"So how are you feeling?" Sabah asked as Verity laid in her bed having just woken up.

"Mrrrrrn." Verity grumbled/growled as she held her pillow over her face, trying to smother the lights and sounds of the morning.

"Understandable, have a nice day," Sabah said jokingly. "I am going to get you some water." At that she exited the bedroom leaving Verity to her alcohol induced misery.

"Thank you," was what Verity tried to say, but it came out far less coherent than that.

And thankfully it only took Sabah a minute to return with a bottle of water. "Here, and I definitely say. I've seen a few drunks at College parties but I've never seen drunk hair snakes before."

"How bad was I?" Verity asked after greedily guzzling down the entirety of the water bottle. "My brain is still too disco'd to think right now."

"Well Labyrinth got a laugh out of your drunk dancing and so did I," Sabah answered. "But mostly it was just funny drunk talk and your snakes hugging a bottle and me."

"I didn't hurt anyone right?" Verity asked as she began to realign her memories, massaging her temples to try and deal with the hangover headache.

"No you didn't, you actually hurt yourself most, I wonder if moving using your snake tail can be called driving while under the influence?" Sabah wondered.

At that, Verity winced as she remembered going face-first into a building, which thankfully hadn't seemed to be damaged as she collided, rubbing her forehead where she'd hit. "Maybe not classified as it, but definitely as dangerous…"

"Yeah, though it does make for a hilarious Gif," Sabah said.

"...Oh god, I was recorded, wasn't I?" Verity asked, despairing at the realization her drunken idiocy may have been broadcast to the world.

"Yep."

Verity looked at Sabah's unflinching smile as she slowly put her head in her hands. "I keep forgetting I'm a public figuuuuuuuuure." She whined.

"There, there," Sabah said comfortingly as she patted Verity on the back.

"Maybe I should just stop existing for a bit…"

"Do that for a bit but remember to return to reality as you have to go to work and do that thing with Taylor after classes end," Sabah reminded her.

"Oh right, that's today…" Verity said, before suddenly jolting up as a certain detail from last night entered her mind. "Oh fuck, I'm going to be attacked by Nazi's today!"

"Oh right, remember to tell your Boss about that," Sabah stated.

"Uh, yeah, actually, I think I may need to focus on that for a bit." Verity said, now much more alert as she got out of bed and headed for the kitchen. "I need to deal with this hangover, then deal with that." She said as she went through her cabinets.

"Well the only thing I can recommend is just water and salt crackers," Sabah replied. "Though what do you want for breakfast?"

"If you're making something, eggs please." Verity said as she pulled out and put a bottle of hot sauce next to the bottle of seltzer water she'd already gotten, looking for the third bottle still.

"Well eggs and toast it is," Sabah replied as she took out the pan and eggs.

"Great, love eggs." Verity said as she got the third bottle, this one of lemon juice, and one of the several bear-shaped honey bottles for good measure, as she began mixing the horrid concoction.

After a moment of careful mixing, she had the world's worst shot ready. "...Damn it, I'll have to eat first if I don't want the food to get cold, but…" She looked between the cup and Sabah, who was making breakfast, unaware of the decision being made. "Hey, uh, babe, I'll be back in about ten minutes, okay?"

"What for… Verity, what did you make?" Sabah asked as she noticed the ingredients laid out.

"Hair of the dog… or snake, I guess." Verity said with a shrug. "Best way I've found to deal with hangovers, or at least the closest thing with what I've got right now." She admitted, as she was sort of jury rigging up the next-best-thing, since her actual preferred brand of non-alcoholic health shots didn't exist here yet. "Normally it's lemon juice, cayenne pepper, ginger, and coconut water."

"Well I hope that abomination against nature works," Sabah stated. "I'll let the eggs simmer on the pan."

"K thanks, see you in a bit." Verity said as she went to worship the porcelain throne.

10 minutes later, as expected, Verity came back from the bathroom feeling significantly more awake, washed up, and hungry as all hell.

"Well you're definitely looking less hungover now," Sabah replied as she placed plates on the table.

"Yeah, works wonders." Verity said as she took her seat, not admitting she never wanted to so much as think of mixing that again. "Thank you for making breakfast, Sabs… wait, how are you not hungover?"

"I am just tougher than you, and I didn't drink that much," Sabah replied.

