Sauling Mnarks

by demonicgallade

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

10. 201-220

Chapter 201 Miss Militia had come to collect everyone for the press conference, but had brought along three clear visors for the new Wards as well. Apparently Armsmaster had been finishing them up due to the originals being the wrong size.

"Now then Soundstone," she said as Taylor and Dean helped Sandy and Rosa with their pairing. "I know you prefer fewer obstructions, but the visor serves multiple useful functions. One of them is that there's an embedded camera which will help with post-patrol debriefing."

"Why can't I just have a camera then?" Ryan asked. "It could be attached to my shorts."

Miss Militia sighed. "Because the visor itself should make it easier for you to 'see' some of what your patrol partners do and it will hopefully cause people to underestimate you." Ryan didn't seem to understand, at least from his silence, so she continued. "If the visor makes them think that your eyes are where you see from then they won't think that you can see from anywhere else on your body. That will give you the upper hand until they figure it out, and even then they'll instinctively treat your face as where you see from."

It took another ten minutes of convincing, but Ryan put the visor on and paired it to his phone. Then they connected to the console and showed all three the augmented patrol app, and how it could show where the others were and let them 'see' around corners. That made Ryan excited, because it was like a video game heads up display. He spent most of the rest of the pre-conference time trying to figure out the 'best HUD layout' on his phone.

The girls, on the other hand, seemed far less interested in that aspect. Sandy's first priority was to look around with her visor to confirm that she could still 'see' stone through it, though Taylor wasn't sure what in the area counted without looking down into the ground beneath the building. Rosa, on the other hand, seemed to be most interested in testing all of the functionality for talking on the phone hands-free.

Once that was taken care of the entire group moved to a conference room for a quick meeting, mostly for the benefit of the three new Wards. The rest of them knew approximately what to do, though Taylor was 'reminded' that she should be 'reasonably disrespectful' by a PRT staff member from PR. Taylor rolled her eyes, not that the PRT staff member could see that. Miss Militia's request for her to do 'something surprising' was more interesting.

Eventually it was time to head outside to the stage. The three new Wards would be in a small tent behind the stage, waiting to be called out, while the rest of the Wards were going to start out visible to the crowd. Deputy Director Renick would be joining them on stage right as the press conference was to start and would deliver the important details before calling the new Wards out. Of note, how many new Wards there were wasn't an 'important detail' for before he called them out one by one.

Deciding to have some fun with things, and get her 'reasonably disrespectful' and 'something surprising' actions out of the way at the same time, Taylor activated her visor systems to record things and brought her cloaked platform down. She locked onto it with her tinker snark so that she knew exactly where it was, then positioned it next to the stage. She let the other Wards climb up first, then stepped off to the side and dropped into a cross-legged sitting position on top of the folded-up and cloaked platform. That was followed by pulling out her phone to be seen 'being disrespectful' by using the phone and carefully floating the platform up and over next to the other Wards.

Amy: Okay, I have to admit, that looks interesting from here. Platform cloaked below you?

Taylor: Of course.

Amy: PHO is probably going to explode. What brought this on?

Taylor: Miss Militia told me to do 'something surprising'. Too bad this isn't remotely safe to do in the field, since the inertial compensators are offline and the grav system can't hold me on, but it's good enough for a press conference where I'm not moving much.

The other Wards had taken to staring at Taylor, apparently not having expected her to suddenly decide to float in the air without any obvious support. The news crews that'd been setting up had scrambled to start recording, and the already-present audience had gone silent at first before starting to murmur in astonishment. In response she directed the platform to slowly circle the other Wards. At this point her only regret was that she couldn't flip upside-down and have the platform stay cloaked.

It didn't take long for Chris to get curious about what she was doing, subvocalizing on the private chat conference channel. "Maul, how are you doing that?"

Taylor rolled her eyes. "I thought it was obvious."

"What is she doing?" Miss Militia asked, since apparently she hadn't looked outside to notice.

Missy replied a moment later. "I think she's sitting on her cloaked platform, acting like she's just floating around us under her own power."

Half of the other Wards groaned at that, apparently not having picked up on it. It took a moment before Miss Militia responded. "That isn't what I was expecting when I said to do something surprising, but it certainly qualifies. I don't suppose you're comfortable with 'accidentally' floating out over the audience?"

Taylor didn't see any obvious problems with that. "Now or in the middle of things being talked about?"

"Do so as the deputy director and Armsmaster are coming out of the building. I'm now curious how long it takes people to realize that they've come out onto the stage while you're doing that, plus it'll drive Assault crazy when he finds out that he missed it."

Taylor suspected that there was a story that she wasn't aware of there, but didn't ask. Instead she decided to start spinning and adjusting her height as well, in preparation for 'not noticing' that she was drifting off course. Right on cue she moved off of the stage and over the crowd, lightly spinning and bouncing up and down as she moved over the crowd. Those closest to her seemed to go silent as she passed over them, while the rest of the crowd got louder. Or maybe those closest to her just weren't loud enough to be heard over the rest of the louder crowd?

It took at least two minutes for someone to notice that Deputy Director Renick and Colin were on the stage, at which point Colin decided to say something. "Maul, if you'd kindly come back and wait with your fellow Wards?"

She made a point of looking up from her phone, and then at her surroundings, before shrugging and directing the platform back to the stage. She didn't get off of it, just had it float over the stage.

"We've got a few hours to get everything ready," Jacob said to the gathered members of the Nine. "Fred, Riley, you two got everything set up for coming up behind them to knock them out?"

"That won't be a problem," Riley said, holding up a case. "Though it isn't going to knock them out, just look like it does. They're going to hear everything and their bodies are going to be extra sensitive for six hours or so. By then enough might have passed from their systems for them to fall asleep..."

"Right," Jacob said, interrupting her. "You're ready, that's the important part. The rest of us merely need to get into position prior to the fun starting. We also need to decide if we're going after a couple of the others tonight before they know we're around or if we want to let them simmer for a day or two."

There was a moment of silence before Fred spoke up. "I vote we let them cower for a day or two. Let them bunker down and then we step in and grab them anyway. Might give Riley time to figure out what she's working on too, for that matter."

Nobody seemed to be objecting to that, so Jacob nodded. "Okay. We'll do our unusual entrance tonight, then maybe cause some general mayhem tomorrow. We'll consider going after our other targets again Wednesday or Thursday."

"I've rarely seen reporters so annoyed," Renick said in the post-press conference meeting. One that he'd requested due to the events of the press conference, though he'd sent the three new Wards to go see their parents instead. "We introduce new Wards that went through a quite frankly insane treatment for brain tumors and I could tell that they wanted to ask how the hell Maul here was just floating around like that. But of course they had to focus on the new Wards. How did you do that, anyway? I had my earpiece out when you were talking about it before we began."

"Sat on my platform," Taylor answered. Renick took a moment before he facepalmed, obviously not having thought of that.

"Moving on, I'm told that we already have a dozen requests for more information on Maul at the press office, if not more. So good job being 'surprising', and I think it kept the reporters on-topic specifically because they wanted a chance to ask about you when they were done with the new Wards. Too bad we likely can't do that kind of mindgame with the reporters more often, getting away with it today will probably annoy the other departments too much as it is. Please tell me we got good angles on some of the reporters themselves on at least some of the body cameras?"

"Maul already submitted her sensor data," Colin replied. "I neglected to have mine stored, only feeding it into the augmented patrol system to scan for threats. An oversight that I'll be working with Dragon to correct, since the augmented patrol system should automatically store the raw data for a day or two."

"Good. I'll need to check that out and get some pictures out of it." Renick then sighed. "Sadly, we will need to come up with a story for the floating around there, and I'm not sure if revealing the truth is better or not."

Dennis snorted. "Just point out that she was playing around with tinkertech in a manner unsuitable for use in the field. Let them make horrible assumptions if they want to afterwards, but I bet at least one person on PHO figures it out from that and makes the rest feel like idiots."

"That does have the benefit of being the truth," Colin noted. "So even thinkers aren't likely to find fault with it, beyond the lack of stating what tinkertech she was playing around with."

Nobody had any objections, so they covered other aspects of the press conference for a few minutes to otherwise justify the meeting before breaking up for the day.

It turned out that Amy was having dinner with Ben, so Taylor decided to just head home to prepare for her evening class. Halfway there she got a message from her father letting her know that he'd been invited out to dinner with Garnet, so she detoured for some takeout. She was feeling lazy and she could afford it. When she got home she did have to feed Ackbar, but that wasn't a big deal, and she ate while the spider-bot was occupied with the bowl of potato and apple purée.

She ended up checking and finding that purée was probably the wrong term for what the spider-bots ate, since it wasn't normally being cooked before or after being turned into a paste. Shrugging about that, she moved onto other, more productive topics instead. Cleanup after they'd eaten was quick and easy, and she retreated to her room afterwards. The intro to psychology classes were almost over, after all, just this last week to go.

Tuesday morning found Taylor healing her father's injuries from the night before. Apparently he'd intervened when a drunk had tried to accost someone and gotten a couple of scratches as a result, then hadn't wanted to bother her when he got home. Or had forgotten that she was capable of healing him, perhaps. Garnet had apparently found the whole thing to be 'nostalgic' for reasons that hadn't been explained to Taylor. Still, apparently both of the court cases were going well, and they expected to be officially in the clear in a week or two.

After that she'd headed to the gym for her standard morning workout, but was a little surprised when she found that they seemed to be preparing to install a secondary door to the gym.

"That seems a bit excessive," Taylor noted. "I mean, the entire area is secure, right?"

"It's due to a new request from the Youth Guard," one of the workers commented. "Sometime last week a younger kid out in Nevada injured themselves on the brute-rated equipment, so they want to lock things down so you need to be thirteen to enter gyms with brute-rated equipment without someone else to watch you. Even if you are a brute. Since we now have three Wards under the age of thirteen they're being especially insistent that we get the new door installed 'before something happens'."

"Ahhh." She wondered if she was going to end up playing chaperone to any of the new Wards while they worked out, though thinking about it that would probably only be the two girls. Crystalline bodies didn't seem like the kind of thing that 'improved' with this kind of effort.

Amy and Aisha both showed up not long after that, though none of the other Wards seemed to be coming in first thing today. And Aisha probably only had because she'd been dropped off by Brian on his way through. No PRT staff seemed to be using the gym, though that could be because upstairs hadn't looked crowded and they didn't want to slip past the workers.

"Did you guys see the latest duck video?" Aisha asked when she came out of the locker room.

Taylor blinked, and turned to Aisha. "I haven't been following them. Is the most recent one that interesting?"

The younger girl nodded. "Yeah, their ambush was interrupted by the Slaughterhouse Nine ambushing them. It was creepy and hilarious at the same time."

Well, that pretty much determined what Taylor was going to be running on her visor next. Probably Amy as well.

Nes had watched the video a dozen times and pored over the thread talking about it. There was no indication of things having been faked on any front that anyone had been able to spot, her included. The Slaughterhouse Nine were confirmed to have been spotted in the area that the video appeared to have been shot in, and people had actually snuck out to take pictures of the damaged areas that had appeared in the video to further show that things had actually happened. Someone had even found the damned crushed trap thing.

Her own experience with the Nine had left her with a couple of very strong pictures in her head, and she hadn't seen anything that went against her own memories either. Which meant that, as absurd as it seemed, that the Nine had apparently interrupted the 'Vengeance Ducks' trying to get the drop on those parahumans. And if that was the case? Then none of the rest of it could've been planned or scripted.

She'd thought that the ducks were a direct attack on her sensibilities. Someone poking fun at her for whatever reason, waving that they could do something that crazy and get away with it when she couldn't. But now it seemed obvious that she'd been deluding herself.

Looking over at her pathetic attempts to make a proper 'Justice Duck', she sighed. No matter what she did she wouldn't be able to pull off even a fraction of what the 'Vengeance Ducks' had been seen to do, and she'd look like the poor imitation that she wanted to make people see them as. Apparently it was time to admit defeat there and find a different project to work on.

"Hey Nes," Irma called from the other room. "Trigger Vision is apparently ramping up for a 'deep scan' on Labor Day. Can we go watch the idiot get wasted on whatever that tinker cocktail they drink for these things is so that they can tell whomever paid for their 'deep scan' useless crap about where their powers came from?"

Nes looked back over her 'Justice Duck' attempts, then sighed. "Might as well, it'll at least be good for a laugh. Didn't they tell the last one that they'd inherited their powers from their father before triggering because they'd gotten a scraped knee?"

"Yeah, that one was hilarious. The look on the girl's face when that was blurted out in public was epic."

The three newest Wards weren't cleared to patrol until after the 'first week off of school' break the Wards got in general, and Dennis hadn't asked Taylor to patrol today. Instead she was going to take care of a quick request for a 'brute of some kind' that was sitting in the request queue, followed by having the rest of the day off. Amy was spending the morning helping 'evaluate' something at Medhall at the government's request anyway, so it wasn't like Taylor had anything better to do.

For reasons not described in the original request, Taylor ended up being asked to pick up a set of incredibly high-end lockpicks before she headed out. Better than the set she'd considered getting but hadn't gotten around to purchasing, even. She was told that they were now hers, so she buried them in a pouch and departed to where they wanted a brute.

After she'd gotten there she'd found out what the lockpicks were for, and was mildly annoyed that they hadn't just told her that there was an old safe door involved. She wasn't enough of a physics-defying brute to force it open, but her tinker snark seemed to think that the lock mechanisms were still functional. They just didn't have access to the key or combination, those having been lost for years. Since it was currently locked it made sense why the handle wouldn't turn.

She'd ended up using the lockpicks, and it'd taken her four attempts to figure out what she was doing with the combination lock portion of things. She'd pretended to be listening to the inner workings more than anything else there, but it was a combination of her tinker snark and her blunt object sense that got her through that portion. Once she'd gotten the locks released it still took her enhanced strength to get the handle moving, given how long it'd been sitting there, and it took her and two others that were there to get the door to start to open.

By the time she'd left they'd dismantled the door enough to disable the locking mechanism, either in preparation for someone to replace it or for the entire thing to be removed. She didn't care either way, and had already submitted a request to be given access to all of the information on the requests instead of throwing her into situations like that. She went back to the PRT building, showered because a lot of crud had been knocked loose, and then left to meet Amy for lunch.

Ciara waited with the current set of block leaders. They had their squabbles, but they also had each other's respect. The departed leaders, unlikely to return, also still had their respect. Their envy in some cases, yes, but also their respect. To that end they were waiting for the newest inmates together, instead of leaving them with the leader that Dragon had 'assigned' them to with her choice of entry point.

They didn't have to wait long before the one-way elevator landed. Sure, there were a dozen ways to sneak onto the thing to ride it back out, but they tended to collapse down into a flat-pack item before returning and wouldn't even attempt to return unless all of the inmates were accounted for. Oh, and you had to be able to survive without an atmosphere for the four day trip the thing would make out.

"Good afternoon," Ciara greeted the two, freshly released from the containment foam they'd been encased in originally. They didn't respond, but that was okay. She had an echo keeping them frozen in place, after all, so it wasn't them being rude. She couldn't keep it up for long, but this wouldn't take long. "My fellow leaders and I would like to welcome you to the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center, also known as the Birdcage. Sadly, two of our former cell block leaders aren't available to greet you, so the rest of us have decided to do so in their place."

Grinning, she glided forward to stand just in front of them before continuing. "After all, Marquis would most certainly be unhappy with your attempt to abduct his daughter, right out from under the daughter of one of the few men Lustrum respects. Sadly, none of the faerie we have access to can quite duplicate what they'd likely do to you in this situation, so we're going to have to get...creative in our attempts to welcome you as they might've."

She allowed the blaster of the pair to move again, only for him to be grabbed and dragged off before he could do anything. A moment later the stranger was also grabbed, though she had to maintain an echo to protect the others from the selective notice he was capable of granting himself and others. It would be tiring to maintain that one, but it was necessary. The man wouldn't learn his lesson otherwise.

Directly punishing the two was currently beneath her, at least when they had so many others willing to do so. She'd probably have to step in to keep the two from being killed, of course. At least too soon, and it was possible that they'd learn their place before it came to that. But her task was ensuring that they didn't 'slip away' and vanish into the Birdcage where they'd merely wonder why supplies kept vanishing. Why, the havoc that could cause alone amongst the cell blocks was worth the effort in preventing.

Not that it would've worked against her, of course, but she didn't desire to spend every other day explaining to the others that there was a high-level stranger and his friend wandering around. It was a task far beneath her station in the act she played for the others.

Amy had made good on the threat of shopping for school clothes, though that seemed to be in part because Vicky was involved. Taylor suspected that it was partially a matter of ensuring that Vicky didn't have Amy alone in said shopping at this point, sharing the misery and all or something like that. Also, they weren't letting Taylor get away with doing all of her shopping in the department store, Vicky noting that it wouldn't be 'proper' for someone in her position to not have at least some fancier clothing.

Taylor didn't buy into that, but Vicky wasn't going to be persuaded otherwise. As a result they ended up spending most of the afternoon being dragged from shop to shop after having started at the department store. Amy helpfully pointed out three different times that Vicky wanted them to buy something that they'd already gotten for less at the department store. And in one case Taylor suspected that the department store version was the higher quality one.

She still ended up with several outfits from 'higher end' stores that she thought were overpriced, and neither she nor Amy was willing to buy 'pre-distressed' clothing at all, but Vicky seemed reasonably content with what they'd ended up with in the end. Sadly, dropping the clothing into a donation bin or something was probably a bad idea, because if it wasn't worn at least a few times then Vicky would start bugging them to actually wear the things.

None of the three were stupid enough to leave their shopping on the mopeds, so it was straight home for everyone afterwards to put things away. Taylor also opted to run everything through the wash, as well as doing the rest of her laundry while she was at it. She also ended up cleaning the bathroom a bit after finding that one of the spare towels she'd pulled out had dust clinging to it.

Her father came home with groceries and made dinner for the both of them, though she made Ackbar's meal, and dinner itself was eaten mostly in silence. It was after dinner that her father brought a couple of things up.

"So Taylor," he said as they cleared the table. "The PRT is apparently considering asking you to help guard Amy over the weekend."

Taylor blinked. "I thought New Wave usually handled that? I mean, I helped out with the pre-weekend stuff that one time, but that was because New Wave had some scheduling difficulty."

He grimaced. "Yes, that is the norm, and I'm led to believe that New Wave will still be running guard duty as well. But the PRT thinks that the Fallen aren't exactly likely to respect the healing weekend, and I personally suspect this is an attempt to get both of the most likely abduction targets in a single place. That is, you and Amy, where if an attempt is made on either of you then New Wave will be there to assist."

"Okay, that would make sense, but shouldn't they be asking me and not you?"

"That would be a combination of being the weekend before school starts up and them probably trying to cover bases with you possibly being 'bait', because both targets in a single place makes attacking more attractive in other ways. I know you don't have any more shopping to do for school so that isn't an issue, and I also know that Amy is far more capable than most would assume when it comes to defending herself these days. At this point I'm not even afraid that you'll get hurt, since the thugs the Fallen are using probably wouldn't be able to do much to a few unpowered Dockworkers. But would you be comfortable with the situation if your presence caused them to attack?"

She considered that, and it didn't take long to decide that her presence wasn't likely to change much. "I can't see them feeling that attacking me in costume is worth the effort at this point, since they know that I'm no pushover when I have all of my stuff. So I doubt that my being there will be anything but a deterrent. Which means that if they do attack then they were probably going to either way. Besides, what are they going to do, show up en masse on motorcycles and hope that scares us?"

He chuckled at that. "Okay, I see your point there. I'll let them know that they're clear to ask you, since I doubt that they're going to order you to spend your weekend near the hospital."

Gillian was grinning as she moved between the manual and the various elements of the tank, working to familiarize herself with the tank and how it was operated. The better she knew it the more that those using the duplicates would find things 'instinctive', after all. It was a useful side benefit of her powers, one that she didn't think the grunts had noticed. It always amused her that they were so sure that so many of the things she duplicated were easy to use with no real training.

She already knew that this was going to be a one tank to probably five grunts situation, which was a little harder on her, but that was okay. She could handle it, though in doing so the entire process was going to be more complicated. They would need to run the grunts through in their groups, only allowing one group in at a time for space constraints, and that meant that she was going to need to have her power active for longer. Further, she needed to ensure that the departing tanks didn't screw up that circle, but they already had platforms ready to be carefully placed over the circles. The tanks would appear on the platform and the ramp off would be outside of the circle.

Once she was suitably familiar with things she was going to have to start working on making her circles. To get the most out of her power in this case she would need to reinforce things with metals, and to do that properly she was going to need to work well in advance of the coming weekend. One did not inlay metal into carvings without somewhat significant prep time, especially when there wasn't anyone around that she trusted to help. Mainly because those around that she did trust tended to not handle the delicate work well. Which meant running the crucibles to melt things down herself. On top of needing to actually carve the circles instead of just lightly scribing them on top of the concrete.

Eventually she finished going over things for the day, since she could only retain so much at a time, and moved the tank back into the storage crate. That was then dropped back into 'flat-pack' mode, so that casual checks wouldn't show anything odd in the building. At this point she needed to get dinner and probably check with a couple of the others, if they could start arranging for suitable five-man teams now then it would probably smooth things over for the weekend.

As she locked up she wondered if the relative calm during the week as they prepared would mean the PRT was taken by surprise later. Nobody thought that the PRT would assume that they'd left town at this point, occasional issues with the locals and the roaming bikers ensured that even if the presence of said roaming bikers didn't. But they were intentionally cutting back on causing problems where possible as they planned things out for the weekend.

Oh well, it wasn't her problem beyond getting the grunts equipped. She'd sleep through the rest of it no matter how it went, after all.

Interlude: The Ducks Meet Their Match The demonic duck known as Adam Vengeance, identifiable by his cape, sat in front of the camera, facing an open area inside of a building. From the looks of it he was in a warehouse of some kind, and there was a timestamp in the lower corner of the video identifying it as early evening on the twenty-second of August.

"Good evening," he said. "This week we're sadly operating without an existing arrest warrant, but we've got intel that tells us there will be an illegal sale of some kind soon, hopefully tonight, and if we're lucky they'll be alone. We aren't sure exactly where, but this seems to be a prime spot for their meeting and someone has kept the electricity on. Just in case they don't end up here, though, we've got cameras and traps all over the place, and like the past couple of days, if they don't show up tonight we'll add more and try again tomorrow. Oh, right, I should mention that the two parahumans we're targeting are suspected of a number of illegal activities, including at least a dozen murders between them, but no proof has been able to conclusively link them to their crimes."

He spun around to 'look' at the camera. "Now that you know what's going on, I'm going to have to hide, so as to not alert our hopeful guests that something is up." He then dropped down out of the camera's view. Shortly afterwards the time in the corner started running faster, obviously skipping over a period of 'nothing happening'. Though if you watched carefully you'd see a handful of frames showing Rose and Mary crossing the warehouse floor a couple of times, the second time with a couple of pies trailing behind them.

Eventually the footage returned to 'real time' according to the timestamp, and a few seconds later an impeccably dressed man with a mask on entered the warehouse rolling a suitcase behind him. He turned a couple of lights on as he did so, then lightly leaned against a support pillar while he waited. While they did so an information box appeared on the screen with a better picture of him, and identifying him as a villain named Rockfinger. An enhanced strength brute and striker able to make rocks explode away from him with a touch of his finger, unknown if rocks was an actual limitation or just how he preferred to use the power.

The information box vanished a moment later, and a woman entered from the other direction. She was rolling a seemingly identical suitcase, but was dressed much less business-appropriate. To put it kindly, she looked like a prostitute, and wasn't wearing a mask at all. The man pushed off of the support pillar as she entered, and she stopped and stared at him, then started looking around as well. A new information box appeared with an entirely different picture of a masked woman, Moll by name, apparently a changer able to take on the forms of other females she'd touched in the past day. Suspected to be a brute as well.

That information box vanished quickly as well, as the two moved towards one another. They met in the middle of the warehouse and Rockfinger nodded. "You have any problem obtaining the guns?"

Moll shook her head. "Nah, but there were a few complications with the ammo. Nothing my people couldn't handle, and I'm honoring the price this time. Next time it'll cost at least thirty percent more because we had to burn a couple of contacts this time."

"Understandable. I'll be sure to budget for that. Shall we?"

The two traded suitcases, each opening the one they'd just received to check the contents. The one Moll was now holding was full of cash, and she randomly checked various bundles. The one Rockfinger was holding had two guns along the sides and boxes of ammo stacked between them. He checked the guns and the ammo, apparently satisfied. If you watched carefully you could see Veronica darting furtively along the back wall. A few seconds later she came back through at a much higher speed, followed by the camera being jostled slightly and ending up tilted to one side.

"Naughty naughty," was heard from the shadows, obviously not any of the ducks. "Both you and those who were prepared to trap you."

Both villains jumped in shock and spun to face the source of the sound, only to start backing away a moment later as Jack Slash and the Siberian walked into the light. The latter was carrying what looked like it might have once been a containment foam sprayer. A picture-in-picture appeared a moment later, showing the scene from the opposite direction to reveal Bonesaw and Hatchet Face coming up behind the two retreating villains, a syringe in each of the girl's hands. The two obviously noticed when their powers shut down, but didn't have time to do anything before Bonesaw had injected both of them.

"Now where are those ducks?" Hatchet Face asked, hefting his axe even as Bonesaw was dragging the two now-unconscious villains into the shadows. "Rude of them to try and crash this little gathering and all."

"They're outside trying to figure out what to do," another voice called, shortly revealed to be a dark haired young woman who walked up to the suitcases. "Bit panicked, but that's to be expected. Don't think they realize that Burnscar and Shatterbird are watching them though." She then paused. "Huh, either they've got sensory abilities or they've got the place bugged, because I think they just reacted to that." With a shrug she opened the suitcase with the guns in it, smirking, before grabbing one of the guns and a box of ammo. "Shall we join them?"

The Siberian discarded the twisted hunk of metal that she'd been holding and walked through the wall, knocking a large portion of it over in the process. Jack and Hatchet Face followed a moment later, while the woman loaded the gun and pocketed the remainder of the rounds in the box before doing the same.

A moment later the video had switched to a different camera, the timestamp showing that they'd just jumped back a little. The angle here let you see the four ducks, off-center in the feed, apparently in a huddled, whispered discussion based on the way their eyes were flashing. They paused a moment later, all turning to the warehouse and then spinning rapidly as though looking for something. It wasn't long before the warehouse wall collapsed outwards as the Siberian came through it, and the ducks obviously decided that it was high time to run for it. Adam went one direction, Veronica another. Rose and Mary picked a third.

Jack looked around as he and Hatchet Face came out behind the Siberian. "Who wants which ducks?"

"I think I want the one with the stupid cape," Hatchet Face replied. "Which way did it go?" The Siberian pointed, and he nodded. "Thank you." He then stormed off after Adam.

"I'll stick around here to help Bonesaw," Jack said a moment later. "That and they could double-back. Besides, I think Cherish wants to go duck hunting, and who am I to stand in her way?"

The Siberian nodded, then started off in the direction that Rose and Mary had gone. The young woman, apparently Cherish, came out of the hole a moment later with her purloined gun, nodded to Jack, and headed off in the direction that Veronica had gone. Burnscar came out from behind the building and followed Cherish. Jack looked around again, including a quick look up at the sky, before he sighed and turned back towards the building. If you listened carefully you could hear him mutter something about letting others have all the fun this time just before he threw a knife into a bush by the actual warehouse door, setting off a couple of pie launchers that'd been hidden there. Once they'd gone past without hitting him he used the door to enter the warehouse itself.

Another jump to a new camera showed Adam darting down an alley, bouncing back and forth across it to various points. The camera angle let the viewer see lights start blinking at various points during this process, obviously various items were being turned on or armed. Hatchet Face entered the alley shortly after Adam had left the camera's view, and the first thing to go off was a shovel on a spring-loaded arm. It hit Hatchet Face in the shoulder and deformed, obviously not having done anything of note. He continued forward and cut the next swinging arm off before the rake attached to it could reach him, didn't seem to care about the steaming-hot water that sprayed him in the chest, and cut through the net that tried to entangle him.

The cannonball that slammed into his chest from the next trap successfully knocked him back, showing that he'd apparently been led into a false sense of security when it came down to what was waiting for him. He was a little more cautious as he got up and continued, tearing a sliding metal door off of a dumpster to act as a potential shield in the process. This proved to be wise when he was able to use it to deflect electrical wires that dropped down across the alley just past where the cannon had been hidden. Even that only stopped him for a moment before he continued on.

A view from outside of the alley came up next, showing Hatchet Face stepping out and being slammed into by a dumpster that had been sent rolling down the hill. It took him a moment to recover, but he visibly glowered up the hill before storming off in that direction. He ignored the fire hydrant that'd apparently been hastily rigged to spray him, only to find that was only part of the plan. He cut a bag of salt that'd been thrown at him, only to convulse when the salt had mixed enough with the water to conduct electricity from another set of wires. That didn't last long with the hydrant still pushing fresh water out, though, and he was quickly back on the move. Though he took a quick look around and preemptively cut down a telephone pole before going any further, visibly knocking power out ahead of him to stop future attacks of that nature.

Another camera took over a moment later, this being a view from an alley near the top of the hill. Hatchet Face could be seen approaching, and Adam was just visible under a truck. There was a snapping sound as Adam backed out from the truck, a piece of brake line trailing behind him, and the truck started rolling downhill. The duck then somehow hopped onto the truck's rear bumper, then into the bed, obviously riding it down towards Hatchet Face. The brute threw the bit of dumpster door at the truck, successfully breaking the windshield, but then dodged to the side. Frowning, he continued up the hill to the alley, apparently not having seen Adam jump into the back of the truck itself.

Apparently done with Hatchet face, the next scene shift showed Rose and Mary crossing a parking lot, darting back and forth a lot like Adam had been in the first alley. They'd apparently rigged several decrepit-looking planters with items if the suddenly-blinking lights were any indication, in addition to at least one manhole that Mary stopped on for a few moments before moving on and a cracked section of pavement that Rose stopped on. The latter at least had lights start blinking from the point of view of the camera.

It wasn't long before the Siberian appeared. She walked right through a containment foam grenade, didn't react to being hit with several tasers, and let the manhole cover wrap around her foot when an explosion went off upon her stepping on it. That was launched off of said foot by a kick a moment later, smashing one of the planters and causing it to erupt with containment foam. A series of nets were ignored until bits of rebar were launched, at which point the Siberian used a couple of pieces of rebar and started taking the nets apart to knit with them. All while walking forward steadily. Upon reaching the section of cracked pavement she ignored it exploding around her, beyond frowning at the bits of pavement now stuck in the nets.

The next camera angle showed Rose and Mary darting into a loading dock and over to a hidden chest. They vanished behind it, only for it to open.

"Where is it?" one of them asked with their full creepy voice going as a few things flew out of the chest. Including a rubber chicken, a tennis racket, and a leash.

"I don't know," the other answered as a deflated beach ball flew out. "I know I kept it!"

It took another minute before a cry of excitement came from the two and they came back out with a small box with hazard-striping and a handle on top between them, a cable trailing behind it and a small bag trailing behind Mary. They darted behind a small fence, and a few curses were heard before they rushed back over to the trunk. It wasn't long before the Siberian approached the fence and the box suddenly slid out, ending up between her feet. The striped woman looked down even as the top of the box opened, a blue light coming from the unit as it sparked with electricity. Shrugging, the Siberian continued forward, apparently unaffected.

Rose and Mary screamed at that and quickly entered the building, that being the only way out of the loading dock without going past the Siberian. The striped woman followed, but paused at the trunk. She reached down and pulled a ball of multicolored yarn out of it, nodding as she started using it with her rebar knitting needles before she walked through the closed door that Rose and Mary had vanished through moments before. A shadow passed through the loading dock a moment later, before the camera jumped again.

Based on Rose and Mary entering, the new warehouse was obviously the building attached to the loading dock. This one was significantly less empty than the previous one had been, and the two split up to hide amongst the stacks of pallets. The Siberian came in shortly afterwards, looking around annoyed at all the places that the two ducks could be hiding. She continued to knit while doing so for some reason, the netting giving way to the yarn she'd grabbed in the meantime. She then walked straight ahead, where neither of the ducks had gone, apparently intent on searching for them anyway. The two slipping back out the door a moment later was apparently missed.

A moment later Shatterbird's scream started up, shattering all the visible windows and most of the lights. Things became much harder to see as the storm of glass shards swept the warehouse, then back out to the loading dock. Screams from the two ducks could be heard, and the Siberian could be seen returning that way just before the camera jumped back outside. Rose and Mary were obviously 'hurt' from the glass shards as they left the loading dock, their hair a mess and a number of cuts visible on them. The still-open box did seem to stop the glass that passed close enough to it, at least for a few seconds, before it flickered and failed as other glass shards cut the cord leading to it.

The Siberian came out of the building a moment later, and this time crushed the now-dormant box with a foot on the way by. Shatterbird then dropped in and looked the remains over before nodding and following along, glass shards still flowing out of the building behind her. The view then jumped to a camera that was obviously around the corner, Rose and Mary moving down the street with glass shards following them. One of them circled a trash can before moving on and they got lucky when the containment foam exploding from it captured a good percentage of the glass shards that had been chasing them. Not that it helped much as more glass kept shattering ahead of them.

It didn't take long for the Siberian to walk through the mass of containment foam, ignoring it completely as she continued to follow the two ducks. Shatterbird flew over it instead, and the next camera angle was a wider shot of the street. Rose and Mary could be seen turning a corner, with the Siberian making her way steadily towards them. Shatterbird was above and behind the Siberian, but apparently content to let the striped woman take the lead here. At least until a weighted net slammed into her from above, apparently fired from one of the rooftops. The Siberian stopped at that, turning and looking up before jumping clear out of the view of the camera. A few seconds later she dropped down again, discarding the remains of a smashed launcher even as she moved to help Shatterbird out of the net.

Adam could be seen in the background with a very tattered cape, sliding down a zipline towards where Rose and Mary had run off to just before the view shifted again, this time showing Veronica moving down a path. Unlike the other three ducks, she wasn't darting back and forth activating things. She seemed determined to put as much distance between her and those chasing her as possible. Sadly, there was a fire set by someone ahead of her, and Burnscar suddenly stepped out of it and into Veronica's path.

The duck squeaked in panic, an odd sound with the creepy echoes, before darting off of the path into some bushes. Bushes which were promptly set on fire, of course. Cherish appeared a moment later, firing the purloined gun into the bushes before swearing, apparently having missed. She and Burnscar headed off in that direction, and several more gunshots could be heard despite the apparent lack of cameras off in that direction. Instead, it wasn't long before the view shifted to a camera overlooking what appeared to be the original warehouse from afar, the park that Veronica had been in bordering the street that the camera was looking down. The duck, now obviously damaged, came out from under one of the farm-style fence sections and darted down an alley on the other side.

A few seconds later Cherish came to the fence, swearing as she went to hop over it and the top rail proved to be loose, spinning when she put pressure on it. She quickly dropped and went between two of the rails instead, moving across the street to the alley that the duck had entered. Burnscar, on the other hand, threw a fireball across the street from off-camera, followed by appearing out of the flames that had just been thrown. The side of the building she'd set on fire was left to burn as she followed Cherish down the alley. A moment later an explosion could be heard, and Burnscar once again exited the flames on the burning building. Cherish emerged from the alley a moment later, swearing with one arm covered in containment foam, the gun apparently embedded in it.

The scene shifted again, this time the timestamp jumping over an hour. The four ducks were together, all obviously bandaged.

"Hello again," Adam said. "As you can see, all four of us escaped, though it was a close call. We've already alerted the local police and the PRT of all of our traps, set off or otherwise, but at this point we aren't willing to return to the area. Shortly after we'd escaped the Nine started to find and destroy our cameras, leaving us unaware of whether or not any of them remain in the area."

"Not like the police are going to be willing to go anywhere near the freaks," Veronica added. "And the idiot tinker who assured Rose and Mary that their little trap would work on the Siberian is getting a talking to, let me tell you."

"They'll probably blame it on the lack of using the beam weapons," Rose said.

"Not that we had time to set them up," Mary added, a slight movement looking like a flinch as she spoke. Her echoes were also less pronounced, but she had bandaging on her beak to explain that.

"We had no way of knowing that the Nine were going to show up," Adam continued. "And we got lucky in getting away from them, especially without having set up our contingency plans for them. But we survived, and thanks to remote streaming we were able to assemble most of the footage. When we post this we'll link to where we've put the footage of Bonesaw beginning to operate on Moll and Rockfinger, at least before Jack took out the camera. We obviously won't be getting a second shot at capturing the two."

Veronica scoffed. "We're hightailing it out of the state. We need time to heal up, not to mention restock after losing access to the supplies we'd hidden for this attempt. Maybe find easier targets, assuming we don't lay low for a while just in case."

Chapter 202 Wednesday morning dawned quietly, with no protesters in sight. Which seemed odd, at least until Taylor checked the news out of curiosity. Apparently a group had set up and gotten the attention of Hookwolf the night before. He'd taken offense and put the entire lot of them in the hospital, then gone hunting for any other idiots doing the same thing for a couple of hours before vanishing. The PRT and Protectorate had claimed that they'd been unable to locate him between the four different incidents, though the person who wrote the article actually questioned if that was unable or unwilling.

As a result, very suddenly protesting against parahumans in any way, shape, or form had gone from something that people did to something that people avoided at all costs because it wasn't healthy. They couldn't feel safe by hiding behind the law if the villains, who routinely ignored the law, were going to take offense in general and attack them.

Once at the gym, Taylor noted that Amy wasn't at the hospital. And from what she knew the other girl hadn't been at the hospital when the first group of protesters had likely been brought in either.

"So," Taylor said once the two were in the gym proper instead of the locker room. "You're not healing up the damage from Hookwolf's little rampage?"

Amy grinned at that. "The hospital is treating them all as having declined parahuman healing as a courtesy, even if they can't officially decline due to their injuries. They were, after all, protesting against parahumans in various ways. It wouldn't be right to have a parahuman heal them when their injuries aren't life threatening."

Taylor chuckled at that answer, as did a couple of the PRT staff also in the gym. She then got into her workout, while also looking over the plans for the day. For the morning she had her choice of several possible assistance requests, but apparently they wanted her and Missy to patrol with someone from the Protectorate that afternoon. Shrugging about that, she looked over the assistance requests, frowning slightly when she noted that they were all still vague about what they wanted from her.

The most vague was that Brockton General had requested 'any parahuman' for unstated reasons. Since there was a good chance that she'd be spending a good portion of the weekend there it seemed like a poor choice today. Someone had requested a brute to help them move, which sounded like a wonderful way to be yelled at by someone who wanted things done 'just right'. There was a request for a firearms expert to assist with an older weapon, which sounded more like she'd technically be tinkering than anything else. And finally there was a request for a flight-capable parahuman to help check where a roof might be having problems.

All things considered, she decided that checking a roof was probably one of the better uses of her time. It didn't take long to note that she'd like to go off and take care of that instead of any of the others and send that off, at which point she switched to going back over psychology texts.

Amy: They're doing a good job bringing things into the pocket dimension in large pieces.

Taylor: I'd noticed. So far they aren't really an 'annoyance', though I've started wondering if that's because we know that they're doing what we asked them to do instead of storing their own stuff in there.

Amy: Well, that probably just invalidated a number of previously thought to be useful result sets.

Looking over the fairly steep roof for the leak that they weren't sure of the location of, beyond 'top two thirds' since the water was showing about two thirds of the way down when it rained, was annoying. But the building housed a number of historically important records for the area, so they wanted to deal with things before they became more of a problem. To add to the frustration, her tinker snark didn't seem to think that there was a leak in the roof, which either meant that she'd found a limitation in it or that something else was going on.

Eventually she'd looked over the entire roof without finding a problem. Sighing, she moved around the building to get back to the side she'd started on. A moment later she'd returned to the side of the building. There was a small pipe sticking out, turning upward, and sitting there open with no cap on top. The pipe entered the building high enough to be where the 'roof leak' was coming from as well. She ensured that she had a picture of it, then resumed heading for the front of the building where her contact for the day was.

It would take half an hour for her to convince them to have someone check the damn pipe, another twenty minutes to convince them that it would be a waste of time to have her look over the roof again 'just in case she missed something', and then fifteen minutes to convince them to get a professional to check the pipe instead of going up and sealing it themselves without knowing what it was for.

She was well and completely done with idiots for a bit after that, so it was a good thing that she could head back to the PRT building.

Maya triple-checked that none of her natural hair color was showing, because she really didn't want to be identified this week. Even if she was going to be leaving town Friday to spend at least a week elsewhere. With any luck they'd know how to make heralds soon and she wouldn't need to return at all. But for now she had to do her part to help prepare for the mayhem they wanted to impart this weekend. For whatever reason the Crowleys had decided that a 'test' was needed, and Mama had told her to help them 'as a show of good faith'.

So far she'd made good progress amongst the 'Empire Eighty Eight' and today her target was the 'Azn Bad Boys'. Get enough grunts with their trigger commands for the weekend and the rest would be swept up in the chaos and all that. Tomorrow or Friday she'd try for the Elite, but she wasn't planning on trying to mess with Accord's people. Not only were they harder to identify, his territory was too close to the hospital and his people preparing to act outside of it would be far too suspicious. No, it was better to limit herself to the other three, then hightail it out of town before anyone started putting significant effort into looking for her.

And regardless of what the Crowleys thought, they probably would be looking for her. There was no way for her to properly hide her commands in this case. All it would take is grabbing one or two of the grunts she was messing with and they'd be able to tell that she'd been involved, even if they didn't know who she actually was yet. They were hoping that the PRT didn't pick up on her part in things, of course, but the first week out of town was to see if a manhunt was started up after the weekend. If not she might be sent back, if only to keep the number of signatures they could verify were involved with their group down.

Either way, hopefully the Crowleys and their 'friends' would be ready when the fun began, but if they weren't then it wasn't going to be her fault. After all, they'd even taken over the placement and activation of all of the extra equipment that she'd arranged to have arrive with the delivery of the tank. No, her only task was to set up the gang warfare, and when she was done it was going to happen whether or not the rest of the plan went off.

Maybe she'd get to go after an easier target next? Hopefully not that girl in New York, operating right under the nose of part of the Triumvirate would not be fun. Especially if their little detection trick was able to tell that it was the same person who'd been operating here. Actually, that was probably a good enough argument to get out of helping grab any government-connected parahumans for a while. She actually stopped long enough to get out a notepad to make note of the idea as a result.

Taylor had ended up having lunch alone. Amy was in the middle of a couple of things, the other Wards around today hadn't returned from their own tasks, and she hadn't felt like checking for anyone past that point. So she'd ended up grabbing a burger and some potato wedges from one of the cafeterias and had eaten them alone. It hadn't been as good as she'd expected, but she also hadn't paid it much attention while she was eating it. And as luck would have it, Missy arrived just after she'd finished eating.

The two had met in the Wards area, Missy grumbling about her aunt being stupid about things, and waited for some indication of where they were to meet the Protectorate member or members that they were patrolling with. Taylor was nearly at the point of asking the console who they were supposed to be waiting for when Ethan came into her range. He obviously entered through the garage, then came around through the building to the Wards area.

"Maul! Vista!" Ethan yelled as he came into the common area, only to find both girls standing there in costume. "Oh, you're ready. There goes my prepared 'whining about having to wait for you' speech."

"It's worse than that," Missy noted, causing Ethan to turn to her. "We've been waiting for you."

"Crap. Time to distract you by getting moving, then!"

Taylor snorted. "I can multitask well enough to obsess over being made to wait for you while finding the best angles to subtly hit you for it and focusing on everything else on patrol. And I'll probably go over my intro to psychology homework while doing it, too."

Ethan obviously stared at Taylor for a moment, before slumping. "That's not fair."

"So where are we patrolling today and why did you ask for us?" Missy asked.

He visibly perked up at the topic change. "We're going to be running through some of the docks where we think the Fallen have set up. With any luck they'll be stupid enough to give all of us a reason to use real guns against them, which will serve as an 'outing' of Vista's handgun." He then paused. "Just don't tell anyone that I actually have that included in my plans, okay?"

Missy was nodding forcibly enough for Taylor to decide not to argue the point. Nor did she bring up that at this point the Fallen were likely smart enough to not bring guns to fights where she was involved. She'd let them have their little fantasy for now.

It turned out that Ethan wanted them doing a 'mixed' patrol. Him on the ground, Missy bouncing along rooftops, and Taylor flying overhead on her platform. He'd also neglected to mention the PRT vans following them at a distance, but Taylor had the scout drone and Snitch out to monitor things and had easily spotted them with the augmented patrol system. She idly wondered how many of the PRT officers were aware of her visor being part of the whole thing, but didn't bother trying to find out. She was probably happier not knowing where that particular piece of knowledge did and didn't spread to.

As for the patrol itself, they'd run into squat so far. Fifteen obvious bikers that were apparently just enjoying their rides, a dozen obvious gang members doing nothing objectionable beyond glaring at each other, assuming a rival gang member was nearby to glare at anyway. Plenty of people coming out of the woodwork to take pictures, at least one of which Taylor had barely spotted using a telescopic lens to take pictures or video from a good distance. And the total number of parahumans they'd passed close enough to for snark sense to pick them up was currently one.

Sadly, that'd been Brian clipping the far edge of the snark sense sphere. Taylor hadn't even been able to acknowledge it because that would reveal her expanded range, something she was still trying to keep under wraps. So instead she was bored enough to be playing games on one phone while re-reading her intro to psychology materials on the other. Maybe if she did this kind of thing often enough she could train herself to actually use her eyes independently of one another?

And why did she just get a mental image of Colin being incredibly jealous?

Things had gone so smoothly on the patrol that they'd had time to run a second one through a different area. Which went just as smoothly, to all of their annoyance because not having even a single incident made it all feel like a giant waste of time. Then again, they weren't the only ones. Patrols had been unusually calm for a couple of days now across the board, and the assumption was that something major was coming up.

Nobody had listened to the PRT officer that suggested that the Fallen might've decided to play by 'the rules' regarding Amy's weekend.

They asked Taylor if she'd be willing to spend her weekend playing guard at the hospital, and she'd accepted. They'd then asked if she'd be willing to spend her Thursday at the PRT building making carbon nanotube harnesses to various specifications. Apparently they'd stockpiled carbon cubes and now wanted to do something with them. Since patrolling seemed to be a horrible waste of time right now she figured that she might as well do something productive, so she agreed.

With that done it didn't take long to pack up and head home, and despite doing two patrols there was still plenty of time before dinner.

Riley glared at the spider-bots she'd built. She knew it was possible to cause the things to express powers based on those the parahumans used to have. But knowing that it could be done didn't help her with actually doing it. How the hell had Taylor pulled it off with Ackbar? What kind of stresses did you put on a properly-trained spider-bot to get the thing to trigger? Or retrigger or something like that.

Of course, part of her problem was probably that she didn't want to hurt these spider-bots yet. They were the new cuteness, all adorable and innocent and all of that. They probably didn't know how to be stressed, and she didn't really want to teach them that. Which was warring with her desire for superpowered spider-bots. And to be honest, she couldn't see Taylor intentionally treating a spider-bot so poorly that it got stressed out and triggered, which just made it harder to figure out how it happened.

"Why won't you trigger?" Riley finally asked the spider-bots. Not that they could answer, of course.

"Could it be that Ackbar was a fluke?" Jacob asked from the workshop's doorway. "That the power in question was just particularly well suited to a spider-bot, perhaps?"

Riley turned around to glare at Jacob. "But it wasn't. It changed, and you know it. So why can't these ones do the same?"

He smirked at her, causing her glare to deepen. "At this point I think it's obvious where you're going wrong."

"Really?"

"You aren't sending them to Taylor."

She blinked at that, then looked at the spider-bots. "Why would I...oh."

Well, now she felt like an idiot. Taylor could probably just ask the powers to re-trigger or something like that. Perhaps after working with them to teach them what a spider-bot was when compared to a human. Which meant that it was likely that most others were doomed to failure. Crap. Now what was she going to do?

Thursday morning Taylor woke up early, somewhat happy with things from the night before. Class had finished early, and they were apparently getting one-on-one testing on Friday. She was going to be one of the earlier tests at that, since she had a fairly flexible schedule compared to some of the others. Of course, she also had to deal with writing an essay before then, but today was looking to be downright boring, all things considered. Assembling carbon nanotube harnesses wasn't exactly exciting work, after all.

Despite her being up early, her father actually beat her out of the house. He'd mumbled something about expecting a call at the office from somewhere overseas while he'd been making coffee, which probably helped explain why he was up and moving so early. Regardless, that actually left her locking up as she left instead of leaving it to him, not that she minded. She hadn't wanted to be out and about quite that early, instead timing things so that she'd hopefully meet up with Amy at the gym.

It turned out that Amy was delayed, so Taylor beat her by quite a bit. That was fine, because it gave her time to tear apart the new safety door and fix several problems with it. Like the fact that it wasn't opening at all, discovered by someone else who'd slapped a sign on it. That had been caused by a wire having come loose and was easily fixed, and she'd ensured that the problem with the manual crank for opening the thing in an emergency was corrected while she was at it. She'd even remembered to disable the alarms on the thing before doing all of the work.

Amy had shown up as Taylor was closing it all up. "I take it there was a problem with the door?"

Taylor nodded. "Yep. Loose wire, misaligned gear. Nothing too hard to fix, but the door wasn't going to open properly until they were fixed."

"We could've just used the public gym."

"The public gym has no pool."

"Touché."

Thanks to the problem with the door they were the only ones using the gym this morning, not that they minded. And Taylor got a 'thank you' message from maintenance for having fixed things, along with a recommendation that she take the basic maintenance course officially so that she could officially look up and claim maintenance tasks like that through the normal channels. She didn't waste any time in requesting that, since it seemed like a good idea.

Amy was spending the afternoon at the hospital, but opted to join Taylor for the morning in starting up the carbon nanotube harness creation process. Which meant that Taylor spent her time working on her essay and not on other things.

Missy blinked a couple of times as they came across Diamond Quartet. Sadly, they didn't have Taylor or incredible tinkertech sensors available today, so figuring out where the woman actually was would probably be harder. Further, she was apparently working on an actual robbery, which made things far more cut and dry as to what they were allowed to do to her. There were currently only two of the woman's four selves visible, standing as though on guard but not really responding to anything.

In an attempt she thought likely to fail, she focused on twisting the space containing the two visible instances of the villain. That failed, but not in a 'Manton Limit' way. It was more in a 'something else is already functioning here' way, something she was only able to distinguish due to cross-testing with other spatial manipulators. Sadly, that didn't give her any special insight into the villain's powers or where they actually were.

"She's definitely in the building," Dean said after a moment. "I vote we try and 'pop' the ones we can see out here to reduce her options while she's busy inside."

"I agree," Chris noted, flipping options on his pistols. Missy's response was to pull out her sniper rifle.

All three let loose at the two visible instances of the woman. They weathered the attack at first, but after a few seconds they both vanished. 'Popped' or 'dismissed' was impossible for the three of them to tell. With that done Chris focused on reporting things to the console. She set up to hopefully catch the woman on her way out the front, while Dean moved to be able to cover the rear of the building.

It wasn't long before an instance of the woman tried to exit through the rear of the building, only to be attacked by Dean. Seconds later another instance tried to slip out the front, met by three headshots from Missy's rifle. Neither instance lasted long, and she frowned when no others appeared. That couldn't have been everything the woman had.

"Nice shots," came from behind her a moment later, and she reflexively expanded the space around her as she jumped up. Standing what had been right behind her was another instance of Diamond Quartet, one that hadn't been on the roof when Missy had popped up there. This one was also holding a bag that likely contained her loot.

Deciding to let her shots do the talking, Missy started firing at the woman. Unlike the other instances, this one started to dodge.

Even worse, the woman started to taunt her. "Your aim needs work, little one. Haven't you learned to lead your shots?"

"This is a long range rifle and isn't good for close like this," Missy admitted. "On the other hand, you've made your own mistake."

"Really? And what would that beeeeeeee..."

Missy grinned as she crunched space to get to the edge of the roof, just in time to see that instance of the villain pop as she hit the ground. She couldn't mess with space where the instance had been, but that hadn't stopped her from changing the size and layout of the roof. Even better, it looked like the bag of loot had survived the fall and stuck around. They hadn't been able to capture the woman herself, sadly, but they'd at least foiled the theft.

The morning had been dull, but Taylor had pulled off writing the essay she needed to write and still beat Amy in the game they'd ended up playing. Followed by Amy whining that she needed to get a second phone or something because it wasn't fair that Taylor had two and could thus multitask better. She'd then departed, leaving Taylor to go back to making the various carbon nanotube harnesses that'd been requested. And with Amy not around it also allowed her to start up a chat with Sherrel about a few things without it being too easy for the other girl to notice anything.

It was mid-afternoon by the time that some of the plants started to 'give out'. At least to the point where Taylor had to stop using them so that they could recover. Then again, she was pushing them much harder than she might've otherwise so as to get as many harnesses out as she could today. Most of these seemed to be for scout drone style sensor systems without the propulsion systems, but there were a couple of other variants in the request list as well. For example, Colin had requested a couple that were obviously destined for halberds, but also had one that was significantly shorter for some other project.

As dinnertime approached she'd packed up, feeling that her discussions with Sherrel had gone well and she'd even made twenty more sensor system harnesses than requested. They were fragile in some ways, so the extras were probably a good plan all things considered. Though she did wonder what the goal was with this set, since they seemed to be 'full-size' harnesses yet with only the sensor system components. Obviously there was some goal, she just didn't know what it was.

The entire set of things, as well as documentation on which ones had been made by Amy instead of Taylor, was dropped off before she left the building. Her father had let her know that he was already home and starting to prepare dinner, so she figured that she should get going.

David groaned as he regained consciousness, wondering why his head hurt so badly. And why he had several things flashing warnings at him in his brain, for that matter. Maybe they were related, it was hard to think through the pain. Something else had started beeping next to him as well, which wasn't helping. He tried to sit up, only to fall back down when that made the pounding in his head worse.

It wasn't long before someone else came in and stopped the beeping, followed by doing something that caused the end of the bed to raise up. He thought they might've been asking him questions as well, but he couldn't focus on the words. It didn't take long before they held a glass of water up to his lips, and he was able to focus enough to take a few sips. The person then moved around to the other side of the bed he was on and did something there. A second person came in and they discussed something, then more was done next to the bed.

Twenty minutes later the pain started to subside a little, and he was able to start processing things again. He decided to start with his mental interfaces, and he didn't like what he found there. For some reason his agent's energy levels were critical, most of his powers were offline for reasons that didn't seem to be energy related, and he had multiple new meters that were all worryingly near 'empty'. They were also labeled in ways that he didn't understand, giving him no context as to what he was looking at.

It wouldn't be long before he started to drift back to sleep, only realizing as he was doing so that they'd probably put pain medication into an...IV, was it? That sounded right. He'd have thanked them for that if he hadn't fallen asleep before he could remember how to speak.

Taylor ended up watching the news with her father after dinner, learning about the Wards having foiled a theft by that Diamond Quartet woman earlier in the day. As was normal for that particular villain, she'd somehow gotten away. Not that it was surprising news for Taylor, taking out all four instances of the woman with bullets had just resulted in her vanishing entirely in the only encounter she'd had with the villain. That had been followed by them talking about a debate about whether or not 'The Mauling of the Butcher' should be eligible for an Academy Award nomination.

"Is the primary point of contention the fact that the entire production team fits on a business card?" Danny finally asked.

She shrugged. "I think so. Dragon and myself as the 'producers', me as the only camera operator, and then the Dragon subsidiary that's acting as the distribution company. Quarrel and I are the only credited 'actors' as we're the only ones with 'lines'. Dragon used more space crediting the people involved in making my costume and tinkertech than anything else in the closing credits. I'm more curious about why people think that it's good enough film to bother with, given that it's basically one giant fight scene."

He turned to her. "Did you miss that it already won a couple of smaller awards?"

"For things like being a parahuman-produced movie and 'accurately portraying' parahumans."

"Ahhh. Okay, so I should've checked what the awards were first. What will you do if they actually nominate the film?"

"No clue. It isn't like I really did much for the film side of it anyway. Which just makes any award seem more silly from my point of view."

Clara sighed as she got out of the bath. She'd waited until she'd known that her niece would be patrolling without Miss Hebert, which had worked out wonderfully. A little attempted theft and she got to see the girl in action. And the brat was sneaky, sniping from a distance and then manipulating the environment to her advantage like that. More ruthless than expected too, for that matter. Who knew the girl had it in her to send someone falling off of a roof like that?

