A/N: Sorry about the lack of update last Sunday. I hope this one makes up for it.

Orthosilicic 2.9

(Taylor Hebert)

March 6, 2011, early morning

Taylor, for once, was extremely grateful for the weight lifting exercises her father put her through. Not that she had to do it alone, he was right there beside her with almost double the weight. Her revelation about her powers had spurred something in her father, and whenever she saw the glint that appeared that night in his eyes, she shuddered. For those eyes signaled the coming of dark times. Said dark times being full of stretching, stairs, ellipticals, treadmills, and worse. At first she could hardly keep up with her father, who wasn't doing too well himself having had a desk job for most of his life, but eventually the both of them grew stronger. Over the last two months (It'd been two months already? Time really does fly…) both Taylor and Danny had lost their guts and gained a fair amount of muscle, nothing overtly crazy, but enough for Danny to grow uncomfortable in using the treadmill in the front of the room. No longer did they struggle with running out of breath. Taylor had to admit, if she hadn't been training, she doubted she could have lugged Victor all the way out of the alley. Let alone down and across the street to the waiting PRT van.

This was also ignoring the training she did outside of the gym, with her powers.

Returning her thoughts to the matters at hand, Taylor focused again on the unconscious form of Victor that she was dragging around. She wasn't sure why she had decided on carrying him and not, say, Crystal, who was already proven to having nothing that Victor could (or would) take. Was she trying to show off? Rogue and Crystal already knew she could fight well, so was it just trying to get more credit for something?

No.

She wouldn't let anything like her apparent instinctual arrogance take control over her. Rule 23, Taylor, you learned this.

Turning to call back to Crystal, who was pulling his legs out of the hole he made in the concrete, she stopped and stared.

"Can't you just teleport out?"

Crystal froze, then looked up at her.

"Oh."

A quick teleport left him shaking his head and sighing.

"Should have figured that out a lot sooner than today…"

"Hey, everyone misses the little things sometimes. Speaking of: here." Taylor shoved the still unconscious Victor back into this hands. "I forgot that you're immune-ish to his powers."

"Er, ok?"

With Victor now off her hands, Taylor twisted back towards where Rogue was standing, only to find her gone.

"Crystal, did you see where Rogue went? She was right there."

"She was running to the left-"

"Towards the van!"

"I guess…" Taylor didn't hear the rest. Rogue was running to the van, so there must be trouble with the transport!

Stopping at the edge of the alley, she peeked out, checking her corners before charging in, just like she learned at the paintball arena with her dad. Last time she'd made that mistake was their second outing to Paintball Central, which cost her an orange chest and a bruised ego.

Now reassured, Taylor darted out of the alley towards where she saw Rogue pacing at the end of the street, next to where the van with Othala used to be parked.

Oh no.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck, fuck, FUCK." Rogue was frantically typing into her phone, pacing around in a circle while periodically looking around.

"What happened?!" Taylor yelled before noticing the bleeding man with a large shard of metal sticking out of his back. "Is he okay?"

"He's still alive, but we need Panacea, ASAP. Hookwolf came and got him before taking the van and Othala." Rogue stopped pacing to spare her a glance before holding up a finger.

"Console this is Rogue, we have a man down, and an escaped Othala. Hookwolf just escaped down Red Blossom Avenue towards Oak Street in our van. Stevens is bleeding out and we need either Clockblocker or Panacea now!"

Rogue's pacing resumed, and there wasn't anything Taylor could do to help. She knew first aid, but that taught her nothing on how to handle metal spikes through the chest.

Crystal tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to jump and squeak slightly. "What do we do?"

"I don't know." She calmed down, ashamed of herself. It was just Crystal. Remember Taylor, you're at Arcadia now, not Winslow. No more bullies… Glancing back at the PRT soldier (Stevens?) she noticed he had stopped twitching. "I didn't expect this to happen."

"Well no shit. I never thought the Empire would just straight out murder a PRT dude, but I guess I was wrong"

"Yeah, you're wrong, but not for the reason you're probably thinking." Taylor and Crystal looked up at Rogue, who was taking the downed soldier's pulse. "Panacea was just getting off shift at a hospital nearby, so she'll be here just in time." Taylor relaxed instantly. "Another van is coming for Victor with backup, and Rune's made it to lockup, so we should be good for the night as long as they don't come back."

"Morning." Crystal spoke up.

"What? Ah shit, you're right. You kiddos head on home, it's getting late. I'm supposed to be bringing you to debriefing, but you can come in tomorrow if you have to."

Taylor glanced at Crystal who was looking at his phone. "How long do debriefings usually take? I have to be home by two."

"An hour, at most. There were three fights that happened, so the minimum will be thirty minutes. Are both of you coming in?" There was a pause "Crystal?"

"Hmm? Yeah, I'll come." He wasn't looking at them, and seemed to barely be paying attention to them at all, furiously typing into his phone while swearing to himself.

At Rogue's nod, Taylor walked up and put a hand on Crystal's shoulder. "What's up? You don't have to go if you don't want to. "

"No, It's not the debrief…" He looked up from his phone at her face. "Can you keep a secret?" She almost giggled at him trying to appear serious while searching to make eye contact. She twisted a knob behind one of her mask's gills and flipped up the glass lenses on her mask. Soft brown met crystalline purples, and with a smile that crinkled her eyes she nodded. "Of course you can, we're partners now aren't we?" At his shocked look she fidgeted. "Well, I mean. We worked well together tonight. And, well, you took a fireball for me, so I thought…"

Was she wrong? This is the first friend she might have made on her own ever since…

Emma.