"Did I drink a lot?" Verity asked. "I only remember two glasses…"

"Two glasses, and in between was at least one entire bottle."

"...Bottle of what, exactly?"

"I think it was some kind of whiskey," She answered.

"...Fuck I was probably drinking Fireball again." Verity cursed as she realized why she'd felt so shitty.

"So a Fireball hits you harder than just straight up Vodka?" She asked.

"Yeeeah, I'm allergic to cinnamon." Verity admitted. "And if I drank a whole ass bottle no wonder I felt like shit waking up."

"I am going to have to write that down," Sabah stated.

"It's fine, I'm not anaphylactic like my sister, I won't die from it." Verity said as she took a bite of eggs, and immediately her brain was overwhelmed with the need to eat.

"Well that is good," Sabah stated as she began to eat as well.

A few minutes of eating later, Verity had finished her plate and found herself putting more bread in the toaster she was suddenly very happy she bought. "So, plan for today." Verity said as she waited by the counter. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I have to work, talk with my insurance company," Sabah answered.

"Right, good luck with that." Verity said sincerely. "Meanwhile, I'm going to be contacting Consol and/or Armsmaster and/or the director and figuring out how best to both A. Integrate the amazing spiderbaby into the Wards and B. Deal with the inevitable super-neo-nazi attack after that. Do you have any suggestions to help with either?"

"Well for the first one I recommend you just being you," Sabah answered. "And for the second… Kick their ass? I don't really know, I don't know what to think about that to be honest. And I am not sure why Kaiser would go for that, but maybe it's an eye for an eye thing."

"Okay, yeah." Verity said, only now remembering Sabah was not a seasoned superhero and thus was not super-aware of how to deal with these kinds of situations. "Try and stay safe today, hopefully they won't try anything against you, but you never know."

"I will, and well if they try, we can see if I can do what I mentioned before, for while I am not going to seek out fights, I am now able to properly defend myself thanks to you," Sabah stated.

"Well that's good at least." Verity said. "You could probably stop bullets now, I'd bet… don't test that without me."

"Well while that theoretically work, I wouldn't be able to react fast enough to stop them before they hit me," Sabah replied.

"Oh okay…" Verity said as the toast popped up, which she eagerly took and put on her plate before retaking her seat. "Well, anyway, assuming all goes well we'll be back here tonight to talk about everything."

"Yeah I hope so as well," Sabah said back.

Xxx

"Would you care to repeat that Medusa?" Armsmaster stated after a few seconds of silence that led Verity to think the line had gone dead.

"I have it on good authority that I'm going to be attacked today on patrol by 4-5 members of the Empire 88." Verity said. "Specifically, Fenja, Menja, Rune, Alabaster, and potentially Purity. Organized by Kaiser in revenge for taking down their precious Überhund and because of the other obvious reasons."

"I see, that is a problem if any of that information is correct," Armsmaster said, stating the very obvious.

"In addition to that, the same source said the 88 is also going to be hitting up wherever Lung and Oni Lee are holing up, or one of his places, to draw them out, sometime on Wednesday." Verity continued. "In short, this is going to be a very busy week."

"Thank you for forwarding the information, Medusa, I will report it directly to the Director so that measures and plans can be created," Armsmaster stated. "And to be certain you were going to come in early today with a potential Ward recruit, yes?"

"Yeah, I just figured this information was important enough that I should tell you ASAP." Verity confirmed. "We'll be there."

"Well as early as you could, going by that one Gif of you that is now circulating the internet?" He asked.

"...I have now learned that my alcohol tolerance has not increased with my increased mass or metabolism." Verity stated matter-of-factly as she tried very, very, very hard not to curl up into a ball in sheer embarrassment. "And will be taking that into account in the future."

"Valuable info to learn to avoid future embarrassments, though thankfully from the chatter people like this one instead of calling for your blood as the youth would say," Armsmaster stated.

"To be honest, I don't even know what got giffed yet." Verity admitted, relief clear in her voice that it wasn't something bad based off of that reaction and Sabah's.

"You face-planting, as it were, against a house," Armsmaster answered.

"Oh, that, okay, good." Verity said, relieved to hear she hadn't done anything more stupid than that. For a moment she was worried her snakes had done something like steal peoples phones while she was distracted. "Alright, so, are we going to be planning for the inevitable attack now or later?"

