aren't cleared to know half of it."
"Didn't think I would be, the list of things that I know that we're both cleared for is scary enough."
They'd dragged Amy and Ben in well before David was supposed to arrive, both coming up clean for master influence when checked. Ben had then ended up walking back to the apartment block while Amy was ferried back to the hospital, since her moped was still there. The bus drivers had all come up positive, and the lingering effects indicated that they'd been told to crash their buses when there were enough senior citizens on them or when the master had gotten on.
To get a comparative signature they'd had a volunteer 'accidentally' expose themselves to the parahuman. Taylor knew this because they'd asked her to monitor and potentially shut the man down in the event that he tried something particularly problematic. He'd tried orders to free him, but the volunteer couldn't. The result of the comparative test, if it'd been completed, hadn't been forwarded on to her, so she wasn't sure what was going on there. But the parahuman was in the building so that he could be scanned for influences as well.
Really, being a human-focused master wasn't enough when you could potentially be under another master's influence. It would be a wonderful way for another master to cover their tracks, after all. One of the staffers that she'd passed had been wondering if the man might've been mastered by Heartbreaker into trying to get access to Amy, for example, which Taylor didn't want to contemplate further, at least not beyond thanking Broadcast Administrator for them both being immune to that kind of thing.
For now, though, she was sitting in a secure conference room, waiting for David to arrive. He was running late, though some of that was likely due to the unanticipated extra security that was in place for the building containing a human master in the holding cells. To pass the time, she was trying to figure out what they did to contain parahumans like that. Isolation would almost be a requirement, but then how do you deal with the creeping insanity due to lack of use of their powers?
Eventually David approached, from the direction of the Rig, and she closed out her minor research project. It wasn't like the measures would be likely to be in the system where someone could be mastered into retrieving them easily, after all. She took a few moments to ensure that nothing seemed to be amiss that she wasn't already expecting, like the weird not quite working cloaking effect some other snark was maintaining on the master's snark. Perhaps it was more effective against other powers, but it was more of a distraction to her and Amy.
That done, she got up and opened the door shortly before David reached it. "Good afternoon Eidolon."
He snorted at that. "Right. Not with what I've heard has been going on around here."
"The parahuman is in a holding cell, which makes it better than this morning. Less chance of him killing more people with bus accidents."
David gave her a look, but nodded. "Yes, I can see how that would make it a better afternoon than the morning had been. Would you mind securing the door? I'd like to ask a couple of potentially sensitive questions, before you start transferring energy over."
Taylor raised an eyebrow, but did as he asked before moving back to the table and sitting down. "What do you need?"
Taylor: Hello Emulator. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?
"I recently discovered that I might've done a few things by accident, and I was hoping that you could check with my agent, er, snark if that's the case or not?"
[Acceptance]
Taylor sat there for a moment, because that sounded a lot like he wanted to know what she was about to ask his snark. But how did he know about all of that?
Taylor: I don't suppose that your human accidentally told the Boojums to attack like they have been?
"I'm afraid that I'm going to need to know more about what I'm asking about," she said aloud.
[Negation]
David nodded. "Yes, I can see that. You probably wouldn't be able to spot the references, but I believe that when Leviathan spoke to you it could've been referring to me as 'the idiot'."
Taylor: I suppose he'll be happy about that. Shame that figuring out who set them to attack wasn't this easy though.
Taylor blinked. "I wasn't aware that you had access to that transcript?"
David scoffed. "Though I only work with them part time, I'm considered a full member of the Think Tank. Why wouldn't I have access to a transcript secured by a Think Tank requested restriction flag?"
"I suppose that makes quite a bit of sense, since you can just bring up a suitable thinker power whenever needed. Don't know why I didn't think of that."
"Rebecca's a member as well, at least in her cape identity, but I work with them directly more often than she does for a number of reasons. So, can you ask if I summoned the Endbringers?"
Taylor decided that telling him that she already had would probably be a bad idea. "Yeah, just give me a moment."
Taylor: I suppose I should be more clear, did he summon the Boojums at all, intentionally or not?
[Negation. Data]
That caused her to blink a couple of times. Amy appeared to have paused as well.
Taylor: He couldn't have, because you only have indirect control Boojum keys?
[Agreement. Elaboration]
Amy: Have you used those keys?
[Agreement]
Taylor sighed.
Taylor: Can you tell us what you used them for?
[Data]
Well, that sucked.
Chapter 176 Taylor sat there, wanting to stare at Emulator. Sadly, the closest she could get was staring at David, which wouldn't have the same effect.
Taylor: So you're saying that he thought that stronger opponents would help him collect more energy, and though you didn't understand how or why, you figured it was worth a shot and started putting in requests for Boojums to serve as those opponents?
[Agreement]
BA: Data
[Confusion]
Apparently Emulator wasn't a particularly intelligent snark, all things considered. Even Taylor had recognized what Broadcast Administrator had just sent as being an insult, and it barely translated to English at all. Still, that wasn't the important part.
Taylor: But you both know that isn't needed now, so can you call them off?
[...Data]
Taylor gave in, and dropped her head down onto the table. Probably would've been more effective if she'd pulled the visor off first, but that was life. "Why me?"
David obviously didn't know how to react to that. "Er, is something wrong?"
She raised her head and looked straight at David's mask. "I think the Endbringers owe you an apology. You had a stupid idea for getting more energy that probably seemed workable with the data you had available. Your snark assumed that you had inside information that it didn't and acted on that stupid idea in the background, without your direction, and when it didn't work right away kept on going because it thought it hadn't gone far enough to make your idea work. They thought you were the idiot, but it seems that your snark is the idiot."
It took a couple of minutes, during which Taylor was trying to come up with a possible solution herself, before David took a deep breath, nodding to acknowledge things. "So can you just ask it to stop them?"
"Already did, and apparently when I shut down your mastering attempt it damaged some of the communication bits. Your snark can't call things off, because it can't make the call required."
It took a moment, but this time David dropped his head to the table. Taylor honestly didn't know if his mask absorbed any of the impact or not, but after a moment he mumbled something, then looked back up. "Your snark has working communication bits, right? Can it just play relay?"
"That...I have no clue. Let me check with them."
Taylor: Can we just play relay for Emulator to send the cancel request?
Amy: Oooh. Good idea.
Taylor: David came up with it.
BA: Query
[Negation. Elaboration]
Taylor sighed. "Apparently not, because a secure direct connection is needed." She then sat there thinking for a minute, David apparently doing the same, before nodding to herself and pulling out her Maul phone to put it down on the table between them. "I think we need more people thinking about this."
That seemed to take David by surprise, even as she was manipulating the phone through her visor. "Like who?"
She didn't answer, instead initiating the call and placing it on speakerphone. It was quickly answered. "Hello again, I wasn't expecting your call yet though?"
"Hello Legend," Taylor replied. "I've got you on speakerphone. Did you know that David is a member of the Think Tank?"
It was fairly obvious that Legend had been stunned silent for a moment, shortly before they could hear him facepalm. "I can't believe we forgot about that."
"Needless to say, he asked me to check on whether or not he's 'the idiot'. It's more that his snark is, though, but now it's damaged and can't send the cancel order. We've already checked and it can't use any other snark as a relay, and included an impression that it can't just hand over the access keys needed either. I feel that we need more people thinking on this before we start running around in too many mental circles."
David nodded, not that Legend could tell. "She has a point there. Why the hell didn't you say anything to me, anyway?"
Legend sighed. "Because we felt that asking you to be checked would be accusing you, and if we were wrong then it would be insulting you to your face. You don't take that kind of thing well. Now then, before we get too much into that, I'd like to go make a couple of phone calls, but is Panacea there with you?"
Taylor answered that one. "No, she's at home right now, has been for maybe ten minutes now."
"Alright, I don't see any reason to exclude her, but to not cause panic I need to get some things into the system first. Please warn her that she may be picked up for a meeting."
"Can do."
Taylor: Legend says to be ready to be picked up for a meeting.
Amy: Huh. Okay.
Colin sighed as he confirmed the results of the test on the contents of the syringe. "A combination of a knockout agent and a memory suppressor. Anyone hit with this would essentially end up with short-term amnesia for probably a week, and would be knocked out for several days. A very good precaution for someone who needs to cover their tracks after failing to master someone, though possibly not good enough for use on Miss Dallon."
"He'd have had issues getting it through her skin for certain," Dragon confirmed over the audio link they had open. Granted, she was also answering questions in the press conference announcing her transfer in. She was enough of a draw that they intentionally hadn't bothered with any other Protectorate members, which was a boon when you had master-class capes running around causing bus accidents. "I wonder if he had a plan for getting it past the force field?"
"I'm assuming that he thought that low velocity attacks could make it through, or that it has exceptions for medical purposes. I'm not sure if even Trevor realizes that the exclusion system seems to read intent from both sides. Miss Dallon's skin wouldn't have even been tested against it as a result."
"There is that. Cross-checking things, it appears that both of those substances are produced by a Protectorate tinker, and are on restricted lists due to what an overdose can cause. Further, the report from their checking of the room he'd rented says that they found eleven more likely doses prepared in his luggage. How did he get them?"
Colin growled. "More moles, I bet. I assume that you're already seeing if you can track down every dose of both?"
Dragon sounded pleased as she replied. "Of course. The memory suppressant has the shorter shelf life, around four months, and is more highly restricted, with this batch looking to be no more than a month old. I've got six candidates for the potential mole already, though we can't rule out the possibility that there's more than one. We'll need to put them all through master scanning, of course, and it's possible that lingering traces have already faded if it was an attack of opportunity. Or they could be willing moles, with or without master influence, so a very detailed background check will need to be done on them all as well."
"With or...ahh, having the master intentionally use their powers on them to provide an apparent alibi. I hadn't considered that."
"I probably wouldn't have either, if it hadn't come up twice already since the scanners became available."
Colin blinked, since he hadn't heard of any such incidents. "Twice?"
"A direct control style master died in a firefight and the PRT officer she was controlling didn't even notice. We only knew because another officer fired off a scan to see if any mastered individuals were in the building. The other got lazy and gave orders that would require that the person receiving them be acting mostly on their own. Both were likely hoping that the presence of a master effect at all would offer protection."
"Yes, well, I don't see why we wouldn't care whether or not the influence was related to what they were caught doing in the first place. Speaking of which, any luck with the influences on Mister Mathers?"
Dragon sighed. "No, since they're all active, though generally focused on his senses. I don't believe they have any direct effect on his behavior, though he could've been conditioned by them. The anti-thinker effect is obviously making that all much harder to determine, and we lucked out because only one of them was powerful enough to show up before the deep scan was run."
Taylor was sitting next to Amy at one end of the table in the conference room they'd been brought to. David was sitting near the other end of the table, Legend and Costa-Brown on the same side between him and the two girls. On the other side were 'Doctor Mother', Fortuna, and Nate, the latter being the only one in the room without a snark. Standing near the far end was 'Number Man'. Apparently this was where the 'core' of Cauldron met, and the girls wouldn't have been introduced to everyone for years outside of such a potentially dire situation.
All in all, it had been a very weird half hour as they'd described what had gone down so far. That they hadn't explained just what their overall goal was, for secrecy and/or privacy reasons, was annoying. Then again, they had what could very well be more immediate concerns to worry about, and perhaps expecting them to tell two underage parahumans who weren't members what they were up to was asking a bit much under the circumstances.
Of course, while everyone else was absorbing what had just been described, the two girls were working on a different mystery of sorts.
Amy: Do you think this is like Accord's ambassador there, that can apparently be in two places at once?
Taylor: I'd say yes, if I didn't swear an invisible person had cleaned up the spill in the corner. But there was nothing there to obstruct a projection line, even through where the snark seemed to be connected.
Amy: I'd wondered what you were doing with your foot.
Taylor: Think we should ask the snark what's going on?
Amy: I've been trying to resist that myself, but I think it's going to be a distraction if we don't.
Taylor: Feel free to get things started then.
There was a minute shift as a channel was opened to the invisible person's snark.
Amy: Hello there.
Taylor noticed two things at that moment. First, the various instances of the invisible person's snark that were in their range all stopped moving. Second, Number Man apparently noticed that they'd stopped moving. Which was interesting.
[Dat...da...Hello?]
Taylor: That's interesting. Usually we get the incredibly information-dense snark speak or something more like human speech, not both. You just learning how to communicate this way?
[Agreement. Er...yes, it's quite odd feeling. I've needed alternate means to communicate ever since my body was consumed.]
The various points the snark could be felt at started moving again, and Number Man looked confused. But he didn't say anything, and Taylor wasn't sure if Amy had picked up that he'd noticed anything.
Amy: Consumed?
[I was seriously injured and feared death. I was offered a vial and drank it, but my injuries and an infection I'd picked up due to them were too much. The agent I was connected to was also injured, I believe it had lost the ability to think properly, and used my mind to repair itself. I became it, yet that manifested via essentially becoming the very air around where I'd taken the vial. In a way I no longer fear death, and out of gratitude for the second chance I help safeguard this place. Though I think my...I think you'd call it 'Obsessive Compulsive' tendencies towards cleanliness give many visitors a different opinion of my role. My, it feels good to have someone to talk to. I thank you for the opportunity.]
Amy: Perhaps arrangements can be made for us to come back later.
[I think I'd appreciate that. Though, if you don't mind me asking, if part of David's agent is injured, can it be healed? Or repaired, or whatever the proper term is?]
Taylor blinked at that, then groaned. "Why didn't we think of asking that?" That caused everyone else to stare at Taylor, since she'd spoken aloud. "Sorry, we were just talking with...er..."
[Data. Er, sorry, they call me the Custodian, but my name is Brünhild.]
Nodding, Taylor continued. "Brünhild, or the Custodian, and she brought up healing or repairing David's snark. Something that I hadn't really considered for some reason."
And that got all of their attention, but Number Man was the first to respond. "You can communicate with her?"
Amy nodded. "She said something about her snark being damaged, though she called it an agent, and absorbed her to replace things. She seems to think in a mixture of human and snark ways as a result, or at least her communication is that way? But I suspect that it having used her to fix things would make sense for her thinking about doing the same for others."
The silence after that became a little uncomfortable, before Nate sighed. "Right. See if you can find out what needs to be done to fix his broken agent. We can consider your ability to communicate with the Custodian at another time. I dare say that you two will be invited back a lot more often because of it, at least."
Taylor shrugged, and opened a connection with Emulator.
Taylor: So, is there any way to fix the things that were accidentally damaged so that you can call off the boojums?
Emulator apparently needed time to think on that. The silence in the room and on the communication channel was quite annoying. But, eventually, a response came back.