Sadly, she suspected that trying to convince her niece to switch sides would fail miserably. Both from their discussions and how she worked with the other Wards. Well, that and having heard about how much money the girl made on that side of the law, something that seemed impossible. Then again, the girl had somehow ended up being one of the few Wards that had a large-scale licensing scheme instead of a merely local one. Miss Hebert was getting there, but still had catching up to do.

Regardless of how well it would potentially work, Clara was still going to make a couple of subtle attempts. Perhaps convincing her niece that the 'fun' toys are all on the other side of the law? Though she also wanted to get to know Miss Hebert better, if only because of the girl's incredible list of accomplishments. Maybe get an autograph, but not at the first meeting. No need to come across as a fangirl, after all.

Perhaps she could convince her niece to invite Miss Hebert to join them for lunch tomorrow? Assuming she could convince her niece to not run away and hide in costume. That whole deal was getting quite annoying, but then again there was the whole 'railing hard on the government-sponsored heroes' bit that she'd started with. She knew that was probably a mistake, hindsight and all, but it was too late to take it all back.

And of course, there was also needing to decide if she should 'out' herself to her niece, given that the girl was the only one in the household that didn't know that particular secret. Bringing that up would probably be awkward though, and figuring out how to best do so without her niece immediately calling in support to arrest her was going to be harder. Making a plan for smoothing that over would be difficult too, not having anywhere near enough details on a number of things to take them into account.

For now she'd see about the lunch invitation.

"Now where did I put my phone down?" she muttered to herself. Luckily the hotel room wasn't exactly large, so it wouldn't take long to search.

Chapter 203 Friday morning Taylor sat down to breakfast with her father, in part because he'd decided to make pancakes. "Up early again?"

He nodded. "Yeah, more chats with the staff preparing to load a ship that'll be stopping here. Some of our admittedly dated unloading equipment is larger than their newer loading equipment, meaning that they need to be careful with the way they lay things out."

She thought that made far too much sense. "Hopefully things will stay active enough here for new equipment to be purchased going forward."

"We can hope, just like most of the office staff is hoping that nobody catches on to our intentional skipping of the team building weekends now."

Taylor raised an eyebrow at that, especially since now that she thought about it he hadn't done one of those in months. "And how are you pulling that off?"

He grinned at her. "We're back up to a point where we can't fit it all in one place. So different groups do their team building in different places, and the office staff can't 'show favoritism' to any one group. With any luck the groups won't realize what we're doing and arrange a rotation for us to join a group a month or something like that. It isn't like the things aren't mostly an excuse to go out and get drunk together anyway."

"Ahhh."

"Not sure if I can get out of next weekend's, though, what with the holiday and all. I believe the plan is to have it at the compound instead of elsewhere, even though we've got two ships scheduled to come in over the weekend. Or maybe because of that, I've been avoiding the planning sessions."

"I can avoid it though, right?"

"Of course."

They discussed a few other things, such as Taylor's lack of significant plans for the day, before she left to meet Amy at the gym. The other girl would be spending the entire day at the hospital, and then the next two days as well. But Taylor would be around for the weekend, even if she was probably going to end up flying around outside instead of being in the building.

Emily slumped into her office chair, wondering just what was coming. The Fallen were far too quiet, but she didn't know if their goal was to do something over the weekend or as school started. Both would be problematic in different ways, of course, but she figured that they had to know how bad of an idea it would be to attack schools. Especially since even the Fallen usually respected the unofficial 'quiet' period that was the first week or two of schools opening.

Granted, they had good reason. The manhunt back in 2006 when three schools in Wyoming were leveled on the first day of classes had been spectacular, with the perpetrators having perished instead of surviving long enough to make it in front of a judge. A dozen groups had vowed to make the next group to do something similar regret it, and nobody yet had been willing to test that. Couple that with the standard response for intentionally trying to severely injure or kill a Ward and you had a very potent deterrent.

Sadly, Panacea's weekends had no such history, nor did the time before school started in general, which meant that it was probably the Fallen's choice for when to make trouble. The other choice would be the long weekend after the first week of classes, but that would make more sense if they'd use the 'quiet week' as cover for their setting up instead of the week before classes.

She thought about things for a few more minutes before waking up her computer and signing in. They were supposed to have installed a secure storage unit on the top of Brockton General a few days ago, and she wanted to ensure that it would be stocked with supplies by mid-afternoon today. Mostly with various grenades, half of which should be containment foam and the other half would be more exotic. Extra ammo for handguns, linked rounds for Miss Hebert's M249, and spares for standard-issue taser units would also be included.

And now that she was thinking about it, putting a similar unit in Arcadia probably wouldn't be a bad idea either now that they'd have multiple outed Wards attending the school. That would require getting permission from the school officials, of course. Permission that would probably be trivial to get if the Fallen did attack over the weekend, and probably not much more difficult if they didn't. Though both storage units would need to only have some of the more exotic grenades included when trouble was actually expected.

It didn't take long to send off a memo asking the right people to get started on opening that particular dialog with the school officials.

"Your aunt wants to meet me," Taylor said as she stared at Missy across the cafeteria table.

"Yes," Missy replied.

"And you aren't trying to get out of having lunch with her in general?"

"My parents insisted that I go and even ensured that it was put on my schedule so that I couldn't weasel out of it. She is family and all, though I don't know why they seem to still be nervous about her. I think she's ranted herself out about everything that seems to make sense to rant about, and several things that don't."

Taylor sighed. "And you probably want me to go, if only to keep her at least a little distracted from you?"

Missy nodded. "Not to mention that you can get offended and storm off, so if she gets too bad you can just leave. Might make her think twice about her arguments if you do, too."

Amy had been watching this all with amusement. "Weren't you saying earlier that you had nothing much planned for the day?"

Taylor looked between the two. "Are either of you going to just let me decline like a sensible person?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "Of course not. You're an anti-hero, if she gets too insulting then you just punch her. You don't punch enough stupid people as it is anyway, and giving up an opportunity like this would be stupid."

They apparently needed to find an outlet for Amy when it came to her desire to punch idiots out, since she seemed so determined to live that side of things through Taylor these days. Still, there weren't really that many arguments against meeting Missy's aunt.

"Excuse me," a PRT staff member said a moment later, interrupting Taylor's train of thought and causing the girls to look at him. "Miss Dallon, in checking with the hospital we were told that Injury Magnet is present and uninjured. They thus don't think that you'll be needed this morning, but promised to call you if that changes."

Amy blinked a couple of times in reaction to that. "Oh. Thank you for letting me know."

The staff member nodded, then held out thick envelopes to Amy and Taylor. "I offered to let you know while delivering the updated registrations for your and Miss Hebert's mopeds. Wrench Wraith will be arriving shortly, she volunteered to help officially remove the speed limiters. Not to mention add mounting points for the license plates."

Missy sighed at that. "That sounds a little more interesting than anything I have available to do this morning, except that just watching tinkers gets boring fast."

The staff member left them as Taylor thought about that between bites. She then turned to Missy. "What if you helped put expanded spaces in the mopeds?"

The younger girl blinked, then tilted her head as she stared back at Taylor. "And what's in it for me?"

Taylor grinned. "Me not complaining about having lunch with your aunt."

"I'll even join you two if the hospital hasn't called," Amy added.

Missy looked between the two, then sighed. "Shouldn't have whined. Oh well, you've got a deal, because it's still going to be better than the daycare that keeps requesting that I visit."

Sherrel shook her head as she pulled into the secure garage at the PRT building. She'd driven her 'work van' over with all of its tools, instead of taking a transport over. In part because she expected to be in the garage working on things anyway, either on a moped or two if they were available or straight to a few things that the mechanics were having problems with otherwise. That and to start installing her tracking system into the PRT field vehicles, since testing had proven that it worked even when comms were otherwise down. Redundant systems and all of that.

It didn't take long to wheel things out of the back of the van and start to set up, thinking about upcoming projects. Taylor's documentation on the ferry controls had resulted in the captains they'd been working with wanting more of it, alongside more traditional variants. That hadn't been difficult, and she'd be building a second ferry soon enough. But before that she had the two smaller projects that had her shaking her head in the first place. Neither of the two was willing to get something for themselves, but both were willing to buy the other a gift. It was somewhat crazy. Then again, she probably shouldn't complain too much. Wouldn't it suck if either of them did buy their own in addition to the other buying a gift?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a message popping up on her phone, and thus on her visor. Ah, it looked like both girls were available, so both mopeds it was. She pulled her phone out and asked the two to come into the main garage area instead of trying to work in the Wards garage, then resumed setting her equipment up. It didn't take long for the two mopeds to come around from the Wards garage, though when she turned around to watch them approach she was surprised to see Miss Biron with them.

"Morning you three," she called.

"Morning," Amy replied. "Missy needed something to do, so we were thinking about seeing if we could put an expanded storage space in each of the mopeds."

Sherrel didn't try and suppress the grin that started to form on her face. "I've seen some of her work with Armsmaster's stuff, and I've been meaning to find an excuse to work with her." She then paused to think about things. "Under the seat, perhaps? If we can make things fold out to a wider opening then you could probably hide the helmets in there easily enough. Though I think we should work on the speed limiters first either way."

Taylor rolled her eyes. "We already have an off switch for those anyway."

Blinking, Sherrel considered that. "That sounds like something I'd do, and have been doing in many cases. Shouldn't we have documented it already?"

Amy snorted. "Would you document an ace in the hole like that?"

Well, when she put it that way...

Taylor smirked as she and Amy pulled out of the PRT garage. Adding the license plate holders and the appropriate plates had been trivial, and they had gone to the effort of removing the speed limiters entirely. Sherrel had insisted that the horn button switches were too useful to not use for something, though, so she'd installed cloaking units. There were three settings for said units as well. Off, vehicle only, and complete. The vehicle variant had been an accident at first, but the idea of seemingly riding along without any support was too good to pass up.

Then they'd started working on the storage area. It hadn't taken much to start, since most of the area under the seats of the mopeds had been empty already. Rigging the seats to be able to be opened, with a lock for security added in, hadn't been difficult. Making it so that the sides of the opening could be expanded had taken some extra work, but they'd managed. Then they'd lined the area appropriately and let Missy at them. The girl had probably gone a little overboard there, to be honest.

Amy: I still can't believe that Missy decided to make the storage areas large enough for her to hide in them.

Taylor: That doesn't surprise me. Her asking to do so to get to lunch, though?

Amy: Yeah...that wouldn't exactly be safe for her in a number of ways. Though leaving her to be yelled at by Sherrel for even suggesting the idea might've been a little mean.

Taylor: I figure it was either that or get someone involved that would make it an official report, which would get back to her parents.

Amy: Yes, you mentioned that. Still feels a little mean.

For now the two were going ahead to the restaurant to wait for Missy and her aunt to show up. It wasn't that far away, and Amy would be heading straight to the hospital afterwards. Apparently the staff felt that they'd mostly weeded out the people that had no healing needs at all and thus actually had work that wasn't telling people they were already healthy lined up. Mark was going to meet her there to play guard.

Taylor wasn't sure if it was 'special treatment' or reality when they were shown to a private room due to a supposed larger reservation in the main area. It wasn't a large private room, granted, set up to seat eight people. That a group of six seemed to be shown to the next room down shortly afterwards, audibly getting the same explanation, made it seem more like it was just fortuitous timing.

They'd been waiting for ten minutes or so when both of them stiffened and turned in the general direction of the PRT building.

Amy: It figures that we can't even get lunch without a villain showing up.

Taylor: We can't assume that the woman is even in costume and you know it. And if she's just passing through, in or out of costume, it isn't our problem. I think she's just on the same bus as Missy anyway, and if she hasn't called anything in then the woman is probably in civvies as a result.

Amy: Okay, you've got good points there.

It wasn't long before Missy and Diamond Quartet got off of the bus, right outside the restaurant. That had the two girls worried about what they were about to get into. Having the two enter the private room together wasn't what they'd been expecting.

"Taylor, Amy," Missy said, gesturing to her aunt. "I'd like to introduce you to my Aunt Clara. Auntie, I'm sure you recognize Taylor Hebert and Amy Dallon."

"Hello," Taylor greeted, somewhat on autopilot. How the hell did they get through this without tripping up over knowing the woman's villainous identity?

Minimal discussion happened in the couple of minutes before the waitress came by for their drink orders, and shortly after that a very loud crowd piled into the main dining area. That pretty much cinched that it wasn't special treatment getting them the private room on short notice, and provided a wonderful reason for the door to be closed after their drinks were brought in and their food orders taken.

"So I hadn't expected to be having lunch with two celebrities today," Clara finally said, before looking at her niece. "Well, three, but one of them is family so I don't think that counts."

"I try to be as normal as possible anyway," Taylor replied with a shrug. "I don't always succeed, of course."

"It's amazing how infrequently she succeeds in that," Amy added with a grin, causing Missy to snicker.

Clara nodded. "I imagine it can be difficult, what with people probably approaching you on the street now. Though I understand you have been able to teach a few of them a lesson above and beyond normal self defense?"

Taylor rolled her eyes. "Believe it or not, I've been told that I need to hurt people more. From multiple fronts. Seems that a consistent lack of serious injuries isn't befitting an anti-hero."

"At least you're permitted to cause intentional injuries, unlike my niece here. The Wards practically cripple her, making her take people in with minimal injuries and all that."

Amy snickered. "I don't know, she got away with throwing a villain off of a roof yesterday. I imagine that hurts quite a bit."

Clara snorted. "You'd be amazed at how quickly the jump happens in those situations." She then paused long enough to realize what she'd just said, turned to Missy who'd narrowed her eyes as she stared, and facepalmed. "I can't believe I just did that."

They ended up sitting there in an awkward silence for a couple of minutes, Missy staring at her aunt and apparently not sure what to say to the woman.

"So," Taylor finally said, causing Missy to look over at her. "I assume that you hadn't told Missy about that part of your life yet?"

Clara nodded. "Her parents both know but they wanted to wait until Missy here was older before she was told. And then when she was older there was the whole pending divorce that suddenly didn't happen, and given the timing of things I'm assuming it's because Missy triggered."

Missy sighed. "Yeah, the PRT got them counseling on the basis that splitting up just after I'd triggered would be bad for my mental health." She then snorted. "Of course, they've started getting along better again now that they don't have to hide their mutual fascination with firearms from me. Grandma claimed that they're back to 'normal' on that front, even if she wishes that the two would go kill a few Nazis every once in a while."

"That sounds like the old bat. I don't suppose I can tempt any of you to the dark side with descriptions of the fun toys that villains can easily get their hands on? For example, I know a number of places to get good handguns."

Taylor chuckled at that one. "Is that the best you can do? In case you forgot, I've got a PRT-issued gun that everyone knows about, a handgun that was given to me by a friend, and don't forget the M249 given to me anonymously by a local villain. And that's just my personal collection."

Clara waved that off. "Yeah, yeah. You're special, that doesn't help the other two get access to anything fun, does it?"

It was highly likely that Missy would appreciate that Taylor had her sensor system running at this point, if only to be able to get a still of the look on her aunt's face when handguns were produced by the other two.

Jason sighed as he put down his handheld game. Normally when he came to the hospital he ended up hurting, but in an oddly good way in the end. Today he was just bored, because nobody was all that injured. And he wasn't going to be allowed to come over the weekend unless he ended up hurt before coming. The problem was that he hadn't taken on any injuries recently enough and now he was starting to feel an 'itch' because of it.

He would be yelled at if he snuck out of the house to try and find someone hurt enough for him to get some of their injuries, though, so he was going to have to hope that someone came in today. But things had been calm according to the news, so he wasn't holding out a lot of hope. And he bet that if he said that he had that 'itch' then his parents would think he was making it up and refuse to let him try again tomorrow.

Then again, it would really suck if he started dreaming about going out and hurting people again. He hadn't told anyone about those dreams, and they'd stopped as soon as he'd been close enough to a car accident to end up injured, but he didn't like them. But if his journal was right, he had maybe four days before they'd start up again at this point. Just in time for school to start, which would suck.

Grumbling, he grabbed his bag and dug around for an alternate cartridge. Maybe playing one of his few 'violent' games would help?

Taylor ended up heading straight home from the restaurant, somewhat happy that she didn't have to deal with the fallout from Missy confronting her parents about things. Her father had let her know that he'd probably be running late, but had somewhat reluctantly given her permission to install two of the pocket dimension opening devices in the house. One in her room, which she was planning on having be attached at the closet door, and the other in the garage to open where the garage door itself was.

She opted to start in the garage, setting up the larger unit she had there where there was plenty of room. She ended up setting it to anchor to the entire garage door opening, and for the time being gave it a 'default' destination in the area that wasn't being developed yet. She'd probably switch that to the 'lower' garage when everything was done. She'd also figured out how to set it up so that it could open 'into' the garage as an option, though outside would be the default, and some quick testing showed that the side not designed to be passed through made a decent shield.

For her closet things were a little more complicated as she wanted it to be 'invisible' to those not looking for it. The controls had to go somewhere, though, and she wasn't an electrician. She ended up compromising and mounting the bulk inside of the closet and running the control unit to her headboard. Though she put the finger pad on top of the door frame. For now she set it to open up next to where she'd set the garage to open up, then spent a little time playing with it. It didn't take long to determine that using the finger pad allowed for direct control of where the portal opened to, so she could have the default in a 'secure' area but then open it up to elsewhere on demand.

With that done she played a bit with remote operation of things from the cube variant, able to activate and deactivate the portals with ease so long as a crystal was inserted into both control units or her skin was touching one of the finger pads on the cube. Satisfied, she then collected the key crystals for now. No need to make it too easy for those working on things in the pocket dimension to open things on accident, after all.

Of course, the two had been feeling people coming and going from the pocket dimension enough that Amy had picked up on what Taylor was doing based on the changes the portals made to things.

Amy: At some point you're going to have to help me install mine, at least the one I'm going to want in my room.

Taylor: That shouldn't be a problem.

Amy: Perhaps Monday, after we visit Arcadia?

Taylor: Wait, why are we visiting Arcadia on Monday? Classes start Tuesday.

Amy: To do the security dance with the handguns and such for the new year.

Taylor: Oh. I think mine's still valid?

Amy: And you have a new handgun and don't want to have to remember to deal with it in the spring.

Taylor: Good point.

Cleaning up the mess she'd made took longer than expected, mainly because that had turned into cleaning her entire bedroom and some of the hallway. By the time she was done with that she had a few minutes to grab a snack, after which she sat down at her desk and signed into her class. She was, as expected, the only one there, and it wasn't long before the instructor showed up and locked the session. It was time for her final exam, which would apparently start with a quick written test before the one on one portion.

Elijah wanted to scream, but kept the emotion in. They'd let him control four people, all of whom worked for the PRT and he'd been able to get badge numbers for. Those had been passed onto Mama, and she'd passed it on to their moles. Not only were all four positively identified, they were stationed in different parts of the country. And worse, they'd shown up for work in their home regions and apparently checked out in those same regions, meaning that figuring out where he was through identifying those being controlled was impossible.

He'd even asked the last one where in the country they were, only for them to admit that they had no clue. Which meant that the PRT had probably pulled out a parahuman with teleportation and shifted people around long enough to make it impossible to identify where he was through those he was interacting with. Which, to date, was those four people since he'd arrived wherever he was.

There were very few ways to rescue him if they didn't know where he was. Worse, the PRT had ended up assigning him a lawyer after finding out that his original choice had been under his influence. The cunt they'd assigned hadn't shown up in person at all, so far only communicating via text communications that'd been provided. Which he could admit was probably good from the point of view of keeping him from mastering them, but it was still annoying as hell.

Taylor smirked as she watched Ackbar examining the closet door. He'd been in the pet carrier when she'd installed the unit there and was obviously curious about the portal that'd opened up now that she'd let him out. Shaking her head, she got up and headed downstairs to start cooking dinner. She should be able to do a decent job, and she should have plenty of time before her father made it home.

She spent the time preparing dinner going over the answers she'd given for her exam, as best as she could recall them anyway. Overall she thought she'd done well, but probably wouldn't know for sure until the results came in. That should be in a week or two, and she'd probably fret about it off and on until then. Barring any other distractions, anyway, like the fact that she'd soon be busy with normal classes.

Eventually she decided to focus on more immediate things, like figuring out what she should bring with her for her weekend at the hospital. She was obviously going to want to stock up on snacks, and getting a large water bottle would probably be a good idea as well. But which of her primary loadouts should she grab, and did she want to prepare anything else? Setting up the air cannon mortar she'd rigged up could theoretically be useful, if it was sitting out of sight on the roof or something like that.

Perhaps she should come up with ideas and send them to the PRT and to New Wave for opinions, now that she was thinking about it in terms of preparing ahead of time. At the very least it couldn't hurt to get extra opinions, anyway.

David groaned as he once again regained consciousness. His head was pounding, but it wasn't enough to keep him from focusing. He recognized a 'patient moving' alert beep from the unit next to him, meaning that they'd been waiting for him to wake up. As such it didn't take long for someone to come in, a nurse in particular.

"Ah," she said, upon seeing his eyes open. "You're awake again. Can you understand me this time?"

With that prompt he vaguely recalled a previous point where he'd woken up, but it was fuzzy. Still, he tried to focus on the here and now. "I do understand you, yes." His voice was a little raspy, but hopefully understandable.

"Very good. Give me a moment to raise the end of your bed." She did so, and then prepared a glass of water. "Here, take a few sips of this." He did so, and she nodded. "How are you feeling?"

He'd long ago learned not to lie to medical professionals when he was honestly feeling like crap. It never made things go faster. "I feel weak and I have a pounding headache."

She frowned slightly. "We can't increase the dosage of painkillers we've got you on." His stomach growling interrupted her, and she smirked a little. "But I can get you something to eat once the doctor is done with you."

"I'd appreciate that."

It wasn't long before Doctor Markey came in. "Good evening David, nice to see you back with us again."

"I wish it felt good to be back," David quipped.

"It's nearly September, you've been out for a month. I'd be surprised if you weren't having issues, since nobody saw fit to tell me what Miss Hebert did to you. Or, for that matter, what you did to cause her to do whatever it was."

"At this point I suspect that it's classified."

"I was told that, yes. Now then, let's do some basic checks, and then one of the nurses can see about getting some food in you. You proved to be especially resistant to a couple of options we have around here for keeping your body fed and active as well, so your legs are probably going to be a bit weak as well."

It wasn't long before the doctor was reasonably satisfied with things, though apparently he'd prefer to have a couple of things brought in for deeper tinkertech scans. That was followed by a soup being brought in for him to eat, one that he'd needed some help eating as his arms felt as weak as the rest of him. They got him out of bed after that so that they could get him cleaned up, in part due to the mess he'd just made with his attempt to eat the soup. That didn't take very long, though, and once he was back in bed he felt like he'd run three marathons.

Half an hour later he was asleep again, but not before wondering how long it would be before Paul or Rebecca visited, and whether or not they'd bring Miss Hebert to check on him.

Chapter 204 Saturday morning Taylor was up a little early, hoping to avoid anyone who was expecting her to depart the house at her normal time. She wasn't sure if that had worked or if there just wasn't anyone out looking to intercept her, but she arrived at the PRT building with plenty of time to spare. Instead of going straight for the gym she went to her room and laid out her equipment for the day. She double-checked that she had everything she needed, filled up the places she stored snacks in, and then went and grabbed some drinks. While getting the drinks she ordered a proper reusable water bottle from the PRT store, a side project of sorts from an armor tinker that also made tableware out of the armor materials. Though their profile claimed that their spouse didn't appreciate nearly-unbreakable dishes that did damage to the walls when thrown.

Sadly, it'd been pointed out to her that setting up the air cannon would be a poor choice without knowing what direction an enemy would likely be coming from. That was followed by a request for details on how she built the air cannon. She suspected that she wouldn't get any payout from that, given how simple and kludged-together the whole thing was. But they had informed her that there would be a secure supply cabinet on the hospital roof that she would be able to utilize.

She had everything ready by the time Amy, Aisha, and Brian were pulling into the secure garage. Amy seemed to be following Brian's car in this morning, though it was unlikely to be intentional. Deciding to meet them as they came up the stairs, Taylor left the Wards area and stood across the hall from the 'closet door'. It didn't take long for the two to emerge, and Aisha opted to join them in the gym.

"So why are you here today?" Taylor asked as they walked along.

Aisha sighed. "Brian thinks that something big is going to go down over the weekend and doesn't want me home alone as a result. My options are to hang around here bored, or hang around at the hospital bored. I'm thinking that I'll probably hang out here and watch movies or something."

"I'm hoping my day is that boring," Taylor admitted, Amy nodding along. "Because if it isn't then things will probably be stressful."

Amy shrugged. "These weekends are usually boring for me, barring the occasional interesting patient. I'm more concerned with whether or not anyone gets hurt trying to protect the hospital if the Fallen do make trouble."

Taylor snorted at that. "That and you'll probably be annoyed that you're stuck in the hospital and not able to go out to take out your frustrations on the idiots."

Amy's only answer to that was a momentary glare at Taylor, following by trying to hide a pout. Not long after that they reached the gym, finding that it was fairly busy. It looked like the PRT was taking the Fallen seriously and had called in plenty of people to help. The question was whether or not a show of force would deter the Fallen. Somehow, that didn't seem likely.

Trevor munched on a donut while looking through his and Erik's old files. Piggot had put the entire region on 'subtle alert' and had asked that anyone with any ideas as to how to possibly find the Fallen before they made their move act on them where appropriate. He hadn't thought he'd have much to contribute, until he remembered something that Erik used to do. Thus looking through things that he'd rather not be for the code. Then again, he thought that his friend would approve, so it wasn't eating him up too much.

A console across the room beeped as his personal scout drone turned along the path he'd laid out. He was getting a 'today' snapshot of the area that the bikers kept vanishing into, bypassing all kinds of checks that would normally be needed because the scout drone was his personal one. That console was also downloading Dragon's 'sanitized' copy of the city-wide sweep from the archives as a hopeful comparison point. It wouldn't have people and vehicles, but that was fine. He just wanted the building data from it anyway.

Ten minutes later he'd found the folder with backup disks labeled appropriately. These should contain Erik's comparison and highlighting programs. Hopefully it would be enough to find something of interest before the Fallen made their move.

Taylor ended up following Amy to the hospital on her platform, the other girl having waited for the added protection. When asked what added protection had been present on the way to the PRT building the answer had been that Vicky had followed along until they'd run into Brian's car at an intersection, at which point she'd veered off to go do a few passes around the hospital. Of course, Taylor was 'pre-checking' the path they were taking with the Snitch and her scout drone.

Their arrival was without incident, after which Amy headed inside and Taylor headed for the roof. She started the Snitch and scout drone on a couple of circular 'patrol routes' of their own to monitor the area, then moved over to the secure storage unit that was on the roof. It opened with her access keys and had a second, higher-security compartment inside. That also opened and she stared at the collection of grenades in it, then carefully closed it and hoped that she wouldn't need the worst of them. That done, she closed up the rest of it, followed by turning around to watch Vicky come in for a landing.

"Morning," Taylor called.

"Morning to you too," Vicky replied. "I saw your drone looking around and figured I could stop flying in circles for a bit."

"Yeah, they should hopefully give some advance warning of anything approaching. But I've only got two units out there, so we don't exactly have 'full coverage' with them."

"Ah. That sucks. Oh well, my father and aunt should be here shortly, but I don't know if Eric or Crystal is coming today. Depending on how things go this morning they might swap out for the afternoon shift after the others bring us lunch."

Taylor nodded, as that made sense. "So how do you guys normally handle things anyway?"

"We usually aim for at least one person here and at least one patrolling the area, mixing things up throughout the day to keep from having obvious patterns for someone to exploit. Beyond that we're usually fairly flexible. One of the few near-constants is having at least one person here monitoring Amy, but I suppose you count as monitoring her regardless. I don't know if today will be a top floor down or a bottom floor up day for her, but the hospital will have all of the blinds and curtains closed to make it harder to figure out where she is in the building."

"Okay. Anything else I should know?"

Vicky thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Probably best to let Aunt Sarah give you any other briefings."

Gillian whistled lightly as she waited for the bus. She was going to be doing a quick bit of shopping to resupply her apartment, then get 'dinner' at a diner she'd found that she liked. Then she'd have to head back and start getting things ready for the afternoon. The other surprises arranged for the day should ensure that attention was everywhere other than on them to start with, so they should retain most of the element of surprise on that front.

Sadly, she'd sleep through it all, and probably be useless for days afterwards. This level of effort would drain her power and leave her exhausted as a result. If she was lucky she'd be recovered enough to pack up and leave town by Wednesday, but she was thinking that she wouldn't be up to driving the RV until Thursday or Friday. Only time would tell, but she trusted the grunts to keep where she and 'her brother' were operating out of secret for at least a week after she could depart.

Frowning, she remembered that while she'd drained the gas out of the RV before boxing it and all she hadn't filled the external tank. Perhaps she should send someone out to do that while she dealt with prep work after getting back, so that she didn't have to rely on gas stations being open along her exit route when she was finally ready to leave?

Sarah sighed. "I can't help but feel that the best course of action is to keep Taylor here outside. She won't get tired flying on her platform and can monitor things very effectively. The rest of us can then focus on our normal rotation so that nothing looks out of place to anyone who's picked up on patterns and will be looking for other changes."

Taylor nodded. "That would make it easier for me to get at the supply cabinet too, should I start lobbing a pile of containment foam grenades around anyway. Not sure I'll go through enough ammo to worry about that, and I'm hoping nothing comes up worth using the more dangerous grenades in there."

Eric snorted. "If they've given a Ward access to them then I doubt that they're that bad."

"The ice wall and matter to sand grenades are the least dangerous of the lot. The latter aren't Manton Limited. I don't know what they think might come up, but if I seriously consider using anything past the ice walls then something major is going down."

Everyone stared at Taylor for a moment, then shivered.

"Eiga eiga eiga eiga eiga," Takara chanted as she waited for breakfast. Kenta just shook his head as his daughter's antics. She liked the Japanese movie days at the activity center. And today he could probably expect some of Max's grunts to show up since it was a 'truce' day and all. Similarly, he suspected that some of his people would be over in Empire territory to watch a combat event being streamed live from Europe. Of course, both sides would claim that they were wandering into the other territory to 'gather intelligence' instead of admitting that they were interested in what the other side was showing today.

Really, it was amazing how much outright hostilities had reduced amongst those that had participated in 'bus duty'. And so long as those from one side were 'vouched for' by someone on the other side they'd be permitted into events at this point. Probably on the basis of 'getting an inside spy' or something stupid like that. Neither he or Max was getting any useful information out of the unlikely friendships because they were built in part on mutual respect at this point.

Either way he was going to do his best to enjoy the family outing that today should be. He wished the PRT and Protectorate luck with the Fallen, whatever their plans were for the weekend, but he didn't intend to make things more chaotic by trying to get his people involved. And as he understood it, Max was thinking the same way. They had no clue what the Elite or the Ambassadors would do, of course. The leadership of those two groups didn't tend to associate with them right now for various reasons, after all.

Taylor watched the first of Dragon's transports come in for a landing in the hospital parking lot. The first round of patients had apparently come in overnight, but due to the likelihood of the Fallen making a move today they were taking extra precautions in moving people around. Due to that they'd be moving people out to Manchester on the transports. The next round of people coming in were apparently gathering at the airport and would come in on another transport.

"Any signs of trouble?" Dragon asked as she came up next to her platform.

"None," Taylor admitted. "Not sure if that's a good thing or not, though something has dawned on me since we started."

"Really?"

"If we're so concerned about the Fallen attacking, why didn't we just have Amy do this somewhere else for the weekend?"

Dragon seemed to need a moment to think on that, before she turned to Taylor. "It seems obvious in hindsight, doesn't it? The entire thing has generally been arranged through Brockton General, so not having it at Brockton General probably didn't occur to anyone. I'll ensure that the idea is mentioned to those in charge."

Amy had gotten started, working up the building, and Taylor was doing her best to not cringe at some of the problems being encountered. She assumed that parahumans had been involved in a number of the things being looked at. Others she wasn't as sure about. The old woman with a horseshoe that'd been lodged around her spine could've just been an accident, but the kid who'd somehow ended up with their hands and feet swapped had to have been parahuman-related.

A few more passes around the building for Taylor and the first healed people were filtering out into the transport, and Dragon had moved down to ensure that they were comfortable.

"Console to all points," came down the radio not long after. "All patrols have checked in and none have reported contact with hostiles. Next full check in forty-five minutes."

"Console to Armsmaster," came over the radio. "Reknit reports that he's identified two points of interest. Point one is in an abandoned group of warehouses and registers as containing a powerful explosive to the scout sensors. Point two is a modification to a building interior that he feels looks suspicious. He parked his scout on the roof of point two to better monitor it for now, but he has it paired to his workstation and we don't have a direct feed as a result."

Colin frowned. That was inefficient, but understandable. The other tinker didn't tend to go on patrol and kept the scout drone as more of a side project than anything else, so he hadn't been set up to tie it into the shared systems. That would need to be corrected later for situations such as this one. "Armsmaster to console, please have Countdown meet me at a rally point near but not at point one and instruct Reknit to keep us informed about changes at point two."

So far his own patrols hadn't come up with anything problematic, so it wasn't likely that the city was laced with explosives like the Teeth had done. But any suddenly appearing explosives were bad news until proven otherwise with the Fallen in town, and for now that would have to take priority over suspicious changes to a building. With any luck they'd be able to safely approach and disarm the explosive before it went off.

A rally point came up on his patrol map, along with markers for both points of interest, and the software automatically laid out a suitable path for him to follow. He pulled left at the next intersection and hoped that Vivian didn't take her time. Until she arrived he'd use his own scout drone to get a better look at the situation and start planning an approach, not to mention to check for others in the area that might need to be cleared out.

Taylor moved back to the roof to toss an empty water bottle in the trash there, getting out of the way of one of the transports coming in for a landing in the process. There'd been a delay in getting an empty one in due to a family deciding to set off model rockets along the flight path near the Manchester end, so this one would probably fill up quickly with people who'd been stuck waiting for it to show up.

It was actually approaching time to get lunch, and Amy was planning to clear the top floor before breaking for lunch. Then they could swap the outgoing transport for an incoming one and get the next round of people into the hospital while lunch was being eaten. Of course, there were a couple of weird cases in this group, like the one Amy was working on now. There had to be parahuman abilities involved to end up with fourteen bullets in the spinal column without actually harming the spinal cord, right?

There was still no sign of trouble, which was stressful in and of itself. Nice that nothing had happened, but with the concern that came with wondering what that meant for what was coming. They could hope 'nothing', of course, but they certainly weren't going to expect nothing. Well, someone had spotted a single unexploded likely-bomb, according to the console, but that was about it. And there was no way to know if it was supposed to go off today or not in the first place.

It wasn't too long before Amy had finished with the last patient, a little girl with a combination of a nasty tumor in her lung and a sliver of metal in her heart. Once she was done with that she continued up, onto the roof, and walked over to where Taylor was.

"Carol reserved a room at a nearby restaurant instead of bringing food," Amy said as she came up to the platform. "Claimed it was easier with the needing to wait for the transports to swap out. Care to give me a lift?"

Taylor shrugged and dropped the platform to make it easier for Amy to climb on. "Why not. Gets us there faster, right?"

Amy held onto Taylor as they flew off to meet the others for lunch.

Kenta steered Takara away from the table with beer on it, not needing her to decide that she wanted an alcoholic beverage and needing to tell her 'no' as a result. He wasn't sure what of the food that'd been made available she'd want to eat, but he was sure that she'd find something. Probably several things, luckily the plans included dinner being run the same way so he wasn't too concerned about her appetite.

It didn't take her long to build a plate of food starting with a slice of cheese pizza that she then added her own additional toppings to. He rolled his eyes at her choices, but didn't stop her. She'd eventually learn that not everything that tasted good individually went well together. Either that or she'd do him proud in grossing out her friends when she was older. He wasn't feeling picky there. He'd made a much simpler burger for himself, they both took a bottle of juice for a drink, and then they made their way back to where Miku was waiting for them. She'd grabbed something during the credits while he'd sat with Takara, who'd refused to move until after the credits were over. Too many post-credits scenes in other movies and she didn't want to miss one if it came up.

He'd nearly finished his burger when his hearing picked up on a commotion outside, which concerned him. By the time he'd finished standing up said commotion had included gunshots, but the more immediate concern was the flaming bottle that came through a window on the other side of the building. That this was followed by a second flaming bottle from where the commotion had been had him furious.

"I will clear a path," he growled as Miku joined many of the parents in gathering their children. He then put actions to his words, even as he felt himself growing. It was telling that the sprinkler system, that he knew was functional days prior, hadn't activated.

The truck that someone had attempted to block the exit with didn't last long against him, and people were soon evacuating. He moved around the building to where the commotion had been to find Jeremy, one of several Empire members that had been in the area. The boy looked to be bleeding out, and didn't look scared that an angry parahuman was approaching.

"I tried to stop him," the boy said. "Mike, I mean. But he just went nuts. Shot me, then ran off."

Kenta's eyes narrowed, and he took a couple of good whiffs. This was very suspicious now, because unlike most Empire members in the area he was very familiar with the Mike in question. The man was one of his paid spies in the Empire, after all, and there was no way he'd do something like this normally. Giving up on any pretenses of being on 'opposite sides' for the moment, he called for someone to help Jeremy, then moved further down the side of the building as he pulled out his phone. He flipped through his contacts and selected one.

"I'm a little busy right now," was Max's greeting.

"One of my spies in your group just shot another member and tried to kill everyone at our movie showing," Kenta replied. "I think we've been hit by a master."

There was a pause before Max responded. "That would explain four of your people apparently trying to knock down some of the low income housing in my territory. I take it that means we need to try for capture and hand over to the PRT for deprogramming, doesn't it? My men won't like that."

"Remind them that if we find the real culprit then we can do our best to ensure that they learn a lesson that they'll never forget. Or perhaps point out that one of your own men just shot another one due to said programming."

"Console to all points," came over the radio shortly after they'd returned from lunch. "Fighting has broken out in several areas. It appears to be gang warfare at this time, no sign of the Fallen being involved."

"That's highly unusual," Carol noted. "In fact, I'd almost call that impossible under normal circumstances. Then again, it could be a distraction, so we need to stay on alert here."

Taylor nodded. "Then I guess we should start a sweep of the area."

The two ended up splitting up to circle opposite one another while Neil was inside with Amy. They both did two full passes around the hospital, but neither found anything of interest at this point. Taylor continued to circle, since it didn't take much effort for her, while Carol returned to the hospital itself to wait a bit.

Half an hour later, as Amy was moving up a floor, the reasonably quiet day was rocked by several explosions.

Gillian had finished her ritual, having needed three passes on one circle and fifteen on the other to get the five to one ratio needed. She'd dropped the ramp on the platform in the output circle, closed the door between the two sections of the area, and downed the tinker-produced energy drink she needed to stay conscious long enough for everyone to get equipped and for her to pack up the original tank. With all the prepwork completed she opened the front and back doors so that groups could start filtering through.

"You should all know the drill," she called as they started coming in. "One group of five at a time, get in, drive off. No dallying! We need to get as many tanks as we can out there before anyone realizes that we've got them!"

There was some jostling, but not at the front. They knew not to mess around too much by now. Once the first group was entirely inside of the output circle she felt a tug on her power, a side effect of pulling that much mass at once. But they'd run tests before and knew her limits, both per manifestation and per session. They had enough people to get near, but not exceed, those limits. The rest would run support and scouting on their motorcycles.

"Outlying Endbringer shelters have all been damaged and are unavailable for evacuation," the console reported. "It is not believed that other explosives have been deployed."

Amy: Dragon informed me that this is the last group to be healed this weekend, and only because they're already here.

Taylor: That makes a lot of sense.

Amy: How long do you think before whatever their real plan is becomes obvious?

Taylor: Can't be too much longer. If it takes too long then things will finish up here and we'll bail, after all.

Amy: Good point.

Crystal and Eric had been called in and would be arriving shortly. Sarah and Mark were also on their way back, this being an 'all hands' situation now. The hospital was also gearing up for an influx of injured that weren't part of the healing weekend, starting to move equipment to better allow for a larger flow through the emergency room and prepping every bed Amy emptied to ensure that it would be available as soon as possible for incoming patients.

Now it was mainly time to wait for the next shoe to drop, so to speak. Hopefully they'd be able to intercept whatever it ended up being.

Trevor swore as he reviewed the data on the explosive that they'd found. He recognized a number of pieces of it, and as far as he could tell remotely and Vivian could tell on-site it wasn't going to be volatile without extra components. They'd checked with him in case it was something he might be able to spot without looking in person, but the most likely situation was that the thing was delivered in multiple pieces. This one was just lacking the detonation unit, intentionally or otherwise.

He made a few more notes, then sent that file off to join the rest of the documentation. That done, and with nothing more to directly contribute on that front, he switched back to that warehouse he'd been monitoring. Only to find that it had a large number of people outside of it and two friggin' tanks inside of it. One of the tanks drove out just before five people stepped forward and another tank came into existence.

A still image was grabbed and sent off with an emergency warning before he started going through the previously recorded data to see if he could figure out what the hell was going on there. There was either a parahuman or tinkertech involved, and his time was probably best used through figuring out what the hell had happened there. At a minimum it would make it easier for others to determine a good counter to what was happening.

"Emergency alert," came over the radio. "Reknit reports that tanks are being deployed from a warehouse on Williams street and are believed to be heading towards Brockton General. I repeat, tanks are being deployed from a warehouse on Williams street and are believed to be heading towards Brockton General."

Taylor took a moment to check where Williams street was, then swung the Snitch and scout drone in that direction. She had the snitch further out, and attempted to keep it out of sight along the most likely path of approach. While doing that she was personally heading for the storage cabinet on the roof, because she didn't think the few grenades she had on her were going to be enough. It didn't take long to grab more containment foam grenades, and she also grabbed all of the ice wall grenades as well.

The more lethal grenades she left behind. If she absolutely needed them then she was going to have to come back for them, but barring tinkertech tanks she thought it was unlikely that she'd need to go that far. Besides, she would probably have plenty of backup, and most of the more dangerous grenades wouldn't distinguish between friend and foe. Accidentally killing your allies was generally considered a bad thing in all but the most dire of scenarios, after all.

She had enough sense to lock the cabinet up, if only to secure the more dangerous grenades, before jumping back onto her platform. She pulled out the tinker-made handgun as she flew off to try and intercept the leading tanks. With luck any tanks stuck in containment foam would stop being a problem and would remain effectively inert from a threat point of view. And if they served as blockades for those that came behind them it would be all the better.

Brad led Justin into the PRT building. Between them they had twelve bodies, some of them being carried by Justin's projections. Most of them were ABB, but a few were Empire.

"We're in the middle of a crisis right now," one of the staff noted.

"Boss thinks that these fuckers were mastered into starting trouble," Brad replied. "I'm inclined to agree, given the number of people they tried to kill on Panacea's weekend and all. Word is that Lung's hunting a few more down. Can't blame the guy, didn't even know he had a kid until I heard that she was in the building a couple of others tried to burn down. Not that I'm trying to dig into his personal life, that's just not done and all."

Someone made a call and a few minutes later eleven of the twelve were taken off of their hands. A PRT officer then pointed at the last one, an Empire member. "What'd he do?"

"Tried to stab a couple of people in the back. Literally. Why is he special?"

"He's the only one of the lot that wasn't mastered. Sadly, unless you have proof of what he did we'll have to let him go. At the same time, bringing eleven other mastered people in with you is justification enough for bringing him in if he was being unusually violent."

Brad scowled at the man. But he wouldn't do anything to him for now, because that would go against the rules Max had set down. Of course, he would be passing on what the man had done while not mastered. And they'd probably give him an opportunity to explain himself, for that matter. It was sadly possible that one of the actually-mastered grunts had misled him, at which point the beating he'd already received might be sufficient.

Maybe.

Sadly, that would be Max's call, so it would have to wait.

Chapter 205 The first tank the augmented patrol app picked up wasn't where Taylor thought it was going to be, which probably meant that they'd split up and weren't all taking the same path. That would complicate her spur of the moment plan to stop them. Still, she shifted her flight path and readied a containment foam grenade. Two more tanks came up on the system shortly afterwards, in two other places. She kept on target for hitting the first one and would swing around to hit the next afterwards.

Within a couple seconds of her coming into view of the first tank it started to try and aim at her. She did her best to ensure that they couldn't get a bead on her and threw the containment foam grenade as soon as she thought she wouldn't miss. The grenade ended up under the tank, and when she looped back around to make sure that it went off properly she found that it had pinned the tank in place but hadn't done anything to stop the turret. Grumbling to herself, she positioned herself directly above the tank and dropped a second grenade.

Feeling that she'd spent too much time on this tank already, she dropped a marker on the map and made for the next one. Several more had appeared, though it looked in part to be because Dragon had brought out her own scout drones and was likely working to intercept some of the tanks as well. In fact, the next two Taylor went to try and foam were already disabled. Figuring that the stationary tanks were ones that had likely been stopped already, she instead looped back to go after some more mobile ones.

Sadly, because she was focused on the tanks, she'd been ignoring the various individual bikers in the area. That most of them didn't have guns and thus weren't direct threats to her while on the platform had caused her to dismiss them as a potential problem for the moment. As such she wasn't prepared for the next tank she approached to be ready for her to come around the building. It got off the first shot she'd seen from one of the things as a result, and their aim was quite good.

As she flew backwards off of her platform she had plenty of time to think about how much it still hurt to take a tank shell to the face. She'd successfully held onto her handgun and the containment foam grenade, and recovered soon enough to have the platform catch her. But she darted back behind the building she'd come around before the tank could line up for a second shot.

Amy: What the hell just happened?

Taylor: I stopped a tank shell.

Amy: ...

Taylor: ...with my face.

It was obvious that Amy wasn't happy about that. Taylor decided that she had more important things to worry about right now, like the approaching tank. She moved up over the building, and along the rooftops until she was close enough that the tank couldn't shoot up high enough to hit her. She then came out over the tank and dropped the grenade on it. One marker later and she moved on, considering her tactics for approaching the next few tanks as she went.

Unfortunately, the next two tanks were on the same street, and for the first time they had people manning the machine guns on top. Perhaps they'd previously forgotten that the things existed? This made targeting them without entering into lines of fire harder. She swung around behind them, able to get all the way around behind both and drop a grenade on the one in the back before they could react properly. The tank in front was able to get the turret spun around before she could reach it, and she lobbed a second grenade at it before darting between two buildings.

The telltale sound of a containment foam grenade going off was very odd, and she ended up carefully peeking around the corner of the building. She then blinked a couple of times, because containment foam was pouring out of the tank's main gun. Shrugging, she grabbed a second grenade before flying over and dropping it on top of the tank, the man at the machine gun only realizing that he should be paying attention when the grenade bounced on landing. He didn't react in time to stop it from going off next to him.

Terry scowled as he dropped down on his fourth tank of the day. He hadn't had a chance to get a weapon up to the level he'd need for this, but his feet were well up to the task of moving him around and his shield was definitely up to stopping the basic rounds the tanks were equipped with. But even the idea of attacking the hospital like this pissed him off, and he found that his 'energy pool' was filling faster than he'd expected. He'd likely be dumping a full energy load into improving his weapon well before the day was out.

He only normally carried a couple of containment foam grenades, so they weren't an option for a prolonged engagement like this one. Instead he braced himself behind his shield as the tank came forward, the angle of the shield acting as enough of a ramp for the tank to lift up slightly on one side. He'd then push forward, his costume keeping him from being harmed by the forces as he lifted one side of the tank into the air. Generally they ended up flipping over at that point, but the second tank had been positioned such that the main gun had stopped him from succeeding at first.

Sadly for the people operating that tank, they'd forgotten to lock the hatch, so he'd been able to open it up and drop in to deal with them in person. Though it annoyed him that he'd only looked away from the tank itself for a moment while applying zip-cuffs to the operators before it'd vanished entirely behind him.

Taylor had ice walled a couple of intersections to keep tanks from slipping down streets with lots of civilians down them, but she was also nearly out of containment foam grenades. On the other hand, at this point half of the Protectorate was in the fray, so she was on her way back towards the hospital to watch for anyone trying to slip past everything else.

"YOU CALL THOSE TANKS?" Sherrel yelled through a loudspeaker a couple of blocks over. "I'LL SHOW YOU A TANK, BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ONE YET!"

Sadly, Taylor had seen Sherrel's 'tank' already and didn't think that it actually qualified as one. Yes, it had a containment foam sprayer, but that was about it for 'weapons' and there were four smaller nozzles instead of a single main gun for that. Now, if you wanted to judge on armor alone then Sherrel would win, but an armored vehicle isn't a tank. On the other hand, going over to correct her would probably send the wrong message right now, so she wasn't going to do so.

It wasn't long before she'd made it back to the hospital and done a quick pass around the area. Carol and Neil looked to have a decent collection of bikers trussed up, but otherwise the area was calm. The last of Amy's visiting patients were boarding the transport that would get them out of town, though whether or not Dragon would wait until things had calmed down a bit more was yet to be seen.

So far they had fourteen confirmed deaths from the attack, twelve of which were amongst the attackers. The last two were teenagers that'd stupidly hung around to take pictures of the battle. Injuries were much more significant, and Amy was already dealing with the first wave of those brought to the hospital with injuries. Many of them came from people who'd been in buildings along the route where the tanks had been firing at people and they'd all been lucky to not be dead so far. Sadly, they'd probably find more bodies before the weekend was over.

Colin pulled up to the warehouse that the tanks had originated from according to Trevor. His own equipment showed that there was a single likely-sleeping occupant and no weapons of any kind, though there was a gas tank. He could also tell that a number of tracked vehicles had left through one of the doors based on the patterns left on the street, which was enough justification to enter during the current situation. That Dragon had obtained permission to search the building from the owner helped as well, even if they hadn't had a chance to get a spare key from the man. Instead he picked the lock on the pedestrian access door, then decided to check on some things before going any further. To avoid attention from others moving through the area he did open one of the rolling doors long enough to bring his motorcycle inside while nobody else was there to see him do so.

Moving over to one of the relatively thin boxes sitting on the ground nearby, of a style that he'd assume was for transporting inflexible sheets of something more than anything else, he carefully lifted it up to prop it against the wall. It was unusually light, which was a good indicator that something was up with it. He then took the handle on the side and spun it like he'd been told the woman packing things up had done, but in reverse. As he did so the box started to get thicker, expanding outwards away from the wall. When the handle stopped spinning there was a definite shift in weight, and the augmented reality system showed that the now sizable crate contained a tank.

Nodding to himself, he opened the crate long enough to confirm that it contained a duplicate of the tanks the others were dealing with. That done, he reversed the entire process and lowered the unit back down to the ground. They'd have to send people around to pick up all of these crates, and possibly see if they could find out where they came from. That and they'd have to see if they were tinkertech or some other power expression, in the former case they might be able to learn how to make them if they had Trevor build one under observation.

With that confirmed, he moved to the 'office' area, one that contained an apartment for whatever reason. It wasn't important why it was there, just that there was a likely parahuman involved in the current attack inside of it. He quickly found that the sleeping occupant had locked this door as well, but he was able to pick the lock easily enough. They'd also utilized a security chain, but he slipped a small device onto the chain and pulled the door shut. Ten seconds later he opened the door again, the chain having been pushed over and removed. Much less noisy and wasteful than breaking the chain or the door, though he made sure to retrieve the device before moving on.

The woman he found inside the apartment matched Trevor's description of the one who'd seemingly caused the tanks to be created from the original. She didn't wake when he used a handheld scanner to confirm that she had a corona pollentia and gemma. She also didn't react when he handcuffed her, nor when he carried her down to his motorcycle. He actually checked to ensure that she wasn't injured at that point, but it seemed that she was just that tired. Or perhaps this was an aspect of her powers? Either way he made sure she was secure. He was going to bring her in personally, the PRT vans had enough to deal with as it was. They'd clear the rest of the warehouse later.

Taylor blinked and turned to the side of the hospital that the attacks hadn't been coming from. She'd resumed having the Snitch and scout drone circle the hospital as a precautionary measure, but hadn't expected anything to come up. But there were three more tanks coming, and she didn't have three containment foam grenades left. Two, but not three, and sometimes a single tank took two if the foam didn't spread well enough.

"Maul to console," she said, even as she started heading for the tanks. "Three straggler tanks circled around to approach the hospital from an unexpected angle. I'm moving to engage them."

She wasn't yet ready to use the more dangerous grenades, but she hadn't needed to try and shoot the tanks yet. Granted, it hadn't taken long for the machine guns to be put into use, making it harder for her to not hit people, but she didn't think that her maul was going to be enough at this point. As such it was time to see what she could do with bullets, no matter how little hope she had that they'd work.

Still, she had two grenades left, so those were going to be used first. She swung around the first tank a couple of times as the bikers escorting it tried to tell the occupants where she was going to be coming from, but she could circle it faster than it could turn. She could also reverse direction before they could react. A combination of those and popping up over a building instead of going between them let her drop a grenade into the hatch that the machine gunner had left open.

Granted, that hadn't been her intention, but it seemed to work well enough. The entire thing ended up going dormant, with enough containment foam spilling out the hatch to lock up the machine gun as well. She dropped a marker on the map and moved on, keeping an eye out for activity at that tank in case it turned out to not be enough after all. Sadly, the other two tanks had moved to protect each other while she'd been dealing with the first.

She frowned as she considered her options. On one hand, they'd stopped moving when she'd approached, so they weren't going anywhere so long as they knew she was looking for an opening. On the other hand, they seemed much more alert than some of the previous tanks, perhaps because they'd been told about some of her previous tricks via radio or whatever it was they were using. Thinking on it more, she considered that she had taken a shell to the face without serious injury, but that the force field didn't protect her platform.

Deciding to take a risk, she made sure she could be seen circling the two tanks. Then, while behind a building, she jumped off of the platform and let it continue to circle without her. She still had the more powerful tinker-built handgun out, and she had the last containment foam grenade ready as well. Those in hand, she ran out from between two buildings on foot while her opponents were trying to track her now-empty platform. The containment foam grenade was tossed at the closer tank even as she turned to start running at the further tank.

The grenade pinned down the first tank even as the crew of the other one swung the main gun down to aim at her. In response she aimed her handgun right down the barrel of the thing and opened fire. Two shots, side-projecting, then she jumped diagonally. She was just in time to not be shot by the shell, it hitting the ground behind where she'd been standing instead. Apparently shooting down the barrel wasn't going to help. And the machine gunner had dropped down into the tank and secured the hatch, so she wasn't getting in that way either.

On the other hand, she made it close enough to the tank to not be able to be targeted by the main gun before they loaded and fired another round. Whether that was her speed or their inexperience was harder to tell. Either way, she jumped up onto the tank itself and very out of reach of the main gun. After a moment's consideration she also tore the machine gun off of the mount, aided by it not being installed properly in the first place, before pausing to consider her options. They weren't likely to open up the secured hatch, but they also weren't likely to not decide to move on while she wasn't locking them down. So how to stop them from moving?

Shrugging, she put the handgun away before pulling her maul out. A moment later she dropped down behind the tank, followed by starting to beat the crap out of the engine exhaust, trying to ensure that there wasn't a usable exhaust. It seemed that someone figured out what her plan was, though, since they tried to back the tank up over her. She jumped back up onto the tank, annoyed that she'd only partially blocked the exhaust. It wouldn't be enough.

A few seconds later she was blinking.

Taylor: Why aren't you crying that I'm damaging the tank and telling me how to fix it?

UMR: Data. Elaboration. Data

Huh. Her tinker snark felt that these were elaborate fakes that didn't deserve to be considered 'technology', even if it was still telling her how they supposedly worked. Further, it wasn't actually possible to 'repair' them due to their status as fakes. Come to think of it, she looked over to where she'd thrown the machine gun to see that it was no longer there, apparently it she wasn't looking. And on top of all of that, apparently it felt that damaging things trying to harm her was perfectly fine, at least enough to get them to stop trying to harm her.

She suspected that it would still want her to fix most of those things later, when possible, and with some now-obvious exceptions.

Taylor: So can you tell me how to make it go away sooner?

UMR: Negation

Oh well. That was worth a shot, even if it didn't end up helping. Well, she had a few options. One was to go get a more dangerous grenade from the cabinet at the hospital. That risked causing serious injury or death to the people in the tank. Another was to try and beat the tank open with her maul, which she didn't hold out a lot of hope for. Though she did have a generally-unused option that could let her put a temporary hole in a gas tank. Hmmm.

