Mouse Protector smiled with delight! Honesty is the best policy as long as honesty keeps out the nasty parts of the story. For some reason, Director Piggot looked glum about it. Which was strange, because Mouse Protector was certain everyone loved it when she told her stories.

"You didn't think to contact us?" Piggot asked from her office desk. Mouse Protector shrugged, trying not to get distracted by the jar of colorful marbles that sat on the edge of her desk.

Armsmaster leaned back on the wall next to her. He looked down at Mouse Protector sitting on the chair and asked, "what about the kids?"

"I'll be meeting them later today," Mouse Protector stretched her arms while sitting, "I'm sure I can convince them to join the Wards."

"You seem relaxed." Armsmaster noted.

"Why wouldn't I be? We saved Theo, beat the bad guys, and I might get a bonus check for recruiting two new Wards."

Director Piggot sneered at her, "you put two rogues in danger last night, and you're smiling about it?"

Mouse Protector snorted, "well, when you mix words together, you can make anything sound bad. And to be fair, I think we were only in danger when Purity showed up."

Armsmaster shook his head, "I disagree, I think it got worst when you intentionally provoked Lung."

Mouse Protector waved her hand, "couldn't be helped. He had Chinese tattooes, I had to say something."

"Except that was a lie," Armsmaster said in a stern tone. "You weren't the one that provoked Lung. Everything else you said was true, but that tiny detail was a lie."

"Well-"

"And Lung couldn't have retreated when he was winning. You, two new heroes, and Purity, aren't enough scare Lung off that easily. More capes were with you, weren't they?"

"Er-"

"The Loser's blogs." Armsamster interrupted, "they made references to fighting ninjas last night, around the same time your story took place."

Oh tarter sauce, Mouse Protector thought to herself. "I don't work with terrorists!" Mouse Protector argued.

"That was lie."

Mouse Protector squinted at him. "You ruin fun. Check your helmet if that was a lie."

Piggot glared at her. "You worked for the Losers last night."

"Well…" Mouse Protector's grin was crooked, "thing is, the Losers knew where the ABB rings were, so I had to let them tag along."

Director Piggot's eyes widened, "wait, how did they know that?"

"Er, they do stakeouts every three days."

Director Piggot rubbed at her eyebrows. All those anonymous tips the PRT had received suddenly made sense. She thought it was some independent detective, or some unknown cape giving them the intel, but the fucking Losers? Director Piggot growled, "Your job was to give them a taste of their own medicine, not be on the same fucking side as them!"

Mouse Protector shivered, she remembered that Piggot could treat her with less courtesy than she did to Ward and Protectorate members. Mouse Protector argued, "on the bright side, at least they didn't record it!"

Armsmaster mentioned, "they started a kickstarter campaign for rat poisoning."

She gasped, "those traitors!" The two PRT members glared at her. Mouse Protector added, "not that… We were ever on the same team, or anything."

"You're lying." Armsmaster said.

"Stop talking, your words never help!"

Director Piggot stood up from her chair, "two potential Wards in one night. You put them in an ABB stakeout, risked their lives to face off against Lung and Oni Lee, when you were asked to call the Protectorate if you had any leads. Those kids could've been killed, are you out of your fucking mind!?"

Mouse Protector blinked. "Was that a rhetorical question?"

Director Piggot added, "you quit the Protectorate because a ward died under your mentorship, and you almost repeated that same mistake with two people. Can't you think with your goddamn brain!?"

She froze. They both did. That was the biggest regret Mouse Protector had in her cape career, and Piggot threw it into her face just to get under her skin. After a long moment of silence, Director Piggot sat back down on her desk and made a decision.

"I'm cutting you off," Director Piggot said. "As a rogue hero, we wanted you to work with our team, but I can now see that you can't follow orders. You're better off solo, and as such, you're no longer welcomed to use PRT facilities."