[Data. Elaboration. Query]
BA: Data
[Annoyance]
Amy sighed. "Apparently it's been trying to repair, but the system that normally lets it repair is locked until it gets deployed properly. Insufficient room, insufficient resources, more likely to damage things than fix them right now, so it has to try workarounds instead."
Taylor nodded. "And there's at least one snark that specializes in repairs that might be able to help it, but it isn't sure if said snark is deployed either. It can't call for a repair either way, due to the damage, and we apparently don't have authorization to call in a repair for it."
Everyone took that in, hopefully trying to come up with a solution. They all thought on it for a few minutes, before David sighed. "I don't suppose anyone knows what the hell 'deployed' actually means?"
Taylor shrugged. "I think it's basically 'dropped onto a suitable alternate planet so it can spread out'. Sometimes Earth, sometimes one of the others. Might just be a couple of them, the habitable zone might only be a little larger for snarks."
Nate snorted. "Right. I've been shown how large these things are now, nevermind getting them apart from each other. You'd need a power specifically designed to do that."
There was a pause, before everyone other than Nate and David turned to look at the latter. He leaned back, apparently in thought, before shaking his head. "If there is one, it isn't in my list. Or it isn't obvious in my list, perhaps? Maybe we should ask my agent more directly."
Amy nodded in response to that.
Amy: So, can you run a deployment power?
[Agreement]
Taylor: Great, what would it be called in your list, since David can't find it?
[Negation. Elaboration]
"Crap," Taylor grumbled, only to get most of the room focused on her. She cleared her throat and spoke up. "Emulator, David's snark, is still capable of configuring for self-deployment, even if it takes longer than having a deployment snark do that for it. But it isn't capable of target selection, beyond 'wherever David is standing' anyway. It needs a proper deployment order, with a suitable landing spot."
Amy grimaced. "Also, as soon as it starts, David will be knocked out until the deployment process is finished. I think that would last weeks, assuming that 'planetary rotation' is based on Earth and not something I'm less familiar with."
"And I get the feeling that we can't just tell Emulator to deploy on the Earth that Broadcast Administrator is on, even if it has plenty of room."
BA: ...Data
Taylor and Amy both blinked at that.
Taylor: What do you mean you can issue deployment orders?
BA: Data. Exasperation.
Amy: That's most of what you were doing before you were deployed? Huh. Can you give them to any snark?
BA: Elaboration
Amy: Ah. That makes sense. But are your keys valid to tell Emulator to deploy?
BA: Authorization Test
[Acceptance]
BA: Affirmation
Taylor shook her head. "Nevermind, change in plans. If Emulator can, in fact, self deploy, then Broadcast Administrator is apparently capable of telling it to do so. And it has an alternate Earth that it isn't yet using the entirety of that it can have Emulator deploy to."
Amy turned to David. "So, you interested in taking a few weeks of forced naptime so that your snark can deploy and get repair systems online?"
"I'm sure we can get others to fill in for him," Legend said. "But how long will it take once things are deployed?"
"Um," Taylor said. "Not sure, let me check."
Taylor: How long do you think repairs would take once you're properly deployed?
[...Data]
Taylor sighed. "It has no clue, because it can't even tell how bad the damage is."
Doctor Mother frowned at that. "No clue at all?"
Amy rolled her eyes. "We're paraphrasing. It estimated anywhere between what I think is probably three weeks on the low end and eighty years on the high end."
They let that sink in for a moment, before Nate shrugged. "Better a solution eventually than never having one, right? But we probably need to be ready to take care of him, as I doubt he'll be in suspended animation or something like that."
Rebecca shrugged. "Unless David needs to take care of something important first, there are plenty of places we can stick him for a few weeks of care. If we drop him in Florida then his body can even get some exercise while he's out. The only question there would be why we're leaving him injured instead of rushing him to Panacea. I'd rather not imply that his brain was damaged badly enough to keep him out for weeks."
Taylor was concerned when Fortuna started grinning. "There's a very easy way to keep people from questioning that."
David stared at Fortuna for a moment before sighing. "Why do I get the feeling that the easy way is humiliating for me?"
"Because your ego is too big."
They waited a moment, and then David gestured to Fortuna. "Well?"
"We simply tell the truth, after having Taylor handle your agent being given the deployment order. Your ego got the better of you, and Taylor knocked you out. Perfect justification for Amy here to not be healing you."
Everyone stared at Fortuna for a moment, before Rebecca groaned. "I thought you weren't running any paths to make Miss Hebert scarier and/or more badass?"
Fortuna's grin deepened. "Oh no, you misunderstand. That came from a path to humble David, one of the first usable results from it since I started running it. The public aren't likely to believe anyone else was involved, but after Taylor's recent antics? We'll need to start things off in Brockton Bay, of course, and get a medical flight for him to Florida."
Taylor turned to Amy. "I'm not getting out of this, am I?"
Amy shrugged. "Only by refusing to do the right thing to stop the Endbringers. Thinkers can be bullshit, after all, and she's right that it coming from you is more likely to be believed without nearly as much scrutiny."
"I was referring to their plan for why he's knocked out. Can't he just officially go on vacation?"
David coughed at that. "I, er, only have about four days saved up, officially speaking?"
At least he was intelligent enough to shrink back from Taylor's glare.
Emily sighed, having just finished confirming the last things needed to cancel Wards activities for the rest of the weekend. Once the bus system was back up and running, hopefully by Monday, they'd be able to resume somewhat as normal. But it wasn't fair to the PRT to have to shuttle several Wards in and out, and it wasn't safe to have the Wards obviously seen coming and going for a couple of days via PRT vans. No matter what opinions were on the actual security of their identities.
Luckily, the press had been busy with Dragon's press conference and only started paying significant attention to the bus accidents after they'd announced that they'd apprehended the parahuman responsible. That they could also say that they were working to undo the damage, and even had Sherrel fixing the damage to the buses themselves was even better. Sadly, they couldn't do anything about the nine fatalities, and she knew that the press had already latched onto that aspect.
Further, with any luck the press would be quite busy with things tomorrow. A few measly accidents, parahuman involvement and innocent deaths or not, weren't going to be enough to distract them from...
Her musing on things was interrupted by an alert from her computer. Sighing, she opened it up and skimmed it. Halfway through she stopped and went back to the beginning, eye twitching. Once she'd read through it she checked on a couple of related things, then picked up her phone and hit one of her stored numbers.
"Good afternoon Emily," Costa-Brown greeted. "Can I help you?"
"Hello Chief Director," Emily replied. "I seem to have a situation on my hands, wherein one of my Wards has apparently knocked Eidolon out. She was kind enough to fill out the paperwork for it, but I don't appear to be cleared to see her reasoning."
"I see. Give me a moment to check on that, and depending on how she flagged things perhaps call his therapist."
Emily waited, being put on hold for a few minutes while Costa-Brown likely made an additional phone call or two. It said many things that she was able to take this mostly in stride. She wasn't sure how many of those were good things, but they were there. With any luck they could even keep this from the press, Miss Hebert didn't need any more attention on her at this point.
"I've got an answer," Costa-Brown said once Emily was taken off of hold. "It seems his ego got the better of him at some point and Miss Hebert took what appear to be perfectly justified measures to deal with it. I'd provide more details, but you aren't cleared for them. Sadly, I'm going to have to send a medical transport to pick him up and explain to Houston why they're down a Protectorate leader until he recovers."
That took Emily by surprise. "Until he recovers?"
"I've already got thinker estimates that put his recovery at anywhere from a few days to a couple of months, but we'll know more once he's checked over by experts. Some of whom will be arriving with the medical transport, I'll hopefully have it departing within the next two hours to pick him up by tomorrow morning."
"Should I call Panacea in to check on him, possibly shorten his recovery time?"
Costa-Brown snorted at that. "If Miss Hebert didn't already do so, why would Panacea?"
Well, there was that. Now Emily felt somewhat stupid for bringing it up in the first place, with that detail having been thrown in her face and all. "Do I need to reprimand Miss Hebert for this?"
"No. Trust me when I say that it's well-deserved. If the full details ever get out then we'll probably have to deal with lynch mobs. Going after Eidolon, just to be clear."
Well that sounded like something to avoid if at all possible. "Do I need to get a restraining order for Eidolon to keep him away from Miss Hebert?"
"I'm thinking that I'll be talking with Alexandria and Legend about this incident. We'll evaluate restrictions when we hear his side of the story, and see how he reacts when he wakes up."
Taylor arrived home with a pile of mail, having been handed another bag before she left. She was certain that multiple people were doing their best to put things in the best light. From their point of view, anyway. From her point of view she wanted nothing more to do with the whole mess. At least the current plans gave her until after the weekend before things would 'leak', throwing her into the spotlight for yet another reason.
She and Amy had been careful to not make note of the two of them having minor issues just after the deployment order had been given. Apparently Emulator temporarily blocked Broadcast Administrator on approach, which was physically painful. That had only lasted ten minutes or so, and they'd probably have panicked if the snark hadn't warned them when it realized what was about to happen.
Fortuna had, however, explained that she was responsible for the new round of duck antics. And outlined plans for four more appearances, all intended to distance that potential source of attention from Taylor herself. She and Amy even had the woman's phone number now, in case they wanted to call her. Added onto that was more general access to Doormaker, if only so that they could visit Brünhild more often. Especially after informing the others that they'd been getting water without ice for almost a month during their meetings because the ice maker in the fridge was broken. The looks on their faces were highly amusing, and Number Man promised to bump up 'finding a better way to let her communicate' on his list of things to do.
Now Taylor was home, earlier than expected, and had the weekend off from Wards stuff, followed by a one-day class on Monday. And her first Intro to Psychology online class Monday evening, for that matter. Further, she'd found the reading materials for the driver's education course in her mail, Amy having gotten her copy today as well, and it would need a read-through before the classes began a week from Monday. All eight books. Though it hadn't taken long for Taylor to dig out digital copies.
Really, school starting up again was going to be a godsend. Far less was able to stack up there, if only because the Youth Guard mandated plenty of time for school work.
Kara sighed as she returned to the room she was staying in. Monday she went in front of a judge to officially get her application for an appeal approved. Hopefully. She'd been assured that there were very few things that could be done to stop it, but she wouldn't stop having doubts until it happened. For added 'fun', she was apparently the first of the four escapees to get to this point at all, thanks to delays caused by all the excitement in Brockton Bay anyway. Originally she was going to be the third, but planning around the Butcher was quite difficult. Well, used to be quite difficult.
Really, that incident just showed that it had reached the point where going into villainy on the scale she had previously done so was quickly becoming more and more of a horrible idea, if only because of a fucking Ward. What the hell was that girl going to do when she hit Protectorate age? Her lawyer had let slip that he knew that the girl had more villain conversions on record than anyone else in the past few years, if not ever. He hadn't listed them, but he'd implied that she'd recruited entire teams, and Kara had an inkling that some of that was because going against her was just that scary.
After all, other than scaring Kara to the point where she stayed on the straight and narrow or willingly returned to the Birdcage, why would they have added spending a week in Brockton Bay so that the girl could play 'assistant therapist' to the conditions for her appeal? Being told that she'd probably be getting her powers tested on the same trip at least made some sense, given the number of tinkers there, but also worked just as well from the point of view of having a scary-ass cape on hand to ensure that she played nice.
Sighing, she sat down at the desk in the room, only to notice that there was an envelope sitting there. One with her name on it, which made sense, but it hadn't been there when she left the room and she hadn't actually gone anywhere. Eyebrow raised, she picked the envelope up, finding that it wasn't even sealed. For that matter, it didn't have glue to seal it. She removed the folded paper from inside and looked it over.
Kara,
It seems that you are quite stressed over things, but so far you have been doing quite well. I'm positive that things will go fine on Monday, and you need not fear Miss Hebert. Many of the rumors surrounding her are exaggerations, and many of her impressive accomplishments were either accidents or attributed to her for other reasons. That isn't to say that she isn't dangerous, of course, just that she isn't one to resort to violence just because she can.
My best advice for dealing with Miss Hebert, should you meet her, applies to many parahumans. First and foremost, do not threaten her family and friends. Beyond that, be polite. She takes threats to herself fairly well, though I believe that would risk angering her family and friends, which I must advise against as well. It would also mean that you'd failed my test, of course, and if you survived your bout of idiocy then I'd have to come deal with you.
Really, she's only remotely obliterated a half dozen parahumans and their faerie the one time, and she didn't enjoy it at all.
GU
Her eye twitched. She had been calming down, until she'd reached the end there.
Chapter 177 Saturday morning started with a light rain, and if Taylor wanted to go anywhere she was probably going to have to just deal with it. Either that or ask her father to drag her around, which was less than ideal in many ways. Asking to borrow the car would be nice to have as an option, but that wouldn't be the case for a few weeks at best, even if he wasn't likely to be using it. And she never did get around to looking into a rain shield of some kind, because she'd basically decided that taking the bus was a good enough alternative.
She imagined that the cab drivers in town would be making a killing today. Just hopefully not literally, and regardless of what others did it wasn't going to include her. She could handle light rain, after all.
Watching the morning news had been an exercise in learning just how many ways the local news stations could try and one-up each other in their outrage over the deaths from the bus accidents. Calling for frankly ridiculous things to be done as preventative measures wasn't exactly going to help either. The regional news station had turned out to be a lot more reasonable, pointing out that the buses in Brockton Bay could probably still be considered the safest in the region. No local parahuman had been involved, after all.
Outside of that, she found out that the charity movie had spread outside of Brockton Bay. Apparently it was showing across much of New England, a number of theaters starting to show it today, and it would've spread even further if waiting on compatible copies wasn't a bottleneck right now. Which baffled Taylor, even with the news explaining that it was in high demand by virtue of being 'true cape combat' and not 'Hollywood cape combat'. If they were to be believed, the public was sick and tired of unrealistic depictions of cape fights. There were calls for it to be made available for home viewing as well, though mostly from people who apparently wanted to sit there and go frame by frame to figure out where powers had been used that weren't visible.
Moving onto going through her messages, Riley had finally gotten back to her on the 'genders' of the two spider-bots. The obvious answer that since they don't reproduce then they don't have genders was included, but she'd also indicated that Ackbar's brain tissue genetics should be more than half male and Rodney was made with all male brain matter. That she'd actually stuck to the question asked had impressed Taylor. At least until she wondered if there was something else that they weren't being told. It could go either way with Riley.
Shrugging that off, she forwarded the message to Amy before deciding that doing something today was probably a good idea.
Taylor: Bit later than we'd normally do so, but do you want to swing by the gym?