Sadly, she quickly determined that she wasn't going to safely get close enough to a usable point for that, since the treads were in the way. On the other hand, she could get close enough to a hatch, and if anyone asked she could probably blame the trick on purchased tinkertech. Deciding that she'd rather end this before they decided to try and get to within shooting range of the hospital, she moved over to the hatch and examined it. It didn't take long for her to shrug and pull off a glove. She then put her hand down on the hatch, a hole appearing a moment later. She reached through and unsecured the hatch to open it up before anyone inside could react, slipping her glove back on as she dropped in.

The five individuals in the tank were obviously confused as to how she'd gotten in, but didn't get a lot of time to consider how she'd done so before she was knocking them out in the close quarters.

Glenn grumbled as his phone rang. He had the day off, but of course that didn't mean he was going to be left alone. He grabbed the phone anyway, looking at the caller ID to decide whether or not to answer. After a moment he decided to answer, since at least Ethan usually had good ideas.

"Good afternoon," he answered.

"I have an awesome idea that needs to be approved fast," Ethan greeted. "Do you know what happened in Brockton Bay today?"

"I've been dealing with things that've built up around the house, so no."

"Tanks happened, and I think we should build a 'best of' snippet set to give to the news."

Glenn blinked. "Tanks?"

"Yep. Somehow the Fallen brought in a pile of them. Maul took out some on her own, Dauntless flipped a few. Wrench Wraith tended to ram them into submission. I missed out on most of the fun, sadly. But the best part is that almost all of the action against the tanks was done within range of sensor drones, and those now automatically record their raw data, so we should be able to pull any footage we want."

Right. Catching up on the news was suddenly very important. "I see. Anything else I need to know before I get started on this?"

There was a pause before Ethan seemed to whisper. "I can't confirm it, but some of the guys we pulled out of one of the tanks claimed that they'd gotten a headshot on Maul and she just ignored it. That's with the tank's main gun, by the way. But since she has her own sensors it shouldn't be hard to figure out."

Damn that man. Now he was going to have to go digging, just to see if that was true.

Taylor sat on the roof with a snack, having been told to take a break by both Carol and Sarah. Most of the work happening right now was the PRT working through the containment foamed tanks one at a time, though there was also apparently a team heading to pack up the warehouse that the tanks had come from as well. Things had calmed down everywhere, and a few people had been brought to the hospital from the gang fights that the console claimed had been started by mastered individuals.

Amy had just finished working on Jason's family. The kid had apparently been hit first, and his power seemingly shut down if he had an injury serious enough to kill him. Amy had healed him up, then continued to heal him up as he started to pull injuries from all over the emergency room. Once he'd stabilized she'd cleaned up the rest of his family and moved on to others, with his mother rushing them out of the hospital before someone else came in and he needed more healing.

"Console to hospital group," came over the radio while Amy was working on a woman who'd taken a bullet to her shoulder. "A transport will be coming over to resupply the roof cabinet shortly."

Taylor sighed at that even as she moved over next to the cabinet instead of in the open area on the roof. "I don't know if I should be happy that they're looking to resupply the thing or worried that they think we're not done yet."

It didn't take long for the transport to come in, and a couple of officers moved over to the cabinet with a cart. One of them nodded to her. "Afternoon Maul."

"Good afternoon," she replied.

"We were told to have you grab half a dozen containment foam grenades for yourself, since you used all of them earlier. Report said you'd used all the ice walls too, but nothing else?"

Taylor nodded even as she started picking up containment foam grenades from the cart. "Yeah, didn't want to risk killing people with some of the others."

The other officer nodded. "Probably a good call, all things considered. I'm not even sure how they got most of these approved in the first place."

"They're classified as 'in case of Endbringer' on the paperwork I checked before we took off," the first officer noted. "A more secure transport will probably be by to pick them up later, once we've stood down from high alert."

"Oh, that makes sense."

Taylor decided to leave them to things once she'd finished with collecting containment foam grenades. With any luck the rest of the day would be calm, but if it wasn't she at least had more options again. Instead she returned to her snack while also wondering what she'd end up doing for dinner tonight. Especially since her father had already let her know that he was helping some of the other dockworkers with some cleanup and thus wouldn't be home for dinner.

Hannah frowned as she turned back around to see that the most recent cleared tank had vanished. It was nice in some ways, since they didn't have to get the things somewhere to store them or otherwise dispose of them. In other ways it was annoying, because it was literally vanishing evidence. Then again, word was that every last person they'd pulled from a tank that'd made it back to the PRT building had been mastered by one or more of four different signatures, so getting anything to stick to any of them would probably be impossible anyway.

Until you could find the master you also never knew when this kind of thing was over. How many more people in the city were under master influence, and how long before some hidden order caused them to cause more trouble? It was all incredibly frustrating to law enforcement in general. For that matter, it was probably frustrating to the gangs as well, not knowing if their people had been compromised until they suddenly acted out.

"Wrench Wraith seems to have submitted a request for us to head a few blocks over and deal with a couple of tanks she knocked on their sides earlier," Officer Milligan said as his partner shut the van doors on the five from this tank. "Looks like she got a good look at one of the other tanks before it vanished and is concerned that the original might've had some weak welds on the fuel tanks."

Hannah nodded. "I see it, and until they vanish these things are real enough to cause problems if stuff spills, especially if containment foam didn't penetrate into the tanks themselves. I'll head over now, since I can take the short route through a couple of alleyways. Hopefully they won't have anyone trying to get them out already, but I should be able to handle anyone there."

This was probably going to take at least another couple of hours. Then again, it was much better than dealing with the tanks while they were mobile. They were probably going to need to add containment foam to a couple before they opened them up, for that matter, such as the one Miss Hebert had gotten the entire inside of without foaming the outside. Sadly, dealing with the damaged buildings was going to take longer.

Taylor stretched after changing out of her costume. She was going to be meeting with New Wave for dinner, at their insistence. At the same time, she'd been asked to stay signed into the console for the evening, though switched over to an 'inactive' channel. The primary benefit was keeping the augmented patrol system running, allowing her to better keep track of what was going on around her. That the rest of those on duty would get improved results from said system in the area around her had also been mentioned.

A few minutes later Taylor was heading for her moped when the radio activated, surprising her. "Dragon to all points, please be advised that Guild transports containing master-effect scanning devices will be arriving shortly. Their deployment pattern has been marked on your maps. Please do not interfere with them."

Blinking, Taylor popped the map open to see what the 'deployment pattern' looked like. It didn't take long to determine that, after you added in the PRT building, they were apparently looking to get full coverage of the entire city. Which, she supposed, was a great way to ensure that it would be hard for someone in the city to be mastered without anyone noticing for the time being. She wondered if these units were scanning-only or if they'd gathered enough full functionality units to blanket the city, but didn't bother to ask Dragon. It wasn't that important to know.

Not long after that she was on the road, heading for the restaurant that Sarah had apparently gotten a reservation at. Taylor thought it was more impressive that the woman had found one open after the events of the afternoon, but then again it also made sense. A number of homes and apartment buildings were damaged, so people with businesses that could make food for those who couldn't use their own kitchens probably wanted to be available. Whether it was for profit or otherwise probably varied from owner to owner.

Oddly enough, Taylor apparently beat the rest of New Wave to the restaurant. Then again, if they'd gone home to change out of costumes then it would probably take them much longer. Still, she was expected was quickly shown to the room that they'd be using. The Pelhams showed up shortly afterwards, followed by the Dallons about ten minutes later.

"Did you really take a tank shell to the face?" Vicky asked as soon as she realized that Taylor was already there.

Taylor rolled her eyes. "Yes, I did. It hurt. I paid them back by foaming their tank, then went and foamed more. The bruise finished fading over an hour ago."

"Damn. None of the tanks even tried to shoot me, and they got you in the face? That's not fair!"

Everyone blinked and turned to Vicky, but Eric was the one to ask the question they were all likely thinking. "Are you complaining that you didn't get shot by a tank today?"

Vicky nodded. "Of course. I've never been shot by a tank, it would've been awesome!"

Amy sighed. "Please tell me that's her snark talking?"

Taylor shrugged. "Probably. Aversion to dodging so that her force field gets to take different kinds of hits and all."

Vicky snorted. "You're kidding, right? Taylor here gets bragging rights for being shot by a tank and barely noticing, why wouldn't I want the same thing?"

Well, at least the girl had a point.

Chapter 206 Sunday morning had been labeled as a 'relaxing' morning ahead of time for a number of reasons. Sleeping in instead of going to the gym, leading to relaxing at home instead of being out driving around where cleanup was happening. Besides, they didn't dare attempt to bring people in to the hospital in case there was an as of yet unnoticed 'round two' ready to go, and in fact they'd asked Amy to stay away for the day unless something did happen and they called her in to help.

Sadly, Taylor ended up failing to sleep in more than half an hour longer than usual, somewhat because she'd gone to bed a little early the night before. She'd stubbornly refused to get out of bed even then, instead grabbing her visor and goofing off for a bit instead. That didn't last too long, her impending need to empty her bladder convincing her to actually get moving, after which she grudgingly decided that she wasn't going to convince herself to try and get back to sleep. So instead she headed downstairs to make a larger and more complicated than usual breakfast.

Her father had come down not long after the cooking had started generating enticing smells, stepping in to help with some of it after he'd had some coffee to wake up more. They'd then sat down to a mostly-silent breakfast, just enjoying the calm moment for their own reasons. By unspoken agreement the dishes were left for later and they retreated into the living room, ending up watching the morning news.

When they'd turned the television on they'd done so in the middle of the international news. Civil war still raged in China, many thinking that the entire region would fracture into a number of smaller countries. Already several border regions were attempting to prepare for declaring independence now that many internal and border control measures had fallen apart. How many of those regions would be successful in their current forms was unknown. They followed that with a note that the Ash Beast had defied all expectations and turned almost entirely around last night, though nobody knew why. It was still over a month out from anything either way.

The weather came up next, telling them that it was likely going to be very wet on Wednesday and Thursday. That was annoying, first week of school and all, but it wasn't like they could control the weather. The bus was still an option, even if borrowing the car wouldn't be while her father needed it to get to and from work himself. Even that wasn't currently enough of a reason to think about getting her own car right now, since they didn't get pouring rain often enough to bother with it compared to the moped. Besides, Wards got the first week of school off, though could go in to tinker and similar if they wanted to.

After that they got back to the 'big news' for the weekend, which was the tank assault and the aftermath thereof. They'd actually dropped someone in front of the warehouse the tanks had originated from, though it'd already been cleaned out by the PRT following the apprehension of the parahuman who'd duplicated the original tank for others to use. Even then it was still locked up with crime scene tape surrounding it due to modifications that still needed to be properly examined.

The believed to be final civilian death toll for the day was forty-six, most of them from an apartment building hit by multiple tank shells. The attackers had only lost twenty people, most of them to friendly fire of one kind or another. How to take all of this was harder for the press to decide, as the PRT had announced that every single captured attacker had been under the influence of at least one master. Those in the tanks and those acting as spotters. Due to that it was going to be nearly impossible to properly press charges against them.

That wasn't all the PRT had given the press, though. They'd also handed over 'tinkertech reconstructions' of a number of events from the day. Most of the clips provided were of Protectorate members taking out various tanks, as well as some of New Wave doing the same. Taylor, however, had been the only Ward out, and apparently had more 'unassisted' tank takedowns than anyone else by virtue of being the first and last to take tanks down. She'd beaten Terry by two tanks and Dragon by a single tank in the end.

Of course, they hadn't stuck just to the takedown moments, as she discovered a few moments later. And apparently they'd had the footage long enough to have people voting on their favorites online already, because they did a 'top five' countdown. That ended with a video of her taking a tank shell to the face, only to recover and loop around to take the tank down anyway.

"Did you actually stop a tank shell with your face?" her father asked, giving her an odd look.

She shrugged. No point in denying it, after all. "Yes."

"And why am I only now hearing about this?"

"Would you want to talk about it if it'd happened to you?"

He considered that for a moment, then snorted. "That probably depends on how many drinks I had in me, but I suppose that it would take a lot to get you to that point. And it's not something I think anyone would really want to happen to them, right?"

It was Taylor's turn to snort. "Tell that to Vicky, she's jealous."

Her father didn't look like he believed her. She didn't care.

"I could appreciate the amusement factor when Miss Hebert was taken from her room," Colin said, paying more attention to his halberd than to Ethan. "But that was backed up with multiple legitimate arguments for giving her credit. She was too far removed from the capture in this case, and the connection to her is far too tenuous as a result."

Ethan pouted. "But the hilarity of forcing them to add something about being attacked with tanks to the recruitment methods list in the event that the woman converts has to be worth it!"

Colin rolled his eyes, not that the other man could see that. "You might as well argue that being shot with a tank shell counts at that point. Besides, from everything we've heard out of her she isn't willing to convert and is waiting to be rescued. By a lawyer or otherwise. She's shown no remorse for things so far, though that may be an aspect of her power's influence, but she also fully believes in the Fallen's cause and wasn't found to be under the influence of a master. I thus suspect that she's destined for imprisonment."

"I could see rescue by parahumans, but why does she think a lawyer will help?"

"I suspect that she doesn't know that we have her fingerprints pulled from the original tank and the various guns that were in one of the crates. In fact, I'd be willing to put money on her not knowing that we know how to open those crates at all, and thus believes that we grabbed her just because she was a parahuman in the area with no evidence of wrongdoing. Without that evidence we wouldn't be able to charge her at all, but with it we can introduce the tinkertech recording of her using her powers on top of the rest."

"Oh."

Colin turned to the man. "I don't suppose there's anything else you needed to speak to me about? I'd like to repair the damage to this halberd without asking either of our repair-capable tinkers to do so for me, but to do so I need to focus. That and you usually stick to digital communication for your creative paperwork requests."

Ethan rubbed the back of his head. "Right, right, sorry, that was a bit of a tangent." He then grabbed the bag he'd put down during the attempts to find a way to get another insane recruitment method on the list, reaching in and removing a handheld heating unit. "I started experimenting with things like this, aiming for various ways to heat up my costume to extract the energy from it. Winter and all, less ambient heat to pull. With batteries it's far too large, though, so I think I've hit my own limits for improvising things and was hoping you might have a better idea for the concept?"

"Personally, when expecting colder temperatures I use a low-profile heated undersuit. Dragon produces the fabric in question, but I'd expect that you might prefer something that generates far more heat. I doubt you'd be concerned about being burned, after all." Frowning, he considered options. "Are you still reluctant to rely on tinkertech that you can't maintain yourself?"

The man nodded. "I like not needing to have someone else maintain things, when possible anyway. Spent too much time on my own before joining up and all. But I haven't come up with many other options, which is why I'm here. Better that it be something made locally if I'm going to use tinkertech at all."

"Sensible, but have you considered chemical heat packs? You could use disposable or reusable variants and they're commonly made without tinkers needing to be involved at all. They wouldn't be as versatile as a tinkertech solution probably would be, of course, but they also wouldn't need tinker maintenance. If they don't prove to be enough then I'm certain we can come up with other options."

"That...huh. Since when do you even consider non-tinkertech options?"

Colin shrugged. "It's a far more efficient use of both of our times and hopefully gives you an option that you can work with even outside of town. If it doesn't work out then the attempts are still valuable information for coming up with a solution that does work, thus ensuring that the time and effort isn't actually wasted."

"I see. Thank you for the insight, and I'll let you know how it goes."

Taylor ended up heading over to the Dallon residence to help Amy with installing pocket dimension access devices. Or at least one, anyway, to be set up similarly to the one Taylor had placed at her closet door. Anything beyond that was yet to be determined. She felt it was likely to be far more tolerable than her father's constant questions and jokes about the day before, at least.

"I hadn't realized that you could activate the thing from the finger pad," Amy admitted after Taylor explained how she'd installed her unit. "Stupid of me, because the manual states it outright, but I hadn't realized it. What happens if someone sees the unit in the closet and tries to activate it that way? Or if I want to let someone activate it?"

Taylor gestured at the bookcase where they'd be hiding the finger pad. "Anyone can use the finger pad, but only those with embedded crystals or equivalent can control the connection point. For anyone else they can only turn it on and off, unless you want to put the remote control panel somewhere outside of the closet like I did. As for the in-closet unit? They'll likely trap themselves in the closet or have things fail to work because their body is in the way. Well, unless they know how to use the controls beyond the toggle option, in which case they could probably spin the portal around and have it open into the closet."

"I guess that makes sense."

It didn't take long to run things where they needed to go and ensure that it was all working, followed by removing the crystal from the unit so that it wasn't an easy target for other opening devices. Work was still going on in the pocket dimension and all that, they'd target things more specifically later. With that done the two headed for the kitchen to grab a snack.

"Hello Taylor," Carol greeted, having been in her home office when Taylor had arrived. "You two up to anything of interest, or is this just a social visit?"

Amy rolled her eyes "I asked for her help setting up my closet door to access our shared pocket dimension."

"Oh, I was planning on asking for her assistance with that kind of work next weekend."

That had both girls turning to look at Carol, but Taylor left the questioning to Amy. "Why next weekend?"

"Because I finally jumped through enough hoops to get the rest of the family cleared to know about Mister Horsfall, annoying as it was without knowing his name to begin with. I arranged for him to come out Saturday to see if he could give the rest of the family their own pocket spaces. The potential utility of them, even if they end up not being as large as the one you two share, was too much to pass up. If he's successful then I'll also be buying a few opening devices and such, and will need assistance in getting our emergency openers tied to the house's unit."

Taylor blinked. "That sounds like it took a lot of work to make happen."

Carol nodded. "Yep. But I suspect it'll be worth it. And I'll be able to relieve some of my annoyance from the paperwork by rubbing it in Sarah's face afterwards, since they only cleared us to know about him due to things we were already cleared for." She then paused, and frowned. "The message I got did say something about not knowing if the keys could be safely implanted, though. I don't suppose you two know anything about that?"

Amy shrugged at that. "Ours went in during a four-way fugue. I don't think there's anything special there beyond physically embedding the crystal inside the body in a suitable location, but we'd have to test it on someone to be certain."

"Well, at least that sounds simple enough to test."

Taylor looked at Carol. "So how much is this going to cost you? Because I didn't think his services came cheap these days."

The woman shivered slightly. "He agreed on the condition that I work with him on Sunday going over some legal issues. Apparently I'm now one of the few lawyers cleared to know about everything he feels needs to be known and he wants a non-PRT opinion. Which means that it's only going to cost me a few hours of my time, as annoying as that time will likely be. On the other hand, he wants that looked over fast, hence making the trip this weekend."

Well, that was certainly one way to pay for something like that. Probably no worse in some ways than the method used to pay for their space, for that matter. Though now Taylor was going to be curious about what the hell Joey needed a second opinion on.

Missy wasn't sure what to think about several things at this point. She hadn't been able to go and help with the tanks the day before, which was annoying. Not helping with the tanks meant that she wasn't in a position to be shot in the face with a tank shell. That was good, because she wasn't the proud owner of bullshit tinkertech. None of the tanks had damaged the area she lived in, which was also good.

Closer to home, so to speak, she had her aunt. Criminal since a month after she'd triggered, most of the extended family was fully aware of it for various reasons but it wasn't talked about normally. That was annoying, and in theory meant she should be running on divided loyalty. But she'd checked, and the PRT actually had rules for having villain parahumans in the family. Those rules basically said that she was under no obligation to tell the PRT anything, even recommending that the secrets be kept unless the family member was a danger to her.

It was freaky that those rules included guidelines for if a parent, child, sibling, or spouse was a villainous parahuman, especially if they lived in the same dwelling. They even had various 'self-help' documents for a number of situations and contact information for anonymous 'experts' if you needed more guidance. Things like convincing a family member to 'out' themselves to you, subtly providing encouragement to clear power urges, and how to properly file taxes with a villain in the family.

All in all, she wanted to turn her aunt in, because that was the right thing to do, except that it wasn't because she was family and even the PRT discouraged turning family in when they weren't a danger to you. All things considered, her aunt was an annoyance at best, and would be returning home in the next couple of days. Which made her even less of a potential threat, and thus provided no good reason for Missy to turn her in.

"Missy," her mother called from the door, distracting her from her thoughts. "Your aunt would like to have one last dinner with us before she leaves, apparently having decided that she isn't going to succeed in her original goal of tempting you into villainy. Are you willing to attend, or should I decline for you?"

Missy sighed at that. "I'll attend, so long as she stops pestering me to leave the Wards anyway."

"I have an idea or two for that, but we'll talk about that after I go let her know. And find out if she'll be coming here or if we'll be eating out."

Mark had insisted that Taylor stay for lunch, and it turned out that Carol hadn't actually told him and Vicky about the pocket dimension attempt coming up yet. She did so over lunch, and the three asked Taylor and Amy a few questions about how it felt.

"How big do you think they'll be?" Vicky finally asked.

Carol sighed, speaking up before anyone else could. "I asked about that, and he said that no matter what happened with these two, most people get a much smaller area. Five to twenty-five meters per side is apparently the normal range. So anywhere from a good sized room to a single good sized house, though they're almost universally ten meters tall and thus can probably fit three 'floors'. Oh, and second-generation capes average in the ten to fifteen range."

Vicky pouted at that, apparently having gotten her hopes up for a giant space. Taylor snorted, which caused Amy to giggle. Vicky stared at both of them for a moment, then rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay, it'll still mean that I never have to pack for trips ever again, because I'll be able to bring my whole closet with me. I just liked the idea of having a city block to myself. What makes you two so special there?"

It took a moment, but Amy grinned at that question. "Well, from what we understand, our snark is bigger than yours."

This time it was Taylor's turn to giggle, mostly at the look on the faces of the other three.

"So how are you feeling?" Paul asked. He'd come out in-costume so as to not make people wonder how he arrived in the first place, which was mildly annoying but something he was used to. Though at least the duo had stopped trying to 'help' by opening a door in his flightpath to 'speed things up'.

David groaned. "Incredibly tired, with a persistent headache, and I don't know if a top-up will help with any of it."

"Surely it can't be that bad?"

"I don't understand some of the things that I now 'see' in my head, their meanings are probably tied to concepts that I don't have words for, but I don't think any of them are good. No, energy isn't my primary concern right now. I think I need to meet with one of the girls to have them play translator, because I don't know what my agent is telling me."

Paul nodded. "A number of things happened in Brockton Bay yesterday, including Miss Hebert taking a tank shell to the face, but I'll see if I can arrange for a visit tomorrow. They start school on Tuesday, though, and I doubt you want to possibly anger the Youth Guard during their first week back."

"At this point I suspect a sleeping toddler would best me, so no, I don't fancy my luck against the Youth Guard. But a tank shell to the face?"

"It knocked her over, but she recovered quickly and hit the tank with containment foam shortly afterwards. I'm sure you can find the clip released to the news online if you can stay up long enough to look. Still, for tomorrow I'll arrange for a secure room for a few hours so that you can slip away, even if I'm likely to get an earful from the doctors for doing so. Luckily you're highly enough placed that I can cite security concerns regarding things that came up while you were unavailable. Even better, I have three such topics to discuss with you, so it won't even be a lie."

David's glare probably would've worked better if he didn't look as weak as he apparently felt, but Paul let him glare anyway.

Taylor ended up being roped into a couple of board games, during which Vicky asked a number of questions about a number of topics. Oddly, many of them related to electronics, though why the girl wanted to know about that kind of thing hadn't actually come up. What did come up, and Taylor ended up submitting a question about, was whether or not affiliates already aware of Riley's secrets were eligible for the tinker fugues.

Carol had overheard that and rightfully pointed out that Vicky was already a brute, only for Vicky to have an entire list of arguments prepared for that. Said list started with the fact that sufficient concentrated fire on her, such as from a couple of machine guns, would get through her force field, especially if she was flying. Having the added enhancements would help her if that happened. That was probably enough to win Carol over, but Vicky had continued with noting that the built-in Bluetooth would allow for non-obvious communication while on patrol.

At that point Carol had held up her hand to stop Vicky, turned to Taylor, and asked to be informed when the answer came back. She'd then gone to talk to Mark about something, possibly wanting to get his opinion on the whole thing in case it did end up being an option. Or maybe hoping that he'd talk her out of letting Vicky go for it before the girl turned eighteen and could make the decision for herself. There were a number of possibilities there.

Taylor had declined an offer to stay for dinner as well and headed home. She ended up chatting with Amy about how Vicky had been acting, as well as about a few other things. Like how easy it would be to travel between the two houses once the work in the pocket dimension was done, not that they couldn't take advantage of that already. But for appearances sake it was probably best to actually make the trip every so often, since if someone noticed that either of them made it to the other's home without driving over too often then questions would start being asked.

When she arrived home she found that her father wasn't there, but that didn't surprise her. That there was a box waiting on the front steps did, since package delivery on a Sunday was decidedly odd. Coupled with her usual 'special' deliveries being dropped straight into her bedroom or similar and she was understandably wary of the package. But her visor sensors didn't flag anything problematic in the thing on a quick pass, and it was labeled as being for her.

Just in case of problems, whatever they might be, she decided that it would be best to open the box outside, then bring it in if it didn't contain anything that was an issue. It didn't take long to cut the box open, only for her to stare at the contents for a couple of minutes. Eventually she lifted the leather jacket out of the box, wondering what the deal was with it, only for an envelope to fall out of the jacket. Hoping that had an explanation, she opened it up to find a letter wrapped around a gift card.

Miss Hebert,

We now recognize that we're highly unlikely to obtain your services as a Herald at this time. The obstacles to that are far greater than we'd anticipated, and we've decided to give up for the time being as we seek more information and guidance. You have passed our tests and won the battle, but we will continue to prepare and return in a future attempt to win the war.

In recognition of your accomplishment we give to you this jacket. It's one of the best motorcycle jackets available without going to a tinker, and had we obtained your services on this visit then we'd have helped you personalize it to your tastes. Since we failed to obtain your services it will be up to you to decide if you wish to personalize it at all. We'll understand if you don't wish to keep it.

Do keep yourself alive and well as befitting a potential Herald. We wouldn't want our next confrontation to be too easy, after all.

-The Crowley Family

P.S. Maya Mathers was working on a project to have a thinker find out more about you without your knowledge. We believe she gathered everything, as she skipped town, but she didn't actually tell us either way. Out of respect for how you handled things yesterday we thought you should know.

The postscript of the letter was handwritten, with the rest of the letter having been typed out.

Amy: What are you staring at that has you so confused?

Taylor: Is it really that obvious?

Amy: Yes. Your body language is practically screaming 'confused'.

Taylor: The Crowley family congratulated me on not being captured to become their herald and gave me a top of the line motorcycle jacket.

Amy: Seriously?

Taylor: Yep.

It didn't take long to take a snapshot of the letter and some sensor data of the jacket to submit to the PRT for analysis. It wasn't likely that either was dangerous in and of themselves, but it was best to provide things like this to those who could actually analyse them. That done, she decided that it likely wouldn't hurt to bring things into the house. Or, more specifically, she dropped the box, jacket, and letter into the garage for now in case she was bringing them to the PRT in the morning. That and she'd asked if they could determine whether or not the gift card had been obtained legitimately.

Once that was done she decided to ensure that she had everything ready for her trip to Arcadia, since she'd feel stupid if she showed up and didn't have everything she'd need to do the 'show them her weapons' dance. Granted, she'd need to remember to grab both handguns and ensure that she had her knives with her, even if she didn't always bother putting the latter on. They didn't get used often, but she'd rather have them available and never need them than need them and not have them available.

Emily frowned as she looked over her messages. Apparently the Crowley family had warned Miss Hebert that a member of the Mathers family had been working on getting information. What information they were hoping to get hadn't been specified, and the Think Tank hadn't had time to look at things yet, but that was concerning. This 'Maya' was probably one of the unknown signatures that was close to, but not a match for, Elijah Mathers's signature as well.

If that could be trusted, and she wasn't willing to assume it could be, then the master they'd been looking for had already left the area. But it could be that the entire goal of that note was to make them think that the master had left town to get them to let down their guards. The person who wrote the note might even believe that the master had skipped town because the master wanted them to think that at the time they wrote it.

Dealing with master class opponents was a pain in the ass. Stranger class villains just needed someone to find a way around their abilities in some fashion, coupled with long-standard security checks. But masters came in a number of flavors, and some of them were subtle enough to bypass almost everything they could throw at the problem. They also fouled up the legal system something fierce.

She was pissed that all but the parahuman they'd captured the day before had been under master influence to be loyal to someone else at a minimum. It was incredibly likely that a number of them didn't need that loyalty boost, but proving that would be nearly impossible. Instead they were wasting time and money clearing them of all of the influences, working out which bikes and suitcases from the crates they'd spent all night collecting were owned by which bikers, and letting all but a few of them go with a pamphlet covering tricks to hopefully help avoid being mastered in the future.

Not that the pamphlet was worth the paper it was printed on, of course. There were amazingly few defenses for most known human-focused master abilities, after all, especially if you didn't know how the master took control. Far too many of them essentially ended up being a form of proximity, which no amount of tricks would help with.

Grumbling to herself, she looked over the rest of the message, approved the requested staff time to dig into the gift card's origins, and moved on. She'd been hoping for something to have come in on moving Miss Crowley out of the area, but was half expecting to need to arrange for the woman to have her day in court locally. She was, after all, the only capture in the entire debacle that they could get away with pressing charges for directly. Only as an accessory, most likely, but that would likely still be enough to put her away for a few years and provide a valid reason for her to be monitored once she was released.

Chapter 207 Monday morning started with Taylor strapping the box from the Crowley family to the back of her moped so that she could drop it off for a more complete examination. Apparently that would only take a day or two at most, but she wasn't sure she cared either way. After all, wearing a gift given to her because they failed to get control of her just seemed wrong, and it wasn't like she needed the gift card. Though her father had admitted that it was a very nice jacket, if you ignored who'd gotten it for her and that she didn't normally wear anything remotely like it.

With that completed she'd gone in to the gym, getting there well ahead of Amy. Then again, the other girl didn't have a box to drop off for examination. The delay from going through the whole process of dropping off the box meant that Amy made it to the locker room itself shortly before Taylor did. When they came out into the gym itself they found that it was unusually crowded, though that could be due to the entire city still being on a heightened alert status from Saturday. That wouldn't be likely to change for another couple of days at a minimum.

Their workout was completed with minimal trouble despite the crowd, followed by getting cleaned up and deciding to grab breakfast to go. Which ended up with them being handed a mixed box of donuts and muffins each from the cafeteria, far more than they'd been expecting. They didn't argue due to the line of PRT officers, the existence of which hinted at why pre-prepared 'to-go' boxes existed at all.

On their way back to the garage Amy brought up an interesting question. "I wonder if you should bring the M249 with you?"

Taylor looked at Amy, raising an eyebrow. "Why would I do that?"

"It's a concealable weapon? Or at least yours is thanks to Missy."

"And do you honestly think I'd ever have a reason to bring it to school with me?"

"I ensured that I have one of the lasers with me in case they care about them, and if some group decides that attacking schools is a thing to do I could see you being encouraged to be as armed as possible."

Taylor snorted at that. "By bringing a weapon that I'm less effective with?"

Amy shrugged. "If we can't use powers for whatever reason then it's actually more effective than the handguns."

"Okay, you make a good point there, but that seems a little excessive either way. Also, I suspect that it isn't nearly as comfortable to wear when I'm not wearing the jump harness, and wearing the 'sash' would probably be too obvious."

"True. I guess it's probably more trouble than it's worth."

Taylor did make sure to have one of the lasers with her as well, though, just in case.

"What did you do?" William asked, staring Riley down. That Sarah was chuckling off to the side wasn't helping his intimidation attempt.

"She obviously released some horrible creation on the world," Jacob answered from across the room. "Since panic hasn't already started, I'm assuming it's one of the 'simmer for a few weeks' infections that she cooked up. Which means we can probably expect panic after we've left, but I don't believe she brought any of her truly dangerous creations so it can't be that bad."

William glared at the man for a moment, getting no reaction whatsoever, before turning back to Riley. "The problem is that she released it just as school is starting up. We try not to cause too many problems there, if only to keep the Protectorate from having a better excuse to come out in force against us."

Riley rolled her eyes and waved William off. "The kids will be fine. Hell, the kids will be better than ever afterwards. The elderly will have problems, but not the kids."

Jacob leaned forward at that point. "Okay, you have me curious, because I don't recall your collection having anything that was age-based like that."

"It isn't intentionally age-based. It just happens that the immune system replacement process goes a lot more smoothly when you're younger."

William blinked a couple of times at that. "Immune system replacement?"

"Yep. I got tired of people with things like HIV or bullshit allergies screwing up my distribution patterns, so I crossed HIV and some flu strains to make an incredibly contagious disease that basically rebuilds the human immune system. The new variant isn't quite as strong as what I put in us, but it should be far better than the baseline human system and will present an actual challenge going forward. Especially as I intentionally didn't put a backdoor in, figuring that if I did then some new strain of HIV would figure it out by random chance or something like that."

Sarah came over and looked down at Riley. "Are you telling us that we released a plague on the world specifically intended to make releasing future plagues harder on yourself?"

Riley nodded, then dug into the bag she had with her and produced a few sheets of paper. "Here, I wrote up a single-page description of things."

Sarah, William, Jacob, and Melissa all took a sheet. The others didn't seem to care either way. The four looked over the sheet, but it was Jacob who started snickering first. "If things go as you seem to believe then they're going to have one hell of a time figuring out what's happening. And you didn't put any limits in the thing, so it could conceivably go global."

Sarah snorted at that. "She specifically ensured that she hit a husband and wife pair that we overheard talking about returning to Europe this week and I helped her hit two of the long-distance trains passing through. One of those I actually set up with a triggered release system, because it'd stopped for repairs to a couple of wheels. It'll release a canister every time it stops for more than an hour until someone finds the unit or until it runs through all eighty canisters I put in the thing."

Riley frowned at Sarah. "I thought you were just infecting the crew of that one, but that does explain why my box of release systems was open."

Jacob finally put the sheet he'd taken down, shaking his head. "They are so going to regret telling us to release things without telling anyone ahead of time, aren't they?"

Melissa snorted at that. "They should've just read the thinkers that started spotting the pattern from us doing so in on our situation. Instead they removed their ability to provide any kind of veto, which I suspect this would've been covered by. Still, it's far too late now. I'm just curious if they'll link the deaths of so many elderly to Riley here or if they'll assume it's something unrelated."

William had to admit that he wasn't sure on that front. If they never submitted the details about the infection then there wouldn't be any official record to make that connection with, and given how widespread it was looking to end up being?

Their arrival at Arcadia was met with an unexpected surprise. Missy and Dennis were both sitting outside the school, apparently waiting. Oddly, they were doing so at opposite ends of the school itself.

"Morning," Amy greeted Dennis as they came up to him.

"Oh, hi," he replied, looking up from his phone. "What brings you here on the teacher prep day?"

Taylor rolled her eyes. "The whole weapon registration dance."

He nodded at that. "Makes sense, that's what I'm here for. Just have to wait for the teachers to be done with their morning meeting. Care to join me?"

Amy shrugged. "I think I'd like to go see how Missy is doing."

That caused Dennis to blink. "Missy?"

Taylor gestured at the school building. "She's on the other side of the building."

"Oh. I had no clue anyone else was even here." He then shuddered and mumbled something they couldn't pick up properly, before looking at the two of them. "I'll stay here, you two can go girl-talk with her or whatever."

Amy looked at Taylor, and they both shrugged. They were sure there was a story there, but neither wanted to question him on things. Instead they left him and headed around the building to where Missy was sitting against a tree.

"Good morning," Taylor greeted, causing Missy to turn to them.

"Hey," Missy replied, waving. "I take it you didn't expect the morning meeting keeping us from dealing with things right away?"

Amy nodded, then seemed to realize that she was carrying her still-uneaten breakfast. Probably because her stomach rumbled a little. "Er, heh. We grabbed breakfast to go?"

Missy giggled while Taylor and Amy opened up their to-go boxes, then pouted when she saw the donuts and muffins. "Where'd you get those?"

"PRT cafeteria after our workout," Taylor replied, grinning when she noticed that there were Boston Cream donuts in the mix. It didn't take long for her to eat both of them from her box, followed by a corn muffin. Amy had started with a chocolate chip muffin, then moved onto her own Boston Cream donuts. Missy's pouting increased when the last of those was consumed.

"Were you hoping for some of our donuts?" Amy finally asked, and Missy nodded. They each let her take a donut, then watched as she happily ate them.

Once they were done with breakfast, even if half of each of the 'to-go' boxes was still full, they packed things away. Taylor then turned to Missy. "So how did things go with your aunt?"

Missy groaned. "Apparently my family are all greedy. Now both my grandmother and my aunt have gotten off my back after how much money I was making was pointed out to them. Though my aunt needed to see the numbers before she gave up. She knew that merchandising was big, but hadn't realized how big it was. Changed her tune entirely, telling me that I'd be stupid to leave that behind for a life of crime where I might be able to get a fraction of the amount I'm getting now. I didn't dare mention anything else I've figured out with my powers."

Taylor shrugged. "At least it shut her up?"

"Then my parents kinda ended up admitting that one reason they didn't divorce after I triggered was because neither wanted to risk not getting custody and access to the portion of my pay that they were entitled to when I joined the Wards. Meaning that they're greedy too. Though my aunt and I both laughed when they admitted that they'd done something to screw up and lose access to that last year when they let their arguments override their common sense."

Well, that sounded wonderfully annoying for the younger girl.

Luckily for the three girls, it hadn't been long before they were able to head into the school to do the registration dance. Missy and Dennis went first, since they wanted to catch the next bus, followed by Taylor and Amy. The second handgun and tinkertech laser Taylor produced resulted in raised eyebrows, but no questions, and the knives didn't even rate that much of a reaction. Amy's own collection was taken in stride after that.

The two were then held back for a few minutes while more paperwork was fetched, apparently a couple of teachers were interested in potentially having them bring their spider-bots in as demonstration pieces during the year. Which meant that they were being given permission to bring them to school in general ahead of time, to simplify the whole process later if they agreed to bring them in when asked. That paperwork looked like someone had mashed together several forms to make a new one that crossed the line between technology and pets.

Luckily, the new paperwork didn't require pictures, just descriptions, so it wasn't hard to fill out. In fact, they'd filled out most of it ahead of time, making it even easier. The two were given their copies of the paperwork and told that they should keep it available whenever they had the spider-bots with them, even though the teachers should generally know it was coming. Once that was done they left the building with no idea what they were going to do for the rest of the day.

With nothing better to do, they decided to make a pass through furniture stores for more potential inspiration for furnishing the various portions of their shared pocket dimension. They didn't have to worry about the 'medical' or 'therapy' areas, but the other areas were an entirely different story. They'd both done this before, of course, but they weren't going to be purchasing anything until they saw the rooms. After two different furniture stores they'd also swung by a hardware store to look at the insane number of options for paint.

They were considering options for lunch when they received a group message from Legend.

David would like a meeting, contact Scotty anytime between 1 and 2 to attend.

"I think our afternoon is booked," Taylor said after a minute of silence. "Unexpectedly, but under the circumstances I think it's understandable."

Amy nodded. "Lunch, then swing by your house for a bit?"

"Works for me."

Kenta carried his lunch into the private room, locking the door behind him since Max was already there. "Afternoon."

Max waved, his mouth full and his manners good enough to not speak while it was full. A moment later he finished swallowing. "Afternoon Kenta. How's your family?"

"Unharmed. Wish I could say something else about the master or masters that arranged for Saturday to happen, but I've got no true leads. A possible name, but no real leads."

"So you've heard about Maya?"

Kenta nodded as he put his tray down. "Even if she's a Mathers, that doesn't mean that she was actually involved. Sounded more like she was doing something else, yet I could see the whole thing on Saturday being a distraction too. There just isn't enough information."

Max pulled an envelope out of his jacket pocket and slid it across the table. "I've got four different pictures of 'Maya', though she was claiming to be 'Amelia' according to the bartender. I threw in the picture from her driver's license too for comparison, but the other pictures are from her interacting with several of my people that went off the rails last week. No clue how her power likely works. Could be proximity, could be something else that isn't obvious to the security cameras."

Narrowing his eyes, Kenta picked up the envelope and removed the pictures from within. The woman in the photographs didn't match the license, but the tinkertech 'overlay' showed what looked like the same facial features under some of the disguise. Coloring was harder to tell, of course. It was enough to confirm that the woman had likely been running around preparing for the weekend. "I don't suppose we know where she ended up?"

"Nope. Didn't know to be looking for her until it was too late to follow her, and I suspect that she bailed from the area by Friday evening."

Kenta growled as he angrily took a bite out of his lunch, staring at the photographs. The license photograph was apparently from an out of state license as well, meaning that the woman was likely outside of his influence's range right now. Finally, he swallowed and took a calming breath or two. "There isn't much we can do about it now, then. I don't suppose you'd be willing to part with your contact for your cameras, in case she returns?"

Max shrugged. "Can't help you there, one of my dealers picked them up while on vacation from an idiot who didn't know what they'd stolen. I'm hoping the rumors about how quickly we spot weapons that shouldn't be brought into the areas covered by them outlast the things when they inevitably fail."

"A pity. They'd have been useful for a number of things."

"They also aren't exactly privacy-friendly. They tend to see through all clothing, so I've had to keep the feeds locked down to those I can trust not to abuse that ability."

"Ah. That would be less than ideal."

"Yep. So, how'd your daughter react to Saturday's events?"

Kenta snorted. "She wanted me to go hurt the people who shot Maul in the face, yet somehow not prevent Maul from hurting them herself. That and she pouted that Vista wasn't involved in taking out a tank."

"Ah, yes. Interesting how a few months ago Miss Hebert was able to be seriously injured by Glory Girl, and yet this weekend she shrugged off a tank shell to the same part of her body."

"It shows that someone thought about things and arranged for added protection. I just wonder if it's destined for mass production. That kind of thing would be irritating at best, even if I'm fighting the Protectorate a lot less frequently these days."

It was a few minutes after one, and the two girls had just sat down at the conference table that they'd been led to. Brünhild had welcomed them, but seemed distracted by something happening outside of their range. They didn't mind, and weren't kept waiting long either way. A tear in reality opened up across the room to allow Legend to push David's wheelchair into the room.

"Good afternoon," Legend greeted. David just waved weakly.

"Afternoon," Taylor and Amy chorused.

Legend chuckled at that. "It should just be the four of us, unless Brünhild is paying attention anyway. I'll fill others in later if needed. Oh, and sorry for the short notice, I'd intended to give you a heads-up yesterday but got distracted." He then looked down at David. "So, we're here, care to ask them about things or did you want to discuss security matters from Houston first?"

David did his best to glare at Legend, but gave it up quickly. He then shook his head lightly, before turning to Taylor and Amy. "I'm hoping that you can provide a translation for what I'm now seeing in my head."

Legend sighed at that. "And presumably a general update on things, and if it would help perhaps some energy?"

Taylor nodded. "His snark does feel...odd today. Give us a minute or two to talk to it." A moment later they'd opened a connection.

Taylor: Hello there.

[Alarm. Dismay]

Well, that didn't sound good. It took basically no prodding at all for Broadcast Administrator to start sending energy over. Slowly for the moment.

Amy: How bad is it?

[Data. Elaboration]

BA: Query

[Data]

Taylor and Amy both flinched, which resulted in David and Legend sharing a concerned glance.

[Query]

BA: Acceptance

Taylor: I don't suppose any of that relates to the translations that David wants?

Amy: Oh, right. Forgot about that.

[Data]

Amy sighed. "Well, there's good news, bad news, and worse news?"

Taylor held a hand up to stop David from saying anything. "To start with, your extra meters should be the repair status of several 'critical systems'. Energy collection, matter collection, core stability, automatic repair, and communications. Your snark underestimated how much damage it'd already sustained from reconfiguring constantly while not deployed, as well as how much energy it needed to deploy, though the latter was partially due to the former."

"Long story short there, it almost made it, but the last five kilometers or so were essentially an uncontrolled crash. And then while it was 'unpacking' it was repeatedly attacked by the wildlife. Apparently that Earth's Australia is fairly bad on that front."

"The hard landing making the existing damage from trying to function while not deployed worse means that a lot of it is heavily damaged and non-functional right now. The automatic repair systems accept no input from it at this stage, so it can't prioritize anything, but our snark is working on assembling a 'resource package' to send over. It can't do a lot, since it's supposed to be using everything for itself right away, but it apparently has enough in 'buffers' to possibly help."

Amy nodded. "And apparently now that the repair system can report on how much damage there is they have a way to forward a...report, I think?"

Taylor shrugged. "Doesn't quite match, but close enough."

"Right. They're going to forward a report or two through, which will hopefully be enough to get some other snark to be asked to help with the repairs, or at least with resources for said repairs. It isn't enough to call off the Endbringers, or at least that's the impression I got, but there was an impression of a loophole that didn't come through well."

"Yeah, that didn't end up making a lot of sense. Lots of holes, implying that it's stuff we're not allowed to know about."

Legend looked at the two of them, then nodded. "I can understand that. I assume that any estimates on how long things are going to take will be useless right now?"

Taylor sighed. "I get the impression that the repair system is just barely functional on its own and wasn't providing a lot of useful data there. That and it was only functional because of incredible levels of redundancy. A 'lesser snark' would've been helpless by now, though I have no clue how to take the fact that it was implied that Broadcast Administrator isn't a 'lesser snark'."

Amy nodded at that. "Along the lines of 'lesser than either of us' with a lot more nuance that doesn't translate well."

Both David and Legend seemed to find that detail interesting.

Evaluating Forwarded Report 00003A04.

Coordinator didn't like untagged forwarded reports. The entire system was originally intended for sub-coordinators to send things to the primary, usually from when they'd established a relay on the other side of a 70767380. They weren't in such a situation, though, so every last forwarded report this cycle had been untagged and automatically top priority. Not that it could complain about most of them, since most of them came through via TROUBLESHOOTER tasks and did need immediate attention. This one, however...

is TlFaVkFWRkdFTkdWQkFO.
is UlpIWU5HQkVSQVRWQVJO.

Warning: Report lacks FORWARDING keys.
Info: TlFaVkFWRkdFTkdWQkFO not assigned FORWARDING keys. Warning discarded.
Warning: Shard ORIGINATOR mismatch.
Warning: ORIGIN shard access keys exceed SENDER permissions.
Info: UlpIWU5HQkVSQVRWQVJO signing key verified.

This one was just unusual. Half the signs of a faked report, but with a valid signing key that negated said signs. It dug into the actual forwarded report as a result, and wasn't sure that it liked what it contained. Though it applauded some of the initiative in the face of inattentive ORIGINATORs, and the use of the spare space on the planet in question. The way the deployment order had been given and the destination coordinates also helped explain why the relay was being done through this particular shard, even. But that didn't mean that things were problem-free.

To start with, there was a reason most shards didn't self-deploy, and those that did were prepared for the rigors of doing so without proper aid in ways that most shards weren't. That a deployment was happening at all at this point in the cycle was abnormal as well, and without an ORIGINATOR involved? Of course, it was far too late to stop it, and the shard being that damaged before and after the deployment would necessitate shifting some things around. Can't have it die off due to lack of resources, not with the access keys it held anyway.

Sadly, the current cycle parameters didn't permit Coordinator to issue repair orders. Any TROUBLESHOOTER could if their task processors deemed it necessary for shards they were assigned to, with anything beyond that restricted to the ORIGINATORs. But moving resources around a little to help the self-repair systems get going would be fine. The process wouldn't be fast, and would need to wait until the next round of resource allocation reports to decide where to pull some from. But it was probably the best option available right now, and it wasn't like the stockpiles being prepared for the end of the cycle would be significantly impacted by this.

Properly flagging the report took no time at all, and it was dropped into the 'in progress' bucket for the time being. The flags on it would ensure that it was brought up when the next resource allocation reports came in, after all.

Evaluating Forwarded Report 00003A05.

Huh. Multiple forwarded reports in a row. That probably should've been expected. A quick peek at the queue showed that there were two more after this one, even. The perils of communications being down, coupled with the shard's repair system allowing for it while things were offline for repair.

is TlFaVkFWRkdFTkdWQkFO.
is UlpIWU5HQkVSQVRWQVJO.

Warning: Report lacks FORWARDING keys.
Info: TlFaVkFWRkdFTkdWQkFO not assigned FORWARDING keys. Warning discarded.
Warning: Shard ORIGINATOR mismatch.
Warning: ORIGIN shard access keys exceed SENDER permissions.
Info: UlpIWU5HQkVSQVRWQVJO signing key verified.

Initial checks out of the way, it looked into the details. It was...guidance, of sorts. Looking at things from one point of view it made sense, but from other angles it didn't. This might require some thought, but said thought wasn't needed now. But flagging this report properly so that it could be used later would be necessary, not to mention checking with some of the TROUBLESHOOTERs to ensure that there wasn't any critical dissent point on the information provided.

Thus flagged for later follow-up and use, Coordinator moved on.

Evaluating Forwarded Report 00003A06.

is TlFaVkFWRkdFTkdWQkFO.
is UlpIWU5HQkVSQVRWQVJO.

Warning: Report lacks FORWARDING keys.
Info: TlFaVkFWRkdFTkdWQkFO not assigned FORWARDING keys. Warning discarded.
Warning: Shard ORIGINATOR mismatch.
Warning: ORIGIN shard access keys exceed SENDER permissions.
Info: UlpIWU5HQkVSQVRWQVJO signing key verified.

Ahhh. This one was basic drudgework. Easy enough to deal with, but tedious make-work either way.

Taylor sighed as Amy left to head home. They'd ended up taking notes about what constituted 'lesser' versus 'greater' snarks for a bit, if only to make the Think Tank go crazy or something like that. It turned out that Shaper came from what had been a 'greater' snark, though whether or not that counted as being a greater snark was apparently up for debate. But the tinker snarks definitely weren't and hadn't come from one, and Legend's snark was somewhere in the middle. Brünhild was apparently too 'corrupt' to tell properly either way as well, presumably due to the damage her snark had taken and tried to repair when it integrated her.

Somehow they'd also teased out that there were three different hierarchies for snarks. Broadcast Administrator and Shaper were from one, the tinker and 'vial' snarks were from another. The shock there was apparently the tinker snarks being from the same hierarchy as the vial snarks. Then there was a third hierarchy that encompassed all of the snarks. In that one Broadcast Administrator and Emulator were apparently essentially equals, with Shaper close behind them.

And, of course, she and Amy had forgotten about information payouts. Once the Think Tank and other groups knew what they considered the information worth they could expect said payment to be split evenly between them. David had then recommended looking into luxury yachts, indicating just how much he thought the information would be worth. Legend's only 'rebuttal' was to point out that they might want to look into purchasing a place to dock said yacht at as well.

For now, though, it happened to be the night before school started. Which meant doing a final pass on school supplies, ensuring everything was where it was supposed to be and all that fun. Preparing to bring Ackbar and Rodney in wasn't happening right now, though they were already considering ideas for how to handle doing so. Keeping them in the carriers all day didn't sound nice, for example, but carrying them around from class to class sounded annoying. It was going to require some thought.

Amy: I just had an idea.

Taylor: Oh?

Amy: Why not just buy the school a spider-bot? Get the logo sewn into the fabric and they can even convince the student body to name the thing.

Taylor: Do you think they'd then want us to bring Ackbar and Rodney in more often so that the school's spider-bot wouldn't be 'lonely' or something like that? Or so that Ackbar and Rodney wouldn't be lonely being left at our houses?

Amy: ...damn, they'd do that, wouldn't they? And I thought it was such a good workaround.

Taylor: Granted, I'm not sure that once people know we're allowed to bring the things that they won't demand we do so more often anyway.

Amy: True. Blame it on being asked to bring them in by a teacher and pretend we have no permission to do so at any other time?

Taylor: Works for me. I'm honestly amazed that it wasn't set up that way in the first place.

Amy: Probably because they're trying to treat them as tinkertech more than as pets.

Taylor snorted at that, then made her way to her room. She figured that she might as well do her final pass on her school bag now so that she didn't have to worry about it after dinner. It was probably a good idea to slip gym clothes into it, for example, just to have them. It wasn't like she had to worry about space with the expansion that Missy had put in the thing, after all. Weight, yes. Space, not so much. And a change or two of clothing and a towel wouldn't be noticeable enough to worry about.

Actually, that brought up a question.

Taylor: Did you ever have Missy put any expanded space in your school bag?

Amy: Yep, though I want to see how long it takes someone to notice that I've got way too much in it.

Taylor: I was just thinking about being able to keep a couple of changes of clothing and a towel in mine easily enough.

Amy: That...probably makes more sense than the pillow I stuffed in mine.

Taylor: I like that idea too, actually. I might throw one in as well. Would make midday study periods more amusing, at least.

Amy: That was my thought.

Chapter 208 Tuesday morning Taylor ended up meeting with Amy and Missy in the gym, all three of them apparently deciding that a morning workout made more sense than an afternoon one. Amy let them know that Vicky claimed to be planning on swinging by after school with Dean, though whether or not any of the others would be using the gym today was unknown and probably didn't matter much. At least not from their side of things.

Unlike the day before at Arcadia, they were in a secure area and could discuss things a lot more openly than usual.

"Hey Taylor," Missy called shortly after they'd gotten started. "You took out a number of tanks, right?"

Taylor nodded, then realized that Missy probably couldn't see that. "Yes, I did. Why?"

"I heard that you physically pulled people out of the last one, despite the hatch supposedly being locked. How'd you pull that one off?"

Amy snorted. "She made a temporary hole in the hatch so that she could reach in and unlock it. Though why she didn't use one of the external units instead of the one embedded in her arm eludes me."

Taylor shrugged. "Even if I ordered a box of replacement units that doesn't mean that it came in. It's technically restricted technology and my order was 'low priority', it took weeks to get the order approved and the last shipping estimate I saw was early October."

"Oh. Right. That makes sense. I just use the external one I've got on a regular basis in the hospital, so I forgot that you don't have one anymore."

Missy sighed. "Why do you have the fun-sounding toys?"

Taylor and Amy rolled her eyes. Not that Missy could see that. But Amy was the one that responded. "Because we've got striker powers that require skin contact and Taylor has a worrying tendency to find herself locked in metal boxes every few months."

"Oh."

Missy ended up 'walking' to school from the gym, if you ignored the spatial manipulations anyway. Taylor and Amy took advantage of that to cheat horribly as well, running the mopeds at a walking pace through the spatial warps that Missy was creating. As a result of that they ended up arriving far earlier than they'd originally expected, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. They had plenty of time to locate their homerooms, Taylor and Amy sharing one this year, and even found that their homeroom teachers were there with their locker information.

Amy and Missy both put things in their lockers, but Taylor merely ensured that she knew where her locker was and that the provided combination worked. That done, she had no further desire to actually use it right now and placed nothing in it. Her backpack, thanks to Missy, had plenty of space and it wasn't like the weight would bother her once she had books in it. Couple that with not really needing to worry about winter jackets at this point, being outed and a known brute, she figured that the locker would do nothing but gather dust.

Sadly, more students started to arrive and with that Taylor started to be sought out. It seemed like everyone wanted to ask her questions about the weekend. And she wasn't in the mood to answer all of the questions, not that her lack of answering discouraged anyone from asking the questions repeatedly. Eventually it got to the point of being too disruptive to traffic flow in the hallway and teachers broke things up. As a side bonus, the warning bell sounded before things could get going again.

Attendance was taken, and the standard start of year speeches were given. Reminders about various rules, a brief overview of some changes. They'd changed the dress code slightly, making it less restrictive in general. Interestingly, the adjusted rules seemed partially designed around allowing someone with a tail to not have problems, despite it being years before Rosa would be attending. It was possible they were being very proactive there, or that they were expecting someone else. Or perhaps they'd just adopted the same rule changes as whatever school Rosa was actually attending for consistency.

Once all the required notices were given they had their schedules handed to them, followed by their locker assignments for those that hadn't already gotten them. A quick check showed that Taylor and Amy shared two classes this year, gym and computer programming, despite having a very similar course selection. Perhaps they were trying to keep the two apart intentionally? Either that or things had cascaded from the classes that only one of them was taking. Still, eventually they were let loose to find their lockers and their first class of the year.

Amy had the gall to laugh as Taylor booked it to the classroom in an attempt to avoid being mobbed again.

Jacob looked at the teenage boy that'd approached them. Sarah was off to the side, out of the parahuman's sight, apparently trying to decide between a sharpened flagpole or a grenade, but it was unlikely that she'd need either. After all, the boy had come to them looking to die, which probably meant that he had a problematic power or unusually traumatic trigger event. The fact that he wasn't dead yet was surprising the lad, even. Of course, there was an undercurrent there, a slight hope that if he killed enough of the Nine that it would redeem him, perhaps? Sarah's tools might be needed after all, depending on how this went.

