2.4

Two Days Later…

"-then Aunt Sarah showed up. Wasn't about to let that psycho get away." Victoria said as she smirked, leaning back in her chair. The fact that she was talking on the mission was...oblong to say the least. It was...jarring in how carefree she was talking about the Dry Dust operation.

I leaned over, whispering to Dean."Should I tell her to keep quiet? I mean, it was a mission. Ain't that, like, need-to-know?"

"New Wave doesn't hide their civilian identities, and they are not allied with the PRT. They can say or talk on whatever they like. Worst they can get is an angry phone call from Piggot." He answered back.

I half suspected he was just saying that because it was his girlfriend and he didn't want to end up being in trouble.

It was lunch time and the group was hanging out, well, mainly me with my teammates and Victoria with her girlfriends. Victoria made it sound like the operation was a success. Well, it was, but the briefing in HQ later just added whole new levels of complicated to this mess.

Apparently, the two Parahumans who were the suppliers, Limbo and Doppelganger, were none other than members of the Parahuman Villain Organization Gesellschaft, based in Europe with strong footholds in the UK and Germany. Basically, they were the REAL Nazis. Empire 88 were white supremacists having the dead fascist ideology as inspiration, but Gesellschaft are the real thing. There is even rumors of one of their leaders being a former SS Officer. Granted they were rumors and the guy would have to be like...what- a hundred now?

The real head scratcher for everyone at the briefing was why Gesellschaft were selling to Merchants rather than their offshoot here in the states, the E88. More than that they were selling to ethnicities.

Dry Dust turns out hasn't only been distributed in Brockton Bay, but all around the globe. Rio de Janeiro. Dubai. Shanghai. They were selling this stuff in small quantities everywhere. Armsmaster made sure to inform Interpol and other intelligence agencies on this newly acquired information.

The most likely scenario so far (also the one less people wanted to think about) was that the Germans were selling in order to get people addicted to the drug.

Then they'd cut the supply.

With an almost 83% kill rate when a user entered withdrawal without medical staff on hand, and even with medical staff there still being a 32% death rate, the number of people that would die today would easily be knocking in the millions.

What about a month from now? Or a year from now?

I shook my head. I didn't want to think about it. I couldn't change it. I'd just have to hope someone upstairs thought of something.

And while Limbo has been foamed, sent to custody, and probably will go to jail, Doppelganger won't be joining her.

Because after he woke up in the PRT van, he swallowed a Cyanide Pill hidden in his teeth and died en route to PRT Holding. Nazis did use Cyanide to prevent capture, but this was extreme even for them. Doppelganger was a parahuman. Not exactly a footsoldier level kind of guy that they'd happily be rid of. As of now, Limbo was being held on Master/Stranger protocols just incase.

The Wards were talked to by Armsmaster for engaging the enemy without permission, but Aegis stepped up, explained and accepted the responsibility and the punishment. I get the feeling Armsmaster was lenient on Aegis, only giving him about a month of extra shifts, but no complaints on his record, no marks that would generally look bad on a more permanent basis.

Miss Militia and Dauntless chastised us for putting ourselves at risk...publicly. Privately I think it was a different story.

I on the other hand got a talking to by both Armsmaster, and the Director; especially the Director, for using an untested variation of my power in the field. Miss Militia and Battery had reminded them that this was a very dangerous cape that had demonstrated a propensity for using lethal force. (Especially when one counted how many bullets they had to pick out of Aegis' skull.

Even so it had been a lecture, a warning and a punishment all in one. I was now stuck with three weeks of triple monitor shifts. Even so, I think Piggot would have gone harder to try and dissuade me from ever sanding off another person's arm again if she thought she could get away with it.

And even though they stuck up for me, both Miss Militia and Battery made a point to take me aside to tell me just how dangerous that could have been. Powers were tested for a reason and though my hunch was right this time, even here I went overboard. I nearly sanded off her arm. Panacea had to be called in to heal it properly. The wound was infected with the dirty ash and the only reason she hadn't bled out by the time she got there is because the trauma had inflamed and swollen up the injury; staunching the blood flow.

Even so I'd been just an inch and a half away from an artery.

I almost killed her.

