It turned out my worries were mostly for naught as the door opened not to reveal a balding middle aged man, but a rather tall and twiggy teenaged girl.
I blinked, "Huh that simplifies things- Are you Taylor Hebert?"
The girl obviously was wary but not overly so. I frankly didn't blame her. Strange person dressed in a vaguely hippy-esk manner at her front door in a place like Brockton Bay? Probably not trouble but you could never be sure.
"Yes?" she said slowly looking around for anything that might lead me to her door, "What do you want?"
"Nice to meet you," I said with a smile, "Malfean, independent hero."
Then my eyes flashed with eldritch light as the flames of the green sun burnt away all confusion and left only what details I needed to know of the girl.
Taylor Hebert, yet unnamed as a parahuman but definitely awoken as one, though aspects of her powers had yet to fully blend in to her conscious control. She was almost but not quite sixteen years of age and skinny mostly due to genetics though her well above average stress levels certainly hadn't helped.
She'd begun a very basic fitness routine but had only gained the beginnings of the results it would bring, and was despite a strong talent for it, unskilled in melee combat.
Ranged conflict was another matter, but that was due to artificial augmentation from her powers, likewise her senses and cognitive abilities had gained subtle but notable increases via information fed from her shard and surrounding insect thralls.
She was also now entering a panicked state of fight or flight as she realized the person in front of her was a cape.
"I... hi?" she said mostly in shock.
"Yeah sorry about catching you off guard like this," I stated in token apology. "I'm actually stomping all over the unwritten rules right now but I don't have a big window to act freely before I get tied up in the gang war about to kick off and I'm not sure if a stupidly overcomplicated thinker conspiracy I disarmed a while ago is still going to end up weaponizing you into a monster on par with the Fairy Queen."
I switched focus momentarily, "Speaking of that, want to go punch out some Nazis?" I questioned eagerly.
"W-what?" shock was still setting in.
"Well not rightnowof course," I tapped my forehead. "Still need to explain a bunch of stuff, answer your questions and prepare for the oncoming storm."
She shut the door in my face.
"Well... That went well," I worried. She looked a lot more freaked out then disbelieving. I could work with that.
Step one, wait.
This would seem to be a dangerous thing to do after all. She was in a panic, she might attack, or worse call the authorities.
But she wouldn't. This was early Worm Taylor, the one that still had a shred of optimism. I'd called myself a hero and for all my boldness had offered no overt threat.
Well outside of a generous heaping of potential insanity anyway.
Also there was no way she was going to call the authorities and surrender control of the situation to outside forces. It hadn't had a chance to really set in yet, but even outside of the conditioning to reject authority that her school and home life had inflicted on her over the last few years, her powers also hardwired in a control complex worse then your average Sims player.
So all I really had to do was sit back, wait for her to try and figure out how to try and take control of the situation, then nudge that overriding impulse into leading where I wanted it to go.
It really was a shame how the Malfeas school of social subtleties was as underappreciated as it's approach to stealth.
Then I frowned, "I need to get a tablet or something. Maybe bite the bullet and get an I-phone?" I mumbled to myself. A bit of a bad habit when one had a lot of secrets to keep hidden but it helped me focus.
About two minutes of standing there later the door opened up again and I once more saw Taylor standing in place, one hand notably not exposed from it's position behind the door.
Hahaha, yeah nice try kid. My wits had taken a beating when I was turned into goo but even I could see what you were doing. At least with what I knew of her tactics.
Still I wasn't about to make a deal about it. At least she was talking again, "I- uh..." she didn't seem to really know what to say. I knew in her shoes I'd be torn between threatening me or apologizing.
Then I again I was Canadian. Social imprinting would do that to you.
I stood there with a amused but genuine smile.
"Hi?" She tried again. "Are you... really a hero?"
"New to the area but yes," I nodded, "Malfean. My PHO account is Brass and Green Fire," I offered as both affirmation, a means to contact, and on the off chance she saw my thread.
"Why are you on my front yard?" she asked trying very obviously not to freak out.
"Mostly because you haven't invited me inside yet. Not that I blame you, this is pretty damned crazy," I admitted shamelessly.
She was silent for a few moments, taking everything in and probably just trying to take in the raw insanity of that statement.
"You don't have to invite me in," I told her flatly. "Though you might want to at some point. This stuff can get pretty private," I looked around not really seeing anyone spying on the area, "Though I think we're okay for the moment."
She exhaled at that, "That... sounds okay."
"Just to say again, sorry for freaking you out with this," I shrugged, "It's unofficial, but capes are not supposed to bring people's cape lives into their home lives... but your cape life hasn't really started yet so my options to approach are kind of limited, and like I said..." I lead off.
"There is a conspiracy to..." she shook her head, "I'm sorry, what?" she asked at that apparently having hit the limits of her tolerance for my eccentricity.
"Bugs are only one way you're powers can manifest," I said suddenly flat faced and very serious. "It'd take some doing by a power modifying cape, or maybe a second trigger but the unleashed potential of your powers are...intimidating. And not in a good way."
I realized full well telling the queen of escalation that she had untold untapped power was risky, but sometimes you had to gamble to dodge greater risk.
"And you know this?" she asked.
"I know one way it could play out," I listed. "Or rather could have before I shoved a basket full of monkey wrenches into it anyway. However while I derailed the plan, I couldn't reach the architect of the plot and they're pretty good at the whole chessmaster thing."
"Do you hav eany idea how crazy all this sounds?" she questioned me.
And now my smile was back. Well more a smirk, "I though I already established I know how crazy this sounds... But we live in a world full of superheroes and giant monsters. Precogs are a thing. Huge intricate thinker conspiracies are a thing. I'm not going to just say 'how else would I know what you can do' but that's basically it. Some days it just turns out you were the one who won the lottery right after a meteorite destroyed your house."
She just looked at me for a moment, shaking her head, for a moment I thought she was going to shut the door again or tell me to go away while she thought.
"Look, I know it's a lot to think about, but my time is limited," I warned her. Eyes flicking all over her face for a moment as I read in her stress levels.
Then I sighed and reached up rubbing my face, "Maybe we can work something out online if you need the space but I'm not sure when I can work out another face to face-"
"No!" she cut me off. "It's... fine. I mean," she hesitated, "how much time do you have?" she asked.
I looked out again weighing at the edge of attacking again tonight or not.
"I can give you until dawn," I offered flat out. "Though I think until your dad gets back might be more practical for both of us."
She drew in a less then stable breath at that, but slowly nodded at me, "Okay."
I nodded back at her. "Right... let's start with the basic stuff. You've got superpowers and against the statistic and everything your environment tried to turn you into, you decided to become a hero," I let both my amusement and approval of that show naked on my face, "I'll give you all the tips and warnings I can for what you're in for on cape life in general."