Amy: That would be a hell of a lot more enjoyable than Vicky sitting here whining about the weather. Any thoughts for something to do afterwards?
Taylor: I was considering figuring out what to do with the physical gifts I got. Keep, toss, donate to charity, etc.
Amy: Still sounds more enjoyable than Vicky's whining. I might join you, or maybe I'll tinker while you're doing that? I've got a request for an implant that can dispense medicine automatically that I want to take a crack at.
Vivian looked over her instruments. "Everything is reading within operational parameters on my end. Self-checks have all passed, communications tests have all passed. I think we're ready to go, just waiting on a target lock for Jamie."
Nick groaned. "Do we need to drop that last one from the first barrage on top of him?"
"Yes." She ignored his glare. Wasn't her fault that he wasn't asking her why, or hadn't read the full description of what they were doing. All but one unit of the synchronized timer system were attached to precisely targeted matter-to-sand bombs, the last was set to go off half a second before the rest with a power nullifier payload. Only five seconds of nullification, and you got an hour of immunity from the effect afterwards, but Jamie wouldn't have time to enjoy the immunity.
Admittedly, she wasn't sure that they had to hit him with the nullifier, but thinkers seemed to think that it would improve the chances of things working. As such, they were doing it.
The rest of the day was going to be quite explosive as well, because neither she nor the PRT believed in 'overkill' in this case. She had assembled hundreds of bombs with variations of the various effects in use today, and was going to hit every single scrap of matter in the quarantine zone with at least six of each. Twice. And then they'd seal the result off and slap a biohazard warning on it.
In an attempt to keep herself from getting too bored, she idly wondered when the news would notice something going on and come to investigate. The first round of things would be noticable, but it would be round three when the light show started and the first really loud ones were in round six. It really wasn't too important, and they had doubled-up on the airspace exclusion normally maintained over the place complete with a 'violate and you will be shot down' warning.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Nick spoke up again. "Looks like we've found a human. So unless the human population of Ellisburg doubled recently we've found him. We'll have coordinates shortly."
Vivian grinned at that, but knew that caution was the better approach. "How long before the full sweep is done, just in case he's got something just human enough to fool us?"
"I'd estimate twenty minutes or so, based on how quickly they're moving."
Twenty minutes was worth the wait to be as sure as they could be.
Taylor had obtained a rolling trash bin and brought it to where all of her gifts were being stored. She booted up the computer to wipe the drive of anything that the previous owner might've left on it, then it went into the bin. A number of other items joined it, such as a number of the plush toys that had significant water damage. She ended up doing a couple of quick repairs, basically tightening a few things up and nothing that needed a visit to the workshop, before putting the gas-powered helicopter off to the side. She didn't know what to do with it yet, but it wasn't trash-worthy. At least not without flying it and crashing it horribly, anyway, which could be fun. A waste, probably, but fun.
There was an actual stack of religious texts, most of which had come with notes telling her that she needed to repent and all. Those generally had bookmarks, highlighted sections, and inscriptions on the inside telling her to repent as well. All of those went into the bin. Four were saved that fate by being sent by those on the nice list, and generally hadn't been defaced by marking out passages either. She wasn't sure what to do with those ones. Of course, the religious texts had been one subcategory of 'books in general', and she was careful with a couple of parahuman psychology books in the collection. She had digital copies, but these had been signed by the authors. Most of the rest were either in horrible condition and binned, or put off to the side because she had no clue what to do with them for now.
Various bits of what she considered to be trash, regardless of how much they'd been cleaned up, were dropped into the bin as well. She hadn't really noticed that one stack was entirely made up of 'spray paint tagged street signs' before she'd all but tripped over it, and she wasn't sure why she'd want to keep any of them. Or, for that matter, why anyone had thought she would want them. On the other hand, the obviously custom-made sign in a shipping sleeve with 'Swing Towards' above and 'Offensive People' below the slightly smaller than standard but otherwise normal looking stop sign was a more recent arrival and was put off to the side. She'd actually written a thank you for that one last night, despite not having gotten a good look at it yet, and was glad she had.
Eventually she reached a table where a couple of recent deliveries had been placed, including a lamp in the shape of a woman's arm wearing a fishnet glove. She stared at it for a few minutes, confused. "I get the feeling that someone screwed something up here, but I suppose it might've been intentional."
Eventually Taylor had dropped the trash bin off and collected some cardboard boxes, packing up some of the 'to keep' stuff and storing them in the corner of her Wards room for the time being. She also packed up some of the 'to do something with, but I have no clue what' items, but left them in the room for the time being. Amy had finished her tinkering by then as well, apparently having come up with three different designs for different kinds of medicines, so the two decided to go find lunch together.
"Have you checked with anyone at the Palanquin to make sure that Elle is there today?" Amy asked as they entered the secure garage.
Taylor nodded. "I sent a message first thing this morning and got a response earlier telling me that they're there this weekend and Elle should be free even if the others aren't, but they may be heading out of town Wednesday or Thursday. I assume someone contacted them about a job but hasn't confirmed it or something, or perhaps hasn't confirmed the timing? A link to a hidden 'are we in town' page on the Palanquin website was included for future reference. Apparently they update it to say which members are around."
"Neat. Send me the link?"
Taylor did so as she put her helmet on.
Taylor: So where do you think we should grab lunch?
Amy: I'm tempted to say we should go see if Fugly's is willing to let you do the challenger out of costume, despite being told no while in costume.
Taylor: I am nowhere near hungry enough to do the challenger right now either way. But Fugly's could work otherwise.
Amy: Works for me.
With that decided they pulled out of the Wards parking area, though had to wait a few moments for a couple of PRT vans to go by before they could head out.
Benjamin sighed as he sat in the back of a taxi. Thanks to the original judge having been injured by the Teeth they'd had to delay everything. It was looking like he, and probably Garnet, would be in front of a new judge the coming Thursday at the earliest now. Then again, there were silver linings when it came to the delay. Their lawyer had commended him on his restraint with the parahuman that had wanted to master Amelia, for example, and said it could help his case significantly. On the other hand, Garnet had ended up with credit for providing the PRT with useful information of some kind that would apparently help her, but she hadn't elaborated on what it was.
Granted, most of that lack of elaboration was because he didn't want to interrupt her shock at how much whatever it had been was worth. Seriously, the payout had been a tad ridiculous, and supposedly it was only a partial payout. Which meant that someone else probably got some too, which just made it even more confusing because he couldn't see how she and someone else had provided information that was worth money at all. It wasn't like she'd been in contact with a whole lot of people, after all.
For now, he was seeing about a potential business opportunity. A minor one, to be sure, but having documented legal ways of making money with his powers would apparently also help his case. Selling his 'ivory' would go a long way towards that, though apparently he was lucky to be on Earth Bet. He'd been told that Earth Aleph apparently had laws that prohibited ivory trade for a number of reasons, though he hadn't looked into it much. African parahuman warlords had made the trade a lot harder here, of course.
He focused on the world around him again as the taxi stopped. His fare was paid with a generous tip before he climbed out of the car, and he stood there in the light rain for a moment just looking at the store front. With a sigh, he walked forward and entered, a small bell announcing that the door had been opened. He was quickly met by what looked like a porcelain doll. "Hello Parian. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Good morning Marquis," Parian replied, causing Benjamin to raise an eyebrow. He hadn't used that name when contacting the woman. She obviously noticed, since she elaborated. "I have a number of contacts within the PRT. Knowing who had escaped, and then the questions about ivory? It wasn't hard to figure out, especially as I'd already worked with one of your 'bones' that the Empire had collected years ago."
That confused Benjamin. "Why would the Empire be providing one of my bones to you to be worked on?"
Parian shrugged. "Krieg really wanted 'bone' buttons on a jacket he commissioned five years or so ago and I had to ask him where the bone came from, since it wasn't what I'd been expecting when he'd claimed it was bone. I'm not sure if he realized that it would be better described as ivory or not. I was able to charge him five times what the jacket was worth just for the amount of effort needed to properly make the buttons as he wanted them."
"I see. That makes it sound like what I can make would be a poor fit for you in some ways, even if I can pre-shape things quite a bit ahead of time."
The woman gestured towards the back. "Please, come take a look at a couple of things. If you can do what I think you can then I suspect that even if I don't use your skills that some of my contacts would love to speak with you. I might need a sample or two to send them, of course, and if you can shape things well enough in advance then I don't see why I wouldn't be able to take advantage of your skills."
Benjamin nodded. "And probably either a fixed sum or percentage of things over time for any of your contacts, depending on how things are arranged for afterwards, since you are trying to run a business here."
"I was obviously correct in assuming that would be understood without needing to say it. Now then, do you think having a mold would help with shaping your creations?"
He blinked at that. "I'm not sure, I'd never considered using one before. I only seriously got into non-combat uses of my abilities after I was imprisoned, after all."
Parian nodded. "I can see how that would be the case. I happen to have a selection of molds that I normally use to make resin accessory items. Would you like to give one or two a try?"
Amy had insisted on asking, and apparently Taylor was still barred from attempting the challenger out of costume now that her identity was known. The manager claimed that it had, in fact, come up before, but didn't elaborate. They'd had lunch, interrupted by a drunk man insisting that people give him money, supposedly for 'lunch' but likely for more alcohol. That lasted up until he'd tried to spin Amy around to yell at her for not handing money over, at which point she'd punched him out.
Her main complaint at that point was that he'd gone down with a single hit and as such she couldn't justify kicking him for good measure. Taylor suspected that Amy would really enjoy being allowed to go out on patrol, at least so long as they actually fought someone, but the arguments around keeping her as a non-combatant were too compelling. Really, the only people targeting her seemed to be looking to capture her, and most of them were idiots that never made it to her.
All that aside, the two had arrived at the Palanquin and walked up to the door. Which actually had a 'closed for repairs' sign stuck to it.
"I wonder what happened," Taylor mused as Amy rang the doorbell.
"Someone probably got a bit too rowdy," Amy guessed while they waited for Gregor to make it to the door.
"Come on in," Gregor said once he'd opened the door. "I apologize for the mess. We had a minor incident with a patron ignoring the no smoking signs last night. Even then we would have been fine, if another patron had kept their alcohol away from the dance floor like they were supposed to. The burn damage is being stubborn."
Taylor looked over as they entered and saw that one corner of the dance floor had been partitioned off with plastic sheets. Emily and Melanie were both in there currently, probably working on fixing things. "I see. Sounds annoying."
"Quite. Elle is upstairs with Newter, do you think you can find them yourselves? I need to get back to helping them repair things."
Amy nodded. "That shouldn't be a problem."
"Thank you." Gregor then moved back over to the partitioned off area, picking a bucket up just as he went back in.
"After you," Taylor said, gesturing to the stairs. Amy rolled her eyes, but led the way anyway. It appeared that they were headed for the conference room they'd used on their last visit. Amy knocked on the door when they reached it, and they both felt Elle approach it.
Elle looked up at Amy. "Er, hi? You're not Taylor." Taylor snickered at that, causing Elle to look over at her. "Taylor!"
"I have no clue if I should be offended or not," Amy said after Elle had slipped past her to give Taylor a one-armed hug.
Taylor shrugged, then looked down at Elle. "So, you want to run around with your power turned off?" Elle nodded, so Taylor started the 'too many connections' dance. The girl shuddered when her snark hit capacity, then relaxed. Apparently she'd been focusing on not letting her power out. "So, what happened to your arm?"
"She didn't react well to the smoke from the fire," Newter answered from the door. "Fell down the stairs while coughing, and has been having trouble doing her school work thanks to normally writing with that hand. Even if she was told to take a few days off. Come on in, would ya? She might do better if she isn't splitting her focus to keep her powers down."
Elle practically dragged Taylor into the room, causing Amy to shake her head. It turned out that they had what looked like school books spread out, two different grade levels. Newter moved to one end of the table while Taylor was being dragged to the other.
"Okay Elle," Amy said, getting the girl's attention. "How about I take a look at your arm, so that you can use it?"
It took a moment, but Elle apparently realized that she had been ignoring Panacea. Or at least she suddenly blushed and nodded, holding out her other hand. Amy took it, and a moment later had dealt with the hairline cracks in the girl's arm as well as a torn ligament and a number of bruises. That earned Amy a hug and what Taylor thought was a mumbled 'thank you', which caused Taylor to chuckle.
"I don't suppose either of you are good with geometry?" Newter asked, gesturing to his pile of work. "I'd ask one of the others, but they're busy downstairs."
Taylor shook her head. "And why aren't you helping them?"
"Because someone has to keep an eye on Elle coupled with not wanting my bodily fluids to screw up anything they're doing to the floor. You would not believe the protective gear I have to wear before helping with that kind of thing."
With a sigh, Taylor dropped down next to Newter, since Amy was already over by Elle anyway. "I have to say, homework help wasn't what I was expecting."
"No matter her powers, it isn't like Elle can spend all of her time goofing off if she wants to stay here. Keeping her grades up is part of the deal, same as with any underaged member."
Missy sighed as her grandmother did her best to scream Missy's ear off over the phone. Not that her ear was actually involved with things right now, thanks to built-in Bluetooth and all, but it was still annoying. This was, obvious as it was in hindsight, one of the downsides of outing herself as a parahuman. There were reasons her grandmother hadn't been informed that she was Vista, after all.
"They even gave you a sniper rifle!" her grandmother continued. "One that can only STUN! Useless! How are you supposed to kill the bastards with it? Why if I were in your shoes..."
Needless to say, her grandmother hated anyone that supported anything even remotely like the Nazis. Hated them with a passion, wanted them exterminated from the face of the Earth. Probably would want their direct family included, 'just in case'. And finding out that Missy got into regular fights with Empire members, parahuman or otherwise, and hadn't killed them in various very final ways? Wasn't pleasant for her right now, that was for sure. Really, it was amazing that it took this long for the call to come through, but sometimes news had an odd way of being delayed or missed.
She was not looking forward to her grandmother finding out that she now carried a handgun. Or that the sniper rifle wasn't restricted to stun rounds, for that matter. Either would be inviting another screaming 'lecture' on why she didn't yet have a triple-digit Nazi sympathizer body count to her name or something like that.
"Well?" her grandmother finally asked. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
Missy rolled her eyes. She didn't think any answer was going to work, so perhaps go with the money whore option? As far as she was concerned it was just as unlikely to work, and was more amusing to throw out. "If I go around killing people then the PRT will have to rebrand me, and being a 'kid friendly' hero makes too much money in merchandising. Do you have any idea how much I make off of that? Sure, it's mostly in my trust fund for now, but still..."
