"Iustitia!" – Regular Speech

'Mistress!' – Thoughts/Telepathy

[Justice for All]! – Skill/Ability being used.

Beta'd by BigCC

Quest 2.1

The Next Day

Kitchen, Hebert Residence

Breakfast the next morning was, to put it mildly, an extremely awkward affair. Then again, just yesterday I had nearly been killed by a delusional nutjob with a chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Rushmore, had been forced to kill said crazy A-class Parahuman in self-defense, and then had to recount everything to my dad who had just discovered I was a parahuman.

So…yeah awkward silence was definitely on the menu along with the toast and bacon.

Dad had likely realized I was at least hesitant about joining the Wards from the fact I hadn't broached the subject last night, and was likely already planning ways to persuade me to do just that. I predicted that a good portion of his day at work would be spent on his computer researching just that.

I could see why he'd think that I needed the protection that the Wards offered, but really, I didn't. People like Hamelin, from what I'd gathered from the Wards and junior New Wave girls yesterday, were not common. The Protectorate were generally very firm about hunting them down and either putting them down for good or Birdcaging them. Aside from people like the Slaughterhouse Nine that is, those that were too dangerous to pursue without a small army of parahumans.

Thankfully, breakfast was over soon and Dad was heading off to work after calling me in sick to Winslow. That left me most of the day free to marshal my arguments against him, laying out cold logic in the face of what would no doubt be impassioned and emotional pleas. I liked to think that I knew my Dad fairly well, and while he kept an iron grip on his temper, he was a very emotionally driven man. He tended to lead with that in most things, and it was why looking at him after mom's death had been painful to me, because I could see how I felt in how he looked.

I kept busy after he left, tidying up the place. I'd really let things get run-down thanks to The Trio bearing down on me all the fucking time.

'You are not alone now, my Mistress.' Iustitia said gently in my mind. 'I am here with you, always.'

'Thanks, Iustitia.' I sent back to her. 'I meant to ask, but the atmosphere at breakfast distracted me, do you want something to eat? Can you eat?'

'Of course I can eat, Mistress.' My Embryo replied indignantly. 'Maiden and Guardian Embryo are able to eat, although in the case of Guardians, what it can eat varies depending on what kind of animal they are. Maidens usually have a 'Maiden Eating Habit' that dictates how they eat or how much they eat. One Maiden might be an absolute glutton, while another may only eat white things, while a third may need to be hand-fed. It really depends on the Maiden.'

'Huh…that's interesting.' I mused. 'So what's your 'Maiden Eating Habit'?'

'Home cooked meals.' Iustitia replied instantly and enthusiastically. 'Food prepared entirely in the kitchen, none of that prepackaged nonsense. It is justice!'

Snorting in amusement, I headed to the kitchen and started making something quick and easy for my Embryo. 'Well considering that buying ingredients for food is cheaper than the prepackaged stuff, you certainly landed in the right house for it.'

I made a bologna sandwich for her, which my lovely Embryo devoured eagerly and was pretty effusive with her praise for my cooking, making me blush up a storm.

"Anyway Mistress, I have some good news for you." Iustitia said as she daintily wiped her mouth with a napkin ad folded it up in front of her.

"Oh?" I asked with a hitched eyebrow.

"Apparently, there is a fledgling System forming on this world, which is linked to my growth." She said cheerfully. "More functions come online as I grow more powerful. As I have evolved to my Third Form, two new parts of the system have come online; Quests and Dungeons."

"Dungeons…as in places full of monsters?" I asked flatly.

"Indeed." The Embryo nodded. "Have no fear though Mistress; only someone with the [Dimensional Cloak of the Pied Piper] or a similar item or powers can access the dungeons, which obviously prevents any monsters within them from escaping."

OK, that was better than what I had imagined. I'd had visions of things like the rats from Hamelin's dimensional trap escaping from wherever they were kept and running amok in Brockton Bay.

"Wait, why would my cloak be able to access dungeons?" I asked after a moment. "Does it have to do with that third Active Ability?"

"Have a look at it." Iustitia said with the barest trace of smugness in her voice.

Shrugging my shoulders, I did. Pulling out my mirror, which I never went anywhere without now, I panned through the various items I had received from loot drops until I came to the last item on the list.