A part of me was horrified at my simply not being horrified by that thought.

Outside of that, one thing that did happen was that one of the Casinos, Silver Dollar Falls, was raided by one of the younger parahuman villain gangs in the city, the Undersiders, during our raid on the Merchants. How they were able to time their raid at the same time as our operation, we don't know. Deputy Director Calvert relayed us the news, raining on our victory parade and now we are looking into these Undersiders based on the Casino footage.

And over the last two days, school resumed as normal as did patrols. Merchants were lying low, as were those Undersiders. So far, all was quiet in Brockton Bay.

Victoria continued to talk and suck up the attention from her girlfriends and Dean. I resumed on eating my lunch and felt Chris and Carlos sit on both sides of me.

"How are ya feelin?" I asked Carlos, turning his way.

"I'm fine. You don't need to worry Tay." He smiled. "My 'condition' lets me get better really quick. Plus all the 'stuff' that got thrown at me came out anyway and I visited Panacea afterwards for a check up."

"You took four baseballs to the head. That's reason enough for me to worry." I said back.

"I took down 'that dude'. Don't I get any sympathy." Chris asked in mock hurt.

"You used your squirters on stun." Dean smirked. "And got the drop on him. You got out baby faced." I looked back at Chris with a smirk. He chuckled continuing to eat his lunch.

"Hey I'm going to see my other friends, ciao for now~" Victoria blew a kiss our way as she reached down and all but plucked Dean off of his seat. Manhandling him. The sight made me laugh.

I looked at the other person sitting at our table the one who was always mostly quiet. "Hey Amy."

"Hmm?" She looked up from her book, can of soda in the other.

"Laserdream, Ms. Pelham and Vicky were there, and you were ready to patch us up after but I'd half expected Brandish and Flashbang to be there too." After a second, I realized that might sound confrontational and stuttered out an amendment. "Ju-just curious, really."

"Carol was off in court. With so many heroes it was probably just excessive to bring Dad too so him and uncle stayed out of it. Give Vicky and Crystal a chance to go off on their own I guess."

I nodded, makes sense.

"What was the case about?"

Amy turned to Chris blinking. "Huh?"

"Your mom's case. What was it about?"

"Oh. I don't know. It was a settlement on damages or something. Carol doesn't really talk about her cases with me."

"Why not?" I found myself asking. "Isn't she a civil Attorney? Those cases don't-

"She just doesn't talk about them with me."

There was an awkward silence.

Amy finally closed her eyes rubbing at her head. "Sorry...I...I had a long night yesterday."

"Hospital again?" Chris asked frowning. "You're gonna end up with gray hairs before you hit twenty Amy."

She shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

I looked to Chris, fishing for a change in topic when the thought struck me.

"Hey. I never caught how you managed to find the second cape."

"Oh yeah." He grinned. "Dragon hacked into my helmet connection."

I blinked. "Dragon? The Dragon?"

"Yeah." He nodded, excited. "She figured there was too much risk of our normal coms being monitored by PRT channels if they took down Arms that quick.. My helmet's internet connection would just be confused as any other in the complex, so she piggybacked there and drew up Interpoll."

Huh. Clever.

"When Armsmaster went down, it set off a few of her alarms or something, and she knew that there was trouble down in the Bay. She knew Limbo's power, to toss at least three people in a pocket reality through touch. And she knew she wasn't a cloner, so she knew there was a second cape. I spent most of the fight looking for him."

"Huh." I thought. "She's really on the ball then."

"She works with almost every major government. She wouldn't have the trouble pulling up Interpoll records like we would. She'd just have to ask. Or just reach digital fingers and take it."

I heard a laugh beside me and looked to Amy. "What?"

"Just-Just a stupid thought."

"Which was?"

She snickered again. "Armsmaster and Dragon. He goes down and she flips out. Practically up-ending European Interpol in ten minutes."

Chris joined her, the laugh hissing its way out from between his teeth.

I blinked. Dragon has a crush on Armsmaster?

Then I imagined Colin in a relationship.

I really really tried to not laugh. I did.

Then someone plopped themselves down in the seat next to me. I blinked, turned, curious. Mid-motion, somewhere in my head I recognized the looks of shared surprise on Amy and Chris' faces but didn't exactly register it till I was fully turned and staring at the smiling face of Aisha Labourn.