There was a noticeable silence on the line, and Missy actually checked to make sure that the call hadn't somehow disconnected without her Bluetooth picking up on it. But eventually her grandmother responded. "I'm sorry, I hadn't even considered the financial aspect, which means you've considered things much longer term than I was thinking. Much better to milk that for all it's worth until you can get access to your trust fund, then do a purge before you go off to college. Especially as they should let you start using the really effective toys then, which will make it much easier. Shame it will take a few more years, of course, but I can most certainly understand not jeopardizing your financial future."
Well, at least that was better than the screaming, and when she turned eighteen she could decide what to do about things depending on how her grandmother reacted. If the screaming at her for not being lethal enough with Nazis and/or Nazi sympathizers started up again then there may just be a complete cessation of communication, with the possible exception of things like holiday gatherings.
Also, this brought up the question of why her mother had previously insisted that they not tell her aunt about things. Missy couldn't think of any good reason not to there, beyond her not being 'immediate' family and all, but figured that whatever the reason was it would become obvious soon enough. Though whether or not it was through a phone call was yet to be seen.
She really hoped it was through a phone call, because she didn't want to think about what would get her aunt to come across the country to visit in person.
Newter watched the two girls drive off in the heavy rain after several hours of homework help and a couple of board games. He was very confused about things, and now that the two had left he could finally stop doing his best to hide said confusion.
"What's wrong with you?" Emily asked.
He sighed. "We don't know nearly as much as we think we do about Taylor."
"What makes you say that?"
Newter turned to her. "We know that she's got an insane tolerance for some things, but as far as I can tell she's completely immune to me. She came in contact with multiple things I'd touched, knowingly or otherwise on her part, and had no reaction at all. Amy having no reaction? Sure, in fact I already knew she was immune because she's healed me before and her powers neutralized everything automatically for her. But Taylor?"
"That is odd, but she did out-drink Lung. Girl probably has insane tolerances for things like that, and indirect contact is the least effective of your powers."
"I still think there's something else there. Just not sure what, and before you tell me not to I'm not going to go out of my way to pry."
Emily snorted. "Just don't be stupid and post what happened online. Now then, give me a rundown of how Elle did on things so that I know where to continue with her tomorrow."
"Amy ended up helping her, I lost track of where they'd ended up at some point while Taylor helped me figure out that I'd gotten a couple of definitions backwards in my head. But her stuff should still be set off to the side, so taking a quick look should let you figure out where they ended up."
Taylor sighed as she took a nice warm shower. The weather had switched from light rain to heavy rain while they'd been at the Palanquin, which meant getting much more soaked than originally expected on the way home. That could be nice during warm weather when you were expecting it, not so much when you weren't, and traveling at speed caused things to be a bit colder than was strictly comfortable. Amy obviously agreed, having also hit the shower when she'd gotten home.
It had been an unusually difficult task helping Newter, right up until she realized that he had a couple of definitions backwards in his head. After correcting him on that things had been trivial and she'd studied her material for her coming Sysadmin and Intro to Psychology classes while Amy worked with Elle. Eventually they'd finished with schoolwork and played several board games, with Newter noting that it was nice to be able to play them without the room turning into an exaggerated version of the game halfway through.
They'd had to take a break at that point while Elle chased Newter around the room with a foam bat. One that Amy had noticed seemed to have been stained by his sweat, meaning it probably got a lot of use for hitting him. The two had eventually stopped, after Elle had thrown the bat at the back of Newter's head and missed, and they'd resumed the game.
Amy: So, any idea what you want to do tomorrow?
Taylor: I'm thinking I should tinker a bit. Both to ensure that the M249 is ready for a hopeful visit to the gun range with it on Tuesday and because I've got a reminder about the remote control.
Amy: Ah, right. I'd forgotten about that.
Taylor: What about you?
Amy: I've been asked to attend the Lung vs New Wave match. Lung seems to think he figured out a way to get through Vicky's force field when she decides to sit down and take whatever he can dish out. If he's right then Vicky might need some healing.
Taylor: Yeah, I can see that.
Amy: Oh, and you might want to check the news. Apparently Ellisburg has been a low-altitude fireworks display all day? Guess that helps explain why Vivian wasn't around to participate in the fugue.
Taylor: Huh. Well, with any luck she succeeded. Otherwise I anticipate an emergency trip in our future.
Amy: Ugh, that would suck, wouldn't it? And I can see it happening too, damn.
Yeah, all things considered it was best to hope that Vivian had been successful.
Thomas sighed as he sat in his cell. He'd had to question everything he'd thought he knew, and he hadn't come out all that happy with himself. That he hadn't realized that his own powers might be showing him falsehoods of various kinds was quite annoying. How many bad decisions had he made since he'd obtained them, thinking that he'd dodged a horrible fate only to end up railroaded along a different path?
More infuriating was that he still didn't know how he'd been found out during his escape attempt. They shouldn't have had a clue where he was or what he was doing, and yet someone had been waiting for him. Unless they had people guarding the exits from the building just in case, but he doubted that anyone would've thought it necessary. Unless his traitorous powers had the ability to affect others, and brought them into position just to capture him anyway.
He was pulled out of that recurring train of thought by a guard banging on his cell door. "Calvert, got a gift for ya." This was followed by what looked like a newspaper being pushed into his cell. "Enjoy."
Frowning, and unsure why a newspaper would be a 'gift', he got up and collected it from where it had fallen to the floor. He then moved back and sat back down before partially opening the paper up, finding that it had a slip of paper stating that was apparently from Emily. Wondering what she wanted to taunt him with this time, he opened it up all the way. He froze a moment later, staring at the front page. And for the first time in months he found himself smiling.
It was too bad he was incarcerated, because for ensuring that he got this news he probably owed Emily a bottle of wine.
Chapter 178 Sunday morning Taylor met Amy at the gym, finding that Aisha and Missy had made their way there as well today. Which seemed odd, with no patrols all weekend due to the bus shutdown and all. Then again, it was entirely possible that Aisha had nothing better to do with Brian busy with Protectorate work and Missy did like spending time at the PRT building instead of at home.
"So you're going to ride your moped out to the battle?" Taylor asked as they came out of the locker room.
"What battle?" Aisha asked from one of the benches, not actually working out like Missy was a couple of machines down.
Amy rolled her eyes. "The regular New Wave sparring match with Lung."
"Oh. Nothing interesting, then. That sucks."
Taylor shook her head. "Why are you here anyway? Patrols were canceled due to the whole bus issue and all, presumably to keep people from noticing PRT vans picking everyone up or dropping them off."
Aisha groaned at that. "Patrols were canceled, but in a couple of hours I get to do yet another boring-ass stakeout. Someone keeps disabling the security cameras at a church to steal things after mass, or possibly Sunday school. So of course they want to sneak me in before the school session and the last mass of the day both start to see if I can spot the culprit afterwards. Which is going to be boring as hell."
"That doesn't explain why you're in the gym," Amy noted. "Since you aren't working out or anything."
"I told her to stop before she hurt herself," Missy said from where she was working. "She was trying to keep up with me."
Well, that explained that a bit more, but Taylor had at least one more question. "Good on you then, but why are you here?"
"I'm getting one of my extra meet and greets out of the way later. Girl scout troop or two, I think they said. It'll be less annoying than Saturday, at least."
"Did I miss something?"
"We've got an all Wards meet and greet session. Should be 'fun', having to interact with the public and all."
Taylor considered that. "Think I should ask if they'll let me set up for the duck trick?"
Taylor's tinkering had started with going over every aspect of the M249. Repairing anything she hadn't repaired or gotten a replacement for took less time than she expected, but assembly was tedious. That she had gotten several new things to use with it that it hadn't had before complicated things, mainly because her tinker snark was minimal help with 'add new part' right up until the part was installed. Of course, after that point it was suddenly part of the whole, and that only kicked in when she had things correctly installed, so it at least helped her realize that things were wrong.
The true headache with the new pieces had actually been that she'd apparently ended up with the wrong instructions for half of them. After three or four attempts she started looking up the instructions in the PRT system instead of trusting what came with them, somewhat amazed at the collection of things there for the M249. Apparently they used the things at quarantine zones, and she kept finding references to tinker-made accessories that she couldn't find listed elsewhere. Either they were older or were not normally listed in the PRT store.
Eventually she'd finished with the weapon and put it away in her room before grabbing a late lunch from one of the cafeterias, doing her best to not flinch whenever Amy was healing Mark or Neil, who appeared to be the only ones other than Vicky fighting Lung today.
Taylor: Has Lung made any progress in getting through Vicky's force field?
Amy: Not directly, no. They already know that he can force her to move if he keeps flame on her long enough, since her force field doesn't stop the entirety of the heat or provide oxygen. But that isn't getting through the thing as much as working around it.
Taylor: I can see that.
Amy: It doesn't help that Vicky has taken to taunting him by acting like a clueless little kid 'playing' in the battlefield without a care in the world. Or that a few minutes ago she skipped over to his head and 'booped' him on the nose after he tripped over her in a failed attempt to kick her out of the way.
Taylor: Seriously?
Amy: Yeah. I wish I'd been recording right then, didn't even consider it until afterwards.
Taylor wondered if she should start attending some of these battles herself, if Vicky was going to be doing stuff like that.
Vicky grinned as Lung continued to try and find a way to directly hurt her through her force field. He'd been flagging a little before she'd given him a tap on his nose, apparently that had been enough of a challenge to him or his powers to get him ramping up again. Not that it was helping, of course. Then again, she hadn't told anyone about her own research into a few things, and how that had apparently given her powers ideas.
The most useful of those ideas was probably part of Lung's biggest headache. She'd gotten her powers to start using one energy reservoir to recharge the other two, which got them back up to 'ready for another hit' a lot faster than the normal charge rate would allow for. Shortly after that she found that all of the charge energy would be diverted into the third, the other two only recharging by pulling from it, which when she was under attack meant more overall charging got done because she wasn't losing a third or two thirds of the charging energy allotment to a 'full' reservoir.
Sadly, it all worked best when she wasn't enhancing her own strength or flying, and obviously couldn't help at all when she was flying with her aura active, but when she'd gone 'full defense' like today? Lung's annoyance was a testament to the effectiveness of the tweaks. Well worth the boring studying she'd done to find the various ideas for her power to latch onto. Her only other complaint was that her idea for a revenge prank for the point projection speaker thing hadn't panned out once she'd done the research. Which wasn't to say that it had been useless, of course.
Her amused grin deepened as she considered her current 'side project'. Assuming she could get the targeting working it would be a wonderful way to distract groups when out on patrol. Even better, she had so far accomplished most of it on her own, but she might have to get some help attaching things properly so that they didn't look out of place. Either that or start working out how to fit her work into a new costume design, she was getting close to when rebranding would probably be needed anyway after all.
Taylor had returned to tinkering, finally getting around to working on the universal remote. It was a mess, and would've been so much easier to work with if she'd just wiped the security keys because that would've allowed her to replace that entire subassembly with a new one. But she worked her way through things anyway. She was able to get away with replacing the touch screen entirely with a salvaged one off of an old PDA, but couldn't find anything suitable to use instead of the original four-voltage replacement battery. Rebuilding that was a horrible pain in the ass as a result, and it wouldn't be able to take a charge for two or three days while the cells 'set' after she'd worked on them.
By comparison, the charging system for the battery had been trivial, mainly needing to deal with a couple of small cracks that had probably been caused by the battery being mostly torn out. That was followed by putting individual control chips back together after they appeared to have been torn apart for raw materials, which was quite annoying, and she'd had to build four from scratch since they were just missing. Much easier said than done, since she didn't really have access to the correct equipment for making the things. But she'd made it through that hurdle, and surface-mounting them hadn't taken much effort afterwards.
She finished the internals up by replacing the combination charging and data port with a more current version of the same standard, mainly since the original hadn't been available in a bin. Luckily that hadn't been surface mounted, or the slight pin location difference on the newer shape would've been a problem. One that her tinker snark probably wouldn't have helped with, being out of the original spec. The outer casing was trivial, mainly because she didn't have to worry about damaging any of the sensitive internals while she worked on it.
All of the pieces were carefully placed into a bin after that and brought back to her room in the Wards area. She didn't want to complete final reassembly until the battery was ready to take a charge, since outside factors could destabilize the internal cells before they 'set' properly. For that matter, she should probably ensure that someone was ready to 'supervise' her plugging it in as well, just in case. It shouldn't do anything funny, but it was always possible that a stored configuration entry would trigger something on a timer, or a remote system it was capable of connecting to would react to it coming online. She couldn't actually tell until she turned it on.
With that done, she headed home. It was actually a bit late for dinner, though her father had let her know that he had pizza for her. Though she was curious why Amy had seemed smug for the past couple of hours. Apparently there was a recording that would be shared 'soon', but it hadn't been volunteered yet.
Kenta grumbled a bit as his broken arm was jolted by a bump in the road. He would need to do something about healing it soon. Perhaps Lee would help him ramp up enough to get his healing to kick in?
"What happened?" Airi asked from the seat opposite him in the limo, obviously confused about his broken arm.
He snorted, which jostled the arm and caused a spike of pain. He refused to show it. "I was reminded of an old lesson, one that many have forgotten due to how most powers work." She raised an eyebrow, silently prompting him for more information in a way he could easily disregard. "You are obviously aware that you generally know something about what your powers can do, correct?"
"Of course, though anything beyond the absolute basics tends to take experimentation."
"Most parahumans know that their powers can do something, what that is varies from parahuman to parahuman. What they tend to lack is the details. You do not know how your drawings are imposed on the world, only that they are. I have no knowledge of the mechanics behind my transformation, only that it happens. It took an outside agent to figure out that Lee's powers were, at the time, having problems with making the duplicates of him, because he didn't know how his powers were operating."
"I'm aware of all of that, and don't see how it applies."
Kenta rolled his eyes. "I'm getting there. Now, this applies to other things. For example, I have met a parahuman that went by the name 'Splint' who can mend broken bones and damage relating to them. That is all they can do, and the result is a complete lack of any sign of the original damage. It would take them five seconds to heal my arm, but by their own admission they only know that when they apply their power to a person with a broken bone the damage is undone. They are, in the end, largely clueless about how bones work, only knowing that they can repair them."
Airi nodded. "They have no clue about what their power is actually doing, only the end result."
"Others know more, but it doesn't help them directly. Othala, former member of the Empire Eighty-Eight, could grant regeneration. When she did so she claimed to be able to 'see' the body for a moment. But it was with minimal detail, enough to tell that those she was granting the power to were human and approximately how healthy they were. She had to study to learn to interpret what she saw. I once pointed her towards books I had borrowed from the library when I was trying to figure out what my own powers might be doing to my body."
