Maincraft

by codekinguu

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1. Chapter 1

There was light in the darkness. A hissing noise nearby retreated as the light grew into a glowing shape, a cube sort of with a stack of other cubes below in the color of wood. A torch? If this is something Sophia or Emma cooked up, they got their money's worth for effects. There was a shifting in the darkness across from where I was. The hissing noise was back and red, eyes showed in the darkness. Wait? How did all this even fit in my locker?

The locker.

The hunt. A weekly affair where one of the losers' is chased down by the student body. Usually a freshman, usually by seniors. Not this year. The leader of the hunt was now Sophia-fucking-Hess, having taken over the events by overwhelming force. Her crew ran the show, the school, because her crew had the 'blessing' of the administration. It was gradually ramping up. A month ago, a student duct taped to the cafeteria door and pelted with puddings. Before that, left in a supply closet during lunch. It was why I tended to hide during lunch, but not in the cafeteria itself. The gangs still ran that show, so it was not safe to be there and be nonaligned.

Duct tape on the mouth.

Zip ties for hands and feet.

Rolled in bubble wrap.

Hoisted and carried out of the bathroom and down the hall. "Ahahaha. Look at the loser!"

Everyone saw. Everyone played along, just another 'hunt'. The few in the halls during lunch avoided eye contact, happy that they were free to proceed in their day. Hess and Barnes, Clements and the cronies. Carrying another freshman around like a sacrifice going to altar.

Only this time they stopped in front of my locker. Hess popped the lock somehow. She showed me the contents, lovingly spread across the inside of the locker. Feces, filth, used tampons. They'd given me a big whiff of it, pulled the tape off my face. I puked and puked into the garbage can provided.

It excited them, but the leaders acted so nonchalant. The tape went back on as soon as I stopped bringing up more.

"Show's over! Piss off to class before the bell." Hess called out. The bitch.

"Yeah. Now that she's seen her inner self revealed, little Taylor can think about things in the supply closet." Emma added sweetly, brushing some hair out of my eyes.

The crowd faded away. I stood there, waiting to be dragged off. The bell rang but there was no move to take me from that part of the hall. No one was around, this part of the school was little used -the budget cuts matched the reduction of students matched the budget cuts.

My eyes widened as I heard Madison start talking loudly. "Hello, Mrs. Knott. How are you today?" She was talking to someone coming down the other hall...

"Too late. She won't ignore her pet." Emma hissed.

"Well then. In. You. Go." Hess hefted me up and bodily pushed me into the locker itself. Only the fact I'd stood in the rank and already tossed cookies kept me from finding new vomit as the smell doubled down. The locker shut, the lock clicked shut.

"Oh! What is that smell?" Gladys Knott was only a few feet away, but I was pinned. My head was too high, touching the top. My feet were sliding in the mess already soaking into my sneakers. I had no hands free to do much of anything.

I could only listen as Emma glibly noted. "Oh, Taylor threw up here a minute ago. Something at lunch didn't agree. She's probably going home."

Mrs. Knott passed into her classroom and on into her office beyond.

The darkness took me.

Hissing. The sound was close. Electronic noises from nearby. Clicking. So much clicking, a mouse being given hell. The voice hummed a few times and murmured. More clicking, and a hissing.

The light grew. I was on a block of something, Darkness around me but a sense of depth to the sides. The ground was a sickly grey with flecks of blue. The light source in front of me was steady for now. A cube of yellow white above other cubes of wood that didn't glow. A hall of the grey stone was across it. Webs were visible in the corner of it. Red eyes shown across from me, moving along the walls, the ceiling. I reached forward, my own hand showing in front of the light looking -well- normal to me. I touched the wooden part of the torch, feeling it come free in my hand. The light went out. The hissing grey, the red eyes came at me. Pain.

I woke in my bed. Rested. Morning. Late morning. What-the-serious-fuck?

Almost chalked the whole thing up to a nightmare when I noticed the smell. My hair smelled like the locker. Reaching up I touched dried filth in it. My wrist had marks on it from zip ties, but they were faded, almost gone.

My stomach rumbled. It warred with a need to get clean. Clean won.

Showering took longer than usual, my hair was a disaster. I got out long after the water had gone to cold.

The smell of bacon cooking had me fumbling for clothes to get downstairs. It felt like I hadn't eaten in days. Dad was going all out, there was bacon just being placed on paper towels, scrambled eggs, toast. A glance at the time, I was late for school, he was hella late for work. As he turned I could see his smile was forced.

Unable to stop myself I shoveled portions down that made him get up and add more toast. Instead of serving himself, he nibbled a slice of toast and one measly piece of bacon. His coffee sat untouched. I knew something was wrong, but it didn't matter until I filled the chasm of my stomach.

There was a low ding sound in my ear. I glanced over my shoulder for the source and forgot it immediately. There on the counter was a stack of notebooks. My notebooks. The detailed accounts of the bullying, the pranks, the homeworks destroyed. The folder of printouts of the emails they'd flooded into my school mailbox from throwaway accounts was tucked underneath.

"You should have come to me, honey."

My eyes teared up. He came around and hugged me, putting my face to his chest -him standing as I sat there. Mom had been the tall one in that relationship and I'd gotten her height. I leaned in and cried and cried.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"Well, burning the school down crossed my mind…"

"Dad, no!" I half wailed, knowing his humor in the face of adversity.

"Emma is in on it?" he asked -knowing what he read.

"She is the one leading it. Sophia is just an undirected thug without her. Madison is a toady. Emma is a cold-ass bitch."

He looked over to me. "When I came into your room this morning to wake you and saw you covered in filth." he paused. "How did you even get home? Zip ties? There was tape on the floor from your mouth. Pieces of bubble wrap coated in gunk. You just wouldn't wake up." he sagged. "I thought someone had drugged you." He showed me a plastic bag with cut zip ties and duct tape. A section of bubble wrap was there too. "But your breathing was steady. Your eyes weren't dilated. No puncture marks on the arms…"

He gestured to the notebooks. "And those were on the counter. I started reading them, thinking you would wake up any moment. I was still reading them down here when I heard you moving, going into the shower. If you were going to freak out it would be just as you woke up."

I downed the last bit of juice. "The 'hunt' caught me. They did what you saw and more. They left me in my locker full of filth where no one would find me. I don't know who got me out, or how. Sophia locked me in. I blacked out. Woke up here."

My face screwed up. How the hell did I get home? Anyone willing to do so would have cut me out of all that. I got up and looked back at him, leaning against the wall a little. I didn't want to sit just then. "I don't know what happened!" I shouted, swinging my hand against the wall. An image of a steel pixelated pickaxe showed and then disappeared from sight.

Deeble-doot. Plink, plink. I looked down and saw a couple little cubes, one red, one grey.

Reaching down for them only for them to disappear as I touched them. "That's weird."

Dad was frozen, the last slice of bacon I'd missed -tucked into the paper towel covered plate- halfway to his mouth. His eyes weren't on me, They were looking next to me, where my hand had hit. Where three large holes matching the size and shape of cinder blocks were missing from the wall. Wiring that had passed through the spot sparked a little. The wires were gone as well, severed cleanly right where the blocks passed. There was a little smoke coming from the edge of the paint outlining the three blocks. The kitchen light was off now, though it barely changed the light level in the room.

Looking down I saw one last grey block near the table leg. "Dad, can you see that block by the table leg?". It wasn't big, basically like a 2x2x2 dice with texture of concrete.

He slowly looked down, reached and picked it up. "It's heavy for it's size." He put it on the table with a clunk.

With one finger, I touched it. Poof. It was gone. No wait, there was a sound right as I did it. Very low. Kind of a 'doot'.

I pushed the screen door open, going out to the backyard. It was an old house, with wood burning stove being an original fixture. The woodpile was more for fun than use, but it was still there just in case. I heard the screen open again as I advanced on the wood pile.

Pick. 'Doot'. Pick. 'Doot'. Pick. 'Doot' Goddammit. Each full sized chord of wood disappeared as I hit it, the little blocks dropping into place. Wood colored blocks 2x2x2. If I touched them, they too disappeared. The pickaxe appeared and disappeared as soon as the contact was over.

My vision blurred a little and I looked around. Distant things were still clear but up closer it was fuzzy -the opposite of … I took off my glasses. Holy-fucking-shi… 'Doot' My glasses disappeared. But I could see things up close and far equally well now.

Dad cleared his throat. "Kiddo. Maybe you should carefully come back inside. And not touch things when you are angry… ever." Dad pulled something from the side of the fridge. A magnet held treasure of the last enjoyable Halloween -a domino mask in blue from the Boardwalk festival with .. mom. Dad held it up to his eyes and looked at me before dropping it down and waving it at the houses around us. "Other eyes out here." And he went back inside.

I came in, calmly opening the door and stepping in. I went to the hole in the wall -holes really. I put my hand where the lowest of the three should be. 'Doot' A grey cinder block popped into place. I smiled and tried the left one. Grey cinder block, fit in place with no mortar but no gap.

Grinning at dad, I reached to the last hole. Goddamit. A wooden block, the right shape but clearly a wood block instead of concrete. I heard the electrical snapping stop and checked the light switch. The kitchen light worked. Weird.

"Where do they go when you pick them up?" he asked bemused.

"I don't know. It just felt like I had one ready to hand. If this was a game I'd say 'inventory' and NO FUCKING WAY." A panel opened up showing me a grid with blocks of various types. There was a suit of armor in there and a weapon. Next to the grid is a simplified layout of a person.

"What now?" Dad was shaking aspirin out into his hand.

"I appear to have some gear already." I slide a blue sword to the hand in the figure. In my hand a stylized pixelated longsword takes shape.

"Um. I'ma gonna lie down a bit." dad walks upstairs and his door shuts quietly.

Helmet. Chestpiece. Leggings. Boots. Shield. Sliding them onto the figure is easy. I look in the mirror and the pixilation of the helmet affects my face, working like a mask for the upper half. Nice. Dismissing the inventory by the intuitive button I think about it. "Manual." Nothing. "Interface." Nope. "Help." 'Doot' Another panel, this one has a short list of topics on the left and text to scroll down. The section on Inventory draws my eye. Setting the combination I was wearing as a named set: 'Hero' then my sweats as 'Taylor'. Taylor, Hero. Coolness.

It looks like other topics are like placeholders. Only 'Breaking' has information, that anything I break can become essence bricks that I can store and use to make other things. Recipes are learned by breaking complex objects.

Checking the inventory, I have other weapons. An axe, pickaxe -no several of those in different materials. Torches. Potions. There is an anvil in there and a chest. Bow and arrows. Another tab said crafting on it.

The phone rang. The automated 'your kid missed school' message played to our old style answering machine. Yay, automation.

Leaving it whining to itself I went to the basement to -well- play.

Dad's tools and his workbench was there. It drew my eye. Was I some kind of Tinker? Touching it, the inventory crafting tab it up. I picked up a pneumatic nail gun to move it aside and felt a recipe take shape. Something else, it wanted more parts. A mason jar of assorted nails. An old boat battery. Wood I had. Some sort of gun thing slowly turned in my head. Hmm, those nails look awful 'pointy'. A slider under the gun showed closer to the right. I slid it left and the nails shortened and blunted, more like slugs. Fewer than before, but not going to kill outright either.

A green button flickered underneath. 'Build?' I pressed it. Next thing I knew Dad was calling me up for lunch. I swiped my suit for Taylor and put the 'gun' away as well.

"What were you doing down there?" he asked smiling.

"Oh I was just moving aside some stuff for working space."

"Fine, but if you feel a need to make things to improve the house, start with that step outside."

Grilled cheese sandwiches with crumbled Doritos melted in. Cheap does not mean tasteless. Iced tea and some soup completed a meal. I put my bowl and plate in the sink for later, then headed back into the basement. I was itching to play around with the gun.

I was down there maybe ten minutes when I heard a car drive up. The front porch door squeaked open and someone knocked on it. Dad answered and it was a policeman and woman in a suit.

"Danny Hebert?" she asked.

****Spawn 2

Dad was in a white t-shirt and old jeans. "That's my line actually.", he stepped aside and waved them to the old couch, facing away from the kitchen. "And you are."

"Officer Williams BBPD.", the he said, "This is Eliza Wentfield of the Ladies Auxiliary. We have bad news to deliver."

The woman was actually sad I could see. "Mr. Hebert, this morning at eight AM, a student at Winslow High School was found dead of asphyxiation, trapped in a locker. The body had been taken to the Brockton Bay morgue. We would like to ask you to come down and identify her, to claim the remains for a proper burial."

She soldiered on as my dad went from mildly amused to stunned to confusion.

"And why would I do that? Is it one of Taylor's friends?", he was scratching his head.

I saw the cop tense up. "Mr. Hebert, this is a serious matter. It was …", he consulted a pad, "locker 1211, your daughter Taylor Hebert. A body matching her description was recovered. Several students were able to recognize the remains on site."

Dad, leaned back and took a long drink of his tea. "Serious indeed. But Officer Williams, my daughter is home today. If I was to make a guess, she is listening at the basement stairs."