"Sup Tay!"

I stared. I couldn't help it, even as my mouth opened and closed with numb shock.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I realized it came from Chris. I was too stunned to speak.

She shrugged, placing her arm over my shoulders before I could move away. "Well, ya see, there's this thing on Brockton Bay currently missing a place to stick people like me!" She waggled her eyebrows. "So they let me out of the mad house to torment all the nice people! Can't have law and order without some chaos!" She held out her hands and wiggled her fingers at Chris and Amy. "Oooooh!"

Amy glanced around making sure no one was within earshot before leaning forward. "Ms. Labourne. You kno-"

"Aisha."

"What?"

"If we're gonna be friends, the name's Aisha." She reached forward and grabbed the hand Amy had resting on the table. "You're Ames! Now we're all nice and acquainted and you're...Mr. Blue shirt I don't even know your name."

"Chris. Chris Gale." He answered, no doubt still trying to process this like me.

"You can't be here!" Was the first thing that came to mind.

The Wards hung out with me, Glory Girl and Amy hung out with me and them. How much longer before she put two and two together like she did with me!

"Yes I can." She smirked. "Look I even have the useless student ID card and everything! Now the store clerks can feel all proud and shit that they have evidence when they tell me I can't buy beer!"

She did. Arcadia student ID. Complete with her picture where she was sticking out her tongue.

I groaned, leaning forward and placing my face into my hands.

Screw Winslow and all its crazies.

I realized I spoke aloud when I heard her chirp in a gratingly cheerful voice.

"I know right! We have so much in common! Now we just have to infect all these other people with some Winslow-brand insanity to liven up their lives. Lets start with cute Mr. Blue shirt!"

"Hey my name is-WOAH!" I then realized he got glomped by her, and I could tell the dark-skinned girl with pink highlights in her hair was looking at him like a playful cat.

"Aww are we a widdle shy?"

"St-stop grabbing my ass!"

She cackled, actually cackled…

Fuck Winslow and fuck its crazies...

(X)

Later that day after escaping the ball of insanity (if however funny) Aisha:

"Come again?"

"I wanna learn how to fight." Hannah was looking at me from across the desk. Though she had her costume on, her scarf and headgear weren't on, allowing me to see the eyebrow hiking into her hairline.

"Might I ask why? I mean, I'm not objecting, I would love to teach you. But your powers make you a pseudo-Brute Taylor. Most capes with that classification don't practice martial arts simply because ninety percent of their enemies would just flat out break before they ever had a need to pull off anything more than a basic punch or kick."

I shook my head. "With the Ash I'm a brute, yeah. But without it I'm still a normal human underneath. Knock me out and stick me on a plane where I can't use ash or fire and I'm completely screwed. I can learn techniques. Make myself more effective against other brutes and if I don't have my ash one day for whatever reason I can at least do something...err...if I don't burn the place down first but- Right now I don't have any muscles on me. Not like yours or any other heroes." I said, holding out my arms to show the very noticeable lack of any real definition on them.

She tilted her head, smiling a bit before nodding. "I suppose. If this is gonna start we're gonna start it right though. First we'll need to work out a suitable exercise program. Our doctors can draw you up a nice dietary and workout regimen."

I blinked. "But...I thought we already have a good exercise program."

Her eyes crinkled with mirth. "Not by my standards we don't."

Huh...

"I..I guess." I answered before taking a breath, gathering enough courage to keep on insisting. "But, I wanna learn martial arts. How to take down people." Her smirk grew a bit. "Non lethally."

"Well, Aegis can start you off with a few pointers. He's the Ward I've taught the most Martial Arts to. He'll get you started with the basic holds and escapes."

"Why can't it be you?" I blurted then blushed, color seeping up my neck to the tips of my ears. "Sorry! I-I mean."

She laughed. "Its fine hun. Two reasons. One; you did just kind of drop this on me. I'll have to rearrange some things to fit my schedule. Since Triumph and Aegis more or less graduated my training. I haven't needed to take out the time to teach. Just my own personal practice regimen. And second, as you pointed out without your ash, which is how I intend to teach you, you're a normal human girl. You have to build up some resistance in order to get through the first few sessions with me."