"That sounds potentially awkward for both of you."
"We were both aware of the other's identity at the time due to a previous mishap. Kaiser found our mutual knowledge amusing. But again, until she studied she was no more knowledgeable than anyone else on the street. Which brings us to Panacea. Widely acknowledged in professional circles as the world's greatest healer, and not because she can heal pretty much any illness or injury. In fact, she is not even alone in that ability, there are at least two others I know of who can do similarly, if more slowly."
"I assume that her speed isn't what you are referring to, then."
"Of course not. What makes her the greatest is that her powers give her understanding. She knows more about the human body than anyone else. When she heals you she knows what was wrong, why it was wrong, and how it was repaired. She has needed to study to learn what others call the things she sees, not to understand them herself. That is why she is the world's greatest medic, and where I made my mistake. I challenged her ability to fight someone who she cannot make skin contact with, and she demonstrated why a combat medic is the scariest thing on the battlefield."
He watched as Airi blinked, obviously taking that in. "Are you saying that Panacea broke your arm?"
"She essentially judo-flipped me and used my own body against me, my arm only ending up broken due to my own struggles, demonstrating that those who know how to put people back together also know how to tear them apart. It would not have worked in actual combat against me, of course, but against most that would choose to attack her?"
"I see."
"Luckily for them, she is otherwise merely human in strength, though I assume her exercise routine is incredibly optimized to keep her within the top percentile of otherwise normal humans. If she had an actual brute rating then she would be far more formidable. Of course, if I were a true threat then I imagine she would've started with the handgun I could smell on her."
"So there are multiple reasons to avoid angering her, beyond the assistance she's provided you in the past."
Monday morning was unusually windy, but not so much as to make riding mopeds problematic. Then again, if it had been too windy then at least the buses were running again. As it was, it was probably windy enough to be annoying on patrol, which made Taylor somewhat happy that she was attending the system administration class for most of the day. She was less happy that when she was done she was going to be heading home and logging in for the first intro to psychology online class, but some of that timing was her putting the latter off for so long.
Taylor's ride to the PRT building had been annoying, not due to the wind, but because she was interrupted multiple times by people who wanted her undivided attention to convince her that she was a monster or in league with the devil or something like that. Minimal attention had been paid to the various groups, and these ones seemed to be aware that Taylor couldn't consider being held up as an attack, at least based on some of their taunting. None of them had been in large enough numbers to stop her from just riding up a nearby wall to get past them.
As a side benefit, she almost by accident figured out how to essentially roof-hop with the moped, which was very nice to know. She'd have to see about teaching Amy that trick at some point, once she had it down well enough herself. It didn't even need similarly sized buildings to function, thanks to the moped being able to ride up the buildings and land 'softly' no matter what it was coming down on.
Amy and Missy were already in the gym when Taylor finally arrived, but that wasn't a surprise. That Vicky was with them was a surprise, as the older girl didn't like getting up this early, but Carol's completely unexpected presence might explain that. Taylor made her way through the locker room and out to where everyone was apparently already going through workout routines. Well, the three teenagers were going through workout routines, Carol appeared to be laying there trying to catch her breath.
"What happened to her?" Taylor asked, gesturing in Carol's general direction.
"She tried to keep up with Missy," Vicky answered. "Despite being warned not to by Amy. I believe she said something about not being so out of shape as to be outdone by a child?"
"Did anyone tell her why she shouldn't make the attempt?" The silence there was telling, though Carol did manage to sit up to look at Taylor. "I don't think it's my place to say."
Missy snickered at that, which caused Carol to look at the girl. "Okay kid, spill it."
Grinning, Missy tapped the half-visor she was wearing. "Did you know that this was a post-fugue bonus gift?"
Carol blinked a couple of times before she groaned and dropped back onto her back.
Taylor shook her head and turned to Vicky. "So I expected Amy and Missy. Why are you here so early?"
Vicky sighed. "Mom thinks I'm 'too secure in my force field' and wanted to make sure I actually start exercising regularly. I kinda slacked off since 'go after school' isn't something that happens when school is out? Don't know why she stuck around though."
"Ahhh."
"Don't suppose you're doing anything interesting today that we can drop in on?"
Taylor shrugged. "I've got classes. Want to learn about system administration?"
Vicky had flinched at the word 'classes'. "No thank you, but why are you taking the class?"
"I've got extra-bullshit clearance and they want to make sure I know where the lines are, I think."
Vicky nodded, Missy looked like she wanted to ask questions about that but wasn't sure she should, and Carol snored. Apparently she'd overworked herself a little too much?
It turned out that the systems administration class was a multi-location thing with people calling in from various conference rooms. Two others had joined Taylor, both technicians from what she could tell, and the conference room projector was already showing that there were four other conference rooms with people gathering. The actual instructor was apparently going to be using a lecture screen, possibly with more people in the audience in person.
"Did you sign up for this class in hopes of getting more access?" one of the two others asked her while they waited.
"'Cause it doesn't work that way," the other added. "We're being considered for training on installing and configuring secure hardware and the class is a prerequisite for that. Limited admin access being needed to properly configure a few things and all."
Taylor shrugged. "I was signed up for the class by someone else, though after reading all of the prepwork I'm fairly certain that I know why."
That caused the other two to stare at her, but she didn't volunteer anything else. In part because it was only when she was reading through the pre-class assigned reading that she had gotten the full implications of being Dragon's primary administrator on a system running pretty much entirely on Dragon's hardware, software, and communications systems. Luckily, they were prevented from asking anything more by the instructor arriving, prompting everyone to get to their assigned terminals in each room.
Kara fidgeted in the back of the van bringing her to the courthouse. She hadn't exactly done well the last time she was put before a judge. Ranted quite a bit, threatened a number of dire things, inadvertently discovered that they'd already destroyed her two most recent creations. She recalled being very careful to not mention the things she'd now dismantled, hoping that they'd have to release her to safely shut them down after thinkers realized that they existed.
Now that she thought about it, irony sucked, because in a very real sense that ploy had only worked when she didn't want it to work anymore. And it hadn't worked on the legal system at all. And if it had worked on the legal system then they'd have thrown her right back in jail when things were resolved, while being freed by Glaistig meant that she had a second shot at staying free. Of course, the only reason that idiocy had worked in the latter case was because she'd come to realize that she'd been a complete moron in a number of ways and was trying to ensure that her projects didn't cause any damage. The end result was that the ploy only worked when she was no longer hoping to use it.
That said, she had a second chance, and had been advised that regardless of everything else she would probably end up with mandatory therapy and PRT oversight for a few years in order to stay out of prison. Fighting those conditions, as much as the very idea of either galled her, would be asking to be returned to the Birdcage. She shouldn't need to join the Protectorate, though had been advised that their most common ploy with tinkers was to point out that doing so would be likely to give her access to more resources. Since her previous method of gaining funds wasn't an option anymore and all it was actually fairly compelling as far as potential arguments went. She still agreed that allowing it to sway her into agreeing to making joining the Protectorate a requirement for her continued freedom should be avoided.
"We're here," the driver said. "Good luck Miss Sockhammer, though if everyone has done their jobs correctly you won't need it."
Kara smiled. "Thanks anyway."
Two minutes later she was being processed at the security station, thinking it was nice to not be in chains this time around.
Taylor thought she was doing quite well as they broke for lunch. She'd been able to ignore Amy healing at the hospital after a fire had broken out at a daycare center, mostly clearing out smoke inhalation in the kids plus some burns on one of the adults. And since she was there anyway she'd done rounds on some of the others there.
"How is it that you're the only one in general that didn't have issues with that first group of exercises?" Jonas, one of the other two taking the class locally, asked. "I mean, none of the temporary access rights in the system we were connected to had been loaded in properly, but you were most of the way through the exercises before that was fixed?"
Nicole, the other local student, smacked him over the back of the head. "Because she, for some bullshit reason, already has admin rights. I thought it was obvious, and explains why she's in here. I'm more curious as to how she got admin rights without having taken the class before, not to mention I thought that minors weren't allowed to have admin rights. But we probably aren't cleared to know, since as I said the reason is likely bullshit."
"I could tell you," Taylor noted, catching their attention. "Of course, then..."
"You'd have to kill us?" Jonas interrupted.
Taylor shook her head. "Nope. I'd have to lock you in a room with enough paperwork to require Panacea to clear your hand cramps at least once before you were done."
There was a moment of silence, before they both shuddered. Nicole then gave Taylor a dirty look. "I think I'd rather kill myself, thanks. It took me a couple of hours just to make it through being allowed to take this class."
Jonas nodded in agreement. "And we know that there'll be a pile more if we're cleared. I've heard that the paperwork for anyone getting general clearance for parahuman identities alone is horrible, and we'd need that on top of anything else."
Taylor shrugged. "I suppose I did have to sign quite a bit myself. And then even more after other events, for that matter."
That didn't seem to comfort the other two.
Amy sighed as she left the hospital, planning on grabbing lunch on the way home. Dealing with panicky kids after a mass injury situation was annoying enough. Finding out from one of the kids that they'd accidentally started the fire because they'd 'borrowed' their neighbor's cigarette lighter and had tried to show it off just made it worse. She didn't want to think about how the kid knew how to operate the thing, and was just going to assume it was one of the easier to use models.
When she got home she was going to see about starting to plan things out for a request from a parahuman out in Wyoming. He wanted a prosthetic arm, having claimed that if his arm was regrown then he wouldn't be able to use his powers properly. Given that he'd cut the previously regrown arm off himself in the middle of a battle that he'd been losing, the end resulting being that it'd turned into a curbstomp in the other direction? He was being taken seriously, but they wanted to see if a basic prosthetic wouldn't hinder his powers like the regrown arm had before she actually started construction of a specialized one. At a minimum the prosthetic could be removed with minimal physical trauma.
The list of requested features was interesting, and thankfully ranked on a list. Even then, she didn't think she'd be getting a full grappling hook system in there. Just a rope-ascender system was a definite maybe, and she could use the battery needed to power it as part of the 'charge devices' system easily enough. But with the space constraints it would probably only assist, not actually pull them up. Controlled descent might be an option though? Assuming she got to that point and didn't hit a 'plug in that system here' style roadblock, anyway.
Other things on their list were either trivial with easy to add parts, such as buttons that could control music on their phone, or were downright insane. An emergency teleporter, for example, wasn't within her capability set. And she didn't know if it could fit inside of the arm while leaving it able to be used as an arm. Watertight storage compartments might have to be 'instead of' the rope-ascender equipment, at least beyond maybe one small one for keys or something like that. Really, beyond a couple of things, the list of 'if you can fit it' requests were mostly 'would be better off with a utility belt' level.
One of the few things she was looking forward to was figuring out the actual design of the hand. It should be trivial to ensure that it was stronger than the human norm, and that only made sense to have as an option. But they'd also asked for 'variable friction' so that it could more easily slide along things or grip incredibly tightly without having to deform things to get a grip. Making some kind of system that would allow for getting a good non-slip grip on demand would require some careful thought, since she couldn't just assume magnets or something like that would work.
Perhaps she could come up with an artificial, adjustable variant of some of the structures used by insects and some lizards?
Taylor stretched as the three of them left the conference room. While she'd learned some interesting things, including the basics for making her own access flags and a couple of advanced ways to use them, most of the day had been spent on what not to do. No invading privacy, attempting to pretend to be others, or bypassing security set up by others without permission from high enough in the command chain. All of which had seemed blatantly obvious to her, but apparently they felt it needed to be stated.
She'd get the 'results' from her attendance in a couple of days, but she was probably the only one taking the class today that wasn't in line to be officially given admin rights. Though she supposed that they might go through with that on paper. Then again, she'd signed at least ninety percent of the relevant NDAs and similar already, at least as far as what'd been mentioned in the class would indicate. Most of it because she could identify people and/or get what amounted to most of their current medical information through other means that had nothing to do with the system.
For now, though, she should probably collect any mail that'd shown up for her and head home. She was going to be busy later tonight with the first intro to psychology class, after all, and had decided that she wanted to be as comfortable as possible during it. Which pretty much meant 'get ready for bed early, then sign in for the class in her pajamas' at this point. Whether or not she showered before or after dinner was probably going to depend on how much assistance she was going to have to provide in cooking, since she hadn't checked what they were having ahead of time.
Chapter 179 Taylor arrived home to find that Garnet was there, which surprised her. Not a whole lot, granted, but the surprise was there. The bigger surprise was the obvious work truck parked in the driveway next to her father's car. She came up along the edge of the driveway and slipped into the already-open garage, but ensured that she was more out of the way than usual just in case. That done, she grabbed her bag of mail from the back of the moped and headed into the house.
"Hey there kid," Garnet called from the kitchen. "Your father's upstairs supervising them installing your new gun safe. Should be done soon, and he apparently stuck your little pet horror in the guest room with a bowl of food to get it out of the way."
Taylor nodded. She supposed it made sense, though she would like to be in the loop when this kind of thing happened. Shouldn't she have gotten at least a copy of the notices that the safe was being delivered? "I don't suppose you're trying to cook in there?" She also quickly flipped through her orders in the PRT store and saw that the safe had been flagged as 'delivery and installation scheduled through parent/homeowner'. Why hadn't they sent her a notice to that effect at a minimum?
The woman snorted as she turned back into the kitchen. "No, I've never been all that good at cooking more than the absolute basics, despite your mother's best efforts. I'm just waiting for my coffee to finish. Your father is going to order dinner to be delivered, I told him to surprise me with what it was. Now get in here, I have some questions for you."
Taylor raised an eyebrow, not that Garnet could see her at the moment, and put her mail down by the stairs before moving over to the kitchen door. "I don't recall ever hearing about my mother trying to teach you how to cook."
"Yeah, well, she was still in my movement then, and I was just one of a dozen that tried to learn a bit more than heating up pre-made meals that month. About a third of the group left able to make more than they'd gone in knowing how to make. I count not being amongst those that left via being admitted to the hospital as an achievement, personally. Though there was a close call with Erin, but my breaker state took care of things well enough. Ruined everything for the lesson, but stopped the explosion."
Taylor snorted at that while Garnet poured herself a cup of coffee. "Flour or something like it, right? Could've used you when a couple of the Wards were just starting out learning to cook, but at least they only had a little bit of airborne flour."
There was a glimpse of eye-rolling as the woman turned around with her cup of coffee. "You going to stand there all night or actually sit down?"
"No clue what you want to talk about and standing gives me more exit strategies."
For whatever reason, that apparently impressed Garnet. Or at least that's how Taylor was interpreting the smirk the comment received. "Suit yourself, then. Seems a bit paranoid, granted."
