"That's... a long story. Like I mean long like Accord's plan to end world hunger long, and derailed already. First part of it was to get you into a sympathetic villain group. You actually did that primarily as an attempt at a sting operation," I listed off. "You heard of a villain named Coil?"

Both her eyebrows shot up, "Coil? Isn't he dead? I mean these was this big news report about the Protectorate finding his huge underground base in the-"

My eyebrows shot up, "They claimed credit for that?" I asked surprised, then snorted. "Guess Armsmaster isn't the only PR hog... ah well," I waved it off. "Anyway I tipped a few people off about Coil's power and his plans. The guy was... one hell of a piece of work," I grimaced. "Remember those sympathetic villains I mentioned?"

She nodded.

"Yeah, one he recruited at gunpoint with the not so subtle warning of what would happen if she tried to bail on him later," I listed one off. "Another had a younger sister to use as leverage. He had a doctor who was working for him because the only alternative was being framed for child molestation- and yes, it was a frame job. Coil never would have trusted him with keeping the eight year old precog he later kidnapped drugged to the gills if it was true," my expression went hard and teeth ground. "And that's not even touching the whole torture and murder fetish he had no problems indulging in," I snarled knuckles popping. "The bastard was..."

I stopped. Inhaled, exhaled, and released my hand. "... He was one twisted SOB."

"And... now he's dead," she commented getting pale.

"One of the first things I did when I got back was let the girl, one about your age by the way," I informed breathing again more subtle to try and ride down the adrenaline that had surged up, "Know just how his power worked. See Coil could from his perspective split timelines. He did what he wanted in either with the only difference being what actions he took and the reactions of such, then he could pick which one to 'keep'. It was theorised to be a really detailed form of precog."

"And now he's dead," she repeated.

"And good riddance," I grunted darkly. "In the original timeline things did not go nearly as neat as a block wide fire and a single night of chaos andyouwere the one to put a bullet through his brain. All part of a plan to 'harden' you. To force continuous bad or worse choices on you until all that was left but ruthless pragmatism, an alarming tendency to escalate to any level needed to achieve victory and an overriding need to control every situation you were involved in. The perfect mindset to have you go full Ender Wiggin on whatever you were pointed at."

She blinked, "Ender who?"

My horror had to be visible. "You've never read Enders Game? Oh we need to correct this as soon as possible!" Then my face shifted to real alarm at her look of fear, "That was a joke. But seriously, read it. If anything's suitable to your situation then that book is. The sequels not so much." It actually made a creepy sort of sense she never had read the novel actually.

"O...kay?" she replied slowly as she slowly ratcheted back from her current state of panic.

"More seriously, none of this matters that much," I listed off. "Precog one oh one, donotbecome so obsessed with what could happen that you forget what is happening. There is always a chance for everything to go to hell. There is also a chance of everything going perfectly for you. The trick is not to let the panic of the first situation keep the second from occurring."

"Because life's gone great so far," she stated a little bitterly.

Teenagers.

I rolled my eyes, "Are you kidding... Look, you're dad's alive and loves you. He's hurt and not great at showing it but he loves you. That, plus the fact you arewell offactually gives you a better home life then about ninety percent of the capes I can think of total. You got superpowers from bullies going psycho. Horrible? Yeah, but not quite on par with say, accidentally causing your brother to commit suicide," or believing that anyway, "Or growing up with heartbreaker as a dad. I got powers by being ripped from my home and forced into continues death matches until I botched a plan and got everyone I liked in them killed."

"It's not..." she struggled fists at her side, looking like she wasn't sure if she was going to punch me, run, or break into tears.

...And like that I remembered I was ranting all this to a suicidal teenaged girl.

Shit.

"What I'm saying is, you've gone through hell... Join the club," I exhaled exasperated and trying to figure out the right thing to say. "You might think life is against you, that you've already broken under the weight but... you're still alive. You fought through it to now, and now you have your chance to find some joy in all of it again. So here's the light at the end of the tunnel."

"Your dadlovesyou," I stressed sharply. "He loves you like you wouldn't believe but he's also still human," I tilted my head consenting the point, "He's busy, and as bad at dealing with people as you are. You tell him about the school crap? He'll jump down their throats so deep they'll need to ask his permission to wiggle their toes again. I'm not talking the cape stuff, or triggering, though he will come to bat and support you in every way he can there as well." I smiled a little bitterly.

"And you just... know that," she said despondingly.

"It's what good dads do," I said. "Think about it. Think how much you want to shield him from all this cape crap... and then realise how much more he wants to do that exact same thing for you, only for everything. You take after him a lot you know," I wiped a bit of gunk from my eye. It really was getting late.

I shook my head, "Things will not going to magically get better, but they can. Emma is still messed up from her own issues, and they are her issues," I stressed. "Not yours. What happened to her had nothing to do with you and was not your fault in the slightest so you can stop blaming yourself for that."

"What-"

"She got jumped by some gangbangers who threatened... stuff," I listed off violating the bully's privacy without a moment's hesitation. "Sophia stepped in and messed with her head afterwards. Filled it with a bunch of predator or prey bullshit she latched onto like a lifeline. The rest is a lot of psychological baggage that'll take her a good long bit of therapy to get over."

She seemed surprised, "You're going to tell me just like that?"

I shrugged, "No rules on that one," I said simply. Well common decency I guess, but Emma wasn't doing herself any favors keeping things to herself either. "I am trying to help you Taylor. I have limits on how far I can go, but within them I'll give you everything I can."

"...Shadowstalker is a jerk?" she questioned me.

"Massive one," I replied with a nod. "Rest of the wards are pretty cool though. Bit of a sausage fest but they'd warm up to you real fast," I grinned. "I mean, even outside of the whole 'band of brothers' thing, they're mostly a big band of goofballs and nuts. You don't become a cape having a normal life you know? Even Armsmaster has his good side, and trust me, off the screen the man's a total A-hole."

She shot me a weird look at that.

"We have a rivalry, or I'm trying to spark one anyway," I explained. "Guy needs to learn to moderate a little. I mean, and don't tell him I said this, it's admirable how much he's thrown into being the best hero he could be but the guy is an outright workaholic. He could have avoided a few problems the first time around if he just stopped trying to be the second coming of Hero."

"So why don't go give him one of these talks?" she asked.

"I might... well once I work at dislodging his head from his ass a bit more," I smirked. "Mostly, like I said, you needed the help and I had time free. Your problems are by no means trivial but with the right information you can fix them on your own."

A thought occurred, "If you want to help out another hero, Panacea is in a situation you might find very sympathetic."

"Panacea?" she asked in surprise.

"Yeah, she's at the middle of another problem I need to defuse... but one with a lot longer fuse. Less active meddling to mess with her, and more just really unfortunate circumstance," I grimace.

"Oh," she said simply.

"My life is really busy," I lamented with a sigh. "Again, stressing this. Being a hero does hell on your time table."

~Nice pun boss~

I think I'd have appreciated a groan more.

"Right," she got the hint. "So... what were the pros and cons of being a Ward again?" she asked me.

I would have sighed, but I didn't want to depress her any further, so instead I just launched right back into the speech, "Alright pros. Lots of back up. Plenty of friendly co-workers..."