I could see the two give each other a pitying look before turning. The cop had the angle to see me first and did a double take. I stepped up and out, wiping my hands on an apron.

"Hello. I'm Taylor Hebert. Um, the report of my death has been greatly exaggerated.", I offered my hand. He took it and then twisted my hand slightly to move it palm up.

"Those are ligature marks. Zip ties right? Several days old by the look."

"Zip ties yes, only a day old. If you know about the 'hunt' at Winslow, I was the prey yesterday."

He looked at me sharply and took out a recorder. "Would you like to make a specific complaint?"

"Why don't you have a seat, Officer Williams. Tea?"

After a lengthy introduction on tape, I started speaking. It was weird to me that I could go over the event with such clarity, the details standing out to me. I went over the events from yesterday, right up until I passed out. When asked, "As for how I got home here, I only know that I woke up in my bed, my hair still covered in filth. There was some bubble wrap and the tape from my mouth, cut zip ties -all of it on the floor by my bed. I bagged it when I woke up. I did not take pictures."

I perked up. "I haven't cleaned up the bed since I woke up. You can have the pillowcase if that helps."

WIlliams followed me up, taking in the muddy footprints leading to my bedside. "Would you mind placing your foot next to this boot print?"

I took a place to set my sneaker next to the muddy print. Mine were significantly smaller, in length and width. The shoes I wore yesterday were added to the bags he was taking. Between my earlier deposition and the running question and answer session upstairs, it was easily thirty minutes before I looked in on Dad.

He was sitting on the couch next to Mrs. Wentfield. They were looking at the family albums now, and she was doing what women of her mindset do best -listening. He was regaling her of family moments of mom and me. Beaches. Mountains. Day to day. I could tell he was opening up, easing pain he'd held close for two years straight.

Officer Williams had sat back down in the kitchen, and being a cop he'd reached over and flipped open the notebooks. He was checking dates of the pages, flipping ahead some, shaking his head. He opened the emails printouts folder -and his face went more pale.

"These are very detailed. And graphic. I see you have noted parties present. Would any of the individuals you have listed be likely to corroborate?"

'Well, it depends doesn't it? If you go there armed with these and under a murder investigation they will be falling all over themselves to cooperate, now won't they?"

"Can you lie low for a few days?", he was starting to get his color back. Or maybe angry.

I chuckled. "Stay at home? Not have anything to add to those for a few days? Why not, apparently I'm dead anyway."

He sobered at that. "I will have to contact the PRT about that. It has all the marks of a new cape having brought you out of there.", he nodded. "They might have made a stand-in for you as well. If that body is still there.", he looked up startled. "What time did you wake up this morning?"

I glanced at the living room. "Dad said I wouldn't wake up for school. He thought I might be drugged or something. First thing I did was shower, like twenty minutes worth I think. Ate like a pig. I think that was about ten? I was puttering around the basement until one and dad made lunch. I was just going back down there when you drove up."

He stood and took out a penlight, flashing it into one eye and then the other. "No dilation issues." He paused. "The description mentioned glasses."

"Huh.", I haven't got a good answer to that yet. "I normally only wear them for distance viewing."

He nodded. "It's time to talk to your father a bit."

We went into the living room, him taking dad's regular chair and I sat on the arm of the couch by dad.

"Mr. Hebert, we have a couple options. We could let everyone involved know that Taylor is alive and it becomes a sick prank with a 1 day investigation. Or we let things progress for a few days, while I research evidence of an ongoing situation. Bullying. Assault. There is room for argument at attempted murder. Conspiracy."

Dad was just getting madder now.

"Mr. Hebert. If this was my daughter, I would want this treated with the sense that she really could be dead as a result. Do you agree Mrs. Wentfield?"

"Certainly, Officer. I will need to file a report on the visit, but I may be able to ah misplace it until Monday.", her face had the kind of lines you get from raising a family. Her eyes glittered as she took in a closer look at the marks on my arms, including bruising on my upper arms. She was thin lipped, but the look she gave was reassuring.

"So she hides and I play grieving father. How long before I start threatening to sue?", Dad looked like he was negotiating a strike.

"I think a day would work. She would have to stay out of the hangouts, maybe go to work with you for a day. Also you should go to the morgue and start making motions to set up a funeral..."

Brockton Bay Hospital, Morgue.

"Harry, did you perform an autopsy on #12 ?", one white coated doctor to another.

Checks his clipboard, "No. That one came in this morning. Known cause of death, identity to be verified before we proceed."

"Huh. Well the system is showing no door opening events on it, yet at 10 AM sharp there is a significant loss of weight on the log.", she glances up. "Door tag is still intact though, so chain of evidence is still good. Maybe the sensor of the scale is glitching?"

"Call it in to IT. I still don't know why we got 'upgraded' to this P.O.S. anyway. Lazarus my ass."

She nodded, typing in some lines. "It was that kid out west, the one that 'regenerated from death' after a set time. Got sent to the morgue after a car wreck as a John Doe. Family knew his powers so didn't pick him up, and the city incinerated him.", she shook her head. "So now we got panic buttons in the drawers, sensors for weight, movement, breathing -yay!", she waved her fingers, sarcasm at its best.

Eyes pressed against his microscope, making a bowing motion with his free hand. "All hail the mighty dollar…"

The air in this office is frigid, both in temperature and in emotion. "You are under suspension pending the results of investigation into the death of Miss Hebert. I'm sorry Alicia, but the Board is throwing you to the wolves on this. And I am most likely desert.", Superintendent Scott idly drummed his fingers on the desk of Principal Blackwell. "Buzz Donald, he's in charge now. It would be a good time to lawyer up…"

"Get the 'handler' on the line. We can't make this go away but we should make sure they are aware of the involvement. Whether it is just a prank gone horribly wrong or something else, you know some of those pointing fingers are lying next to trigger guards.", He was tired, worn down by trying for years to outlast the gangs, and now apparently failing at that.

As Williams and Wentfield left, I noticed something out of place. There was a dark shadow in the tree across the street. Looking at the clock, it was nearly four. The shadows of the mountains west of BB were already moving across the city. We have a long twilight in this town, with street lights on by five most days of the year. If that was a person in that tree, they were settled down to wait.

Snorting over the silliness of some capes, this was a pretty quiet neighborhood after all, I went back into the basement. I was feeling safer with a closed door and solid walls around me. Windows just seemed to make me jittery at the moment.

There was a pile of old junk in the corner. A couple old bikes from my childhood, some rusted hunks from old car engines. Once upon a time, Dad would work on project vehicles -but he'd lost interest and the time to pursue it as he got more involved with the DWU. I started cleaning but soon found it easier just to mine away anything that looked like junk to me.

Mine. Huh, I guess if your power makes a pickaxe in your hand to do so, mining it is.

Finding I could pick up the dropped mini cubes just by stepping on them sped things up a bit. This area was where the old coal pit had been, so I knew it would be clear of water and electrical pipes. I collected the remains of the last stack of coal in there, as well as the wood from the pen that held it. Once I had a nice sized clear area I tried the floor by the back wall. I had inventory open and had maybe a dozen cubes worth of 'concrete' in there, and went a few layers deeper under the house. Then I heard a yip of terror from above and jumped up the steps I'd carved to find Dad standing there looking down at me with a basket of laundry in hand.

"Oh, sorry Dad. Something in my power wants me to dig up things for more crafting I guess."

He shrugged it off. "Set a light up down there. You never know what you might run into."

"Good plan.", I checked inventory. Torches. Clicking on one, it lit a good sized area. In the light I could see that some of the bricks around me glittered. Collecting those showed a diamond in my inventory. Well not really diamond-diamond, but the hard stuff my sword was made of. I tried to think of it more as a 'rating' than the actual material.

I dug more steps down, widening the passage and adding a torch. Well sort of a torch -what do you call what appears to be a projection of a stick with a light on top? Torch it is. Maybe a hundred blocks worth down and forward the color changed again. Just before I mined my way through I noted rivets in the block and realized this was a water main. Okay, going deeper. It may be matching the real world foot by foot, but these blocks were stand-ins for the same. Representations. Symbolic. It was pure guesswork but there it is.

The passage of glittering blocks veered to what I thought was north. North? Cool, direction sense is good. I leveled the way to stay in the glittering vein, clearing it wider now. Occasionally other blocks fell my way, of other materials. Hmm. Time for another torch. As I placed this one I noted a passage behind me that opened upward a bit. It was hidden by a curve of stone block that I opened only as I widened to finish clearing the glitter. There were sounds coming from in there. Suggestive sounds.

Red eyes glittered at me from beyond the torch. Without planning to do so I found myself holding the sword and wearing the armor as a fuzzy spider thing climbed through the hole. It was nearly as big as the hole itself, and moved more like a robot -pairs of legs moving in synchronized pattern. But it's white fangs were clearly aggressive and I would rather impale it than embrace it. It shied away from the torch itself but came at me.

A swing. One spider chopped. Two more squeezed through. I slashed them and pulled another torch out just at the hole. I widened the hole carefully, ready to swap back to a weapon. There was open passage beyond, cut and dressed stone and the remains of a rug there. A spider scurried out of a cage the size of a block. Sword out again I killed it and struck the cage until it stopped glowing. A few stragglers left the room cleared. I decided to plant torches all around the thing just in case -they didn't seem to want to near the torches.

I picked up a couple potions there. Around a corner there was a chest. A fucking chest! Seriously? I was sure someone was trolling me now. Maybe Leet and Uber were prepping a dungeon quest? I tapped it and it opened. Inside was an axe looking a bit like my sword, and a pair of boots. The boots looked like they had little wings on the sides of the calf. I snagged them the axe, and a book below. The chest itself looked useful so I added it to the inventory. I was becoming tired though, all this stuff weighing me down. I came back toward the house and maybe fifty feet from my own basement I turned around and closed the passage with wood. I looked at the door sitting there and rechecked my inventory. I really don't remember having a door in there. But I had less wood than before so maybe…

Heading back up I found dad waiting at the top of the basement with a baseball bat in hand.

"Taylor?", he called out as I came out. "Honey, something creepy looking came out of your hole and climbed out of the coal chute window. It was greenish."

"I didn't see it. But there were some spiders down there, big ones."

"How big?"

I gestured with my hands. Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud and he was up the stairs and ready to close the door. "Come on out now, I'm locking the basement door with or without you!"

Chuckling, I came up, switching back to Taylor-wear before I came out. "Big man, afraid of itsy bitsy -ooh there's one now!"

"Aaaagh!", he screamed like a little girl, almost hitting the fridge with the bat. "DON'T DO THAT!", he added -mustering all his dignity.

The time showed it was ten o'clock -my usual bedtime- but I was wondering at what I had in inventory now. Ah I see now, beside the basic equipment and the craftable items, there was another tab for unsorted equipment. The boots were in there until I swapped them into my 'fighting' set. The book was a map, showing Brockton Bay in a blocky view that I could zoom in or out. It also showed what was below the ground level in my mine. Oho, it only shows the places I have been personally with detail.

The chest showed to be a large portion of my encumbrance. I took it out of inventory and placed it in my closet. Moving some of the spare armors into it seemed to help as well. There was even some gold nuggets and green gem things, though I left those alone.

Potions seemed to fall into three categories: Quarter red, half red and all red. When I took one out, it looked less like glass balls with corks and more like a plastic shell filled with liquid, with a built in straw. There were several of them, a few more than I started thanks to spider drops. Drops? Okay, that is sort of weird.

I'd been puttering around my room with just the hall's light, I kind of liked the darkness. With a snack in hand I was browsing PHO on the second hand computer dad had gotten me for Christmas.

PHO was the usual mess. I had to laugh over the antics of the flame wars. The Wards posted occasionally. I read up on them and wondered what that would be like. Somehow I didn't think my power would be PC enough for the PR machine. A sword was pretty slicey and if they heard I created my own enemies to farm drops -well game over.

I got tired enough that I moved to the bed, pulling the quilt back and just flopping down to a fuzzy dreamland.

****Spawn 3

Morning dawned with Dad getting ready to go to work. I was awake and reading, having gotten up and dressed for school on auto pilot. As he blearily moved about his morning I considered my options. If I went into work with him, there was a lot of old dock area to kick around -plenty of abandoned warehouses with old machinery I could gather up. But I waited for dad to get his coffee before mentioning it.

"Officer Williams said I need to go to the morgue and start the process. And I will need to check in with the DWU lawyer about a suit against the school. Can you wait until tomorrow to go spelunking for goodies in the old buildings?"

Said that way I was just a little displeased. But I had thoughts of my own too. "Should I answer the phone or let them ride?"

"No, and don't go outside either. Just to be safe." , he grimaced, remembering the spider.

I spent the morning clearing some space underground just behind the house. It was down a significant ways, with doors added to form staggered enclosures along the way. There was something percolating in my headspace. I'd seen mushrooms down there in the cave area I'd broken into. If they could grow there, they could grow closer to my home. It stayed warm down here, all they would need was a source of water and some light. I scouted around, but didn't find water right away.