[Dimensional Cloak of the Pied Piper]

Rarity: Epic

A cloak formed by the Loot Drop System using remnants of the power of Hamelin, the Pied Piper released upon his death. A key aspect of his original powerset was the ability to create, sustain and travel to and from a dimensional pocket. This cloak allows the wearer to travel to any pocket dimension they are aware of, as well as return to where they entered the pocket. It also increases the wearer's stats by a modest margin and has three active abilities.

Raises all stats by +15.

Worn Ability: [Dimension Step]: Simply by focusing on the dimensional pocket you wish to enter, you can take a step forward and be there. To leave, simply picture your entry location and step.

Active Ability #1: [Dimensional Shift]: Allows the user to 'shift' to any location within ten meters of themselves. Ten second cooldown after use.

Active Ability #2: [Dimension Warping Barrier]: Creates a barrier to protect that exists in three separate dimensions at once and is able to withstand a tank's main cannon firing at it for five minutes straight. Five minute cooldown after use.

Active Ability #3: [Dimensional Dungeon Key]: Only usable once per day. In combination with the [Dimensional Step] Worn Ability, this allows the wearer to both enter and leave [Dungeons]. It should be noted, however, that in order to make any use of this ability, the wearer must be able to find a dungeon in the first place.

"Hey, the third skill's unlocked!" I blurted out. "How…?"

"I am your interface with the system, Mistress." My Embryo replied. "I will automatically 'read' any items that come into your possession, quantify what I read from them, and then display them for you in an easy to understand format. UBM Drops are all unique and powerful though, so sometimes to both 'read' through and quantify certain parts of their abilities and powers. Most of the abilities on this one were fairly simple to understand, but the last one took about eight hours to decipher, codify and format correctly."

"Huh…and the stat boosts?" I noted.

"I cut away any extraneous information considering we were in a collapsing dimensional bubble at the time." Iustitia deadpanned at me.

"Point." I conceded. "But it does say that I need to find the dungeons before I can enter them. How exactly are we going to do that?"

"Ah, but we know where one is already, Mistress." Iustitia said triumphantly. "The place where Hamelin snatched us and where we returned from the dimensional bubble is the entryway to a dungeon. With Hamelin's death, his power's artificial hold on the dimensional bubble will have collapsed and spread it around this city. We should find clues or drop items in the dungeon that will point us in the right direction for more."

"Not today." I sighed as I put my mirror away. "Dad's still not on the bandwagon about us being an Independent Hero yet. Pushing him by going out without talking about it would make him dig his heels in and make things way more emotional and…troublesome…than they need to be."

"A fair point Mistress, but he cannot force you to join the Wards." My Embryo pointed out.

"He can ground me for life though." I crossed my arms. "Or at least until I'm old enough to move out."

"This is very bothersome." Iustitia pouted, before brightening up slightly. "Perhaps you can redirect his anger? Tell him of your suffering at that sad excuse of an educational facility and have him take his anger out on them, Mistress. Get him to withdraw you and start studying for your GED as you sometimes fantasized about doing."

I swallowed heavily. "But…I'd have to tell him…about everything. About Emma…about…the Locker."

Iustitia stood up and drew me into a hug. It was amazing to me that once she had been the size of a ten year old; now she was as tall as I was. "I have all of your memories of the one called Emma Barnes, Mistress." She whispered as she held me. "You were truly the best of friends and the fact that you had something so precious so cruelly torn from you is a fact sadder than I could wish upon anyone. But the fact remains that the Emma you remember is gone, leaving this…caricature, this…foul puppet of a person in her place. I know not what caused her change, but it happened. Cast aside your reluctance, my Mistress. She has done you wrong and so, justice must be dealt to her for that. Nothing more and nothing less."

"And I have to tell Dad about everything in order to do that." I whispered. I had hit the highlights of the bullying campaign the previous night, but not who had been the masterminds. I'd have to stop him from going over to the Barnes' and doing something stupid.

"Anything worth doing is never easy, Mistress." My Embryo said solemnly.

That managed to get a weak laugh out of me. "True enough. Now, let's go over what we'll say to Dad…"

Same Time

Pelham Residence

"And you say that Amy was that badly hurt?" Sarah Pelham, Lady Photon, asked in concern. She and the entirety of New Wave were sitting in her living room, listening to Amy and Vicky's version of events inside Hamelin's pocket dimension.