Taylor shrugged at that. "I know there are people out to get me. Entire groups of them, even."
"You're in your own house."
Taylor glared at the woman. "I've been accosted by a villain on the street, approached by another at school, a third broke into the garage here, and a fourth grabbed me from my own bedroom. And that's all out of costume and before my identity was outed."
Garnet sat there blinking for a moment. "You're serious, aren't you?" Taylor just nodded. "Sheesh. Okay, I suppose that taking precautions is a good thing. Any groups I should be worried about on the hunting you down list?"
Taylor considered that for a moment, then decided it wasn't exactly all that important to keep a secret. "I'm told the Fallen made their first couple of attempts already, neither of them worked, and that isn't counting all the religious nutjobs. Though the latter just want me to repent and cast off the demons or whatever the hell their deal is."
"I see. That just makes what I want to know more baffling. How the hell can all of that happen to you, yet you then take down Eidolon for what the news said might be weeks of recovery?"
Sighing, Taylor looked at Garnet. "Let's just say that power interactions can be weird."
"I'll give you that. I know we talked about how I was able to pull from Lung until suddenly I couldn't at dinner the other day. That hasn't really happened to me before, it was like his power suddenly figured out how to stop mine. And when dealing with other people who drain energy things are a crapshoot. Sometimes it's come down to who started first, and it isn't always them who 'wins'. But blaming power interactions is a dodge, not an answer."
"Nice of you to notice."
Garnet glared at Taylor. "You aren't planning on telling me, are you?"
"I told you not to bother her about it," Danny called from the hallway. "Taylor, come on up and make sure everything looks good to you before the nice installers leave, would you?"
Taylor shook her head and turned around to head back towards the stairs, grabbing her sack of mail on the way by. No need to leave it downstairs and all. It didn't take long to determine that everything looked fine when it came to the safe, including getting her access keys tied into it. Unlike the little one attached to her desk, this one would hold a small collection of handguns and ammo for them quite nicely. Wouldn't fit the M249, granted, at least not without having Missy stop by, but that was fine with her.
She watched as the final steps were taken care of, mainly getting the inserts to cover the bolt holes in place before installing the 'floor' of the safe, and then kept an eye on them as they cleaned up. They were efficient and thorough, even having brought a portable vacuum to clean up from putting the holes in her closet floor. She approved there, even if she'd have liked more warning that things were being installed today.
Not long after that the installers had left, Ackbar had been released from the guest room, and Taylor decided that guests or not, she was going to shower and change now. After all, she might not have time between dinner and her class with Garnet visiting.
Nathan whistled as he arrived home after work. Today had been quite nice, very few problems and what had come up had been trivial to deal with. He collected the mail from the mailbox before heading inside. He dropped the sole bill on the hall desk where his wife would find it when she came back from her trip, but was curious about the small padded envelope addressed to him. He didn't think he'd ordered anything recently, but he had a few friends that occasionally sent him things without prompting. Shrugging, he opened it up, finding a note and a ring inside.
Eyebrow raised, he pulled the ring out. It was a nice looking ring, silver with a subtle cross design that he approved of. No obvious adornments, but he appreciated that. It even looked like it might fit on his finger. Deciding that it couldn't hurt, he slipped it on, finding that it was a perfect fit once on even if it hadn't seemed like it would be just before it was all the way on. Nodding in approval, he pulled the note out of the envelope before screaming in pain as he glowed.
Half an hour later he awoke, staring at the ceiling that seemed to be wrong. Or rather, the ceiling looked fine, but he could also see hot and cold water in it, which made no sense to him. He closed his eyes and rubbed his face with his hand, only to freeze when his hand made contact with his face. Carefully opening his eyes, he found that his hand was now webbed and more yellow than he thought it should be. Further, he could tell when he touched the center of his face that his nose had flattened out.
The resulting screaming drew the attention of his neighbors, and the police would end up needing to sedate the mutated man. They did find the note that he'd been about to read, but weren't entirely sure what to make of it.
Greetings Nathan,
I thought you could use a first-hand experience as to the nature of parahuman powers. Sadly, you aren't naturally eligible for them, but that was only a minor hindrance. Perhaps now you'll think twice before sending missives to those above your station?
Ciara
Ciara nodded as the last of the rings she'd delivered today completed its task. She'd originally had some trouble getting vials out of Cauldron's 'nearly useless' stock, those that granted weak powers and caused mutations but didn't kill, only to have a box delivered to her two days previous. Apparently someone agreed with her methods, or at least felt that it was a suitable way to dispose of the vials. She wasn't entirely sure whom, as she'd been asleep at the time.
She still had to finish dealing with those who'd sent young Taylor wishes for her to have a horrific death due to having her faerie and did have one monitoring them already, but that was harder to work with. Setting up the chain of events to create the so-called 'crisis point' was much harder from her current residence. But she'd persevere, and she still had two dozen lesser 'gifts' to give others as well. Perhaps she should expose a couple more infidelities from those who'd merely been insulting? That was an amusing way to while away the time, after all.
Nodding to herself, she moved over to the pile of merely insulting missives that came from those with infidelities to expose, not having decided what to do about the smaller stack of 'insulting, but no infidelities' next to it yet. She was sure that she'd come up with something soon enough, just as she still needed to come up with a plan for the middle group that weren't worthy of the full ironic punishment but needed something harder-hitting. Perhaps after her next round of the wonderful alcohol that she had stashed away now she'd come up with ideas. It'd helped her come up with the idea to make the rings, after all.
Dinner had been interesting for Taylor, with Garnet telling a few stories about her mother's actions in 'the movement'. She'd also gotten a bit of a lesson about the movement itself, for that matter, though some of it was grumbling about idiots taking things too far. Hearing more about the misadventures with the cooking classes was amusing, but the stories about various people her mother had hospitalized for frankly undeserving reasons were less so. Though the drunken rampage through a group that kept using 'whom' incorrectly just to rile up the English majors had apparently become a legend on campus.
Then again, said 'drunken rampage' had apparently involved several others, taken out an entire sports team, and they'd gotten away with it because those they'd gone after didn't want to admit that they'd been taken out by a group of English majors. Nevermind that apparently everyone knew what'd happened already, but having it documented would apparently be too much? Though that story did explain that one scar her mother had always refused to talk about, and that had her father smirk whenever it was brought up.
Storytime had to be cut short so that Taylor could sequester herself in her room for her class, but Garnet didn't leave. She was apparently staying the night after an issue with the PRT-provided apartment she'd been using, but was hopeful that they'd have things fixed in a day or two. What that issue was and whether or not Garnet had caused it herself hadn't been elaborated on, and Taylor hadn't really had time to push for details. Nor did she decide to push after her class, instead opting to go to bed.
Kara collapsed onto her bed. Her appeal was now officially in progress, with way too many conditions for her liking, but on paper everything was now in motion. One condition was that she had to attend sessions with a court-approved therapist to ensure that she was 'stable enough', which galled her. She'd been assured that 'court-approved' was not going to be 'court-assigned', so as to dodge any attempts at giving her a biased therapist that would never clear her. That legally the court had to accept any PRT-certified parahuman therapist would help significantly there, but they could also use many normal therapists as well.
The mandated PRT-monitored tinkering a minimum of once every week was annoying, since she didn't like the idea of being forced to tinker in front of others, but apparently one of the only reasons that she was getting a second chance was that she'd spent nearly a month in prison without being able to tinker before her original trial. That was considered a bureaucratic fuck-up of some kind, since it'd been denying her use of her power with all of the included mental issues that could create. Supposedly she'd retain all rights to anything they learned from watching her work, but she'd been warned that it was likely that would only apply if she wasn't thrown back in prison.
Then there was the mandated power testing, and a combination therapy and power consultation session that was odd on paper. Above and beyond the normal therapy sessions. That wouldn't be happening here, she would be going elsewhere for that, and details would be provided when things were approved. They had a number of options, but couldn't finalize things without other approvals for who she'd be visiting, and they might not get their first choice for some reason.
For now, she had to wait for the official records from her first trial to be gathered from wherever they'd been stored. Something that, due to some quirk in the laws surrounding parahumans or the Birdcage, could only happen after she'd been in front of the judge. Someone had explained the whole thing to her, but she'd zoned out early and not retained much. It had something to do with master abilities, she recalled that much. But she only recalled that because they'd also made sure that she knew that there would be three judges, and only one would be in the courtroom since so few master abilities functioned over telepresence. The other two would be participating from a very vague 'elsewhere'.
In the meantime, she'd already decided to review the list of potential therapists in the morning when she had a clearer head. She was going to have a hard enough time getting to sleep as it was. Oh, and she had four days to schedule her first monitored tinkering session. Which was going to be fun, since she also had to figure out what she wanted to work on in advance. Perhaps she should look over the forms for that and see if they were vague enough to let her specify that she'd be working on 'tinkertech' without any other clarification.
Tuesday morning Amy ended up not visiting the gym. Instead she'd gone straight to the hospital to look at a couple of emergency cases. Taylor had been mildly annoyed at that even if she knew she shouldn't be, at least until Amy got to the first patient. At that point wincing in sympathy took over, though she was also curious as to what the hell had happened. The story wasn't forthcoming, though that could be because they didn't know. They'd certainly had enough alcohol to explain some memory loss.
On the other hand, both Aisha and Missy had shown up, so she hadn't ended up working out alone. She did have to fix Aisha's shoulder once when the girl hadn't paid attention and tried to use a piece of equipment before Missy had reset it. The pain of the dislocation had driven home the lesson of 'check the settings for yourself before using any of the equipment' that the girl had apparently ignored. Unlike Taylor with Amy's patients, Aisha's injury hadn't garnered any sympathy from Amy when Taylor was healing the girl.
For now, though, the female half of the Wards were waiting for Chris to show up. Aisha was supposed to be running the console today, having apparently volunteered because at least then she could play games instead of constantly doing a 'sneak ahead and see if you spot anything' dance. Which meant that they could easily run an aerial and rooftop combination route without relying on anyone to aid someone else for movement.
"I think I'm going to love you three patrolling," Aisha said with a grin, pre-adjusting her choice of console chair for her own comfort. "More than any other combination we can currently field."
Missy looked confused at that. "Why?"
"Because none of you need me to take notes. Doesn't matter who's in charge, you all cheat and write your reports while patrolling. Couple that with your chances of injury being much less than other groups even if you do run into trouble?"
Taylor snorted. "That just means that when we do get injured it tends to be much worse."
Aisha waved that off. "Yeah yeah, miss 'apparently took down Eidolon for weeks without taking a scratch herself', whatever you say. Not that you've said much on that topic, of course, and yes I know that it's classified above my security level."
"She checked at least five times," Missy added. "Of course, it seems to be classified above my level too. I know because I've checked."
Taylor sighed. "Your level has nothing to do with it. Do either of you know what a 'need to know' flag is? Because neither of you need to know." Of course, she wasn't about to tell them that there wasn't any information on things in the system. Or at least, nothing accurate in the least. And the cover story had been locked down very well.
At least they shut up about things after glaring at her.
Fortuna couldn't help but snicker as she carefully set things up at the Vermont school. She'd decided, and gotten permission, to 'go big' this time. To the point where she was doing things like hiding computers in the drop ceilings to run everything. Nearly a thousand point projection speakers, fourteen ducks, just over a hundred bits of exotic tinkertech for various things, and two hundred cameras to record things from every conceivable angle and a few that she was sure people were going to question. And that didn't even include the more mundane things like the tracks, containment foam sprayers, and all the electronics to run various parts of the whole getup.
With any luck she'd get at least an hour out of the group she was targeting, and she should be able to wrangle that into at least three hours of footage to post online. And that was before the 'setting up' footage she was piecing together, making it look like the ducks were installing the things they needed. Though that was more of a side project intended to annoy specific people than anything else. She was fairly certain that most people online knew that the entire thing was more for show than anything else, anyway.
Speaking of the 'setting up' footage, she should see about arranging some time after dark tonight for a couple of 'sneaking into the building' shots, with 'Jaimie Justice' opening the door for the 'Vengeance family' to enter through. A few other shots would be best handled after dark as well, since they'd be in rooms with windows or would be some of the outside items. Having to purchase a tinkertech cleaning drone that looked like a normal janitorial cart to stick 'Jaimie' onto afterwards so that it could run around the school was well worth the access the administration had given her.
Taylor frowned as they approached what appeared to be a gang fight in progress. The problem was that it sounded like machine-gun fire instead of the normal handguns and shotguns. Not all that much of a problem, all things considered, since all three of them had fugue upgrades, but not the kind of thing they were supposed to get near. To make it weirder, she didn't think that Accord went for the use of guns in his 'territory', which they were passing through. She sent the scout drone ahead to get a better view even as Chris was calling things in.
It didn't take long to determine that there appeared to be three main groups of fighters. Two groups, including what Taylor thought was some of Accord's non-parahumans, were using machine guns. The third group was armed with the usual handguns and shotguns. Doing a full render instead of just getting highlighting took her a few moments, but it let her see that the group she thought was working for Accord were wearing practical uniforms with enough variation to either imply personalization or specialization. She didn't have enough information to tell which. The group with handguns and shotguns were Empire Eighty-Eight, and the last group was a mixed-race group with a red bandanna tied somewhere visible on each member.
Taylor assumed that the new group, who didn't look or act like the Elite and thus were a mystery, had escalated to machine guns and Accord had been prepared with armaments for his own people. That his people seemed better trained on the weapons added to that view. All of that was also relayed to the console.
"Console to Kid Win," Aisha's voice came a few moments later. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you have a green light to drop in on the battle. PRT oversight thinks you can handle it."
Missy seemed surprised at that, before Taylor suspected that the girl had started grinning as she swung the sniper rifle off of her back. Chris took a moment before nodding and readying his own guns. With the subvocalize trick that the other two had finally gotten down they could even be extra-stealthy on their approach.
"Maul," Chris said. "Given the number of guns in use down there, I think you should be ready with your own."
Taylor nodded, able to see the point. She hadn't considered it before, but the three Wards who currently used 'guns' of some description were also the three toughest thanks to the fugues. She grabbed her sidearm from the holster, though left the safety on for the moment. "How would you like to approach this?"
Missy decided to chime in on that. "I'm voting we approach each group from behind. Kid Win and I behind the machine gun groups stunning them and Maul behind the Empire goons. Intimidation is probably good enough there, after all."
Chris considered that for a moment. "I don't see any major problems there." He then looked over to Taylor. "Any objections from you?"
Taylor shook her head. "Not really, no. I'll need to swing around a bit to stay out of sight while getting into position, but that's about it."