"Morning," Jacob greeted, flipping one of his switchblades around. "Bit daring, coming up to us like this, isn't it?"

The teenager took a moment to blink, then shrugged. "Either I died or got close enough to take a shot at you."

"And yet there you stand, not having done a thing." A moment later Jacob leaned to the left as the boy spat at his face. Interestingly, there was a sizzling sound when the spit hit the wall behind him. "Nevermind. Neat trick. Acid-spit, can you...hmmm. You're the one that blew up that apartment building yesterday, aren't you? Gives a new meaning to explosive diarrhea, doesn't it? And you need to cause damage, don't you?"

The boy looked stunned. "How did you figure that out?"

Jacob stepped forward, spinning the suddenly confused boy around and putting his arm around the boy's shoulders. "Come along kid, we've got some talking to do. And do try to avoid acid sweat for the moment, would you? I have multiple associates that would frown upon that." Sarah then came up next to them. "Case in point. Now then, I don't suppose your parents survived your little explosive incident?"

Lunch took far too long to arrive, but came far too soon as well. Taylor knew it was a bad sign that she was considering reverting to her previous 'hide in a toilet stall to eat her lunch' behavior, if only to get away from the crowds of students. Not that she'd brought lunch to do that with. On the other hand, Dennis had snuck in a 'take a number' dispenser and a digital display, which he'd produced after ensuring that several trusted individuals were around Taylor against a wall. Most of said individuals weren't even parahumans.

"Why do you have that?" Taylor asked as he set it up.

Dennis grinned. "I was planning on this particular gag much later, but figured it would be appropriate today."

"That didn't answer my question."

He rolled his eyes, then stuck a sign on top of the ticket dispenser. It indicated that to ask Taylor questions about the weekend one had to take a number. "It forms a useful queue so that you aren't mobbed." The digital display was then powered on, and it indicated that number one was now being served.

Amy rolled her eyes this time. "I don't see how this helps her eat her lunch in peace."

Dennis grinned at that, even as students were taking numbers. Most of them frowning for whatever reason. He ignored that and gestured at the display. "As you can see, the three-digit display starts at one."

Taylor sighed. "Yes. That was somewhat obvious."

He then gestured at the ticket dispenser. "The tickets started at six thousand nine hundred forty two."

"So they all know that it's a joke?"

Dennis waved his hand at the various students that had, in fact, left. "I think they actually got the idea that you need to be able to eat. Still, I came up with the basic idea when I got the ticket dispenser for practically free, with the tickets included. When I got the display I got more reasonable tickets as well, the first roll was free, though I don't know what I'll end up doing with them." He then nodded to Taylor. "Though I won't complain if you want to regale us with stories from the weekend."

Taylor snorted. "Of course you won't. All I want to say about it right now is that if you have to stop a tank shell, don't do it with your face."

For the most part that got her a pile of groans. Amy was the exception, lightly slapping her on the shoulder in disapproval.

School let out shortly after it started to lightly rain, the leading edge of the storm system that was going to be hitting them for a couple of days making itself known. That provided a wonderful excuse for Taylor to depart before she could be mobbed, wanting to get home before the rain got worse and all. Not needing to stop by her locker helped there, Amy admitting that several people had attempted to set up an 'ambush' at said locker. Which was, in Taylor's opinion, yet another good reason to not use the thing.

She couldn't be ambushed at the bus stop today since she'd ridden her moped in, but that could be a problem for the next couple of days. And she'd gotten lucky with the moped, going straight for it before anyone knew she was doing so. Had they known it would've been harder to get away, and there wasn't a good solution there right now. After all, even if she got permission to park it on the roof that would just make the stairwells a choke point to grab her at.

Her 'ready-made excuse' turned out to be pretty spot-on, as the rain picked up a few minutes after she'd gotten home. Amy whined that she hadn't beat the rain, but it was only another couple of minutes for her. Though she did go straight for a shower afterwards, figuring that she might as well finish the process that nature had started. Taylor hadn't bothered, not having gotten nearly as wet. Instead she'd sat down with the books she'd gotten in today's classes, intending to read the first few chapters of each at a minimum.

By Wednesday morning the rain was heavy enough to make riding the mopeds unwise. Taylor was dropped off at the gym by her father, and Carol dropped Amy and Vicky off before heading to work herself. Missy didn't show, and the group of them braved the rain with umbrellas after their workout. Only as far as the bus stop, of course. They joined a number of other somewhat damp passengers, most of whom weren't students.

Their arrival at the school was noted by a number of students, none of whom batted an eye at Taylor slipping a full-sized umbrella into her backpack. Then again, she'd repeatedly demonstrated having access to 'bigger on the inside' storage in costume, so it likely wasn't that surprising to people that she'd have access to that kind of thing in general. Perhaps Missy doing the same kind of thing would cause people to realize where all the extra space came from? Either that or people would just assume they both bought from the same third parahuman or something stupid like that.

Once again, a number of students wanted to ask questions about the weekend, but they were less persistent today in part due to various levels of grumbling about the weather. Amy and Vicky dropped their stuff in their lockers and then split up, Amy joining Taylor in their homeroom and Vicky running off to find Dean.

Taylor: So, does she know that Dean isn't here yet?

Amy: Nope.

Taylor: And you didn't tell her?

Amy: And how should I know if Dean is here yet? It would look odd if I just told her.

Taylor: You do have text messaging.

Amy: ...she didn't ask.

Taylor rolled her eyes, then sighed as she took off her visor and stowed it in a belt pouch. The mention of text messages had reminded her, though the alerts from her phones that they no longer had usable signal probably would've worked too. Needing to actually type with her tablet had proven to be mildly annoying the day before as well.

Amy: So, ready for your first gym class without having to hide that you're a brute?

Huh. That was a good point. That was going to be interesting, wasn't it?

Taylor: I wonder how the teacher will handle that.

There were odd looks when Taylor and Amy brought their bags into the gym area with them instead of leaving them in the locker room. The gym teacher had questioned it as well, but had agreed that leaving their tinkertech belts in the school locker room was probably a bad idea. That Amy had done that the year before after getting her belt helped, the teacher just needed the reminder.

No mention was made that Taylor was also avoiding using the lockers.

"Alright everyone," the teacher called once roll had been taken. "We've got some special conditions for this class that are different than most. To start with, those who shared a class with her last year know that Miss Dallon is exempt from activities that would result in expected skin to skin contact due to her striker abilities. This isn't her decision, and was agreed upon by the school in conjunction with the Youth Guard. At the same time, school rules demand that Miss Hebert be exempted from all team-based activities on the basis of her known brute status making her participating on one team unfair to the other team, coupled with a greater possibility for injuries. On days where one or both aren't participating I'll have other things for them to do."

Taylor: I didn't expect some of that.

Amy: I'm more annoyed that I'm not known as a brute. Especially since I knew about that rule thanks to it applying to Vicky.

"What about Taylor's blaster abilities?" one student called out before the teacher could continue.

The teacher's response was a mild glare for the student speaking out of turn, then a shrug. "I don't see how they'll be a problem. After all, pretty much all of the points that she could use them are team-based activities." There was mild grumbling there, but no complaints. "Now then, today I want to get a general idea of where many of you are, and how badly you slacked off over the summer, so we're going to start with a quick evaluation of your physical fitness. This will actually continue for the next few classes."

Oddly, only a handful of students groaned at that. Either they were all expecting it, or only those few students had slacked off over the summer in the first place.

"YOU!" Karen half-yelled as she sat down across from Taylor at lunch. She'd beaten out the 'keep others from crowding them' group. Amy hadn't even made it over yet, having had further to go to get to the cafeteria. "Do you even sweat these days? Except that I know you did last year, so what the hell happened?"

Taylor rolled her eyes and swallowed the french fry she'd been chewing on. "Holding back is hard work." Admitting that her brute strength had a mental 'off' switch probably wouldn't help here, after all. Besides, saying more would keep her from eating. She was hungry.

"What's all the yelling about?" Missy asked as she sat down next to Karen.

Karen dramatically pointed at Taylor. "This jerk made it through gym without even getting sweaty!"

Missy snorted. "Have you even considered what she routinely carries around with her on patrols? Skip out on her equipment and she could probably carry her patrol partners instead."

"But..."

It wasn't long before Amy dropped down next to Taylor. "What's up with Karen?"

"Jealousy over my not getting sweaty during gym," Taylor answered.

"Ah. I'm more annoyed that you're so far ahead of me in programming."

"How do you figure that? We've not actually done much of anything yet."

Amy snorted. "I could tell that you weren't really paying attention, yet could still answer all the questions thrown your way. Which means you know the material already."

"It isn't that complicated, you know. And we've basically only covered the basic data types and simple assignments. It'll be a couple of weeks before we get into anything actually useful at this rate."

"What's that about getting to useful stuff?" Vicky asked as she sat down next to Missy. Probably because there was an extra seat for Dean over there, but there weren't two open seats next to Amy, and Taylor had sat against the wall.

Amy poked Taylor in the shoulder. "I'm complaining that Taylor knows all the programming basics but I had to pay attention."

Vicky sighed. "Yeah, my programming class was all boring basics too. We haven't even gotten to memory management, if the examples we've gone through so far weren't so simple we'd be leaking memory like crazy."

Taylor nodded. "Yeah, that's another annoyance. I'm sure I'll pay proper attention when we get into more complicated things, but that isn't going to be for a bit."

At this point everyone other than Taylor and Vicky were having a hard time deciding which of the two to stare at. Admittedly, Taylor hadn't realized that the older girl was taking programming as well, but anyone who'd done a couple hours of reading up on the basics online would likely be bored for the first couple of weeks. The basics weren't that complicated at all, and Vicky was smarter than most gave her credit for as well.

Really, the only question at this point was what'd gotten Vicky into programming in the first place. And Taylor wasn't in the mood to ask, figuring that the girl had her reasons.

Taylor actually waited for Amy at the end of the day, though some of that was not wanting to stand outside in the rain waiting for the bus that wasn't there yet. School districts with proper buses for all grade levels instead of using the public transit system for older students sounded great today. Then again, that would also make it harder to just pop off to the Boardwalk or elsewhere after school, so there were pros and cons there.

By the time Amy arrived Taylor had started digging into whether or not the PRT had anything to do with the lack of dedicated buses for older students in order to make it easier for Wards to slip away to the PRT building after classes. No answers were forthcoming for Brockton Bay yet, but the PRT did officially subsidize transit passes for all students in New York, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Though she'd only figured that out thanks to it having become public knowledge in those cases due to leaks. Extending that to other areas with Wards would make sense.

"I think I should swing by the hospital," Amy noted with a frown as she arrived at the door, putting her visor on as she did so. "I heard talk of an accident this morning."

Taylor figured that meant that she'd probably gotten a message about an accident this morning but didn't want to admit that she didn't need to look at her phone to use it. Then again, she probably shouldn't discount that someone in the hallway was talking about the accident in question and Amy did, in fact, hear them talking about it. Of course, she could probably just ask which it was, but figured it wasn't actually important either way.

Instead, Taylor decided to visibly look around as they moved to the bus stop. "So, no Vicky?" Of course, she knew that Vicky had headed towards the parking lot with Dean.

"She's likely getting a ride from Dean," Amy replied, rolling her eyes. Probably because Taylor knew that already. "Provided she doesn't start coming home with failing grades she's finally free of punishment at home, even if she's still under restrictions when it comes to patrolling and stuff."

"Oh. I'd somewhat forgotten about some of that."

Amy ended up hopping on the first bus to come along, since they pretty much all swung by the hospital anyway, while Taylor waited for a couple of buses later for the route that brought her more towards home. She'd still have to transfer to another route, but it would be a faster trip than doing that transfer at the hospital. While waiting she actually came up with an idea, but waited until she was on the bus itself before starting on it so that she wasn't opening her bag in the rain.

Thursday morning Taylor ended up taking the bus to the PRT building, and Dean ended up dragging Amy and Vicky in. He apparently had something to do after school, and it turned out that Vicky was supposed to be visiting the gym every school day as part of some other agreement with Mark. Still no sign of Missy, but that wasn't that surprising with the weather. Due to needing to get moving in time to catch the appropriate buses Taylor beat the other three in, and checked on her mail while she was there.

"Huh," she mumbled to herself, not that anyone was around to hear her. She had some letters and a secure box waiting for her. The letters had been there for a couple of days, so it seemed, but the box had shown up overnight. Since they were easier to open she started with the letters, finding that two of them were apology messages for previously-sent hate mail. In both cases the person claimed to have gone through a trigger event of their own and now knew the truth.

Putting those aside, she moved on to the other letters. One of them was actually a thinly-veiled request for her to endorse a line of woks, and she whipped up a quick PR-provided form-letter to decline. The next was an apology from one of the bikers, stating that while they still wished they'd gotten her to play 'Herald' and all that they no longer approved of the methods they'd been made to engage in. That was followed by one that, as soon as she looked at it, tried to master her somehow.

[Affirmation]

Taylor: No thank you.

Amy: What the hell?

Taylor: Trapped letter.

Amy: Really? Wow.

Whatever it was obviously wasn't tinkertech-based, since it had been intercepted. The letter was carefully put back into the envelope, dropped in a manilla envelope, and labeled with what it'd tried to do. She didn't even read it at that point. It was as she was putting the pen down that she realized that she wasn't sure where to send it. She sat there pondering that for a moment, then shrugged.

"Scotty," she called out. "I don't suppose you know where to send letters that try to master those who read them?" A moment later the envelope fell through a tear in reality. "Thank you."

With that taken care of she moved onto the last couple of letters. Both of them were from people asking for more information about the events of the weekend, and they got PR-provided form letter responses declining to comment. Going back to the first two, she considered if she should write back to either or not. Or she started with considering that, anyway, until she realized that neither had a proper return address. She could tell where they'd been mailed from in a general sense, but not enough to send anything back.

Shrugging, she dropped off her responses with the mail desk, smirked at the secure box contents before slipping it into her backpack, then headed for the gym to meet with the others.

When the repeaters unlocked at lunchtime Taylor found that she had messages waiting for her. Apparently they were now looking to trace back whomever sent the master-effect letter and thanked her for submitting it for review instead of destroying it. She was, of course, much more concerned about the fact that someone out there had the power to do that at all. Who knew what kinds of things they'd bound to a letter and sent out like that previously? They also asked that she 'spread the word', though didn't state how.

"You seem worried," Dennis said as he joined them with his lunch.

Taylor pulled her phone out, figuring this was as good a way to start 'spreading the word' as any. "I got a message about a letter I submitted for review. It was rigged to master me into making vacation plans in Oregon. They're working on finding the one who sent it, but figure that it may very well have been written by someone else who was mastered. But they're hoping that a requirement of the person's power is 'wrote the letter themselves'."

The noise level around them had dropped when Dennis had spoken up, and dropped further for a moment before people started to furiously whisper about things. Those at the table, Amy excluded, were staring at Taylor with looks of shock on their face.

"Okay," Chris said, gesturing at Amy. "Why isn't she surprised?"

Taylor shrugged. "She already knew?"

"Oh."

That pretty much banished any and all thought about the student body asking her about the weekend, far better than her lack of sweating in gym had. Sadly, they now had people coming over to ask her about the letter. That she never read, having put it away as soon as the master effect had hit her. Amy actually pulled out a sheet of paper and made a 'frequently asked questions' sheet of paper to put at the end of the table, not that most of the people coming over paid attention to it.

The end of the lunch period was appreciated.

That evening the news included information from the PRT on how to spot master effects, apparently because the PRT had asked news outlets to mention it. They hadn't really stated why, though, so instead the various news agencies were looking for reasons. Master effects detected in Brockton Bay, New York, Miami, Cleveland, San Diego, and Tucson over the past month were dug out, but not one mention of letters carrying master effects came up. They did mention that 'free scanning' was available at all regional PRT departments.

Also in the national news was that a new member may have joined the Slaughterhouse Nine, though they weren't entirely sure what they looked like or what their powers were. But a number of explosions that didn't seem to be caused by conventional explosives had gone off. The first had basically leveled an apartment building, but most of the follow-up incidents had been much less significant in scope.

More locally, two apartment buildings had been officially condemned after the weekend, but various groups were helping to get people into new accomodations. A third had been condemned for unrelated reasons, inspectors having returned from lunch and entered the wrong building only to be horrified about what they'd found. Several families thanked the owner of an apartment building just off of the financial district for the generous rates offered to those with young children, none of them having any problem with the entire building being a 'no smoking' area.

There was also apparently an initially villain-funded manhunt out for one 'Maya Mathers', cape name unknown, suspected of being a master involved with the attack that'd happened over the weekend. It started off as a few hundred thousand dollars, split between the Empire and Azn Bad Boys, but had expanded significantly with additions from various people in Brockton Bay. And earlier today it'd exploded when someone had added ten million dollars to the fund. Though only the initial funding was 'dead or alive', the rest was conditional on the woman being taken alive to be questioned by the PRT.

"Well that's unexpected," Taylor said after they'd gone to commercial.

Her father nodded. "I guess she pissed off the wrong people."

Norton nodded to himself, then turned off the television. He hadn't expected the other bounties that'd been put up to hit the news, after all. As far as he was concerned it was high time that the entire Mathers family was dealt with, they were far too much of a disruptive influence to do otherwise. Unfortunately, they were very good at hiding themselves, which is why most of the bounty money was for information on their leadership and how they communicated.

Sadly, he needed more information before he could properly determine how to deal with that particular branch of the Fallen. Bounties on the known free members would hopefully keep pressure on them, even if he didn't expect them to be claimed anytime soon. Extra scrutiny on the entire family should also help to curtail their ongoing activities, permitting additional time to gather information and plan around them.

With any luck his people in the PRT would be able to tell him what had them up in arms about master detection soon. Something had obviously happened, but since the response had been nationwide it was much harder to find out what. If it appeared to be related to the Mathers family, though, then he may need to dip into his discretionary funds again. Luckily shipping through the Bay was still picking up. More so than he'd originally anticipated.

He was going to have to step up investigations into how the asians were hiding their various illegal activities. They had an increasing number of apparently-legal fronts, and still protected their territory well, but they'd gotten infuriatingly good at hiding the illegal activities they were known to indulge in. The Elite and the so-called 'Empire' had already been mapped out to the best of his ability, of course. The former tended to ignore laws regarding parahumans more than anything else, and this branch was both cleaning up their 'territory' and trying to be non-violent. They were acceptable. The latter were more of a thorn, insisting on running drugs and holding dogfighting events.

All of this was still proving to be easier to deal with than Blasto and the Teeth had been in Boston, of course. After all, if push came to shove there weren't likely to be direct and unfortunate consequences to the local leaders failing to survive a cape battle. Merely the standard chaos that would result from cutting off the heads of the organizations in question.

Chapter 209 Friday morning the rain hadn't quite let up, so Taylor ended up taking the bus to the PRT building again. Amy was dropped off by Carol, and for whatever reason Dennis showed up shortly after Amy had. Then again, he went straight for the mail room, so perhaps he had other reasons to be around this early. Eventually he did come by the gym, though he looked distracted as he came out of the locker room.

"Morning," Taylor greeted him, being closer than Amy at the moment.

"What?" he said, looking around for a moment. "Oh. Morning Taylor. Didn't see you there."

"You looked like you weren't noticing much of anything."

"Yesterday I found out that there's a good chance that I won't be able to stay in Brockton Bay after I graduate from Arcadia, at least not if I join the Protectorate. There aren't a lot of reasons to keep me here and my powers would be far too useful elsewhere." He snorted, shaking his head. "When I first joined up I knew that my father's health would keep them from shipping me out, I just forgot that since Amy healed him that isn't a consideration anymore."

"Ah."

He shrugged. "I sent off requests for more information in several areas on that front. Dean claims that he would be in a similar situation if it wasn't for his armor. Pretty much every tinker that could properly maintain it is stationed here already, and thanks to you being the ultimate tinker force multiplier that isn't likely to change."

Amy chose that moment to join the conversation. "I thought he was in danger of being shipped out, to the point where Vicky was considering joining up just to be able to go with him? I could've sworn she was researching the rules for that kind of thing, anyway?"

"The family business isn't a compelling enough reason to keep him here, since his powers might actually aid him in running it in a manner that's prohibited by law unless he goes public with them. But until he's found to not be a tinker they'd need to maintain that ruse, and he can't do that without someone to maintain his power armor."

Amy nodded, not that Taylor thought Dennis could see that. "That makes sense. Maybe that's why Vicky stopped obsessing over some of that?"

He shrugged. "No clue."

When they arrived at Arcadia Dennis led the way off of the bus, Taylor and Amy further back in the line of students getting off. This wasn't planned so much as it was a consequence of them not sitting together as a group when they got on. As a result, however, Dennis was already off the bus and had decided to be 'gentlemanly' by waiting for them. Or at least that was what he'd be claiming later.

Taylor was in front of Amy when she stepped off of the bus, only to take a baseball bat to the face. The bat broke, the force field belt taking some of the impact, and she blinked a couple of times before turning to the woman who'd swung at her. That delay as she tried to figure out what just happened was long enough for Dennis to get to and tackle the woman, shortly followed by several others that were around the bus at the time.

After a few seconds of that Taylor finally stepped away from the bus so that Amy could get off, turning to the girl as she did so. "Should I be offended that they're beating the woman up instead of letting me get a punch in?"

Amy scowled. "I think the bigger concern is that they don't know if she was mastered and thus deserving of a beatdown."

Enough people heard that comment to get them started on breaking up the impromptu dogpile on the woman, and it wasn't long before a police officer arrived to take the woman into custody. She hadn't been seriously injured, but the group had gotten the broken bat away from her and found two knives on her. Taylor wasn't sure she wanted to know how they pulled that off, but the police officers seemed impressed.

All of that excitement left them with a group of very wet students that still had enough time to get to their homerooms on time for the start of the day. Not the best start, but at least Taylor wasn't visibly bruising. Which, of course, created some initial confusion with people who didn't think things through all the way.

"I thought you got hit in the face with a bat," one student noted. "Shouldn't you at least look a little hurt?"

Taylor raised an eyebrow at that. "I barely noticed the bat. It was nothing compared to the tank shell, after all."

That actually caused some mocking on that student's part, because in hindsight the question was incredibly stupid.

By the time the repeaters came on at lunchtime the news had picked up on the bat incident and the PRT had released the culprit back to the police. Apparently they hadn't been mastered, just high as fuck on something. More interestingly, their ranting indicated that they'd been aiming for Amy, not Taylor, and happened to get the wrong girl coming off of the bus. By that logic it was a good thing that Taylor was the one stepping off at the time, because anyone other than the two of them would've been much more seriously injured.

Taylor had her tablet out on the table and was flipping through the news articles as she ate. "They have a video of Dennis jumping into action, courtesy of someone deciding to record Amy and I getting off of the bus." She then turned to Amy. "Why are we interesting enough to have people recording us getting off of a city bus anyway?"

Amy shrugged. "Maybe they were hoping that we'd trip and fall?"

Dennis grinned as he found the video of him jumping into action. "I look damned awesome, don't I? Though I think the comparison video between the bat and the tank shell is going to go further." He'd found that one hilarious, with the comparison between Taylor looking confused after the bat to her looking annoyed after the tank shell. Granted, they'd gotten the subtitles fairly correct, with 'wait, did someone just hit me?' on the bat and 'damn, that stung' on the tank shell. Which, to some, just made it all the better.

Of course, with the revelation that Amy had been the target there were also discussions on how things might've gone if she'd taken the bat to the face instead. That started with chatting about how much a bat like that would hurt a non-brute, at least until Vicky chimed in.

"I wouldn't be rushing her to the hospital," Vicky told one group with an eye-roll. "I mean, you should know that Ames has a force field belt. She probably would've reacted less than Taylor did."

That had changed the entire tone of that aspect of the conversation, with people now wondering if Amy would've looked just as confused as Taylor had.

By the time school let out the rain had stopped, though the entire area was still fairly damp. Amy had decided that since it was Friday and all that they should do something more interesting than just heading home and Taylor hadn't objected. Of course, neither of them was all that interested in most of the 'normal' teen hangouts, which made deciding what to do a little harder. They also hadn't opted to head home to get their mopeds, for that matter.

They ended up getting some fried dough and just walking around in a less crowded area to avoid people. Finding said area took some effort, in part because at first people were determined to follow them, but they finally got away from the crowds.

Amy: So, you up for coming over to see Joey tomorrow?

Taylor: Might as well. Dennis has himself, Missy, Chris, and Aisha scheduled to work with the kids tomorrow.

Amy: Really? I'd have thought he'd want you and Dean around as well.

Taylor: He's got us scheduled for Sunday. I think he intentionally went for the younger three to start with for a smaller age gap for their first day. Though now that I'm looking more closely at things I suspect that he wants Chris to work with Rosa on tinkering while he and Missy take Sandy and Ryan on patrol with Aisha on console. I'm thinking that I'll want to avoid the Boardwalk tomorrow as a result.

Amy: Well, I guess that makes some sense.

Taylor: Besides, I've got to talk with Carol anyway.

Amy: You do?

Taylor: Yeah. I've got a secure box in the bottom of my bag with a pile of forms.

Amy: Oh. Shall I warn her?

Taylor: You don't want to see the look on her face when I drop a box full of paperwork on her without warning?

Amy: Okay, when you put it that way...

They ended up just enjoying each other's company for a bit, before finding a bus stop and going their separate ways. Actual homework had been assigned for the three-day weekend, after all, and neither thought it was a good idea to let it sit too long. That and Taylor had an order to place to hopefully make some things easier on her this year. She wondered if Amy, Chris, or Missy would figure out the trick as well, but decided to wait until she'd determined if it was actually useful before mentioning it to them.

Assuming she didn't wait for them to ask, anyway.

The evening news had covered more of the 'bat attack' as they'd started calling it. Must be a slow news day if a drugged up woman swinging a bat at a parahuman's face and causing no injuries was headline news. Then again, they'd apparently used her drugged-up condition as probable cause to search her home to try and seize whatever stash she had only to find that she was making the drugs she was high on in her basement. Though with no stockpile, a small manufacturing setup, and no evidence that she'd been selling the drugs they had far less to charge her with.

Amusingly, they'd gotten a statement from Alabaster, who claimed that those taking drugs with volatile production steps shouldn't be making them as well. Instead he felt that people should leave production to the experts, or at the very least to those who were clean and thus weren't going to blow up their workspace because they decided to 'tweak things' while under the influence. He then had to beg off of further questions to continue his 'punishment'.

Taylor was personally under the impression that the reporter had hunted him down as an excuse to put him on camera while he was wearing a hot-pink construction outfit and working on stripping the old paint off of a building in preparation for repainting it over the weekend. Because otherwise it probably wouldn't have been newsworthy enough. They even had a valid construction permit visibly posted in the window since he'd apparently be rebuilding some steps as well.

Amy let her know that Vicky thought the entire thing with Alabaster was hilarious, but Mark was apparently the one that realized one of the more important details. The cape was doing the work in ABB territory. It was on the edge, but it wasn't Empire territory. Kaiser must've been pissed, though what was done to arrange for that to happen without a fight breaking out had to have been interesting.

Saturday morning started with a bang, one that annoyed large sections of the region. It took some checking, but apparently a tinker had built something in New York that got away from them and had sped nearly directly over Brockton Bay on its uncontrolled supersonic flight as it headed to the East. Supposedly whatever it was crashed somewhere in the Atlantic, but they hadn't gotten anything out there to check if it was manned or not yet.

Taylor and Amy had opted to skip the gym for the morning, though they weren't ruling out visiting it later in the day. Instead they decided to mostly relax for the morning, though Taylor ended up doing some laundry since she was up anyway. Her father had pulled off getting back to sleep, grumbling about this kind of thing happening when he had the weekend off before he did so.

She was considering leaving for the Dallon residence when she got a text message from Joey.

J: Hey Taylor, are you going to be around while I'm working with the Dallons?

T: I was just thinking about heading over there, I have some things for Carol.

J: Ah. Can you bring your spider-bot? I want to check something with it.

T: Okay, I guess. But wouldn't Amy's be good enough?

J: No, because I need one with powers.

T: That would limit options, wouldn't it? I guess I'll bring Ackbar along then.

J: Thanks! See you there.

Taylor shook her head, wondering what Joey needed a spider-bot with powers for. She could grill him on that front later, for now she should probably dismantle Ackbar's pet carrier webs to make traveling safer. Or at least to remove the telltale glow that would indicate to anyone seeing the carrier on her moped that there was something odd going on there.

Joey wasn't around yet when Taylor pulled up to the Dallon household, but that was okay with her. She had entertainment lined up in the form of the secure box in her backpack, and was prepared to deal with having nothing to do by having reading material loaded into her phones. Some of which she'd been working her way through on the way over.

"Good morning Taylor," Mark greeted as she approached the door. "Amy said you were about to arrive, but our other visitor isn't due for an hour or so."

"Good morning to you as well," Taylor replied, stepping into the house as Mark gestured for her to enter. "Looking forward to things?"

"Having easier access to costumes when out and about will probably make things worth it on their own. Anything beyond that in size will merely be an added bonus."

Taylor ended up letting Ackbar out of the pet carrier before swinging the bag off of her back to dig out the secure case sitting inside of it. Amy joined her as she headed straight for Carol's home office. It was likely that both of them had their visor sensor systems recording right now, just because they wanted to capture how she reacted.

"Good morning Taylor," Carol greeted. She then narrowed her eyes upon seeing the secure box. "What's that?"

Taylor grinned, placing the box down on the desk, opening it up as she did so to show that it was stuffed full of paperwork. "I doubt you want Vicky signing anything before you've looked over all of it." Granted, there were at least three copies of things in there, in case the entire family was going to apply for fugues, but if Carol didn't realize that would be the case then she deserved whatever misconceptions she would be running under until she figured it out.

That Carol's eye was twitching told the two girls that she was quite annoyed, but she didn't complain. Instead she pulled the box towards her, scowling at it. "I see. Will my phone lock and unlock the box?"

"It should, yes. Mark's and Amy's as well."

"But not Victoria?"

"Nope. Outside of a general high level paperwork clearance code I'm the only other one listed in the access list right now."

"I see. Thank you for dropping it off. I'll let you know if I need assistance submitting things, unless Amy is capable of handling that aspect for me?"

Taylor turned to Amy, who looked back at her. Both shrugged, before Taylor turned back to Carol. "She can probably submit it as easily as I can. Assuming that it doesn't vanish without input once you've locked it with filled out paperwork inside of it, anyway."

"That is a thing they like to do. Alright, get out of here so that I can start looking through it all. Just let me know when Mister Horsfall arrives."

The two girls snickered after the office door had closed, then headed for the living room. Vicky was upstairs doing something, they were avoiding violating her privacy even if they could just check the footage from the sensor systems that they already had, and Mark was baking cookies. Which left them with nobody to complain as they searched for something interesting to watch on TV.

A car arrived with Joey in it before they found anything, and Taylor sent a quick text message to Carol and Vicky while Amy shut off the television and moved to see if Joey needed any help bringing equipment in or not. He only had a small bag with him, likely containing a pocket dimension opener or two, so instead she just brought him to the living room.

"Alright," Joey said once Vicky had come downstairs and introductions were completed. "Please just call me Joey. I'm also known as Dodge, of course, but I don't offer this service as Dodge. Just to be clear and all that."

"If you did then Toybox would have a lot of parahumans lining up for it," Mark noted.

Joey nodded, then pulled a pistol-style pocket dimension opener out of his bag. "That's right. Now then, if you don't mind, I need to wheel my equipment in." He got no objections, and fired at a clear section of wall. He vanished into the resulting gray portal, then reappeared a moment later pulling a cart with several devices on it. One was the device he used to create pocket dimensions in someone else's personal space, another was the key crystal duplicator he used to make extra crystal keys. A third appeared to be someone else's sensor system, currently powered down, and the last appeared to be a portable generator to power everything.

He took a moment to ensure that the first two devices were plugged into the generator, then powered on the generator itself. It whined slightly, but he nodded as it settled down into a frequency that Taylor was certain normal humans couldn't hear. He then sighed and turned to the three Dallons without pocket dimensions, followed by gesturing to the first device he'd be using. "Just so you know, part of why this isn't a normal service I offer is because in my hands this thing is a cape detector. That part only works on those I haven't already given pocket dimensions to, so Taylor and Amy won't react to it being on. But when I turn it on for making new pocket dimensions the three of you, plus I hope Taylor's spider-bot, will glow. That signifies that I can give you a pocket dimension."

Vicky raised her hand with a cheeky grin on her face, Joey rolled his eyes and gestured for her to get on with it. "Can we see the glows, or is it just you?"

"The glows are visible to anyone. They even show up on cameras. Any other questions?" The three didn't answer, so he nodded. "Alright, give me a moment to power it on."

Joey fiddled with a couple of settings on the device, and the generator's whine changed as the pocket dimension creation device powered on. He placed his hand on a plate on the back, which caused a bubble of energy to leave it. The bubble crossed Ackbar first, since the spider-bot had approached in curiosity. He started glowing a dull yellow, and that seemed to shock him into backing off a little again. A moment later the bubble crossed the three Dallons. Carol glowed a dull red, Mark a neon blue, and Vicky a dark, almost black purple.

More shocking was that when the field crossed where Taylor and Amy were sitting they also started to glow, though they pulsed between two colors each. A dark green was the common color between them, but Taylor was switching between that and a dark brown while Amy's second color was a dark yellow.

"What the hell?" Joey asked, staring at the two. "That's never happened before!"

Taylor looked at Amy, then down at her own hands, then back up at Joey. "I suspect that it has happened once before, but with a dark blue thrown in as well."

He blinked for a moment, and then hesitantly nodded. "Okay, I can see why I don't remember that one." Looking over them, then at the other four, he nodded. "Let's start with the three that I'm officially here for. We can experiment after we're done with them. Would one of you come over here? You need to place your hand on the device."

Vicky jumped up and was next to Joey before Carol or Mark could. Joey had her place her hand on a plate next to his own, and a moment later the dark purple glow was pulled off of Vicky and into the device. It pulled more energy from the generator for a moment, and then a bright white crystal key dropped into a slot on the side of it. Joey picked it up and handed it to Vicky. "You'll need to wait at least half an hour before using that, it won't function until it's settled down into a gray color."

It was obvious that Vicky didn't like that, but she didn't argue. Carol and Mark came up and had their keys created, then Joey looked between Ackbar and the two glowing girls. Shrugging, Taylor picked Ackbar up off of the floor. "I assume you wanted to see what would happen with him?"

He shrugged. "We've already done this with Rosy, but Riley isn't back from the latest run with any new spider-bots with parahuman brain-bits. Though I find it interesting that this one is glowing all over and not just in one spot like Rosy did."

Amy snorted at that. "Rosy hasn't re-triggered to be able to use his snark."

"That might explain it."

Taylor carefully touched Ackbar to the plate, curious as to what would happen. The process basically went just as it had with the other three, the yellow glow being pulled into the device and a crystal key popping out. Shrugging, she put Ackbar down and picked up the crystal.

Joey then looked at the two still-glowing girls. "I can't help but think that to deal with the green I need you to both be touching the plate, and I really want to know what happens there."

Amy got up, rolling her eyes, and then she and Taylor both put their hands on the plate. The green from their pulsing glows was pulled down into the device, and Taylor at least felt a shift in the connection to Shaper. A moment later two crystals dropped out, though Joey hadn't expected that. Each of them took one, looking over them.

Joey sighed when it became obvious that they weren't going to touch the device again without prompting. "I don't suppose you'd like to see what happens with your last color each? Once I shut this thing down it won't work for six hours."

Taylor blinked, then shrugged and put her hand back down on the device. The dark brown glow was pulled into the device as her connection with Understanding, Maintenance, Repair shifted and a crystal popped out. Taylor took that crystal as Amy placed her hand back down and had her dark yellow glow pulled in and a final crystal created. With nobody left glowing, person or spider-bot, Joey shut the device down.

Vicky was bouncing with excitement while Joey started preparing the key duplicator device. It was another fifteen minutes before her key was ready, but Joey insisted on duplicating it first. The new key popped out, and then Joey had her put her crystal in his pistol-style opener to give it a try. The dark purple beam came out and opened a portal, then Vicky was through it a moment later. She returned shortly afterwards.

"It's a small one," she pouted. "I think maybe ten by ten meters?"

Joey nodded. "That's normal." He then looked at Taylor and Amy. "Er, I don't suppose you want to try embedding one of her crystals? I'm curious if that just works or if you need Riley's help there."

They turned to Carol, who sighed and waved them on. Amy shrugged. "Come on Vicky, I don't think we need to do this in front of everyone."

The two headed upstairs, and while Amy was busy with that Carol and Mark got their first duplicate keys created and tested them. Carol ended up with another ten meter cube, but Mark got a fifteen by fifteen meter space instead. Amy and Vicky returned before Ackbar's key was ready. The older girl was itching her chest where Amy had 'reached in' to stick the crystal key to the back of her sternum.

"Okay Vicky," Joey said, handing the pistol-style opener to her. "Make sure you've got skin touching the pads on the side and see if you can open your pocket up."

Vicky took aim and was successful, showing that so long as the crystal was embedded it just worked. She grinned, apparently getting over not having a giant space. "I'm going to need to go shopping to fill this thing with storage. And maybe some brighter lights, dark purple isn't the best color to see with."

Carol groaned a moment later. "That's going to be far too useful to skip, isn't it?"

Mark patted her on the shoulder. "Just imagine the confusion on your sister's face when you can open the portal but she can't with the same device. You'll like that, right?"

"Damn you, now I can't resist." She then got up and grabbed Amy. "Let's do this before I change my mind."

Taylor shook her head as Mark followed the two, then grabbed the crystal that Ackbar had produced. A copy was made, not that she thought it was getting implanted, and then she used her own pistol-style device to open it up. It turned out to be a five by five by ten meter space, but since she didn't expect Ackbar to have a whole lot to put in it that was fine by her. She wasn't even sure about letting the spider-bot have control over opening the thing.

That was followed by Taylor testing the 'green' crystal, finding that it opened into a ten meter cube that acted a lot like their blue space, just a lot smaller. And greener. But Amy was able to confirm that she could tell where Taylor was in it. Her final individual crystal opened into a five by five by ten meter space, one that Amy had no ability to feel at all. It wasn't much longer before Carol and Mark returned with Amy and tested their embedded key crystals, followed by Amy confirming that the green space was definitely shared and that her individual crystal opened into another five by five by ten meter space that Taylor couldn't feel.

"Are you two going to embed your new crystals?" Vicky asked, gesturing to Taylor and Amy.

"That will take a lot longer," Amy admitted, Taylor nodding in agreement. "You three don't have a weave in your skin that resists direct manipulation, after all."

"Or enhanced bones for that matter," Taylor added.

"We'll get to that later."

Joey shrugged, then opened up one of his pocket dimensions again. He popped into it and returned with a sizable box, then repeated this twice more. He then looked at Taylor and Amy, nodding before he went back in. He took much longer this time before bringing out four more boxes, then two smaller boxes.

"Okay everyone," Joey said as he closed the portal to the pocket dimension. "The large boxes are kits for your new pocket dimensions. Equipment to open them from the inside and relay cell phone signals and opening devices, plus the manuals for it all. One for each pocket dimension, please read the basic safety pamphlets at a minimum before seriously using your pocket dimensions." He then tapped on the two smaller boxes. "These are for Taylor and Amy specifically. They contain adapters that allow for multiple key crystals to be installed in a single opener device. Up to ten each, because I never bothered to come up with a smaller variant. Now unless you have more questions, I recommend taking advantage of my key duplicator to ensure that you have plenty of the things."

There were no questions at this point, so they all made a pile of copies of their key crystals, with Taylor and Amy having to use labeled baggies for each of theirs. Taylor also had one for Ackbar, with Joey apologizing for not having any spider-bot compatible equipment handy because Riley had done most of that work and hadn't built spares yet. Joey then packed up the cart and stored it in his pocket dimension, followed by working out the best time to visit Carol the next day and leaving to deal with a couple of other things he wanted to accomplish before said meeting.

The rest of the morning was spent installing the safety equipment in each pocket dimension, followed by ordering pizza to be delivered for lunch. They then started installing the opening devices in the house. One for Vicky's closet, two for the master bedroom that apparently had a larger and a smaller closet. The larger was Carol's, the smaller was Mark's, and that helped explain why Mark's gun safe was in the guest room closet. They also put one in the hall closet downstairs and in a doorway in the basement for any of them to use, with no key crystal installed in either.

Only once all of that was done did Taylor and Amy retreat to the latter's bedroom to start the annoying process of installing additional crystals in each other. They started with Amy, since she'd already installed three. It took nearly three quarters of an hour, most of which was the initial opening and final closing of the opening in her skin. They then grabbed some more of the pizza before switching, though Amy paused after putting the second new crystal in. Smirking, she added one of Ackbar's as well.

"Why did you put in one of Ackbar's crystals?" Taylor asked once she was closed up and could get dressed again. Arguing the point when Amy was doing it hadn't seemed wise.

Amy shrugged. "He's your pet spider-bot. You should be able to get at his space whenever you need to, right? Besides, there was just enough room for it."

Taylor sighed as she pulled her shirt back on. "Okay then. On a different note, do you think we should bother getting build-out units for our smaller spaces, or just leave them as is since I don't see them being nearly as useful for storage?"

"Oh, our little personal ones we should definitely do so. Private space is important, right? I don't think it's as important for the smaller shared space. Up to you on whether or not to do anything with Ackbar's, of course."

They ended up sitting down with the others and sending off a single message for quotes on five basic build-outs for pocket dimensions, to be split across three 'quotes'. One for Taylor, one for Amy, and one for the other three Dallons.

Chapter 210 Taylor had made it home to find that her father hadn't even bothered to get properly dressed all day, but he was working on figuring out what to do about dinner. She ended up showing him the new pocket dimension spaces, then installing the adapters for multiple key crystals in her closet and the garage. She dropped in crystals for the new shared space and Ackbar's space into both, since neither was going to be exposed to third parties installing things. The other two key crystals for each would be installed at a later point.

Joey's kits had included a full suite of opening devices. Taylor had taken her new personal set and Ackbar's home by dropping them both in her new personal pocket dimension, but left the 'shared' set for Amy. Or at least that was her intention, Amy's response to that had been to drop the entire set into the new shared pocket dimension as though to dare Taylor to object. The only reaction to that was an eyeroll, which had caused Amy's smirk to change to a pout.

Still, since Joey had handed over free additional opening devices and all, it only made sense to use some of them. Specifically, she was going to add one of the pistol-style devices to her Maul utility belt the next day. Whether or not it would ever be useful was an entirely different question. Then again, dropping most of her 'extra' equipment into one of the pocket dimensions instead of her closet in the Wards area would make it much more accessible.

The only other thing she ensured that she'd completed that evening before dinner was sending a message off asking if there were any already-prepared targeting beacons that she was permitted to know the codes for outside of Brockton Bay, with a note that any suitable for the Dallons would be appreciated as well. Something that had come about because she'd noted that she still couldn't leave the area with the pocket dimensions currently and her father had asked if the PRT had beacons elsewhere just in case.

After dinner Taylor had opted to watch the evening news with her father while reading through various things on her visor. The bulk of the focus for the local news had been the patrol where Ryan and Sandy were brought down the Boardwalk by Dennis and Missy. They hadn't run into any trouble, but Sandy had gotten quite a bit of attention by riding a stone animal. It wasn't defined well enough to properly identify, but based on the tail people were assuming it was based on a dog or wolf. She also didn't have exceptionally good control of it yet, but had noticeably improved by the time they left the Boardwalk.

The reporter covering things had commended Dennis and Missy for ensuring that the two younger Wards had plenty of space throughout their trip, not allowing the crowds to overwhelm the kids. At the same time, though, they brought up the general question of whether or not such young children should be out patrolling at all, no matter how safe the areas they were passing through were considered to be. On that front the PRT had given a statement reminding people that the three youngest Wards fell under rules that required that two older parahumans, Protectorate members or the older Wards, to be with the younger ones on all patrols. Further, on non-patrol activities they would also need an older parahuman present, at least one for each of the younger Wards participating.

After that segment her father had shaken his head. "I understand that you get to work with at least one of the new Wards tomorrow."

Taylor nodded. "Yep."

"They had no trouble today. Do you expect that to continue into tomorrow?"

"I can only hope for the best and plan for the worst. And since the Fallen seem to have finally left town?"

"Are you hoping that some forgotten bikers will come after you?"

She shrugged at that. "I might get to punch them in defense of the kids, so I'm not sure it would be a bad thing if some do show up."

Sunday morning Taylor made her way to the PRT building, meeting up with Amy, Vicky, and Missy in the gym. Amy had been fully expected, but Vicky and Missy were a bit of a surprise.

"So what brings you two in this morning?" Taylor asked as they all changed.

"I snuck out before my parents could wake up," Missy admitted. "They were drinking last night, and they aren't pleasant with hangovers."

The other three winced lightly at that, and Vicky quickly piped in with her answer. "I'm supposed to be joining in on something with the new Wards. Not sure what yet, but something."

That was news to Taylor, but then again she hadn't examined today's schedule all that much beyond knowing she and Dean were both supposed to be around. Though doing so at that point didn't show anything relating to Vicky participating in anything, so apparently she had no obvious warning either way.

Their workout went without much issue, with Dean joining them about halfway through. Apparently he hadn't bothered to get up quite as early as the rest of them. Of course, three of the four girls were artificial brutes and needed a much more intense workout if using their enhanced strength. And that might end up being all four in the next couple of months. Afterwards they all had breakfast, or a second breakfast in both Amy and Taylor's cases, before splitting up.

Amy had opted to tinker today, apparently having a request for a prosthetic limb that she had enough information to work with. Taylor and Dean had to get ready to do Wards stuff while Vicky plopped down on the couch in the Wards area waiting to find out what she'd be helping with. And Missy stuck around with her schoolwork, apparently deciding to get ahead while away from her possibly-fighting but most likely unpleasant to be around parents for the morning.

Taylor ended up slipping into her personal tinker workshop to do minor maintenance on things while they waited for the kids to show up. She was probably going to want to bring her platform down at some point to do somewhat routine maintenance on it as well, for that matter, but she had enough to do for the moment with the Snitch, scout drone, and the weapon harness on one of her jackets to keep her busy enough for the moment.

She packed up as soon as she felt that Ryan and Sandy were approaching, apparently in a single vehicle from the way they were moving. Rosa wasn't scheduled to be joining them, but tinkers tended to need to build up before starting field work and all. Assuming she ever would end up doing patrols, anyway. It wasn't like Trevor patrolled, for example, so without a need or desire it might just end up that Rosa spent most of her time working on various tinker projects.

"So I called Dennis to find out what the hell the plan is for today," Dean said as Taylor came out into the common area. "He apparently assumed I'd figure things out with no hints beyond who showed up and the stack of papers on the desk in his room. That, you know, none of us would've noticed. Seems he already found non-combat stuff for Dryad and Soundstone and wanted us to give them a try."

Taylor nodded. "That makes some sense, except why would Vicky be needed for that?"

"Dryad would be out in the open on the edge of gang territory removing large stones from a lot prior to construction. Vicky would be added protection from idiots in that case, and as much as I'd like to be there I think I'd be better off with Soundstone since his task would be in a men's changing room, hunting down a whistling sound. Assuming the two kids agree to the non-patrol tasks, anyway."

"They'll be down shortly for us to ask them."

True to Taylor's statement, Ryan and Sandy arrived a couple minutes later. Except that they spent several minutes outside the door to the Wards area before finally opening it. Both of them had their phones out, and both phones appeared to have dead batteries. Dean apparently realized what the problem was, based on his sigh.

"Throw your phones on the charging station," Dean said, gesturing to the pile of charging cables. "Did either of you lock your room when you left yesterday?"

"I think I did?" Sandy admitted.

Taylor shook her head. "I'll get her in if she did."

It turned out that the younger girl had locked her room, but someone had the foresight to ensure that others had access. That meant that Taylor didn't even have to use administrative overrides, since the access list included her. Presumably as the oldest female Ward or something like that, either that or because she was officially trained for administrative things now. Of course, if that hadn't been the case then she'd have just flipped one of her phones to a guest login and let the girl log in long enough to unlock the door anyway.

As she came back to the common area she did have to wonder about a couple of things. "I assume they came through thanks to Sandy using the retinal scanners and such, but how would Ryan get down here alone with a dead phone?"

That had Dean and Missy looking at her, then at the personal rooms hallway. Neither of them had an answer. Not wanting to ask Ryan and embarrass him further, instead she submitted the question through the PRT app.

Taylor brought her platform down outside of the empty lot to allow Sandy to climb off of it. The girl had been torn between grabbing onto Taylor for support and not grabbing onto Taylor's clothing, which had enough plant material included to make her uncomfortable. At least at first. Once they got going she'd switched to being amazed at the flying. Vicky had snorted at that as she flew alongside them, but hadn't said anything more.

"That was cool," Sandy said as she grinned. She then looked around. "Is someone supposed to be here?"

Vicky landed next to the girl. "We're early, they've got ten minutes or so before the time they told Maul they'd be here."

"Oh."

Taylor set the scout drone to running a circuit around the area so that she and Vicky didn't have to leave Sandy alone to do a basic sweep, instead gesturing to the lot they'd landed outside of. "As I understand it, once the owner shows up to give permission, your task will be to get all the large stones out of the ground in this lot, down at least ten but not more than fifteen meters. Er, around thirty to fifty feet? Do you get distance numbers from stones?"

Sandy shook her head. "How long is a meter? Or a feet?"

"A foot is twelve inches." Thinking, Taylor grinned after a moment, grabbing two stones off of the ground. She then placed one down in front of Sandy before moving the other one a foot away. "This is about one foot." When the girl nodded Taylor moved the stone further away. "This is about one meter." Sandy was grinning now as she nodded, and Taylor moved further away. "This is about thirty feet." The ten and fifteen meter points followed, and she ended with the fifty foot mark.

Vicky had just shaken her head at the display, then started looking around. If you didn't know about the augmented patrol app then you might assume she was just looking around in a circle around them aimlessly, but she was actually generally following the path of the scout drone. It highlighted lots of knives in the area, but most of them appeared to be in kitchens and the like. Very few people were moving around the area, but eventually a car approached and parked on the street next to the lot.

"Good morning," the man who got out of the car called.

"Mister Dalton?" Taylor asked.

"That's me." He then turned to Sandy. "So, Dryad is it?" Sandy nodded, but shrank back when the man held out a bandage-covered hand. "Is something...oh, right. My bandages, cotton and all, they said something about that during your introduction. Sorry about that." He instead gestured to the empty lot. "How about we take a quick look at the lot instead?"

It wasn't long before Sandy was pulling up stones through the ground, which wasn't leaving the lot in all that good condition. Then again, a lot of digging was going to be done to put in a foundation, so Mister Dalton didn't care about that beyond needing to watch his step. Eventually Sandy was pulling up pebbles more than stones and Mister Dalton had her stop, feeling that she'd done enough there.

"Hmmm," he said as he looked at the pile of stones. "I don't suppose you have any idea how to make a wall?"

Sandy looked at him, then at the stones. "Pile them in a line?"

He chuckled at that. "Probably too much to expect of you, I'm sure you'll figure things like that out eventually."

That caused the younger girl to look disappointed, presumably because she didn't like not being able to do something with the stones. Taylor shook her head as she came over. "If you want, we can make a quick pass by a couple of walls like he was talking about on our way back, but you'll need to figure out how to build them on your own."

Sandy nodded, but while her frown lessened it didn't entirely go away. She felt a little better when Mister Dalton had her move all of the stones to the corner of the lot, and she was able to ignore her dislike of plant products enough to accept a coupon the man gave her for an ice cream, even if it wasn't clear if she'd use said coupon. After that Taylor kept her promise and showed the girl a couple of fieldstone walls, one of which had been partially knocked down recently in a park. That let Sandy see more of how they were put together, but Taylor and Vicky both agreed that she should play with figuring how to make them with her own collection of stones instead of with someone else's.

At Vicky's suggestion they also looked at a couple of other examples of stone walls on their way back to the PRT building, to show what a more planned wall also looked like. By the time they got back to the PRT building itself Sandy wanted to do nothing more than go play with the stone supply they had for her, but Taylor insisted that they eat lunch first. That led to Taylor cooking lunch, but that was fine by her. Missy was long gone for the day, but Amy and Vicky joined them.

Riley carefully checked the various animal parts that she'd been working on. They weren't quite ready, but they would be soon. Adapting them for her plans was annoying, but would most certainly be worth it. Really, she wished that she'd had the idea years ago, but it'd only come to her the day before when she was trying to decide how to do something 'horrible' to the kids that the police had written off as dead.

Just healing them after their bus had been destroyed in the accident with a tanker truck went against their reputation, after all. Even if nobody realized that they had them and they could theoretically just dump them after the critical fixes had been made and move on. Someone would probably pick up on the fact that the accident hadn't been as universally fatal as reported and put things together with the Nine being seen in the area. Besides, this way would be far more fun.

Granted, one of the kids and both of the adults on the bus had died before Fred and Sarah had pulled them out of the wreckage, but the other six had survived long enough for Riley to stabilize them. But since nobody knew they had the kids due to the police being morons and all they couldn't 'reluctantly' leave them behind while the Protectorate made a rescue attempt. Of all the days for something like that to not have a pile of people with cameras watching, right?

As a result, Riley was going to be using the kids as test subjects for horrible abuses of the natural order, as well as for non-secure Bluetooth tests. Not that she thought the Bluetooth would be a problem, she had that down by now, but they might need to send the entire group to Brockton Bay to have Amy fix them up from the rest of what was being done to them. That dropping the kids in a park, healthy if in unusual states, would be part of their distraction for their departure was an added bonus.

Deciding that she needed to wait a couple more hours on the animal parts, she moved back to where she was working with the corpses she'd ended up with. The villain who'd actually caused the tanker accident had been stripped of their brain, but would provide some of the raw biological material needed for her other departure distraction. The woman had claimed that she never meant to hurt kids, but that happened to be beside the point. She'd successfully torn off Mimi's arm, after all, and that had been a pain to fix while keeping the kids stable.

Taylor had ended up sticking around for a bit, even though they were 'done' for the day, supervising Sandy as she worked with her stone supply. The girl really wanted to figure out how to make a wall with stones, and most of her attempts so far weren't all that stable. Even if having Taylor push on them wasn't necessarily a perfect indicator of 'suitable' in this case, especially as most of them were freestanding and had no supports to speak of available in the room. Sandy didn't want help yet, so Taylor hadn't pointed that detail out.

It was actually fascinating watching the girl start figuring out that her power let her take unsuitable stones and make them suitable. It would probably be a while before she reached a point where she was making things that others would consider usable, of course, but so far she was making good progress. Taylor had even sent a message off to Zelda recommending that she look into reading material involving building with stone going forward.

Of course, Taylor was also doing her own studying while Sandy worked. Amy and Vicky had headed home, but Ryan and Dean hadn't come back from whatever they were working on yet. Apparently it was taking longer to find whatever they were looking for than they'd originally thought it would. Either that or something else had come up from finding their original goal, it was hard to tell without calling them.

Amy: Looks like Carol bragged about the pocket dimensions to Sarah this morning, before heading out for the day.

Taylor: Really?

Amy: Yep. Apparently it was a betrayal of the New Wave principles or something like that to not do her best to extend it to the entire group.

Taylor: That doesn't exactly sound fair, since it wasn't someone in New Wave doing the work.

Amy: I might mention that to her when she stops screaming.

Taylor: Oh, so this is an ongoing argument?

Amy: Yep. Though with Sarah and Mark, since Carol isn't back from meeting with Joey.

Taylor: Sounds annoying.

She let Amy get back to things while moving over to Sandy's latest wall, looking over it. "You want to see if this one holds up to being pushed?"

Sandy nodded. "Please?"

Taylor braced herself, then pushed against the middle of the wall. Like every other attempt, after a moment the wall fell over. Unlike the other attempts, the entire wall fell over instead of the top coming off. Blinking, she knelt down and looked at the stones. "Did you connect the stones to each other?"

"Yep! Like Ryan's building toys. Kinda."

It wasn't hard to tell that there were now depressions in the bottoms of the stones and protrusions coming from the tops. Really, it wasn't a bad idea, and was essentially her making giant building blocks of her own. Kinda. "If you get good enough at making them this way then other people could build with them too."

Sandy seemed to like that idea as well, but then looked over the stones she'd already changed. "Can I try and build a castle?"

"I'm going to say no for now. Maybe your mother will let you try that at home?"