It stung a bit, knowing that she thought I couldn't keep up...but it was fair. And she was gonna help me. She promised. And she kept her last promise to me. Punishing the trio. I nodded. "Alright."

She returned the gesture, winking. "If nothing else, think of it as a good teammate bonding exercise between you and him." She nodded to herself, seemingly satisfied. "You've only been on patrol with him twice right?"

"Him and Browbeat yeah." I feel almost bad due to me partnering up with Vista, Gallant, and Clockblocker more than Kid Win, Aegis, and Browbeat. It may have been due to my power matching well with a support rather than two heavy hitters together. And I think the heroes knew that as well, Armsmaster did draw up our schedules and who partners with who and he did seem like the type to go for effectiveness more than anything.

"By the way if you don't mind me asking." She drawled, the eyebrow hiked up again. "Why come to me?"

"Eidetic memory." I answered. Hanna's eyebrows rose a little so I explained. "Everyone says you have Eidetic memory, and with your power basically being guns I figured you have to know Martial arts and unlike Armsmaster or Dauntless than can almost always use their weapons and not risk killing someone you have to have more practice than them."

She nodded, seemingly pleased. "Alright. I'm happy. At any rate check in with Aegis on grappling and non lethal martial arts." Hannah said as she leaned back in her chair. "I have to get back to work." I shrugged and nodded.

"Thanks Miss Mil-I mean Hannah. Which do you prefer?" I asked, seeing her lips curve a little.

"Hannah without the mask hun." She said turning on her computer system. I turned and left her office and began to make my way to the Wards dorm.

Passing by a few PRT workers and officers on the way, they greeted me and I nodded back, still getting used to the acknowledgement.

Soon enough though I exited the elevator and entered the dorm. I noticed Dennis lounging on the couch, and I heard Chris in his room working on...whatever he was working on.

"Hey Dennis." He perked up, looking over the couch and yawning.

"Yes burny boss lady?" He smacked his lips.

I frowned at the name but decided not to really pry. Dennis was Dennis. "Know where Carlos is? I wanna ask him on something." I saw him rub his eyes.

"I think...he's in the gym. Third floor." He muttered as he fell back onto the couch. Must be exhausted from the double shift he did last night. I nod and head up to my room.

My room was still a bit colorless, but that is changing. I have the colored sheets of my choosing on my bed and pillows. My school binders and backpack by my desk and laptop. I went to my clothes cabinet and began rummaging through and found my workout clothes. In several minutes I put on a sports bra, T-shirt, workout shorts, and running shoes. I ran downstairs and drank through an entire bottle of water, Dennis' snoring now. I finished the bottle and tossed it down the recycling shoot. There's separate shoots for food, garbage, and recycling items. Heard Armsmaster does something with the recyclables. What he does is anyone's guess. I exited the dorm and jogged down to the elevator and rode it to the third floor. Down the hall on the right was the door leading into the PRT gym.

I entered, seeing how large the gym was. There was two rows of twelve treadmills, and some next to them even had oxygen tanks and masks. I saw numerous of the up to date weight lifting machines with rather large canisters to their side. I realized the canisters were for inputting in more weight. I heard grunting and turned towards the source.

Working on his pecs, I saw Carlos breathing, pulling up hundred pound weights on each arm and my eyes rose up as I looked at him. And...good god those arms.

I heard music blazing and I notice he was wearing earphones and he perked up. "Oh. Taylor." He let the machine relax and stood up. He was in sweats and a wife-beater esque T-shirt. "What's up?" He asked as he removed his earphones and reached down towards a white towel and wiped his brow. I blink and shake my head.

Taylor you were oggling your colleague! A part of me hisses.

Another part of me shoots back that I'm a socially inept fifteen year old; not a dead one.

"N-Nothing! I...I was asking you for, ummm...a f-favor." I stuttered, licking my lips. Carlos was wiping his face with the towel, looking at me.

"You look like you wanna work out or something. You're a Brute though right?"

