"So, what do you think?" Taylor asked her friend at the nine costumes hanging to dry from the whitewashing that they had come up with during the week.

"They do look almost exactly like our current uniforms. Well, except for my own," Amy said as she looked at the leotard and hooded mantle. Every one of the outfits had the correct hero's symbol in the right color.

Weaver's outfit still looked the most functional, though Panacea and Flash Bang's outfits now had insert plates for extra protection.

"Dad says that the new dragline webbing you made is really bullet resistant. He couldn't pierce it with even a high powered rifle he borrowed from the owner of the gun range," the taller girl said. She looked away for a second. "Do you think we have time to color my hair? While I don't mind the blonde hair, I think I want my old hair back."

"You overheard Becky, didn't you?" What would be the best way? Growing it all out again? That would put too much stress on the scalp and Taylor would need to eat several large meals. Amy's eyes lit on a short bench and one of the chemical tubs.

"Not just Becky, but yeah some people are talking about how Aryan New Wave looks most of the time. Becky's just more vocal about how we're fostering white power in a more insidious way," Taylor said as she shrugged her shoulders. She had started to figure out how to listen through her bugs. And it all came down to the quiet music room with a metronome ticking away.

Amy very much tried to ignore what that did to Taylor's body for a second. "I think I can. And instead just growing out your hair, I'm going to try and do it with a bio-wash. Can I get a few pounds of bugs here?"

"Sure." The weather continued to warm, so many more bugs lay within her range. Within about thirty seconds, 'trash' bugs arrived and flowed into the tub.

The other girl added some water with one hand, while the other slipped into the mass of bugs and water. In moments, she created a living sludge. "Dip a strand or two of hair into it, please?"

Taylor nodded. "Sure." With a quick jerk, she pulled several blonde hairs and dropped them into the greenish-blue slime. The hair cycled between colors, but soon turned a familiar black color.

"Okay. Lay on your back of the bench with your hair draped into the tub," Amy ordered with her hand still in the tub.

She followed her friends advice and only twitched a little bit when Amy put her hand on Taylor forehead. Cold wriggled up her scalp and then across her eyebrows. "Um, Amy? Could you make sure I don't get a pimple or something before tomorrow?" Tomorrow. Tomorrow!

"Sure. I reset your hair to grow out its natural color, too." Why did she feel disappointed as she studied Taylor's features? A very small nudge there removed any chance of acne and made her skin flawless. She stared for a long minute into wide, doe-eyed brown eyes.

"Amy?"

"Sorry! All done."

Taylor stood up and patted at her dry hair. "Not even wet? Huh." She walked over to the mirror attached to the back of the door that led upstairs. She smiled at seeing her long, curly black hair. Then she ran her hands through it. "Oh, wow. Very soft and silky. You should do that for your own hair."

"I can't use my power on myself, remember?" Amy rolled her eyes.

"But you didn't use your power on my hair directly because it's dead. That should apply to your own hair, right?"

Amy blinked and then slapped her forehead with one hand. "It does. And I'm a dummy. Can you get a hand mirror?"

Taylor nodded and then helped lay her down on the bench with her hair ready to drape into the tub when Amy realized she couldn't put her hand back into the slime. They switched the bench for some towels as a mass of flying insects toted in the hand mirror on strings of silk.

She then knelt down, leaned over and tilted her head so she looked off to the side where Taylor held her bug delivered mirror. A minute of work later, she pulled the slime out of her hair and shook her wavy hair.

"Oh, wow. I think Vicky might be jealous," Amy said with a grin.

"We do look like we've gone to an expensive hairdresser."

Amy grinned again at that. "How about we hang out until it's nearly time to go to bed? We can watch some movies or something." And surprise her family in the morning.

"Dad did get cable TV installed, so there should be something on."

"You'll help carry some of the outfits over to my house?" the shorter girl asked.

"No, I figure we'll call your sister to help with that. We'll just have to bag them for everyone to use tomorrow," Taylor explained.