Vicky nodded seriously, even as she hugged a blushing Amy close protectively. "No joke, Aunt Sarah. If Justitia hadn't healed her, Ames would've bled out. Scariest thing I've ever seen. Stupid damn rats…"

"They were all the size of large dogs." Amy elaborated. "And there were so many of them that it was everything Vicky had to keep most of them off me before a couple came around from the opposite direction. My power didn't work on them, for obvious reasons now that I know they were projections, but when I tried and failed, the surprise left me open and…"

"I think we seriously owe this Justitia girl a lot of thanks." Crystal said, eyeing her cousins worriedly. "If it wasn't for her, we'd have lost Vicky and Amy."

"Agreed." Neil said with a nod. "What worries me is what the PRT might do. She did kill Hamelin. They might use that to pressure her into joining them."

"That was justified self-defense if ever I have seen it." Carol said briskly. "She was in clear and present danger, the man didn't respect or follow any of the Unwritten Rules and he had threatened to track down and murder her loved ones. In any court case they offered, I could tear any case they presented to shreds and even have them sued for libel."

"I doubt the PRT are going to browbeat her." Sarah said calmingly. "Hamelin did kidnap almost all of the ENE Wards as well as our girls, meaning that it's quite likely that Director Piggot signed a Kill Order for him and backdated it to the time that the Wards were kidnapped."

"Why backdate it that far?" Eric asked in confusion.

"To legally protect Justitia from any accusation of acting before the Kill Order was issued." Carol explained. "Some unscrupulous PRT Directors might have used the time of the Kill Order as a stick to browbeat Justitia into joining the Wards, only backdating it after she'd joined the Wards. Director Piggot, despite her dislike of Capes, is scrupulously fair and is highly unlikely to do that considering she saved the Wards."

"But doesn't a Kill Order make it legal for a Cape to be killed, point blank?" Vicky frowned, clearly not enamored with this kind of legal chicanery.

"Yes and no. Yes, a Kill Order legally allows a Parahuman to be killed on sight. No, it doesn't automatically backtrack to their entire life." Carol corrected her blood-daughter. "For a start, the presumption of law is that everyone is innocent unless proven guilty. Generally, Kill Orders are backdated to the incident that caused the Order to be issued in the first place, to absolve any Heroes or even Villains of any combative actions they've taken against the target of the Kill Order that would normally be a cause for censure or arrest during the period between the Order being signed and the incident that sparked it."

"Makes sense." Vicky said with a look of discontent. "Still think it's not fair for people to try that strong-arming crap on people."

"Language." Sarah scolded. "But I agree with you, it's a completely unfair and unethical method to get someone to join any kind of organization. Just be thankful that Director Piggot only uses such tactics on the likes of Shadow Stalker."

The frown on her face spoke volumes of how the leader of New Wave felt about the former vigilante. Stalker was guilty of at least one count of either accidental manslaughter or murder (Carol herself had claimed it would be a coin toss on which would have stuck) and several cases of use of excessive force and aggravated assault. If the girl hadn't taken the PRT offer when she was captured it was highly unlikely that she would have been out juvie before she was of legal age. The only reason the Protectorate had even extended the offer was because they needed every cape they could get their hands on.

While Sarah understood the need for those kind of tactics, particularly with the gangs so out-of-control in the Bay, that didn't mean she had to like them. She and Carol had personally made sure that the younger members of New Waves had as little contact with the volatile ex-vigilante as possible.

"Victoria, you're on patrol more than the rest of us." She continued in what people insisted on calling her 'Photon Mom' voice. "If you see Justitia, kindly let her know that she has the gratitude of New Wave for saving Amy's life and for helping you both get free of that madman. Let her know she can come to us for advice on being a hero or just for someone to chat to about the life of a Cape. Lord knows I would have wanted someone to talk to back when we were starting out."

"Got it." Vicky nodded.

After that, the meeting went on for a while before breaking up. Sarah managed to drag her sister into her bedroom for a private conversation before she left though.

"Carol, there have been several pointed questions regarding the way you treat Amy." Sarah said sternly.

"It's none of their-!" Carol began indignantly.

"It may not be any of their business how you treat Amy in your home, but it is mine as her Aunt, and it is most certainly everyone's business how you treat Panacea in public when she has reduced casualties at every Endbringer Battle since she Triggered by at least forty percent each time." Lady Photon spoke firmly, making her sister stiffen at the censure in her voice. "I and the rest of New Wave are partly to blame for not paying closer attention before now, but the way you outright ignored Amy entirely after such a stressful and frightening situation has pushed it too far, Carol."