It was really the only thing Piggot could do. Katherine wasn't part of the Protectorate, and she was only in Brockton Bay on invitation. But the PRT didn't owe really her anything. "Okay," Katherine said softly. She slowly removed her mask. "I… understand."

Armsmaster's helmet told him she was telling the truth. When Armsmaster opened the door to the office, Mouse Protector shouted, "but you can't fire me, because I quit!"

She tipped the desk's jar of marbles onto the floor, and teleported away.

XXX

It was nice outside. A little cloudy, but rain wouldn't come until tomorrow. Theo sat on the park swing set with a light swinging from his seat. He looked down at the ground with a long gaze because he wasn't actually present.

The ABB could find him. Just having his identity known put him at danger. He needed allies, but his family secrets limited that. The last thing Theo wanted was to become a criminal, but joining the Wards would be going against his father. His only option was to go solo like he'd always wanted to. But the ABB fight from the night before showed him how wrong everything could become.

Rush stared at him with calm eyes, "If the blood covers your yur eyes, I can cut through him to get to you."

Theo shivered. For a long time, Theo imagined what it would be like to be a cape. He even wondered if he could become friends with the Losers. But that fantasy had now ended, all his dreams had hit a roadblock because of the reality of what happened last night.

Kayden knew the truth too. Theo was avoiding her, not wanting her to tell him anything, hoping she wouldn't tell his father. Kayden had told him how she wanted to reform the E88. Theo believed her genuinity, but if he spoke to her, would she ask for him to join? Could she convince him to be a part of the new E88? What if he was recruited, and it turned out Kayden was wrong? There's no bouncing back from joining a nazi gang.

"Hey, Theo."

Theo's head shot up. His eyes stared blankly at the girl in front of him. "Bug Girl?"

She wasn't intimidating, in fact, the glasses were kind of curly black hair went below the shoulders, and Theo didn't mind that she was slightly taller than him.

She nodded, "my name is Taylor, and I'm actually still deciding on the cape name."

Taylor took a seat at the swing set next to him. Theo had started a message board on parahumans online for 'the heroes that fought godzilla', and they agreed to meet at the park nearest to his home.

Taylor asked in a soft tone, "Theo, I know you've been through a lot, but… Are you alright?" As soon as she said it Taylor thought it was a stupid question. Of course he wasn't alright. His life had been on the line, in so much danger that he triggered as a result. And for one reason or another, being a Ward wouldn't help him.

Theo shook his head, "No… I'm not alright. I… Things are weird now, and I don't know what to do."

"I think we've all been there," Taylor said.

"I always dreamed about having powers, you know? I thought having powers would be great, but now that it's happened… I know I'm actually just stuck with them."

"Yeah," she agreed, remembering from when she first triggered to when she finally decided to use her powers to stop the Losers. "I think all parahumans feel that way, in one way or another."

They both fell quiet, except it wasn't awkward. In fact, the silence was nice. This was the first time either of them could talk with a wannabe hero their own age. There was less pressure than there could be anywhere else, it was like barriers could dissipate between them.

Taylor attracted a firefly to her finger tip. "But hey, at least you've got stone statues at your side. I'm the one trying to be a hero with creepy powers."

"With a name like Spawnchild? The world must be so confused now."

"Brockton Bay, the city of racist bad guys, Losers who always win, and heroes who don't join the Wards."

Theo frowned, feeling disingenuous around Taylor. "I do want join the Wards, but I can't. I always thought if I had powers, I could've… Met people?"

"Make friends?" Taylor completed the thought for him.

"Yeah, I thought getting powers would help me make friends." He shook his head, realizing how stupid that sounded. "But I forgot the Wards were never an option, I should've known better than to think that getting powers was a good thing."

"But I have to ask, why are the Wards not an option?"

"I... " Theo looked at Taylor. Could he trust her? They were both capes, after all. Willing to trust each other with their secret identities. He wasn't a nazi, so could he trust Taylor with his family secret? Looking up, Theo noticed a student in an Immacula high school uniform walking towards them. Theo's eyes widened, "Amir?"