I decided to use the same answer I used with Miss M. Reciting it might give me enough time to pick up my brain form wherever it wandered off to. "With my ash yeah. Without it, I'm...just a normal girl. I have like, zero muscle tone and no stamina. I was, well, wondering if you could teach me how to fight. Use takedowns, grapples, and escapes." Carlos smiled and let out a small laugh.

"Really now?" He asked as he reached down for his water bottle and took a deep swig. "You're covering all of your bases. Smart." He winked my way and I'm pretty sure my cheeks turned pink. Here I was, standing in front of a ripped, pretty good looking Hispanic teenager my age-

Professional Taylor! Be professional!

"Y-Yeah...If I get somewhere where fire isn't an option and my ash is a no go too, then, I'm practically a goner so...at least I could defend myself, do something in case a scenario like that happens."

"Well. In that case, I'd be happy to help ya." He grinned, excited at the prospect. "Dean works out with Glory Girl at a gym outside the PRT, for obvious reasons. And Missy does her own private work out. Battery trains her sometimes. Kid Win and Dennis would probably shoot themselves before deciding to actually go with hand to hand, even in training. Assault helps them when he can."

I smirked. "Least we know why Assault is a bit of a clown. Dennis was a bad influence. Or is it the other way around? I can't tell these days."

He choked as he almost spat out his water. "Never thought of it like that." He laughed. "Anyways." He wrapped his towel on the back of his neck. "I take it you came here thinking you wanna go to the mat and I start tossing you around like a rag doll?"

"Uhhh…" I was at a loss. I was actually, expecting to learn how to grapple with Carlos right off the bat. I was ready and expected to have my face meet the mat once or thirteen times. "Yeah?"

"Well, this is something I learned from Miss Militia when I joined." Carlos and I walked through the gym. "Before we go into any contact or me throwing you into the mat like those pro wrestler guys. You're gonna need to learn the fundamentals, and to get there, you need to be conditioned."

"I run." I said. True, I actually run OUTSIDE of PRT HQ around the concrete jungle that is Brockton Bay. I just...didn't like running on treadmills. I actually wanted to go someplace. See the world, feel the wind against me. Was it a bit risky? It yes, but I promised Armsmaster and Miss Militia to stay within sight of the PRT Headquarters in case something were to happen. I did that, staying in sight, but it felt so...boring. I've already seen the sights around HQ and the city blocks next to it as well as the beach. I want to explore!

"There's more to conditioning than running. You could have a good Cardio but you may not have good muscle tone on ya or flexibility." Carlos mentioned. "So to start, we will need to do stretches and exercise everyday. Exercise once, in the mornings preferably. But Stretches twice, once in the morning and once before sleep. In addition, we can get you started a bit on weight training, though you need to go light. No offense, but it looks like you have chicken wings." He shrugged.

I frowned. He was right, my arms had no tone or muscle to them. I could possibly lift up a car with my ash around me but without? I could barely lift up nearly half my weight.

"None taken." I muttered. "So how long do we focus on that?"

"Several weeks at least. A month or two at most. Plus you need to make sure you're on the right diet."

"Yeah, Hannah said she'll tell the doctors."

He raised an eyebrow. "Really? She must be busy then."

"Why's that?"

"She normally draws up the diet plans of the Wards when asked."

"She does?" I asked. Carlos looked at me skeptically.

"Didn't you see that degree in Nutritional Science from Northwestern University in her office? She spent time in Chicago before coming here to the Bay. Just because we're heroes doesn't mean we can't get an education."

No...Not at all. I really had to pay more attention to stuff like that. "Okay. So can we get started now?"

"Yeah sure. Let's warm up with stretches first. Then, we hit the weights. We'll get you something appropriate. " He was reaching the tinsy tiny five pound ones. I blushed and punched his arm.

"I'm not that weak!" I yelled, and he laughed.

"This is probably the first time I've seen you be flustered over exercise." He grinned ear to ear. "You look cute embarrassed."

I was blushing from my neck to the tips of my ears I was sure. I gave him another hit to his arm, though he only laughed it off. I know it was in good fun but dangit stop making fun of me!

Still...Better than Winslow. Far better than Winslow...enjoyable even.

"Right lets get started." He said taking a stance, feet shoulder width apart. "Do as I do."

