Chapter 3-7

"And our conquering heroes return!" Dennis shouted faux-enthusiastically as we boarded the Rig. "C'mon, Carlos's got us a conference room. We can get to the debriefing right away."

"You're excited for a debriefing?" I asked.

"Just this one. You won't believe the crazy footage you guys made. I swear, it's like watching a real-life action movie. Really wish we could put it on Parahumans Online."

Missy nudged me and said: "Don't worry about him, he's always like this. Too much sugar." I nodded in response. Just keep quiet and the silly young man will go away.

"Oh, c'mon Missy, it's not every day that we get front-row seats to an awesome ninja flick. Especially one where thirty-odd grown men brown their pants."

"I'm not that scary…" I responded, a little more defensively than I'd have liked.

"No, you really are." Missy said, smiling softly. "Trust me, you are. Remember back in the office? It's like watching a movie with the sound turned off. You punch a guy in the face and I can't hear a thing. Really creepy. No wonder the big, bad troopers were scared of you. Did you see their faces when Piggot said you took down Lung?"

"I…didn't, really." Strange, now that I thought about it. How did I not notice an entire room full of men staring at me? Well, I was listening to Piggot at the time and letting my guard down. Probably shouldn't do that in the future.

"You didn't? They didn't gasp, or anything?" Missy kind of had a point. I should have picked up on that, at least.

"I wasn't really listening to them. The director was talking and she's a lot more important."

"Very true. Guess people can sneak up on you, huh?"

"Unfortunately…" I really need to work on my habits. Who knows when a villain could show up an ruin my day?

"I've been thinking: you'd make a great mime." Dennis said. He's on one of his weird little tangents again, isn't he? "Seriously, if you ever get sick of the ninja theme, you can always go with that."

"Dennis…" Missy warned. It was so cute, seeing her angry. That said, I wish Dennis got the hint. I really don't like the idea of me being scary. I'm trying to be a hero, not a boogeyman.

"It's brilliant, I tell you! Just paint over your armor and…" I snapped my fingers and sound stopped coming out of his mouth. Blissful silence at last.

Wait, did I just break a rule by using my power on a teammate?

"That…is the best power in the history of all mankind." Chris said. "You should show that trick to Piggy. She'll love you forever."

Miss Militia coughed to get my attention. "Taylor, you know you're not supposed to use your power on a teammate, right?"

"We are if it's necessary." Missy said. "Chapter 6, section 3."

"And how is shutting up Clockblocker necessary?"

Without missing a beat, the girl replied: "How is shutting up Clockblocker not necessary?"

The heroine looked at Dennis, who was doing his best to dramatically climb out of an invisible box. "Good point. Carry on, Banshee."

"Yes, ma'm." I said, matching Miss Militia's grin. I'll turn the power off when we get to the conference room. Sure, it's harmless, but Dennis might actually have something important to say. He's still the senior Ward, after all.

In the conference room, we found Carlos along with a ridiculously muscular, costumed man. No, man was the wrong word. He sounded like a teenager when he talked, but he didn't exactly look like one. No normal teenager had muscles like that. On second thought, normal adults wouldn't have a build like that either. Not without excessive use of steroids and even then…

The boy stepped forward and held out a hand. "You must be the new girl everyone's talking about." He said with a 'winning' smile. "I'm Browbeat in costume, but you may call me John." Carlos sighed and shook his head.

I idly shook John's hand, unable to get over the fact that those muscles were just so…odd. It was part of his power, wasn't it? It had to be. Either that, or he spends every waking hour in the gym. "Umm, hi…nice to meet you." Look at me, stumbling over my words again. "Look, this is going to keep bugging me if I don't ask, but are those muscles real? I mean, it's like you've been photoshopped…"

The Wards behind me smirked. Smooth, Taylor.

"Browbeat's powers are short range telekinesis and biokinesis." Carlos explained.

John quickly interrupted him. "Basically, I hit like a truck with my telekinesis and alter my body to heal wounds and such."

That actually very useful. Still, there's one thing bugging me. "If you can change your body at will, why are you trying to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger? I mean, you already hit like a truck. All that extra muscle is just a waste. Wouldn't it be more helpful to, say, go with a runner's build to boost your speed, or a gymnast's for agility, then to bulk up on muscle that you won't use much anyway?"