"It would be best to do so in person with the others," Armsmaster answered.

"Understood. I'll be ready then."

"Then I will talk to you about it further after you've come in with the recruit," Armsmaster stated as he ended the call.

"Alright, then… Get cleaned up, eat, then… bake something to destress?" Verity asked herself. "...Ooh, wait, duh, I'll make dinner so it's ready when I come home, doh."

"That sounds great, Verity, well I am going to go now, talk to you later," Sabah stated as she put her head into the bedroom.

"Oh, uh, yeah bye love you have a good day! Stay safe, don't die." Verity said, her mouth acting on instinct and saying her family's typical way of saying goodbye.

"...You as well," Sabah replied and a few seconds later she heard the door open and close.

It was only a few minutes later when Verity had gotten in the shower that she realized she said the full line, including the 'love you' part, and proceeded to turn red enough to be seen from space.

Xxx

"Thank you for coming with us on this Verity," Danny stated as they sat within the Hebert house waiting for the discreet PRT Van to arrive and pick them up.

"Oh yeah of course, no problem." Verity said. "Figured it would make a better introduction if I'm there, help smooth over any wrinkles, so to speak."

"And I appreciate it," Danny replied.

"Like I keep saying, I'm always happy to help."

"Should put that on a shirt as your motto or something," Danny stated.

"I don't think anybody would buy that dad, even if it was Cape merchandise," Taylor stated as she came down stairs wearing her costume.

"Heeey, I was about to say it was a good idea." Verity said, faux-insulted.

"Want shirts? Put a chibi drunk version of yourself on it, that would sell," Taylor responded.

"...Okay, I'm actually going to pitch that, maybe not drunk though. Tiny snek would be good for logos." Verity admitted.

"That it would," Taylor said. "So when are the MIB showing up?"

"Should be right around…" Verity held up a finger. "Now."

Ding-dong.

"Did you plan that?" Taylor asked.

"Nope~." Verity denied with a grin, not admitting she'd actually used her superior senses to tell when they'd pulled up and approached the door. "Now, let's not keep them waiting, ya?"

"Yeah let's go and face the music," Taylor said.

"Don't worry Taylor, I will be with you all the way," Danny said as they headed for the door and opened it and they were greeted by two PRT men in normal suits.

"Hebert Household?" The one on the left said.

"Yeah," Danny replied.

"Then follow us please, Medusa, would you stick to the rear?" The one on the right asked.

"Sure."

At that they walked to the van that was parked at the curb and quickly entered it.

"You know," Taylor said as they began to drive. "It's only now that it is starting to set in that I am going to be a Ward."

"Feels like a lot?" Verity asked sympathetically.

"Yeah, it feels like a weight that was on my shoulders suddenly became noticeable, like I always wanted to be a hero, wanted to be one when I got my powers, but I never really saw myself as being a professional one before now."

"I think that's normal." Verity siad. "At least, I felt more or less what you just said when it hit that 'oh god, I'm actually a superhero now'. Thing is though, you'll do fine." She said with a reassuring smile.

"You think?"

"Yes you will," Danny stated. "I am exactly of the same mind as Verity. You're going to be great."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence you two," Taylor replied as she slumped against the van's wall.

After that the drive continued in relative silence as no one could think of anything to say after that. And after about ten minutes of driving the van came to a complete stop and Verity felt the engines turn off.

"We've arrived," One of the officers said and a few seconds later they opened the doors for them to exit the van and set foot in the underground parking lot.

"Medusa, escort our guests to the Director," The right officer said.

"Thanks for the ride, gentlemen." Verity said gratefully as she quickly stretched her back- sitting in those vans for too long made her whole spine ache- before leading onwards. "Alright, right this way." She said, confidently leading the Heberts to their intended location.

"Out of all the government buildings I've been in, I never thought I'd enter an alphabet soup one," Verity heard Danny mutter under his breath as they went into the elevator.

"Well, as you two may have been able to tell, our local PRT is obviously a top of the line facility, with matching quality in its members." Verity said, giving them the sales pitch.

"And if you call now you can get this amazing deal for 599.99," Taylor commented.

"In just 12 easy payments of 49.99, of course." Verity said back with a grin.

"You two are terrible," Danny stated in response to the sales pitch turning into an actual sales pitch joke.

"Well you didn't take the bait so I did," Taylor replied in a smug-ish tone of voice.