Danny looked over at his mostly normal looking daughter sat next to him in the car's passenger seat. If you ignored the fact that her winter jacket only partly covered her Weaver outfit minus mask and armored pads. "I'm glad I had a little time to learn about these photoshoots and public appearances."

"They updated this one to be my 'official' debut as a member. So they said there might be a few more people here." Taylor's stomach churned in dreaded anticipation.

The heavy sedan turned smoothly into an empty parking spot. Moment's later, they stepped out and started to walk to the main entrance.

A security guard opened a locked door. "Mr. Hebert? Weaver? This way, please."

"Thanks," Danny replied as he held the door for his daughter.

They headed to the main office of the mall to meet with the manager, an old woman with mostly white hair.

"It's good to meet you two. The rest of the New Wave is getting their once over with makeup in George's office, so you should head back," she explained simply.

"Go on, kiddo. I'll be taking pictures and video. Just look for my blue baseball cap." He waved to his daughter as she walked off.

"Most people won't be here for at least half an hour-" the manager explained to him as Taylor walked off.

Taylor found George's office (with a paper taped to it with New Wave on it) and knocked.

"Come in!" Sarah called out. She smiled as their new member opened the door. "Hello, Taylor."

Vicky looked over. "Oh, wow. You had Amy color your hair? It looks great."

"Um, thanks." She shrugged her jacket off and opened her backpack to start pulling out her armored plates.

"Please leave your mask and helmet off," Sarah called out. "We really need to talk about that soon."

Taylor nodded jerkily. "Right."

"It'll give a chance to redesign it again," Vicky said with a laugh.

She gave the older girl a crusty look.

"Okay, Taylor. Sit down and we'll put just the right touch of makeup on so that you look good on stage." Carol pointed at the seat in front of her.

The next half an hour blurred in Taylor's mind as all of New Wave ended up with makeup, even the men. A ringing beep on her phone signalling a text.

'Large crowd.'

"Um, how many people usually come to these things?" Taylor asked. "Because Dad just texted me that there is a large crowd." Taylor looked over to Sarah.

"Usually a few hundred. Mark, since you are free, can you go check."

Mark nodded as he stood up to go check. Five minutes later (all makeup finished for the group!) he came back in. "Ah, Danny isn't wrong. There's over a thousand people out there."

Taylor looked a little green.

"You will be fine. Aunt Sarah will do most of the talking," Amy said as she patted Taylor on her back. "No one here is going to try to break your leg."

The newest member blinked, then looked over at her and straightened slightly. "You're right." She gave a jerky nod.

"All right. Taylor, just stay in between Amy and Vicky. Smile and wave. And remember, they are here for you," Manpower said as he finished setting his open face cowl. Even his hair looked pretty good.

Lady Photon gave her a smile and a nod, then elbowed her sister. Brandish shot her sister a look. The jerk of her sister's head had Brandish look at Taylor and smile.

"Break a leg," Shielder said in a drawl.

"Eric! Ignore my bratty brother," Laserdream said even as she smiled.

Panacea and Glory Girl bumped her shoulders lightly to signal some closeness.

And then they exited the administration office hall and into the main courtyard where the dull roar of the crowd. In front of the fountain, a temporary stand fifty feet long and twenty feet wide stood ready for them with a small podium.

"Security check," Brandish called out.

Weaver looked over at Panacea with a questioning look.

"Keep an eye out for snipers or gunmen. We should be safe enough, but we could be attacked," the shorter girl said.

"Oh! Right!" Her mind spread out to get a picture of the surrounding area. "A few people with pistols, I think. And a big truck out back that smells like containment foam."

"The PRT sent someone? They didn't let us know," Lady Photon said as she smiled and waved. She pointed with other hand and created a crude, glowing ramp up to the stage.

Several younger boys and girls screamed in excitement, shouting out to their favorites. Panacea blinked in surprise as she heard her name.

"Looking good, Panacea!" one of the girls with her hair back in dreadlocks shouted.

"Hellooooo, Weaver!" a small crowd of teen girls shouted.