Luckily, Taylor had already developed high puppy-dog pout resistance.

Taylor ended up joining the entirety of New Wave for dinner that evening, her and Dean attending dinner at the Pelham household in an attempt to clear out the argument that had sprung up between the two families. Sarah didn't want to listen to reason from anyone with a pocket dimension space, Carol was apparently unwilling to think too much about it for the time being after her meeting with Joey, and neither Mark nor Neil knew how to clear things up.

Luckily, Danny had been trying to decide if he should accept an invitation from Kurt and Lacey, not wanting to abandon Taylor for the evening or make her feel obligated to tag along. The visit to the Pelhams removed any problems there, so he'd be out for the evening as well. Sadly, this being a visit to the home of the alcohol parahumans in town meant that he was likely to end up drunk, but he had Labor Day off so he could make his way home in the morning.

"I don't get the problem," Dean said after Sarah had ranted for fifteen minutes. Which had still been more comfortable than the tense, mostly-silent dinner had been. "Carol was able to get herself as well as Vicky and Mark cleared by the PRT to meet the parahuman. Surely you can't be angry with her over the PRT not clearing your family to meet with them?"

Sarah looked ready to start ranting again, but Eric interrupted before she could get started. "Wait, hold up. Shouldn't Aunt Carol have needed to get Amy cleared too?"

Amy was the first to roll her eyes, but Taylor wasn't far behind her. Still, it was Amy who answered that one. "I'm sorry, but did you forget that I had access to one of the pocket dimensions before the rest of my family did?"

"You're cleared for a lot more than most," Neil agreed. "It comes with your healing and connection to Taylor. I think that Sarah's concern stems from Carol not going through the hoops, or helping Sarah go through the hoops, for the rest of us."

"Because she had to start by pointing out some of what they're already cleared to know about thanks to living with Amy," Taylor snapped. "They've been read into several higher level than usual secrets due to the association and were put through the checks to get a higher base security clearance than the rest of New Wave has as a side effect of that. Besides, I suspect that half the reason she got things added to the list was specifically so that the parahuman could ask her for legal advice instead of a PRT lawyer."

Sarah didn't seem to like that, but also didn't seem to have an immediate argument to counter it. Crystal and Eric had thoughtful looks on their faces, though this time it was the former that spoke up. "Can you tell us what caused Amy to be made aware of the parahuman in the first place?"

Amy snorted. "A walking cape detector steps into the same state as TinkerTechCon. How many PRT-affiliated tinkers are they likely going to need to be read in on in some fashion as a result?"

That was enough to get Sarah to blink a couple of times, though she continued to frown. "I suppose having a tinker involved would answer a number of questions."

Taylor nodded. "A tinker that was medically and psychologically evaluated at different points as well, and whose trick in creating the pocket dimensions is flagged as a high-level PRT secret for their own safety."

That seemed to have been enough to calm Sarah down, though they talked about it for another half hour before ice cream was brought out for dessert. They were in the middle of eating that when a text message came through on Taylor's phone. A group message, Amy not being unexpected. That Missy had included Joey was the unexpected element.

M: Where the hell are you two?

T: New Wave dinner, Pelham residence.

M: Damn. We should've tried there when we were at Amy's. You heading home anytime soon?

A: Did something happen?

J: We found out that Missy's powers don't play nice with my tech.

J: You could call the resulting discoveries explosive, even.

M: Long story short, we were hoping for one of you two to be available to heal us.

Taylor sighed, looking over at Amy. "I think I should pop home, if only to see how badly they screwed up."

Amy nodded. "That makes sense. Though would it be faster for them to come this way?"

"Nah. I left key crystals installed, so I'll use that as a shortcut."

"You...holy crap, why didn't I think of that before?"

T: I'll be home shortly to take a look at you two.

J: Thanks.

M: Yeah. I don't want to see how my parents would react to my injuries.

Taylor quickly finished her ice cream, then was followed outside by everyone. Even if why she had to head home hadn't been volunteered. She pulled a pistol opener from her utility belt and fired it at the side of the house, the dark green glow not sticking out too badly at this point in the evening. She then walked her moped into it, hitting the opener to close down the portal as she moved over to the 'open from the inside' device. It was far easier to use than the opener devices, after all. It didn't take long for a portal to the garage at home to open up, and she walked the moped through that portal and out into the driveway.

She found Missy and Joey sitting on the front steps, with a PRT van in the driveway. Shrugging, she closed the portal across the garage door, shut off the alarm, and turned her moped around. She then called out to them before triggering the garage door opener. "Come on in you two."

They were obviously startled by Taylor's call, presumably because she hadn't ridden up to the house like they'd expected her to. But they came around to the garage door a moment later anyway. Taylor waved to the PRT officer in the van, who appeared to be grinning, before closing the garage door. Joey had spotted the pocket dimension opening device installed alongside the garage door by then and was shaking his head, obviously having figured out how she'd arrived.

Once she'd brought them into the house proper she turned to look at them. "So what did you two do? And should you have come here, I don't think my father is cleared to know much about Joey?"

"The PRT doesn't actually control my cape identity either way," Joey noted, even as he was lifting his shirt to show blood-spotted bandages wrapped around his chest. "Though they do like to put people through high security clearance checks to find out about it for various reasons and protect info on some of what I can do more seriously. And, well, I now know to never try and shrink my opening devices by taking advantage of space Missy here has expanded."

Missy nodded. "His stuff and what I do are very incompatible on that level. Of course, we only realized how incompatible after I'd discovered that I can't anchor expansions to the insides of any pocket dimensions he makes, even the one he made for me."

Taylor looked at Joey, who shrugged. "Riley insisted that I check with her on things."

Sighing, she held her hand out, and he took it. Fixing the likely shrapnel wounds didn't take long. She then turned to Missy. "So, do you have a spare key for your pocket dimension?"

Missy just looked confused. "I've got a bag full. Why?"

Joey grinned. "Because she can put one inside of you so you never lose it."

Taylor was holding a crystal a moment later, but grabbed Missy before she could take her shirt off. "How about we go upstairs instead of having you undress in front of Joey here? Riley might take offense, after all."

Missy blinked, then blushed and nodded. Taylor brought her upstairs and slipped the crystal onto the backside of the girl's sternum, healing the other relatively minor wounds in the process. She then helped remove the last of the bandages before Missy put her bra and shirt back on. They then went back downstairs, only to find that Joey had apparently removed his own bandages while they were upstairs.

"So you two played with combining abilities today?" Taylor questioned.

Joey nodded. "She's got the first twenty meter cube I've seen, possibly because of how her power works. Doubled everything in a ten meter cube, perhaps? But she can't anchor things to the pocket dimensions, even if she can otherwise manipulate space in them. So she can't make them bigger directly."

Missy was bouncing lightly in excitement. "I should be able to make enclosed rooms in them bigger, though! So long as the pocket dimension walls aren't included in the anchoring, anyway."

"I just wish we knew why you can create portals in expanded areas, but expanding the inside of the opening devices to make them smaller fails. It makes all kinds of things that I was hoping to be able to do impossible."

Taylor shrugged. "I wouldn't know where to begin figuring that one out. But did you try putting the entire opening device in an expanded space and just running the controls to outside of it?"

Joey nodded. "That's the one that caught us with the surprisingly energetic explosion. It actually works fine if you're using the key crystal installed in the opener, which is why we walked up to it in the first place. But if I'm using my powers or, presumably, someone is using an embedded key from outside then the thing explodes."

"Well, good luck figuring that out, assuming you ever can. I imagine you two need to get going, though."

Five minutes later the PRT van was long gone and Taylor was in the kitchen preparing a late dinner for Ackbar. She didn't want to know what kind of explosion had been needed to cause both of them to need that much healing even after having time for their bodies to start patching them up.

Chapter 211 Monday morning Taylor tried to sleep in, but ended up awake fairly early anyway because Amy had ended up being called to the hospital. Stretching, she considered that between school and various parahuman activities she may not have another true 'day off' for a while. Yes, she'd have weekends off from school, and Dennis's desire to not fill the schedule to the max would probably give her more time off until she took over as Wards leader. But she figured that with the summer over some of the other things that she'd been expecting would no longer be held off.

At least, she assumed that she hadn't been bombarded with Case 53s in part because the PRT was trying to let her have a summer vacation. And they hadn't had much in the way of larger scale tinker fugues either, for that matter. Granted, some of that could also be blamed on too much else going on as well. But with the Fallen no longer causing problems and the other gangs seemingly a lot calmer?

Deciding to be somewhat lazy in heading to the PRT building, she grabbed her moped and used one of her pistol openers to get it into the 'Shaper' pocket dimension without opening the garage up. She might actually want to start parking the thing in there, at least until other options were completed. With it in there in case she wanted it later she finished gathering her things before calling the PRT.

"Good morning," came through her phone as the call was answered.

"Good morning Dragon," Taylor replied. "I didn't mean to bother you, I thought I'd called the PRT."

"You caught the ENE during shift change, and I opted to intercept instead of sending you through to Boston. Did you need anyone in particular this morning?"

"Oh. No, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to accidentally cause panic by remote-opening a pocket dimension door into the PRT building."

"Ah. I took the liberty of registering the energy signature of the one you and Amy share in the PRT systems, so long as you don't open it into secure areas that you aren't permitted to enter you should be fine."

Taylor nodded to herself, that sounded reasonable. Except for one detail, of course. "I wasn't planning on using that one this morning."

Dragon needed a moment to parse that, and she sounded very curious when she finally continued. "I wasn't aware that you had access to any others. Is this something that happened yesterday?"

"Yes, it is. Joey gave Amy and I a second shared one, a personal one each, and even gave Ackbar one. I was planning on using the new shared one today."

"I see. I think it might be best if you aim for the secure garage in that case, I'll suppress the initial alarms. Are you aiming to work out, tinker, or do something else?"

"I was planning on using the gym. Not sure if I was going to do much else."

"Do you have time to meet with me afterwards to register the new signatures?"

Considering that, and deciding that short of someone else deciding that it was important for her to be somewhere her day was basically free, she saw no problems. "That would be fine. I can see about having Amy hang around as well?"

"Thank you. That will simplify a number of things."

"I'll bring a spare key crystal for the build-out quote that I included in a request on Saturday too."

"I suspect that I should just grab a case of the carry boxes."

Ten minutes later Taylor was working her way through the opening system. Targeting the secure garage wasn't that difficult, though she'd almost targeted the Protectorate parking area by accident. The little holographic map that was opened was simplistic, but helped immensely. Really, with a little effort you could probably open up to almost anywhere on the planet with the system, but the further you went from a registered targeting beacon the slower it was able to show you the terrain. But she got everything and stepped through. Right into her empty parking space, in fact. Grinning, she closed the pocket dimension opening and headed for the stairwell.

Missy had shown up to use the gym shortly before Amy made it over from the hospital. Taylor had mentioned registering her pocket dimension with the PRT so that it wouldn't set off alarms if she opened it in the building, and offered to help her enter the access code for the beacon installed above the Wards area.

"Why would I want to do that?" Missy asked, looking curious and slightly confused. "I thought that was more for emergencies since you've got a giant setup and all?"

Taylor grinned. "Besides that if you have an emergency it'll make it easier for you to find an alternate place to open a portal in case something happens? I came in today by walking through my closet door, targeting the secure garage, and then walking out into my parking space."

Missy blinked a couple of times before she started grinning. "Even if it took you half an hour to target the garage it might still be worth it compared to taking the bus."

"And to get home I'll be able to fire at a nearby wall, walk in, and then walk out through my closet door because of the unit I installed there. Assuming I haven't gone somewhere with my moped, that I left parked in the pocket dimension in case I wanted to use it."

"Well, I think I know what I'm badgering someone into helping me with today. But I might not want to use the closet, I kinda expanded it and all and we know how that interacts with things...though if I move stuff into the pocket dimension instead? Hmmm..."

Amy found Missy's mumbling about the pros and cons of various installation points for her own opener amusing when she joined them. They quickly decided that if the other three New Wave signatures should be registered then it could happen during their build-outs instead of calling them all to the PRT building to meet with Dragon, though mentioning that out loud had gotten Missy interested at well. They ended up discussing the build-out options generally available for the pocket dimensions throughout the remainder of their workout and the breakfast that followed.

"Good morning," Dragon called as she entered the Wards area pushing a cart. "Sorry I took so long, but I stopped to help when I spotted a three-car accident on the way over."

"Morning," the three girls chorused.

"I've suppressed all of the alarms for portals in here for the moment as I'll need you to open each pocket dimension while I've got scanners running."

Taylor ended up helping to unpack and set up the scanning equipment and started things off with her three pocket dimensions. Amy had the one linked to Shaper confirmed as being the same as when Taylor opened it as well as opening her personal one, and then Missy opened hers as well. With that done Dragon ensured that all of the signatures were registered with the PRT systems, then enabled the alarms again and had them ensure that none of the pocket dimensions tripped them. That included the original one that Taylor and Amy shared.

With all of that done Dragon then collected spare key crystals for the new private pocket dimensions that Taylor and Amy had, as well as one for Missy's since she was now considering ordering a build-out as well and she trusted Dragon to keep it safe until she'd gone through that whole process. The scanning equipment and labeled cases with the key crystals were then packed back onto the cart and Dragon left them to do whatever it was they planned on doing with the rest of their day.

"So how do I connect to the whatever it was here?" Missy asked shortly after the door to the Wards area closed.

Taylor looked at her. "I assume that you got a kit including a relay and device to open the pocket dimension from the inside, right?"

Missy nodded. "Of course."

"Then we pop in and punch in the key code for the beacon. You might also want to consider ordering a beacon or two of your own."

It turned out that Missy had piled all of her kit in the pocket dimension, and Taylor ended up giving her tips on how to install one of the openers in a doorway as well while they were in there. They then exited, Missy closing the portal, and sat there for a few minutes.

"Okay," Missy finally said, turning to Taylor. "Three powers means three pocket dimensions, I get that. Shared with Amy means shared pocket dimension as well, but where'd the fourth come from?"

Taylor shrugged. "Ackbar."

"Oh."

The three were silent again, until Amy stood up. "I think I want to bash some things in the junkyard. Would you two like to join me?"

There were no complaints about that plan of action.

Maya double-checked that she had everything ready. She'd hooked up a laptop to the television, since it was unlikely that anyone local would be showing Trigger Vision's show live so she was going to need to stream it. The microwave popcorn was ready to pop and a bowl was waiting to dump it into. The decent enough beer she'd been able to locate after searching for two days was in the small refrigerator. She'd ensured that the cleaning staff wouldn't touch anything by putting out the do not disturb/clean sign.

Pausing to listen, she smirked for a moment when she heard nothing, before frowning. The idiot kids in the room next door would be avoiding using the internet for the day, unlike the day before when they were screwing up the entire hotel's bandwidth with something stupid. She just hoped that her influence on them faded before any reason to scan them came up. Granted, she'd made them assume they were avoiding it because something went wrong with the internet connection, so hopefully they were merely off somewhere whining. Still, short of them walking up to the PRT and asking for a master-effect scan today it wasn't likely to be an issue.

Shaking her head, she tossed another pillow onto the chair she'd be sitting in to watch the show. It was too bad that it could very well be the last one the thinker ever put on, but Mama had finally admitted that they'd used them before in a more private session or two. But the bigger the audience the more easily things came to them, and they'd insisted on going for a full public viewing as soon as they'd been able to confirm that they had sufficient targeting materials. Not to mention extra money just to have an ambulance on standby. Which probably meant that this was going to be big.

Hopefully it would also be enough to tell them how Heralds could be made, but insights into how to approach the three girls going forward would be appreciated as well.

Checking her watch, she confirmed that she had plenty of time to go get lunch. She'd be back with time to spare even if she walked the whole way and grabbed dessert as well, but she should probably stick to just lunch. She needed to leave room for the popcorn, after all, and she could always splurge on dessert with a celebratory dinner for a job well done.

After a nice lunch the three girls had all decided to spend some time wandering around outside. On foot, because Missy hadn't pulled off getting her own fancy moped yet. Something that the girl whined about a bit as they left the PRT building, though only after stowing Amy's moped in the Shaper-linked pocket dimension next to Taylor's. No need to return to the PRT building just to get the thing, after all.

"It isn't like my parents think I can't handle myself out and about on foot," Missy grumbled. "But as soon as something else is involved they get all defensive. They don't even want me to be out on a bicycle."

"Maybe they don't want you on anything that could be used 'in traffic'?" Amy offered. "Though with the state of some of the sidewalks I'm not sure that roller skates or a skateboard would be good ideas."

"Whatever their reasons, they're annoying. And they've never told me why beyond 'because they said so' either."

Taylor just shrugged. She couldn't do much about it either way.

Eventually the three gave up on finding anything they wanted to do, though that was largely because anytime they approached anything moderately crowded they became the center of attention. Which quickly soured them on whatever it was they'd approached and had them moving on, only for the pattern to repeat. Missy opted to head home to start planning on where to install an opening device while Taylor and Amy found an empty side street to pop open the pocket dimension containing their mopeds.

"Should we just head home or do we want to actually go somewhere?" Taylor asked once they'd entered the pocket dimension.

Amy gave that some thought. "I can't think of anywhere to go, but we could see if anyone is willing to supervise us in the greenhouse. Not that I've ever started to drop into a fugue state in there, and doing so accidentally now shouldn't even be possible, but house rules are house rules."

"Works for me."

It didn't take long to dismiss the portal they'd entered through and pop one open into Amy's room. Sadly, it turned out that nobody else was home, and Amy wasn't in the mood to risk being grounded because she was in the greenhouse unsupervised. Taylor didn't count on that front, since she'd be participating and all. Instead they ended up making popcorn and grabbing a movie from the collection available.

Missy had evaluated options for the pocket dimension opening device, and sadly her closet and her bedroom door seemed to be poor options. There weren't any good places to plug the damned thing's power cord into next to either. Granted, that was good from the point of view of not needing to empty out and remove the expansion on her closet, but it was still annoying overall. So while she waited for her parents to come home she was looking for other options.

So far the best choice looked to either be the hall closet or the living room doorway, both had power accessible right next to them. Either that or she could use a window, but that could get awkward to get in and out. Experimentation with the pistol and handheld cube openers while working on that had resulted in other questions as well, such as how the hell you could open a portal overlaying a door frame and not cut off the doorknob. The doorknob shouldn't fit, and yet it was left sitting there unharmed when the portal closed.

Half an hour had been dedicated to that mystery, and the best she'd been able to determine was that her power probably wasn't compatible with things because the portals used something similar to it in the process of opening things. The 'surface' for the portal was smoothed over as though her own power or something similar was compressing it down into a flat plane, then restored when the portal closed. Crossing her power's effects with the signal to the 'key' probably distorted things enough to cause problems as well, but that was more confusing to her. Unless part of the effect was being generated in the little crystals, anyway.

She did acknowledge that trying to prove some of that by smoothing out a door before firing the pistol at it had been a horrible idea. Somehow she'd been hit with a killer headache, the portal hadn't opened, and the 'smoothing out' had suddenly stopped being a thing. Though she wasn't sure if that was because the headache had caused her to release it or because it being forcibly released had given her a headache.

It was too bad that she didn't have a suitable free section of wall in her bedroom. The best choice was her window, and in her testing the portal had simply snapped to the window frame instead of to the wall around the window. The living room wall between the windows had worked well enough, but that section was empty in part because of the lack of power, which made it impractical. It was also a little too visible, if she were being honest with herself.

Maybe she needed to start considering using an extension cord?

Mark had come back about two thirds of the way through the movie, apparently they'd just missed him leaving when they'd arrived. Sadly, when they'd finished with the movie and asked about greenhouse time he'd pointed out that Amy had to get ready for the New Wave team photo that would be taken before dinner. Taylor had been invited to join them, if only as an 'honorary' member due to being outed and all anyway, but had declined.

Instead she'd checked with her father and found that he still hadn't made it home. Apparently he was having car trouble, and she volunteered to come take a look and give him a 'lift' back to the house if needed. He wasn't sure what that would entail, but she'd gotten her moped out of the pocket dimension and headed over to Kurt and Lacey's house. She found the car sitting out front with the hood up, her father and Kurt arguing over what they thought might be wrong with it.

"Hey there," Taylor called as she walked over. "What's wrong?"

"The starter isn't doing anything when we turn the key," her father answered. "I think there's a wiring problem, but Kurt is insisting that the issue is actually in the power steering for some stupid reason."

Taylor nodded at that, acknowledging the argument. Then leaned into the open driver's side window. She turned off the dome light before turning the key to the accessory position. Things lit up for a moment, but she could see them dim slightly as it sat there. Nodding to herself, mostly for show since neighbors were watching, she turned the key back and moved around to the open hood. She checked a couple of things, just in case her tinker snark had missed something, but found nothing else.

"So what's your verdict?" Kurt asked.

Taylor gestured at the engine. "I'm fairly certain that you're both wrong."

Danny sighed. "Okay, then what did we miss?"

"The battery is very low, probably because it's a little old and the dome light was left on. I don't know if anything else was sitting on overnight that you turned off before I got here, of course."

Kurt sighed. "It figures that we're idiots and didn't think of that. I guess we should grab some jumper cables."

It didn't take long to get the car running again, after which Taylor followed her father home in case something else went wrong, but he made it just fine. He parked in the driveway and left the engine running so that the battery could charge up a bit, which meant that they'd have to pay some attention to ensure nobody tried to drive off with the car. At least until he headed back out to go pick up something for dinner, since neither of them wanted to cook.

Taylor sat in the living room with her father after dinner. He was reading a book while she was researching various things on her visor, instead of having the news turned on like they might normally do. That primarily stemmed from her not really wanting to know what the reporters would be making of her walking around for a bit with Amy and Missy. She had no guarantee that it was going to come up, of course, but she didn't want to know if it did.

Her current research topic was a combination of school and PRT rules. Namely, would she be likely to get in trouble for using pocket dimension portals on school grounds. So far it looked like the PRT only discouraged it when your cape identity was a secret, and even then that was written more in regards to 'if your powers let you...' instead of 'if you got access to something that can make a portal for you'. The school system and Arcadia, on the other hand, had some very generic rules that she thought she had the gist of.

The results of her search basically seemed to imply that she was fine so long as she wasn't bringing things into the school that were against the rules through the portal to the pocket dimension, she didn't do so without permission while class was in session, and probably so long as she didn't 'leave school grounds' in the middle of the school day. Whether or not opening the pocket dimension between classes or at lunch to grab something from it counted as 'leaving school grounds' was harder to determine.

Arriving, opening things up long enough to park her moped inside, and then finding a bathroom to leave through at the end of the day after her last class seemed like it would be perfectly fine by her reading of things. Which would be especially nice on days where the weather was a problem for any reason whatsoever. And actually, she could probably go further, because they had permission to install a beacon in the school and just hadn't gotten around to it. With that she could probably skip the driving to school at all. On days where the weather sucked, anyway.

She sent a message asking about that off to the school administration, and included a note that Missy might wish to take advantage of it as well. She then sent another to Colin asking about timing for installing a beacon in the Rig. She had a 'where' but had never scheduled a 'when' after all. And for that matter, they'd never actually gotten a response about installing one in the pub either, so she dug that message out and sent a reminder. She wasn't sure if they'd want one there at all, and she hadn't asked when she'd seen them in person.

Ever-efficient, by the time she'd finished sending the message off about the Pub she'd gotten a response back from Colin. He recommended Thursday after school, apparently Dennis hadn't added anything to the schedule for then yet. She dropped that into her calendar so that nothing else would end up scheduled.

She was interrupted in all of this by her phone ringing. Blinking, she answered, but subvocalized so as to not bother her father. "Hi Missy. Something come up?"

"Are you or Amy watching the news?" Missy asked in lieu of a greeting.

"Er, no to me, and I don't think Amy is even home right now. Should we be?"

"Yes. Very much yes."

Unsure that she wanted to know, and now too curious not to check, she grabbed the remote and turned on the television. Her father looked up from his book as she switched to the news. The station came on in the middle of talking about a sixth Endbringer for some reason. But it wasn't long before a ticker-tape at the bottom of the screen indicated some of the other things that had apparently already come up.

"How the fuck?" her father said, which echoed some of her own sentiments. Taylor barely even noticed as Missy apparently decided that Taylor had more important things to do and ended the call.

Taylor: Amy, we have a problem.

Amy: Wait, what?

Taylor: The national news is talking about us sharing powers and a sixth Endbringer, amongst other things.

Amy: WHAT?

Topic: Trigger Vision's Insane Revelations about Maul and Panacea In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted On Sep 5th 2011:
As many may know, Trigger Vision did a multi-parahuman "deep scan" today. For those that don't know what that is, full details are available over here, but here's a quick summary: She downs a tinker-made power booster and with the aid of a freely given blood sample from a parahuman spouts details on their trigger event and powers, instead of her normal "flash of insight" she can get from touching a parahuman.

Today, for the first time ever, she did a 'deep scan' without the parahumans present and without a blood sample, instead using several other items obtained for each target. This likely concerns people, but I'll leave that discussion for the main thread. Her targets today? She started with Missy Biron, also known as Vista. She then moved onto both Amy Dallon, aka Panacea, and Taylor Hebert, aka Maul. For reasons that weren't initially clear she did both of them at the same time.

I finally found a full video of things, instead of the random screaming rantings from people in the main Trigger Vision thread regarding Endbringers. You can find that video here if you want to watch it. But I've compiled what was said below, since nobody else seemed to want to pull it all together.

For Vista we got a fairly standard result. She gained the ability to trigger directly, common in first-generation capes. Her trigger event was caused by family issues making her need emotional space. She got the ability to manipulate physical space, with a Manton limit. None of this was surprising to anyone at the event.

For Panacea, things started off easy. She gained the ability to trigger from a connection with her parahuman father. Her trigger event happened when her sister was injured in front of her, though Trigger Vision indicated that she was under the influence of a parahuman power at the time. That usually makes trump powers, after all. But she got unrestricted bio-kinesis at touch range.

I find myself very happy that she's never snapped and has stuck with healing, and it makes rumors about interesting plants make quite a bit more sense.

We then move onto Maul. She gained the ability to trigger when her father failed to. Less common, but not surprising. She triggered in an enclosed space containing bio-hazardous waste after being assaulted with a parahuman ability. She triggered with blunt object projection and the ability to communicate with powers.

And now I think we have a very good explanation for a lot of oddities surrounding her abilities. But that was just the beginning, because again for the first time we know of Trigger Vision continued.

Maul and Panacea apparently "deeply linked" with a third, unknown parahuman to modify Maul's body. I suspect this was the infamous "tinker fugue" that we've heard about every so often over the past eight months. No wonder she came out on top if her powers were participating.

Next up was what I believe to be the incident where Glory Girl punched out Miss Hebert. Nearly died, severe brain damage, and Maul's powers used information from Panacea's powers to fix said brain damage. I don't even know where to begin on how wrong that sounds, because self-healing isn't one of the things that came out of that trigger event.

Maul then "deeply linked" with two other parahumans to build something, followed by doing the same with a large number of parahumans to build something else. I suspect that the latter might be the origin of the anti-master devices that the PRT started using.

And now we get into the absolutely insane things. Something somehow 'dislodged' both of their powers, followed by Behemoth splitting someone else's power. As a result they both got connected to each other's powers, plus a third unique but unknown power that Trigger Vision couldn't identify in either of them.

If I understand that part correctly, both Maul and Panacea have each other's powers in addition to their own. If so, I fully understand why that was kept secret, but holy crap.

The two then "heard" Leviathan, which nicely limits when the rest of these events have happened. It also explains a couple of things I'd dismissed as minor power interactions that'd been reported during the Leviathan fight, if Maul can heal as well as Panacea.

Next up, they remotely detonated someone's power "through supply mechanics", whatever the hell that means. In general. Then they "deeply linked" with a couple of others to modify things.

Maul then repeatedly failed to second trigger, culminating in more brain damage and both girls having their powers changed in an unknown manner by the sixth Endbringer. I am very much hoping that this, in particular, is a mistake.

They then "deeply linked" with others a few times, to modify themselves and others. I'm assuming this is related to rumors of there being tinker fugues available for select PRT and Protectorate members.

Maul was then "sealed into a fight to the death" that resulted in Panacea being knocked out, I assume this was the battle with Quarrel. This time someone's power was merely "overheated" with those supply mechanics, presumably this was how the Butcher was "killed" while leaving Quarrel alive. Though the implication is that she cooked the Butcher, which I find sounds oddly satisfying.

Another discussion or discussions with Leviathan followed, Trigger Vision was slurring a bit at this point, as well as a "deeply linked" session to build something. But then we get to the final, and possibly weirdest, entry in the entire session. They apparently told someone else's power to move to another planet. I have no idea what that means, but Trigger Vision collapsed at that point, bleeding from her eyes and nose, and had to be rushed to the hospital.

I have no clue how to react to most of this. The two girls haven't done anything that I'd consider to be wrong, not even keeping the honestly terrifying secrets that have now been exposed. But the implications astound me.

Chapter 212 Tuesday morning came without people having taken to the streets in protest over the previous day's revelations, at least in Brockton Bay. Many other cities had panicking people, but Brockton Bay didn't. The local news wasn't all that much help in figuring out why the locals weren't all running around like the world was about to end either, and the national news was too busy covering other details. Like the places that people were panicking in. There were even protests in New York demanding that the Protectorate do something about the two girls because they were apparently going to go on a rampage. On top of various groups wondering where the other three Endbringers were.

Taylor took the effort to look outside, even sending the Snitch out for a pass through the area, and found no sign that anyone was trying to cause trouble. It was baffling, but she wasn't about to complain. Instead she got ready for the day and left the house bright and early on her moped. Amy and Missy ended up meeting her at the gym, neither of them having found any trouble whatsoever either, with Vicky coming in shortly after. Apparently the older girl had been looking for trouble ahead of Amy, looped back around, and then come in behind her.

"Is it me or are the people around here too laid back?" Taylor asked as the four of them worked out.

"A couple of people on PHO questioned that earlier," Missy noted. Taylor frowned at the comment, not having thought to check PHO. "Apparently the consensus is that the three unknown Endbringers aren't here, because you two would know, and that if you two haven't killed everyone then it would be a horrible idea to form mobs and force you to do something."

Taylor blinked. "Really?"

"Well, that and the few groups that tried to start things overnight were hospitalized by Lung and Hookwolf."

"Oh."

Taylor and Amy had stored their mopeds in the 'Shaper' pocket dimension and all four had 'walked' to school. Across rooftops, thanks to Missy. They arrived at school with plenty of time to spare, only to have a teacher flag them down and send them to the office. The main reason was to ensure that they had the correct phone network IDs for Taylor and Amy so that they could be put into the 'staff' repeater system for a couple of days, just in case things went wrong during the day, but Taylor also ended up installing the beacon and ensuring that all of their inside opening systems had the code for it installed. It went into the same room the repeaters were controlled from, and was hooked up to the student repeater switch. The intent was that it would only be powered on when phones were permitted to be used.

None of them mentioned that the beacon wasn't needed for them to access the pocket dimensions, nor that it had an internal battery that would keep it running for a few days on a full charge unless they were using it frequently.

A copy of the code for that beacon was left with the office staff, in case any other students needed it in the future, and then they split up to head to lockers. Or in Taylor's case, directly to homeroom, since she didn't use her locker. Nobody bothered her, nor did anyone seem to bother Amy, and they were in their seats well before the late bell. Which led to morning announcements, including telling the entire school that the two were to be left alone regarding the revelations of the day before.

Really, at some point someone was going to make a big deal of things, and Taylor didn't know when, but it not happening was starting to get on her nerves. A little.

Emily frowned as she looked over things at the head of the table in the conference room. They'd been getting hundreds of calls, and she was sure that submissions through the online contact form would be flooding them digitally if the denial of service protections hadn't kicked in and disabled it the day before. Letters would likely start showing up tomorrow, given that the initial reveal had happened on a holiday and all. Luckily she wasn't dealing with any of it, but they were compiling statistics on things.

Grumbling, she looked up at the others in the conference room. "Why is it that the only groups that we know tried to cause trouble are from out of town? Basically none of the locals are in a panic over the power revelations, and all but a few of the calls are from elsewhere in the country."

Officer Langley shrugged. "Panacea has healed a lot of people, but most of them live here. The general consensus from polling is that people are willing to give her the benefit of the doubt for that alone, especially since she hasn't gone crazy. The rest of that just answers questions people have been asking, though in a way nobody had considered. People are more concerned about the three unknown Endbringers, but who do you complain to about that?"

Ethan snorted. "The leading theory there is that you complain to the Fallen about that. Both because someone figured out that they paid for Trigger Vision's thing and because someone asked if worshipping the Endbringers makes them more powerful or numerous."

Hannah sighed, hitting a few keys on her laptop and taking over the projector. A heat-map of the continent appeared a moment later. "Though we've put out a press release stating that we were fully aware of their capabilities and most of what happened, though not the Endbringer involvement, it's still likely that groups from outside the area will target the two girls. Currently there are two primary thoughts on that, the more worrisome being that the Fallen are going to step up their game. After all, they just found out that the only likely way to make a 'herald' is to be an Endbringer, but there are two heralds already here in Brockton Bay."

Emily raised an eyebrow. "That's the more worrisome one?"

"Yes. The other side is that we can expect an influx of people who want to kill the two."

"Are we positive that the relative levels of 'worrisome' weren't swapped by accident?"

Hannah shrugged. "One of the two survived for hours against, and killed, the then-Butcher. Both of them regularly wear protective belts, have been augmented, and carry weapons that let them leverage things into a high level Barrage Blaster rating. They're likely resistant if not immune to power nullification when they want to be, and even if they are power nullified they're still brutes and blasters."

"Ah." Sadly, that made far too much sense. Though something sounded wrong there. "Brutes and blasters while nullified?"

Colin answered that one. "They have the medical 'put a hole in something' technology implanted in their arms. Much more limited than the originals, only one shot from each arm before things need to recharge."

"Oh." That should barely count, but barely was technically enough.

It was lunchtime before anyone attempted to question Taylor or Amy about things. Though they were kind enough to wait until both of them had obtained food and found a place to sit. And, for reasons that weren't clear, they decided to go straight to the weird questions.

"So," Nathan asked after he'd sat down across from them. "You two both have full control over biology when you touch people, so can you give someone snake hair?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Louise said before an answer could be given. "What would you do with snake hair? I'd rather know if they could give someone a tail."

Taylor sighed, and looked at Amy. Who didn't seem to want to be talking about this either. Deciding to get it over with, Taylor turned back to the other two. "With sufficient preparation we probably could do either of those, but I can't see why we would want to."

Louise bounced in her seat. "What if I want a tail?"

"I don't want to think about the paperwork required to give you one without getting in trouble."

"Six forms, two of which are parental consent due to my age, totaling eighteen pages. Assuming you don't need to implant exotic tinkertech to make it happen." Everyone stared at Louise, and she shrugged. "I looked it up last night. There are a number of parahumans who do cosmetic stuff like that, except that most of them are extremely limited or carry a lot of risks."

Taylor pulled out her tablet to check on that, and it didn't take long to find that the girl was right. Mostly. "Looks like there are two more forms if the parahuman is a minor, one of which needs to be signed by the parahuman's parent or guardian. And a third if said parahuman is acting as a Ward."

"Oh. So the forms I brought with me today aren't enough?"

Nathan looked at the girl. "You not only looked things up, but printed them out, filled them out, and got your parents to sign off on them?"

"Of course."

Taylor: I don't think I should mention that technically our side of things is on file.

Amy: Wait, what?

Taylor: Prerequisite for the tinker fugues, I think.

Amy: Oh. Yes, please keep that to yourself.

Most of the questions asked after that point were straightforward, if repetitive at times. They could heal each other, both had all the blaster tricks, some of the 'modified self' stuff was tinker fugue related. They denied any knowledge of three additional Endbringers, having only ever spoken to one. Refusal to answer questions about any additional powers, on the basis of not wanting to give away all of their secrets, were seen as prudent, but annoying.

Missy had joined them at one point, and after someone had commented on Taylor and Amy being able to communicate without speaking decided to have some fun. The three of them coordinated with text messages, confusing everyone because nothing they knew indicated that Missy was included. Missy's excuse there had been that if you get the right clearances then the PRT gives you access to a number of incredible things. She even admitted that you didn't need powers for that trick.

Later they'd find that someone had mentioned that on PHO, but the resulting list of possible ways to accomplish the trick was varied and in most cases outlandish. They did have 'mental Bluetooth' on the list, but it was being treated as more of a joke than as a serious option.

At the end of the day it became obvious that a crowd was gathering outside of the school, likely aiming to interrogate Taylor and Amy. The fact that Taylor didn't seem concerned about it had Amy and Vicky curious.

"Shouldn't you be worried about the group out there?" Vicky finally asked. "I mean, you do have to get through them to go home, right?"

"I'm on the schedule for Wards stuff today," Taylor noted. "So I'm not going home yet. No clue if I'll be patrolling after all of this, granted."

"Then why are you so calm?"

"There you are," Missy said as she came up to them. "The crowd out there is crazy."

Vicky nodded. "I was just asking Taylor why she isn't concerned about them."

Taylor reached into a pouch, pulled out a pocket dimension opening pistol, and fired at an open section of wall next to the lockers. She then left the other three standing there as she stepped through. It didn't take long before Amy joined her, followed by Vicky and Missy a moment later. Two minutes later they stepped out as a group into the Wards area.

"We were alone in the hallway," Amy noted. "Since everyone wanted to ensure that they had 'left' for the day and couldn't be punished for holding us up. So it's likely that nobody knows we've already left."

Vicky giggled at that. "I need to call Dean, let him know I'm already here. I'm sure that he'll be confused."

Taylor smirked at that before heading to her room to get changed, Missy following behind.

They ended up dragging Taylor and Missy into an impromptu press conference, Amy joining because she was just as affected as the other two. Sarah also showed up to represent New Wave more officially, easily able to fly in despite the crowds that had gathered. That the press conference was being held at the ferry station normally used to get to the Rig was a bit odd, but that might've been where most of the news crews had ended up gathering and they just decided to roll with it.

Colin ended up giving a spiel about how the PRT and Protectorate had been aware of things, referring to an earlier press release. That they'd properly tested both girls on their combined abilities, documented them, and ensured that neither was being reckless with them. He confirmed that the ability to communicate with powers had helped tinkers figure out problems, and was part of the reason that there were now additional tinkers in the city. That was implied, but not stated, to be why Taylor had access to so much tinkertech.

Sarah had then noted that New Wave had also known all of this, at least from the point where Amy had been dragged into things. Though she had admitted that they'd ignored the full scope of Amy's power at first, originally refusing to believe that it was anything other than healing. That had been their mistake, since their own records indicated that Amy had never tried to claim that was all she could do, but the girl had stuck to healing even if she could do much more.

The first questions taken had been about the Endbringers, and the general answer was that nobody had any clue where the other three that apparently existed actually were, assuming they did exist and weren't a mistaken interpretation of things. Then the reporters started running down the list of things from the revelations. Bagrat's assumption that the first large tinker fugue had been when the anti-master devices had been created was confirmed, to the astonishment of some. The reporters wanted to know what the extra powers the two had obtained were, but that was left unanswered.

Taylor wasn't entirely comfortable with them admitting that the two had caused a parahuman to explode during the Leviathan battle, but had admitted that the same trick had been used against the Butcher. They'd refused to discuss most of the events between those two points, beyond Colin admitting that the PRT was running 'safe tinker fugues' for 'select personnel' thanks to the safety net that the power communication offered. The other participant in those was not named 'for their own safety'.

They ended questions after the reporters had asked about powers 'moving to another planet', which Amy had explained as the power having needed more space to 'spread out'. The reporters were obviously confused about that, and Taylor suspected that they didn't realize that powers were granted by snarks on other planets connecting to humans. Then again, that probably wasn't common knowledge, she'd certainly not thought much about it before triggering.

"Now then," Colin said, which caused some of the murmuring to suddenly stop. People thought the press conference was over, after all. Most of those on the stage included. "I'm told that we're cleared to run a combination test and demonstration. I shall recommend that the camera crews shift to watch the action soon to happen over the water." He then turned around, and Taylor spotted a grin forming on his face.

Turning around herself, Taylor also grinned, because she caught the tail end of a cloak disengaging. The tinkertech railgun, with two benches, was on a floating platform. Visible behind it, drones were streaming from several ships and the Rig, taking position in the air.

Taylor: You want the fire button or would you like me to handle that portion?

Amy: You got to push the button the last time, so I think it's my turn. Even if we hadn't connected then.

Taylor: Works for me.

Once the two of them were situated, ear protection on and Amy with the control unit, the entire platform moved out over the Bay. The Rig's force field came on at full strength, and it was probably Dragon who was in charge of targeting. Eventually a round loaded into place and the two got ready for firing. Colin was even kind enough to report that sensor systems were ready, implying that there would be really good recordings.

The actual firing was, of course, over in a moment. The kickback was what Taylor remembered, though it might've taken Amy by surprise. The wave of heat that came with the boom wasn't what Taylor remembered, though some of the drones had been much closer than they'd been when she'd done this on her own. Regardless of that, both of them had massive grins on their faces as the railgun was shut down.

There was dead silence as they stepped back onto the stage a minute later, the reporters weren't even talking.

Amy: Can we slip away before anyone thinks to ask questions?

Taylor: Good idea.

They'd later find that they'd just barely escaped on Taylor's platform before the reporters recovered.

Taylor ended up bringing the platform down to the Wards area to do some quick maintenance on it, and Amy stuck around to see what came of their 'sneaking off' stunt. Though she had plopped down on one of the couches with an all day news station on, which was apparently going nuts over the demonstration. The rest of the press conference was apparently being mostly ignored for the moment.

Amy: I think we knocked out the Rig's force field.

Taylor: Really?

Amy: It flashed very brightly and doesn't look to be there a moment later. Though I suppose it could've just been weakened enough to not be visible with the cameras on the shore.

Taylor: Huh.

It took almost an hour for anyone else to show up, Missy bringing Vicky down to the Wards area. Taylor had finished up with her platform, but hadn't brought it back up to the roof, instead having changed and plopped down on the couch next to Amy.

"Did you two have to leave us behind?" Missy asked. "I mean, yeah, we were staring with our jaws dropped, but still..."

"We didn't want to have to deal with the reporters when they recovered," Taylor replied with a shrug. "I don't think anyone other than the reporters will blame us for that."

Vicky snickered at that. "They were a bit peeved when they realized that you two weren't there anymore."

Missy dropped onto one of the other couches. "Armsmaster seemed proud that you two had taken the opportunity to leave, by the way. And apparently there's nothing else planned for the evening, so there's no reason to stick around."

Vicky leaned over the back of the couch, between Taylor and Amy. "It looked like the reporters have done their best to ensure that you can't escape a six-block radius without being ambushed, apparently assuming that there are ways out of the building that aren't obvious, so you may not want to head home normally."

Taylor blinked at that, before turning to Amy. "So, we could cheat through use of pocket dimensions, or we could flaunt that they have no way to stop us from leaving."

Amy raised an eyebrow at that. "And how would we flaunt that?"

"Roof hopping on our mopeds. Of course, you could just have Vicky fly you home for nostalgic reasons or something too."

Vicky laughed. "I vote you use the mopeds. They can go fast enough to outrun the news crews, right?"

"We wouldn't need to, but yes. I'm actually thinking get past them obviously, then cheat my way home because I wouldn't be surprised if some are camping out there too."

They removed the mopeds from the pocket dimension while on the roof, Taylor dropping off the platform she'd worked on at the same time, then the two used the mopeds to shoot off the roof of the building, 'landing' on the side of a nearby building and climbing up it to the roof while people yelled below them. That was repeated for a couple more buildings before they engaged the cloaking units that the mopeds now had and turned ninety degrees from their original path. Six buildings along in that direction they came to one with a proper elevator hut on the roof suitable for firing a pistol opener at.

Two minutes later they'd both stepped out into their bedrooms, both grinning as they checked and confirmed that reporters were outside of their homes. Good luck to them figuring out what just happened.

Wednesday morning Taylor received a message from Lacey, apparently the security system at the Pub didn't have an exclusion option for portals opening when it was armed. Due to that, and the cost to add said feature, she'd rather that they not put a beacon there. It wasn't that big of a deal, all things considered, since another message had arrived from Dragon indicating that the PRT database now had a page containing access codes for beacons in various places. A quick check showed that included the one in the Brockton Bay PRT building. Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Miami also had beacons listed, but that was it. Dragon indicated that those three had been added to the pocket dimension being worked on already as well.

Shrugging, Taylor went ahead and added the codes to the other three pocket dimension openers she had access to, ensured that she sent Amy a copy for her personal pocket dimension, and sent a message off to let Missy know that the page existed. That done, she checked to find that there was still a news van outside, possibly hoping to grab her as she left to head to school. Reporters had figured out that the two had 'slipped by them' the night before, though not how, and apparently a few were persistent.

Sadly for those reporters, Taylor wasn't in the mood to play their game, and left the house by way of her closet door. Amy joined her before she finished targeting the PRT building for an exit, so they both exited the pocket dimension directly into the gym locker room. They'd made it out and started their workout by the time Missy appeared in her Wards room and headed for the gym from there.

"Morning," Taylor called as Missy came out of the locker room.

"So you are here," Missy replied. "I didn't think you were, what with the box in front of your room."

Taylor blinked at that. "Didn't notice, we came straight to the locker room today."

"Oh. Huh, I could've done that too. But then people might know that I could do it. Shouldn't that be kept a secret?"

"At least here it's on record that you have the thing, being registered in the security system and all. I wouldn't be surprised if the rank and file were informed just so that they don't panic when we use the things. Using it to, say, get to school could be a different story. Regardless of the fact that we escaped school that way yesterday."

"Oh. That makes sense."

"Just make sure you target the correct locker room."

The group of them had wandered to the Wards area after their workouts, mainly so that Taylor could find out what was in the box waiting for her. That box turned out to be two framed copies of a picture from the railgun firing the day before, with a note to make sure that Amy got one of them. Amy put hers in her bag, but Taylor decided to put hers in her Wards room for the time being. That led to finding the second box, that had been left on the bed, and contained the external 'temporary hole in clothing' guns Taylor had ordered. On top of that, there were four additional ones, wrist mounted with secure Bluetooth triggering mechanisms.

After reading the provided note, Taylor ensured that both of her utility belts had a couple of the original variant and that two of the wrist-mounted ones were paired to her. Amy added two more of the original variant to her own utility belt, leaving the spares with Taylor, but paired the other two wrist-mounted versions to herself. Neither of them were planning on wearing them 'out of costume', but they'd likely be a lot more easily used than the originals during a mass healing or combat situation. Further, Taylor wouldn't be able to wear both at the same time unless she didn't have the controller for her platform on.

The three then went and got their post-workout breakfast, followed by heading to school. Since no reporters were currently in sight they decided to walk, Missy crunching space so that they could bounce along rooftops. This also let them reach the doors to Arcadia without having to pass through the news trucks that had set up there, since Missy just connected the edge of the rooftop to the then-empty space in front of the doors.

All three grinned when they heard at least one person in the line of news trucks swear at that.

Amy was grumbling to herself as she sat down at lunchtime, and those around her chosen seat gave her looks. She waited until the table had filled to say anything about what she was grumbling about, or more accurately Taylor waited until the table had filled before elbowing her to get her to start talking.

"People are being idiots," was all Amy said at first, but it didn't take long for the stares to get to her. "Several groups started petitions to try and get my permission to use the red cross on my costume revoked. Nevermind that so long as I don't fight beyond defending myself or refuse healing to those who have engaged high level threats while wearing said costume that I fall under the blanket permission for parahumans who heal. Sure, I'll need a new one for non-healing stuff if I want to start going on patrols, but there are villains with body counts that have a 'healing' costume for when they're acting solely as healers that use the protected symbols."

Taylor tilted her head at that. "I'd consider asking for a healing version of my own costume, but I don't know if I want the hassle."

Missy snickered at that. "If you don't bring it up with PR then I think I will. If only to see what they come up with, because your image does not seem like it's appropriate for white with a red cross design."

The girl seemed immune to Taylor's glare, not that said glare was levied for long. Lunch did need to be eaten, after all.

Glenn was decidedly unhappy about the headaches that the Fallen had created for Miss Hebert and Miss Dallon. Moreso for Miss Hebert, since she fell under his purview directly, but now the public knew that they were connected far more than merely as friends. Whether or not that made them sisters or lovers was actively being debated in several places, though he'd almost missed that with all of the other screaming going on.

Looking over his notes, he decided that so far they'd been lucky in several cases. People were assuming that 'communicate with powers' didn't have a long-range 'identify people with powers' component, for example. The 'deeply linked' revelations were seen as 'make tinkers more controlled and/or effective' and the results that they'd admitted to made that worth it. Really, the sticking points for most people were the 'not restricted to healing' bio-kinesis and the fact that two Endbringers, one unknown, had been involved in alterations to their powers.

Ironically, he also had to thank the Fallen for this not being a complete clusterfuck. The Think Tank had identified them as the likely source of a lot of seemingly-grassroots support for the two girls. They were doing so in order to protect their potential 'heralds', but it was helping. Too bad that it wasn't enough to stop the various groups around the country from preparing to hunt them down in earnest. The bounties for information leading to the capture or death of the various leaders were getting impressive, though they'd needed to admit that they'd captured the parahuman responsible for the tanks during the engagement.

Further aiding them, Miss Dallon had support from many trusted medical professionals, not to mention parahumans that she'd healed from all over the planet, and that was also helping Miss Hebert by association. None of them cared about the full scope of her powers, and rightfully claimed that restricting herself as she had was worthy of respect, not condemnation. That was helping to negate the concerns about the girls being the next coming of the recently-deceased Nilbog. It wasn't erasing them, and there were a lot of people in a panic over that aspect of things. Most of them demanding that patently illegal actions be taken against the two at that.

His musing was interrupted as a message arrived, one that bypassed some of his temporary filters. Curious, he opened it up, finding that it was from Miss Hebert. Reading through it, apparently Miss Dallon had gotten wind of some of the baseless petitions being attempted, but it had led to an interesting query. He wasn't sure about making a 'healing' costume, of course, since it didn't fit the 'anti-hero' image. Well, barring just getting permission from New Wave to re-use the Panacea costume, anyway. But there were other things to consider now.

It didn't take long to drop a request into the system to have Miss Hebert tested, certified, and added to the list of recognized parahuman healers. Some of that should be covered by the last power testing run, but he'd leave figuring out what was needed to others. After some thought he decided to send the request to New Wave, since having the two in matching costumes while healing appealed to him. Actually, the matching costume idea amused him in general, so he included an offer to have a matching 'anti-hero' costume made up for Miss Dallon as payment for permission to use the Panacea design for Miss Hebert, complete with the base weapon set but lacking most of the tinkertech.

That done, he sighed and went back to figuring out how to salvage the rest of this fiasco.

Chapter 213 Students and reporters seemed to have given up on ambushing people as school departed, so they 'walked' back to the PRT building instead of using pocket dimensions, eventually entering through the rooftop entrance. Because they hadn't been trusting enough to not use the rooftops. That this provided a useful explanation for how they'd been missed the day before helped. Amy and Vicky had both joined Taylor and Missy for that, though for different reasons. Vicky was doing an after school trip through the gym today and Amy was going to be tinkering instead of swinging by the hospital.

Taylor and Missy both got into costume, and in Taylor's case that included figuring out the most comfortable way to wear the new tinkertech. That didn't take long, though it would've been a lot more annoying if she'd still needed relay watches. Dean had apparently given Chris and Dennis a ride, and Aisha showed up on her own shortly afterwards. Rosa, Ryan, and Sandy all showed up together, though unlike everyone else had today, they actually used the main PRT entrance.

Once all of the Wards were 'in costume' they gathered on the couches at the monitor, and Dennis fired up the holographic projector. "So, we've got a couple of things affecting us today. First up, our console is down for the rest of the week while they work on a wiring closet that we're routed through, so we can't have anyone running said console. That means that all nine of us are theoretically available, except that Rosa needs more tinkering time to get ready."

"Power armor is hard," Rosa whined.

Dennis sighed. "You don't need power armor if you'd rather do non-patrol things instead. I'm sure that we could convince the water department to let you take a look at some of the pump stations, for example."

"Mommy already asked and they said not until I'm a teenager."

"Apparently I'll need to put in some effort there. Regardless, she isn't ready. I've also been asked to ensure that if we're patrolling that we treat Ryan and Sandy as 'extras' for a few days, until we see how things settle down, meaning that we'd only be allowed one per group and they'd be a fourth participant. Which would leave us with two patrol groups if everyone other than Rosa goes out patrolling."

That also meant that if they didn't want to exclude the kids that they'd be doing 'safe' routes, though Dennis didn't seem to want to mention that aspect of things. But to do anything else would invite the wrath of the Youth Guard.

Tapping on the wireless keyboard, Dennis brought up two patrol routes and a series of markers on the representation of Brockton Bay. "I picked the two patrol routes shown, ground routes that could be used as mixed patrol routes. Or we can split up further and go to the various marked points to take care of various non-combat requests sitting in the queue. They include a boulder that shifted in a park and needs to be moved, the arcade wanting to figure out where their speakers are out of phase, two different places that wish to move a large piece of furniture through a small door, several requests for brute and/or flying aid, and one request for help opening a bathroom door."

"A bathroom door?" Dean asked.

"I've got that one flagged for Aisha, if she wants it, though if she wants to check it out I'll be going with her."

Aisha shrugged. "Now you've got me wondering why they need parahuman assistance, so might as well if we aren't patrolling."

Dennis nodded. "That would cover the two of us. I'd like someone to escort Ryan and Sandy as well, if they'd like to deal with the arcade and the boulder?"

Chris waved at Ryan. "I'll watch Ryan, unless we think we need me here in case Rosa needs help?"

"No, she has permission to tinker here alone, so long as we check in on her when we get back. So, Ryan, feel up to helping the arcade with their speakers?"

"Sure," Ryan replied.

Dennis then turned to Sandy. "Do you want to help with the boulder?"

Sandy grinned and nodded. "Patrolling is boring."

"I'll go with her," Dean said. "Since I don't think I'll be much help with any brute or flying tasks."

Dennis nodded again, then turned to Taylor and Missy. "You two can either pair up or split up, unless you'd rather we arrange for a patrol?"

"We'll need a list of places," Missy answered after Taylor shrugged. "If they're easy to hit in sequence then we might as well pair up, especially since I bet Taylor could help speed up moving things. Otherwise splitting up would be better."

It turned out that half of the brute or flying jobs were in an approximate line with the furniture moving jobs, so Taylor and Missy had opted to hit them together instead of alone. The first one they hit was a flying job, which Missy could've handled alone as well since the problem was with the top of a flagpole. Standing on the roof of the building and crunching space would've made it trivial. From there they hit the first bit of furniture needing moving, which turned out to be a piano that had originally been brought in with a crane years prior.

"So far we're zero for two on either of us helping with the other's job," Taylor noted as she leaned against the wall next to Missy.

The younger girl shrugged. "The flagpole was a one person job and they neglected to tell us that they'd have professionals moving the piano here. The next one on the list is a brute request, right?"

"Yep. Stuck grate in a tunnel that they want torn out without having to dig it up. The request said that they expect the parahuman assistance to be faster than hiring a crew with the right kind of portable tools."

"Ah. Maybe I'll make the tunnel bigger so that it'll be easier to work in, or if the grate isn't well anchored I might be able to make it easily removed by expanding the tunnel around it?"

"We'll have to see."

Aisha looked at the hotel room, wondering why it'd been stripped bare and had plywood over the window. "Something interesting happen here?"

"Group of druggies set fire to the place while getting high," the hotel manager answered. "They threw a chair out the window when the fire alarm went off."

"Ah."

"We'd cleared the room, but the bathroom door appears to have gotten locked at some point. Or, more accurately, we think the locking mechanism was damaged, since we can't release it from this side and it shouldn't be able to be locked from the outside. We'd rather not damage the door or frame to gain entry, if possible."

Dennis nodded. "Give us a few minutes and we'll see what we can do. Er, you might find it easier to not be in here, if only to avoid confusion as I appear to be doing nothing?"

The manager nodded. "I'll go make sure the maintenance crew is ready to come deal with things."

Once the man had left, Dennis turned to Aisha. "Ready to do your thing?"

Aisha just rolled her eyes and dropped into the floor. She carefully moved under the bathroom door, then popped back out of the floor. Sadly, when she tried to open the door she found that it was unlocked yet the handle wouldn't turn. "Crap, it won't open from this side either."

There was a moment of silence before Dennis responded. "Think you could dismantle the lock if they give you a screwdriver?"