Lunchtime I had soup and some crackers. It was raining outside, really pouring. I looked out back and there were puddles all over. I tapped one really soaked spot and got a 'water' block. I mean it was bright blue! I collected a few quick blocks of water without being outside for more than a minute really. Awesome.

In the basement I grabbed a hoe and grabbed mom's old garden box of seeds. They'd sat for the last 2 years, as mom was the green thumb. But if this worked like I thought it might, I could be growing a bigger garden underground with my power than we could have in our own yard.

In under twenty minutes I'd mined out a largish room. Okay more of a great room, so a single long room as big as our house, but twice as long, maybe one story in height. I placed torches around the walls, spaced about every ten feet. I only had eight water blocks so I set one in the middle of the room, to test a theory. The way this was working it was like I was using a Thinker power to get the answers I needed, just as I needed them. Well it wasn't exactly precognition, more like a recognition -as in I recognized what I could do with the things in inventory.

Tilling the soil made it nice and rich by the water. Too far away and it wouldn't work, so I put down another water block and kept going. Once I got a good sized plot ready, I pulled out the seed packets from inventory. Like a few of the other things I'd put in there they changed a little. Pumpkin seeds, carrots, peas. And then the mushrooms I'd picked up. I put a plot of each into place, heavy near the torches for the packets, a line of mushrooms down the middle of the room.

I came back into the house through the basement and heard the doorbell ring. A package was on the porch. I left it there.

Sophia.

Something was fishy. The cops had taken away a body, yet no one was even suspended yet. No arrests. Just a three man forensics crew and an interviewer talking to students. Emma was shitting bricks every time someone came in or out of the classroom. It was a matter of time before someone cracked and gave him everything.

Sophia slid out the PRT issue phone and texted her handler that there was something going down at the school, cops sniffing around.

The reply was prompt. 'BRT. Say nothing.' That was not ominous at all.

Ten minutes of sweating and the interviewer returns with the last student they had grilled, Greg Veder. His eyes jerk to Emma and then Sophia as he comes in. Shit.

"Sophia Hess?", the man calls, checking off a clipboard sheet.

"Here.", Sophia got up and started to reach for her pack.

"You won't need that.", he seemed bored, at least that seemed okay.

He took her down the hall, past the taped off area labeled 'crime scene'. Moving toward the door, he paused. "Go in and have a seat at the table. There is a note here that your guardian is on the way."

Inside, a table was set up in front of an old style video camera on a tripod. One chair was in full view of the camera, the other was to the side of the tripod with a folder on it. There was a pitcher of water and a stack of cups there, plastic ones with individual wrappers. On the table was a 8x8 sheet of bubble wrap , a fresh roll of duct tape and a bag of zip ties.

Sitting at the obvious chair, Sophia looked around a moment and took a cup off the stack. Peeling back the wrapper and tossing same in the waste basket, she poured water and took a short drink. Most of the actions she performed with her left hand, even though she was a righty.

She ignored the duct tape roll and ties, but the bubble wrap drew her eye. Automatically she reached for it, popping one then another. A half smile played across her face before she schooled it to stoicism. But she held the bubble wrap in her lap, 'killing' each bubble with a 'pop' going from one edge across and down. She held herself to one every three seconds.

Time passed. She was _bored_. Halfway through popping the wrap sheet. Her handler came in finally, followed by the Officer. On the way to the table, her handler looked pointedly at the wrap in her hands and shook her head, waiting for the cop to get another chair from across the room.

She was in business wear, frumpy in a way that made you ignore her really. Her face was extremely pale, her choice of makeup going from ice white to only slightly pale, even her eyelashes seemed blond.

The officer returned, placing the chair next to Sophia. He took out a remote and thumbed it. A little red light started blinking on the camera. "Today is January 7th, two thousand eleven. Officer Williams 3356-37T as in Tom, W as in William. Interview 27 in docket Winslow-23, wow twenty three deaths in one school?", shakes his head. "Sophia Hess and her guardian?"

Sophia had to elbow her handler to remind her that was her cue. Idiot.

"Regina Simms. Miss Hess's mother is a shut-in. The court appointed me to provide parental checks until she turns eighteen.", and then she took out the cigarette. Always the damn cigarettes.

"The school is a no smoking area, Mrs. Simms."

She stopped short of lighting up, frustrated. Then put away the lighter. The cigarette she held like a totem against evil.

"Sorry to bring you all the way down here, for just these few questions. Miss Hess, did you know Taylor Hebert?"

"She was in a few of my classes. Loner. Low end of the food chain.", Sophia was bored again.

"Were you present when she was put into the locker, bound in tape, zip ties?", he faltered a second, looking around.

"And bubble wrap. That's why this was here right?", Sophia put the sheet back above the table and set it down.

"Yes, bubble wrap. And the question?"

"No, I was not present. I was with Emma at lunch in the cafeteria until about ten minutes until class. We went to Mrs. Knott's classroom to use a computer. They were all occupied. Mrs. Knott can verify that."

He looked at her, "Yes, Mrs. Knott did say you were at her classroom door, next to Taylor Hebert's locker. She said there was a smell, which Emma identified as 'puke' in the trash."

Sophia felt the motion when Simms shifted her weight. She shut up.

"Okay Miss Hess, that about wraps this up. You can go now."

Sophia got up and walked away. Simms stood slowly, noting that Williams donned gloves and bagged the bubblewrap, the cup and the wrapper from the trash. He looked up at her, "Oh sorry, was there something else?"

She looked pointedly at the camera. Williams shrugged and pointed the remote, the light clicking off. Simms stepped close.

"You know the PRT will bury this, and your career if you push it. Hess is off limits and you know it." Red crept into her features as she angered.

Williams shrugged, "I know no such thing as it happens. But that is good information, I'm glad it's on tape."

Simms' flushed angry face went white. Williams gestured with the remote. "This? It turns the autofocus on and off. You take care now."

"This is fucking dynamite you know that.", Chief Brenner was not happy to have this hot potato come his way.

"Yes. And you will have to nuke it and nuke it before you can cover it with cheese and make it worth eating.", Williams grinned, running it back to Hess in the chair. "Does this look like innocence to you?"

"There is no such thing as an innocent in High School.", gruff reply.

"Well then how about the handler trying to twist my arm?"

A shrug, "They always twist first and ask what you meant later… But combine that with the PRT and you may have something. Something they won't like having the Youth Guard catching wind.", the chief picked up the phone and dialed Deputy Director Renick.

"Hey Mike, how's the wife? Kids?"

"This is about Hess isn't it?", sighed the man on the other end.

"Course it is. But I try to be nice when I can.", Brenner thumbed the 'do-not-disturb' button on his desk phone. "Spill it. Why am I supposed to cave on this?"

"Because the director says so?", Renick squeaked.

"Not feeling it. We have a body in the morgue. It happened in a school. A SCHOOL. In daytime. This isn't cape or gang shenanigans here."

"Send me what you have. We may need to corroborate things.", voice dead.

"Frank, let me be clear here, you go bending arms back on the Dock Worker's Union rep, it will backfire in an ugly way. The BBPD is union. The EMTs are union. Hell, your own PRT Troops are union. Make sure your little Fairy tale castle doesn't end up crumbling under its own weight."

Pin drop pause, "I see." He sighed again. "I will be in touch."

Williams sat back and sighed. "Sounds like they already know what crow tastes like and are preparing for how much they have to eat."

Brenner pointed him out the door. "Get back out there. That phone call cost us months of good will and the girl is still dead.", a pause, "She did _die_, didn't she?"

"Little of column A, little of column B.", he held up his hands. "There _was_ a body in the morgue this morning. And when I took Wentfield down for the courtesy call, there was a teenager in the kitchen. Same girl as far as I saw. Ligature marks, bits of tape and bubble wrap. She'd cleaned up, but the pillowcase matched the mess in the locker."

"Cape?", Brenner raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe. I wasn't about to sick the PRT on her after figuring it was likely one of theirs 'at set the trigger off.", he shrugged,"Will find out today at four. Hebert senior and I are going to the morgue to ID and to set up the funeral. Should be interesting."

"Go on. You and your crusades…"

Deputy Director Renick read the notes on the 'hunts' at Winslow. Third time through and it didn't read any better. Simms was sooo fired now. No way around it. Hess would be lucky if she only went back to prison, they might try her as an adult for this thing. He played the footage of the students through again, noting times to match statements.

Piggot was going to go Levi on him.

Organizing his notes, he put them all in the folder and headed down the hall to Director Piggot's office. Already the yelling was audible. Simms must have gone in early. He tapped the door and got a curt, "Come." for his trouble.

Simms was all but falling apart in the first chair. Renick set his folder on the desk and passed over the thumb drives containing the footage, with his notes sequenced to them. Emily played them, forwarding through the other students to the last two.

"So he finished with Hess, did he? And the one before her, the redhead, she was in on it?"

"Up to her eyeballs. We have email and text references to this and other acts over the course of a year easily. Then on another number for the girl before that, using Hess's burner lines. We know it's Hess because we can correlate the calls and answers against her PRT phone's whereabouts. We turned on her PRT phone microphone and recorded her every move yesterday and she had three different conferences -face to face with the ones in-the-know to coordinate their story."

"Much as I hate to do it. Bring her in. Tell her that her phone is compromised, a virus or something. Get her here quietly and in a Faraday cage. Then turn it on. Armsmaster rigged a room sized one last year."

Turning her gimlet eye on the woman in front of her. "Simms. You are relieved. Take your remaining time off, put in a transfer request and hope to hell this is still quiet when they call for a reference. You are done here.", she looked up, "Well, get OUT!"

That shook her into movement. She was out the door, dodging office workers.

Piggot thumbed a control. "Davis, follow Simms. If she heads toward anywhere but her home detain her and call me."

Piggot held her hand over her eyes. "Dragon, did you get that?"

"Of course Director. You told me to monitor anything to do with Hess."

"And you didn't see this coming?"

"I am not a mind reader, and I do occasionally sleep. As well as run the Bird Cage, Tinker and other activities. But since little of the events leading up to this were electronic in nature and by themselves a red flag, no I did not."

A sigh. "Point taken."

"There is something you might want to know." Dragon added.

"Which is?"

"The morgue filed a note that their Lazarus detection system flagged on Taylor Hebert at a little before 10 AM this morning. It still reads with weight, but significantly less than what it should be." Dragon rattled off with a slight emphasis.

"Oh really?", Piggot smiled.

Renick held a hand up. "Lazarus?"

"As in raise from the dead.", Piggot grinned ferally. "A cape for a cape."

****Spawn 4

Danny Hebert was not happy to be at the City Morgue for any reason, let alone a viewing that might repeat itself. Officer Williams was there out front, waiting.

He walked up and shook Danny's hand. "Head's up. The Protectorate sent down someone to be at the viewing. Might be Armsmaster, with any luck Miss Militia."

A rumbling sound punctuated the afternoon as not one, but two motorcycles drove up and parked. Well, one parked, the rider disembarking as the motorcycle folded in, now a foreshortened length leaving the other half of the same space for the second. Armsmaster _and_ Miss Militia, oh joy.

Danny waited stoically as they disembarked and walked up the steps. The Morgue was an adjunct to the Hospital, having a separate entrance but internal to the Hospital security controlled elevators between. You'd think they valued the dead more than a bank, but it was all heavy doors and windows and little real protection once someone was inside. A moat and high walls around a tent city.

Armsmaster approached in the lead. "Mr. Hebert, Officer Williams." his tone was abbreviated but not insultingly so. "An unfortunate circumstance, let us be done with it quickly."

Miss Militia gave him a half-dirty look and made a pained expression as Armsmaster marched past and held the door for the rest. Officer WIlliams knew the way by heart and led them quickly through the checkpoints into the Morgue proper. The one attending physician caught the buzz and covered the cadaver he was working with, dumped gloves, the outer garment and did a quick scrub of his hands. Donning a white lab coat from the rack he approached.

"Dr. Donovan, this is Daniel Hebert. You know Armsmaster and Miss Militia."

Donovan nodded politely, his gaze on Danny mostly. "A loss is never an easy thing. You should know Mr. Hebert that certain safeguards are placed on each body that comes in now. A panic button, sensors for shifting, a scale and temperature readings every hour." he nodded to a locked drawer slide with a yellow indicator among a grouping of white lights with no locks. "A yellow designates a change happened. A red would be for press of the panic button or total loss of contents. Capes, you know."

"And this pertains to my daughter how?" Danny spoke woodenly.

"We are about to find out." Dr. Donovan used his key to unlock a cover on the drawer slide. He then swiped his ID card, then entered a numeric sequence.

As the drawer slid out, it revealed a translucent cloth. The head and face were covered. Dr. Donovan palmed out a small tin of Vick's Vapor Rub, holding it out. "If the smell distresses, this may help."

Danny took a dab to his nose miming the doctor, thankful for even a small delay. "Do it."