Lady Photon walked up to the podium and tap-tapped the microphone. "Hello, Brockton Bay! It's very nice to be here. I can see you are very excited meet our newest member. Weaver darling?" She gestured Weaver over, which made the girl's smile turn a little plastic. "Weaver here joined us after that issue at Winslow High School and decided that she doesn't need a secret identity. Give her a big hand for deciding to be a hero!"

Weaver waved hesitantly at the thunderous applause.

"Thank you, Weaver," Lady Photon said with a soft smile. She turned back to the crowd. "I'd like to think of this as a new phase here for New Wave."

"Keep smiling," Panacea said even as she missed her scarf and hood.

"Sure." She blinked as she picked up someone on the roof of the mall over by one of the secondary courtyards. "There's a guy with a gun on the roof over by that other courtyard in front of us."

"Sniper?"

Weaver narrowed her eyes in concentration as she fought to use the limited bug senses. With agonizing slowness, she finally pulled a simple black and white image.

He knelt next to a pile of gear that she could not fully decipher, but he looked to be wearing SWAT style armor. And opened a box-like case or container that had something that looked like an odd rifle. Or a rifle missing it's barrel.

"I think it's a sniper," she whispered.

"Swarm him, now. Glory Girl, Laserdream; go out the main entrance and capture him," Brandish ordered. "Now!"

The two teens shot off into the air at a fast pace over the crowd, causing some of them to scream.

"He's trying to run for the stairs in that direction," Weaver said as she pointed towards the 'back' of the mall. "And Glory Girl just tackled him."

"Brandish, what's going on?" Lady Photon asked as she scanned around while ready to make a shield at a moment's notice.

"Weaver spotted what looked like a sniper on the roof. Glory Girl and Laserdream just caught him?" Brandish finished with a question to Weaver. Should they look for his fellow culprits? He opened her mouth to continue when her phone rang and interrupted her. "Yes?" she asked. "He was PRT. He's not roughed up too badly, is he?"

"False alarm, folks! This might be a few minutes." Lady Photon wanted to get to the bottom of this, but could not just leave them hanging. "Weaver, why don't you and Panacea answer some questions?"

Weaver's face paled a little bit. "Ah-"

"I'll still be here. I just need to talk to Brandish and find out what was going on," she replied with a smile.

She nodded jerkily as she walked up.

"Don't worry, I'm right here," her best friend said as they arrived at the podium. "Um, hello everyone. Raise your hand if you have a question. Reasonable questions will get answers."

A young girl with bad buck teeth shouted when pointed at. "Is this your new outfit? All my friends think it's much more awesome than that robe thing."

"Yes, it is. Weaver and I made new uniforms for everyone. I got ganged up on and told to wear something that hides me less," Panacea replied to the crowd that cheered a bit for her.

Weaver pointed to a handsome young man in a polo shirt.

"Are you two dating anyone?" he asked. "Oh, sorry. I'm with the Bay City Weekly."

"Um, no. I'm kind of busy with school and being a superhero," Weaver replied as she blushed.

Panacea pointed at an older woman.

"How do you like being with New Wave?" the graying woman asked.

"It's pretty good, especially with friends like Panacea and Glory Girl," she replied.

A geeky looking boy got called next.

"What are your three measurements?"

"Next!" Panacea said while shooting him an annoyed look.

Half an hour later, New Wave walked up to the PRT light armored vehicle and the troops assigned to it. Off to the side, Vista talked with Armsmaster as she explained the situation with arm gestures and all.

Armsmaster nodded and walked over. "Now that I've been briefed by the PRT officers and the Ward onsite, I would like you reasoning for attacking one of our PRT officers."

"What we were doing, Armsmaster, was reacting to a possible threat after one of our people was attacked by the Empire. So I ordered New Wave to keep an eye out for a possible attack. I didn't think it likely, but it seems someone decided to start setting himself up as a sniper at range and Brandish ordered him taken down before he could potentially shoot one of us," Lady Photon said forcefully.

"Lt. Cooper was only setting himself up as overwatch-"

"Cut the bullcrap, Armsmaster. You tried to sneak in oversight here and your people fucked up. Tay- I mean, Weaver reacted appropriately to someone she was not able to identify that was pulling out the parts of a sniper rifle," Manpower said as he loomed closer.