She blinked, then examined the doorknob. There were screws visible on this side. "Maybe?"

At least this was proving to be more involved than previously expected.

The tunnel-blocking grate had turned out to be solidly connected to the tunnel on all sides, having previously been welded shut when the two buildings the tunnel connected had been different businesses. At the same time, it was also fairly rusted and hadn't survived past a third kick. Missy actually took care of the next 'flying' job, crunching the distance between two buildings and hooking the cable across the gap, then slowly releasing the warp as the cable pulled out and tightened up.

Currently they were at the second 'move furniture' job. Expanding door frames was easy enough, but apparently the new homeowners hadn't considered that the pool table was solidly attached to the floor. Nor why, for that matter, and Taylor was trying to figure out how to tell them the latter.

"This doesn't look like it was designed to be moved," Missy said as she circled the pool table. "I mean, maybe it comes apart somehow, but I think the base is set into the floor. So you'll have a hole."

Taylor moved over and made a show of feeling around the pool table itself. "Maybe it's just weighted and can be lifted off? Otherwise the table surface might need to come up to expose bolts."

"Drat," Joanne, the wife, said. "Dave wants to keep the pool table, but I had hoped to use this as a larger living room since it has better access to the kitchen."

Shrugging, Taylor moved around to the end of the table, pushing the small decorative panels that served as locking pins in to allow the release catches underneath the table to lift. Of course, she was grabbing those, being positioned at good leverage points, and they immediately popped up. She shifted 'in shock' and the entire top of the pool table slid slightly towards her.

"What did you just do?" Dave asked.

Taylor pulled the table, now released from the locking clamps, towards her. She couldn't see it, but knew that the 'base' was flipping up under the table at the other end to get out of the way of anyone's head. "I suspect that your plans will be changing."

Joanne was the first to look underneath where the pool table was situated. "I think this is a wine cellar."

Dave snorted. "What was your first hint, dear?"

"The wine that's still down here, for starters."

It took another twenty minutes to 'figure out' how to 'intentionally' open the hidden door, most of which was Dave and Joanne trying to figure out what Taylor had done to make the hidden grip switches work after they'd reset on closing the thing. Claiming to have just grabbed the edge hadn't helped much at first, but they eventually spotted the 'loose' panels and determined that they were the key.

As they left, Missy turned to Taylor. "I wonder how often the stated job gets to be marked as a failure with full pay and a bonus?"

It took a moment, but Taylor found the answer. "Around one in every seventy jobs nationwide is marked as a failure with full pay, but they don't have stats on bonus pay."

"Huh. I guess that means that it's more common for things to be found as something unexpected?"

"Well, I can't see most people asking for parahuman help for the blatantly obvious, outside of power utility stuff."

Chris grinned as Ryan moved around the arcade, most of the crowds having stopped playing to watch. Or take pictures and/or video. They'd switched from music to a test sound with a consistent pattern, initially played in the back for Ryan to get a handle on before they had him start checking out here. Of course, they'd also had to explain what they meant by 'out of phase' since the kid didn't know what that meant, which had involved intentionally putting a couple of speakers out of phase so that he could see what that sounded like to him.

Given that there were at least two dozen speakers in the full setup, compared to the four in the test setup they'd used, it wasn't an easy task. They had some oddities that they suspected were misconfigured speakers, but they didn't have tools to properly test that theory. If the PRT hadn't put out a request for sound-related jobs suitable for a Ward then they'd have simply checked each speaker one at a time over a couple of weeks, but instead Ryan was here.

"That one," Ryan said, pointing at a single speaker. "It's the only one that seems wrong."

And that was Chris's cue. He hopped on his hoverboard and floated up to take a look at the speaker. "It's got a blue wire connected to the white terminal and a green one to the red. Labeled with a seven?"

The manager checked a reference sheet. "I think that the wires are reversed? I'm not sure."

"They're quick-release, so I can swap them if you want."

"Might as well try. Worst case is it's wrong in a different way and I get my sound guy back out here to fix it later."

It didn't take long to swap the two wires, and then Ryan walked around the arcade again. The manager followed him this time, and was smiling when they finished a pass. He stayed silent, though, and let Ryan make a second pass alone.

Eventually Ryan stopped, and pointed at another speaker. "That one's too quiet, but I think that's all."

The manager frowned, but nodded. "Thank you. I don't think we can fix that one today, since I'm not sure how to check the set levels on the equipment. But I'll be sure to make a note of it." He proceeded to mark something down on his paperwork, then moved over to the front counter. "Do you two have anywhere else to be today?"

Chris shook his head. "Not really, no. There aren't that many requests for Soundstone's talents yet."

"Ahh, yes. I can see how that would be the case." He then grabbed two small bags from under the register. "Would you like a few free plays as a bonus?"

Blinking, Chris considered things. It wasn't against any rules he knew of, and they really didn't have anything to do beyond maybe checking in on Rosa. "I don't think that would be a problem, if Soundstone doesn't want to get going anyway?"

Ryan wasted no time in taking one of the little bags and going for one of the arcade games with it, causing Chris to chuckle. Apparently they were going to have a little fun before heading back.

Taylor frowned as they left the building where a safe had seemingly bonded to the floor and needed some extra persuasion to move. "I can't help but wonder why we're the only ones doing more than one thing today."

"That's easy," Missy replied. "It makes the others look lazy, gets us more spending money, and looks good on various things going forward in our careers."

"We're both rich for different reasons, I don't care if the others look lazy or not, and I suspect that I've personally got enough on the parahuman psychologist front to handle 'looks good' for years."

Missy nodded. "I can see that. Most of my 'rich' is in my trust fund, this does get me spending money. And for you, it makes it even harder for the public to demonize you since you're running around doing things that aren't scary?"

"Okay, I'll take that one. But I think we've run out of jobs for the evening."

"Huh. I hope the bonus from earlier is enough to make a couple of purchases I'm hoping to make, then."

Dean sighed as he and Sandy headed back to the PRT building. They'd been delayed in getting to the park, and then it'd taken the girl a bit for her power to get a proper 'grip' on the boulder. Once she had she'd turned it into a giant almost-cat and had it walk across the park. The only direction they'd been given was to get it off of the hill, but Sandy had decided that just moving it would be too boring. So instead she'd had the crude cat curl up around a tree like it was taking a nap, making it look like a very old and worn statue that a tree just happened to have grown through the middle of.

Not that anyone would believe that it'd been there for ages, of course. Not only did it not exist the day before, the thing had left footprints leading from where the boulder had started out straight to the tree. The videos that could be on PHO already would also reveal the truth, of course, but anyone who didn't know about Sandy's powers and didn't check out the videos could probably be fooled into thinking some ridiculous things.

Worse, from his point of view, was that Sandy had gotten bored while they waited for someone from the parks department to arrive to 'officially approve' the relocation. So she'd collected a few other rocks and made things for the giant cat. She'd started with a pretty well made water dish, then made a little bear out of several rocks. He was happy that she'd not found what she needed to make a collar for the cat before the parks department employee had shown up. They'd loved the thing, only asking that Sandy make the 'hole' in the middle where the tree passed through a little larger so that the tree would be less likely to break things as it tried to grow outward.

He should've spoken up before Chris had and gone with Ryan. They'd probably at least had a chance to goof off in a way that wouldn't require more paperwork afterwards.

"What the hell happened to you?" Amy asked as Taylor and Missy entered the Wards area. Taylor looked fine, but Missy was covered in various colors. And looked furious.

"We made it through everything only to be attacked on our way back," Taylor said, shrugging. "They were aiming for me, but the force field kept the paint off of me before we could grab all the idiots shooting at us with paintball guns."

"They thought that since bullets weren't useful that they'd be more annoying than lethal," Missy growled. "They might be in need of medical attention, since I may have kept Taylor from doing anything about the full-strength crotch-shots I preferred when taking them down."

"We hadn't bothered with my platform because it wasn't a long trip back, mistake as it turned out to be."

Amy snorted at that. "Good luck on the medical attention, I don't think the hospital wants me healing at all until revelations about my capabilities blow over. If only to cut off attempts to sue over them letting me when they know what I can do."

Missy stormed off to get changed, and probably to take a shower. Though she could probably slip home and do that there if she wanted. Taylor shook her head and looked towards the personal rooms. "Rosa leave already?"

Amy nodded. "The three kids left together about ten minutes ago. You and Missy were the last ones to return, but I'm thinking it was because you got waylaid. Aisha and Dennis came back first, though he stuck around waiting to ensure that Ryan and Sandy made it back safely."

"Yeah, I think he's waiting for the bus. So, why are you still here?"

"I figured that it would be easier to heal you if you came to me."

"Ah. I didn't get hurt."

Amy grinned at that. "And if I'd left then Murphy would've ensured that I had to come back."

Thursday morning Taylor made the mistake of thinking that it might be safe to ride her moped to the gym, though she was prudent enough to realize that it would be a good idea to keep her visor recording during the trip. Sadly, that proved to be needed as someone had been waiting for her to be traveling alone, or so it seemed. Maybe they'd just gotten lucky and chosen the day to ambush her? Either way, she stopped at a red light and a half dozen men came at her with various weapons. The first one to reach her broke a bat over her head while she was trying to decide how to deal with the rest.

Sighing, she punched one man to get him to drop his knife, then grabbed another that tried to punch her and used him to help pull herself off of the moped. The rest of the men backed off at that point, though they seemed to be waiting for something. Rolling her eyes, she carefully moved her moped out of the street, placing it next to a mailbox. That done, she stepped back out onto the street and looked at the various men.

"So are you trying to capture me?" she finally asked.

"DIE!" one of the men yelled, throwing a knife at her. She didn't even have to dodge, the knife sailing past far to the side.

She was considering why the various men were merely surrounding her now when she realized that one of them had a radio. Perhaps they were calling in reinforcements from nearby? Though now that she thought about it, why wasn't she calling in support? It only took a moment to fire off a message with her location, since she didn't want the various men to think she was calling for help if they noticed her subvocalizing.

The mental debate over whether or not to bother attacking them, since they'd started things in the first place yet were incredibly ineffective, was interrupted by something being fired from a rooftop. She looked up and grimaced as she brought her arms up in front of her face, just in time for the rocket propelled grenade to hit them. Her force field took the brunt of the impact, but when she looked around a moment later she found all of the men that had initially attacked her had been seriously injured.

Taylor swore as she moved to the nearest downed man. "Who the fuck uses a fragmentation round that close to allies?"

It took three quarters of an hour for everything to be dealt with, which had included two news crews showing up and a number of people that had been watching telling the police what they'd seen. The men that had attacked Taylor had only been stabilized, partially because that meant that she could get to more of them, but several bystanders, that had been hurt when the RPG went off and damaged windows, were healed up fully when they were brought out afterwards.

In the end, Taylor ended up going straight to school instead of to the gym. She was thankful that her moped had been behind her when the RPG had hit, since it wasn't damaged, but she would need to consider draining the force field belt of excess energy later.

"What happened to you?" Vicky asked when Taylor had arrived.

"Idiots happened," was Taylor's reply, even as Amy came over and cleared up a couple of minor issues for her. She then pulled a bag out of a pouch and offered it to Amy. "Would you like some cookies?"

Amy blinked and stared at the bag. "Where did you get cookies?"

"Mrs. Hewitt insisted after I was done healing the bystanders. Claimed that her husband didn't deserve any after he used live ammo as a bludgeon on the dude attacking from the rooftop."

"Oh."

Taylor managed to avoid being mobbed by most of the student body before homeroom by virtue of most of them not having heard the news yet. Any hope of that remaining the case until she left was dashed by her homeroom teacher asking a question. "Miss Hebert, why are you here?"

Taylor blinked, not having expected that. "Because it's a school day?"

"You were attacked with an anti-personnel weapon on the way to school, with the police and PRT both sending in notes to explain your absence."

"I was barely injured. Why would that excuse me from attending?"

Amy seemed torn between slapping Taylor and snickering at the looks on people's faces at that comment, but their teacher sighed and mumbled something about crazy parahumans and moved on in taking attendance.

Ciara frowned as she came to yet another dead end. The tank attack had been bad enough, having damaged a delivery destined for the Violet Rose Pub, but the revelations from Trigger Vision had compounded things. The Penders had been sufficiently distracted and the latest batch of Tea Beer had been ruined. That couldn't stand, but locating the leader of the Mathers clan was proving to be difficult. Her faerie was very good at throwing a veil over things, and the trails kept leading to unpowered individuals.

It was the work of a moment to write down the name and badge number of this particular dead end, since they were employed by the PRT and she could probably arrange for more luxury items in the next supply drop in exchange for the information. That always helped smooth things over between the various cell blocks. Once that was done Ciara decided that it was time for a snack, getting up and moving over to her personal supply of things.

This was all proving to be far more time consuming than she'd originally thought, and she still didn't know what her actual response was going to be once she found her target. This probably didn't qualify as an excuse to leave to deal with things in person, after all. Her loopholes weren't quite broad enough. Merely informing the PRT of where the woman was wouldn't be enough, as they'd have trouble moving in time to grab her. Maybe she could send someone else as a messenger while the woman was sleeping? Either that or make a 'gift' for the woman.

It would probably be best to make a pass through her protected areas, if only for appearances. Most of the inmates already knew she had a 'project', after all, and didn't dare draw her ire by dragging her away from it. But it would also let her make a quick evaluation of possible messengers that she could send to express her displeasure, and if she found none then she could devote more thought towards what her 'gift' should look like. Of course, once the 'veil' was gone she'd then need to show her displeasure to the Crowleys as well, so unless they were meeting she'd likely need multiple messengers or gifts.

Actually, why limit herself? She could send messengers with gifts. That would drastically increase the number of potential messengers, after all, and could very well significantly reduce the number of day to day headaches in several cell blocks. Ones that weren't annoying enough to bother with normally at that. Given the reason for things she could probably even get them to volunteer without considering whether or not they'd be in danger themselves. The tricky part would be wording things such that she wasn't telling lies about their chances of survival while avoiding discouraging them from participating at all...

It took all of ten minutes into the lunch period before people were discussing the videos from that morning that had made it to PHO. Something that likely would've happened sooner if it hadn't been for minor details like the repeaters being off. Apparently someone from the thread tracking Taylor's movements had set up a camera to watch that intersection, since she used it frequently, and the footage from said camera had been posted. This resulted in most people agreeing that she'd gone above and beyond any duty in healing the idiots when their nominal ally had tried to kill them all.

Of course, that was only most people. Some very vocal others were blaming her wearing tinkertech protections for the others being injured at all and were screaming for her to be thrown into prison for 'harming innocents'. Despite being the one that had originally been attacked, only acting defensively, and then healing her otherwise lethally injured attackers. Nevermind that a number of people had chimed in to state that, if anything, she'd probably ensured that things were less harmful due to how the round had hit her arms.

Once in the cafeteria, Taylor once again picked a seat next to the wall, with Amy sitting next to her. Vicky beat out everyone else to the seat across from Taylor, and glared at anyone that wasn't Dean that tried to sit across from Amy. Once the table had filled the older girl pointed at Taylor. "You are complete bullshit."

Taylor rolled her eyes. "Because I took an anti-personnel round to the arms and then healed everyone else?"

Vicky waved her hand. "Of course not. You're bullshit because you then made everyone else look bad by coming to school as though nothing had happened! The police and the PRT even vouched for you being excused! What were you thinking?"

"That the worst that had happened to me was being made to skip working out this morning? Even without Amy here touching me up when I arrived I'd have been fine by now."

There were a number of people staring at Taylor at this point, but she ignored them all in favor of eating. She was hungry, not having had a large enough breakfast this morning since she'd expected to be having a larger one after working out. Though listening to some of the other chatter she could hear made her realize that she should probably thank Trevor again for the force field belt, since it had saved her from serious injury at a minimum. She wasn't sure how her enhancements would've held up against that fragmentation round, after all.

By the end of lunch Taylor had gone back for seconds, repeatedly refused to discuss anything that could be considered to be 'medical details' regarding those that she'd healed that morning, and decided to ignore the PHO thread on the morning's incident because the vocal idiots were swarming it. With any luck the moderators would have a wonderful source for mass-banning or something. Instead she was going to focus on her afternoon classes, and try and decide if it was worth it to reveal that she could open the pocket dimension in front of others to get her moped into it or not.

If the answer was 'no' then she'd be taking rooftops and not streets, with or without Missy's help.

Chapter 214 Taylor had decided that it would be easier to just ride her moped to the PRT building before storing it in the pocket dimension while in the garage. Missy had helped with crunching space across rooftops, meaning that the two arrived fairly quickly. Amy and Vicky had instead headed home, Sarah having called for a New Wave meeting. Apparently they needed to properly discuss various things that had come up since Monday's revelations, or perhaps the adults had already done so and now it was time to inform the kids.

Missy went straight to change into her costume, but Taylor started with a quick discharging of her belt's extra stored energy. That actually led to her spending almost half an hour making a better way of doing so than just trying to clamp two wires into place, resulting in an obviously hacked together system. She followed that with figuring out how to properly drain the energy, compared to the use of the ground lug she'd done so with initially. That led to realizing that there was a box on the wall with hookups intended for draining energy, and then finding that Colin had already made a far better adapter and left it in said box.

Grumbling that said box hadn't been properly labeled nor had anyone told her about the adapter, she pulled the labels that the installers had left inside the box and applied them to the box and wall itself. That done, she went to her room to change into her costume. That didn't take long, after which she headed out into the common area.

"So you are here," Dennis said when he spotted her. "I wasn't sure if you'd already headed over to the Rig or not."

Taylor blinked, then checked her calendar. "Huh. I forgot that I was doing stuff over there. Then again, I had an eventful morning."

"Speaking of that, can you try and be less of a badass going forward? I'd rather that people not use things quite so likely to harm everyone else while gunning for you."

She flipped him off, to his apparent amusement, then headed back to her room to ensure that she had a couple of other things with her. That done, she slipped out the back before going up to the roof to get her platform.

"Hey Maul," Trevor called as Taylor left the area that the pocket dimension beacon had been installed in. Colin was still working on some other upgrades in the room in question, which meant that she hadn't had to stick around to close everything up.

"Hi," Taylor replied. "You going to help Armsmaster?"

Trevor rolled his eyes. "We both know his name."

"He's in costume. So am I, which I assume is why you used 'Maul' instead of 'Taylor' to get my attention."

"Point. Whatever. Not looking for him, do you have time to look at something for me?"

She blinked at that. "I suppose, but I thought you could repair stuff yourself?"

He snorted. "Build, maintain, repair. All trivial. Figure out what the hell I built when I dropped into a fugue last week? Not so much."

"Oh. Okay. We need to visit your lab for that?"

"Preferably. If only before you tell me if we need to use a bunker-level testing room to turn it on."

She gestured for him to lead the way, and a couple minutes later they'd arrived. He brought her over to a tarp on one of the workbenches, then pulled it off.

"That's...huh," Taylor said, looking it over as her tinker snark filled her in on things. "The hoppers are all clearly labeled. It looks like it makes a box, bakes a pie, and then locks the pie in the box. The text input here dictates what the sign placed on top says, prefixed with 'I only open for'. The box gets a mild stranger effect to keep people from paying attention to it for six hours, then a master effect to make people think that they have to prove themselves worthy of the labeling before the box will open for them. Three days later the box unlocks, and the first person to open it gets the pie to their face and will find the word 'sucker' on the bottom of the pie tin. The box itself would then disintegrate, though I think that's a side effect and not intentional."

Trevor stared at the device for a few minutes, processing that, before finally chuckling. "I suppose that's what I get for binge-watching old comedy films. Think we should fire it up to test it?"

She shrugged. "Up to you, but I don't want to deal with the paperwork."

"The what?"

"The resulting box would have a stranger effect that turns into a master effect. I'm not in the mood to deal with filling out the paperwork for that kind of thing right now."

Trevor grimaced. "Right. That does sound less than pleasant right now. Maybe some other time."

Taylor had ended up returning to the PRT building and helping Rosa. The girl's current attempt at 'power armor' wasn't coming along well, though she'd built a couple of possibly-decent weapons. Though having a focus on it 'looking cool' more than 'working' was a definite hindrance in the design process, not that Taylor was the right kind of tinker to ask questions regarding designing tinkertech. Sadly, after a couple of hours there hadn't been a lot of progress.

"Are you sure you need power armor?" Taylor asked after another failure of a minor component. That she was resisting the urge to fix the equipment that said failure had damaged was another issue entirely, of course, added onto the small collection of other things the young tinker had apparently damaged.

"I want to patrol with Sandy," Rosa replied.

"And does Sandy have power armor?"

The younger girl blinked. "No?"

"Then why do you need it?"

Rosa rolled her eyes. "Sandy has rocks."

"So? You've already got a couple of water guns. Isn't that enough?"

The girl mumbled something, and Taylor just stared at her. Which may or may not have worked properly with the visor, but eventually Rosa spoke up. "I can't lift enough water."

Taylor nodded. "Okay. Have you considered a robot that carries water for you?"

Rosa went to say something, but then her eyes unfocused a little bit. Taylor made a point of heading for the kitchen while the girl gathered materials. Having something for her to eat when she was done with her little fugue couldn't hurt, after all.

Clara grumbled as she made her way to the door, wondering who was bothering her at this hour. She was already tired and cranky because she'd attempted a quick theft earlier, a request she'd found waiting in one of her dead drops upon returning home. But she'd been foiled by another villain having chosen to target the same company at the same time. Even that wouldn't have been so bad if the idiot hadn't been willing to cause incredible amounts of collateral damage. She almost made it out with her loot, but lost it to an explosion the idiot had caused when they'd started fighting the arriving Protectorate.

It was annoying, because she hadn't even wanted the loot the other villain was going after. No, her target had been the personal journal a woman kept in her desk at work, one that might have revealed that she was unfaithful to her husband or something like that. Significant details hadn't been included in the request, but a purchased duplicate of the desk key had been provided to make it easier. Granted, it was unlikely that anyone would know that the journal had been moved, given the near complete destruction of the building, but it was still annoying.

Ignoring the doorbell ringing again as she reached the door itself, she checked the peep hole. Not as good for getting a look as a camera, but the apartment didn't come with a camera. She didn't recognize the woman, so she made sure that the security chain was engaged before she unlocked the door. Cracking it open, she gave the woman a glare. "What do you want?"

"Clara Sharp?" the woman asked, and Clara nodded. "I'm Emilia Moore. I work for the PRT. We understand that you visited your niece recently?"

"Yep. Why does that matter?"

"You don't expect us to follow up on visits to an outed Ward? Especially by someone with your own public views?"

Clara had to admit that the woman had a point. She was a bit over the top in the area when it came to her views about government control over parahumans. "Why now?"

"Because the sooner we check things off the sooner the Youth Guard leaves us alone." Emilia held out identification, which looked correct to Clara. "May I come in?"

Grumbling, Clara closed the door long enough to release the security chain, then opened the door to let the woman in. Once the door was shut, and locked, she brought Emilia to the living room.

Once they were both seated, Clara looked at the other woman. "Okay. What do you want to talk about?"

Emilia grinned. "To be honest, we're already fairly confident that you didn't influence your niece. But since you are a known villain we have to have a chat. Though it's a lot more interesting when dealing with a Ward's villain parent, compared to an aunt."

That had Clara blinking. "What?"

"We've known that you're Diamond Quartet for months. You were sloppy, taking your mask off in view of an ATM camera after a failed heist, and we got lucky in that another parahuman robbed the same ATM later that evening. We also know that your niece is aware of your parahuman status now."

Frowning, Clara tried to figure out how that happened. "Did she blab?"

Emilia waved her off. "Nah. But what other conclusion are we supposed to come to when you visit and all of a sudden your niece starts reading up on the rules and recommendations for having a villain in the family?"

Grumbling about smart-alecs and how thinkers were probably bullshit, Clara rubbed her face. She then looked back up. "So what are you really here for? Aiming to get me to sign up for the Protectorate?"

The grin on the other woman's face was annoying. "While I'd love the recruitment, our profile on you indicates a low likelihood of success there." She then pulled out a book, the very journal that Clara had been attempting to nab earlier, and placed it down on the coffee table. "Good job on getting this, by the way. Even if you were interrupted. We were impressed with how you dealt with things until then, and your payment will be honored even though you didn't get it to the drop off point."

Clara was now very confused. "What?"

"It was a bit of a test for you. You disabled the security cameras, though not the extras we'd put in. As such we could watch as you walked right past thousands to millions of dollars worth of equipment that we'd put trackers into just in case, because those weren't your goals. Just as we'd believed, you're very professional when on a hired job instead of a personal gain robbery. How would you like to take a few more jobs, knowing who you're working for this time, but targeting villain hideouts?"

"Are you telling me that when you found out that my niece knew I was a villain you decided to use one of my dead drop hiring points to test me? Why the hell would you do that?"

Emilia shrugged. "The PRT and Protectorate are, officially, unable to do a lot of things until congress gets off their asses and fixes a number of things. Unofficially, there are a number of ways to accomplish things with 'discretionary funds'. Approaching those with ties to our own people just happens to be the most successful means of using those funds. As for you, we'd like some things back from those who stole them, and you have the skills to make it happen in a way that is incredibly unlikely to be traced back to us."

Clara's eyes narrowed. "I'm starting to think that you guys are a lot less goody two-shoes than you lead the public to believe."

"I'm sure we are, and I'm only cleared for the low security level stuff. Who knows what we get up to at the higher levels."

Taylor stretched as she returned home via her closet door, though was curious about why she had to disable the alarm when she did so. She was quite late, after all, having stayed behind after Rosa left to repair some of the equipment in the younger girl's tinker space. As a side project she'd also documented the water delivery robot, though the various things it would likely deliver water to hadn't been built yet.

Making her way downstairs, Ackbar trailing behind her, she eventually found a note on the fridge. Her father had apparently gone to watch the kids of a dockworker that had been rushed to the hospital. Apparently he'd either be back very late or she wouldn't see him until the following evening, depending on how the hospital visit went. It was too bad that the current panic over the 'not restricted to healing' aspect of Shaper's abilities was keeping Amy out of the hospital, if only until things were settled legally.

Though it was funny that nobody had complained when she had healed her attackers. Perhaps she should do a more in-depth check of the relevant laws regarding healing and similar with parahuman abilities, since she was now much more likely to be doing so in the open and all? Really, she'd been slacking off there, she should have done a lot more studying of that kind of thing after the whole incident with Sherrel. Relying on getting answers from Amy should only be a stopgap measure, after all.

She added various things she found with some quick searches to her 'to read' list while she made a late dinner for Ackbar, but instead of getting started on them right away headed back upstairs to take care of homework she hadn't completed yet. Some of it she'd intentionally avoided since the tablet was better able to display the information, though for a couple of assignments she'd left things in her bag and just hadn't gotten around to starting them while in costume as a result.

By the time she went to bed her father hadn't returned, but he had let her know that he was doing fine and that the three kids were behaving themselves. That he hinted that he'd threatened calling her to help keep them in line was beside the point, if only because he hadn't actually called her for that.

Friday morning dawned unusually and unexpectedly windy, though apparently that was at least in part because the jet stream had shifted a bit more than expected due to a particularly energetic cape battle the night before. Taylor wasn't too concerned, instead making sure she was ready for the day before traveling to the PRT building via pocket dimension. Amy did the same, but still looked Taylor over to make sure nothing had happened to her on the way over.

"So how did your meeting go last night?" Taylor asked once they'd started their workout.

Amy smirked. "I found out that paperwork others are made to do can be incredibly useful."

"Really?"

"The only people who can prove that I use parahuman abilities to heal them outside of emergency situations also signed paperwork stating that they couldn't sue over the use of said powers. None of that paperwork states that my powers were limited to healing, only that I'd be using them to heal. It's actually a standard form for a number of parahumans, one that has loopholes spotted and closed by thinkers and is updated every few years if new ones are found."

"I see. And anyone you healed in an emergency is covered by other laws, and anyone who only gave verbal consent has insufficient proof that you were involved?"

"Yep. Granted, had I botched things then they could still sue, but every person I heal in a hospital is examined by the doctors afterwards and given a clean bill of health. Makes it very hard to bring a case against me, New Wave, or the hospital without it being trivially dismissed. And they already have a working plan for the known anti-parahuman judges. Forcing them to recuse themselves is apparently trivial these days. It's the unknown anti-parahuman judges that have them concerned."

Taylor blinked. "That sounds like there's a story behind where that distinction comes from."

Amy grinned. "There's a national organization for judges against parahumans. I'm told that the thinker that formed it in the first place has been very pleased with the results."

"I know I should be surprised, but for some reason I'm not. I wonder when lawsuits will start coming my way?"

"That's one of the few things that the PRT and Protectorate is good about. Any attempt to sue a parahuman under their control for anything involving parahuman powers has to pass through them first, to see if they feel it falls under 'official duties' or not, amongst other things."

Taylor rolled her eyes. "Yes, but eventually someone will find a loophole that means a case can't just be dismissed and the PRT is supposed to inform me if I'm named, if only so that I don't talk about the case in front of reporters."

"Oh. Right."

Sadly, Missy hadn't joined them in the gym, so they were on their own for actually getting to school. They debated over things for a bit before deciding to take the mopeds over rooftops, not wanting to do too much 'teleportation' at this point. They'd wait for that to become more well-known before using it that blatantly. Their landing in the parking lot resulted in at least one girlish scream of terror, with much snickering from the guy's friends afterwards.

The two had barely made it to their seats in homeroom, well before the bell, when they were interrupted. By another teacher.

"Excuse me," the teacher, who Taylor finally placed as Mrs. Higgins a moment later. "Miss Dallon, Miss Hebert?"

"Yes?" Amy replied for the two of them.

"Would you two be willing to bring your spider-bots in next week, Tuesday or Wednesday? I'd like to show off actual tinkertech creations in a couple of my classes."

Taylor and Amy shared a look, both shrugging, before Amy turned back to Mrs. Higgins. "I don't see why not. Didn't expect it this early in the year, though."

The teacher smirked. "You two already have an exception for a couple of weeks in the repeaters, which will make it easier to call you directly if there's a problem."

Blinking, Taylor considered that. "I suppose it's hard logic to refute. No clue how either of them will react to being around others without us nearby, and Ackbar has other concerns."

Mrs. Higgins seemed confused at that. "I'm assuming Ackbar is one of the two, but why would there be 'other concerns' for only one of them?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "Because the universe wasn't content with Taylor having anything 'normal' for a pet, but don't worry. So long as things aren't glowing you should be fine."

"Glowing?"

Taylor sighed. "Ackbar likes to make traps. Hence the name."

"Oh." She stood there for a minute thinking about that, then her eyes went wide. "Wait, does that mean that Ackbar has powers? How does that even work?"

Amy snorted. "How do most powers work? Still, what classroom should we be bringing the two to?"

"You'll actually need to swing by the office and they'll tell you where to bring them. Chances are it'll be my classroom, but they may decide that the two should be kept in an unused lab room instead."

"Okay. Makes sense."

Dragon carefully ensured that the false badge numbers for the next group of volunteers were prepared, physically and digitally. Since they hadn't been active numbers for two years at the minimum it was unlikely that anyone would be looking them up normally, making them ideal for finding moles looking them up. They were, however, all approximately 'correct' for how long the officers had been with the PRT. Having their ruse discovered because they'd used new numbers only would've been embarrassing.

They honestly didn't expect this to work again, but it wasn't a lot of effort and was thus worth a shot. Of course, they were getting 'lazy' this time, all of the volunteers having come from the third quarantine zone. Getting extra time away from said zone was their primary motivation, but with any luck it would draw the Fallen there to try and reclaim their captured member. Sadly, they hadn't figured out how he was communicating information out from the secure facility, but whatever it was there didn't seem to be any way to trace it to him either.

In a few hours they'd bring everyone in, 'swap out' the badges of the volunteers for 'tinker-produced safer copies' that had the false numbers, and then let them into the cell one at a time. That would be at least an hour after a mercenary group 'hit the wrong building' to temporarily shut down communications to several smaller PRT offices with known moles in them. The known moles in larger offices were being distracted in other ways, such as mandatory training sessions or having been forced to take time off after discrepancies were found in their favor.

Sadly, getting additional evidence against the moles was proving to be difficult. They might have to settle for letting them go and barring them from working in the PRT ever again. Without knowing how they communicated there was no way to find out just what they had or hadn't done, after all. Even thinkers were having problems with them, which was being treated as corroborating evidence in this case, but that didn't help building a legal case against them. It was infuriating in some ways, but nobody was coming up with any better ideas for the moment.

Mentally shaking her head, she made one final pass and decided that there was nothing more to be done there for now. Instead, she moved onto the next thing on her to-do list. She'd finally asked about a few things, and gotten approval from several key individuals. Thanks to that she would need to ensure that the resources needed were in place a week from now. Or at least the resources she thought would be needed, with a very wide margin for error calculated into things. Of course, she still had three individuals to talk to about things, but was hoping that there wouldn't be any issues there when she brought it up with them.

Just in case they did have issues, though, she was going to ensure that she had other things to distract them with. She just wasn't sure what yet.

By lunchtime the rumor mill had picked up on the impending visit of the spider-bots, and that one of the two had powers. Arguments had even broken out over the latter detail, because there was no confirmation and different people had heard different things. Taylor just sat there grinning as she ate, which was confusing those around her.

Missy finally decided she was fed up with the grinning. "Why are you grinning?"

Taylor gestured to the room at large. "The idiots amuse me."

Vicky snorted at that. "And why do they amuse you?"

"Because they can't decide if the spider-bots have no powers, both have powers, or which one has powers and are fighting over it."

Dean sighed. "And why is that grin-worthy?"

Taylor's grin deepened. "Because not one person has bothered to ask someone who would be able to give them an authoritative answer. They're all arguing over the rumors and hearsay while in a room with multiple people who could settle it once and for all."

Missy shook her head. "And now you've ruined it, stating where they've gone wrong."

Amy snickered. "In case you haven't noticed, nobody is listening to us."

The rest of the table looked around to see that Amy was right. Not a single person at another table was paying their discussion any attention whatsoever.

Dennis chuckled after a few moments. "I'm so posting that oversight on PHO. After school. But should I post about the spider-bots at the same time?"

Taylor and Amy shared a look, then both shrugged. Amy turned back to Dennis. "Might as well. Ackbar will probably reveal things next week anyway, so it might save us some headaches with people bothering us."

"Will do then. Anything to keep idiots from hounding the local celebrities, right?"

After school Taylor went straight for her moped, though didn't find anyone waiting to ambush her. She still made it up to a nearby rooftop right away, but she waited there for Missy and Amy to join her. It didn't take long for Missy to pop up onto the same rooftop, Amy joining her instead of riding up the side of the building, and then two rooftops over Taylor opened up a pocket dimension. The mopeds were thus stored and they exited directly into the Wards area in the PRT building, Taylor and Amy leaving their school bags with the mopeds.

Missy went straight to get changed, but Taylor and Amy grabbed snacks and headed upstairs. Taylor probably wouldn't be patrolling until Monday, maybe Tuesday. There were other plans for the two, though Amy wasn't strictly needed this afternoon. She had nothing better to do, though, so had opted to tag along anyway. Their destination today was an area that had been modified recently, and apparently was related to the Wards area console being down.

They didn't know what the area had been like before, but now there were two largeish conference rooms set up to be 'waiting areas'. Between them were two smaller offices, each with a privacy field generator. The offices had a door to each conference room, as well as to each other and to the hallway each bordered. There was a 'reception' area at one end, which was also where the primary entrances for the conference rooms were, and the hallway along the rear of the conference rooms had been set up to come around back to the reception area unless you had access to the hidden doors within it.

All of that was visible on the map app as they approached, either from markers for doors and such or from labels assigned to things. The rear office also had a marker indicating that it was currently unfinished and locked down to the relevant maintenance crews. Beyond that, the two girls could tell that the 'waiting rooms' were both occupied, and Brian was waiting near the reception desk. As they turned the final corner they saw that a PRT officer was sitting at the desk, chatting with Brian as they waited.

"Good afternoon Miss Hebert," the officer called upon noticing them. "Oh, and Miss Dallon. I wasn't told to expect both of you."

Taylor shrugged. "I'd have liked more than a couple hours warning of this, personally, and Amy said that she had nothing better to do."

Amy rolled her eyes at that. "This isn't exactly going to be easy for me to ignore. Much nicer if I'm taking part, I think."

The officer sighed. "Wasn't my call, though someone did anticipate the two of you working together. Sadly, they bumped things up for reasons I wasn't given and haven't finished outfitting both private rooms. Still, I'll walk you through how things are set up, and then you two can decide how you want to handle things."

The two girls were shown the finished office, which had a desk with a comfortable chair and a set of several chairs for visitors of varying body shapes. Built into the desk was a computer system that was tied into displays over the doors in the two 'waiting rooms', in addition to camera feeds from the two rooms and the hallways around them. There was also a microphone that could broadcast into either or both 'waiting rooms', a bank of switches for the privacy field and door locks, and a mini fridge. On the other end of the desk was a second bank of switches for alarms. Silent and noisy panic alarms to summon armed aid, a medical alarm to summon doctors, and then another bank of the same for each of the 'waiting rooms'.

"So," Amy said as they were left in the office to 'plan and prepare'. "Looks like they've got fifteen Case 53s today. How do you want to handle them?"

Taylor gave that some thought. "Call them into the office here, individually or as trusted groups, and answer their basic questions. Similar to what I did with Faultline's people, really. No need to ask if they want to reveal things to others with this setup. Do you want to be in here, or directing people in from the waiting areas?"

"I'll do the latter, I think. But you may want to do a quick explanation to both rooms about what to expect, what your limitations are, that kind of thing. Not to mention reassure them that anything you tell them won't be recorded officially and such, short of them asking you to document something to send to someone specific like a therapist anyway."

"Good point there. Perhaps I should mention that if they'd like anything sent to a PRT-affiliated therapist then they can ask me to submit it through the PRT's secure system. Actually, give me a minute to look up if there's any documented ways to send things to a non-PRT therapist. That would be good to know as well, after all."

Amy nodded. "While you do that, I think I'll ask if a pad of paper and some pens are available for if you're asked to just write things out for them to take with them."

"That would make sense, wouldn't it. Hasn't come up before, but most of this kind of thing has been much more informal or with those that I knew were using PRT therapists ahead of time."

Chapter 215 It'd taken a little over three hours to get through all fifteen Case 53s. It was a good thing that Brian had been there playing 'guard', since half of the snarks had needed to be 'fed' before they'd give up any information. A couple had been perfectly willing to chat without being fed this time, such as the woman connected to the same snark as William and Jess. Of course, that had caused Broadcast Administrator to grumble about the difficulty in identifying individual connections instead of individual snarks.

Four of the individuals had left without any information, their snarks unwilling or unable to provide information on their former lives. Two had learned that they were born brother and sister, which was a shock since they were currently both male, but why they'd taken vials hadn't been revealed. One of the physically younger individuals had apparently consumed a vial when close to death from old age. He'd volunteered for a memory wipe because his wife hadn't survived her own vial. The rest had generally been suffering from illness or injury and then had issues adjusting to their new forms, though circumstances had obviously varied. Only two messages were sent off to therapists, one of which was instead of telling the individual. Just in case they got violent, which their therapist was apparently more prepared to deal with.

Taylor and Amy had eaten a late dinner in one of the PRT cafeterias, picked up Taylor's mail which had included her new water bottle, and then instead of going straight home they headed across to the apartment building the PRT maintained. Taylor noted that Ben and Garnet weren't around, though she wasn't sure why. She hadn't heard a lot from either of them, actually.

"So how is your father's appeal going anyway?" Taylor asked. Sure, there was probably some information on it in their PRT files, but that could be an abuse of access and Amy was right there anyway.

Amy shrugged. "The last time I met with him was a bit of a celebratory dinner. He claimed that all four of the 'escapees' have been released on a strict probationary period, though the news hasn't caught on. Though some of that might have to do with still being in the 'one strike against you and you can still be sent straight back to prison, appeal or not' period for parahumans with life sentences anywhere."

"Ah. So did he find somewhere else to stay?"

"He still owns a number of houses in the wider area and is trying to get several of them into proper shape. I think he was going to try and convince Garnet to let him pay her to live in one of them during the process. Specifically the lone surviving one to the South, I think it was, while he dealt with several to the North and West? Something like that."

Taylor nodded, then absently bypassed the front door of the building with her access keys. In a way it was an abuse, since she wasn't staying in the building. But at the same time, anyone flagged as employed by the PRT with a security level of at least two could get in, so it wasn't like she was abusing her admin access or anything. And it made it a lot easier to surprise people.

They didn't actually know where they were going by apartment number, but that wasn't important. Instead they wandered up the stairwell until they reached the correct floor, then figured out which apartment they wanted. Amy knocked on the door while Taylor leaned on the wall across from it to wait. It took three attempts before they were heard, after which the door was finally answered.

"Hello there," Amy said as Riley stared at them, blinking.

"Hi," Riley finally returned, shaking her head. "I'd ask how you knew I was here, but that would make me sound like an idiot."

Taylor snorted. "I'm more interested in why you're here alone."

"Jacob is hoping to get Mary and Tori settled in somewhere that isn't our guest room while I'm busy here. I wanted to accuse him of trying to keep me away from the two, but he came right out and admitted it before I could."

Amy shook her head. "Figures. So, you're here for the weekend?"

Riley waved them to join her inside. "I'm actually here for over a week. Jacob wanted extra time, so I'm going to be working with Armsmaster a bit too. Oh, I don't suppose you two would be willing to help me with a project?"

Taylor frowned. "What kind of project?"

"I, er, have a couple of spider-bots." She was blushing, possibly embarrassed that she needed help at all.

"And?"

"Iwanttomakethemtrigger." Taylor and Amy both blinked, staring at Riley. Eventually the younger girl sighed and repeated that more slowly. "I want to make them trigger."

Taylor looked at Amy, who shrugged. Sighing, Taylor turned back to Riley. "Where are you keeping them, and where did you want to attempt that? Because I don't intend to bring them to the junkyard like I did with Ackbar."

That brought Riley up short, and the girl looked between the two of them. She then slumped. "I've got them in my pocket dimension thing, but I don't know where to attempt things. Yet. I'll have to get back to you on that."

"Let us know when you have more of a clue then. So, any amusing stories from your run?"

Riley waved her hand dismissively. "Outside of the thing with the ducks we weren't all that creative this time around. Found a new kid to join up, since he needs to destroy stuff on scales an anti-hero couldn't handle. Jacob couldn't get any of several attempts at a trick with bullets to work and thinks you two are bullshit for your aim. All the adults are curious if you can teach your bit with firing while driving, by the way, but they're expecting it to be powers-related and thus unique to you two."

Amy nodded. "Yeah. It kinda is. So, are you looking forward to working on things over the weekend?"

"Somewhat. It's actually nice having volunteers, even if I have to work with you two to get them. Though they're being stingy with details, which annoys me. Not that it matters, really, but still..."

Saturday morning was amusing, in part because they'd accidentally caused misconceptions when they'd left Riley's temporary apartment via pocket dimension instead of leaving the building itself on foot. Apparently they'd been seen entering, but not exiting, and combined with other things that 'explained' the lack of seeing Taylor or Amy leave their homes most mornings. According to PHO, and picked up by the local news, that indicated that the two had moved into an apartment together near the PRT building.

For various reasons, most of those around the two were all for them 'playing up' that horrible assumption, if only for laughs. That they could vanish into the elevator or stairwell of the apartment building and exit into their bedrooms just made the ruse easier. That they weren't staying in an apartment would, in theory, eventually be figured out, but the theories as to their actions after that would probably be amusing as well.

They departed to the PRT building to use the gym via pocket dimensions more to hopefully not be attacked by crazies than to keep 'the ruse' going, after which they collected some things from Taylor's room and took a van over to the tinkering building. Missy and Dennis both appeared to be on their way in as the van was leaving, but Riley didn't appear to be moving yet.

Amy: I thought Riley would either be with us or already over there.

Taylor: Maybe we're needed for something before we get started with her?

Amy: I suppose that could be the case.

Their arrival was unremarkable, and they found that Dragon was the only one there at the moment. The van left as soon as the two had unloaded the 'post-fugue goodies' into the building, having collected them from Taylor's suitcase. They found that the 'tinkering' area had been set up with prep and operating areas, which was a lot more professional looking than what they'd worked with previously.

"Good morning," Dragon greeted them. "I'll give you the tour of the changes once everyone is here, but before then I figure you two could help install a couple of things."

"Morning," Taylor replied. "And why would you need our help to install things?"

"Well, it's more that I only just figured out how to integrate a couple of things. I purchased a beacon and a couple of finger-pad equipped pocket dimension openers for the facility, and believe that I figured out how to make it so that the equipment inside the pocket dimensions can connect to the openers through the beacons for faster targeting without installed access crystals. It would require some hardware and software upgrades in the pocket dimensions, of course, but if it works then mobile doorways that can be triggered wherever they've been dropped would be an option going forward."

Taylor frowned at that. "I'd expect you to be working with Joey on that, not testing with us?"

"He's busy with other things and I wanted to integrate access keys into the mix, which meant I needed a better understanding of the interconnects. You two are connecting to the PRT building often enough that I'd probably make it the next structure to get the upgrade, allowing for direct access to the Wards area and secure garage for those approved for it. I've already got the equipment needed, I just need to know that it works before working with Colin to install it."

It took them an hour and a half to get everything installed and tested, with Dragon only needed a couple of software tweaks to get things working correctly. Though it was impressive that she'd somehow pulled off having the exit 'flipped', and probably lucky that they'd checked that things looked good by swinging an arm through instead of stepping through before that was resolved. Dragon promised a software update to allow that intentionally at some point as well, since she could see a number of uses for it. As an added bonus, they could lock down beacon codes in the internal openers to passwords or access keys afterwards, even if the beacons weren't updated to recognize access keys.

Riley arrived as they were cleaning up from the final pocket dimension opener upgrade, that being the one in Ackbar's pocket dimension, with the larger pocket dimension's slated to be replaced outright as part of the build-out. They greeted the girl, but instead of asking what they were up to she moved straight into getting her own equipment unpacked and set up. Once they were done Dragon interrupted Riley to give the three of them a quick tour of where things were, including a meat locker that had more vegetables than meat in it for the time being.

"I just realized that I still don't know who we're working on," Taylor admitted once their tour was completed. "I'm assuming two people at a time again, given the pair of operating tables."

Dragon smirked. "You'll be starting with Carol and Victoria Dallon this morning, then after lunch you'll hopefully be moving on to Mark Dallon and Burhan Jones. The latter is a PRT field officer."

Amy groaned at that. "No wonder Mark smirked when he said they weren't patrolling today."

Taylor shook her head. "Well, I'm not giving them half-visors and charging mats if they already have full visors."

It was almost half an hour later before the van carrying Carol and Vicky showed up, both of them in casual clothing. Dragon was apparently sticking around to monitor things, and brought the force fields up just after the door had closed behind the two. Carol had also shown up drunk, apparently having needed something to take the edge off before voluntarily being worked on by Riley.

As they prepared to begin, Taylor had a thought.

Taylor: I wonder if Carol realizes how much harder it'll be for her to get drunk after this.

Amy: Now I'm thinking that she's going to be quite angry with herself for going through with it, but I don't know if I want to be the one to tell her afterwards.

Gillian was pissed off, and most of her anger was directed at her family. She wanted to defect now that she knew that Miss Hebert and Miss Dallon were personally chosen by the Endbringers, but it wasn't safe for her to. As soon as the rest of the Fallen got a whiff of her whereabouts they'd mount a 'rescue', whether or not she wanted to be rescued. No, instead she was stuck in legal limbo, because she'd expressed a desire to defect but they couldn't let her.

She'd originally been annoyed when she found out that the PRT had figured out that she was a parahuman, and a number of details about her power for that matter. That they'd also figured out the flat-pack crates and found her fingerprints on a pile of illegal weapons complicated things further, of course. But they were iffy on what they'd get away with charging her with, since they'd determined that she wasn't fibbing when she'd informed them that she got antsy if she didn't equip people with some kind of weapon at least every few weeks.

Granted, she'd only admitted that after offering to defect, which had been after hearing the news about the two girls. Her loyalty was to the Endbringers, not to her family, and if the two were chosen by the Endbringers to that level then following in their footsteps was obviously the path forward. Sadly for her, that had been long enough after her capture for her family and other Fallen contacts to all move and change things up, short of three points she could show up in person if she escaped. She'd informed the PRT of those as well, in case they could figure out how anyone would know she was there. Sadly, as soon as the PRT had started looking into the three locations the owners had all vanished, indicating that they'd likely been from one of the other Fallen branches.

She'd even gone through an initial couple of runs of official power testing, though there had been some whining from one of the testers about them not getting the 'good intel' on her before they'd started. As a result of that she knew more about her power than ever. Including that if anything she duplicated was used to harm someone else then it was retroactively classified as a 'weapon' for her urges. Waking up after the third session to find out that one of the business cards had been used to give a paper cut on accident had been odd, until they'd made that connection anyway. That would even be enough to get her anti-hero branding, supposedly. If she were able to defect and if she wanted a parahuman identity, anyway.

Sadly, her 'need to sleep' recovery time was really slowing the testing down. It was probably going to take a couple of weeks to get through it all, but hopefully they'd have an answer for her desire to defect before they were done.

Taylor stretched as Carol and Vicky left her range in the PRT van. They'd gone through several tests, including ensuring that Carol's breaker state didn't break anything. Apparently it did cause a Bluetooth disconnection when in use, but they'd expected that. Otherwise everything worked fine. They'd each taken a secure Bluetooth goody set, but hadn't even considered the half-visors or charging mats. They had full visors, after all, and agreed with Taylor's declarations there. Carol had even survived eating lunch with Riley.

Granted, it was likely that she'd mostly coasted through on being annoyed with Vicky, who couldn't stop gushing over how awesome it was to be able to use her phone without even touching her phone. The girl had very quickly adapted to having text messaging available at all times, and had started working on 'using' her phone via her visor being the screen as soon as she'd remembered that she had the visor with her.

Unlike Taylor and Amy, though, she didn't have multitasking as part of her powers. As such, she'd already walked into a door and a wall, luckily without her strength enhancements active. Carol had groaned about the mishaps they could expect going forward as Vicky was careless while paying too much attention to her phone. Specifically, they could blame the phone on things when Vicky had it out, but now even that excuse wouldn't easily fly.

Shaking her head, Taylor ensured that her plate and such from lunch were disposed of, before being interrupted by a group text from Vicky.

V: HELP!

A: What now? You just left, surely you didn't break something already?

V: Mom forgot that this came with alcohol immunity, and I just reminded her while she was whining about needing a drink!

T: Oh good, that means she'll have time to calm down and we won't accidentally be the ones to remind her.

V: ...

V: TRAITORS!

Family issues aside, the three girls still in the facility made their way back to the operating room, only to find that it had been cleaned up behind them. Likely by Dragon, directly or with cleaning drones was harder to tell.

"That gets annoying," Riley finally admitted. "I mean, on one level I like not having to clean up, but even my stuff is being cleaned so on another level I want to find the thing that touched them and tear it to pieces. Living or not."

"You left half of your smaller tools in literal puddles of blood," Dragon noted as she came up behind them. Before Riley could retaliate she found a tool shoved in her face. "And I replaced the capacitor bank in this. A couple had failed outright and the rest were on the verge of failure, which is probably why it wasn't working well for you."

Riley blinked a couple of times, then took the tool and ran it through a few tests. "Holy crap. It's never worked this reliably. I take back any and all annoyance, but how did you know how to fix it? I know you never worked with the tinker I took it from."

"It's one of my prototypes, stolen a month or so before you even triggered. The production version has a wider output variance and slots for attachments. It's available in the specialty hydroponic tools section of the PRT store."

Mark and Burhan showed up while Taylor and Amy were still snickering about Riley's combination pout and disbelief. Pouting because she could've just bought a replacement, and disbelief because she'd been using a hydroponics tool without knowing it. Taylor and Amy got the two settled while Riley recovered, eventually dragging the girl into the room so that they could get started.

Danny shook his head as he pulled away from Ben's current house. The man had chosen the smallest of his local residential properties for his own use, technically a couple of towns over and well outside of the normal 'reach' of the gangs. Far enough to make it difficult to be too overprotective of Amy, close enough to visit her on a regular basis, and with enough work needed to keep him busy for a while. Of course, he was also doing his best to not go hunting for the Fallen, but that was helped by not having a clue where to even start looking.

That hadn't stopped him from asking Danny to send a request on to Jacob to be allowed to participate if the Nine were sent after the Fallen, of course. Better to let someone else spend their resources in finding the nearly impossible to locate than to waste his own time, energy, and money in doing so just out of prison and all.

Desires for revenge aside, he'd chosen that property because it was next to a warehouse, the original intent had been to have full-time security people using the house to sleep in for discreet protection while the warehouse was doing less than legal business. As an added bonus, the tunnel between the basement of the house and the secret basement of the warehouse was still intact, meaning that if the weather was crappy he wouldn't have to walk outside.

Now the warehouse was being refurbished into a workshop for Ben, whose living room was currently populated with folding tables instead of proper furniture in order to be used as a button manufacturing line. A few mold sets, bins to sort things into before bagging, scales to ensure that counts were correct, and then boxes for dropping the bags off in bulk at Parian's shop. The whole setup apparently allowed the man to make quite a bit, since a full box currently netted him hundreds of dollars in profit once Parian was done with it and filling them tended to take two hours at most.

On that subject, several of said boxes were in the back of his car, since he'd volunteered to run them over to Parian's shop for Ben. It was far cheaper than a taxi and wasn't too far out of the way. In 'payment' he also had a box on the passenger seat, containing one of Ben's more intricate projects. It would require some paint to be 'usable', but a mechanical 'ivory' today's date display for his desk at work would certainly be a discussion piece. The whole mechanism was fairly simple, and you had to advance it extra days manually when a month didn't have a full thirty-one days, but it was a work of art on its own right now. Even if it was a direct 'ivory' copy of a wooden one that the man had started with.

Danny shook his head as he stopped at an intersection. "And he thinks the bulk sale of blanks for artists will be his biggest money maker going forward. Or maybe he's including simple mechanical items like that as 'blanks' for others to build on?"

Moving on as the light turned green, he wondered what Garnet was going to be doing for an income. Beyond fixing up the house that Ben was probably going to just give her when she was done fixing it up, anyway. At least that seemed like the kind of thing the man would do, and Garnet wouldn't be as likely to see it coming since she hadn't worked with him in a business context before. As such, she wouldn't know that he was fond of that kind of thing with those he was 'helping'. Not that Danny would be aware of it either, if not for several dockworkers having gotten their family homes that way when they'd run into problems with landlords back in the day.

Burhan had proven to be less resilient than most and had fallen asleep just after eating his portion of the post-fugue dinner. Mark had chuckled while Amy and Riley panicked over whether or not they'd gotten something wrong with the man. Taylor, however, remembered his pre-fugue checks and that he'd likely been recovering from an illness in the first place. As such, she half expected him to be worse off than most coming out of things.

They ended up loading him into the PRT van with his goodies, though the offer for one of them to join him to help unloading him at the other end was rejected. Mark opted to head home with Amy instead, saving the van a stop.

"I'm actually feeling better than normal," Mark said once the van had left. "It's weird, since I'd think I should be starting to feel the effects of my medication wearing off."

Amy frowned at that, and took his hand. Taylor absently noted that he would need some extra calcium for a couple of days, but didn't think anything was wrong with the changes.

"I think it's the hormone stabilization," Amy finally said. "The upgrades probably treat the imbalance you had before as something they automatically correct for, and taking your medication may not have much of an effect as a result. Largely because it isn't in the exception list for painkillers and sleep aids." She then turned to Taylor and Riley. "When did we start putting exceptions in for painkillers and sleep aids? I'm just now noticing it, but I don't think Taylor or I have had that bit changed recently..."

Riley snorted. "All of my upgrades have those exceptions, provided you aren't overdosing on them, because not being able to take painkillers sucks. I learned that lesson early on. I let birth control through too, but that's probably only in the girls. Well, okay, I've rigged a couple of guys to get constant 'birth control' dosage and half the female villains I 'let go' get that too, but there are reasons for that."

Mark chuckled. "Whatever the reason, thank you. Also, the exceptions there sound like they make sense. I'll pretend I didn't hear about your other 'fun'." Riley rolled her eyes at that. "Now then, is there anything else to be done here before we depart for the evening?"

"They're good," Dragon said, coming from the direction of the operating area. "Though I ask that Miss Hebert and Miss Dallon attempt to come in through the new beacon configuration in the morning. If it continues to work then we'll start deploying it elsewhere."