The doctor pulled back the thin covering, a sheet of sorts. The face was Taylor. The smeared mess was nasty, the hair plastered. The eyes were closed. The skin was a grey white, the texture like mud rather than a person's skin. Danny averted his eyes and found himself looking at Armsmaster.

"Is that Taylor Hebert?" he seemed genuinely saddened by the body.

"It's her face." Danny choked out.

Doctor Donovan was pulling down the sheet further. He looked anxious. "Are you planning to have an autopsy done?"

Officer Williams spoke up. "The cause of death was clear on the scene. Why?"

Pushing aside the cloth to show a clothed body, but the chest sunken in down to legs that were flattened and chalky. "Because I'd dearly like to know what does that to a corpse."

The ME reached out with a gloved hand and touched the chin, which crumbled away into powder -ash really. The larger portion of the body continued to crumple, leaving only the head mostly intact down to the nose. Danny turned and made it all the way to an office garbage can, noisily puking.

Miss Militia came over and offered him some tissue, which he accepted gratefully. She waited, knowing Colin would jump in if she did not. Holding up a hand to forestall him. "Mr. Hebert, Danny. Have you seen your daughter since yesterday?"

Danny looked up at Williams and saw the nod to go ahead. "Yes. My daughter was in her bed this morning when I finally woke up. I had a long shift yesterday. The DWU had contracted to clean up after a cape tussle on the Boardwalk."

"Fascinating." Armsmaster spoke. "At the surface this looks like Oni Lee's power with a longer delay. Is there more to it?"

Danny was forestalled by Williams who pointed to Dr. Donovan. "Right. I'm glad the camera was watching that. Once you clear it for distribution in house, I'd like to send this to a colleague who was poo-pooing the whole Lazarus system as a waste of money…"

Miss Militia stepped back a little as Danny stood upright. "Is she at your home?"

"Yeah, she was to lay low while the investigation proceeded." Danny nodded to Williams.

"Investigation?" MM asked.

Williams nodded. "Someone put her in a locker. She would have died. Did die. The body was real, no matter that she 'got better'. And the primary is apparently known to you. No one at the school is singing, but it won't be long." He held up a small photo of Sophia in the chair popping bubbles.

Above her flag mask, Miss Militia's eye showed her anger clearly. "We need to talk to Taylor, as soon as possible. But not like this. If we roll up in front of the house, we would out her far and wide."

Danny to the rescue. "You can come in my car. It's blustery out today. One more person with a scarf pulled up in a car won't even cause an eyeblink. Just pull your mask back up when you get inside." he turned to Armsmaster and looked up and down. "You… better not come. You do subtle like I do intimidating." he gestured at his balding head and tie.

Tossing keys to Armsmaster. "Okay then, ride my bike back and have yours follow you. I will go with Mr. Hebert."

"You trust him?" he asked quietly.

"No. But he knows that and he also knows I could shoot him fifteen times and not repeat a caliber…" she grinned past her mask to her eyes and winked. "We will get along famously."

Danny went out to his car and fetched a hoody left in there for Taylor. Digging in the back he found Annette's old scarf. It was just one of those little things he'd not cared to throw away...

He brought them both to Miss Militia, who stepped into the bathroom to change a little.

A white scarf covered her face well enough. She caught him looking at her funny as she emerged, "Sorry, you remind me of someone."

Once in the car, Hannah did her seat belt and watched the man drive. He moved with an ease of long familiarity with the temperamental car. He did not seem to be hiding things. Officer Williams followed to the Hebert residence then drove off himself.

The quiet on the ride over was broken finally. "Does she remember what happened?"

"Right up until she lost consciousness."

Dad's car coming up punctuated a busy morning that had turned into early evening on me . I had lemonade in hand as he walked up to the porch. Then I noticed another set of treads. He opened the porch door and unlocked the front door. Pulling it open, he waved a woman inside. She was wearing one of my hoodies, as she turned to look around her eyes showed over the scarf. I'd recognize the scarf anywhere, it was white with a little red at the very ends. Mom's. The face was a little darker, but the eyes, the scarf and the way the hair poked out around the scarf. MOM!?

"Taylor!" Danny hollered seeing her crumple to the floor.

Miss Militia had one hand behind her back entering. Seeing the girl step out was unnerving, having just seen a body to match a while before, but having her faint dead away -too far away to catch on the other side of the couch. Danny went left, so Hannah went right.

It was probably just a few seconds. The lemonade on the floor was still there, ice hadn't melted. I stirred to sit up and found Dad in the kitchen speaking in low tones to a woman. The hoodie was gone, no longer hiding the military camo vest and white shirt beneath. The scarf was replaced with an American Flag bandanna. Miss Militia, right. She was holding her gun low, aiming down the stairs.

As I stepped into view, she turned from looking down into the basement. She held a pistol in her hand as she turned, coming to bear on me without thought.

My reaction was also without thought. Armor, shield and sword came up. The boots in the new set felt good, still not sure what the wings did if anything. From the basement a green tentacle eased into view behind her, grabbing the edge of the door.

She was still sighting on me when she asked, "There is something behind me, isn't there?"

I shifted my head to the side fast, she took my meaning and jumped to her right -grabbing Dad out of the line of the basement door.

Three green tentacle feet things joined the fourth on the door frame, cracking it as they widened the doorway. A great big face was pulled into view, hissing. It flinched a little at the light, but its eyes fixed on me, shark eyes -too big and all black.

Sword and shield ready, I charge it and led with the blade. The first step took me right up into it's face, startling me as much as it. Hissing, it started to shudder. I cut off it's head off with a horizontal cut -neither snicker nor snacking, much to my displeasure. The body still looked to be inflating. I kicked it down the stairs, the body sliding easily and it dropped into the hole. A solid crump and a gust of hot wind shot up past me.

There was a basso tone. A glowing sphere landed by my foot, made contact and disappeared.

Militia's voice broke the silence. "Are you going to tell me what that was?" she said, climbing off dad. "Sorry for using you as a pillow."

"My pleasure." dad snarked.

Did Miss Militia actually blush? I knew I did. "Da-ad!" I was looking down the basement stairs. There was a bit of green goo on the stairs, but not much else.

She tried again. "Just _what_ was that?" She'd come up behind me as I started down the stairs.

"I don't know. Going down to find out." a shrug, "Only seen spiders so far." Taking a step and I was down the stairs at the lip of the hole.

Militia almost fell, the person in front of her was just _gone_ in a blur. She saw the blur resolve down there. A Mover too? That is -to borrow a catchphrase- "Bullshit." Clomping down the stairs she switched to a shotgun with a flashlight.

Hopping down the cube steps was easier and faster with the little blur jumps. I was liking the boots more and more. Where it leveled off to become the first passage was a glowing set of balls. Reaching down I felt a rush as I touched one. I grabbed them up as Militia came down the stairs and then down into the hole.

She took in the blocky passage, the open door ahead. Waving her gun slightly, "This, This is all part of your power?"

I pulled a torch out of inventory, the light glinting off my armor. "Maybe?" I muttered to myself a little.

"What was that? I couldn't quite hear you." she asked sweetly.

"I said I thought I'd shut these doors."

"Oh. So that thing can't open doors?"

"I dunno. But there is a good bit of tunnel past this and only three more doors. One of them has a room with a spider generator in it. I would very much prefer a few closed locked doors between that and my dad."

"Then let's check it out." she hmmmd. "How… big .. are these spiders?"

I looked down the hall and saw lots of red eyes looking back from the darkness. I swapped my sword for the gun thing I'd made. "About that big, actually." Whirrrrr Whump, whump, whump. It wasn't a powder weapon, I'm not entirely sure _how_ it works, but the whine as it spun up was reassuring.

Looking over Mine's shoulder, Militia graded her as enthusiastic, but lacking in finesse. Her shots were good for a newb, whatever the hell that thing she was shooting. "You are a little left of center. Does that thing have much kick?" Militia asked.

Taking a moment to think about it, and jingle the ammo a little. I shot for another, trying to feel if it was kicking or just fighting my changing the angle. Okay, I was getting the hang of it now, "Not so much. I think the flywheel is acting like a gyroscope."

One was about to get by me and a suppressed pop sounded from beside me.

Militia shrugged, a silenced pistol in her hand. "What? I hate all the noise in tight spaces all right?"

Then we heard dad's voice. "Honey?! What was that noise?"

"Just clearing up some bugs dad." I grimaced.

"You aren't telling me that green thing was just a BUG!" he hollered down the hole.

"No. No. It was pretty creepy though." I checked my inventory. "Let me put up a better door until we get back.".

Miss Militia stepped out of the way, covering the way ahead while watching me out of the corner of her eye. I took a door in inventory and shifted it and a few blocks of metal together. Iron door with a little window instead of a wood one.

Placing the door with a solid clang, it locked into the blocks on either side. Popping a block out of existence next to it, I reached past to slide the locking bar. Then I replaced the block.

"Okay, that is completely unfair. Armor, swords, a gun and now you can create doors out of thin air?"

"Not _exactly_ out of thin air. I have to mine out the blocks to get the material first." I swapped back to the gun, giving it a little shake to check ammo levels. About half or more I think. "Next room is my garden, the door with the spider generator in it is off to the left from there."

Shooting another three spiders the room loomed large. The torches were off. I edged left and found one, tapping it to bring it to life. "Huh. I guess they can be turned off. Oh and try not to shoot the plants."

Miss Militia tagged another and a glowing ball fell at her feet. "What do I do about the glowing balls?"

"Pick them up if you want. Potions, or loot goes to the one who did shoot." I paused to grab up a bundle of carrots from the plant next to me.

"How is a glowing ball going to… OH." the light wash of energy around her spoke volumes. "I am sooo stuck in MS protocols after this." she grumbled. "Better than chocolate..."

I was busy, having found the left side door and looking within. Webs blocked vision, but the torches were there unlit around the spider generator.

"Allow me." Gouts of flame shot past me as Miss Militia opened up with a flame thrower into the spider room. Spiders, torches -all burned to a crisp in moments. The smoke cleared after a bit, just the generator left -and mostly broken.

"Show off." I pouted.

Militia spun, switching weapons and began tagging the few spiders that were already out of the room. A small cloud of orbs were on the ground around the room. I stepped in and plugged the generator a few last times. A larger orb rolled out, so I took it. As I was walking out I noticed the other smaller ones coming closer on their own. Well heck, it's my power so yes I took them. I picked up three vials and brought them out to Miss Militia. She was smiling and looking around for more things to shoot.

"This is a blast!" she smiled. "I know people who would pay good money to come down here and let loose."

"Here, these dropped in there. Look to be low end heal potions." as I handed them over, they changed a little into juice box looking things. "I think those are like half strength, but I haven't needed to use them yet, so not sure how good they are."

"Nice." she slipped them into vest pockets. "Two to keep and one to test." She looked around now. "Did I imagine it or did those bunches of carrots just pop out over there."

"No. They did just pop up. Grab a couple bunches, I am getting some lettuce and tomatoes." I was already gathering them up. I decided to leave the mushrooms alone until I could identify them.

She stood upright now. "Wait, you can grow all this in torchlight? Underground?"

I smiled. "Come on back up. Dad is probably freaking out by now."

Opening the iron door I heard odd sounds above. Apparently Dad was not the only one freaking out. There were PRT Troopers ready all around as we ascended the last steps to the basement itself. Our chatting about salads and such was probably the only reason they weren't foaming me up. Armsmaster strode into the basement in full armor.

"Miss Militia, Console reported loss of your signal … ", he began, but she cut him off.

"Are you insane?" Militia yelled at him. "You sent in a tactical team in a private residence!"

He seemed taken aback. "We also had a call in of a parahuman attack by a concerned citizen.

They saw something through the kitchen window, reported an explosion and sounds of muffled gunshots. From below their home..."

Militia seemed to wilt at that. "...didn't think sound carried that well."

Danny chose that moment to pipe up. "There is a way to calm things down as well as keep the secrets. Have the Troopers go out and form a perimeter -include this house, the one reporting the noises and the _EMPTY_ one behind us. Then have a group, including Armsmaster, break into the empty house and bring out a foamed prisoner to whisk off to jail."

His normal suave delivery was hindered by being completely foamed up below the neck, having to turn his head to talk as he was also spray stuck onto the washing machine by the same foam.

I walked over and tapped the foam. It must not mass very much as a whole section of it disappeared, letting Dad step out of it. Turning back I carefully ignored the 4 sets of Trooper held dispensers following my every move.

"Have you been briefed about the Wards program yet?" Armsmaster questioned.

"Miss Militia and I were about to make some salad. She can tell me all about the Wards program then." Looking up at him squarely in the eye, I swiped my armor to the off state and looked at him as Taylor Hebert. "Are we good?"

"That is satisfactory." He waved the troops out. "We cannot absolutely ensure your identity is safe, but we will enact Mr. Hebert's suggestion." he actually gave my dad a look of admiration there. "A very efficient plan, misdirecting attention without undue problems."

As they moved up the steps I slapped blocks over the hole in the basement, trying to use concrete so it looked consistent.