Over the next hour, we went over various stretches and Carlos seemed really in depth about them. Then again, his power lets him know his body the best, so I guess it was only natural for him to know just how much my limbs and tendons could stretch with my lack of practice. I knew I was gonna be sore tomorrow, especially in my upper torso more than the legs I excersize in my runs already; but it'd be worth it I was sure.

At the other side of the Gym I was aware of someone else marching in. I didn't recognize him. He waved and I saw Carlos wave back before the man walked towards the combat training area. I turned my attention back to Carlos.

About ten minutes later I heard grunting and yelling and looked over, seeing the combat room through the glass door. The guy was going at it with several moving human-dummy drones that had various color indicators whenever he struck a spot with a spear.

Wait, a spear? As I did another stretch, reaching for my ankle, I looked at Carlos. "Hey Carlos. That who I think it is?"

"Oh." Carlos looked over, seeing the man run around within the enclosed room. "Yep. That's Dauntless. Sorry. Forget you haven't seen all the Protectorate out of costume yet."

I got a better look at him, and he seemed to be around the same height as Carlos and looked to be in his late twenties. Maybe early thirties? He was clean shaven as opposed to Armsmaster, he had dark brown hair formed in a buzz cut, and was ripped in muscle, but not bulky like Carlos. More lean and tight.

Its official the PRT males are walking fanservice material. I looked away, knowing that my cheeks are burning pink. We continued to do stretches and light exercises for a few minutes to the background noise of Dauntless practicing; by the end of which I knew I was gonna be sore in the morning, healing statues or no.

Speaking of which, I was glad there was no ash here. If there was they'd probably show up and might just undo all my hard work.

"Ten minute break." Carlos nodded. "Grab some water. Don't sit or lie down. Stay standing."

I nodded, getting up off the mat to march over towards the water cooler in the corner.

I drank greedily before I heard footsteps coming closer; Dauntless it seemed decided to take a break too.

"Yo. How's it going?" He said, wiping his brow with a towel. "You guys working on anything specific?"

"No not really." Carlos shrugged. "Just exercise for now. Tay wants to learn some fighting moves in the future."

"Ahh conditioning then. Nice." The man nodded. "Oh, I haven't given ya my civie name. It's Nick. Nick Dole." He offered a hand. I shook it, knowing how strong his grip is. "Say Taylor, mind if I ask ya something as well? Been meaning to since our fight with the Merchants."

"Yeah?" I asked

"You used a sword right? Like, a sword made of ash when you fought Limbo."

That's right. I did make a sword of ash when I fought her. Hadn't given that much thought. "Yeah."

"How did you do that?"

"I...well, I just kind of wanted a weapon. Just a stick or something. My imagination must have decided to do sword instead. It was still blunt no matter what it looked like so it was still just a... fancy stick."

"Huh." He nodded in thought. "So where'd you train?"

I blinked.

"Come again?"

"Where'd you learn to fight with a sword?" He repeated, drinking his water. "It was rough but there was definitely technique there."

"I...what?"

He finally seemed to catch on. "Wait...you mean to tell me you haven't had any formal training?"

I shook my head.

"That's…" He paused, as though trying to gather his thoughts. "I'll have to see the videos again...but I could have sworn that you did."

I shook my head again. Now I had to go and watch the videos.

He shrugged. "Well if that's the case. I was gonna ask you to be my sparring partner for pure swordsmanship and weapon fighting. But if you like, I would teach you instead. I'm damn sure you at the very least have a talent for it." I perked up.

"R-Really?" I stuttered.

"Definitely." Nick smiled warmly. "I wouldn't mind a sparring partner. Armsmaster used tech more than technique with his weapons and combat style. Besides, I think with you learning Martial Arts and weapon fighting, I think you would make out to be a well rounded hero."

"Oh...I...uhh..I don't know..I wouldn't want to get in the way."

Carlos snickered. I made a point to kick him later...while wearing my ash.

"Relax, you wouldn't. I insist. I can teach ya how to fight once you're able to handle Carlos in the mat. By then, your body will be toned up for the rigors of swordsmanship."

Okay.

Okay...

Two hot guys offering to train me in combat.

Two very very hot guys...

I believe I might have made a decent impression of a bobblehead when I nodded.