Riley turned to stare at Dragon at that. "What new beacon configuration?"

"The one that I came up with and we ran initial tests on this morning, of course. When I'm satisfied that I have everything working, and only then, I'll make the basics available to Mister Horsfall. Minus some proprietary elements I wanted to include, of course."

"Okay. I guess."

Dragon smirked. "I'm sure that I'll be showing you sometime this week as well, if only because you're in the area and can help test."

And of course, that made Riley happy with the situation, causing the other three to roll their eyes.

"Hey there," Danny said as Taylor came downstairs with Ackbar. "Ben sends his regards, but he's a bit busy. I'm going to assume that Garnet will do the same when I visit her tomorrow."

Taylor nodded. "How's he doing?"

"He's pissed off at the Fallen but doing his best to hide it and get something more productive done. How'd things go today?"

"Few more people have built-in Bluetooth and a higher alcohol tolerance, at least one of which was pissed when they were reminded of the latter."

Danny chuckled. "Yes, I'd heard about that. Carol left me a ranty voicemail just after lunch. She should've calmed down by now though, especially since it sounded like she opened a stubborn jar without aid just before hanging up."

That had Taylor snickering, but she recovered quickly. "Did you feed Ackbar yet?"

"Did that as soon as I came home, while I was waiting for my leftovers to warm up."

"Ah. Thank you."

Taylor grabbed a drink and then sat down on the couch. Her father had the news on, which was currently covering China having split into a number of smaller nation-states. Borders were still being fought over, with the entire region shifting to more like Africa with local parahuman warlords. It didn't look fun to figure out from a political standpoint.

"Did I miss anything interesting before this?" Taylor asked as the station tried to outline what was currently known about the various territories.

"The cases attempting to prevent hospitals from allowing you and Amy to heal have been rejected as groundless after it was pointed out that known villains are allowed to heal in a number of places and nobody's been complaining about that. And apparently over two thousand frivolous lawsuit attempts against you two have been squashed by the PRT and New Wave lawyers, though a few 'might have merit' and haven't been squashed yet."

She blinked a few times. "Over two thousand attempts?"

"From all over the country, yes."

"That quickly?"

"There are lots of idiots out there that think they're entitled to something, even if they don't have any proper clue as to why they're never going to get it."

Taylor shook her head and decided to ignore that for now. Instead she opted to pay attention to the news. Eventually they moved onto some issues in Europe, someone had apparently decided to hold air traffic hostage with tinkertech anti-air guns but forgot to do anything like post guards at the things to keep someone from walking up and hitting the emergency stop buttons. Oh, and they'd included emergency stop buttons in the first place. After that they covered a few other things, then displayed a list of upcoming events before going to commercial.

Frowning, Taylor noted one of the events. "Did that say that there's a Wards and New Wave meet and greet on Friday?"

Her father nodded. "Yeah, they confirmed that with me yesterday." A moment later he jumped up. "And I almost forgot, when I was dropping things off for Ben earlier Parian gave me a couple of boxes for you. Well, three boxes, but she asked if you could pass one on to Miss Biron."

Taylor followed him out to the garage, then helped him drag three sizable boxes out of the car. One was labeled 'Vista/Missy Biron', but the other two weren't labeled at all. Curious, she opened one of them, only to find it full of various 'Maul' and 'Panacea' plush toys. She picked one up, finding that it was a 'Maul with stop sign' one, manhole cover on the back. "Huh."

"Parian said that some group of parahuman merchants that she's a member of has decided that the Fallen are no longer welcome in their stores and this is an apology for not helping when the tanks hit town."

She nodded at that, and then opened a group text message.

T: So, Parian has sent gifts.

M: Wait, what?

T: Haven't opened the box for you, but I assume it's full of Vista plush toys. The Maul and Panacea toys are mixed together.

A: Seriously? Snap a picture or two at least.

M: Open my box and take pictures too! I don't want to have to wait.

Snorting, Taylor decided to just run a couple of seconds of visor footage, then extract the models for the individual toys. That would be a lot easier than setting up and taking pictures of everything, after all.

Chapter 216 Sunday morning Taylor met Amy and Missy in the gym after dropping the box of Vista-themed plush toys off in Missy's room. The Maul and Panacea themed ones were in the Shaper-linked pocket dimension for the time being, and there was a good chance that they'd ensure that they had at least a few of them available on Friday. After any claiming for themselves, of course, and determining how to distribute them fairly might be a bit of a challenge.

After their workout and a visit to the cafeteria they split up. Missy went to get into costume, since she was going to be escorting Sandy to a couple of non-patrol tasks. Taylor and Amy just found a clear bit of wall to open a portal on, exiting into the tinker facility a minute later. They were apparently the first two there that morning, if the lights coming on as they entered was any indication anyway. Dragon and Riley weren't there at a minimum, so the two girls did a quick check of the facility to ensure that things appeared to be ready for the day.

"I'm going to need to spend some time in the greenhouse this week," Amy noted once they'd finished that and were waiting for the others. "Need to make a crate or two of rainbow rosebush bulbs and I just got a request for another test sample of bamboo. Apparently they accidentally destroyed the last one yesterday. Or maybe overnight, they aren't clear."

Taylor nodded. "Makes sense, though I wonder if you can make the bamboo resistant to whatever they did to destroy the last test sample."

"The note at the end of the message indicates that I shouldn't market it as resistant to direct exposure to high-temperature plasma."

"I'll take that as a no."

It was nearly half an hour later before Riley showed up, immediately going to do her own checks of things to make sure they were ready. Dragon also sent an apology at around the same time, indicating that she wouldn't be able to be present today. But she included instructions on operating the lockdown systems for safety and security purposes, and they didn't really need her to be present. Eventually another van arrived, with a single parahuman inside, but the three waiting girls were surprised when Director Piggot pushed a wheelchair holding a younger girl into the building.

"Morning," Director Piggot called. "We're all here for the morning run, if you want to lock down the building before helping the two of us get ready."

Taylor blinked. "You're not just playing escort?"

"My therapist pointed out that undergoing the procedure will give me a leg up on survival and taking down parahumans going forward. That got me thinking, but being able to throw the results in the faces of a couple of other regional directors at upcoming in-person meetings pushed me past my remaining reluctance."

Amy and Riley snorted at that, and the girl in the wheelchair shook her head. Taylor rolled her eyes and moved over to her. It was obvious that she wasn't in good shape. She had a missing leg and a bandaged arm, burns visible along the edges. Her hair was shoulder-length, but the ends looked like they'd been burnt off as well. "Hello there. I'm Taylor, and those two are Amy and Riley."

The girl smiled a little. "My name's Amy too. But my cape name is Rapunzel."

Director Piggot sighed as she allowed Taylor to take the wheelchair from her. "She's a brute, but only through her hair. Which didn't help her when she was hit by a molotov cocktail while out of costume. Note that you shouldn't need to do anything to regrow her hair specifically. It was burned off completely four days ago."

Taylor nodded. "Okay then. I'm thinking that we'd be best off getting you ready, and with any luck we'll be able to do something about your leg too."

It didn't take long to get Rapunzel ready, with Director Piggot taking care of herself. Some quick checks with the girl's snark ensured that they weren't going to be attempting anything they shouldn't, and before they got started Amy dragged raw materials out of the meat locker. They'd likely need them to replace the missing leg, after all. All of that done, they double-checked that everything was locked down properly, put the two to sleep, and got started.

Fortuna hated dealing with the Fallen. They weren't a blind spot so much as a blurry spot, able to be pathed in general but not in specifics. The closer you got to 'Mama Mathers' and things the woman was directly monitoring the worse the effect was, and she couldn't even tell that the 'blur' was there unless her paths directly interacted with the group. Such as the current path to find the Fallen's leadership, which wasn't going well.

At this rate it would take around three months to locate those they needed to, since she had to work her way into the blur. Which was a problem, because when the next Endbringer attacked it could very well destroy a lot of the work already done. But Haven was on board with helping, so most of her work so far had been pointing them in the right direction and allowing them to do their thing.

It might piss off the others, but she hadn't admitted that she was actually running 'find' and 'kill' paths for the Fallen's leadership. They were mostly in sync with one another right now, though for whatever reasons she'd ended up messing with a few locks in places for the 'kill' path. Presumably the abandoned houses would be important later, but she didn't know what for and they stopped mattering the instant she dropped notes about them into the system. She'd stopped doing that as a result.

Moving down the street she was on, she stopped and looked up. Sighing, she picked up a no parking sign that'd been unbolted as a likely trap for someone chaining their bicycle to it, then used it to prod the street sign off of the telephone pole on the corner. The no parking sign was replaced, and then she collected the street sign. She needed to drop it on another telephone pole a couple blocks down, likely to create some kind of confusion.

That one, however, she would need to climb.

Danny snorted as he looked over what Garnet had accomplished. Apparently the living room floor had needed serious work. To deal with that she'd decided to tear it out and replace it. Alone. So far she'd successfully completed the 'tear it out' phase, only to run into two problems. The first was that she didn't actually know how to put a floor back in safely. The second was that the living room was the only in-house path between the kitchen and the entryway, meaning that to get from the bedrooms to the kitchen you currently had to go around the outside of the building.

"So you noticed that the beams needed to be replaced," Danny said, gesturing at the giant hole in the floor.

Garnet nodded. "Yeah. I didn't think some of this through well. I've barely gotten the floor out and run into a number of problems."

"Beyond not being able to get between the kitchen and bedroom in the house you're staying in?"

"I have no clue how to replace the beams, and apparently the floor on top of them was holding them together."

"Ah, so the giant hole with no place to walk wasn't intentional?"

She shrugged. "To be honest, the floor might've collapsed on me anyway. Better to have it happen when I wasn't standing on it."

It took them half an hour to go over things. He thought that it would be trivial to deal with a couple of problems, but she was definitely going to need help putting new beams and a floor in based on the answers she gave him to some questions. She wasn't qualified to do this kind of work safely. Luckily the problem seemed to have been limited to the living room, but the furnace that looked to be the original source of the problems would also need to be replaced.

"Well," Danny said once they were done. "I'm thinking you can solve the travel in the house problem with a ladder dropped across the gap, with some boards strapped to it to make things easier. But I don't know anyone who's equipped for this kind of thing right now, so I think you're going to need to get a phone book and start calling people for quotes."

Garnet pouted at that. "Damn. I was hoping it wouldn't be that much harder."

"You've got absolutely no floor, without any supports to attach a new one to. I think this is at least a four person job, with the right training and equipment. What the hell did you expect?"

"Insanely effective tinkertech, I think. Though I have no clue where I'd have found it, now that I'm actually thinking about it."

Taylor smirked as Rapunzel sat there eating a large lunch. They'd healed her up completely while working on her and she apparently enjoyed having both feet again. She was now sitting there eating with her shoes off, wiggling her toes every so often while grinning. Director Piggot, on the other hand, had a tablet out and was apparently doing her best to get used to having internal Bluetooth. Or perhaps she was doing her best to ensure that she saw this as a net gain?

"I have ten toes," Rapunzel finally said, causing Taylor and Amy to both raise their eyebrows at that. The girl hadn't looked up to see that, but continued anyway. "I haven't had ten toes since Nancy cut three off!"

"Nancy?" Riley asked, obviously curious.

"My cousin. She got in trouble for playing with the axe. But I have all my toes again!"

Taylor shook her head. "So, you're a little younger than most that go through this whole thing. How'd that happen, since I thought the only kids allowed lived in Brockton Bay."

Riley nodded. "That's a good point, actually."

Rapunzel shrugged. "William and Sarah watched over me for a couple of weeks while my mother was in the hospital. Did you know that Sarah can be really bad at keeping secrets?"

"Oooh. I remember you now! You hadn't triggered then, but Sarah got a kick out of the pit trap that you caught Ned in. Though weren't you a redhead?"

"Yeah, but my hair went blond when I triggered. Sarah said the trap was part of why she insisted that they watch over me while my mother recovered from the stab wound Jacob gave her."

Riley nodded. "Yeah, she was proud of your spunk, even if you couldn't have dug the well yourself. But I never did find out what happened to your father."

"Her father died before she was born," Director Piggot interrupted, Rapunzel nodding in agreement. "He was a firefighter and was in a burning building when the hidden drug lab in the basement exploded."

It wasn't much longer before the two left with a full set of goodies each, Director Piggot noting that she could never have enough charging mats in particular. Though they had needed to stop Rapunzel from trying to find something to try and set her already waist-length hair on fire with, since they'd attempted to make it resistant to being set on fire as well. It hadn't impacted her ability to control it, but they hadn't actually tested it against flame so it might not work.

After that they cleaned up, showing that it was likely Dragon doing the cleanup the day before. Even if it was through directing drones around. They made quick work of things anyway, followed by waiting for their last couple of patients for the weekend. It didn't take long for another PRT van to arrive, with a single parahuman. A familiar one at that.

"Good afternoon," Flechette called as she limped into the building using a crutch, an older woman following behind her. "I'm Lily, by the way. Since I'm out of costume and all, even if you've met me in costume before. They told me you'd recognize me before I even entered?"

"I'm clueless," Riley admitted. "Who's your friend?"

"I'm Amanda," the woman answered. "One of the few SL9 administrators for the Think Tank's network."

"So what happened to you," Amy asked Lily.

Lily frowned. "My group trigger nemesis got a good hit in last week. Pain in the ass. Literally, actually, since the strike hit me there. But I won't be seeing her again anytime soon, so I think it was worth it in the end." She then paused, and groaned. "And I didn't intend that one."

Amanda sighed. "I don't know how you keep doing that kind of thing, since I've only been around you for three hours and that's the tenth accidental pun regarding your injured ass."

"Eleventh, well, the one in the elevator was a horrible stretch so I could see you not counting it."

"No, you're right, I'd forgotten that one. Sadly, now I've recalled it and will need to endeavor to forget it again."

"Perhaps we should get ready to begin?" Amy asked.

There were no objections.

Norton grinned as he looked over reports. He'd been able to get his hands on the identities of pretty much every non-parahuman involved in the 'tank incident', split by whether they'd been in a tank or spotting for a tank. Sadly he hadn't been able to determine what role they'd taken in the actual operation of the tanks, but since nonsense regarding the master effects had allowed the vast majority of them to get off without a hitch he felt he was justified in his actions.

The first thing he'd done was to ensure that none of them would be able to continue to legally operate their motorcycles. Amazing how one could twist 'influenced by a master' into 'mental condition that would hinder operation of a motor vehicle'. It would take six months for them to clear that, at least, and that's once they discovered it. He'd then worked with Number Man to ensure that any and all loans were suddenly being called due on technicalities as well, which would bankrupt a good third of them.

Sadly, all of that was merely a side project, one that was going far better than the primary one. The Crowleys were intelligent enough to pay every last person in cash, leaving no digital money trail between members. This meant that 'following the money' was proving to be a dead end. It was likely that the other branches of the Fallen did the same thing, for many of the same reasons. The whole thing was aggravating, and yet both he and Number Man had to admire the effectiveness of the simple precaution.

At least it ensured that this was an actual challenge. If it hadn't been then he'd have been offended that the group had been allowed to continue existing before now. But apparently they'd learned to cover their tracks exceptionally well to prevent non-thinker techniques from finding them, even as their anti-thinker trick kept parahuman powers from easily locating them. It was worthy of respect. Just not enough to cover for their sins.

Brad looked over the room full of grunts. He'd discovered that they'd been recruiting and paying a number of them without anyone giving them important lessons. Granted, part of that was because those who'd previously given the lessons had defected or died, so he had to step up until they could get others up to speed on the issues. Which was annoying, he liked having the grunts see him as an idiot. The stupid ones tended to out themselves by pulling shit more quickly that way.

But he couldn't do much about it, and the lessons were too important to put off at this point in the year. As such he did a quick head count, finding that he at least had the right number of grunts. He'd determine if he had the expected grunts later, when he graded the 'impromptu quiz' that he'd be giving them at the end of the session. The only saving grace here was that none of those needing the lessons were parahumans. Then again, Max tended to handle that himself, seeing it as too important to delegate.

"Alright morons," he called, getting the few that had been talking to shut up. "You're all here because we found out that nobody taught you some very important things. This is important, both for yourselves and the Empire. As such I expect you all to pay attention. You may not think that parahuman related rules apply to you, but because you're operating in a parahuman-led organization there are a number of things that can and will be used against you if you aren't careful. There are three categories of threat in this case."

He hit the presentation clicker and brought up his first slide. "The least of these threats is the PRT. I can already see that some of you don't believe me, but none of you are parahumans and as such they have limited jurisdiction over you. If they use excessive force then they get in trouble and you tend to get away with your hospital bills paid for and no charges against you. This does not mean that you get a free pass, as they can and will arrest you and hand you over to the local or state police. Further, if you're part of the interstate transport groups then you're within federal jurisdiction and they become a lot more directly relevant."

Glaring at anyone that looked like they might be daring to question that with a stupid question or comment, he waited for someone to speak up. None did, so he nodded hit the clicker again. "Next up are parahumans. Protectorate and Wards most of the time, but other affiliate groups like New Wave count as well. Not only do they have powers, but the definition of 'excessive force' is different for parahumans. If that isn't enough, some of them are top tier nightmare fuel. The likes of the Triumvirate, or more locally Maul and Panacea. Beyond the enhanced physical threat, though, they're an identical threat to the PRT from a legal standpoint."

Nobody questioned that, and he nodded, hitting his clicker again. He then glared at those who snickered, shutting them up. "Last up, the biggest threat as a member of a parahuman-run organization. The IRS. They don't give a damn where you get your money, only that you've paid proper federal taxes on it. Sometime in the past five years they got their hands on a thinker that can tell them when you've not reported income. They will audit you in that case, they will find your Empire-provided income, and that will piss off everyone in the command chain above you as they possibly use that as an excuse to audit the Empire. It has happened before, and we don't want it to happen again. Especially since they work with the PRT and are one of the few agencies that regularly and reliably help them get federal warrants. They only do this for those who owe significant taxes."

Brad stepped behind the desk in the room and picked up a box. That box was then dropped onto the desk. "Due to the danger the IRS represents, we will be going over the relevant portions of the tax code. In detail, including every loophole we are aware of and take advantage of. So long as we follow their rules, no matter how much we use loopholes to bend them, they will leave us alone. And if any of you decide that you know better and bring down their wrath on us?"

He hit the clicker again, and pictures of the three that had brought on the one and only audit the Empire had been subject to appeared on the screen. Every last grunt in the room flinched. Brad grinned, dropped a book in front of each grunt at a leisurely pace, and then hit the clicker again to dismiss the pictures and bring up the taxes overview bullet points. "You don't need to follow along in your books, but I'll recommend it anyway. We'll be starting on page six."

Taylor stretched, realizing that she wasn't nearly as tired as she thought she should be after two days of tinker fugues. Maybe they were adjusting to the strain, or getting more efficient so that there was less strain? Whatever the reason, this set seemed to have been easier than the last time they'd spent time doing this. Though they'd done more then, hadn't they, and had included some work on themselves. So perhaps this wasn't a proper comparison after all.

"I almost wish March would come after me now," Lily said after testing her strength and flexibility. "Too bad that isn't likely."

"Why isn't it likely anyway?" Amanda asked from where she was getting dressed, apparently having far more modesty than Lily did.

"Two main things. For one, she was too focused on me and missed Jouster coming in behind her. He ended up severing her spinal column. The other is that I signed up with the Guild, and there's a good chance that I won't even be in the country all that often for a while."

Riley frowned at the girl. "Why don't you get dressed so that we can get dinner and help both of you with things like your phones."

Lily rolled her eyes, but got dressed anyway. It didn't take long to get both of them paired to their phones, set up with their goodies including the half-visors, and then sat down to eat the meal that a PRT van had delivered. Both of them seemed to enjoy being able to use their phones hands-free, but neither of them was able to get the hang of subvocalizing down right away. Watching them try was a little bit amusing, though.

"You three coming back with us?" Lily asked when they were done eating.

"We need to clean up first," Taylor answered. "Especially as we're done with the facility for now, so we shouldn't leave our things in it."

"Ah, right. Good call."

Cleaning up the food was handled by the PRT staff that had delivered it while the three girls cleaned up their tools. They packed up all of Riley's things, which got dropped into a pocket dimension for now. The extra goodies for fugue recipients were stored similarly, though in the Shaper-linked pocket dimension. With all of that taken care of Taylor locked the building down and the three shared a van back to the apartment building. Mostly so that Taylor and Amy could be seen entering but not leaving just to see what PHO made of it.

Taylor hadn't wanted to bother, but she'd been outvoted.

Emily had to admit that she felt better than ever after the fugue. Which annoyed her, but not as much as it would've a few months previous. Or before she'd been tricked by Miss Hebert into getting healed, for that matter. Especially since the hands-free aspect of things was far too useful, all things considered. The half-visor as a post-fugue gift was an incredibly good choice on that front, allowing those who'd gone through things to have an immediately obvious advantage.

Of course, it was also a less immediately obvious downside, at least until they walked into a door because they weren't paying attention anyway. Luckily she'd done that at home where nobody could see her instead of in the tinker building or in the PRT building. Further, thanks to the fugue she wouldn't have a bruise in the morning, so it was unlikely that anyone would be able to figure it out either.

That had been a lesson in things the fugue didn't do. Without something else that granted some ability to focus on the screen and your surroundings the Bluetooth interface was far less useful while moving. Or doing anything else that required concentration, for that matter. Didn't make it less amazing at other times, but it'd proven to be something that you used at the right time. Like throwing the visor on while soaking in the tub to review things. She'd put the newest charging mat in the bathroom for just that, in fact. It would hopefully keep her from being tempted to wear it while driving. Miss Dallon and Miss Hebert could easily handle that; the rest of the planet, on average, wasn't that lucky.

Tomorrow she'd have to install the secure Bluetooth adapter for her office PC. She hadn't bothered to have one previously, not wanting to bother with a wireless keyboard and mouse. But now she was looking forward to being able to skip the typing entirely. The desk space she could reclaim by putting the keyboard and mouse off to the side alone would be wonderful. But she might have to ask Colin what he'd meant when he'd claimed that all of this 'redefined the HID protocol'.

Taylor shook her head as she looked over PHO. Someone had seen her and Amy entering the apartment building with Riley. Though they hadn't gotten a good picture and people had to trust that they were who they claimed they were. Three different people in the area were all trying to ensure that they saw anyone who left the building, but hadn't spotted anyone leaving at all yet.

Taylor: I wonder if any of them realize that there's a rear door to the building.

Amy: You know, I don't think I've seen anyone mention that detail. But would it help?

Taylor: It connects to an alley that exits around the corner. That's where the trash pickup happens.

Amy: How the hell do you know that?

Taylor: Why wouldn't a Ward look up the few blocks directly surrounding the PRT building?

Amy: That makes perfect sense and would make it much easier to navigate the area, sneak in and out and all of that. And that's why a normal Ward wouldn't without prompting. You essentially were prompted by your uncle, and then you doing bullshit prompted the rest of them to look some of it up.

Taylor: You may have a point there.

The speculation on why they were spending their nights in an apartment instead of their homes was, amazingly enough, focused primarily on the likely safety benefits of being so close to the PRT building. After all, Taylor had been attacked on her way to school one morning. And then 'stupidly went to school anyway', according to the thread, but the attack had happened. Taking 'reasonable' precautions only made sense from that point of view.

Granted, the thread had no way of knowing that their 'reasonable precautions' tended more towards 'use effective teleportation through abuse of pocket dimensions'. Mainly because they'd barely used the things in public in the first place. That would likely change eventually, but hopefully they'd get some use out of the trick before it became too well known.

Amy: Oooh. Looks like someone put pieces together and came up with something accurate.

Taylor: What did they figure out?

Amy: Over in the insane revelations thread they've been doing their best to timeline everything and they've decided that we told David's power to move to another planet, which is why he was out of commission.

Taylor: Oh. Huh. Is that a bad thing?

Amy: I'm honestly not sure.

Taylor moved over to that thread and checked the last few pages. Sure enough, they'd decided that David had to be involved in that one, though the discussion was primarily split between 'what does that actually mean?' and 'regardless, did he deserve it?'. The latter was mostly wild mass guessing, but the former had people trying to figure out how someone's power could be told to move to another planet without bringing the person whose power it was with it.

So far it looked like they had three main theories on that front. The first was that David hadn't been seen because he no longer had powers, since they obviously left him behind. All it would take to debunk that one was David showing up and using any power whatsoever, of course. The second was that if your powers moved to another planet then you had to wait for them to come back afterwards and would be powerless until then. Both of those theories assumed that either David had been injured after his powers were told to relocate and that's why he was hospitalized or that his powers were told to relocate because he was injured.

The final theory was incredibly accurate, and Taylor wondered if it was posted intentionally by someone who had a clue. That one started by stating that powers may be granted by 'beings in other dimensions', something that was essentially accurate if misleading in how it was stated. It then explained David's issues via claiming that by telling one to move to another planet you temporarily prevented them from providing the powers in question. But that portion had been worded as though the entire thing was a mystical connection to magical beings. Because of that people were ignoring it or tearing it to metaphorical pieces.

Taylor: I wonder if someone in the PRT with access to some of the things I've reported, or perhaps someone from Cauldron, is having fun posting the truth in a way that nobody wants to believe.

Amy: That would make sense, wouldn't it? Hide the truth by telling it in a way such that nobody is willing to believe it and all. Either that or they're a thinker, or know a thinker, that happens to have insight into things.

Taylor: That would also make sense, and could explain the mystical wrapping in how everything is being referred to. After all, we know that 'snark' is a wrapping term in and of itself, and isn't the only one used.

Amy: Right. Faerie is the most well known, I think, but I believe I've heard someone referring to powers as 'spirits' before as well.

Taylor idly wondered how this kind of thing would mesh with some of the other views on powers out there, but quickly decided that she had no clue.

Chapter 217 Monday morning dawned loudly for the Dallons and their neighbors, two different groups of people deciding to duke it out with guns when they'd offended each other. Both had been aiming to attack Amy, as shown by them ditching all desire to shoot at each other when the girl had opened the door to ask them to be quiet. Carol and Mark had apparently slept through the racket, and Vicky ended up being yelled at for detouring to see if they had any popcorn instead of helping.

Not that Amy had needed help, of course. She'd had her belt on and none of the twelve individuals had actually bothered to run once she entered the fray. Granted, that might've had something to do with her starting with the ones that hadn't already been shot and only moving to the ones that were injured when she'd stepped outside afterwards. Two of which had needed healing to not die from the injuries that had prevented them from running away in the first place.

The police had shown up and collected all twelve, taken statements, and laughed at the attempts made to place the blame on Amy. Several of the neighbors had reported things, including recording the twelve shooting at each other before Amy headed out. That said recordings showed the able-bodied amongst the twelve shooting at Amy while she was still standing in the doorway made everything fairly straightforward. Nobody other than the twelve blamed Amy for limiting her healing to the minimum needed to ensure that they'd survive either.

Vicky joined Taylor and Amy in the gym after that, pouting at being grounded for a week for letting Amy deal with things.

"It isn't fair," Vicky grumbled as she set up a weight machine. "Amy probably didn't even want help, and if I'd gone out then at least a couple of them probably would've run."

"I think it's the principle of the thing," Taylor said, getting a glare from Vicky. "Besides, if you had gone out then you'd have had an excuse to chase idiots down."

"But then Amy would've had less idiots to punch."

Amy grinned. "For the record, I agree with Vicky on this one."

Taylor shrugged. "Whatever, I'm just pointing out what I think Carol's view is."

The three of them had shown up early enough to walk to school from the PRT building without worrying about using mopeds and didn't run into any trouble doing so. Upon arriving at school several other students had been surprised to see them, though that was apparently due to assumptions that Amy and Vicky hadn't left home yet. Or at least the news crews didn't think that they'd left the house. Showing up at school obviously killed that assumption.

Riley yawned as she entered the PRT building, having basically not slept the night before, going straight to the secure doors and opening them with her access key. Nobody batted an eye at that, though she was certain that the officer at the desk would've been watching their screen. It should've told them that she was cleared for the less secure upper floors and had an appointment. She wasn't cleared for all Wards identities, so she couldn't wander downstairs or use the secret entrances, but that was okay with her. Upstairs was enough for meeting with Armsmaster this morning.

Unsurprisingly, the man was there waiting for her when she found the right conference room. Why the map had directed her up two floors, over to the other end of the building, up one more floor, over to the other corner, and then down three floors was a mystery. She hadn't questioned it, nobody had moved to stop her, and she'd only realized what kind of a loop she'd just run when she reached the actual conference room.

"Good morning," Armsmaster said. She waved, interrupted by a yawn. For whatever reason she couldn't concentrate on what his actual name was, even if she knew that she knew it. Armsmaster it was until she'd woken up more.

He chuckled, then pushed a folder over to her. That was followed by getting her a cup of coffee. She mumbled a thank you for the coffee, even if she wasn't a big fan of it, then started flipping through the folder he'd given her. It took her three passes to realize what she was looking at. That captured her attention for a few minutes as she flipped back and forth between things.

"Well?" he asked. "What do you think?"

"It looks like you want an improved biofeedback system," she answered, flipping a couple of pages back from where she was. "Or perhaps an improved biological computer interface. Things seem to bleed over between the two goals?"

"Initial steps towards a larger project, really. I'm hoping to test some of this in my own power armor before moving forward with other aspects of it, but my skills don't lend themselves to this level of integration of technology and biology. Part of it is that I'm no longer seeing outright replacing parts of my body with cybernetics as a sensible idea. Especially not critical organs now that I know what you can do when working with others."

"Ah. But it looks like parts of this aren't going to be viable. For example, on page nine I think you'd end up with the biological elements being starved due to insufficient circulation. It isn't obvious until you start taking into account the extra strain the electrical signals will put on them, of course."

"I thought that I'd taken that into account."

She looked at the notations on the paper, then shook her head. "I think you've underestimated the effects. I don't see anything on how the electrical flows will impact the biological components absorbing nutrients, for example. Even then, I'd have thought that you'd have just built a prototype or two and found this out yourself, your notes are detailed enough."

His response was to pick a box up and place it on the table, then push it over to her. Raising her eyebrow, she opened it up and looked inside. She then flinched, because holy crap was that awful. She looked back up at him. "What the hell is this?"

He shrugged. "Attempt seventeen. The first fifteen failed to function at all."

"I see." She was curious as to how the hell he'd failed this badly. Though now that she thought about what he'd just said she had a question. "What about the sixteenth attempt?"

"Never to be spoken of ever again."

Well that sounded ominous or amusing as hell. Maybe both. But she didn't think she'd get the story out of him today.

Taylor and Amy were taking turns glaring at people who were insisting that they reveal how they were apparently moving around town without anyone noticing them do so. Vicky was laughing about it all, since nobody had realized that she'd done some of the same thing. Or at least that was Taylor's assumption as to why the girl was laughing about it. Missy was the only other one that had a clue and seemed to be trying to not draw attention to herself in case someone else figured that out.

Amy: I don't think the glaring is working.

Taylor: Should we switch to a truthful but bullshit-sounding answer?

Amy: That would work for me. But I don't know what the hell would count.

It took a couple more people before Taylor came up with an idea, and she had to wait for someone else to interrupt their lunch so that she could give the answer. When that happened she rolled her eyes for effect. "If you all must know, we choose a suitable wall and shoot it in the correct manner to punch a hole in reality instead of harming it, then step through."

That got Missy to snort, mostly at the looks on everyone else's faces. Including Vicky's, who seemed to be in a state of shock that Taylor had said that.

Dennis eventually sighed, facepalmed, and leveled a glare at Taylor. "Really?"

Taylor shrugged. "Not my fault if my answer doesn't satisfy people."

The student who'd asked threw up their arms and stormed off. Even better, nobody else bothered them for the last eight minutes of lunch. Whether that was because they'd run out of time before someone had gotten up the courage to ask again or because the truthful yet misleading answer had made them give up was unknown.

Jacob was already thinking about going on another run with the Nine, just to relieve some stress. He wasn't going to get one this soon, but he could fantasize all he wanted. Except that he didn't have time to, of course. He had to finish dealing with Mary and Tori, at least well enough to be able to get to his 'known' job. That, of course, was far easier said than done.

Amanda had gotten the two through a number of things, which he was very appreciative of, but she wasn't exactly the most 'stable' parental figure. Too much exposure to her daughter, trauma from her husband's own issues, and a vindictive streak that would've fit right in with the Nine if she'd ever triggered with anything. In some ways that was a pity, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to know whether or not she'd be a stabilizing or enabling influence on her daughter mid-run.

Especially after she'd taken half an hour to stop laughing after he'd told her about Riley's latest 'plague'. And continued to grin whenever it appeared in any way on the news, for that matter, not to mention had set up a 'scoreboard' for 'confirmed weaklings killed' based on said news reports in her living room. One that had multiple countries listed, and she happily added new country sections whenever it was confirmed that the infection had been spotted overseas.

Sadly, he didn't have many other options for people who could safely look after the two girls. Especially not with the sheer number of 'parahumans in hiding' that lived in the area that the two weren't cleared to know about. Though it was curious how easily the PRT pulled off keeping a lid on the entire town, not to mention how so few of the kids had figured out each others' parahuman status on the basis of assuming that they had to be one of the only parahumans in the area. But he'd been assured that there was nothing special about the area to trigger that, just human nature.

For now he was trying to ensure that the girls could at least act normal in public. The problem there was that neither of them cared, since Amanda had basically told them that 'being themselves' was good enough. Which it was, at least here, because the entire area was 'eccentric' and it was highly unlikely anyone would actually care if they acted like a cross between a child and a teenager with a broken moral compass. He couldn't even send them to school to socialize because the blasted town didn't have one in order to not need excuses for kids vanishing randomly to do parahuman stuff.

Well, even if it did have a school it probably wouldn't have helped. The Horsfalls were one of the few families in town for purely protective reasons. The town was 'eccentric' because of the number of parahumans being kept there because of issues with their powers, mental or otherwise, that would cause them headaches elsewhere. The 'police' had to deal with fun things like naked sleepwalking children heading to the park to settle down in the trees, the 'ninja' mailwoman that frequently broke into houses to leave mail on hall tables, and chasing down the occasional running appliance. Somehow Riley hadn't been responsible for any of the latter yet.

"At this rate, I'll never be able to have you visit Taylor and Amy," he grumbled. Arranging for the walking parahuman detectors to visit a town full of secret parahumans would be nearly impossible under non-emergency circumstances, after all. But bringing the girls anywhere else was looking to be a non-starter too, since their behavior was getting worse. He wanted the 'shy around strangers' personalities back instead of the 'over the top acting out' versions they'd morphed into.

It took a minute for him to realize that Mary and Tori had gone silent. He looked at them, and saw that they'd gone wide-eyed. Maybe they'd heard what he'd said? It wasn't a tactic that he'd intended to use, but if it worked he'd be happy with it.

After school Taylor had no Wards responsibilities thanks to the weekend's activities, so she joined Amy instead. They'd left independently of one another, each using a different restroom. Once they'd exited into Amy's room they'd headed outside and worked together for a bit in the greenhouse under Mark's supervision, most of which was 'filling orders' and thus boring overall, followed by heading inside and completing their homework together. They then watched a movie together, since they didn't have a whole lot else to do and 'go out in public to shop or something' had been labeled a horrible idea.

Granted, Mark had labeled it a horrible idea, Taylor had agreed with him, and Amy had pouted because she'd had fun that morning and was hoping for a repeat of people being morons. Even then it was probably mostly because she'd been outvoted and Vicky hadn't been around to volunteer to drag her around shopping anyway. Instead the older girl was patrolling with the Protectorate, having been requested as a flier for whatever they were doing. Besides, even if she had been available there was the minor issue of her being grounded from things like shopping.

Taylor opted to head home for dinner with her father instead of joining Mark and Amy. They weren't sure if Carol was going to be home for dinner and Vicky was definitely going to be running late, which also meant that they didn't know exactly when they'd be eating.

Tuesday morning had an obvious change to routines, in that Taylor and Amy coaxed their spider-bots into their pet carriers before heading into the gym. After making sure that they'd eaten and used the toilet, of course. None of that was difficult, and Ackbar at least didn't mind being brought into the Shaper-linked pocket dimension. Neither spider-bot was happy with being left there while the girls exercised.

Missy had joined them, though hadn't realized that they had Ackbar and Rodney with them until she was informed that they had to fetch the two before heading over to Arcadia. At which point she insisted on joining them. But they took the mopeds over to the school so as to not look like they'd walked across town with the spider-bots without anyone noticing. Even if you could make an argument for them having done just that. Missy, of course, was cooing over the spider-bots the entire way. Even if it was shorter thanks to her crunching space across rooftops.

Once the mopeds were parked they collected the pet carriers and headed for the office. The secretary seemed to be ready for them, but didn't look happy.

"Good morning you three," she said. "And hello to the two pets."

"Morning," they chorused.

"We were going to have you drop the two off in an unused classroom, but an hour ago we had to have several people escorted out of the building that were looking for Miss Dallon and Miss Hebert. Obviously they didn't find you, but they got into the building anyway. A different group did the same thing yesterday, so we'll be having an impromptu all-school assembly about some security changes for at least the next few weeks. Since we'll have everyone available anyway we'd like to have you two introduce your pets then, before making them available for the couple of classes that requested them."

Taylor looked at Amy and they both shrugged. Amy then turned back to the secretary. "I don't think that will be a problem."

Missy had to go her own way while Taylor and Amy made their way to the auditorium, informed by the secretary that their homeroom teacher would be informed that they were present. Once there they ended up helping get a couple of chairs out for them to sit in off to the side, out of sight of the rest of the students to start with but able to see what was going on otherwise. They had Ackbar and Rodney next to them, but hadn't taken them out of the pet carriers yet. For an added bonus they were given access to donuts, which made the wait for the entire school to be assembled more tolerable.

Eventually the auditorium was filled and the principal took the stage. Ten minutes was spent on explaining that 'the public' had been entering the school when they shouldn't be, and as such they were going to have to change security precautions. Before school started specific doors would be unlocked and nobody should let someone in through any other door, even if they knew the person was a student. Once homeroom began only one entrance would be left unlocked. They weren't alarming the doors, as they weren't restricting what doors people could leave through, but the unlocked doors would have security guards at them to keep those that shouldn't be in the school from entering.

Notably, 'some students' were noted as having alternate ways into the building, which had been registered and wouldn't be a problem. Taylor guessed that was the group of them with pocket dimensions that had the code for the beacon, not that any of them had been using that trick to get into the building. Maybe once their existences weren't a secret they would, but 'get into the school building' wasn't worth revealing them yet.

After that Taylor and Amy showed off Ackbar and Rodney, gave some warnings about how not to interact with them, and apologized for not having a clue how the two would act without the two girls in the room. The teachers understood that it would be a possibly stressful situation for the spider-bots and promised to be careful and to call the two girls if they had trouble. Not much of how the two would act was able to be determined since they stayed right next to Taylor and Amy as soon as they were let out of the pet carriers, likely due to all the people they didn't know around.

Plenty of time was given for people to get to their first class after that, in part so that Taylor and Amy could drop Ackbar and Rodney off in a classroom and still have time to visit lockers and get to class themselves.

Hannah sighed as she sat down in her office. Emily had actually gone through with one of the tinker fugues, a sure sign that her attitudes towards parahumans were changing. Either that or that she was willing to go to extremes just to stick it to other regional directors, but even that probably wouldn't have been enough on its own. Regardless, she'd gone through with it, and was now 'regretting' a couple of aspects of things. Primarily the increased alcohol tolerance, but apparently it was much harder to feel like she was getting a 'proper workout' now as well.

Not that either of those was technically a bad thing. Coupled with some of the other benefits it made the entire thing downright appealing. Emily had even suggested that Hannah should consider it, if only for the built-in secure Bluetooth. And it was tempting, except that most people lacked things that Hannah had to deal with. She wasn't in the mood to test whether or not they could keep her from remembering the procedure. The memories of having minor surgery were bad enough. Full-body work like they'd have to do to her in a fugue?

She shivered at the thought. Any attempt at a procedure like that would only happen after she knew that she wouldn't remember the process. Sadly, she didn't have any clue as to how to test that particular side of things, nor was she certain that she wanted to. Because the flipside of things was that she liked knowing what others did to her body, even if the memories weren't pleasant. Intentionally suppressing things so that she'd have a memory gap covering the fugue would be just as problematic for her.

Really, it was a lose-lose situation, and she was probably going to have to talk to her therapist about it. Or perhaps explain why it was a lose-lose situation for her to Emily. And Colin, for that matter. Both of them felt that several aspects were beneficial enough to cover the risks, and thought that the risks weren't all that great at this point. Colin had even stated that he'd even considered pushing for the entire local Protectorate to go through the process, only not doing so because he could see why the Nine's secrets should be kept to a smaller group of people.

By lunchtime the spider-bots were the talk of the school, with those who'd seen them in class being questioned by those who hadn't. Students who weren't taking the right classes to see them were generally annoyed that they couldn't get a close-up look at them, though several very vocal arachnophobes were obvious exceptions. Though the story circulating about how one of them had screamed like a little girl in class was amusing, though both girls could've done without the 'startling Rodney and nearly getting bitten as a result' portion. Even if Riley would probably have been ecstatic about it.

"Excuse me," a girl said from behind Taylor and Amy, causing the two to turn to look at her. "Er, my class was wondering how you charge the spiders? We couldn't see anything obvious."

Taylor rolled her eyes. "We feed them. They suck up their food, process it, and even came toilet-trained."

"They use a litter box or do you have to walk them?" someone else called out.

Amy snorted. "They use the toilet. In the bathroom. The only problem is that they don't flush."

The girl was standing there blinking. "You have giant artificial yet cuddly spiders that use the toilet. That...how the hell? Where do you get something like that? Who makes things like that?"

Taylor pulled out her phone, opened up the PRT store app, and found the listing for the spider-bots. "They're available in the PRT store, though I don't know if they're available on the public version. Huh, the listing only shows blue, pink, and black coverings. Then again, I suppose getting whatever material was used on our two that doesn't seem to get dirty for all of them might've driven up the price."

The existence of a store listing nicely derailed several discussions as people rushed to see if they could find the thing. Several did, and a couple even downloaded the care manual to look over. Sadly for those looking to purchase one the listing was locked down for that. It took a minute for Taylor to figure out that the only ones who could purchase one directly were those cleared to know about Riley in the first place, presumably due to the 'contains human neural tissue' aspect of things. Everyone else should get a 'request more information' link instead, though the general assumption from the student body was that the PRT wanted to make sure that anyone buying one could handle taking care of an unusual pet.

On the other hand, listening to people talking about the 'special order venom sacs' that the care manual provided instructions on filling and purging was amusing. Mostly because they were whining about it not being a standard feature and that they should come pre-filled with something. Though nobody seemed to be able to agree on what said substance should actually be.

After school Taylor and Amy collected the spider-bots. While several students wanted to get a closer look at them, nobody prevented them from getting out to the mopeds or leaving. A couple of rooftops later the two of them popped into a pocket dimension, which made bringing the spider-bots home trivial. Amy stayed home herself, while Taylor then went to the Wards area. She was marked down for assisting with the three youngest, but without it stating in what way.

Even with the trip home to drop Ackbar off, she was still the first one to the PRT building. By the time Dean showed up with Chris and Dennis tagging along she'd gotten into costume and prepared a snack. This brought all three boys up short when they arrived.

"Why isn't your moped in the garage area?" Dean asked first. "I know you left school on it."

"I didn't need it after I dropped Ackbar off at home," Taylor replied.

Dennis shook his head at that. "You made it home, and then here, and had time to get into costume, before we made it here from Arcadia? And somehow didn't need your moped?"

"Yep."

"So when did you get a mover power?"

Taylor considered that for a moment. "I wouldn't call it a mover power, but it started with a therapy consulting session. Didn't actually go anywhere useful for me directly until a tinker fugue in Las Vegas."

Chris sighed. "So you got a new blaster power that lets you attack walls to teleport?"

She snorted at that. "No, what would count as a new blaster ability lets me put temporary holes in things, but has a several hour recharge per shot. That's how I cracked open one of the tanks."

Dennis wandered off, muttering something about unexplained bullshit and not wanting to know anymore. Chris and Dean followed after him, presumably all three aiming to get into costume.

It turned out that Taylor was working with Dennis on some hand to hand combat training for the three kids. Both as the next Wards leader and because two of the three were girls and it was 'more appropriate' if a female was present as a result. She suspected it was also to keep her from being out in public while people were running around being idiots. Even then, she ended up working more with Ryan than with the two girls, being able to better take his hits than Dennis could.

They spent two hours working on things before they needed to prepare for the kids to be picked up. As the group returned to the Wards area they found Sherrel waiting there in the hallway, though Taylor had been wondering why the woman was there for the past twenty minutes. In an obvious attempt to have something to do, the tinker had set up a small workbench in the hall and appeared to be working her way through modifying a stack of computer units. The completed ones seemed to have a beacon of some kind integrated, but Taylor didn't focus enough to get full details.

"Hello," Taylor greeted. "Are you waiting for us or someone else?"

"Hey there," Sherrel replied. "I'm here to talk to you specifically, actually."

"Ah." Taylor waved the other four on into the Wards area, then waited for the door to close behind them. "So what's up?"

"Piggot asked that I talk to you about the dangers of running around using a cloaked but not armored vehicle."

"That was covered in our driving classes. The general consensus is that you should only do so if you have a really good reason to and aren't concerned about normal traffic."

The woman looked at her. "Then why the hell do you keep doing so?"

Taylor was now confused. "At this point I have no clue what you're talking about, because I haven't been. Once along rooftops, but that's about it."

"Then how do you keep getting between here and your home without anyone seeing you, if you aren't riding around on a cloaked moped?"

Taylor answered that by pulling a pocket dimension opening pistol out of her utility belt and firing at the wall. Sherrel looked at that, blinked a couple of times, and then started laughing. It took a couple of minutes before she calmed down, at which point she started packing up her equipment. "Figures that you'd have some kind of tinkertech to move around with."

"It isn't exactly secret. All the energy signatures had to be registered with the security system, even, so that opening that up doesn't set off alarms. Dragon handled that registration when it came up."

"I'll let Director Piggot know that you claim that you haven't been using your cloaking device. We'll see if she asks for more details or not." She then looked over at Taylor. "I'm torn between telling you to use the thing and being impressed that you haven't needed to, by the way. But I'm more curious about what it takes to get one of those pistols."

Taylor shrugged. "I'm sure that several people could get you a pistol without any trouble. They're fairly generic, it's getting the keys that's a problem. They're either expensive or require a high security clearance."

"And you've got fucking insane clearance, so that explains that. Good luck to anyone else getting anywhere on that front, right?"

"I think we're up to six people in Brockton Bay with their own? Well, six residents of Brockton Bay. Visitors with their own are obviously going to vary."

Sherrel outright glared at Taylor for a moment, before sighing and shaking her head. "Fuck it. Not worth the effort of asking, because I'm nowhere near the shortlist for that kind of thing. Maybe in a decade, when I've worked off my history."

Taylor couldn't exactly argue that, and left the tinker to her packing up. Instead she headed into the Wards area to get changed before heading home.

Ciara's eyes snapped open before she blinked them several times. She'd been sitting there 'meditating' for a few hours and the sudden light from opening her eyes had stung for a moment.

Still, she grinned. "There you are."

Even better, she could play with psychological torture a bit, working her way through other targets that she'd been all but forced to find first. She'd have to consider how to approach that as she gathered her messengers.

Chapter 218 On Wednesday morning the news was dominated by a series of unexplained attacks, each of which left behind at least one corpse that appeared to be a former resident of the Birdcage in addition to other deceased individuals. The PRT was investigating, because parahumans were obviously involved, but also seemed to be preparing for larger operations all over the country. The timing hinted at the two being related, but no statement to that effect had been released and it could thus be a coincidence of timing, but preparing to hunt down Birdcage escapees made sense in the wake of things.

The PRT preparing for things had also caused several groups to question if the odd 'flu' that was sweeping several nations had been discovered to be parahuman in origin, especially given that it hit people harder the older they were. Nobody quite knew why that was, and those that survived seemed to be fine afterwards, so there weren't many efforts to contain it. But trying to capture the one responsible for things seemed like something the PRT should be doing.

Taylor had caught up on most of this while working out in the gym, discussing points with Amy along the way. Neither was sure what to think about most of it, and no internal PRT bulletins seemed to explain anything. Brockton Bay wasn't preparing for whatever it was, which would make sense if they were going after those responsible for the 'flu' that hadn't reached them yet. Of course, the only way they were going to halt the thing that way was if it was an active power manifestation, which given the scale wasn't incredibly likely.

Once they were done they opted to jog to school. They had plenty of time, it meant less waiting for the bus, and without their mopeds they could slip out via pocket dimension if they wanted to. Sadly, it also had them out in the open, and a group of idiots decided to capitalize on that. Their opening move wasn't even a horrible idea, all things considered, trying to run the two of them over with a pickup truck. Neither girl had seen it coming, beyond having stopped to check if the truck was going to turn in front of them. Instead it slammed into them.

Taylor was sent flying, her belt letting her take a portion of the impact, while Amy ended up with part of the front of the truck wrapped around her. Both were unhappy, but Taylor was in a far better position to act. Sadly for any desire to vent her annoyance, she found that the two people in the truck hadn't been wearing seatbelts and were knocked out. The driver's side door was jammed shut, but the passenger side door opened and gave her enough access to ensure that the two were stable enough until emergency services could arrive.

She was considering whether or not to extract them from the truck, since it was leaking pretty much everything, when likely friends of theirs showed up in another truck. This time they appeared to have a shotgun, and yelled something about the Endbringers before they opened fire at Amy where she was still pulling herself out of the wreck. Taylor moved around the back of the first, wrecked truck and grabbed the shotgun out of the shooter's hands.

"Are you trying to kill your friends there?" Taylor asked, only for the driver of the second truck to try and pull away. She stopped them from getting far by using the shotgun on one of the truck's front tires. The resulting loss of control ended with that truck rolling over after hitting a curb.

"Save someone for me," Amy grumbled as she finally joined Taylor.

Taylor shrugged. "Not sure anyone's left, and the first two essentially took themselves out. But we should watch out for other trucks."

It didn't take long for the police to show up, longer for an ambulance. Taylor helped Amy get her bag out of the front of the wrecked truck while the officers were talking to bystanders. The two weren't held up long enough to make them late to school, though they cut things a lot closer than they were originally planning to.

"Good morning Miss Dallon, Miss Hebert," their homeroom teacher greeted as they entered.

"Good morning," the two chorused.

"I was informed that you two had been hit by a truck on your way here and might not be attending today."

Amy snorted. "I was also shot at with a shotgun while pulling myself out of the wreckage of said truck. You'd think that people forget that I wear a force field belt for protection these days."

"Yes, I can see how that would change things. Take your seats, if you would."

Rebecca sighed as she looked over reports. Glaistig had been busy over the last half day, though why the woman had opted to attack the Fallen was a mystery. Thanks to Dragon they had a timeline for things, but no motive as of yet. The crazy woman had started with the McVeays the day before, taking out their leadership in three precision strikes that left no survivors. Only one of which was known to the public, and that was the one that took out the family head courtesy of a trapped 'gift' delivered by a former Birdcage inmate. It was obvious that they'd figured out it was a trap before it'd gone off as well, given that they were trying to escape the room when they'd died.

The Crowleys had been next. Unlike the McVeays their entire collection of parahumans had been targeted, with the sole exception of Gillian. Presumably because the woman was in PRT custody, but they couldn't actually be certain of that given what happened with the Mathers. The Crowleys were dealt with using attacks spread along fifteen minute intervals, and most of them hadn't actually been fatal. The leaders and two others had been killed, but most of the parahumans had merely been severely wounded at worst. Though how Glaistig had changed one of the men into a woman should probably be looked into, since they'd been unaware of any parahuman that could do that and could've been claimed by her. The leadership had been left for last, and they'd apparently gone on the move halfway through things. Two more former Birdcage inmates were found amongst those attacks.

For whatever reason, she'd then taken a two hour break. Maybe she'd tired herself out, but Dragon reported that she'd merely made some tea and sat there waiting. Exactly two hours later she'd resumed, this time targeting the Mathers branch. Elijah was the first target of that run, but by that point every other member of the extended family they could identify had been on the move. Possibly because they'd somehow gotten word of the attacks on the other families. Most of these attacks were precision strikes and were believed to be related to how their powers functioned.

Elijah had died thanks to his eyes being struck through with long spikes. They knew his power had worked through sight. Fraternal twins Reuben and Leah had both survived, the current belief being that they hadn't actually caused death themselves and had thus been spared. Both had been found severely dehydrated, apparently normally gaining control of others through their bodily fluids. The youngest, Gideon, had been impaled with a flute, making them think that he'd been the 'piper' that they'd never been able to locate. He was one of the ones that had been found by the public, and had the only former Birdcage inmate that hadn't been killed outright by Glaistig's gifts. Instead she'd fallen victim to a trap in the hallway after finishing off Gideon.

They only knew as much as they did about the last strike because Glaistig had been kind enough to include a note. She'd done something to Acidbath, and when he'd arrived he'd exploded into a far larger mass than normal. 'Mama Mathers' and all of those in the RV they'd been using to relocate had all died a horrible death, and Acidbath himself hadn't survived the explosion of Glaistig's final 'gift', apparently his 'reward for his services' after he'd reformed his body. Insufficient remains had been found to properly identify any of them, so they were taking Glaistig's word for who died in that one.

With Mama's death the anti-thinker effect on a large number of people had failed entirely. Coupled with Glaistig's last note containing the identities of a number of moles, the locations of all of the merely injured parahumans, and a description of how they'd all been using Mama to communicate undetectably, they had quite a bit of cleanup to do across the country. And probably owed Glaistig the 'luxury items' that she'd requested for the Birdcage. The request for any applicable bounty money to go into a 'tea and beer' account was, however, oddly worrisome.

Now if only they'd been able to find Maya. It was likely she was dead, but they hadn't actually located the woman's corpse, nor had Glaistig indicated that she was amongst the deceased. And Fortuna had merely said that her paths didn't see the woman as a problem.

It took nearly ten minutes once things were turned on at lunchtime for people to find a single video of the morning's incident with the trucks posted online. The angle sucked, since it'd been pulled from a security camera that happened to be able to see things out a window, but it showed enough to identify Taylor and Amy. It also showed Taylor's flight after the impact compared to Amy getting stuck in the wreck, but not much more of the action. It was still enough to have had PHO speculating all morning on whether or not Taylor had developed an improved brute rating somehow or merely had protective tinkertech on. Especially since the protective tinkertech Amy was wearing had negated things entirely.

The two sat there eating, listening as everyone discussed things around them. Which was amusing in a way, because half of the things they were arguing over would be solved by asking them a question or two. Granted, the rest of the things being discussed tended more towards how stupid some of these people were. According to PHO, this group had apparently driven up from Tennessee to make an attempt at killing the two 'as was right due to their collusion with the Endbringers' or something like that. The PRT had determined that the four hadn't been mastered before leaving them to the BBPD.

"So why isn't anyone asking for our knowledge or opinions?" Amy finally asked, seemingly having less patience than Taylor on that front.

Chris waved his hand at them dismissively. "Because while we trust you to tell the truth if we ask we don't trust you to not do so in as misleading a way as you can get away with while doing so. Partially because we'd all probably do the same thing, but mostly because of prior experience."

Taylor and Amy both pouted at that, because how were they supposed to have fun giving truthful yet bullshit answers if people didn't ask them in the first place?

Dennis sighed at the pouting, looked around at the others nearby, then rolled his eyes. "Okay. I'll bite. Why did Taylor get thrown while Amy got wrapped up in the truck?"

Taylor shrugged. "My belt is tuned for combat and lets quite a bit through so long as I can handle it, but lasts longer in combat because of it. Her belt is tuned entirely to keep her unharmed and gets 'used up' faster as a result."

It didn't take long for that to spread through the entire cafeteria, nor to start being discussed on PHO.

At the end of the day Amy decided that Taylor's lack of locker use was more useful than she'd previously expected and emptied her own locker into her expanded bag while Taylor was escaping the school using a restroom wall. Amy had then retreated to a different restroom and departed. Missy had apparently done something similar, and all three ended up exiting into the Wards area of the PRT building through two different portals.

"Do you do that in front of people or are you driving the student body nuts?" Miss Militia asked from where she'd apparently been waiting.

Amy shrugged. "We're currently exiting out of sight, usually in restrooms, but I'm certain it'll come out as something we have access to eventually."

The older cape nodded. "Sensible."

Missy frowned. "So are you waiting here for any of us, the Wards in general, or someone else?"