A/N ARGH the editor does not want to keep the fixed quote punctuation...

****Spawn 5

Shadow Stalker was pissed. She'd wasted her last chance to draw Hebert out and prove she was a cape. If she could do so, there was every chance she could spin her bullying as trying to push a Rogue into looking for help. Or getting a Vill out in the open where she could be taken down.

The FedEx box was her mom's busted up flute -with pictures of Emma gleefully slamming it with a hammer. That should have set her off like nothing else would. And she had come to the door and ignored it!

If not for the unwritten rules, she could have just gone in there. And then she'd got the call to come in to have her phone checked. How weak an excuse could they get? It sounded like a Piggot plan, blunt and about as subtle as a brick upside the head.

And then she'd called in a parahuman altercation. Less than two minutes later, Hebert's father and some woman waltzed in and there had been shots fired. Unfortunately, Shadow Stalker couldn't be seen near the Hebert residence, so she'd gone a few houses over to wait.

Hours seemed to pass, but it wasn't that long really. Armsmaster rolled up and kicked in a door. Troops rushed in. She'd heard chatter on the radios, someone got foamed. Then nothing for a bit. Then they'd expanded the perimeter and broke into a different house -and the foamed body they'd brought out was wearing PRT issue boots. A cover story! Really?!

Taylor must have been a Master after all. Yeah, that would do it. She mastered Emma and me and set us up to take the fall. Faking her death hadn't worked, but if she got to enough people, who knows what she could accomplish. And Mastering Armsmaster, that was hard core.

But her time here was up. It was run now or go in and pretend to be Mastered. Tough call. Shadow Stalker rose and turned from her 'hide', but finally made for the Rig's ferry.

Armsmaster paused as he noted the movement on his HUD, hopeful that there was something to salvage of the girl. Really? Disabling her PRT phone, but not checking the stock of her own Tinker provided weapon? And never once considering that the Bandolier of her armor could contain both a tracker and a Taser was just being unimaginative. Well, as long as she was heading in the right direction, that was fine. If she moved away again, well the Taser could be set to stun her, and then the bandolier would lock onto her as well.

In the kitchen, we were washing off the lettuce, tomatoes and carrots -well they were basically clean already but it was habit. They were each perfect examples of their type. I tried a chunk of carrot and it was sweet and crunchy, perfect. Dad gave me a look but accepted a piece. After one taste he dove for the dressing mix.

Miss Militia was looking at them oddly though. "What kind of carrot seed gives all the same length, color and thickness?"

I checked my pockets and showed her the seed envelopes I'd used. "My power seems to take a cubic foot of anything and homogenizes it down to consistency throughout." I was talking straight through without trying to dwell on it.

"

Dirt becomes ultra dirt. Seeds become perfect seeds that grow excellent plants. They'd probably grow up here as well."

Dad handed her some big bowls to work with. I had the cutting board but I suppose my power continued to 'cheat' at every turn. Just tapping the tomato with a knife made it fall into sixteen perfect slices. And a small pile of seeds. I tapped the lettuce and carrots and they also fell into sections, both clean and convenient. Dad handed me a dirty looking onion, after my garden stuff it looked that way. I held over a fresh bowl and tapped it to find a handful of onion bits and a newly sprouted onion top that I could plant.

"Right. What am I now, the Iron Chef Rogue?"

Dad and Miss Militia snickered. A new masked face came in. Lion head helmet and shoulder pieces, a big belt and just a skintight costume other than that. I looked him up and down and turned around blushing.

He chuckled a little. "So what is it, food based powers?" He stepped over to the table and dipped a carrot in the dip to try. "Doesn't seem to warrant all the fuss."

My armored suit and helmet slipped into place, with the sword in hand. One step and I blurred to just past him, touching the last stack of carrots with the tip. His face when he registered the armored person with the weapon inches away. He eeped loud enough to make the windows shake. The carrots all fell into neat slices longwise.

"Carrot?" I said sweetly. Then stepped right back to where I had been, sword back into inventory on the way -mostly to keep from catching on _things_. I could forgive a lot for beefcake.

His seeing Miss Militia sitting there and grinning kept him from reacting more. The sword thing hadn't registered fully because it looked more like a prop -a representation of a sword. The figure was there -and gone- before he'd gotten much more than a yelp out. The pile of carrot sticks where the bunch of weird carrots had been was a little unnerving.

Reaching slowly out, Triumph took a long carrot stick and dipped it into one of three bowls of dressing there -honey mustard. Nice. This was the kind of carrot that made confirmed carnivores like himself reconsider the whole vegetarian thing -at least until hitting Fugly Bob's.

"And she is ..?"

Sighing, "...Still trying to come up with a name." I paused. "It's hard to go with the first choice without giving a demonstration."

He turned to look toward me. "Well that _is_ what the power testing portion of the visit to the Rig is supposed to cover." he reached for another carrot, "And since Miss Militia has been mostly crunching and not talking, Armsmaster sent me to mention that we should really get over to it."

I took out the lid for the really big tupperware bowl the main salad was in, grabbed some plastic serving bowls like those the dips were in, forks and some baggies. I handed Dad his serving of the salad, which he guarded like Gollum. Separating Miss Militia from the sticks long enough to bag them was tricky. With all the lights and stuff going on one house behind us, the news crews had shifted to the other street. So Miss Militia and Triumph headed out to the PRT van carrying bowls and dressing and sticks, I followed in armor, holding onto the big Tupperware bowl itself.

In the van was another Ward, Vista. Green metallic cloth dress with armored panels, half helmet and blonde pigtails showing. She smiled and waved. Very cute, but very professional. "It was a two phased pitch. If Triumph hadn't been able to wow you, I was supposed to come in and make puppy eyes at you until you agreed."

"Would that have worked?" I chuckled.

She just turned them on _on me_ tilting her head. "Can I have some salad too?"

"Ack! Turn them off. Turn them off! Yes." breathing easier I broke the seal on the bowl as the van hit regular streets. "Dammit. Tongs…" I felt around in my inventory and found a pair of knives there, adding them to some metal, bang 'Tongs'. Popping them out with a little flash made Vista's eyes light up.

"So you make stuff like Miss Militia!" she gushed, "That is sooo cool."

Miss Militia sighed. "That is not the half of it."

Triumph snorted, finishing a carrot stick. "Yeah, she did a pretty good imitation of Velocity in there. And she does salad stuff." his eyes crinkled as he smiled.

Pausing in serving out his bowl, "Does that mean you don't want some salad?"

"No. No. I mean you make an excellent salad, honest." he stammered.

I served another bowl or two. We even passed some sticks up to the driver. Pretty soon, munching was the only thing heard for a bit.

"Where do you get the carrots?" the driver moaned. "I mean, I'm a vegan and good sources are really hard to find."

"Did we mention that these beauties are power-grown and you will probably be monitored for a day or so?" Miss Militia asked.

"Will there be salad?" the driver looked at the rear view mirror wistfully.

I shrugged. "If they want to do power testing, I can setup another garden plot there in the rig and run various veggies through in about four hours or so. Harvest in six maybe…" I smiled. "Haven't tried the trees yet. Anybody want to put an order in for seeds? Maybe some potting soil bags?"

"Done and done." Triumph finished an online order. I don't even mind if they run Master Stranger protocols on us if we can keep eating this stuff.

The girl in the green dress slash armor leaned forward after the salads were passed out.

"I'm Vista, glad to meetcha." she paused -I could almost hear the counting- five. "So what should we call you?"

"Seems to be a common question. I was thinking about using 'Mine'." waiting for it…

Another voice, male teen. "No can do. It's already MINE!" a snorting laugh followed by "Ow."

Vista again, "Ignore him, we all do. Unless he deserves a slap, then that job is all -ahem- 'Mine'."

"You have used your allotment of puns about the name 'Mine', any further misuse of the pun will results in a PUNalty." robo voice for the win.

"I . can . dig . it." whack, "Ow." I finally saw who was talking, in the front passenger seat. Not a big guy, but the clock faces all over his costume as he turned to look back was interesting. Some of them seemed to be ticking, others well 'stopped' hah.

Miss Militia groaned, "I see you will fit right in with the Wards…"

"But what are your powers like?" Vista asked.

"Well I dig materials and then craft other things out of them."

"So, a Tinker?"

"Nope. Closer to a grab bag with a lot of conditional options that get more powerful over time." I grinned, "I've been reading a lot on PHO." I smirked at Triumph who was giving me a stunned look.

"And your equipment?" he looked with interest.

"Everything I have got on I either can make or it was already in inventory when I woke up." I paused. "Except the boots. I found those in a chest I looted."

Vista and Clockblocker exchanged looks. "Wait til Uber and Leet hear about you!"

Elsewhere. "Achooo!" Leet sniffled a little and went back to his game.

"Come on, you've been killing time on that sandbox crap for two days!"

Leet just grinned. "But I worked out how to mod the world file and made a complete mockup of Brockton Bay out of it. Now I can play any time I like and know exactly where to find things."

"And what pray tell is the fun of exploring a world you mapped out?" Uber hammed it up like a dandy.

"Why sirrah, so that I may hosteth my own server and control the world while puny mortals grovel at mine feet." he smiled. He had invited a few beta testers in on the game, random offers through PHO and blind accounts. FUN!

Once we got to the Rig, and a fun fifteen minutes of bumpy boat action that was, there were some biometric scans to create my ID card. This was an issue at first because my prints were not registering until I took off my bracers. Weird.

I was ushered down to an enclosed space about the size of my living room in width but lots deeper, with the lights off. A pile of potting soil bags, a cart full of seeds and a couple barrels -yes barrels- of water, wood and metal in bins were left for me. That and a bunch of cameras.

First things first. Soil pulled in. Water pulled in. Heh, taking inventory… The barrels, metal and wood all went into inventory in just a few taps. I made torches and set them on the four walls. Water blocks at the corners of the space the soil blocks looked to fill. Then the soil themselves. Once they were near water they started looking nicer, but then a little hoe action left them ready for seeds. There was enough for twenty blocks of garden soil. Looking at the seeds they left, carrots, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, green peppers, beans, a real victory garden.

I put markers up and set the seeds to soil. Unlike a real garden, I only needed to press them lightly to the block. Water and light did it's work and the first sprouts showed before I'd even finished tidying up.

The door opened and Armsmaster stepped in. He flipped the lights off, leaving just the torches going. "How do they make light without heat?" he asked.

"They are torches. That's what they do…" I couldn't give him a better answer.

"And the material you take in, it is in a pocket dimension?" he seemed astounded.

"Well, I call it my inventory. And it feels like pages with set amounts of storage available on each. There is a sort of crafting table that I can mix things together and make other things. Observe." I took out one of the barrels, upside down as a work surface, and then placed my gun in front of him. "This was a nail gun, some batteries, a mason jar full of assorted screws and nails, and I think part of a drill. I picked up the first one and it went straight to the crafting table. It felt like there was something missing, so I added until it felt complete."

Armsmaster picked it up and hefted the result. "We should take this to the range." He sounded like a child with a new toy.

"Let me grab this last bucket of junk then, might need to reload." I wasn't about to say no here. "We should be able to get some of the veggies in maybe three hours or so."

He nodded, already heading out and down the halls. A few Troops gave him a wide berth as he walked the halls, more armed than usual. We found the range in use by two groups. One group was shooting pistols and another was running sniping practice in the longer lane.

Armsmaster stepped into position on the short range and with a glance at me for permission. He examined it and found the first switch to spin it up to speed. Then he ripped off a group of three shots into the paper targets. He took out three sets of tight groups and then tapped a switch to bring up a metal outline. This one he hit with three single shots, flattened spreads putting big dents but not penetrating.

"Blunt force but not killing level. Impressive." he rattled the jar a little. "What's the range?"

"Pffft. I made it less than a day ago. All I've shot are spiders so far."

"This seems … excessive for spiders." he raised an eyebrow,

I held my hands three feet apart. "Spiders." I nodded sagely, "Ask Miss Militia about them."

He waltzed over to the sniper range and ordered the crew off it. They just looked at him like he was crazy.

I tapped him as he started to kneel. "Ah, ah. My toy, I get to try it first. Besides it needs a reload."

Taking the gun, I swapped in a fresh mason jar -this time filled with nuts and bolts. I felt around and folded out a recessed bipod that was formed from the cover of the drill. The mason jar was angled to the left when using the bipod, putting the closer grip to the right side.

Spinning it up to speed I sent one downrange, low and to the right. Hmm, flipping up the plastic cover as iron sights helped. I brought it up a notch and then more left, sending another burst of three into the target. Okay so it wasn't a center shot or anything fancy but it was a good one.

I got up and gestured Armsmaster into position. "Very nice. Almost no kick. Rapid fire. And the battery is just lithium ion?" he commented, then asked.

"It was. Not so sure now." I glanced over to where the Troopers were looking more interested now. "Oh and I can dial it up to penetrating. It's as far as it can go in the other direction now."