"What do you mean?" the lawyer asked warily.

"Before we left after the M/S Protocols were lifted, Director Piggot let me know that there's a spare room in the Wards base if Panacea needs it." Sarah said with enforced calm. "That means she is anticipating Amy becoming so distraught or stressed that she runs away from you, Carol, and that she plans on capitalizing on it."

"I…" words failed Carol Dallon for once.

"I know that Marquis affected you badly, and god knows we both have our inner demons dear sister, but I am very disappointed that you allowed who her father is to impact the way you raised and treated her." Sarah said impassively.

"He is a danger!" Carol hissed quietly. "She has his blood!"

"Carol…who a person is related to isn't a factor; how they choose to live their life is." Her sister said sadly. "Amy has committed no crimes, has done nothing to warrant your treatment of her and I can tell that she is highly stressed. If she doesn't get relief from that stress soon, there's no telling what could happen. I want you to either get your head on straight and then look at her impartially like the trained lawyer that you are, or to admit to me, here and now, that you are utterly incapable of doing that because your inner demons have control of your words and actions when it comes to her."

The lawyer gaped at her sister in shock. This was not something she had ever considered as a possibility. Her own sister was telling her to disregard her well-founded(?) suspicions about Amy because of fairness?!

"Well, Carol?" Sarah asked.

"Sarah…why…?" Carol asked faintly.

"Because she is a good girl and a good person." The leader of New Wave said steadily. "The rule of law is 'innocent until proven guilty' and that a crime has to be committed before charges are brought down on someone, remember? Amy isn't Marquis, and never will be so long as we don't make her snap."

"The fact we have to worry about her snapping in the first place is reason enough to be wary of her." Carol muttered mulishly. "Fine. I'll…try, Sarah."

"If you don't try, really try, Carol, I'll have her off you before you can say 'Brandish'." Sarah warned her sister softly. "It's better than the alternative of Amy going and joining the Wards, because you know that Vicky would follow her to look after her."

Carol bit back a growl of irritation at how her blood-daughter doted on the adopted one. "Fine."

As she watched her sister leave the room with a stormy expression on her face, Sarah sighed. She loved Carol, she really did, but she allowed her hatred of the man who had almost to executed the two of them take the reins at the slightest provocation, and Marquis had hammered Carol's berserk button like no one had since she had killed that would-be executioner. Quite why she was so wary of Amy, who was an innocent girl, was beyond her, but Carol had always been insecure and slightly obsessive about that sort of thing ever since she had Triggered.

"Dammit Carol." She muttered. The fact that Piggot, Miss Militia and even Armsmaster had seen the way Carol had treated Amy before she had was not only embarrassing and mortifying, it was appalling. Just how willfully blind had she and the other members of New Wave been? Mark might have an excuse due to his depression, but as for the rest of them? It was disgraceful and she was ashamed that she hadn't seen Amy hurting like she obviously was.

Well, now she was aware of the problem, she could take steps to correct it. Sarah had the suspicion that Carol might just give up and have Amy placed in Sarah's custody, but that was OK too. As long as Carol got over her own ego and demons or Amy was removed from a potentially poisonous environment, then the situation would be resolved.

She just hoped that it was resolved soon.

Later

Danny Hebert

Living Room, Hebert Residence

Daniel 'Danny' Hebert listened with clenched teeth as his daughter, with a stone-like expression on her face and a flat tone of voice, described the kind of bullying that she had gone through, at the hands of someone they had both considered family no less!

"Why, Taylor? Why didn't you tell me?" he asked her once she fell silent.

"Dad, what could you even do?" she replied wearily. "Emma's been threatening that if I do anything to try and connect her with bullying or the like, she'll have her Dad slap me with a libel action faster than you can say 'knife' and you know how Mr. Barnes is about protecting his daughters."

Stifling a curse, Danny had to admit that she had a point there. Alan could easily fall into the 'sleazy attorney' act like a second skin, but he was a family man first and foremost, willing to protect his daughters from anything and everyone.

"But I don't understand…why would she do this?" he said in distress. Emma had been like a daughter to him, just as Taylor had been like a daughter to Alan. That she could change so much in such a short period of time as during the Summer Holidays after Annette's death was…

"I remember she abruptly hung up one time when I was on the phone to her at Camp." Taylor said with a frown. "She was perfectly fine with me at that point, so…something might have happened then. What, I don't know. And it doesn't matter."