"He's right. You should have let us know you were here with troops and a Ward, that way this sort of misunderstanding would not happen," Brandish snapped out. "We're independent affiliates for a reason. And that includes not being spied on."

"And when your sniper is doing spotting, they are not supposed to attach the scope to their weapon. Probably for reasons just like this," Lady Photon said.

Armsmaster held up a hand to stop them from talking over him. "I understand you are angry, but Cooper did not intend any harm even if he did not follow procedure."

Lady Photon took a breath. "Fine. We'll call it a mistake. Panacea? Can you deal with his bug bites. New Wave does not want to cause a rift with the PRT and Protectorate. I want to talk to Armsmaster privately for a minute."

Armsmaster jerked his head to the opposite side of the big black vehicle with the spray nozzle on top.

Panacea sighed, but headed to the back of the truck. "Lt. Cooper? Do I have your permission to heal those bites." She felt they should be left as a lesson. But politics.

"Sure," the latino said with an easy smile.

"What made you think that even pointing a rifle at a cape was a good idea?" she asked with a bit of an edge to her voice.

"No idea. Just seemed like a good idea. I had no intention of hurting anyone," Cooper said in a sincere tone of voice. Quite believable.

Lie. Every single thing he just said had not a wit of truth about it. Panacea froze for a second, then plastered a fake smile on her face. "There you go. I hope I don't have to treat you in the future."

"You okay?" he asked with a bit of suspicion.

"Just not looking forward to the photoshoot part of today."

"Yeah, the Wards aren't big fan of those either. Now that I think of it, most of the Protectorate isn't."

Panacea nodded and walked away and started to look for Taylor. Then she would go talk to Aunt Sarah. Her brows knit in consternation.

"Hi. Weaver, right?" Vista said as she walked up. She held out her hand. "It's nice to meet you."

Weaver's face dropped all emotion before she tried to smile. "Yes, thanks." She shook the hand. "So what brings you over?"

"I just want to apologize about Sophia. I knew she could be a bit of bitch, but I had no idea she was that two faced. Everyone says that it isn't my fault because I'm the youngest, but I have almost the most experience in the Wards right now. Only Triumph and Aegis have been wards longer than I have. I should have noticed. Oh, hello Amy!" Vista said brightly.

"Hello, Vista. Taylor, Vista is a good person. I'm sure she's telling the truth," the healer explained.

"Oh, um, thanks," Weaver said and coughed uncomfortably. "The PRT has done a lot, but I still blame them for Sophia and well, that whole thing." She waved it off with a gesture of her right hand.

"Most of us chose to join the Wards and really want to be heroes. Even Kid Win," Vista said with a smile on her face. Her smile disappeared as she looked over her shoulder at the PRT Truck thirty feet away. "Say, if anyone asks, just say you heard it around, but I think you should look up information on that new Ward in Anchorage. PHO has some interesting descriptions." She held up a hand. "I need to go now, okay?"

"Of course, Vista. We just happened to read PHO, just like anyone else," Panacea said before Weaver could and gave her a smile.

"Um, sure." Weaver pulled out her Dragon 9 phone and started to pull up the internet.

Her best friend watched Vista walk off. "I've got a bad feeling about that."

"New Tinker Ward debuts?" she responded with. Her eyes rapidly read through the thread. "No fucking way."

"What?" Panacea asked as she looked over her shoulder.

She pulled up a picture to show the Tinker wearing a light 'high tech' armor with glowing blue stripes on it as she wafted out of her shadow breaker state. She had to hand it to them, if you didn't look closely, you wouldn't think much of it.

"They promised Carol that they were putting her away," Panacea protested.

"The local PRT just announced that we have a new Ward, too. Some girl named Flechette," Weaver said. "And yeah, let's go talk to your mom."

Panacea drooped a little bit. "I bet we still have to do the photo shoot."

Coil tapped a finger on his desk as he pondered. Did someone act to block his plans with that girl? His pawn had been removed before he could split his timeline.

It bore some consideration.