Browbeat looked a little annoyed. The others on the other hand: Chris and Dennis could barely contain their laughter, Dean looked like he was fighting something from the inside, Missy shot me the most sympathetic look I've ever seen, and Carlos just smirked before saying. "Told you…"

"Fine." John shook his head and sat down.

I was missing something. I have no idea what, but there was an in-joke here somewhere and I'm not sure who exactly was the butt of the joke.

Carlos coughed to get everyone's attention again, before motioning us to take a seat facing the room's projector. "Anyway, on to the reason why I bothered getting you all here: Debriefing. Let me be the first to say this: Dean, Chris, Missy, Taylor, you guys kicked ass today. You got in without raising an alarm, got out without losing anybody, and left over half of the PRT guys tied up or foamed. I'm proud of you." A round of applause followed, though it sounded a little silly with so few of us being there. "Anyway, I want to put Taylor in the spotlight here, being that she's new to the Brockton Bay Wards and we should figure out how her powers fit in with the rest of us. You don't mind, right Taylor?"

Oh great. I really don't like being the center of attention. Too many bad experiences. "Not really. It's important."

Carlos nodded and continued. "Fair enough. Miss Militia gave us Taylor's, or rather Banshee's, file and it said 'Stranger, Brute, Shaker'. You tried using her as an assassin and have her use stealth and the element of surprise to pick off squads when the troopers spread out trying to contain Movers like Dean and Chris. Basically, the same thing we tried to do with Sophia when she…" He paused, looking at me with a pained expression. "Sorry."

For what? Oh, right, for mentioning Sophia in my presence. "Don't walk on eggshells around me, okay? I'm a big girl, Carlos. I'm not going to bite your head off for saying her name."

"Just making sure. I know how you feel about it…"

"And if I ever see Sophia again, I'll be sure to punch her lights out." Maybe not the smartest thing to say, but hey, the bitch would fucking deserve it. "Now, you were saying something about me being an assassin?"

Carlos grunted and got back on track. Honestly, though, it was sweet of him to care. "Right. We have her picking off high-value targets and the like. While that's a good idea in theory, I think today has proven that she can do a hell of a lot more. I have to ask, Taylor, are you absolutely sure you've never been in a fight before, apart from that thing with Lung?"

"No. Not one where I used my powers, anyway. Why?"

Carlos pressed a few buttons on the table and a video started to play. I quickly picked up on what it was: footage of me taking out my first squad of PRT troopers. "First of all: you slipping into that closet just in time. Even with a thinker power, the timing of it…"

"I was bullied on a daily basis, Carlos. It's a survival skill. After I triggered, I quickly learned how to listen for the bullies and disappear when one of them would come looking for me. Figured it might work here."

"That actually says a lot…" Dennis muttered. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I meant that as a compliment." I glared daggers into the boy. "No really, you're scary as fuck in a good way. Just watch the video."

The video ran, first showing me disabling two of the soldiers without their buddies knowing what went on. Then, I eliminated two of the others with my fists before taking out the leader. Looking at it from this perspective, it was almost surreal. Seeing the other me silently taking someone down was bizarre. Seeing the other me do it while no one was reacting was even worse. It's like the whole takedown had been edited in afterwards. I knew it wasn't, but still… Part of me felt like I wanted it to be fake. The Banshee in the video was me, but the movements looked so fluid, so…inhuman…

God help me, I'm the monster in a horror movie…

"See?" Dennis said. "Exactly what I meant. Totally awesome."

Wait, what?

"Anyway," Carlos said, raising his voice a little "the point I'm trying to make is that Banshee over here is a lot more versatile than we thought. Unlike most Strangers, you're still useful even after you've been spotted. I think we could easily use you on the frontline. If necessary, of course."

"We already have you and Browbeat doing the heavy lifting." Missy added. "We need her stealth more than we need her firepower. Don't forget her brains. Listening in on the troopers and convincing them to turn on their own squad was all her idea."

Our leader nodded. "True, but it's good to keep our options open. Never know when we need the extra muscle. I'd like to be prepared either way."

Chris took the opportunity to speak up. "What about the containment foam thing? That stuff's supposed to be unbreakable but Taylor managed to get out somehow."

"Concentrated waves of sound." I explained. "I can break up pretty much anything with them if I try hard enough. Apparently it works on foam too."

"How did you get caught anyway?" Dean asked. "You were fast enough to dodge them earlier."