Amir waved his arm at them as he approached. He was a broad, wide shouldered muscular student with an athletic body build. His slick black hair was combed back on his square jawed head. Theo, and the rest of their school, knew him as the star athlete of the Immacula high baseball team.

Reaching the swing set, Amir smiled at them, which felt disingenuous from Theo's perspective. Theo knew Amir as the kid who only stayed with the 'popular' kids, never talking outside his social circle like strangers weren't worth his time. He'd normally never talk to a chubby kid like Theo. In the math class they shared, Amir was always intent on not talking to other students, Theo guessed it was because Amir didn't like math geeks.

"You're… Browbeat!?"

Amir nodded. Taylor glanced between the both of them, noticing Theo's shock and Amir's casualness. She asked, "do you both... know each other?"

"We, um…"

"We're classmates," Amir answered.

Theo nodded slowly. Taylor told him that Browbeat would come to talk too, but Theo never imagined that Browbeat was Amir. A part of Theo felt envious. Amir had everything, reputation, athletic prowse, girls wanting to go out with him. And with this meeting, Theo just found out he had powers on top of all of that. Just how perfect could a guy's life be?

Theo glanced at Taylor and then back at Amir. He asked, "are…. You both going out?"

"No," they both answered at the same time.

Theo let out a sigh of relief, but also wondered if he could even compete against a guy like Amir. After a moment of silence, Amir skipped the formalities and asked, "Taylor and I decided to join the Wards. We wanted you to join too."

Theo stared, "I already told you I can't join. Why can't you both just take my word on that?"

"Because you're not giving a reason," Amir said in an apathetic tone. "Expecting us to take your word without reason isn't a reason to take your word. The Wards offer a lot of aid, and being a rogue hero is like throwing your life away compared to that. Of course I'm skeptical when you say you can't join."

"Just get off my case," Theo yelled. "Amir, you get everything you want. Everyone in school likes you, you're an athlete, girls like you, and now you get to be Ward? Things aren't easy for me like they are for you."

Amir didn't flinch, "all those things have to do with me, but not you. I'll be honest, I don't care what you do. Taylor just wants what's best for you. So unless you can give me a real reason not to join, not joining seems asinine."

Theo sneered, "if Mouse Protector could solo, so can I."

"Even more asinine," Amir said.

"Shut the hell up." Theo yelled standing up, "just mind your own damn business."

Amir stepped closer to Theo. His large body overshadowed Theo's smaller, chubbier stature. "Make me," Amir said down to him.

Theo gulped, "what?"

"You want to solo, right? Beat me, and show me you can handle yourself in a fight."

Theo swallowed, and took a step away from him. Looking around, Theo realized he had no metal surfaces to construct a golem in the grass covered park. If Amir wanted to, he could choke Theo to death in one quick motion.

Amir said, "See? you'd already be cornered if you fought the wrong person at the wrong place. That's why people need teams. Capes don't last long alone, Mouse Protector works well because she can escape at any given moment. You don't have that option. Stop pretending you're a special case, and join the Wards like the rest of us."

Amir took a step back. Theo's face fell to a complete frown. Even with powers, he couldn't stand up to a fellow classmate, and any confidence he'd had in his powers had just been sorely hit.

"Theo," Taylor said, "neither of us want you to be at risk, and neither of us want you to be a villain. We were hoping the three of us could join together as new recruits, and have each other's back when we got there. If you told us why you can't join, maybe we could help in some way?"

Theo swallowed. Amir was Persian. If he found out his family were nazis, what would he do to him? Theo shook his head, refusing to answer.

"Hi."

The three of them turned around. Five feet from where they stood, Light had appeared on the park's grass edge. He stood smiling without a mask, holding a backpack with loose jeans and a black t-shirt. His smile that was identical to Rush's. It was a face they were all familiar with upon meeting him from fight the ABB.

