"I want a upgrade to my power," Taylor abruptly demanded.

I looked at her in surprise. "What for?" I asked her. "You have really good power."

She glared at me. "I control bugs, Alan. I don't want to be a big girl."

I raised an eyebrow. "It is a ridiculously powerful ability. I know for a fact that it can fight just about anyone in the bay."

She frowned. "How did you even know my power anyway? You haven't said anything about that. Last time, you just said that you know." She paused as she finished ranting a little bit. " I would like to know now."

I raised an eyebrow at her and just stared. This wasn't like her usual self, so she must be pushing it right now.

And it took all of five seconds before she crumpled. "C-can I?"

Again, it was her self confidence issue, which was caused by the Trio. How to fix it, though…

"Hold on for a second," I said as I grabbed her hands and held them with mine. "Let me check if I can change much in the first place."

I hadn't a chance to use "Power Behave" yet simply because it doesn't affect my own powers, sadly. Without any other power to affect, it ended up being impossible to use until now. With Taylor beside me, I closed my eyes and willed "Power Behave" to activate.

At first, it was a crawling coldness. It took exactly 1.21 seconds for that to change into a mindnumbing heat at the back of my head. My eyes shot open.

And I saw.

"So?" Taylor asked me apprehensively as I pulled my hands away.

I grimaced not because I couldn't change Taylor's power but because the mere act of looking for all options on how to force the Queen Administrator to change as I wanted was …

Well, bone-deep tired was an understatement. If I had stopped at the first three, then I would have been. If I stopped at first ten, then I would have been fine. But no, I was greedy for more and because I wanted my Taylor to be better, because she asked to be better, I looked at Everything.

"Okay," I mumbled. "I have all of the options you can take if you want, but I will need time and food."

"Food? Why?"

"Because I am tired as fuck, Taylor."

With the city still in panic and experiencing gang war, there was nowhere to go out and eat in peace. Instead, Taylor and I opted to make do with whatever we had on hand in her house. With a bit of magic on my part turning a single seed into a full fruiting plant in under an hour, we had ourselves stir-fry with lettuce salad on the side.

"So how many powers do you have again?" she asked, staring at the lettuce again.

"Fifteen," I replied easily enough as I crunched on fresh lettuce leaves dressed with a hint of ranch and sesame oil. "I can alter plants and accelerate their growth, produce a certain amount of electricity infinitely without stopping, manage complex information without conscious effort, tell truths from lies, drain health from others to add to my own, and so on and so on."

She looked at me with wide eyes. "T-That's a lot of powers without a theme," she mumbled before she went back to fiddling with her fork and food. "Umm. And you can also change my power, right?"

I nodded. "It's a long process, though," I replied. "Right now, you can do two things: administrate all information coming to you regardless of source and control almost all non-vertebrates."

"... I thought it was bug control."

"I'm sure you can control worms. Worms aren't bugs."

"... Okay, I can control worms too. But I still want something better than just bug control."

I stopped eating though I kept on chewing, and then looked at her in the eyes. "Well, I guess I might as well tell you your options. First, I can alter details of your powers, so I can't make you into Alexandria-lite like Glory Girl."

She deflated a bit. "Okay, what then?" she asked as she finished the last of the beef on her plate.

"I can shorten the control radius of your power in exchange for allowing you to control small vertebrates like mice and birds. I can also change out your control of bugs for control of birds."

"Is it like equivalent exchange?" she asked.

I made a grimace. "Nothing so … limited," I replied. "I mean, you never have to actually use energy to use your parahuman powers, right?"

She seemed thoughtful about that before nodding.

"The powers have their own rules and their own limitations, which differs from other powers," I explained. "Saying that it's an equivalent exchange would be a misnomer at best, misdirection at worst. So, do you have anything you want to change?"

"I mean, controlling birds sound … nicer than bugs."

"Bugs have poison, butterflies, and honey. Birds have meat and feathers."

She looked affronted by my statement.

"No! I don't want to kill birds!"

"Also, bugs are easier to clean up. Imagine sending a thousand pigeons to peck at Hookwolf, but he blends them all. The bloodbath that you would create-"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Taylor hissed back and deflated. "My power is great as it is."

"You really need to relax and just wait for when we actually fight, then you will definitely appreciate how I didn't change your power right now," I said as I took our dishes and placed them in the kitchen sink. I turned around. "For now, let's get to planning."

Ring ring ring

We were deep in our planning session when it happened. A phone call came.

Taylor went to pick up the phone, and minutes later, I heard her crying. I rushed over to her and asked her what was wrong.

The Dockworkers' Union had been assaulted by the Teeth.

Luckily Danny Hebert, Kurt, and Lacy all made it out just a but banged up .