"Taylor?" Danny flinched slightly as the blaze of anger in his daughter's eyes grew.

"As far as I am concerned, she is not the Emma Barnes that I grew up with and loved like a sister." Taylor said angrily, although there was a hint of sadness in there as well. "She is dead to me. She made me Trigger!"

"The Locker?" Danny asked with dread.

Nodding tightly, Taylor continued, "I could have forgiven her, even after everything she put me through before that, but the Locker almost killed me. No, I can't forgive her, not for that."

"I…can't really blame you." Danny admitted, rubbing at his face tiredly. "I can and do blame Winslow though. What the ever-loving hell do they think they're playing at over there?!"

"I dunno." Taylor replied in consternation. "Alan's a lawyer, but…he wouldn't be able to make the staff turn their noses up at me like they did, and I think that Madison Clements' father's a watch supervisor at a factory or something. That only leaves Sophia Hess, but…she's dirt poor, from what I've gathered. No clue what kind of influence her or her family could have over the faculty."

Danny didn't know either, but there was one thing he was certain about…

"There is no way I am letting you go back there." Danny said firmly. "You are not a human punching bag for those…hellions, dammit!"

Between the two of them, Danny and Taylor thrashed out a plan for her GED once she was withdrawn from Winslow. Danny knew that Taylor had inherited her mother's intelligence and work ethic, so she would almost certainly keep to her coursework very well. On the other hand, she had also inherited his wife's stubborn streak, along with his own, which would make the next part of this conversation hard.

"OK then…I think we should get to the next part of this conversation, Taylor." He said carefully.

As her face turned resigned, he noticed that her left hand, the one with what had been a circular scar on it, twitched slightly. Now that his attention was drawn to it, he could see that it was a tattoo with a sword on it.

"Before that, I think there's someone else that you should meet." Taylor said calmly. She got up and closed the curtains of the living room, both the front and back windows, before sitting down again. "Come out, Iustitia."

"Wha-?" Danny started to say, and then a bright white light appeared next to the chair Taylor sat in. When the light dimmed, a young woman dressed in a costume that made her look like Lady Justice, blindfold and all.

"Greetings, Daniel Hebert." The woman said, dipping a slight curtsy. "My name is Iustitia, Maiden of Justice, and I am your daughter's power made manifest."

"…uhhhhh…Taylor…?" Danny managed to get out. "What…?"

"My power is a lot different than most other powers that Capes have, Dad." Taylor said and eyed her companion. "Iustitia, please take a seat and we can start explaining."

"Yes, Mistress." The girl gracefully squeezes into the seat next to Taylor, who raised an eyebrow at her questioningly. "I am your weapon, mistress. It is only right that I am by your side."

"Errr…Taylor? 'Mistress'? Really?" Danny asked, wondering if he had just found out TMI about his daughter's preferences.

"I've tried to get her to stop calling me that, but she won't." his daughter huffed. "Anyway, you want an explanation, right?"

And what an explanation it was. Taylor's power made her into a goddamned RPG character, complete with a stat sheet. Not to mention the fact that 'Iustitia' could morph into three different types of weaponry that alternated between confusing him (the scales and the badge), impressing him (the sword and the tipstaff) and giving him a scare (the gun).

"And you say that you know how to use these weapons?" Danny asked carefully.

"Yes dad." Taylor replied patiently. "The higher my level with a class related to that weapon, the more skilled with it I become. I'm a Level 6 Swordswoman, a Level 2 Maceman and a Level 2 Gunslinger; even one level is enough to ensure that I know how to carry and use a weapon with basic skill, and I only get better as I level up."

"And she always has me at her side, Mr. Hebert." Iustitia added. "As her Embryo, I am with her always."

"How?" he eyed the girl as he asked. A girl who was, from everything he had been understand, the embodiment of Taylor's views on justice.

"The marking on my Mistress' left hand is a seal wherein I dwell when I am not in need." The 'Embryo' explained. "I am not in need of sleep and am awake at all times. In my weapon forms, I can 'see' all around me, 360 degrees, meaning that it is very difficult to sneak up on my Mistress and me without some sort of invisibility power, which I understand is very rare in this world."