"I got distracted." Stupid of me, really. I didn't like admitting it, but this was a training session and we're supposed to learn from our mistakes. "Missy's power does really weird things to sound. I lost focus for a moment and…well…"

"A moment is all it takes." Missy finished for me. "Say what you want about the troopers, they're quick on their feet. Anyway, this is important. We should practice and make sure it doesn't happen again."

Carlos smiled. "Good thinking. Oh, and Taylor: there's a copy of this and other training videos available on the local intranet. Take a look when you get the proper clearance. They're really helpful. So, onto the next victim: Vista. I suppose I should thank you for not sending the troopers to the moon, or something…"

"Hey, that's a great idea!" The girl answered excitedly.

"…but what is it with you and faces? I know it's a great way to disable someone, but it's too risky. Inhaling containment foam is bad. You've been to the safety seminars more often than I have. You should know better by now. Try aiming for the legs, next time." Missy pouted at the dressing-down, but she didn't seem particularly upset. Probably heard this before. "Then, we have Chris…"

The guy shifted nervously in his seat. "Oh, boy."

"I have one thing to say to you: You are not a matador. PRT officers are not raging bulls. Cut it out." I was half-tempted to ask them to elaborate, but decided against it. This wasn't the time and the place. I could always get the videos later.

"Yes, boss, sir."

Apparently, Carlos was content with that. "So, last, but certainly not least…"

Dean shook his head. "I already know what you're going to say."

"We have our differences when it comes to leadership." Carlos seemed…annoyed. I think he's had this conversation with Dean before. Probably more than once.

"Wards need to be able to act on their own in case we're ever cut off or alone. We shouldn't train ourselves in blindly following the leader. We had a plan and we followed it through. Everyone did their part and we won, big time."

"One of these days, the 'everyone does their thing' approach is going to come and bite us." Carlos was looking increasingly exasperated. Funnily enough, so was Dean.

"One of these days, excessive micromanagement's going to do the same thing, Carlos. Honestly, with all the weird powers out there, we need to be able to go solo and make our own decisions. We just can't rely on the chain of command staying intact all the time."

Carlos sighed, realizing that he wasn't getting anywhere. "Okay, how about this: Let's play a videogame tonight, your pick. I win, you actually follow my advice for once the next time we train. You win, you do what you want. Deal?"

"You're on, boss." Dean replied, grinning.

"Good." Our leader said, smiling. "Well, I think that covers everything, unless one of you has a question?"

Thinking back to the foam gun, I asked: "Can I keep the sprayer? I really liked using it."

"Actually," Miss Militia interrupted "you can't. I'm sorry, but there's a whole battery of regulations keeping you from doing that." This was actually the first time she's spoken. Odd that she didn't say anything during the debriefing itself. Maybe she wanted us to try for ourselves before adding anything? Or it was another test…

"Can't I? I mean, I loved the thing. I helped me take out an entire squad in second. Supervillains won't know what hit them."

Miss Militia just shook her head. "Regs still say no. Unless your power really needs the weapon, which it doesn't, the PRT won't make an exception for you either."

"Why not?"

"Because technically, the Wards aren't supposed to do any real fighting against other capes. Containment foam is something we use against the kind of supervillain that can't be restrained by handcuffs. We shouldn't be putting you in a situation where it's necessary. You probably won't even need one. Not while you're a Ward."

"That, and seeing Wards with guns gives off the whole 'child soldier' vibe that the PR department is trying to avoid." Dennis said. That actually made a lot of sense. My dad would never have let me join if he thought I was going to become a part of some sort of army. Even if that was essentially what has happened.

Miss Militia ignored him and continued. "What I can do, Taylor, is sign you up for firearms training. You still won't be able to carry a real weapon in the field until you graduate into the Protectorate, but it would grease the wheels if you still think you'll need it when you turn eighteen."

That…She'd…God, this was a huge favor. I didn't know why the prospect of handling a gun excited me so much, but I couldn't help myself. "I…I'd appreciate that, ma'm. Thank you."

"No problem." She replied with a smile.

With that settled, Carlos spoke up again. "Well, then, you're dismissed. So, who wants to see Dean get his ass kicked?"

The group started laughing and ran to the Wards' lounge. Wait, we have a lounge? Before I realized what was going on, Missy had all but dragged me along with them.

Apparently we do.

"Dean totally got this one in the bag." The girl said.

Guess I got to make this a bet, right? "Well, for the sake of being contrarian, my money's on Carlos."

"I'll bet you a Snickers over that."

"You're on."

It was good, having a friend again.