Was she doing this right? Sarah and Lydia had been the ones to make the first move at Arcadia, and she hadn't had much experience making friends even before Winslow…

But her thoughts were interrupted by Crystal's smile. "Yeah, I guess we do work well together. We took out three different capes in one night. How's that for day one of team…" He had a puzzled look on his face.

"Team..?"

"How the fuck do fish and crystals go together? Maybe rockfish? Hmm."

Had he forgotten his question? Later, Taylor. Think team names for a fish and a crystal… Maybe water and crystal? Snowflake or Ice? No, they didn't have any cold powers, wouldn't work.

Maybe a chemistry joke? That was one of the classes she was doing well in at Arcadia thanks to her dad forcing her to learn everything she could about her powers and what was in her water.

Taylor took out her phone while Crystal was muttering to himself potential team names, eventually finding the information she needed.

"How about orthosilicic acid?"

"What? How does that relate to fish or crystals?"

"Orthosilicic acid is the acid that forms when silicon, the primary component of most crystals, is heated and dissolved in water."

"A little long, don't you think? Maybe just Ortho? Orthosil?"

The two of them pondered their choices before eventually agreeing to hesitantly name their team Orthosil.

Finally having that matter finished, they shook hands, much to the watching Rogue's amusement.

"Now, you had a question, right?"

"I… No, I just…" Crystal glanced away and sighed. "My… sister was nearby and saw the fighting."

"Is she hurt?"

"No, she's mad that…"

"Heads up kiddos, we got incoming."

Looking around, both Crystal and Taylor failed to notice anything, before Rogue groaned at them. "Sorry, that expression annoys me. I meant it literally."

Now that they had their heads facing the right direction, they saw it. A faint glowing figure was headed in their direction. It took a second to place the recognition she felt before the realization came. It was Glory Girl and Panacea, and both looked exhausted.

"Where is he?" Panacea didn't hesitate to ask once they landed, before quickly spotting the man and rushing over.

Glory Girl was yawning into her hand and waved at Rogue. "Sorry it took so long, I fell asleep waiting for Amy to come down to the lobby."

A faint "He's going to be fine." Came up from where Panacea was holding the man's hand, and Rogue instantly relaxed.

"It's no problem now, but we need to get Victor into lockup soon before he wakes up."

Glory Girl nodded at her grimly before finally turning to look at the newly formed partnership.

"Oh, hey. You guys new? I don't think we've met before." And it was true, they hadn't. Taylor almost commented that she saw her every day at lunch and had to stop herself.

"Name's Crystal."

"Fish. Nice to meet you. We're team Orthosil, recently formed."

"Chemistry joke, huh?" Taylor nodded, and Glory Girl continued "How recent, if you don't mind me asking? I've never heard of you before."

Taylor watched Crystal glance at his phone before responding "As of today?" Glory Girl nodded "Two minutes."

Glory Girl's gob smacked face was amusing, to say the least, but she composed herself before too long.

"Well, that's… huh. So you guys are Independents? How'd you meet?"

Taylor took her turn to speak up. "Last night he tracking me down during my first patrol in Empire territory and asked me to form a temporary partnership. The next day, Crystal here found what he thought was a drug house, which we raided to find Rune inside playing poker. We were taking her in when Victor and Othala showed up. I took out Othala and Crystal got Victor, but not before Hookwolf freed Othala and left Mr. Stevens here. And here we are."

Crystal nodded along with her and spoke "We decided that working in pairs seemed to help, so we're trying out a more permanent team of sorts."

"Hmm, well good luck. Maybe you can patrol with me sometimes, I always like bashing a few shaved heads."

The newly formed duo spared a glance before simultaneously shrugging. "We'll see."

"Eh, all I can ask for."

"Kiddos, we're going back to HQ. Give Panacea Victor's hand to keep him under and we'll be on our way. Thanks again Panacea, and Glory Girl. We would have lost Stevens here without you."

Panacea barely nodded, swaying on her feet, almost about to fall asleep before Glory Girl flew over to her and picked her up. "Dammit Amy, you should have told me you were this tired." Panacea curled up into her arms and immediately relaxed. "Amy? You there?"

"She's asleep, Glory Girl. Go on and take her home, Victor can make it." Rogue faintly whispered at the softly smiling teenager.

"Thanks, Ash… Rogue. Thanks Rogue. Nice meeting you two. Message me on PHO if you want to patrol together. Bye!" She flew off with Panacea mumbling in her arms and a small grin on her face.

Rogue muttered out "Poor kid…" before facing them "Alright you two, van for Victor's on its merry little way, and we'll be off shortly. You guys still fine with coming in?"

"Of course." "Should be fine."

"Right then." Rogue nodded "I'm going to go take care of Stevens until the van shows up. Be ready to go in a few."

"We'll be here."

"Thanks."

She turned and jogged towards the slowly rising PRT agent, and Taylor glanced over at Crystal to see him staring. A quick shoulder bump caused him to look up ashamed, and Taylor knew her guess was right.

"Bad, Crystal. No staring at the nice Protectorate Hero." Taylor told him with a wagging finger.

He stared at it with a face full of confusion before letting out a snort.

"Alright Fish, I won't stare. On purpose."

"That's the best I'm going to get, isn't it."

"Hey, I'm a guy! It's in our genes to stare at attractive women!"

"Oh it's something in your jeans alright."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!"

"Nothing, Crystal Nothing at all."