Danny didn't exactly keep up with the Cape scene, but he did think he'd heard somewhere that powers like that were a bit rarer than the rest.

"OK, so…you have some, frankly speaking, amazing and versatile powers." He said firmly. "Between the two of you, you switch between a Support, a Healer and a Damage Dealer at the drop of a hat."

Seeing the look of surprise on Taylor's face, he had to laugh. "Your old man used to play Dungeons and Dragons way back when, which included the kinds of classes you've spoken about, except no guns. Maceman's kinda iffy, but it looks to be a DPS/Tank hybrid class with that buckler-enhancing ability it has. Swordsman's a straight DPS."

"That is an accurate assessment." Iustitia nodded.

"How many Job Classes can Taylor even have?" Danny asked curiously.

"Six Low-Rank Jobs, Three Mid-Rank Jobs and two Superior Jobs." Iustitia rattled off immediately. "Currently, my Mistress has three of the Low-Rank Job Class slots filled: [Swordsman], [Maceman] and [Gunslinger]. We intended to wait until we maxed out the [Swordsman] Job Class before choosing new job classes, but events overtook us."

"A sensible approach, but it looks like the usual downside of multi-classing doesn't apply to Taylor." Danny mused.

"Downside?" Taylor blinked.

"Multi-class characters, at least the ones I'm familiar with, tend to level up slower than a single-class character because of EXP penalties or a greater amount of experience needed to level the character up." Danny replied thoughtfully. "By contrast, you seem to simply level up and then have the ability to arbitrarily assign that level to any of your Job Classes as you please. That blows the D&D system out of the water. I'd have loved to have played a system like it back when I was into board games."

Danny had always been a fan of three major 'builds' or character archetypes, when he was designing his character: the frivolous bard, the serious spearman and the solemn cleric. The chance to have one character that had the ability to be all three without the large multi-class EXP penalties, even without the 'Embryo' that Taylor had on top of that…well, even in his old age, his inner-gamer was practically salivating at the thought of it.

He caught himself as he saw Taylor and Iustitia smirking at him. "Ahem. So we've established that your power is both unique and powerful. Why is it you are…reluctant to join the Wards?"

"It has nothing to do with the people, for the most part." Taylor answered immediately. "They're nice people…well, Aegis is an anal-retentive by-the-books idiot, and I've never met Shadow Stalker, but the others are nice."

"What's the problem then?" Danny pushed.

"Frankly? They'd slow me down." She said bluntly. "Their PR department has a ridiculous amount of say over their equipment and rule of engagement. They've been trained to incapacitate and subdue, which is good, but…if any of them had been fighting Hamelin instead of me, I think they'd probably have lost."

"I won't argue with that, but they're also less likely to be fighting someone alone. You can always use some backup." Danny pointed out.

"I have Iustitia for that." Taylor reminded him. "We were talking today, and apparently Iustitia can learn skills and stuff while she's in her Maiden Form. If need be, I can use other weapons and she can fight by my side."

"I would like to add that such a happenstance would be very much a last resort." Iustitia huffed. "I am my Mistress' weapon, not some dead piece of metal or wood. It utterly offends my pride that I may have to allow my Mistress to bear a lesser weapon. Really, I am a far more useful weapon than any other one that may be found…"

She trailed off, looking away from both her 'Mistress' and Danny, clearly sulking at the mere suggestion that her Mistress would use anything but her in combat. It was really rather adorable to watch, really.

Leaning back with a sigh, he looked at his daughter evenly. She had countered all of his arguments quite evenly. She didn't need training, because her power automatically gave her that as she became stronger. She didn't need teammates or partners that much, because her power was a partner who was solely devoted to protecting and serving Taylor to the extension of all else. She didn't need equipment, as her power provided it for her.

A thought occurred to him. "Iustitia, you can draw 'loot' from enemies, correct? Does that include cash?"

"Yes." The Embryo replied, which had Taylor scrabbling for her mirror. When her eyes bugged out in shock, Danny raised an eyebrow.

"How much?" he asked.

"I have over two thousand dollars here." Taylor replied shakily. Danny's own eyes bulged out at that.

"How?!"