He found the bar and dialed it to three quarters of the way forward, I covered my ears as the whine reached screeching levels and the next shot cut the steel target in half. "Okay, that's new."

The Troopers were looking much more interested now. One of them asked, "Can your gear be used by anyone?"

"I don't see why not. It's not like real Tinker gear, I just mashup things together." I thought about it a second while Armsmaster was plinking away at lower settings. "Have you got a few weapons you wouldn't mind losing for me to demonstrate?"

The group leader smiled and sent the youngest of the group to fetch some 'confiscated' weapons and munitions.

Sgt. Hammond was mostly humoring the new cape, but on the off chance there was something to this he also added a damaged foam dispenser and a canister to the things offered. "Do you need a few days to work something up?"

I shrugged as a loaded cart rolled up. "I'm here for power testing. Let's test, shall we?"

Hmmm. I took up the foam dispenser. Broken, not much to improve there. Liquid delivery, hardens after contact. Hefting it, must be a bear to use. "This thing isn't light, that's for sure."

He nodded. "Yeah, one size fits all too. We usually end up over foaming most targets."

Right. I took a shotgun, then the foam canister, some of the spider web I collected for string. As the first few things disappeared, a small crowd formed. Armsmaster somewhat unwillingly got up and joined us, pushing his way up front. I grabbed a reloading kit from the cart containing gunpowder. Now we have options.

"Okay, what about a pump action foam covered string shot? It should stay together enough to break glass at short range, opens up to plastic beads and string with a gooey center. Think of a bola crossed with a sticky net, with enough of the foam agent on it to form a light layer."

Several of the guys up front were actually drooling a little, wiping their faces. "You have my attention…" both Hammond and Armsmaster said in unison.

A few swipes and the recipe formed. The plastic for the ammunition took up two of the plastic barrels. Maybe one hundred rounds worth. I guess some time passed, because the number of people still there had dropped. Now there were ten or so, but I wasn't sure of anyone but the lead Troop and Armsmaster. I guess something of it was visible as they were still looking interested. For me, next to no time had passed.

I brought it out from inventory into my hands and it was a bit heavier than the shotgun with a much wider barrel -more a flattened oval than a circle.

I motioned for some room and went to the short range station. Looking at the readout on the lane showing 'range clear' I brought it up and fired a round.

With a whump more than a bang, the green metal figure had a splat mark showing string wrapped around from the waist high hit. In a moment, the foam along each strand spread to be like a kielbasa sausage in size, but flattened out onto the target and locked into place.

"There was enough material right there to make fifty rounds to play with. I see nine of you here aside from Armsmaster. So five each, okay." I set down the Webgun. Stringgun? Turning I saw them slack jawed, but quickly forming into a line.

"There are eight shots in it, seven now. Reload should feel similar to a shotgun, but they go two in, then slide the pair back -four times. There is room in the stock for four holdout rounds." What can I say, a lot of the DWU guys are ex military. They set up a gun range in the abandoned warehouses just north of the DWU offices. Both dad and I took gun safety and spent enough time plinking there that I had working knowledge of pumps and pistols.

Armsmaster was watching them as they switched to a moving target. "May I have a few rounds for Dragon to examine?"

I was at the cart again. "Certainly. I only gave them half what I made initially. I will need to get some more string or maybe fishing line… and each one of those will require a pump shotgun, 2 blocks of plastic, 2 metal, 2 blocks of gunpowder -that's about a canister by the by." I whuffed a little.

"Heh, may need a little food and a lie down soon here. The energy for all that comes from somewhere you know?"

"Yes. Let's take you down to the Wards area." he suggested. "Pizza delivery is 24 by 7 here. There are rest areas there you could catch a nap in."

The Wards area was pretty empty, Vista nodded to me from the console but continued talking and adding info from her monitors. It was kind of funny really, such a comedown from the tension buildup as the buzzer warning to allow them time to get their masks on played. Armsmaster pointed to a multi part couch in front of a television.

There was pizza in a box there with a note to help myself. So I did. Armsmaster even brought me a soda from a machine to the side -getting an jaw dropping amazed look from Vista.

"I spoke to your father on the phone. He is okay with a 'sleepover' and we will be handling your school situation and status in the morning. Any of the rooms with a green light on the door lock are open. Once you close it, the door locks until you open it. Bed inside." he was already heading off, still cradling my first gun and with a couple string shells in his belt pouch.

I ate the pizza, noting that Vista was munching carrot sticks occasionally. Drooping senses and I stumbled my way to the closest of the open rooms. Once in, I switched to Taylor gear and climbed into bed as close to the wall as I could. I was out in moments.

Shadow Stalker was pissed, but that was her standard setting. This Hebert thing was all wrong. Piggot acted like she knew everything that had gone on for so long, but fished for details relentlessly. Sophia ended up with plan B in effect. Throw Emma under the bus. Her own probation might still be saved but Emma would probably be headed to juvie soon.

They'd also recovered the FedEx package, apparently Mr. Hebert found it after the PRT Troopers had left. Having pictures of Emma smashing the flute led them to Emma driving the deal. Piggot chose to read it like there was no option for me but to go along with it, of me keeping the physical stuff to non-permanent hazing rather than let Emma try her hand and leave scars. Sophia smiled a little at that. Let her try her survival skills in juvie.

But she was on house arrest still. If she moved to within twenty feet of an outside wall she would get warning shocks. Enough to block her phasing. She'd have to wear the damn thing through to tomorrow and would have to change while inside a special room then put it back on before she was let out again. Jerks.

But she was tired. A full day of school, followed by the stakeout of Hebert's house and then being drilled by Piggot for hours… She used her card to open the door to the Wards area without the buzz. Nodding to Vista groggily, Sophia phased through the wall to her standard room, the closest to the couch. It was always open for her, one of the few dominance things Aegis let stick. It was dark, just a strip of light under the door frame, but she knew it well.

Still phased she half rolled, half flipped into the air above the bed and let herself phase in slowly just above the sheets. Landing light as a feather and nearly asleep before she registered the form of Taylor Hebert next to her. Hebert was here? Already? Going intangible Sophia fell through the bed, floor and into a storage area one floor down. She'd used this place to dodge annoying Ward interactions before. The area was lit now by some weird glowing sticks on the walls. Huh. She was standing among rows of plants.

Stiffening, she turned toward a new sound. There was scratching and then a white hand emerged from dirt near the corner, out of the light. Reaching for her weapons, Shadow Stalker thought longingly for her crossbow in the armory-since it was not here with her. The thing was bulging out of the ground, a skull exposed, then bits of ribcage. Looking around, the only tool in sight was an old hoe by the door. Door! Weapon or door? Weapon.

Standing in front of the door, armed, Shadow Stalker calmed down and turned the knob. Locked, from the outside, no inside knob to turn to unlock. The hoe was oddly comforting, its edge was shiny looking. As the thing stepped fully into the light, she twirled it something like a staff. It was a skeleton, sort of. Blocky, the head was squared off sort of, and the eye sockets were a black that appeared full, not empty.

As it stepped into the light, it rattled. Running forward it attacked bare handed. She blocked once and hit it hard. And again. It swiped at her so she leaned out a little and hit it in the legs. The figure dropped, gone, just a rib bone lying on the dirt.

More scratching sounds. There was a pair of them, one in each far corner. Right. Holding the hoe behind her back like a Bo staff, she gestured them to come on with her hand. This was fucking fun!

Armsmaster and Dragon watched the feed conflicted. Well _he_ was conflicted. Dragon was annoyed.

"You need to go let her out." Dragon was speaking like she would to a child.

"She can handle herself. It is good to know that there are drawback to Mine's powers before we set up large areas under her control. Have you finished sweeping for reports of creatures like the skeletons elsewhere? Or in the Rig?" he asked, still looking over the scans to the Stringshot round.

"And if she is hurt?" Dragon tried again.

He huffed, "You read the reports. You even pulled up the emails from the school's server. Can you say she doesn't deserve some bruises?" but he did stand and start walking to the storage room.

Shadow Stalker heard the door open behind her. She had just finished planting the final of four. It had only been an issue when one of the four spawned with a bow and fired at her while she fought the others.

Armsmaster's voice behind her. "Are you well, Shadow Stalker?"

"Peachy. Leave the door unlocked will you? When they start spawning seven at a time, I am sooo out of here." She sounded... giddy.

An arrow sailed out the door, missing Armsmaster but sticking into the wall. A metal wall. Closing the door he almost clicked the lock again…

"Colinnnnnn." Dragon's voice came over his comm.

"Oh, sorry. Was distracted." He pulled out and held up the arrow. Its tip was translucent like glass.

Over the comms. "Vista? Can you wake up Taylor and escort her as Mine down to storage-3b."

"Sure Armsmaster, It's time for the shift change anyway. Aegis can take over until Clockblocker is here." she noted sweetly.

****Spawn 6

Bang. Bang-bang. Bzzt. "Hey Mine! Time to get up. Armsmaster needs you down in Storage-3b. Hey, is that where you planted the veggies? Cool. Can I come along?" Bang. Bang. "Mine?"

I was weirded out momentarily as I woke up because the pillow next to me had an imprint of a head in it. The blankets and the rest all seemed like someone had been there and just poof -gone. Okay… So maybe the Rig is haunted or something. Why did I wake up again?

Bang. Bang.

Oh yeah. Vista.

I scooted over and got upright. Swapping my armor on meant I didn't have to find a light switch, as it glowed slightly. Opening the door I found short and cheerful throwing puppy dog eyes at me again. "Sure you can come, now knock off the puppy eyes.", I felt like covering my eyes, cuteness overload.

She looked past me. "Hmm, you have company? I see two sets of imprints on the bed."

"Not as I remember. Was alone when I woke up, why?", I followed her to the elevator. Apparently the stairs were really far away, through lots of twisty halls. I call bullshit. Somebody just wanted to nick some carrots.

Coming down the hall, we could see Armsmaster in front of the door. He was nodding as if listening to someone. The door in front of him sprouted a couple arrows, partway through it.

"Ah, Mine. Just in time. What do you know about … ahem.. Skeleton spawns?"

Hmm. "Help. Skeletons.", a little dootle noise. "It says here that they are vulnerable to arrows and blunt weapons. Spawns in darkness in grass or water. Oh. The water in the corner right?"

I heard shouting just then, hooting and hollering. "Is there someone in there?", It sounded familiar…

"Oh my yes." He was watching something on his helmet, I could tell by the way he dodged a little just as another arrow hit the door. "Shadow Stalker is inside working on her stress issues. It looks to be therapeutic."

I reached past him and opened the door. The garden was a mess close to the door. The front rows of beans were totaled. Oh, and Shadow Stalker was there beating on a pile of skeletons -from underneath it. They had her pinned down, but she was doing enough damage to the bottommost rank that they disappeared, dropping the next set in reach. A couple archers were in the corners shooting at -me. Whoops!

Shield up for cover. Clang. I moved to bring out my gun and it wasn't there. "Somebody still has my gun.", I growled over my shoulder.

"Oh yes. Just a moment.", then he shut the door. HE SHUT THE DOOR! The only way that could be worse is if he … 'click' … locks it. Sunnovagun.

I brought out a diamond hammer and started working the back of the pile. Hmmm, one of those skellies had armor. Yoink. As I worked the pile, bones on the ground were swept into inventory as I touched them. Potions, other drops. Lots of arrows. A bow? Diamond, niiice.

"You okay in there?", I asked. All I could see is some feet.

"HEBERT?!", I winced, knowing that voice.

I hit a couple more times, not so worried about missing the skeletons and hitting the person below. "Yeah. I suppose it's fair that you know me if I know you.", I joked around now, "So the mighty hunter has fallen to the mass of twigs."

"What?", she roared. "I did not fall.", she griped, less loudly. "They dogpiled me."

I sniggered. "A bunch of level one critters took down Shadow Stalker. Oh where is my camera? Oh wait, this whole room is rigged for recording. I hope they have audio as well, this is Grammy material right here.", I blur stepped to the far corner, whacking a fresh archer into another. They started fighting each other so I was free to blur-step to the other side. This one was armored and had a glowing bow. One two three times. On the fourth hit, he fell and I scooped up the bow and his armor too. About then, the xp balls started getting to me from where she'd been killing them and _not_ picking them up. What a rush!

I never really used a bow except at summer camp. Of course I had worn glasses then too, so swapping out, I shot an arrow into the pile. It took out four in one hit. NICE.

"If you can go immaterial on three, do it.", Pulling back the bow and holding it seemed to ramp up the power somehow. I felt other arrows leaving the inventory as this bow somehow pulled more into the strung arrow I held. "One. Two. Three!"

The pile dropped a moment and a ghostly form rolled to the side. I let the arrow go at the center of the pile and was rewarded by a storm of arrows shooting in a cone of damage -multiple hits on every single one. Ooops. And at least one hit on Shadow Stalker's leg -even in her immaterial form.

"What the serious fuck is that?", she had stopped, her leg pinned to the floor. She was halfway back to solid form, all but her leg coalescing. It looked like a foggy shadow pinned to the floor.