"I-" before he could speak, a swarm of bugs surrounded his perimeter. Without hesitation, Amir ran through the wall of bugs to thrash his body against Light's. Amir grabbed and tussled Light to the ground, pinning him with his weight and super strength to prevent Light from escaping.

Over the sound of bugs buzzing, Light yelled, "dear god, you guys don't miss a beat."

"How did you find us?" The bug swarm said in a loud hissing buzz. They swarmed around Amir and Light, creating a vortex of hostile bugs over them.

Light yelled, "truce! Truce! I surrender!"

"How did you find us?" Amir and the bug swarm hissed at the same time.

"I can't think under pressure!" Light yelled.

"You fought Lung," Amir commented with his neck hold.

Light shook his head quickly, "did it look like I was thinking back there!?"

Amir nodded to Taylor, and Taylor's bugs dissipated quickly. Amir had explained before that Light couldn't 'shift' through physical grasps, so his hold would've been enough to block his escape. It was easy for Amir and Taylor to know each other's gestures, because they both thought very tactically.

Relieved that the bugs were called off, Light said, "my name's Vivan, by the way."

Amir didn't say anything. Vivan added, "still the strong silent type I see. I feel like making an innuendo joke the way you're holding me down."

"I thought the innuendos were Rush's thing."

Vivan raised an eyebrow, "it is? I seriously hadn't noticed."

Taylor walked up next to him. In a cold, harsh voice she said, "why are you here? You saw us without our masks, just because we saw your face, that doesn't give you the right."

Vivan swallowed, and gave a crooked grin. "I honestly thought it wasn't a big deal, my team knows half the secret identities in this city. It wasn't like we'd tell anyone."

Theo and Taylor glanced at each other. Theo asked, "what's that supposed to mean?"

Vivan sighed, "Browbeat, your hands are choking me. Can I-"

"No," Amir said, keeping him to the ground.

Vivan rolled his eyes. "The ABB and Merchants hardly have identities, their cape lives are their only lives. We'd rather not collect the Ward identities because the Protectorate would kill us if we dug deep. New Wave are self explanatory, and we've collected half the identities of the E88 but haven't told anyone."

Vivan turned his head to Theo and gave him a wink. Theo's eyes widened, he knew. "So relax guys," Vivan said, "I wasn't gonna tell anyone, I actually came to give you guys the tinker tech I promised."

Taylor asked, "but how did you know we were meeting here?"

Vivan chuckled, "dudes, you're not the only ones who use parahumans online."

Taylor rubbed her eyebrows, she couldn't believe how careless she'd been. As vague as the short messages were, someone who had been there could've easily realized what they were talking about. A tinker like Leet could've seen their messages and realized they were planning to meet at the park near Theo's home..

Vivan asked, "can I uh… Take out my tinker gifts?"

Amir turned to Taylor. Taylor could… Feel the strange insects within his backpack. They were small, yet strong. She could control them, but they felt like a species she'd never known before. Taylor said, "I'm feeling… Bugs in his backpack, bugs that I can control. This seems real, and with three against one, I don't think he could spring a trap on us. I don't even feel his teammates nearby."

Theo glared down at Vivan. Theo said, "but tinker tools can be traps, Leet is proof of that. And his teammates could teleport at us anytime."

Trusting Taylor's judgement, Amir let go. Amir commented, "if this were a trap, his teammates would've teleported when we attacked him. Besides, if this were a trap, there's nothing we could do about it anyway."

Theo gulped. Vivan rubbed at his shoulders as soon as his sat up. "Damn dude, that was hard as hell. Next time, go easy on me. I can't take poundings as well as people think I do."

Amir, Theo, and Taylor stared at him. Vivan paused, "oh my God, I've become my sister."

Theo clenched his fists, "what do you want from us?"