"I, for one, am proud of that initiative." Verity said as the doors opened. "It'll prove very useful around here, PRT likes initiative. Come on."

"So what should we expect from the Director?" Taylor asked.

"Well from what I've seen of her on TV she seems very stern and no nonsense," Danny commented.

"She's also very dedicated to the job, and very good at it." Verity said. "Just be on your best behavior and you should be fine."

"Then I should be able to handle this no problem," Taylor replied as they came to the Director's office. But before she began to knock Verity heard two people speaking, one of them being Piggot the other speaking through a phone on speaker.

"Hold up, boss is on a call, don't want to interrupt." Verity said, before discreetly trying to listen in.

"It has been about four days now Piggot and you mean to tell me you still have nothing?"

"Yes that is correct Mayor Christner," Piggot replied, her voice utterly calm.

"Then work harder, my sister keeps calling me wanting to know where her daughter is, and I want to know who kidnapped my niece."

"As do I Mayor Christner, but I am sad to inform you that we have little evidence from the crime scene, with the lack of any form of demand from the kidnappers making it impossible to track them."

"I see, but you will do well to remember who helps determine your budget, Director Piggot."

And with that, the call was ended from the other end.

"Self absorbed ass. Less budget is going to make it harder to find her."

Verity waited a beat, then another, then a third, and then knocked to announce their presence. "Director, I'm here with the new Ward recruit."

"Come in with them, Medusa," Came the reply a second later.

"Showtime." Verity said before opening the door, leading the Heberts into the office. "Afternoon, Director."

"Afternoon yourself, Medusa," Piggot replied. "So this is the infamous Danny Hebert?"

"I see that my reputation precedes me," Danny replied.

"Yes, so this is your daughter?" Piggot stated. "You can remove your mask, your identity is protected here."

Taylor nodded her head as she took it off. "Taylor Hebert, it's a pleasure to meet you Director."

"So you wish to join the Wards?" She asked.

"Yeah, Verity managed to convince me joining was a very good idea after my near death experience," Taylor stated.

"Good that you see reason, and it is good you made a recovery," Piggot said.

"Panacea does good work," Taylor stated, sticking to the story they'd devised by not lying but not telling the full truth, either.

"She does, now could you tell me about yourself? I wish to see if you're a good fit for the Wards. Medusa's vote of confidence goes a long way, but I need you to reach the finish line," Piggot stated.

Taylor nodded as she gave a short summary of herself. "And I've always been a big fan of heroes, and wanting to become one myself. Even now that I know that it can be a dangerous world."

"That is good to hear, now let me and your father go over the contract. In the meantime Medusa go and introduce… What name are you going by at the moment?"

"Weaver, my name is Weaver," Taylor answered.

"Well Weaver, hopefully PR lets you keep it," Piggot stated. "Now as I was about to say, Medusa, go and introduce her to the other Wards. Everyone is in at the moment, though do remember to press the other button."

"Of course, of course, everyone deserves their privacy." Verity said, proud of herself for having come up with a plan earlier, but also knowing she would have to lie in the bed of worms she'd opened in a few minutes if she couldn't pull this off very, very, very, very skillfully and subtly. "Come on Weaver, let's go meet your future team." She said with a smile.

"Oh boy, already?" Taylor muttered as she followed Verity out of the Director's office leaving her and her father to do business.

"Alright, so, don't stress too much, okay?" Verity said as she led her to the Wards' area. "Just be yourself, and you'll be fine. You did great back there with the Director."

"It felt like I was being judged by Hades or something, like she could stare directly into my soul," Taylor stated. "Though to be more accurate, that was more nerve wracking than any test."

"And you did great." Verity reassured. "So like I said, don't worry about this part too much, for now you can just do some small talk and you'll be fine. One thing I'm gonna say about them before we go in though, Shadow Stalker's really into the 'broody loner' thing, so don't feel bad if she doesn't say anything to you, k?"

"Oh okay," Taylor responded as they came to the room and Verity pressed the right button sounding the alert for them to put on masks.

And a few seconds later the light above the door turned green signaling they were allowed to enter.

"Hello Medusa, who is this?" Gallant asked, being the first to greet them.

"Hello everyone, I'd like you all to meet your soon-to-be teammate, The Wondrous Weaver!" Verity said, introducing Taylor like she was a show host.