I took a blur-step to the door and flicked on the lights -the few Skellies trying to come out now burned to ash in a moment.

"Ooh. That looks like it'd hurt.", I stepped in close. Her eyes widened as she realized the implications. I looked into the eyes of my tormentor for the last year plus. "Uhuh. Better. Faster. Trump-er? You get the picture. Don't fuck with me again. Capiche?"

"Okay okay. This shit hurts. Take it out.", she whined.

"Can't stand the heat, can you?", I reached out and pulled it free. The leg went solid as she rolled away from me and opened the door. Oh. It wasn't locked after all. I guess he gets to live...

"Medic!", she hollered, ignoring Vista right in front of her.

"Hey loonie!", her head swiveled to me. I could see the blood dribbling down her leg. Her sock was already red where her low boots -Tinker sneakers really- showed under her suit's pant leg. I held out a bottle of half red. No use trying the heavy duty stuff if this would do it. "It's a heal potion dim glow. Chug it and be healed already you little gurl.", I slurred the last like she used to. It really was quite a good imitation of her. Probably heard it quite a lot.

She reached for it. I blur-stepped close and blur-stepped back to in front of the camera. "Armsmaster might make me shoot you again if we don't get the heal on tape. Pull up your pant leg a bit."

Vista came over and used a knife she pulled from somewhere _under_ her skirt -yikes, Pedo beware!- and slit the pant leg up to the wound.

"Does she drink it or pour it in?"

"Try both. I only know it heals."

Sophia grabbed the bottle, which again changed to a juice box and disgustedly poked the straw into it. Taking a long pull at it she paused. "If you Mastered me into thinking I was wounded, and that a juice box would save me, there will be _no_ safe place in the US. No the world.", then she sucked on the straw some more. Looking on, the wound stopped bleeding. It began to close quickly and she relaxed without the pain.

"Oh fuck yeah.", she groaned. Dootle, dootle. On the ground next to her was a chest, about the size of a lunchbox. I reached over and flipped it open. Inside was the end of a flute. The end? I grabbed it and pulled out a full length flute made of silvery material. Cool. The chest disappeared in a poof.

"That is sooo cool!", Vista gushed. I was about to say yeah when I realized she was looking at the veggies which had all popped up ready to harvest. I put the flute into inventory.

Armsmaster jogged up with ... an armful of my gun -parts. Nope, totally gonna kill him now. "Sorry. I was picking it up and hit some kind of breakdown release. Next thing I knew it was in sections. And I had to scoop up your ammunition."

Dragon's voice came over the room's PA. "Please don't kill him now. He's almost trained." Hmm I guess I was sort of projecting a death aura at him.

"Fine. If he gathers the veggies himself while I scoop and scope out the loot."

Sophia looked past me, interested despite herself. "Loot."

"Uhuh. My projection foes drop goodies. At least I think they are projections. Try and pick up one of those bones there Armsmaster."

He reached for it, but it went poof as he touched it. "Yeah, I can collect the craftable stuff, but for anyone else it's a projection. Single use items may work, because Miss Militia was able to pick up potions. Don't want to waste armor drops for testing." I was dragging my feet down the rows watching the numbers in inventory tick upward.

"Damn girl. How many waves did you fight?", I was mildly impressed, despite the dislike.

"I lost track after the fourth wave of five. I tripped on something."

"That would be Yorrick there." I picked up a skull. It went into the inventory, but as an item not as crafting collectibles. In-ter-resting.

Dragon's voice. "She fought three waves of two, four waves of three, five waves of four. She was on the sixth wave of five when you arrived to break up the first six wave. 1, 6, 12, 20, 30, 6 or seventy six -counting the single at the beginning." , she chuckled. "Between the garden, the spawns, the fight and the healing you might be called back for clarification on a few items."

Vista snickered. I saw Sophia grimace and then smile unwillingly. Once she got her own inner laughter under control she repeated herself. "We are sooo boned!"

I threw a carrot at her.

****Spawn 7

Although we had a 'bonding' experience, I was still pretty upset with Shadow Stalker. But I was not going to kill her, and I didn't exactly know what to do to her that was less than that. I was starting to believe that Emma had targeted me and directed all the aggression my way for kicks.

It would fit. That last summer before High School, when I went to camp, Emma had demanded I stay instead. Like a spoiled child, she took that as a betrayal of everything we'd had growing up. The fact she got mugged in the middle of telling me off over it when I called her up was also lain at my feet. Mugged or something more, since she wouldn't talk to me afterward. Talk 'at' me yes, 'to' not so much. So here I had gone and done something which Emma couldn't control. I'd triggered and apparently in Shadow Stalkers worldview the lesser power did what the greater told them to. By outgunning her, I moved up her social ladder from prey to predator.

Hear me roar.

Yeah, she's an idiot.

But it's Emma who is going down.

Conference room, PRT headquarters ENE. The door is open, but most people knew when to stay the hell out.

Director Piggot and Deputy Director Renick were reviewing the notes on the new Ward to-be 'Mine'.

"Where do they get these crazy names?" Renick bemoaned. "It's like they find the least marketable name from a list of random words associated with their power. Now I admit, not much comes to mind for a Brute/Mover/Striker/Master/Tinker with no real theme, but yeesh."

Emily paused. "Master? She doesn't have any controlled creatures." she frowned. There was a lot of notes to go over, but she would have remembered that. "Where do you get Master?"

Renick held up three fingers and ticked them off. "Spiders. Skeletons. And whatever the green thing in the Hebert basement was." They both glanced at the camera shot that Miss Militia's PRT pin had picked up. Not the greatest, not even autofocus, but it did bring home gems like this once in awhile. "She doesn't control them… That makes her worse than a regular Master in my book. Especially if they 'spawn' when she is asleep in any area she has put down her bricks. By the way, can we get that room shut down soon? I'd hate to come into work some day and find the place overrun with white like cockroaches." he shivered.

"I know how you feel. But I am considering having her make some of those spawning gardens inside shipping containers and send them to be airlifted into Ellisburg. Nilbog has been testing the walls there and his last communication attempt said his resources were running low -that he might be in the mood to expand his 'realm' if he isn't given food." Emily smiled a little. "It would be both food and a little surprise or three if these skeletons formed inside and got out into his lands. He might even appreciate the 'sport' in hunting them."

She didn't have a nice smile.

"So, after their little get together has Shadow Stalker given her any more crap?" Piggot asked.

"Noooo. By all accounts, Hess has steered wide when they are in the same room, and deferred to her when they pass in the halls. Her foul mouth has even cleaned up a bit. It's like she was a drill sergeant who found out one of their basic washouts came back and got a commission and was now her S.O." he gave a little chuckle at that.

Emily nodded. "So what do we do with Hess? If we let this case go through as it stands, she will go to juvie in her civilian ID and when she is sent to prison -if they try her as an adult, say- she is in the system for three to five years before she is out. And then there is little chance of her being a hero again. A waste that."

A third voice entered the conversation, clearing throat looking for attention. They turned to find an unexpected cape presence in the doorway. Assault was there, he wasn't even leaning on the wall in his usual annoying mode. He was serious. "If I may?"

The two top officers in ENE glanced at each other and Piggot gave him the wave to speak.

Air quotes, "'Mine' is a sweetie from what I've seen. She wants justice. If you give her the facts about Hess's past and then let her decide she will likely let Hess stay out of it if the other girl, the leader of it all, get hers. In fact, you might even tell her you can have Hess confess her parts fully, in return for a suspended sentence."

"You seem awfully aware of Mine's take on this." Renick stated slowly.

"Ha ha, yeah the thing is she reminds me of … Battery. Too willing to forgive, even if it takes a long time in coming. She beat Hess square and fair too. That helps." He wandered back out, gone before Emily could say anything more -like 'shut the door', or 'idiot'.

Emily found her eyebrows raising, mirroring Renick. "That idiot has been taking smart pills on the side. From anyone else, that would be a thoughtful analysis."

"So who gets to tell the story? Militia?" Renick asked in the following silence.

"Oh hell yes." she shuffled papers straight, signaling a close to it. "Armsmaster may be effective but socially he would do better taking tips from ELIZA."

Renick did his best to nod along, a habit he'd found handy when someone uses an obscure reference.

"Colin, Was it really wise to put them all through physicals together?" Dragon queried. While the girls did not seem ready to jump at each other they still looked like untrusting cats forced into the same small room.

"It will be fine. Something Assault said about making them spend all their time here together to rub the sharp edges off."

Dragon spluttered. "You took social advice from Assault?" she paused, "You know his old name started with 'MAD' for a reason, right?"

The frosted glass walls of the enclosure they were in allowed him to be close but not cause undue stress to the two teenagers. Triumph was on this side of the wall as well, also getting a physical -phlebotomy and cultures to see how his system reacted to the foods produced by Mine's power. The same group of scientists were examining slides of the food compared to standards as well as running gas chromatograph tests.

Dr. Xao was humming to himself and his pause drew all eyes. "Oh this _is_ interesting." His voice was odd in that his English was superior to many native speakers. Aside from a relative few exclamations in Chinese. "See here. The left slide is a 'Mine' carrot. The cells are all identical size, shape, thickness from the center to the edge. It is an 'ideal' carrot." He paused and looked at Armsmaster as if that should mean something. "Don't you see? It is an ideal, a representation of 'carrot'."

Armsmaster nodded finally, "So it is the perfect carrot. Efficient."

"No. No. It is like her sword. It is compressed to the minimal visual state, but has multiple states overlaid. The carrot, all the food sampled is like that. One carrot eaten results in six, maybe seven carrot's worth of nutrition." His smile was beatific.

Miss Militia had caught the tail end of the conversation. She was still a little annoyed that they'd taken five vials of blood instead of two. They were still pestering her with requests for bone marrow samples.

On the other side of the glass I saw them talking and was pretty sure it was about my food and things. I was listening to the litany of questions about Sophia -no Shadow Stalker's wound. Well it looked like a scar now, an old one. It didn't seem to bother them, nor the fact that she had a number of them around her thighs from other such wounds.

She saw me look and wince a little. "That's why I wear the bodysuit in gym or during track.", she chuckled. "Could have really used you back then, or some of those bottles anyway." A monitor came to life in the corner and the few scientists on our side gaggled off to look at it. "Got caught in one of the gang shootings as a kid. Back then, there were less Protectorate in the city. Took 3 bullets to leg and back, shattered my pelvis. Same year Panacea triggered, about three months before she did… Lucky me."

I nodded, wondering what kind of drugs they had given her…

She was looking down. "It was a school bus. A field trip to downtown, to city hall. My Dad was a chaperone. He was BBPD. Empire goons shot him and three other adults on their way by, because they happened to be 'of color'. He was dead before I crawled over to him."

Ah. "Your … trigger?"

She looked at me like I grew a second head. "No. Oh, HELL no.", she half chuckled before resuming her downcast look. "Triggers are the worst days, the bottom bounce. I didn't trigger until three surgeries and a year's worth of physical therapy later. My trigger was being left in the pool alone, and forgotten, during a ten minute Endbringer alarm test. Nobody told the kids it was a test. They had weights on my legs to work against while I had floats, but I couldn't get them off to use the ladder to get out."

"Trapped you say. But not in a confined space. Not like -oh, say a locker?", I felt the heat rising in my face.

"Well, after Emma said you were the daughter of a ranking Empire supporter…" she began.

"SHE SAID WHAT?!", I growled.

On the other side of the frosted glass, Miss Militia winced and spoke, "That's my cue." She opened the door and saw Shadow Stalker in her rumpled costume putting the exam table she had been on between her and Mine. Mine had just swapped in a sword and was pointing at her, growling profanity.

"Mine! Really. Threatening a Ward is not the way you want to start off an association with the Wards in general." her power flashed into a machete form, something -anything- to block if needed.

I realized my state and quickly dropped the sword back into inventory. There was a groan of disappointment from the scientist closest to me. "Sorry. She said my dad was E-eighty-eight."

Shadow Stalker straightened up. "No, I said Emma told me he was. Said the whole docks were under Kaiser's control secretly. That was why the Empire never bothered them."

"Not hardly. The DWU keeps out the Empire and the ABB, and kicks out Merchants on a daily basis.", I sat up proudly, not having gotten off the exam table. "And you bought that line of bull?"

Sophia nodded slowly, "She showed me a certificate of support, written out in script and signed with their stamp. It was rolled up in that flute she took from your locker."

"Pshaw. You know better than that Hess." Miss Militia joined the conversation. "Kaiser doesn't issue certificates in the first place. Secondly, were you present when the flute was taken -or did she produce it later, along with the certificate and _say_ it was in there."

Sophia had an 'Oh' face on now.

"It _can_ learn!", I deadpanned.

"I can still beat you bloody, you know that right?", she told me, but didn't look like she half meant it.

"Sooo. Maybe you should be considering telling us how much you shared with this Emma and why?"

And she did. And it was not what I expected.