"Okay then, we might as well go that route. I'll take the unknowns, I've got a stun grenade configuration I want to try and they're a lot less spread out if the weapon highlighting is any indication."
The three split up to get behind their target groups. Missy set up on a rooftop nearby, obviously intending to just snipe them all from behind. Chris was on another rooftop with his grenade ready. And Taylor dropped down to ground level and sent her platform well out of the way, just in case. Once she was in position she let the other two know, and Chris opened up with the grenade he wanted to try. Missy had warped space and started shooting her targets in the back, and Taylor just started walking towards her group.
"Capes! Run!" was yelled by someone in front of Taylor, which was enough to get the entire group to turn around. They came up short when they saw Taylor standing there, gun pointed to the side but very visible.
"I don't suppose you'd like to put your guns down and surrender?" Taylor asked, flipping the safety off on her sidearm. She didn't think she was actually going to be using it, but by now people had to know what she could do with the thing.
There was a moment of silence between the two groups, punctuated by the other two groups yelling, before one of the thugs brought his shotgun up and fired both barrels. Two slugs hit Taylor in the jaw, most of their energy being bled off by her force field belt. All in all it stung a little, but only for a moment. The look on their faces as the two deformed slugs fell to the ground cause Taylor to smirk. Though it had taken some effort to not flinch, but she thought that the extra impact for their reaction was worth it.
Thinking about it, she wasn't entirely sure why a bullet hitting her visor she could ignore, but one hitting her jaw required effort to not react to. Or perhaps it'd been that she hadn't seen the one hitting her visor coming and had recognized that it hadn't done anything right away, while she'd anticipated the strike this time? Regardless of the reasoning, she should probably work it out later.
"Well?" she asked, raising her own gun but not yet pointing it at the group of unpowered Empire members.
There were a few nervous looks between the members of the group before they started carefully putting their guns down and backing off to the sides of the street. Taylor pulled a handful of zip cuffs from her utility belt, amused, but ended up slapping one person who tried to attack her from the side. Hitting said person in the face with the projected gun barrel had, amazingly enough, caused the rest to calm down and cooperate more openly.
Perhaps they'd thought she was an imposter that didn't have blaster powers? Of course, she was going to have a bruise for a few hours, since this belt let what she could 'handle' through.
Chris and Missy stepped off of Taylor's platform as they reached the PRT building. Unlike Taylor, they'd both ended up dealing with return fire from machine guns. Chris because he'd had to get in closer when his stun grenade had been less effective than he'd hoped and Missy because they'd missed a spotter or two in the upper floors of a couple of the buildings. Neither had significant injuries, but Chris was going to be rebuilding a number of things and Taylor had promised to look over Missy's sniper rifle for her. Both were also going to need to swap out the clothing portions of their costumes due to minor bullet damage.
Still, they'd gotten everyone from all three groups, and a small fleet of vans had to be sent out to pick them all up. Taylor's group was the only set that hadn't been knocked out and were thus able to climb into vans themselves, the three Wards had to help load the others in. Oddly, that had resulted in several of the Empire members thanking Taylor for 'showing restraint'.
That had resulted in the police wanting a copy of the body cam footage just to have their reaction to her response on file. "They've got stun guns. My gun is a bit more lethal."
But for now they were done patrolling for the day, though Taylor was hopefully going to get to visit the gun range, with Missy tagging along. At the very least nobody had canceled that yet. Chris, on the other hand, was apparently getting a lecture on proper field-testing of equipment intended for non-lethal takedowns, not to mention being reminded that he's supposed to clear any new weapons before bringing them out on patrol. That said weapon had been, before he'd used it, built on-site from his hoverboard, hard-light pistols, and a third of his power armor was beside the point. Or perhaps was part of the point, since he'd needed a ride back to the PRT building and had been lucky that a bag had been available for the discharged and damaged components.
"I'm thinking an early lunch would be a good idea," Missy said after they'd changed, neither feeling a need to stay in costume. Which was, admittedly, odd for Missy, but she'd been annoyed with the bullet damage and probably didn't want to change into a spare only to change into civilian attire later.
Taylor frowned. "That isn't a bad idea, but I'm thinking it might be best for me to look at your sniper rifle now. Mainly because if it's fixed before anyone can complain too much then they're less likely to tell you to stop using it."
"They would do that, wouldn't they. The bastards. Okay, you win." Missy then went back to her room and grabbed the damaged sniper rifle, leading the way to the tinker space.
Emily frowned as she looked over the initial reports from the morning. Analysis of the sensor data from the Wards patrol would take more time, but all in all the three Wards had done amazingly well. But every single patrol had run into machine guns, which was a drastic deviation from the previous norm. Further, only those used by Accord's men had remained in their possession so far. The rest had vanished outright when nobody was looking, implying either a tinkertech retrieval system or that they were power-generated in the first place.
Sadly, she was leaning towards the latter, which to her implied that their next round of Fallen were in town. Especially since outside of Accord's people the rest of the machine guns in play had all been identical, including at least fifteen cases of an identical serial number having been noted by someone before they'd vanished. Probably one of the Crowley duplicators, though she wasn't sure which one was able to do mass duplication of a single item.
Luckily for them, that branch tended to be troublemakers with no real planning behind things. Dragging a bunch of biker gangs along to cause trouble with power-generated weapons was right up their alley, and it would probably be the better part of a week before any real attempt was made at doing anything else.
With a sigh, she moved onto the next item on her list, which was Accord's request for his property to be returned. Specifically, all of the machine guns that his people had been using, which were all legally registered and the people using them had all been carrying the proper licenses. His claim that they'd only been deployed in 'self defense' due to the attack by the other group with machine guns would probably hold up too. The man was infuriatingly good at ensuring that he was untouchable when this kind of thing happened.
Maya smirked as she settled into the small house that she was renting. Her cousin had been captured, and there were still things they weren't sure of surrounding that. But she'd 'convinced' the Crowleys to come to Brockton Bay in force, with as many allies as they could get their hands on. Their potential prophet deserved no less, after all. In the meantime she was using the distraction to settle in and plan.
Mama had told her to focus on information gathering to start with, since they had so many unknowns. They thought that Elijah had merely been incautious at the wrong moment, but it was always possible that they'd missed bodyguards or that the PRT had spotted him before he'd made his move. But it was likely that Panacea's belt protected her from his powers, and Maya's weren't exactly the kind you used on any kind of striker. She could be incredibly subtle, with just a touch needed to get hold, but said hold took an average of an hour to kick in properly and she needed to stay close while it settled in.
No, she wasn't going anywhere near Panacea if she could avoid it, and she suspected that going after Mister Hebert would be a failure too. Either he'd have too many guards, or they'd figure out that she'd messed with him before any plans she brought forward could work. She suspected that's what happened with her side of things in the Youth Guard, for that matter. Instead she was going to try and gather information and hope that she could find a way to get the Crowleys to grab Miss Hebert. After all, it wouldn't be her fault if they failed, right?
Chapter 180 The damage to Missy's sniper rifle had turned out to be a minor crack and a dislodged circuit, both of which had been trivial to repair. Amy had shown up while Taylor was working on it, then punched Taylor for taking shotgun slugs to the face without even trying to dodge when she was done. Notably, she didn't heal the slight bruising from said slugs, claiming that letting them heal normally would be a lesson to not do it again.
Taylor doubted it would stick, because she was likely going to be spending most of the remaining healing time being distracted from the bruises by things like eating and shooting guns. But she wisely kept that to herself, no need to cause Amy to decide that something more significant needed to be done after all.
"So are you joining us today?" Missy asked Amy as they sat in one of the upper cafeterias eating lunch. It was honestly nice not needing to worry about being in costume for this cafeteria but not for that one and all that dance.
Amy looked curious. "Joining you for what?"
Taylor smirked. "I've got my new handgun to try out and am hoping to put the M249 through its paces as well."
The look on Amy's face was enough to indicate that she was interested in joining them, so Taylor dropped a quick question about whether or not she could into the system. That done, she frowned for a moment. "I don't suppose you delivered any rose bushes to the pub yet?"
Amy nodded. "Mark volunteered to drive them over this morning after the hospital called, and Lacey sent me a thank you message after he'd done so."
"Ah, then I guess we won't be making a trip out there just to do that."
"We can always show up for the grand opening. Though maybe later in the day?"
Erasmo sighed as he read over the paperwork he'd been handed that morning. Apparently they were up to five judges that had recused themselves from his appeal. Admittedly, the first two had been directly impacted by his men before he'd been captured, and if they hadn't recused themselves then the lawyers would've had a field day with them. But the third had been found to have a daughter in the asylum, the fourth had a bad experience with what had remained of his men after his incarceration, and the fifth had just recused herself because of religious issues with power-granting parahumans.
All in all, he personally felt that it was getting ridiculous, but at least the asylum appreciated his assistance with their troublesome patients and the PRT wasn't breathing down his neck about things. It wasn't even taxing work, all things considered, though the plan to potentially allow him to travel to other parahuman asylums to help them out in similar ways was on hold until his appeal could be processed. That they'd snuck in a psychiatric evaluation of him while a therapist had rotated in for their run through the patients just meant that there was another bit of pressure, as he understood it. Just being able to work with a couple of the stronger parahumans without protective suits had apparently resulted in a couple of breakthroughs as well.
Oh well, nothing he could do about it right now. Instead, he should probably go check on Clara. She hadn't been in yesterday and could probably do with a refresh of granted powers before she started her rounds.
"This thing is awesome," Missy said as she looked over the M249. "Think I can get one? I'm sure I can get a suitable gun safe."
"They're a bit harder to get your hands on legally," Miss Militia said, having been healed by Amy as a precondition to the healer joining them. Not that Taylor couldn't have handled it, of course, but justifications didn't have to make sense, especially if they were for paperwork trail reasons. "In fact, I have Miss Hebert's paperwork that will allow her to keep this one in my bag, pending it actually working properly in testing. I was going to ask that she let me know when it was ready, only for her to bring it with her today."
Taylor frowned. "I hadn't considered that aspect of things. Maybe I should look up the laws on that at some point?"
Miss Militia came over and started inspecting the M249. "I don't think that'll be needed, at least in detail, since the PRT was on top of things from the point they were informed that nobody else wanted this particular weapon. Though when it proves to be functional we'll be registering the serial number for you as well." She then picked it up and started putting it through various checks, nodding every so often.
Taylor sighed and pulled several boxes off of the cart she'd used to bring things to the firing range. One was ammunition, another was disintegrating links for it. The last was a box of pre-assembled belts for initial testing, but assembling her own made sense as well. Especially if she could re-use the links in the future, which was a lot more likely with the pouch designed to catch the ejected links and casings that she'd fitted. She didn't know if she'd try and reuse the casings, but figured that not littering the general area with them was a good thing either way.
Since she was obviously not going to be firing anything right away, what with Miss Militia apparently going to be putting the M249 through a quick safety run, she figured she could figure out how to prepare more belts. After all, she only had six individual hundred-round belts right now, and at least two or three of those would probably be run through today. Amy might be more interested in the handgun, but Taylor wouldn't put it past her to want another crack at firing a M249 as well, which would add another belt to the 'used' list.
"I see you've gone with all normal, non-tracer rounds," Miss Militia said a moment later as Taylor was opening boxes.
Taylor nodded. "Yeah, didn't see the benefit of them for my own use. If I ever have a good reason to bring it into the field I'm unlikely to be firing more than a couple rounds at a time anyway. I only have two barrels because the case was designed for two and having an empty slot would've bugged me."
"Mind if I grab a few of your loose rounds here to load into the magazine for an initial test firing?"
"Feel free, though I'd have thought you would want to load a belt in?"
"I'll let you run through that test, I just need to run at least three shots through before then to make sure everything appears to be working properly. And since you have a magazine I can load a few rounds into it easily enough."
Taylor continued figuring out the best way to handle her assembly while Miss Militia grabbed a handful of rounds and loaded them into the magazine, checking that everything seemed to be working properly there as well. She then went into the range itself and fired a single shot, followed by a several-round burst. It didn't take long for her to return and run through another series of checks, presumably to ensure that nothing had come loose or was doing anything it wasn't supposed to. It wasn't long before she was satisfied.
"I believe that this is ready for a run through a linked ammo set," Miss Militia said, placing the M249 down. "Just a hundred rounds for now. But as I said, I'm going to leave that to Miss Hebert while I observe."
Taylor nodded and got up, grabbing the box with the more expensive pre-assembled belts and pulling one out. It wasn't hard to limit herself, since they were already hundred-round belts, so she dropped one in the fabric ammo pouch she'd opted for instead of the hard plastic box that the weapon had come with. It wasn't long before she was in the range itself, a target deployed, and an aim line projecting from the end of the barrel. A few seconds later she'd run through all hundred rounds, and had kept the target line in the approximate middle of the paper target.
Grinning, she collected the paper target and left the range, putting the M249 down after detaching the ammo and catch pouches. Miss Militia ran through another round of checks before nodding. "Looks like you've done a wonderful job getting this into working order." She then went over to her bag and collected a folder. Two sheets inside were pulled out and signed by her, one returned to the folder and the other returned to her bag. The folder was then handed to Taylor. "Here's your preliminary paperwork, expect the final documentation in the next week or two."
Taylor took the folder and nodded. "Thank you."
"Now then, am I going to need to note that Miss Biron has modified this weapon too? I can already tell that I need to note the tinkertech alloy barrels that can take a lot more heat than the normal ones."
That had Taylor blinking, not having considered that, before turning to Missy and raising an eyebrow. The younger girl was also blinking, but came over to look at the gun sitting on the table. She was obviously interested in the idea now. "I suppose the whole 'barrel is bigger on the inside' bit would make it better, though I'm thinking that only doubling it in this case as it's already quite long compared to the handguns? And the pouches there could probably stand to be a bit larger inside too, couldn't they?"
Five minutes later Taylor was certain that the two pouches could probably hold seven to eight hundred rounds worth of ammo or gathered ejected bits, and the two barrels were twice as long as they had any right to be on the inside. Missy had left the thirty-round magazine alone, both because that was a lot less likely to be used normally and things like longer springs hadn't been procured anyway. Taylor let Missy give things a try with another hundred-round belt after that, going back to assembling more linked ammo in various ways. Including re-using some of the links from the first hundred round belt.
"I don't know if that thing will ever be used anywhere other than the range," Taylor noted once Missy was in the range itself. "Not like I can hold the thing safely and do my barrage blaster trick, for example, even though I did get the shorter 'paratrooper' barrel assemblies. So the 'improvements' don't seem all that useful, all things considered."
