Taylor was bored. Not bored enough to want to go back to Winslow, though her dad was filing charges against the school for criminal neglect and breach of contract. That did get the principal fired and cops talking to people. One of the stipulations for the Hebert's not suing the school district was that they would do an honest 'best effort' to deal with the bullying. (Taylor had not caught that the first time).

Their lawyer was hammering them pretty hard, she guessed. Not that it would help her, but it did get them to pay for her home schooling supplies and testing.

She tapped the rubber end of her pencil on the paper where she had just finished a self test for the last subject for her junior year. A year that she had breezed through incredibly fast. She even now had a used computer to do her basic programming studying on and had very basic Internet access. She suspected that Student on Far Earth had done a little extra fixing than 'just' her trauma. But she did not feel like confronting him on that, as she did not want to lose this ability now that she had it.

Another difference was that she now had her own cell phone. And a prepaid backup cell phone that she called the cops from and removed the battery when she was home. (It's home address was the PRT headquarters in Brockton Bay.)

Skitter had been playing cat and mouse with the ABB and Empire Eighty Eight thugs ever since. They had even sent a few capes she had found out with her telepathy. So she had avoided their traps entirely or had 'just not gone out' that night. They were, in a word, unhappy.

Her telepathy had progressed nicely, as she actually had a decent range now that was at least as far as the city limits, though she was not able to get a lot of information at long range. But she could feel the surface thoughts on people she did know at quite a far distance. For instance, she could tell her father was having his lunch break at work, because he was happily chatting with some coworkers about the most recent ballgame.

That was when the Endbringer sirens started wailing. They only went for two minutes and then cut off. Taylor had the family TV turned on to the local stations as it started to explain that Simurgh was attacking the capital of Australia and their national super team had specifically requested assistance from the Protectorate and other national super teams.

Local capes, heroes and villains, were directed to go to the local PRT headquarters for transportation.

Taylor sat staring at the screen as it started to repeat the message. Then she wrote two quick letters. One she left on the table saying that she was going to be gone for a day or so to 'clear her head' and the one she folded and put under pillow.

That one said she had gone out as a hero to fight the Endbringer and she may not be home. She listed her 'hero name' and that he should contact the PRT to see if she was still fine.

Then she put on all of her gear. Her body suit and armor. She did keep the exact change out for the bus fare out. Then added her club into a slot on her back armor plate. Finally she pulled on her mask.

Sending out her mind, only one older woman on the street might see her. Two flies started to buzz around her, distracting her so she did not see Skitter disappear into the trees and bushes behind her house. She stepped out at the end of the street and walked up to the bus stop just as it was pulling up.

"Transfer please," she said politely as she put in her bills and coins.

Everyone, including the bus driver, stared at her. The driver finally blinked and handed her the transfer.

"Um, are you trying to go volunteer for that Endbringer attack?" the driver asked as he pulled out onto the street.

"Yes," Skitter replied.

"Let me call to get the PRT to pick you up." The bus driver grabbed her handset and clicked to start. "I've got a Parahuman on bus A210 that is wanting to volunteer for the Endbringer attack. Can I get a priority pickup. I'm just passing Hamilton and 19th."

"Roger. PRT is informed, they will be sending a car immediately," the overhead crackled back.

Five minutes later, a PRT car with lights and a siren going pulled in front.

"Um, thanks," she said the driver.

"No, thank you. Good luck, kid."

With that, the PRT plainclothes officer broke every speed record to make it to the headquarters where an advanced jet of some sort was on the ground. Skitter dashed over to the entrance and stairs, being guided by a ground crew.

"Who the hell are you?" a rough looking woman in the PRT chain and plate armor said.

"Skitter. New hero," she yelled back.

"Prove you have a power before I chuck you out on your ass, kid- Ah, bug controller? Okay, that's good," the officer shouted back as Skitter had her bugs come out, fly around and then slip back into the hidden cavities of her armor.

Skitter headed back a bit and got her first look at the heroes. Armsmaster was studying her intently from his seat on a canvas bench, his look inscrutable under the pointed visor of his helmet. Next to him was Miss Militia, the new second in command of the local Protectorate. The duo of Battery and Assault were looking at her curiously from what she could see.