"My mistress received, on average, between ten and thirty dollars from each [Giant Rat of Hamelin] that she slew." Iustitia recited. "There were at least a hundred of them that either my Mistress slew or that her allies slew, and she gained the money from that as well. Then there's the [Hamelanian Warriors], they gave $100-200 every time, with the [Hamelanian Warrior Chief] giving a flat $300. Then there was the [Giant Rat King of Hamelin] and Hamelin himself. I…can't quite recall what the exact sum was that they gave you, but two thousand seems to be on the low side."

"It's closer to three." Taylor admitted in a strangled voice.

"I think that money isn't a concern anymore." Danny said lightly, keeping himself under control. Even half of that amount would really alleviate the pressure of the mortgage payments for a goodly while.

"Why are you so relieved? That is a piddling amount of money." Iustitia said with a questioning tilt of her head. "I am more than slightly disappointed that you don't have at least a hundred thousand dollars there. Killing UBM's usually nets you that much, if not more. Perhaps when we revisit that dimensional pocket we can acquire a more suitable amount of funds."

"Wait, what?" Danny asked with narrowed eyes.

"Apparently Iustitia getting stronger means we can enter dungeons now." Taylor sighed. "Hamelin's large dimensional pocket is the only one we know the entry location of, and it's likely that it's shrunk since Hamelin's death. Whatever's inside it cannot be as bad as what we faced the first time."

His first instinct was to tell her that there was no way that he was going to allow her to go back in that place, but he mentally smacked himself for such a kneejerk reaction. Going into 'Overprotective Dad Mode' after basically being a no-load parent for nearly two years would make Taylor withdraw in resentment and/or confusion.

"I am…not exactly enthralled at the idea of you going back there." He said instead.

"Ditto." Taylor snorted. "But monsters inside the dungeons give me EXP, loot and money. Boss Monsters and Unique Boss Monsters give me more of all three and stronger items to boot. The more of all of that I get, the stronger I become and the less likely that a gangbanger or skinhead will get one over on me. At least with the Dungeons I have a way to get out quickly if I ever get in over my head. That would be true even if I decided to join the Wards."

"Additionally, the Protectorate and PRT may not allow my Mistress to enter any dungeons as a Ward." Iustitia added with a scowl at the thought of someone telling her Mistress what to do. "That would mean at least two years of being stuck as a Low-Rank Embryo, plus who knows how long after that to evolve again, which does not appeal to me whatsoever."

While his paternal instincts approved of the idea, Danny was also displeased at the idea of someone artificially controlling his daughter's strength and powers. And unfortunately, it was an all-too likely situation if she joined the Wards; the stated mission of the Wards was to teach and protect them, not throw them into danger.

'Am I seriously considering letting Taylor go dungeon diving?' the man wondered in mild disbelief. Had Taylor not had a partner like Iustitia, he wouldn't have even considered it, but as it was, Iustitia was completely devoted to his daughter's well-being. Considering Taylor was, for all practical considerations, her mother from the way she had described the way an Embryo basically gestated for a month before being born, it wasn't much of a surprise.

He manfully ignored the fact that his daughter was now, apparently, an unwed, virgin teenage mother. He really didn't know how to feel about that.

"OK…" he sighed reluctantly. "OK Taylor. I won't try to force you to join the Wards, and you can go dungeon diving…but I have a few conditions."

"Oh?" Taylor eyed him warily.

"For one, we plan your build out." He said seriously. "How you build a character, from the equipment you issue them to the way you distribute their stats, can have an immense impact on how well they perform. Not to brag, but I'm just a bit more experienced in how to build characters than you."

"Sounds fair." His daughter nodded carefully.

"Another thing is going through the equipment you have to see what is most useful and what is just vendor trash." Danny went on. "I don't know if you have a weight limit to what you can carry or not, but even if you don't have an upper limit, having a cluttered inventory can make getting at what you need irksome at best and panic-inducing in a pinch."

"He speaks the truth, Mistress." Iustitia put in her two cents.

Taylor merely nodded her head again, That did sound like a good idea.

"Finally, I want you to promise me that, whether you're crime-fighting or dungeon diving, you'll both promise to take care of yourselves." He said seriously. "If I could help, I would, but I don't have any powers beyond a mean right hook and a bit of brawling knowledge from my younger days. So you take care of yourself, you hear me? No foolish risks and you act cautiously as much as you can."

Taylor got up and hugged him tightly. "Promise." She whispered.

Later that night, as Danny went to bed and dozed off, he failed to notice the outline of a circle appeared on his left hand before vanishing.