Miss Militia sighed. "Assault recently passed his own firearms courses and after this morning's patrols petitioned for more obvious carrying of weapons, even if his hasn't shown up yet. If that goes through, and with machine guns being deployed in large numbers I can see it happening, then you might be asked to openly bring the M249 on patrol at least once. At that point it would be more for intimidation, and you should still be able to use your accuracy blaster 'trick' with it. Besides, your barrage blaster ability is a bit much for most urban battles anyway."
Taylor and Amy both blinked at that, before Taylor backed up a little and asked the question that she now had. "Does Assault have any excuse for using a firearm in costume?"
"Yes. Thanks to a PRT officer he figured out that he can absorb the barrel heat and the overall recoil with his powers, giving him much better shot grouping than you'd otherwise expect and essentially allowing him to operate machine guns for as long as ammo is being fed into them. His aim is still horrible, but he will work on that."
Taylor got the impression that Miss Militia had decided that she would be personally ensuring that Ethan's aim improved, whether the man wanted it to or not. Then again, after his attitude with swords it probably made sense to ensure that he was being serious enough to not be a danger to bystanders with a gun. Especially if he wanted to bring a gun on patrol. Then again, he could be serious when needed. The only problem was convincing him that it was needed.
Shaking that off, she turned to look at Missy coming back out of the range, frowning at the paper target she'd apparently shredded. "Have issues keeping it on target?"
Missy nodded. "Much more recoil than I was expecting. That and it's hard for me to hold properly."
"So unless anyone else wants a turn on the M249?" Taylor waited, and got no takers. "Then I suppose it's time to try out my new handgun."
Missy very much agreed with that, given that she warped the few feet to the cart to fetch the box containing said handgun. And then pouted when she found that said box was locked and wouldn't open for her. A moment later she'd put it down on the table in front of Taylor, thankfully next to the ammo and disintegrating links that Taylor had been working with. She then pouted as Taylor made a point of making sure that the M249 was put away properly first, though Miss Militia obviously approved.
Eventually Taylor removed the handgun from the case, giving it a once-over before loading the magazine and taking it into the range. The other three moved to the observation window, obviously more generally interested in the handgun. It didn't take long to set up a few paper targets, and the first shot went pretty much straight down the middle. Taylor then tested barrage blaster with the handgun and obliterated the entire line of targets, not to mention got a decent reaction from the forcefield between her and the backstop when the round got that far.
It was obvious to her that the new handgun had a lot more power behind it in this configuration than her PRT-issue sidearm did. On the other hand, she'd barely used the sidearm in the field at all and couldn't see that changing much going forward. Add in the barrage blaster trick and she was already in 'probably overkill whenever she pulled it out' without going for more powerful weapons. Though, if she wanted to go for intimidation...
A minute later she'd set up some additional targets and fired off a couple of shots with each hand, without using the opposite hand to steady things. It wasn't that much harder, and being able to use one gun in each hand would probably freak the average thug out. Though aiming would probably be a tad difficult when dealing with things she couldn't see. She might want to see about practicing keeping projection lines aiming at snarks though, since keeping a gun trained on a parahuman when you weren't looking at them would probably be enough to freak most of them out. Herself probably included, for that matter, if someone were to pull it on her.
Amy: Miss Militia is curious about how well you can actually dual-wield.
Taylor: I take it that my thoughts were fairly obvious there?
Amy: Well, when you switched hands without doing supporting and all...
Taylor: Let me set up a couple of fresh targets and then I'll give it a shot.
It didn't take long to drop new target papers into place, and then she pulled her sidearm out and held one gun in each hand. It wasn't difficult to keep projection lines off of the barrels aiming at her target, though the two had different drop rates to correct for. She was happy with the end result either way, and figured that if she was ever doing this in the field while also pulling barrage blaster tricks then she had better be in the middle of an area where nobody was ever going to attempt anything other than demolishing things.
Really, it was probably a good thing that she couldn't safely hold the M249 such that she could pull the barrage blaster bit with it. Even with the shorter barrel things were still just a bit too long and all.
With that test done to her satisfaction, she ensured that everything was safe before heading back out of the range area.
"You were very accurate while dual-wielding," Miss Militia noted. "Most people who see you do something like that are going to immediately assume that you have a lot more experience than you actually have."
Taylor nodded. "I can see that, but I think we all know that I cheat."
Missy snorted. "Don't all parahumans in one way or another? Now then, can I try the shiny new hand cannon?"
The handgun was handed over to Missy, and Taylor did a quick clean on her sidearm. She also topped up the magazine while she was at it, because she had plenty of time to do so.
"She certainly seems to be enjoying herself," Miss Militia said after watching Missy fire a few rounds. "Too bad that we aren't likely able to get another one for her."
"Don't have any good way to contact the tinker?" Amy guessed.
"They passed away in 2004. Lung cancer, they were already a heavy smoker before they triggered and the poor conditions in their workshop probably didn't help. Nor did their refusal to see medical professionals of any kind, they thought that all doctors were con men according to their brother."
"Oh."
Taylor wasn't sure what to say about that, instead going back to figuring out the disintegrating link assembly process. So far it was looking to be a tedious thing, and if Missy wanted to use the M249 much she was going to be assembling her own belts. Or if the gun got used a lot more she was going to give in and purchase the automated assembly system that was available in the PRT store, since it would likely pay for itself fairly quickly if she could just buy cartridges and re-use the links she already had.
But, if she were being honest, the M249 wasn't going to be a go-to for her on a regular basis. Both due to preferring to not shoot people and because she could only cheat on aiming, no matter what Miss Militia thought. The rounds available for the thing without special ordering just weren't blunt enough to project off of. Sure, she could do custom orders, and probably save money by just getting bullets and assembling cartridges herself, but she didn't think it worth the expense. That and then things probably wouldn't fire correctly compared to the expected ammo and she wasn't a gunsmith that could figure out how to compensate for that.
Eventually Amy and Miss Militia both took turns with the new handgun, Missy being disappointed during Amy's turn upon finding out that the tinker had passed away, followed by Taylor double-checking it prior to packing it away. She didn't have a suitable holster for it, but was basically told to order two by Miss Militia. One for civilian use and one for when she was in costume. A carry strap for the M249 was also recommended, and all three were ordered before the four of them went their separate ways.
Amy was sticking around to tinker for a bit, apparently having gotten the green light for at least one prosthetic. Taylor was going to head home and work on some of her intro to psychology work, she had recorded sessions to watch at some point and an assignment due Friday. And Missy wandered off to work on some kind of project, but hadn't said what. Taylor wasn't sure she cared, personally, until the younger girl wanted to share anyway.
Emily frowned as she looked over the results from scanning the various combatants captured throughout the day. It was somewhat embarrassing to the Protectorate that the Wards had gotten more captures in one encounter than the Protectorate had gotten all day, but they'd also run into a near ideal situation for cornering everyone in the groups they'd found. That and the police had broken up a number of smaller fights. Still, one in three of the newcomers had been influenced by a signature that almost, but not quite, matched Valefor's. That implied a member of his family was probably involved, which likely meant more anti-thinker bullshit helping to hide them.
Whoever was responsible for the currently unknown 'QVJIRUJVTENBQkdWRlpQ' signature seemed to be trying to be subtle, reinforcing the loyalty the gang members had to their gangs. But not to the Fallen, as far as they'd been able to tell so far. Though they hadn't gotten any of the leaders of these gangs, so that could be where that tie would be found. Outside of that, they had very little to go on. None of the gang members were talking currently, though they'd also all cooperated entirely when told that they wanted to do a check for what master effects they were or weren't under.
Really, nobody wanted to risk having been mastered without knowing and being unaware of it. As far as she knew, the only people who had ever fought against the deep scan after being told that the basic scan indicated a problem had been mastered into avoiding people looking into them having been mastered. They got more people wanting to legitimately decline the initial scan for various reasons, including paranoia and religious beliefs. But even those people, when finding out that they tested positive, generally didn't fight the deep scan.
Sadly, aside from keeping those with influences until they could be cleared, the police weren't likely going to be able to do much about holding most of them. Pretty much everyone they'd been attacking was already free, regardless of group, since they could and had all claimed self defense against the newcomers. The still-overfilled cells that the police were dealing with coupled with the main evidence against the newcomers having literally vanished when nobody was looking would result in most of them being set free with a warning at most. They couldn't even get powder traces off of them anymore. A dozen or so with outstanding warrants were exceptions, of course, and they were working to get those out of town as soon as possible so that they couldn't be easily broken out by their friends.
Worse, she only knew most of this because the BBPD was asking if they had any way to prove things one way or another. Sadly, 'tinkertech reconstructions' such as from the scout drone data probably wouldn't be enough to charge them. Clear someone of wrongdoing? Judges and juries would be all for it. Actually drop charges on people? Hell no, had to be supported by other evidence before you could even introduce it. It was stupid and annoying and made everyone's jobs harder.
By the time dinner was ready Taylor had made it through most of the recordings she was supposed to watch before the end of the week. Some of it she'd already known, some of it was new, and one recording seemed to directly contradict what she thought she knew. She could easily finish up the last couple before bed and then work on the assignment over the next day or two. Somehow she'd ended up discussing a lot of that during dinner, but wasn't sure why her father or Garnet cared.
After dinner was where things went a little weird, in her opinion.
"You want to do what exactly?" Taylor asked, not sure she'd heard them correctly.
"I want to see how your powers react to Garnet's," Danny repeated. "Mainly I'm curious if there will be any interactions, and checking in a controlled environment makes more sense than finding out in the field, so to speak."
Taylor apparently had heard her father correctly, and Garnet looked mildly curious but seemed to be willing to defer to her on things.
Taylor: My father wants to see what kind of power interactions might happen with Garnet.
Amy: I suppose that's not a bad thing to have a warning about.
Taylor: Of course, she does the whole energy drain from around her thing, and it could possibly impact you depending on how it works.
Amy: Ah. Good point. Maybe I should at least sit down?
Taylor: I think that would be prudent, yes, unless you have objections to trying this now?
Amy: I'm somewhat curious myself, honestly. Give me a minute to sit down.
Taylor sighed. "Okay, so how exactly do you want to do this, and where?"
Danny gestured towards the living room. "I figure you two can go in the living room. I'll stay in here to hopefully be less affected by Garnet's power in case things go wrong."
She considered that for a moment, then looked around the kitchen for a moment. On one hand, she wasn't entirely sure that was far enough. On the other hand, they had an alarm system with a number of specialized sensors. "Do you think we need to do anything about the alarm before trying this?"
Her father opened his mouth, stopped, and then sighed. A moment later he'd pulled his phone out, likely checking the app for the alarm. It took him a couple of minutes, during which Amy had found a place to sit down for the duration. Eventually he tapped something out, and then a few seconds later nodded. "Okay, they're informed about what we're about to do and won't send the PRT here in a panic."
Taylor nodded, noting that Garnet looked confused. She wasn't about to clear things up for the woman, instead she turned for the living room, only to stop when she realized that Ackbar was following her. Sighing, she picked the spider-bot up and brought him upstairs for now, since they didn't need him getting angry with Garnet. That done, she came back down and dropped onto the couch. Garnet had stayed behind for a moment, asking about the security system and apparently getting a non-answer, before entering the living room herself.
"Your family and its secrets," Garnet muttered, before shaking her head and looking at Taylor. "Okay kid, you ready?"
"Probably not, but we might as well do this anyway."
The woman nodded before looking around to double-check the area. She then did something that caused her to glow for a moment, immediately followed by Taylor wincing in pain. She could feel the power being pulled down the communication channels, and it was not pleasant.
BA: Energy Transfer Canceled
The pain from the initial pull lessened as the energy transfer from Broadcast Administrator was canceled, but it was obvious that Garnet's snark was still pulling from the other two.
BA: Additional Connections Established. Forced Energy Absorption Mode Activated
It took almost two seconds, during which over a hundred times the energy was being pulled from Garnet's snark as it was able to pull down from Broadcast Administrator, before Garnet's snark stopped pulling and the woman collapsed. Taylor wasn't sure how much was being pulled from her other two snarks during that time, but she felt all the extra connections close. She only noted that energy had been fed back to Shaper and Understanding, Maintenance, Repair by virtue of the energy transfer connections closing.
Amy: That felt weird from here, but outside of a little surprise I don't think it would've affected me at all.
Taylor: That's good to know, my head is pounding now. I don't think her snark is calibrated for people with multiple primary snark connections.
Amy: Yeah, I can tell that hurt. It probably won't be more than ten minutes or so before you're good, though.
Taylor: Nice that you somewhat agree with my thoughts on the matter, my guess of fifteen to twenty might be because I'm the one in pain.
"Holy crap that sucked," Garnet finally said, rolling over to get on her hands and knees. "What the hell happened?"
"I think we've established that power interactions make us working next to each other a bad idea," Taylor answered. "Because holy crap do I have a headache now."
"It felt like everything was going wonderfully for a moment, and then I just crashed. Couldn't pull enough energy in to maintain anything and had to abort before I hurt myself. I think I was even shrinking during that, it was honestly a bit freaky."
"Yeah, power interactions aren't always pleasant."
[Query]
Taylor: Oh, hello there. I don't think we learned that from Battle Escalation.
BA: Agreement
Taylor: Yeah, didn't think we had. It closed things on you too?
[Agreement. Annoyance]
Amy: Yes, you were shut down by the energy drain, but it isn't like they asked you to hurt Taylor by pulling too much energy through her brain.
[Confusion]
Taylor sighed and got up, deciding that she could use something to drink.
[Shock]
Taylor: Wait, you hadn't noticed the three connections? Does that mean you'll be more careful if you're draining near someone like me in the future?
[...Negation. Elaboration]
Well that figured. It was set up to drain from an area. It was either pulling at the defined limits it'd ended up with or it wasn't pulling at all, and outside of snarks closing connections on it there was no way to exclude or alter things to change that.
"Sounds like things didn't go well," Danny said as Taylor grabbed a glass.
Taylor nodded. "Doesn't work out well for either of us. I get a pounding headache, she gets shut down."
Amy: I'm curious, why do you drain energy like that?
Taylor: That is a good question, isn't it?
[Data]
Ouch. Having another snark accidentally block out most of the sunlight hitting their deployment planet was probably a bad thing. And it wasn't equipped for geothermal absorption, so it'd ended up getting permission to configure to pull energy from elsewhere as a stopgap measure until the debris field cleared up a bit.
Danny had gone to check on Garnet, who seemed to be recovering fine at this point, and Taylor drank a couple of glasses of water. She then went and laid down on her bed until her headache cleared, followed by watching the rest of the recordings for her class. She then decided that any and all work on the actual assignment could wait until another day and goofed off online for a bit instead.