The bench on the far side had a few 'kids' there. The dark red and black of Aegis's outfit was unmistakable, while the armored Vista nodded to her.

"New hero?" Armsmaster shouted out over the roar of the engines as the jet lifted into the air.

"Right. I'm Skitter." She grabbed a handhold and sat next to Vista. "Hi."

"Are you that hero that has been upsetting the ABB and Empire Eighty-Eight down on the docks for a few weeks? You've done a pretty good job of catching them red handed. We've managed to keep a few of them off the streets. And one was willing to squeal so he didn't have to deal with scary bug hero," Miss Militia called out.

"Should I go up front and speed up the trip?" Vista called out.

"Wait another few minutes for us to get to cruising speed," Armsmaster called out.

Vista nodded even as she kicked her legs in impatience.

The trip was going to be much shorter after Vista went up to the cockpit and started compressing the space in the air in front of the airplane.

"That's a pretty amazing power," Skitter said as she listened to the updated ETA.

"You control bugs? Any tricks?" Aegis asked curiously.

"I've got a pretty big range. Over nine thousand feet and I know way too much about bugs from it," Skitter explained.

Aegis whistled at that. "You give them general orders or-?"

"Full control, but out of sight is harder to understand what is going on. So usually just line of sight it. Wish I could have gotten a different power." And she really was glad for the Lens.

Some reading up had let her know she was the only telepath on the planet other than the Simurgh itself. Skitter had even found a note that a suspected telepath had been tortured to death by villains to make sure he did not read their minds.

The tragedy is that he just had a Thinker power and a discerning empathy, which was a bit more common. So he had 'faked' having telepathy for a bit of notoriety and to put his enemies off balance.

That had led her to decide to not reveal she had mental powers as herself; Skitter or Taylor.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Aegis asked.

"Oh, just thinking of what I can do to help. I'm not sure bugs are going to be much help against an Endbringer," she said truthfully.

Vista came skipping down the from the cockpit. "We had to slow down when we got within about two hundred miles. So we'll be landing in about twenty minutes, behind a couple of other planes."

Everyone nodded. Skitter started reaching out, sensing the mass fear and panic up ahead. And The Simurgh up ahead at the center as it built devices while almost effortless dodging or blocking attacks with its telekinesis. The budding telepath narrowed her eyes, as she got a sense of the very alien mind. It was like a Rider, like her own, but given orders and not connected to a human. It also seemed to be more aware and able to process more than her own Rider could.

And totally open to telepathic scrutiny. After five minutes and studying the strange mind, she came to the realization that The Simurgh was not only playing with them, she was faking telepathy. All she had was precognition and postcognition, inorganic heavy telekinesis and a hidden very subtle Bio-Tinker power that could only affect people at the cellular level within a quarter mile.

It was all a game of dominos and the heroes were the tiles. And the heroes did not know, they were all operating in the dark. And with Simurgh's precognition, she had to act carefully in such a way that she could not be revealed.

So, time for 'Operation Wajpuzz'. A totally separate identity that would only communicate by telepathy.

She scanned through the minds, trying to find a mind not immediately in the direct conflict. With a slight thrill in her heart, she realized that Alexandria was currently in the command post at the airport discussing things with other leaders.

'Library of Alexandria, I am Pupil of Earth. I bear important information of a critical nature!' Skitter sent in a bombastic, slightly over the top way that Student on Far Earth used. And hey, she remembered the heroine's original name.

Far off, she could tell that Alexandria had flinched.

'Ah, I sense your fear. Put your mind at ease, as I am not The Simurgh playing a game with your head. For one, you are far beyond its range. And for the second, The Simurgh is not a telepath.'

A very focused thought returned to her, 'What do you mean?' It was quite demanding.

'The Simurgh emulates telepathy with a bio-tinker power , altering minds and their brain chemistry, all the while setting up trigger situations that she foresees with her precognition. In fact, it is her only sense of perception. So the only ones that are immune to her abilities are beings that heal any damage, even brain damage or block all changes to the brain. In fact, the 'singing' that the Simurgh does is by agitating the receptors in your cochlea directly. The Simurgh is currently setting up several long term gambits by effectively implementing hypnotic triggers for certain situations. This will require great thought on how to disable.'