Vivan looked at Theo's tightened hand. Without hesitation he answered, "I wanted to say I'm sorry. We didn't plan on putting you in danger like that, and we didn't want to escalate things the way that it did. You shouldn't have been threatened that way from us."

"Us?" Theo snickered, "you mean her."

Vivan's mouth twitched, "no, that was my fault too. I should've stopped her, but I didn't. I'm as sorry as she is."

Except she wasn't sorry. Vivan spoke to Aryana after that battle, she had no remorse for using Theo as dead weight. Nor did she regret refusing the truce with Purity. It disgusted Vivan. For the first time, he'd seen the true apathetic side of his sister that he'd always known had existed.

As was disappointed as he was in her, Vivan was even more disappointed in himself. Ever since Sabrina had nearly died, decision making was scaring him. He'd let Aryana make wrong decisions out of fear of responsibility. He should've known better than to let Aryana decide things like that.

Vivan wanted to apologize, both on his behalf and on behalf of his sister.

Theo looked at Vivan for awhile, and asked, "was she serious with what she said back then? Did she really want to use me… Like that?'

"Of course not," Vivan lied with ease, "it was a bluff. That's why she counted down, she wanted Oni Lee to let go of you, so that me and her could attack him."

Taylor and Amir glanced at each other from behind Theo. They weren't convinced, but Theo felt some restored hope from Vivan's words. Not wanting to lose their trust, Vivan pulled out an iron ball set from his backpack. "Here you go, an apology gift."

Vivan tossed the ball for Theo to catch. Theo's hands fumbled upon catching it, and they all noticed Taylor's bugs buzzing as soon as he tossed it. But Theo managed to grab a hold of it. "What is this?"

"A titanium ball. Designed to be as light as a soft ball due to its magnetic center. It has more matter than it looks, so theoretically speaking, you could pop out a titanium statues from it."

Theo stared at it, and placed it on the ground. Pulling his powers out from the ball, an iron arm pulled out from it. It pulled out looking distorted, but quickly solidified upon growing out more. A head came from its shoulder blade, a torso, and legs pulled out from the magnetic ball. Theo stared at the statue. This one was small, only three feet tall. But he guessed he could make bigger ones if he spent more time on it. How would metal be created from such a small thing? I thought I needed a clear surface to create statues.

Theo turned to Vivan, "this is amazing, how did you-" Looking over, Vivan had his eyes and mouth closed shut. His fingers were plugging his ears.

"What are you doing?"

Vivan opened an eye and saw the newly formed golem. "It worked? That's a relief, I thought the black hole was gonna break out."

Theo stared at the ball, "What?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Why," Taylor asked.

Vivan answered, "Well, I don't know how black holes work, or science for that matter, but Leet said-"

"No," Taylor said. "I mean why are you helping us? We're heroes, we could easily end up using these things against you."

Vivan shrugged, "you guys are just doing what I'd do if I didn't have to be a villain, I don't want you guys to be killed because of that."

They stared at him. Before silence could settle in, Vivan pointed to Taylor, "Spawnchild."

"It's Bug Girl," Taylor corrected. She then shook her head, "no, wait, I mean, I haven't decided a name yet."

"Kay, anyway Bug Girl, I wanted to give you this." Vivan pulled out a jar with a large beetle inside. It was brown, and looked like it had a body of a beetle with an ant shaped torso extending from the front. Like a centaur that was comprised of half beetle and half ant-armored human.

"Meet your newest friend, I call him Antman. Its a genetically engineered bug, designed to have the strongest trait of several species of bugs. The shell is as strong as metal, and they can move fast enough to run on water. The claws give it a strong grip, and if you had several of them, you can make him carry up to several pounds of weight. It can fly, but can actually climb faster than it flies. The stinger has paralysis venom. You can either sting someone to numb their pain, or you could collect several of them completely paralyze a person. The venom is completely non-lethal, the effect wears of in an hour. I figured you wouldn't anything lethal, so you can't really kill anyone with this bug unless you tried really hard."