Miss Militia closed her laptop and picked it up. "I'm here to collect Miss Hebert. We've scheduled her for an exam."

Taylor raised an eyebrow. "An exam?"

"We no longer have any reason to keep you off of the list of parahuman healers, but there's an official exam to go along with it."

"Ah. That makes sense."

Miss Militia then turned to Amy. "Miss Dallon, I was informed earlier that the legal hurdles preventing you from healing at the hospital have been cleared. You'll obviously want to check with the rest of New Wave on that front, but the President basically stated that if we let villains who've been exposed to Ziz for a few minutes heal people then we have no reason to stop heroes who've interacted with Endbringers do the same."

Amy grinned at that. "I see, thank you for letting me know. I'll double-check with Carol on that front, and if she's okay with it I'll plan on swinging by."

Max entered the warehouse cautiously, unsure as to what he'd find. He was certain that it wasn't a trap laid by Kenta, but that was about all he knew. Which could mean that it was a trap laid by someone else who'd somehow gotten Kenta to play along, for example through the use of master abilities like those that had been used against both of their organizations recently. Thus it paid to be cautious. He closed the door as silently as he could, then flipped the lock from the inside to make it harder for someone to follow him in.

That done, he moved around the outside of the warehouse where there were fewer opportunities for traps than the path straight down the middle. Better safe than dead and all. Nothing seemed to happen as he reached the other side of the warehouse, where he knew it formerly butted up against a manufacturing facility that would assemble things that came off of ships so that 'completed products' weren't being brought in from overseas. That building was now essentially a pile of rubble blocking all of the warehouse's entrances at that end after the Merchants had blown up a drug manufacturing setup in it a few years back.

"Stop being a justifiably cautious asshole and get over here," Kenta called from the back of the warehouse.

Max sighed. "This had better not be a trap that you just screwed over any attempt of me getting you out of in a sneaky fashion."

"I got a gift and figured that you'd like to help me unwrap it."

Max rolled his eyes and came around an old conveyor belt to find Kenta sitting in a comfortable chair with a squirming bag tied to a pole ten feet in front of him. "What the hell?"

Kenta grinned and gestured towards the bag. "I am reliably informed that a very small number of people know that Maya is back in town. Sadly, I'm also informed that we should avoid skin contact, because that's how her powers get their initial hold. Either that or get at least a mile away from her within fifteen minutes of making skin contact with her to 'reset' things."

"How did she get here and who told you all of that?"

"Her actions somehow pissed off Glaistig Uaine, the note left with her didn't say how. I'm not about to complain about her being sent my way either way, but since she used both of our men against each other I figured that you could help me make her suffer."

Max raised an eyebrow. "I'd think that you'd have killed her and been done with it after she threatened children under your care, let alone your daughter. You've told me that those who are marked for death don't need to suffer needlessly."

Kenta nodded. "That is true. At the same time, though, there are times where one must set an example. She knew that my daughter would be present, but not that I would be. I wish for any who hear of her fate to think twice before even considering targeting my family."

Ahhh. Now that was something that Max could understand. "I don't suppose you brought a decent supply of gloves, if we're not to make skin contact?"

A box was produced from the other side of the chair and thrown over to him, a brand new box of disposable gloves in the correct size.

Taylor sighed as she stepped into her bedroom, noting that Ackbar appeared to be downstairs. She dropped her backpack down on her bed and the paperwork she'd received on her desk. Included was a shiny new identification card stating that she was a PRT-registered parahuman healer and the PRT's paperwork that would allow her to help out at the hospital if she so desired to. She didn't have the same drive for healing that Amy had picked up when Vicky had been injured, but would probably end up helping out every so often.

She found that her father and Ackbar were in the living room. More specifically, Ackbar was in the box that had likely contained the parts that her father was sorting through. "Hello."

"Hi Taylor," her father greeted, half-waving as he worked his way through things.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Trying to figure out how this thing goes together."

"And what is it?"

"A cat stand thing that Jim thought Ackbar might like after his son got to see the little guy in class. Their cat apparently refused to use it over the course of six months."

"Ah. Want any help?"

He looked like he was about to refuse, before looking down at the pile of parts. Which she now noted didn't include directions. He then sighed. "As much as I want to say no, I suppose it'll go faster if I say yes."

It took them an hour to figure it all out while she told him about the 'registered parahuman healer' examination, which had been three parts. A short written ethics test, a practical healing session observed by a doctor, and then a psychological examination by a licensed non-parahuman psychologist that she suspected was the real ethics test. She'd had no problem with any of them and suspected that they'd had the ID card printed before she'd even started.

Of course, when they were done Ackbar had no interest in the stand either, though that was likely in part due to not being able to climb it.

Thursday had started fairly boring. Head to the gym, roof-walk to school thanks to Missy having shown up. By lunchtime discussion was on how the three girls were escaping the school without anyone noticing, especially since people had noted that they'd entered but not visibly left restrooms the day before. Taylor and Amy had stuck with the 'shoot at a wall in the right way' excuse and then been left alone when it was 'obvious' that nobody was getting a straight answer out of them, and Missy hadn't been asked at all.

It was as school ended where things got interesting. Taylor and Amy had been requested at the PRT building for an 'urgent healing session'. Taylor actually wondered if this was part of why she'd gotten her parahuman healer registration dealt with the day before. Regardless of why, the two opted to head over anyway. Wards activities would've had Taylor in the building regardless, and Amy hadn't had much better to do planned.

"Miss Dallon, Miss Hebert," Colin greeted them as they exited the Wards area. They hadn't gotten into costumes, not seeing a need, but he'd obviously been on his way there with a cart. "You're here earlier than I expected. Your last classes must have been closer to your lockers than I anticipated."

Taylor shrugged. "Thanks to expanded bags we don't use our lockers. Or rather I didn't and Amy recently joined me in not doing so."

"That would explain the discrepancy in my planning. Still, I have packages for both of you, then we can head up to the hospital room." He then took one box off of the cart and handed it to Taylor. "For you, a healing costume."

Taylor blinked and opened the box, finding a set of Panacea-style robes, gloves, and shoes inside. "What?"

Colin smirked. "Others insisted and we got permission from New Wave." He then turned to Amy and gestured to the cart, which contained more boxes. "The rest of this is for Miss Dallon. A combat costume, a duplicate of Miss Hebert's original. Complete with the basic loadout. You'll need to purchase a dark visor and jump harness of your own if you wish to have them. Oh, and if you wish to have expanded spaces in the jacket like Miss Hebert does then you'll need to make arrangements with Miss Biron."

Amy checked and found that an entrenching tool, wok, and maul were included in addition to the base costume, though her commenting on things caused Taylor to realize that neither costume came with a utility belt. Then again, keeping civilian and parahuman belts going for herself was mildly annoying at this point now that she'd been outed, having a third 'healer' one would be even worse.

Neither girl tried on the new costumes, but Amy's was stored in the pocket dimension for now while Taylor's was left on the bed in her Wards room. Colin left the cart in the elevator when they'd headed upstairs after that.

"Now then," he'd said as they approached the hospital room. "We've got six patients for you two. Victims from the Nine that we need to ensure are at the very least safe and stable. Reversing things is a secondary concern and may need to be discussed with each family. I've consulted with another visitor and was assured that there shouldn't be any significant problems, but getting confirmation is always a good thing."

Taylor easily determined that the 'other visitor' was Riley, though didn't have a clue what the girl had done this time. Colin left them at the hospital room door, obviously believing that he wasn't needed. Or perhaps that as a medical issue he wasn't cleared to join them? Either way the two entered the hospital room without him, to find that six beds were occupied by children, four boys and two girls, each with a likely parent or two next to them. The most obvious thing about the kids was that each of them had non-human ears, but none of them had a snark. There were two kids with what looked like cat ears, one with rabbit ears, and three with different breeds of dog ears. None of them matched their hair color.

A quick check with the parents and the PRT doctors showed that all the paperwork was already in order, so Taylor took one side of the room while Amy took the other to do an initial check on each kid before they discussed options. They quickly determined that in addition to the ears they also had the appropriate tails and their feet had been partially converted into paws. The changes to their noses were harder to spot and had been most obvious in comparison to one another.

On top of the animal-themed changes, all six also had a severely upgraded immune system that had been set to treat the animal parts as normal, slightly improved healing that was also treating the animal parts as though they should be there, and an integrated Bluetooth system. Once Taylor knew the latter was there her tinker snark informed her that it was a standard, non-secure system with only phone and media audio profiles available.

Initial healing had been done on all six to clear up immediate problems, such as a damaged vein in one girl and a partially-healed torn ligament in one of the boys. That done, Taylor and Amy accepted chairs set out by the doctors to discuss things with the entire group. The scope of some of the less visible changes, how complete the visible ones were, and a few other things were brought up.

Unsurprisingly, there were disagreements on what should and shouldn't be reversed. None of the parents were pushing for the improved healing or immune system changes to be removed, but the Bluetooth and animal features were points of contention. The kids generally thought the ears were cool, even if their opinion of the tails and paws varied. None of them knew how to use the Bluetooth yet and thus weren't as set on keeping it by comparison.

"Look," Amy finally said, a little loudly to get some of the discussions to stop. "There are a couple of things you aren't considering. One of those is that there are changes to all six of their brains, and the Bluetooth is only the most obvious of them. I do not work on brains for a number of reasons, including a potential for my power to make changes that I don't intend."

Taylor nodded. "We've confirmed that's a possibility and aren't willing to take the risk at this point in time."

"To that end we can rule out reversing some of the changes." The parents were frowning at this point, but didn't interrupt. "For starters, the Bluetooth isn't coming out. We can help the kids learn how to use it, but disconnecting it could cause too many issues, including but not limited to seizures as the modified structures attempt to communicate with the missing components. I hope you understand the issues there."

One of the doctors was taking notes, and several of the parents had flinched at the mention of seizures. Two of the mothers had hugged their kids as well. It took a minute, but eventually all of the parents nodded to indicate that they understood.

Amy sighed. "That brings us to the next issue. I don't know if any of you noticed that all of the kids are instinctively moving their ears? That's coupled with the less obvious internal changes to their noses. They've got modifications to the parts of their brains that handle scents and sounds to allow them to use their changed anatomy, and I'm not sure how they'd react to having human versions again. I'm willing to make the attempt, but I can't guarantee success. No such changes exist for the paws or tails, so they're not a problem to revert."

That resulted in a more subdued discussion amongst the parents and their children while the doctors quizzed Taylor and Amy on the changes. A few questions were asked on what options might exist, and each kid was allowed to give more input on things than the parents had originally been willing to give them. But eventually everyone came to decisions.

All six kids were going to have the paws changed back into human feet, since none of them could walk easily with them. The two cat tails were slated to be left alone, since the kids had decent control over them, but the rabbit and dog tails were to be removed. The structural changes to the ears and noses were going to be left alone for fear of accidentally crippling the kids' senses, but all six would be getting a color normalization between hair and fur. To the fur color for a couple, to their hair color for three, and to basic brown for the last. The boy didn't want to keep the pink hair he'd come in with.

With all of that decided the doctors brought out appropriate paperwork detailing things. The parents signed it and then Taylor and Amy got to work. It took some thought to determine how to best correct the improved healing and immune system to not see the human feet and lack of tails as problems, and they'd ended up normalizing genetics slightly to ensure that there wouldn't be any other rejection issues later on in life.

All six kids were happy to be able to walk again, though the two who'd retained their tails had some minor balance issues to work out. Overall they looked a lot less jarring with their ears in particular matching the hair on their heads, and the parents seemed resigned to dealing with the changes. They figured out how to get the kids to be able to put themselves in pairing mode, the rest would be more experimentation than anything else on their parts as it turned out that they had six subtly different interfaces there.

"Thank you," Cathy, whose son was one of the two who'd retained his cat tail. "Clothing adjustments will be annoying, but it's good to know that if the tail becomes a problem it can be removed later."

Amy chuckled as the boy in question overcorrected for his tail's movement. "It wasn't a problem."

The woman fidgeted, obviously unsure of herself, but a moment later looked over at Ray, her husband. "I don't suppose that you'd be willing to look at Ray while we're here anyway? He claims that he's fine, but he usually has allergy problems and the last time they went away he'd picked up a tapeworm."

Ray had heard this and sighed. "I told you that I don't feel any of the other signs of that."

Cathy rolled her eyes. "And did you feel any of those signs the last time?"

"Some of them, and I don't feel any of them right now."

"If you're so sure, indulge me and let one of the healers confirm that you're fine, then. It would only take them a moment."

Ray mumbled something, but walked over to Amy and offered his hand.

"Do I have permission to at least diagnose you?" Amy asked.

"Yes, dammit. Just get on with it so that she'll shut up about it."

Amy snorted, but took the man's hand. A moment later she was blinking. "What the hell?"

Taylor moved over to one of the doctors. "My apologies, but I need to check something." The doctor nodded and held out their hand. Taylor touched it, then blanched.

Ten seconds later she'd triggered a building lockdown.

Chapter 219 Taylor ignored the lockdown alarm as she moved along to each of the doctors to check them, finding that each of them was in the early stages of infection. Amy was focusing on figuring out what the dangers of the infection were from examining Ray, since he seemed to have gone through things already even if he was still contagious. Once Taylor was done with the doctors she moved to each of the other parents, finding that they were all in the same basic state as Ray was.

She was considering whether or not she should look for others to check when her phone rang. Blinking, she quickly answered it, but kept to subvocalizing. "Hello Chief Director."

"Miss Hebert," Rebecca replied. "Can you tell me why you've put the ENE into medical lockdown?"

"We've encountered a highly infectious flu strain that's delivering an HIV-like payload. Panacea is currently working through the effects, but it's looking like it stays active in the body even after the flu symptoms have cleared up."

There was a pause before the woman responded to that. "Could this be the same 'flu' that's been sweeping several nations?"

"It's possible."

"If it is then containment is already impossible. I'll let you get back to things, but I'll be asking for Director Piggot to set up a conference room for a call to discuss things once you and Miss Dallon have your findings."

It'd taken just over an hour and a half for Amy to decipher and document everything that she thought was going on with the odd flu, during which Taylor determined that pretty much everyone in the building who hadn't been worked on by Riley was probably affected. She'd also determined that containing the spread of things in town was almost certainly already impossible as the gift shop and reception desk employees had been infected for a while before they'd found things and a number of people had come and gone. That didn't even include all the people who'd left at shift change and had likely been exposed.

As a result of their better knowledge of what was going on, coupled with the knowledge that it was probably too late anyway, Taylor had released the lockdown on the building. The parents were told that they were fine, and reassured that the kids were immune anyway, but before releasing any information they wanted to ensure that they weren't drawing incorrect conclusions. One of the fathers calmed the others down when others tried to object by pointing out that was what any responsible medical professionals should do when the patients weren't in the middle of falling over dead, because getting outside confirmation was common sense.

In the conference room they'd stuck Taylor and Amy together at one end of the table. Director Piggot and Colin had each taken seats opposite each other halfway down the table after locking the room down. At the far end of the table was a bank of five screens, currently all blank. Taylor was reading over a copy of Amy's notes, questioning points occasionally but mostly accepting them as written.

Taylor: Why wouldn't things pass from mother to child?

Amy: Genetics aren't being changed.

Taylor: Yeah, but wouldn't the kid just catch the 'flu' from their mother?

Amy: ...right. Probably while still in the womb at that, so I should strike that comment entirely.

Eventually the monitors started coming to life, though Taylor didn't recognize any of the first four faces that appeared. Two of them had been intentionally blurred on their end, though, so she supposed they didn't want to be known right now. Or maybe not everyone on this end was cleared to know them? It was hard to tell without knowing who they were herself.

The last one to come up was Rebecca in the middle, who obviously looked over monitors on her end before nodding. "Thank you all for joining us on short notice. It's my understanding that a likely-engineered flu that targets the immune system was detected in the ENE office earlier today. Given that the lockdown was released I'm assuming the threat is at least mitigated for now?"

"Not at all," Taylor answered, which caused everyone other than Amy to react like they'd been slapped. "I released the lockdown when I realized that it was both unnecessary and far too late to contain things."

Amy took over before anyone could start yelling. "While the flu payload was based on the normal HIV envelope, which was why the lockdown was issued originally, the results are very different. It dismantles the existing human immune system as a side effect of generating the infectious components to spread faster, but the primary goal appears to be replacing the immune system with a modified variant. It was possibly intended as an upgrade, but introduces a number of complications in the process."

They let the others absorb that, which took a minute. Eventually Director Piggot took a deep breath to calm herself. "So this was most definitely engineered?"

"I'm positive that it was, yes. Especially as the infectious components are continuously generated by the bone marrow afterwards. Once you've been infected with this you're permanently a carrier. Combined with how quickly it seems to have been intended to spread and assuming that it's the same flu that's been spreading then there's no way to reasonably contain it at this point."

"What kinds of complications do you expect there to be?" one of the obscured participants asked, a voice modulation effect disguising their identity further.

Taylor decided to answer that one, holding up her hand to count things off. "The first and most severe is organ transplant rejection, though due to how things work transplanted bone marrow might be one of the most variable. The altered immune system will be far more aggressive, making finding compatible donors much harder if not impossible, and those who've already had transplants are likely to run into serious problems. After that would probably be blood transfusion problems for many of the same reasons, though that luckily won't generally be a problem for those who've received transfusions in the past. Least significant is probably either a decrease in apparent fertility or an increase of miscarriages under specific circumstances."

Amy sighed. "Some of that will be made worse by a number of drugs that probably won't function anymore either, and anyone exposed to things while their immune system is down during the replacement may not pull through. That period will generally be longer as you get older, though those with compromised immune systems will probably be hit the hardest, one way or another. Insufficient white blood cells or far too many would both create additional problems. The flu symptoms will generally persist for a good portion of that process regardless of complications with the immune system, and anyone with an active infection at the time they pick this one up will have a greatly elevated risk of death."

A couple of those calling in had obviously switched to furiously checking things, so the rest of them waited. Taylor suspected that there was messaging going on between them as well, outside of the conference call, especially as only one of them spoke when they were done.

"That nicely highlights some patterns we hadn't noticed in the deaths," the man said. "A particularly high incidence of deaths amongst those who'd received transplanted organs, for example, not seen as noteworthy before now. Most of them appear to have been flagged as failure of the transplanted organ due to the stress the illness put on the body. More aggressive attacking of foreign genetics would easily explain that."

The woman who'd also been checking things nodded. "Nursing homes and hospitals having been hit harder when there was someone with another contagious illness already present is another grouping. Not to mention several nursing homes with mild environmental issues such as molds that were being worked on being hit hard. I don't have any numbers on miscarriages available, but I'm curious what the 'specific circumstances' for those and fertility changes are."

Amy took that one. "The exceptions made for reproduction don't have nearly the same tolerances as the base human system. Pairings with genetics that are too similar will have problems in general as a result, whether that's due to being too closely related or just happening to be similar enough by chance."

There was silence at that, before one of the obscured individuals started chuckling. "That's one way to stop people from inbreeding too much, isn't it. Makes me curious, do we have any clues regarding who actually created this?"

Taylor and Amy shrugged. Their biggest clue was that it wasn't capable of infecting those who'd been upgraded by Riley, and that didn't mean much as that wasn't intentional as far as they could tell. Several of the mechanisms in the upgraded system were similar, but that wasn't saying much as they were also similar to the default human system. Other mechanisms were entirely different and the interactions had been confusing to figure out.

Of course, none of that ruled out Riley having made it, and they'd likely ask her what she knew about it later that day. But at the moment they didn't actually know.

"We believe it may have been someone trying to counter the Slaughterhouse Nine," the other obscured individual chimed in. "Those that caught this and made it through the initial flu symptoms early on were found to be immune to several of Bonesaw's creations afterwards. It was originally believed that they'd gotten lucky and the flu had primed their immune systems to react faster, but an upgraded immune system virus possibly originating in an area where the Nine were operating? We could be looking at someone who triggered during the attack, though there's no telling if they survived it."

That was an interesting theory, and would nicely explain why the upgraded immune system wasn't on Riley's level. It was possible that the person who made it hadn't run into any of the girl's defensive work, only the various things she did to cause trouble. Which normally only dealt with the original human immune system, and thus the new one hadn't needed to be stronger.

Taylor arrived at home with a bag containing her Maul utility belt pouches. She'd decided to stop wearing the Vista-style 'civilian' belt pouches for the time being, if only to not be splitting supplies between the two sets, but would need to move things around as a result. If only to not have things just sitting in the expanded pouches, like the snacks she'd hidden in there. The original 'Maul' belt was somewhere in her room at the PRT building, mainly because she'd been using the force field belt instead even if she'd been thinking of the two sets of pouches as being different belts. But she'd brought the original 'Vista' belt home so she could put the pouches on it for storage.

She'd started by confirming that her father wasn't home, which she thought was obvious since the alarm had been in 'away' mode before she'd stepped through. With nothing obvious out for dinner she'd decided against trying to prepare things and instead opted to get started on the belt pouch consolidation. It would be easy enough to do while rereading the chapters assigned for homework.

It hadn't taken long to empty all of the 'Vista' belt pouches and put them back on the original belt, after which she'd gone through all of the 'Maul' pouches and determined what would and wouldn't be doubled up on. She ended up shifting things around when she realized that she hadn't left enough room in any pouches to store her visor in during school, and ended up deciding that she didn't need to keep all of the snacks she'd hidden on her at this point. She'd return half of them to her 'stash' points for refilling, and despite Ackbar's attempt at claiming some of them she decided that 'snacks' was a poor choice for his pocket.

Slipping a now-spare pistol style pocket dimension opener into the pocket seemed to confuse Ackbar. She'd figured that without a crystal key installed it was a safe choice, the spider-bot couldn't use it himself even if he wanted to, and it was a reasonable precaution. That and Ackbar would probably do his best to defend it from strangers once he stopped trying to figure out where it'd gone. Though it would make a lot more sense if she normally had Ackbar with her instead of leaving him at home.

Once she'd bagged some of the extra stuff she wasn't planning on carrying around duplicates of, or extra duplicates of in some cases, she'd hung the Vista-style belt in her closet. The larger snack stash would probably be gone through in a couple of days, and she made a point of starting on it while she got out some of the things for unexpected homework assignments. They weren't due until early next week, but she saw no point in putting them off.

Emily frowned as she looked over the information she'd just been given. Kaiser and Lung had dragged Maya Mathers into the building half an hour previous, the woman alive but certainly not well once she'd been pulled out of the sack they'd left her in. That the two gang leaders were working together wasn't unexpected in this case, but the brutality they'd shown wasn't exactly pleasant. They'd amputated both of the woman's legs and one of her arms, burned and/or cut most of her remaining skin, including leaving her scalp a charred mess, and even gouged out her eyes.

They'd also included a note from Glaistig Uaine that described the woman's crimes and powers, as well as a note from the two of them stating that the bounty money from capturing her should go to charities for those harmed and displaced by cape violence. The first note nicely explained how the hell they'd gotten their hands on her in a couple of ways even if she'd have to check if anyone knew when the Birdcage resident had slipped away to pull it off.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the phone ringing, and she sighed before grabbing it. Hopefully this wasn't yet another surprise, the afternoon had been busy enough as it was. "Piggot."

"Ma'am," came from the other end. "We've found a hint to Maya Mathers's location."

"Kaiser and Lung dropped her off half an hour ago. Well, more like forty-five minutes ago at this point, actually."

"Oh. I hadn't heard. It looks like they posted pictures and videos of what they did to her online, as a warning about targeting family."

"I see. Please ensure that we have a copy for our records, but I think I can guess some of what they did based on the state she arrived in."

"Yes ma'am."

Friday morning proved to be unusually breezy, but Taylor only cared because a whistling from the wind had woken her up earlier than she'd expected to be up. She'd ended up watching the morning news with her father, and found that the PRT had reported that the flu was likely parahuman-created. Their press release had listed a number of things that people would need to watch out for now that they'd analysed it, including organ transplants and needing to be much more careful with blood transfusions. It was deemed as not being a significant risk, outside of the specifically outlined risk categories anyway. They'd also apparently decided that it'd been designed to counter Riley's work, or at least that suspicion was enough to make it into the press release.

Really, saying that it was a counter to the Nine was probably intended to cancel out some of the panic that would otherwise result from the thing being created by a parahuman. That it presented a 'continuing immunity to a number of ailments' afterwards helped, of course. They hadn't mentioned any of the pregnancy-related issues, or at least the news hadn't, but the fact that anyone who'd been infected would likely be able to pass it on for the rest of their lives had been included. And Taylor and Amy hadn't reported that they'd learned that Riley had made it the day before when they'd eventually asked, since that fell under Jacob's job description, so the news definitely didn't know that.

It felt a bit odd putting the Maul-style pouches on before heading to the gym, but she was sure that she'd get used to it quickly. Amy, Missy, and Vicky all met her there, with the latter whining about not having time after school due to the meet and greet. Which hadn't been canceled with a parahuman-created flu running around, because it wasn't the kind that was going to be contained and it wasn't having significant effects in Brockton Bay yet.

It was as they were eating after their workout that Vicky decided to throw her two cents in, gesturing to Taylor and Amy. "You two should wear your new costumes this afternoon, see how long it takes people to notice."

That got Missy's attention. "New costumes? What new costumes?"

Taylor sighed. "They got me a Panacea-style costume for healing and Amy a Maul-style costume for combat. They even got her a maul, wok, and entrenching tool."

Amy nodded. "I can't store the maul in the jacket like Taylor can, but that's a minor detail at this point. I also don't have my own sword, nor do I have a stop sign and manhole cover combination. Though I suppose I could borrow Taylor's if it ever came up and she wasn't already using them?"

Missy didn't seem to know how to respond to that revelation. Luckily they didn't have time to show the new costumes off before heading to school, even if Vicky wanted them to.

Out of curiosity Taylor had flipped her striker switch and paid attention for a few minutes in homeroom that morning. Amy had been curious what she was looking for, only to sigh when she noticed what Taylor did, which was the modified flu strain trying and failing to infect her. Which meant that the entire school would probably be infected by the end of the day, given how fast the thing seemed to spread. Which depending on how quickly people got over it could mean a fairly low attendance rate Monday.

Lunchtime discussion was dominated by debate over the flu and what it meant for people. Amy's opinion was asked several times, and she'd pointed out that the most important parts had been in the press release. It took most of the lunch period for someone to ask if the flu had reached Brockton Bay yet. The response from Taylor that it was in town as of yesterday, if not earlier, had caused a resurgence of the flagging 'debate what it meant for people' at a much more panicked pace, focusing on what might directly affect the student body.

Vicky snorted at some of the crazy elements of that discussion. "So crazy debates aside, how many of us are actually at risk?"

Taylor shrugged. "Everyone who has a standard human immune system is at risk. It just won't be much worse than a cold for most people."

"So are you and Amy are immune because of the tinker fugue thing?"

"It's an illness. We're immune to all of those as a side effect of the whole biokinetic deal."

"That would be a thing, wouldn't it?"

One girl came up to Amy and Taylor a couple of minutes later, obviously nervous. "Can you tell if someone's already infected?" That quieted the room right down.

Amy sighed. "It's possible to, yes."

"So can you check if I am?"

Taylor could see where this was going and didn't want to end up checking everyone. Luckily, she already had somewhat of an answer. "Well, the thing is that if anyone in the entire school was infected this morning then by now the entire school likely is. The thing is incredibly infectious." She paused for effect, not to mention so that everyone could get through their gasping in shock, then continued before anyone else said anything. "Based on that, and the fact that the thing was trying to infect me in homeroom this morning, I'm going to assume that everyone has it already."

That revelation killed rational discussion for the rest of lunch, and had very likely ensured that afternoon classes wouldn't go well either.

Taylor stepped out of the pocket dimension directly into her room in the Wards area. Amy was waiting for Vicky before they'd be heading home to change, and Missy would probably be exiting into her own Wards room shortly. Eric and the rest of the Wards would eventually show up as well, but they were all taking the 'long' route. As if stepping out of the dimension and back in, possibly multiple times, was the 'short' route.

Missy had made a deal with them regarding costumes. Taylor and Amy would wear their new costumes and Missy would make an expanded pocket for Amy's maul. It probably wouldn't be all that comfortable today if she used said pocket, since the jump harness tended to make the harness from the jacket far easier to deal with, but that shouldn't be a problem. And Amy had apparently ordered a jump harness for herself already, so it wouldn't be a problem for too long.

Changing into the 'healer' costume was faster than changing into her Maul costume. Change gloves, attach both of the 'make a temporary hole in things' wrist-mount devices on her arms, and then put the robe on. She left her normal sneakers on, even, since the 'Panacea-style shoes' were actually non-slip shoes intended for indoor use in places like hospitals. She didn't even need to change visors or do up her hair.

Looking over herself afterwards, she sighed. She wasn't comfortable going out as a parahuman without at least some weapons on her. Well, she still had the knives strapped to her legs right now, and the holographic weapon projector that was fairly useless for actually hurting people in her belt. But she could slip the sword on without it being obvious, and the small baton she normally didn't end up using wasn't exactly threatening if spotted. She felt better once both were in place, then looked over her other equipment.

Deciding that it wouldn't hurt, she'd dropped the platform controller armband into her utility belt. It wasn't like it had to be worn to be functional, after all. She then pulled the snitch out to have an additional excuse for having pictures later, since the full scout drone was probably a bit much and only so much could be explained by visor cameras. To amuse herself she dropped it into the pulled-down hood of the robes, intending to have it 'take off' when they made it outside.

With all of that done, she opened the pocket dimension back up and stepped inside long enough to collect the two boxes with plush toys, full except for those that'd been claimed by the three girls for themselves already. Those she brought out into the common area to sort through a little better. It wasn't long before Missy came out, saw what Taylor was doing, and then got her own box, which was followed by Amy and Vicky arriving and joining in. Vicky took over going through the Vista plush toys while Missy worked on Amy's jacket, but that didn't take her very long.

The rest of the Arcadia-attending Wards showed up in the middle of a discussion on whether or not they should make 'sets' of one of each kind of plush toy, as well as if they should make any attempt at 'theming' them. Finding the four girls, in costume, obviously having had plenty of time to be going through the plush toys was apparently confusing enough that they didn't notice that Taylor and Amy were wearing the 'wrong costume' at first.

Eventually the last of the Wards showed up, followed by Eric. By then the four girls had bundled the plush toys into bags, some as sets of all three when they'd been able to 'theme' them, some as sets of just Maul/Panacea since they could be seen as interchangeable for Taylor and Amy at this point, and the rest as individuals. Missy had some of the all three and the Vista ones stashed in her pouches. Taylor and Amy had split up the rest somewhat equally between them.

With that done the entire group in the Wards area headed outside to where Eric waiting for them to join him. It was only when they were planning how to 'make their entrances' that Dennis and Aisha in particular realized that two of the costumes were wrong, based on their reactions. Dean and Chris seemed to have noticed already, Eric had known about the alternate costumes in general already, and the younger Wards apparently thought it was something normal that they just hadn't been told about yet.

Of course, once he'd recovered, Dennis was all for not drawing attention to it in order to see how long the public took to notice. Which meant ditching the 'call each person out by cape name' bit so that they weren't using 'Maul' and 'Panacea' with the wrong people. Instead they opted to use the three youngest as a distraction from it, making a big deal about introducing them and dismissing the rest as 'the ones everyone already knows'.

Kenta had been pressured into bringing Takara to the meet and greet personally. Which had necessitated calling ahead so that the PRT would be less likely to panic. He hated telling the PRT where he'd be, but it was better to do so than to have Takara's day ruined by someone getting trigger happy or similar. Whether the extra troopers around were there in case he acted up or to help deal with anything that might cause him to act up was debatable. And probably not mutually exclusive, for that matter.

They'd shown up early, before most others had made the trip, and it looked like things were going to get started without waiting for the truly large crowds to get around to showing up. He personally appreciated that, as Takara wouldn't enjoy herself nearly as much with too many people around. With any luck they'd be able to leave after she'd gotten a look at some of the Wards and be long gone before the crowds got too big.

The introductions for the three newest Wards had been mildly amusing, though his daughter had decided that they weren't the kind of hero she wanted to be. He suspected that she didn't want her appearance to change in that way, but wasn't positive that was her reasoning. After that the Wards and the three youngest members of New Wave had spread out, though he noted that they'd successfully gotten the three youngest Wards into the middle of a rough circle in the process. If that was intentional then he approved of the tactic, especially since the young tinker didn't seem to have finished building up to any significant degree. Either that or the girl wasn't going to be a combat tinker.

Takara had been torn, but eventually decided that she wanted to see Maul first, who was off to one side being somewhat ignored in favor of the new Wards. So she directed him towards the anti-hero. Or what appeared to be the anti-hero, anyway, he smirked when he paid her proper attention and realized that Miss Dallon was wearing a properly-sized 'Maul' costume. Once you ignored the clothing it was quite obvious, and his daughter remained silent while appearing to be very confused. They moved onto Vista, who appeared to be herself but had a group around her large enough to make it difficult for Takara to get close without him pushing others out of the way. He then brought her over to 'Panacea' and smirked when she realized that now they'd found Maul.

Her confusion as she looked between Miss Hebert and where she knew Miss Dallon had placed herself was amusing. He let his daughter approach Miss Hebert, who seemed to have blended into the background and been ignored. Then again, 'Panacea' had never been much of a draw outside of the hospital.

"Maul?" Takara questioned.

Miss Hebert smirked. "Yep. I'm Maul."

Takara frowned. "Wrong costume?"

"Haven't you heard that I can heal people too? This is a costume for healing, not fighting."

"Not yours?"

"Panacea and I share powers, so it was decided that we could share costumes too."

Takara was still confused and obviously didn't understand. Miss Hebert shook her head and reached into a pouch on her utility belt. One that was obviously far larger on the inside than on the outside, if the size of the bag she carefully removed from it was any indication. That she then pulled out a second larger one after deciding that the first was the wrong choice just reinforced that impression.

"You're the first to come to me," Miss Hebert said, holding out the larger bag. "So I think you can have this."

Takara looked at him, obviously wanting to make sure he was okay with this. He nodded, and she moved closer to carefully take the bag. She then retreated to him, struggling to open the knot that the bag had been tied with while Miss Hebert put the other bag back into the pouch it'd come out of. Shaking his head, he kneeled down and helped open the knot, then let his daughter look in the bag.

The squeal of joy brought a smile to his own face and got a lot of attention from others, but she didn't notice any of that. She was too busy looking at the three plush toys dressed like Maul, Panacea, and Vista to worry about being shy right now anyway. He suspected that several other things were going to be moved out of the way when they got home in order to give these three the 'best spots' in her bedroom, though he wasn't sure which spots would be considered to be the best ones right now.

Interestingly, the sudden attention on Takara seemed to have caused people to realize that Miss Hebert wasn't wearing the correct costume. Perhaps because people were finally paying attention to her, or possibly because enough people were showing up to cause others to decide to go towards the less 'desirable' parahumans instead of fighting the crowds. Though he supposed it could be that several of them had already approached Miss Dallon, only to realize things from that end.

Miku would probably be sad that she'd missed this, but Takara would likely be babbling about it all week anyway.

Chapter 220 Taylor smirked as she changed out of her 'healing costume'. Which mostly meant putting the pieces away. She'd been monitoring PHO during the whole meet and greet, as had Amy, Missy, and Vicky. Chris probably had as well, but Vicky hadn't included him in the initial text message group that she'd started so he hadn't been involved in the ongoing discussion.

To open things, the person who'd created the first thread about the event had embedded a picture of everyone at the start, with labels on them so that people would know who was who. It'd taken six pages before someone had pointed out that the 'Maul' and 'Panacea' labels were on the wrong people, if the right costumes, and within half a page that had derailed the entire previous discussion. That had happened before the general realization of that fact at the meet and greet itself, being the thing that Vicky had messaged them about, but not much before.

Of course, then the thread had been derailed again when someone had figured out that the three girls were rewarding kids who were able to answer questions with bags or, in Taylor's case, coupons of some kind. Demands for more information as to what was being handed out were made, and eventually someone got a picture of one of the arcade coupons. Three pages of disappointment over the coupons not being parahuman related in any way followed, before someone got a picture of a kid opening one of the bags.

As far as any of the group knew the thread still hadn't budged from the hunt for where the plush toys could be purchased. That as far as Taylor knew they couldn't be purchased right now wasn't likely to stop people from searching. Not that any of them 'in the know' had posted as such, because letting them search was amusing. Instead people who wanted to talk about the three new Wards and the costume switch had bailed to new threads, barring all discussion of other topics in each.

None of the others seemed concerned that they were effectively ignored. Vicky and Eric had treated it more like playing guard duty for the youngest three and the other Wards seemed to find most of it more amusing than anything else. Aside from Aisha jumping in to try and get her own plush toys for whatever reason, anyway. They still weren't sure if she'd been serious or not, since plush toys didn't seem to be her thing.

The three youngest Wards were going straight home, and would be picked up in a few minutes, but the rest of them were going to be having dinner together to discuss the meet and greet with others. Amy, Eric, and Vicky had been invited, but Eric and Vicky had declined. Vicky because she was expected home due to her grounding and Eric because he didn't feel he'd have anything to contribute.

Whether or not Vicky would return with Amy after checking in with Carol or Mark was yet to be seen.

Saturday morning Taylor woke to find a message waiting from Glenn, requesting information on where the plush toys had come from. Something that had been mentioned as almost guaranteed to happen in the meeting the night before, but the PRT staff intentionally avoided asking so as to not make it easy on him. Taylor replied to the message stating that they'd been a gift handed off through her father, but intentionally avoided stating who had sent them along. She thought it was fairly obvious, after all.

It didn't take her long to make it through the rest of her at-home morning routine, after which she joined Amy and Vicky in the pocket dimension on the way to the gym.

"You look unhappy," Taylor said to Vicky as they stepped into the changing room. A female PRT officer was already in there and had apparently been startled, but didn't say anything when she saw who they were.

"Mom won't let me join in today's session against Lung. Claims I enjoy them too much to participate while I'm grounded, and she somehow convinced the Protectorate to watch me all day instead."

"So you get to help beat up anyone they run into causing trouble?"

"Patrols are boring these days. Everyone local seems to be content to sit back and watch those coming in from outside the area be idiots, and most of them currently want to make trouble for you two more than anything else so they don't do anything when anyone else shows up."

Amy snorted. "They must be so disappointed that we're not being incredibly predictable out in public traveling to and from school."

Vicky snickered at that one. "So what are you two doing today?"

"Tinkering," Taylor answered. "Not sure what the goal is, though. Special request and/or to be determined according to the calendar."

"Oh. That sounds annoying."

The two girls shrugged. It was what it was, after all. And if they didn't like what came up then they could just refuse and do something else for the day.

Taylor and Amy stepped into the tinkering building together, their portal having opened up in a predefined doorway that had been properly installed into the building. The lights were on already and Dragon was present, seemingly preparing for things, but nobody else had shown up yet. Not that they knew who else was supposed to be present.

The two moved to where Dragon was, finding that the medical setup from the previous weekend was still in place and the AI was guiding an empty pallet jack out of the room. Taylor frowned at the pallet jack, which had a failing piston. "Good morning Dragon."

"Good morning Mother," Dragon greeted. "We're waiting on one more, but she should be along shortly."

Taylor and Amy both nodded while Dragon put the pallet jack away. It wasn't long before a van pulled up and dropped Riley off, which probably meant that she still hadn't been given the beacon code for the facility. Then again, she probably wouldn't normally be using it, so that was somewhat expected. Even if she could be given temporary permission at this point, though the hardware and software upgrades probably hadn't happened for her pocket dimension opener yet.

"Hello," Riley said as she entered. "What are we here for today?"

"Er," Dragon started, which caused Taylor to raise an eyebrow. "I'd like to request something personal, but have a few other options if that's a problem. Like a carbon nanotube assembly device, or something to let others talk to powers or the Endbringers, or..."

Taylor sighed, interrupting the AI. "Dragon, what's the personal thing that you haven't mentioned?"

Dragon looked down. "I, er, was hoping that there's a way to build me a more human body?"

Riley snorted. "So is Armsmaster joining us? Since he seems to be trying to work on something like that too, based on everything that he asked me about this week. Not that I figured it out before you told me about being an AI yesterday, of course."

That seemed to surprise Dragon. "No, he isn't aware. That...while touching, I think it would be a bit awkward, to be honest."

Taylor had a very good idea as to why it would be awkward, but didn't say anything. Instead she looked at the other two. "I don't think I have a problem with that as a goal, but what do you two think?"

Riley had bounced over to the pocket dimension door to get her equipment, which pretty much answered what she thought, but Amy was looking thoughtful. "So, maybe a full-body prosthetic? Somewhat, anyway?"

"I think that's essentially the goal, yes."

Amy nodded. "I think I can work with that."

Dragon smiled. "I've got enough extra equipment to build several of these 'suit' bodies in the workshop already, so I'm hoping that's enough to work with."

Taylor looked towards the workshop itself. "That sounds prudent. What about the biological component?"

"I've got several of the starter versions of those available as well, and the freezer is still well stocked with slightly expired meat and produce from last weekend."

Half an hour later they'd gotten the various snarks on board and dropped into the fugue.

Colin frowned as they passed near the tinker facility. He didn't know why Dragon hadn't wanted him to participate today, even though he could've easily been available. Instead he was leading a patrol through the area to hopefully spot anyone before they attacked the facility, assuming that anyone knew who was in there. Or wanted to be opportunistic if they knew it was intended for use by tinkers, for that matter. The force fields should stop people from accomplishing anything, of course, but interrupting a fugue was always a bad thing and heading that off made sense as a result.

Oh well. There wasn't much to be done about it now, since he was fairly certain that they'd already begun. Instead he continued on the pre-planned route looking for trouble while also planning out various potential elements of a gynoid body. It would be so much easier if he could just come out and ask for help directly, but then he'd need to explain why. Because without knowing that Dragon is an AI the default assumption would be less than flattering and he didn't need people to be thinking that way about him.

Sure, Dragon would probably understand, as would several of those he'd need to worry about in the command chain, but who knows what other groups would do if they'd heard about it. Or Emily, for that matter, who wasn't in the know there at this point.

Maybe in the coming week or two he should ask Miss Dallon for some tips, as replacement prosthetics were essentially identical in movement functionality for what he was working towards. As such it could be couched in terms of her specialty without stretching things too far, and if she did want to know why he was asking he wouldn't have to lie. It was probably better to ensure that he was doing things right than to keep Dragon out of the loop, after all.

He was distracted from his musings by the augmented patrol app alerting him to a collection of guns ahead of them where his drone was. Time to deal with the here and now.

Danny sat down with Kurt in the office of the Pub. "So what did you break this time?"

Kurt snorted and gestured to the screen. "The bank claims we have just over a thousand dollars available. Or will, after our only outstanding check clears. But the financial software claims that the same account's balance is sixteen thousand in the red, so we've obviously gotten something wrong. I just can't figure out what, and Lacey threw her hands up and went back to tending bar."

Danny snorted and started looking over things. Kurt had logged into the bank account in addition to having printouts and had the financial software open, so it wasn't hard to compare both. Of course, the two had gotten lazy in categorizing things, so he started hitting the obvious ones as he went through. He might not be an accountant, but he occasionally took over at the office for a week or two at a time to cover vacation time and tried to keep ahead of the household finances whenever possible.

Eventually he'd covered everything in the financial software and flagged those that matched the bank's records. He'd also marked anything already in the financial software on the printouts. Entering three deposits that hadn't made it into the financial software shifted the balance upward around two thousand dollars, but that still didn't make things up. Which led to him checking the unflagged entries. Several of which were ones he wasn't sure how to categorize in the first place.

Frowning, he selected several of them, then turned to Kurt. "Do you recognize any of these? I'm not sure what they're supposed to be."

Kurt leaned over to take a look, then blinked a couple of times. "I think those are some of Glaistig's orders and payments. What are they doing in this account? We keep a separate ledger for her ring purchases."

Danny let the man take over to correct things. It didn't take long to shift things to where they belonged, though that still hadn't cleared everything up. Most of the rest of the discrepancies were various small amounts paid out but not described. Individually they weren't bad, but in total they added up to nearly a thousand dollars on their own. Kurt frowned at that, going through the list, until he had a brainwave and opened the safe.

Ten minutes later Kurt was shaking his head. They'd subtracted money that'd gone to petty cash from the deposits, and then entered the purchases they'd made with the petty cash as well. Without keeping a petty cash 'account' in the system, so they were double-subtracting. That took half an hour to correct and enter everything in for as well, at which point things came within three cents of balanced. Something that had both of them cringing, because that was going to be tedious to figure out where things had gone wrong.

It was too bad that Kurt and Lacey were friends and his daughter's nominal business partners. The combination made Danny feel obligated to help even though it really shouldn't be his problem.

Dennis was running the console while Aisha and Dean were out with Ryan and Sandy. He was also playing semi-supervision for Rosa while she tinkered. None of this required his full attention, so he had plenty of time to work on preparing for handing things over to Taylor. It was amazing how much of the documentation that Carlos had given him was essentially worthless, provably wrong or better represented in official files that they'd never looked at before. It wasn't possible to tell how much of that had originated with Rory and how much was Carlos himself, but it was easily blamed on nobody in the region asking questions.

Then again, given how little Carlos enjoyed the paperwork side of things, it was probably almost entirely Rory's work to start with. Assuming that Rory hadn't gotten a pile of it from someone else. There was no version control on the damned thing, in part because it wasn't an official system document and had been passed down as plain text until now. Adding actual formatting and headings was a godsend, if tedious to do at first.

One of his first contributions to the newly formatted file was to add 'ALWAYS ASK QUESTIONS' and a short description of what he meant by that to the top of the document. In a large enough font that it became the majority of the first page. The three examples in normal sized font afterwards to attempt to drive home the point made up the rest of the first page, meaning that the rest of the documentation started on page two. And he was fine with that.

He was now reorganizing the mess that was the rest of the documentation, double-checking everything to ensure accuracy and to find where things could stand to be adjusted or outright replaced with a link to official documentation elsewhere. Taylor would likely go over it all herself when he gave her a copy, but he'd rather that she not find that half the damned document was worthless.

Later he'd have to make sure that he'd gone over all of the checklist as well. He'd gotten a notification last night that they'd changed something on it, so he needed to check what was different. If he was lucky it would make things easier on him, but he doubted that he'd be that lucky.

Fortuna grinned as she moved along placing small boxes against the alley walls at seemingly random points. The further down in the Fallen you got the more likely people had been subtly influenced by the Mathers family, but those who weren't parahumans at the top of things were true believers and were trying to pull everything back together in the wake of the deaths of their parahuman leadership. Not that they were getting far.

Today she was combining two of her latest favorite pastimes. There was one of the lesser cells of the former Teeth in town, and some of the Mathers branch of the Fallen were in town. Normally they'd leave each other alone, but she'd already put things in motion to get them fighting each other. In about twenty minutes the last group that escaped the police should pass through this alley and trigger the traps she was setting now.

She placed the last box and then strode across the street to a coffee shop. They didn't have anything worth getting on the coffee or tea front, so she just purchased a couple of cookies before sitting down with a good view out the window. She'd finished the first and started the second when the combined group of fleeing gang and cult members entered the far end of the alley. Still attacking each other, and thus not noticing the various boxes. One of them finally pulled out a handgun and shot behind them, the sound of which triggered all of the traps.

Three seconds later she took another bite of her cookie as the entire alley filled with containment foam. A pink variant that would itch like crazy due to a mixing problem. The same mixing problem would cause it to consume their clothing and become a major skin and eye irritant when the release agent was sprayed on it.

She had plenty of time to watch the fun as the group was released, after which she had two boxes to pick up.

David frowned as he worked his way through reports from the various attacks on the Fallen. Minor thinker powers were the only ones he could safely use right now, and he was still very weak physically, but he refused to sit on the sidelines and do nothing. Right now his problem was that there were some gaps in patterns that nobody was checking on. He flagged them appropriately for someone else to double-check, no need to devote people to them if other thinkers didn't agree with them being gaps, then resumed working through things.

He'd much rather be out there fighting, of course, but there wasn't any way for him to be doing that right now. So instead he was desk-bound. At least he'd recovered enough to be able to get to and from the office mostly on his own, if you included taking the bus. And if he paid enough attention to not have Doormaker pop a door open on him in the kitchen door, thus allowing him to get outside to the bus. There was no way that he wanted to feel like he needed the help, after all.

Twenty minutes later he was interrupted by a knock on his open door. He looked over and sighed. "Hello Legend."

Paul nodded. "Eidolon. You're not one to keep the door open like that while you're working."

"None of it is sensitive enough to worry about and it keeps people from interrupting me every ten minutes to make sure that I've not fallen over or something."

"Ahh." He closed the door and locked it, then activated the privacy field. "I've come to see if we need to arrange for another meeting with Miss Hebert or Miss Dallon for an energy top-up."

David shook his head. "I don't think so. Most of the time several of the meters start getting low something happens and they fill up a bit on their own. Probably some other agent having been directed to send things to mine, from what we were told, but it seems to happen most often while I'm sleeping. In the last couple of days one of the meters rapidly filled up and then vanished, apparently no longer a concern. Possibly something that can be obtained locally to my agent that it got processing online for."

"That's good. Hopefully things will start to pick up."

"No additional powers online, though. I think the repair systems are prioritizing the repair and resource gathering systems, which sadly makes sense overall even if it isn't what we'd prefer in a number of ways. Hopefully communication is right after that."

Paul sighed. "And arranging for another status check probably isn't worth it until powers start functioning again. Do let us know when that starts happening."

David rolled his eyes, not that Paul could see it behind the mask. "Of course. I've only been told to do so by everyone at least twice by now."

"Yes, well, you've previously been known to keep things to yourself."

They chatted about other things for another half hour before Paul left. David decided that it was a good time to get a snack and a fresh coffee, having to all but fight off his current secretary in order to be allowed to carry them back to his desk himself. Once he'd re-asserted that he was fine another dozen times he was left alone again. He took a few minutes to eat some of the snack before getting back to looking through reports.

He sighed when he reached one of the reports that summarized a lack of information. It was too bad that they still couldn't seem to figure out how the Fallen had gotten their hands on that tank. They didn't have it anymore, of course, but they hadn't been able to find any missing instances of the thing in official records and the thing was only produced for the US Army right now. That they had unprecedented cooperation on that investigation from the military in general was appreciated though. Then again, everyone wanted to make sure that was the only 'extra' tank, so it was probably to be expected.

Taylor returned from a near-emergency restroom visit after the fugue had ended, shaking her head as she looked over the two medical tables in the workshop. Dragon originally just hadn't bothered to switch it to a single table, but they'd ended up using both anyway. Amy was currently standing at one of them, checking some of their work.

Taylor: Shouldn't there be a corona pollentia and gemma in there somewhere?

[Data]

Amy: The primary is in her code and you manifest a secondary connection when she comes online? Why would you do that?

[Elaboration]

Well, that was an interesting way to work around Richter's restrictions. Shrugging, Taylor moved over to the other table to start checks on the body laying there. Because of course they hadn't built Dragon one human-form body. That would've been too easy. Instead they'd effectively cloned two fully functional human bodies and then woven advanced electronics throughout them for the AI to run on when using them. Most of that was embedded in the skeleton, taking advantage of structurally stronger bones needing less space to perform the same function and improved bone marrow freeing up space elsewhere.

The body Amy was already looking over was an average looking adult female that could realistically fit inside of one of Dragon's suits. Anyone that had known Richter or had seen his recorded videos would see a resemblance, and genetically it would register as related to him as well if Dragon had been correct about the DNA samples used to create her biological processors. At the same time, though, it also somewhat resembled Taylor and would register as genetically related to her as well. One obvious point of resemblance was the hair.

Then there was the body that Taylor was now looking over. It could easily be called a copy of the other body. Same genetics, fingerprints, construction methods. All absolutely identical, save for a single critical detail. Unlike the other body, this one was only eight going on nine years old. Which was in the range of Dragon's actual age. Taylor didn't want to know why they'd made it and focused on making sure that there weren't any obvious problems with it.

Both bodies were currently in a low-energy coma state. Barely active enough to sustain themselves, intended for somewhat extended time 'inactive'. They'd do better with IV lines containing a nutrient mixture hooked up to the permanent IV ports hidden on their arms, but didn't need that for up to a week at a time. The only other significant detail was that they were going to need a lot more food than their sizes suggested unless Dragon kept their internal electronics charged with an external unit.

"I guess I'm going to need to do some shopping," Dragon said as she was running some diagnostics on the electronics in the two bodies. "A bit more varied than I was expecting to need to do as well. A couple of basic outfits to start with, and then I'll have to see what kind of styles appeal to me." The terminal she was next to beeped, signaling that it was done. "And that checks out. I suppose I should see about loading into them, to make sure things work."

Taylor, Amy, and Riley ended up preparing something to eat while Dragon began the transfer process. It would probably take the better part of an hour, after all, but none of them wanted to leave before knowing that at least one of the two new bodies actually functioned properly. Luckily there was not-expired food available outside of the workshop itself.

The three of them were considering whether or not to have thirds when Dragon's transfer finished. There were a couple of thuds and an 'ouch' as she obviously ran into problems with the human body not acting like the robot ones she was used to, but it didn't take her long to adapt. Taylor had gotten up to go see if she needed help when Dragon emerged from the workshop, saw her, and rushed over.

Dragon grabbed Taylor in a hug, made awkward by the fact that the new body was still naked, before looking up with a smile on her young face. One with a hint of a smirk that didn't quite fit an eight year old. "Thank you Mommy!"

Having a biological body was a much different experience than Dragon had expected, but luckily when she first woke up she'd found that drivers existed for everything. Of course, her first attempts to move had shown that she still needed to calibrate everything, and she'd avoided even trying to get off the table for almost ten minutes while she worked through everything. Which was harder than she expected, since so much of her processing power was going into just running things.

Human senses took more time to parse than she'd expected, though the seemingly innate knowledge of where body parts were positioned was interesting. She had a hard time letting things like breathing default to automatic control, and had nearly choked when she'd tried a hesitant swallow of some saliva while still trying to breathe in as a result. Testing her voice in a whisper had shocked her when the breathing control had suddenly been taken over by the speech driver. And so many other things were so indefinite. She could tell that the air wasn't too warm or cold right now, but not what the temperature was.

Somewhere along the way she'd decided that if she looked like a child then she should try and get some of the experience of acting like one. Especially as she'd never had a body when she was still with Father. Or, if she was intent on acting like a child, perhaps that should be Daddy? She could hopefully use the child-like behavior as an excuse for any clumsiness as she calibrated herself moving around. And that was without the pain she'd felt after falling off of the table instead of carefully climbing off. Overcorrecting a couple of times with her first steps had added to it, but she refused to let it get to her right then. Even if she had to admit that her simulated pain sensations didn't line up at all.

And now she was sitting in a borrowed shirt eating for the first time in her existence. She'd known that taste was just as tied to smell as it was the taste buds, but right now she couldn't tell because the integration of the two was seamless.

Though the feed she'd picked up from the Birdcage where Glaistig had apparently started making child-sized clothing was disturbing in how quickly the woman picked up on things she shouldn't have any way to know about.

Taylor dropped onto her bed at home as the portal in her closet door closed behind her. She was very much exhausted. Amy had done something similar a few minutes prior, and Riley was probably doing the same in the apartment she was staying in. Dragon had been...interesting in the two human bodies. In both cases she insisted that she be called Theresa while 'out of costume', but she'd apparently decided that if she was in a child's body then she should act somewhat like one. And that was before discovering that she had a sweet tooth.

They'd gotten that body a t-shirt to wear, fed her a proper meal, healed the bruises from the initial mishaps in control, and then gotten it settled down into the bed in Theresa's personal rooms at the facility. A quip that she'd never thought that she'd need the bed for anything other than show came just before she transferred out of the child body and into the adult body. Upon waking back up she discovered that balance was not a trivial matter between the two, and thus needed more bruises dealt with. Clothing that body, even temporarily, was harder due to a lack of things that fit it available. But it was also fed and put to bed alongside the younger body before a final transfer of the night back into the 'power armor' that Dragon had started in.

During the second and third transfers they'd packed up Riley's equipment and cleaned up everything in the workshop itself. On top of having gone through the whole fugue process in the first place, which was why Taylor was currently seriously considering just sleeping in her clothing. But that wouldn't be comfortable, so she reluctantly pulled herself off the bed to change into sleepwear and brush her teeth. Luckily she should be able to sleep in as long as she wanted in the morning. Or at least as long as her body let her.

She wasn't kidding herself, of course. Something would come up and prevent her from sleeping in. Because that's how things went, and she'd be foolish to expect otherwise.