Skitter waited for her to absorb the sudden information she had just brought up, as it suddenly made Alexandria worry a lot. As she waited, Skitter wondered if she could remove that sort of compulsion.

'I need to meet you,' Alexandria demanded, worry overlaying her thoughts.

'As long as The Simurgh exists, that will likely be impossible. It might be able to see myself in meeting you. So at this point I must decline and be a voice of caution from a far distance.' Skitter suddenly sensed that the Simurgh was planning on removing what it felt was a dangerous parahuman, setting him up to be killed with a weapon it was starting to build. It would appear to be a random death, but would cause a great deal of issues among the villains in Sidney. Hundreds dead and weakening the heroes and villains of the city.

The Outbandit was about to step out of cover and run to the left, just as he always did. He looked around the corner of the building he was behind to see the many-winged monster floating only three hundred feet away down the street. Her song was annoying, as always. He was also nearing his cut off time. He hated fighting flying things in the dark. And it was too hot, even at night.

That was when he heard a voice yell to him, 'Stay under cover if you want to live!'

"Thanks, cobber!" he called out quickly, not even realizing that there was no one close to him. He hunkered down while looking around the corner and the Simurgh suddenly turned in his direction, seemingly studying him through the wall. The Outbandit narrowed his eyes behind his full black face mask even as he raised a wall of dirt in front of him and increased its density a dozen times, making it harder than any known metal. He actually had some dirt packed away in his leather duster and battered hat that he could do the same with in an emergency.

The general floating weapons that the Simurgh had made tried to vaporize him, only to be deflected and blocked. The Endbringer had to cut off its attack as the heroes had rallied and managed to take out over half of its Tinker design weapons. Including the ones that it had been building that would have bounced a well timed explosive into Outbandit's back.

A powerful blast from Eidolon ripped off a chunk of The Simurgh's right shoulder, forcing it to take action as it had to start looking down different paths with its senses.

The high speed transport that all of the Brockton Bay capes were on was preparing to land in just five minutes. Skitter was tapping her toe fairly fast.

"Don't worry, they'll probably have you do search and rescue. At least we don't have to try and charge her head on," Vista said, misinterpreting her worry.

"Thanks," Skitter said. Her mind was elsewhere. While she was quite capable of tripping up Simurgh's plans, it would be obvious to the precognitive that someone was behind it. So it was time to see if she could do what no other cape had ever done.

Find out why they kept attacking. 'Excuse me, Simurgh? I am Pupil of Earth and I wish to understand why you are attacking humans on this planet!' As always, she used a 'male' tone and some of the bombastic wording that Student on Far Earth.

The Simurgh suddenly launched into the air as it burned a lot of power too fast, trying to find the person that was somehow talking to it.

'I do know you can understand me. Your crude methods of trying to track my body down when I am far beyond your reach are, at best, a waste of resource,' Skitter continued, trying to dig deeper. Hmm. The Endbringers appeared to be designed strictly for fighting, being almost impossible to kill. In fact, they sort of reminded her of the mental state of a well trained dog-

The Simurgh suddenly wrapped its three man wings about it and then shot into the air so fast that the closest heroes next to it were caught in its updraft as it hit the speed of sound in one hundred feet.

Legend, Eidolon and other flyers were quick to catch people before they died from falling back to the ground, but everyone was wondering what had happened. The Simurgh had never retreated so fast with so little damage done to it before.

Outbandit's timer went off. He took a sidelong look at the armband over his duster's sleeve. "You were suppose ta give me a thirty second warnin', yoos damn contraption."

A small cheer went up as it was confirmed that the Simurgh had headed up into low orbit.

'And all I did was try to talk to him. Truly, it is little more than a robot,' Pupil of Earth telepathed to Alexandria plaintively. 'Perhaps next time I can discern more of the Endbringers and how they relate to the Riders.'

"You scared off The Simurgh by trying to communicate to it?" Alexandria asked softly in amazement, just ever so slightly too loud so that the two nearest people heard her.