Taylor noted that the 'Antman' was pregnant. He was giving her the opportunity to create more. "It… Doesn't think like bugs do."

Vivan nodded, "we designed it to not be able to survive on its own. It has a long lifespan, but has no mouth or stomach. It can last a month without food and water, so you'd have to breed it once a month to get hundreds of them. Leaving them alone would just make them hold still and eventually starve to death."

"That's… Clever."

Vivan smiled. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was a trait in Taylor that reminded him of someone he used to know, which only made him want to help her even more. "If you came to our base, we could show you how the Spore machine works. Leet has a machine that lets us create any type of animal or creature. You could design your own bugs if you wanted to."

"You're… Inviting me to your base?"

Vivan nodded, "I bet you know more about the bugs you need than I do. And that Spore machine shouldn't go to waste. Think of the bug I gave as a test sample, feel free to visit anytime you'd like."

"You know she's joining the Wards, right?" Amir said. "She could use these insects, and base information, against you."

Taylor didn't want to say it aloud, but that was exactly something she'd do. As hospitable as Vivan was being, that didn't take away from the fact that they were enemies.

Vivan shrugged, "Meh, she doesn't strike me as a double crosser."

Taylor noted his naivety.

Vivan asked Amir, "are you good with weapons?"

"No."

"Regardless, here's a weapon." Vivan pulled out what looked like a baton. Pushing a button, it became a bowstaff. "We figured since you're already a tank, you just needed a weapon. It can extend into a staff, a three part nunchuck, split into twin batons, and can even become a bow and arrow if you had some tinker ammo. This weapon is completely non-lethal, and has the option to shock people whenever you hit something. It also has a safety feature so that it doesn't hurt the user, and its fingerprint activated. So lucky thieves would get shocked if they get their hands on it…. Including us."

Amir took the staff in his hand. He stared at Vivan, "I'm going to use this against you."

"Browbeat, your honesty is your most admirable trait."

Vivan stood up from his kneeling position, "welp, my work here is done. I'd talk to you about the Lord now, but I'm not full of shit."

Before Vivan could turn around, Theo stepped forward. "Um… Vivan,"

VIvan said, "if you still want to join the Losers, you'd have to talk with my sister."

"No, no," Theo shook his head. "I'm not actually joining the Wards. I was just wondering if we could stay in contact with each other. I heard you guys do stakeouts with the ABB, maybe we could do that together?"

Vivan frowned. "You're gonna be a solo hero?"

Theo nodded. "Joining the Wards was never an option for me."

"Or you could join the E88, they could train-"

"Hell no," Theo cut in. "Never. No way in hell."

Vivan grinned. He knew about Theo's family history, and was glad to see that he wasn't a part of that. Vivan turned to Taylor and Amir. "You two alright with this? Him being a solo hero?"

Taylor blinked at Vivan. It was obvious what he was doing, guilting them in a little way. As though them all being rogues put Theo on their shoulders to bear responsibility. Taylor asked again, "Theo, if you're not joining the Wards, are you really going to be a solo hero?"

Theo nodded. Vivan commented, "Rogues really do have the lowest survival rate, especially solo rogues. But I'll do my best to give you tinker tools to up your chances. "

Theo smiled at that. Taylor shook her head, "No, Theo, I'm not letting you do this alone. I won't join the Wards if you don't."

Vivan turned to Amir, "how about you, bro?"

Asking me live up to my name, Amir thought to himself. But really, everything Vivan said was irrelevant. Amir really didn't care what would happen to Theo, but he did like the prospect of staying rogue. And with more tinker tools from Vivan, without the red tape from the Protectorate, maybe Amir could have more freedom than he could as a Ward. "Alright," Amir said to Theo's surprise, "I won't join the Wards if Theo doesn't join."