"Verity, please," Taylor begged in a mortified tone of voice.

"Alright, new girl! This place was becoming way too much of a sausage fest," Vista stated in joy.

"Pleased to meet you Weaver, the name is Aegis, current leader of Wards ENE," Aegis said as he introduced himself and came over to shake her hand. "So you're going to be joining the Wards soon?"

"Yeah, my dad is writing up the contract with the Director right now, so I will probably be a member of your team starting tomorrow," Taylor told him.

"Well until then I can't tell you our real names, but while you might know all of us already, these are Gallant, Clockblocker, Kid Win, our newest member Browbeat, Vista and last but not least Shadow Stalker," Aegis introduced everyone pointing to each and every Ward that was in the common room his finger landing last on Sophia who was just sitting in a chair in the corner of the room reading a book, and looked up at the mention of her Cape name.

Verity briefly made eye contact -or close enough, considering the mask, but still- with her and tried to convey that she was doing good and to keep doing that.

"Well it's nice to meet all of you," Taylor replied.

"So what can you do, Weaver?" Browbeat asked. "Do you like, weave stuff?"

"Well I can do that, I made my costume myself, but my primary power allows me to control bugs," She said as she held out a finger and a fly landed on it. Which when proceeded to dance on it.

"That is both disgusting and neat," Clockbloker stated.

"Clock!" Vista stated.

"What, it's the truth, bugs are ugh, but that is a neat thing to do," He defended himself.

"Yeah bugs are ugh to most people as were, so I understand where he is coming from, used to feel the same way before I got my powers," Taylor responded.

"You said bug control as it were was your primary power, does that mean you're a grab-bag Cape?" Kid Win asked.

"Well only one other, and that is a Changer power," Taylor replied.

"Oh can we see?" Vista asked.

"Sure, there is enough room here," Taylor stated.

"Wait, lemme move out of the way first." Verity said, since she had been standing next to her as she proceeded to do just that, not wanting her tail to get in the way or anything like that. It also, totally coincidentally, placed her between Shadow Stalker and Weaver.

Purely coincidentally.

"Okay, I'm good." She said, giving Taylor a thumbs up.

"Just give me a second," Taylor said. "Though do be warned it's a little weird." And with that, Taylor changed into her Archanetaur form.

"Oh my god," Vista stated. "That is awesome, you're fucking huge!"

"Language." Said Verity and Gallant at the same time.

"Wait so you're the spider girl that kicked the Mush and Squealer's ass?" Clockblocker asked in surprise.

"Yeah that was me," Taylor said in a slightly flustered tone.

"So what can you do when you're like that?" Aegis asked.

"Well, mostly the same but I am much stronger and tougher, but am like that normally but even more so I think, I can spider crawl up stuff, though I can do that in my normal body too, but like this I can make spider webs."

"Like from your butt?" Browbeat asked.

"It's not a butt it's a spinneret," Taylor corrected him. "But yes I can and from all four of my wrists."

"Wow I just noticed that she has extra arms," Gallant stated in a slightly shocked tone of voice.

"Me too, the rest of her just kinda moved all my attention," Kid Win added.

"Well anyways, your dad is probably going to be at it for a while with the Director, do you wanna play some games?" Aegis suggested.

"Sure that sounds fun," Taylor replied. "Hey, Verity, can you teach them that card game you showed me?"

"...Well, I kinda already did if you're talking about Craps." Verity admitted sheepishly. "But, that just means we can all play quicker, aheheh."

"Great straight to the fun then," Taylor said.

"So you two know each other?" Vista asked as Taylor resumed human form.

"Ehh, what am I allowed to say in response to that?" Taylor asked.

"Let's just say 'we met for civilian reasons' and leave it at that, yeah?" Verity offered.

"Ah okay," Vista replied. "NDA stuff."

"Ayup." Verity said with a nod. "So, cards, uh… do we have more than one deck? We're gonna have to do Advanced Craps if everyone's gonna play."

"I think we do," Aegis responded.

"Yeah I found them," Kid Win said as he pulled two decks out from the board game drawer.

And soon after that the game began.

Xxx

A/N: If you like this or any other of my stories, you can donate to my P A Treon. com (slash) StreamingViking and read commissioned stories. Along with voting for which stories will be updated next via Polls. And chapters before they are released here.