'That does appear to be essentially correct. Well, as the threat has departed, I too will take myself away. Until later, Library of Alexandria,' Skitter telepathed even as the VTOL bumped softly down on its landing wheels.

Armsmaster put a hand to his right ear for a second. "I have a status update. The Simurgh was just driven off."

"What!?" two kids yelled out in surprise, one kid in fake surprise and one adult (Assault) loudly.

"We still need to help out. They are looking to quarantine a large group of people and we need to keep them from trying to escape," Miss Militia said as they all stood up to go to the hatch and the deploying ladder.

That put a dampener on all of them. The engines were winding down as they were directed to the large school gym for the university. People were running around.

"-losses were small. Only fourteen capes need to be quarantined and none are trumps-" they heard as a snatch of conversation.

"-so just explain what you mean, Alexandria," Legend was saying as the Triumvirate walked quickly past to where the rest of the leadership of the was gathering.

"Armsmaster, with me. Some startling new information has come to light," Alexandria ordered. "And I will, but with all the team leaders of the Protectorate."

Skitter looked over, but decided that using her telepathy around those heroes might be a touch incautious. After all, Eidolon had the power to have any three powers. He might spot her, even if she was careful!

Along with the Triumvirate were five other leaders of major Protectorate teams. Chicago, Washington D.C., Dallas, Brockton Bay and San Diego. The figure of Dragon loomed overhead, awaiting to hear the information.

"I was contacted mid-battle by a man called Pupil of Earth, who informed me that The Simurgh, despite our best minds looking into the matter, is not a telepath," she began with.

"That seems unlikely," Myrddin said as he leaned on his 'wizard's staff'.

"That's what I thought, until it explained that it uses its precognition to use a bio-tinker power to manipulate the brain to set up pre-planned situations and mental triggers. And that the 'sound' we hear is actually it using that power on our cochlea. All while talking to me when no one else could even hear or see anyone," she explained as she looked between the different hero leaders.

Legend frowned as he thought it over. "Seems convoluted."

"He then complained after The Simurgh left that all he was trying to do was to converse with it and find out why it was attacking." She looked around at the other eight heroes. "Pupil of Earth also mentioned that he believed the Endbringers are related to the source of our powers."

That got everyone to look at her in shock.

"The reason the Endbringer retreated, is because a real telepath was trying to talk to it?" Eidolon said in a low, almost angry voice. And it knew about the passengers?

"So a real telepath has finally been found," Dragon mused aloud, her voice distorted by her 'armor'. It creaked as it settled back on its mechanistic haunches.

"We had put it to our best thinkers in the past. Not one real telepath, ever. We thought it impossible with all our research. But I just finished communicating with several trusted Thinkers in an emergency conference. They rate that Pupil of Earth and the information that the Smirugh is misdirecting us as quite high. That would dovetail with that one cape that showed up a couple of years ago that was deaf and could not 'hear' the Smirugh. He died only a week later due to an accident he caused. We thought was because he did not know what sound and singing was, as he was born deaf... But if The Simurgh ran into a real telepath when it actually isn't one-" she drew out at the end for emphasis.

"It would retreat, as all of its secrets might be revealed. And quite possibly why it retreated so impossibly fast. A real threat that it could not defend against had arrived," Armsmaster said. "I have some ideas to make a device that might be able to scan a brain to see if a Bio-Tinker power was used on it. It may not work on old changes, but it would allows us to take a quick scan before battle and then confirm if something has been changed afterwards."

"Yes. And because of that, our Thinkers are rating a real path to victory here to remove the different cities from quarantine." Alexandria saw Legend and Eidolon come to an understanding of her hidden message. If Contessa actually saw a path to defusing The Simurgh's 'bombs' then they could free up a lot of resources.

That got a cheer from the excitable Fierion of San Diego. "That's fucking awesome! So when do we get to meet this hero?"

"That, sadly, is a tricky affair. It appears Pupil thinks that The Simurgh may be able to ferret out his identity. I got the impression that he is mental only in powers, so if Simurgh figures out who he is, he is likely to receive a visit. A fatal one, likely.

That got a nod from everyone. They then turned back to other matters.