"It was a night patrol. Maybe my second month out. When I was still using that single shot bolt caster and the cowl. There was a tip from my informant saying that the ABB were going to take down an Empire courier. I was watching from the rooftops." She was reliving the memory I could see. "The ABB were prepared. The real handoff was tied up in the corner. A car drove up, passed the alley and backed up slowly. Then it turned in and a man got out."

"Alan Barnes." I noted.

"Yah. Didn't know it at the time. They pulled guns on him, took the girl out of the car too. They had the case and seemed like they were going to beat him up when some of them suggested games with Emma." Sophia was looking at Miss Militia, avoiding my eye. "Thought they were just Empire supporters getting a little of their own, right up until they cut the dress off. That's when I came down hard on them."

Miss Militia snapped her fingers, "Barnes. Your lawyer from the …" her eyes tracked over to mine.

"Tell her." Sophia grunted.

"Sophia was caught after pinning a man to a brick wall with a bolt. He almost died. His lawyer was pushing for her to be tried as an adult. He claimed since the man lived in the building, it was already a case of breaking the unwritten rules. Alan Barnes talked the jury out of it. He got it dropped to a suspended sentence, probation on the other charges."

Miss Militia was shaken. "There were rumors that some pretty hefty back office politics made it happen too."

A female figure in white with dark blue electric circuit lines was striding in. She smiled and looked at me and then Shadow Stalker. "This must be Mine!" the way she said it sounded like there was a 't' at the end there. 'Mined?"

She walked over to me. "I hear you make a mean salad." Her smile defused the situation a little. "They sent me to bring you -both- to the Gym for some power testing."

"More?", I was feeling diverted.

Sophia looked resigned. "And then more blood. Did you fight a cape? More testing, more blood." she was getting up to walk away. "I need to change out this mess. Some of us don't get to click change."

Battery gave me a weird look at that. I'd put on a domino to get around the rest of the base with a modicum of privacy, but I was still wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. I did the magician bit. "Nothing up my sleeve." Wave one hand out to the right and across me, switching to armored form with helmet.

"Cool. A changer!", she started walking away.

"Not exactly." Miss Militia added.

"Huh. How does that work?", she asked. We turned out into the hallway, heading to the left. There was a long straight way to the elevator that was central to the Rig.

"Well, you know how fast you are? Try to get to the elevator first.", Militia smiled.

"You're kidding right?", Her suit glowed brighter along the lines and then she started running down the hall. She was halfway there before I took a step. But my step was 'to' the elevator door.

She arrived and was already turned back to say something when she noted my absence. Then my presence. "Hot damn! Did you teleport?"

"Nope. I walked." Hmm that reminds me, there was some chest armor in the drops from the skeletons. One of them glowed green in the low light. I swapped it over to the active position and realized I should never do that in public. Apparently when I swapped out the old into inventory, I was briefly just wearing my sports bra. With the glowing green armor in place I was now faced with a snickering Battery.

"Down girl!" she joked. "Married here. Underage there... Just kidding."

I tried to concentrate on other things until Miss Militia jogged up. The old chest armor in inventory gave a diamond rating but was not enchanted. This was. It had protection vs Fire and something called Feather Fall. Upgrade!

As we got on the elevator, Miss Militia touched my armored shoulder. "Wasn't that more blue?"

"Yeah, there was a drop when we fought the skeletons." I said.

"A drop? You mean like a game?", Battery got close. "Can I be there when you tell the Director you get drops? Do you get chests?"

I glanced down and tapped my boots together. With the armor on, the boots had the same pixilated look to them -the white wings showing more. "Got the boots in a chest."

"No way." she gushed a little. "Have they scanned her to see if she isn't one of Leet's gynoids off the farm?"

"Yes. Yes we did. And Leet can't make any more after that one. Of which we do not speak."

The elevator opened onto a large area. When we got out, the elevator car itself went into the ceiling, leaving a really big open area. I would guess that it is a lower level to the Rig, maybe even below the water level.

My ears popped. Militia offered gum so I am betting that is normal. "This area is used for training and sparring. There are weight stations that come out of the ceiling and let us gauge very heavy loads. We can also bring out mobile dummies which can show human style damage levels and parahuman -brute really- levels. The grey ones are human type -so hold back a little. Orange means use everything you have.

"This place is huge!"

"Oh, well we are cheating a little." she pointed to the control area where Vista waved back at us.

"Hmm. That also brings up a point. I am guessing the sword is a little much for gang boys yeah? So I need to come up with an alternate."

"That would help." Militia said right as Battery mouthed out 'Sword?'

I checked. Hmm crowbar, bat, some kind of staff. Ooh I had enough diamond to mix that up a little. I pulled out the diamond staff. It was a bit thicker at each end, a little like a soda can there, and half that toward the center.

The short answer is that I would never be lifting a car off someone. I could hit well enough for a semi-skilled weapon user. The dummies hit back, and I was able to handle the lesser love taps. My armor cheated by protecting me in the gaps between as well as on the armor itself.

When we tried sparring, Battery hit me hard enough that I was tossed into the air across the room. I was not flying. I was floating with style downward. The horizontal momentum was unchanged, but once my foot touched I could blur-step right back to the fight. I caught her twice, once from behind and again from in front of her. After that she was wiser, or maybe she stopped sandbagging a little.

I flew more than once. I did figure out I could do a reasonable clothesline attack by running past with the staff held out horizontally.

And then I noticed rope in my inventory….

"Oh that is sooo cheating." Vista crowed in the control room.

I'd ran up to Battery and dropped a loop over her and blurred away. The jerk at the end allowed me to pull her off balance. While she was airborne I got two more loops on a leg each, while running more rope around her.

With her off balance I just managed to entrap her arms and slammed her down. Battery was woozy from the hit, more her momentum than anything I did. I stepped in and coiled more around her and stepped off as she roused. Again my blur-step yanked her high as I aimed for the upper part of the wall. Blurring downward I passed her close enough to see her grin as she lit up again, breaking out of the rope.

She came for me like a beast from hell for maybe ten seconds as I stepped it like a scared chicken ahead of the fox. I stayed out of reach until she dropped power and then Miss Militia called a halt.

Battery came down and she had blood on her lip, holding her arm. Miss Militia raised an eyebrow at me. Oh right.

I handed her one of the potions, a middle ranged one. "Drink this."

"You are fucking kidding me. You heal too?", in her hand the corked bottle became a juice box. She stabbed it with the little straw and sucked it greedily. "Oh gawds yeah."

There was a little Doot noise and two balls of light shown, the larger one heading my way. I took it and grinned. The smaller one went to Battery who whooped. "Wow. Just wow.", she grinned. "You are now officially my favorite Ward to train with. That was like electric chocolate caffeine full body massage." She finished twirling around. Then groaned a little and swigged the rest of the juice box.

"So when do we get some salad?"

"My dad will be here for lunch. Then I sign on."

****Spawn 8

Danny Hebert drove back down from his office in the Dock Worker's Union. Not that there had been any serious work _in_ the docks for years. It was always construction work here, infrastructure repairs there. He even organized day workers for odd jobs throughout the city. So as he passed through the back roads behind the Boardwalk, his eye was drawn to areas of disrepair. Broken culverts here. Sagging power lines there. It reminded him more of the way Japan used to look -connections strung up haphazardly by city workers that just wanted to be done and leave before they were robbed or beaten.

He was not afraid of being stopped. His was a DWU vehicle. Neutral. He'd worked hard for that status over the years, Making sure none of the gangs made inroads on the docks was a losing game, but the gangs also realized there was value in having workers who were not part of the game. So even with the whittling over the years, there was a large area of the docks left unassociated.

Passing through this area in daytime, it is hard to realize that Lung's people were everywhere here. It was just before noon, the day way clear, so he made good time along the back roads. Nothing would be considered out of the ordinary in his drive, but 'neutral' vehicles are watched, and in this case, his had made the trip to the Rig's ferry boat landing twice in a week. This raised flags. A closer connection between the DWU and PRT suggested things were changing in the status quo. And that was not welcome.

Parking at the ferry, Danny was sure to follow the script he'd been given to ask about 'lost and found'. He was given a ticket for the ferry and instructions to talk to the manager of the gift shop. It felt flimsy. He wondered if it might not be better to get a boat himself and go 'fishing'. No that wouldn't really work either. He'd have to become a fisherman for that to work, and even then there was no way to approach the Rig without someone spotting it from shore.

The ride was long enough to for his attention to drift. Coming back to himself, he realized there were a couple Protectorate heroes on the boat as well. Assault, Velocity, the new guy -um Tremendous? No. Taylor had mentioned him. Lion motif. Tremor? No that was the guy out west.

"Triumph, Come on!" Assault called out. "Autographs can wait until after we finish our shift."

Various "Awwww." like noises came from a few young women -and one young guy, which caused a few raised eyebrows here or there.

Muttering something about "One. One damn underwear ad and you call in the creepers. I shoulda listened when Armsmaster told me to pass." the youngest of the adult heroes jogged to stay with them.

After they cleared the dock, the tourists and guests were allowed to debark. Danny followed them to the elevators up the legs of the Rig from the dock itself. Heading to the gift shop and asking for the manager got him escorted into the back areas of the first level.

His bulking PRT Troop escort stopped at a door, giving him a wave to go in. It was a small conference room, probably meant for recruiting as there were posters all around of Wards past and present. The opposite side door opened after a moment and Mine came in, blurring the space between them and catching him in a hug.

A group of officers came in, Armsmaster and Miss Militia as well. A rather hefty sheaf of paperwork was passed out.

"Mr. Hebert, I am Director Piggot. Deputy Director Renick here on my left. You have met Armsmaster and Miss Militia. Have a seat."

"I will happily look this over until my representation arrives." Danny said, taking a sheaf and flipping it open.

Emily looked at her deputy a moment. "Representation?"

Danny nodded, not looking up. "Yes, representation. This _is_ a binding contract. Entering into talks over a contract without a lawyer is like an unarmed man going into combat. The DWU has had the occasional parahuman contact over the years. We even managed to make Lung pay off debts his cartel held over several in our ranks in lieu of hiring us to fix the results of his rampage a year ago. The city chose not to restore power as leverage -we used the opportunity to clear debts and establish a more direct quid pro quo with the ABB ranks."

A gasp from the Director brought his eyes up. "Do you know how many plans that brokered deal upset?"

Danny smiled sweetly, "No. But I do know how to read a map. My house sits along a direct line from ABB territory to the Protectorate HQ. You don't cut off a Dragon's daytime TV and refrigeration if you don't want the city to burn."

The door behind Danny opened. A Hispanic gentleman, dark black hair and a thin mustache above a beige suit. "Good morning, Director, Deputy Director.", he stepped forward and I saw him put a hand on Dad's shoulder.

Emily growled the name. "Quinn Calle.", she half crumpled her copy.

"Oh Director. Do you have a sore throat, I may have a lozenge. A moment." He set a thin briefcase down and opened it, searching pockets.

Accepting the lozenge and setting it aside, Emily focused on my Dad. "And how do you know Mr. Calle?"

"He represents the DWU in certain types of contracts." Dad said blithely. "Although this may be the first he has chivvied a Ward to be into your hands."

"Oh Danny, you wound me -damning me with faint praise.", he sat down.

Only then did I notice Miss Militia relax, her eyes turning to Danny, speculatively.

Dad had steely eyes. "I've read through a standard contract, and seen where some of them diverge. Would you say this is closer to the vanilla wording?"

Emily was quiet. Renick chose that point to pipe in, "Wording changes. The Youth Guard set guidelines that change from year to year."

Mr. Calle just shook his head and took up a packet to flip pages. Dad was reading his, and took out a highlighter, jotting marks here and there.

"I don't want to waste your time, why don't you check in with us after an hour or so." Calle's smooth voice was both condescending and confident.

Dad looked at me. "Taylor, while this involves you, the dickering is just starting. Go make some lunch and then come back. You will need to read over the points we highlight, but the whole thing affects you as well. Go on kiddo, we've got this."

I could see that dad was deflecting the anger the Director's were both having at this turn of events. They came in looking for an 'easy' signature and found a tiger waiting for them. The only thing I could do was as he said, so I left with Militia to head to the kitchens.

Here we met with the kitchen workers. They were not used to the Wards doing more than raiding refrigerator space set aside for them -fruits and milk, juices and well salads. But they normally brought in prepackaged salads not fresh made. It wasn't like the Rig had so many onboard at any given time. But there was space, and in it there were surgical steel tables. The impression was that they might have also served as lab tables at need.

"This is Margaret and John. They normally cover the day shifts, with another lady, May who covers nights.", Miss Militia was more relaxed.

John smiled. "And we get all the Troopers lunches and quite a few of them breakfast. Sandwiches are made up on request for those staying through dinner, but it is rarely more than that. On special occasion hot dinners, but it is usually a buffet barbecue thing.", he shrugged.

"What he is saying is we aren't chefs by no means." she smiled, showing off a bright smile against dark skin. "And call me Margie, most everyone does." She took my hand and shook it a bit.

"Okay then John, Margie. I promised some folks some salads fresh made. I can do the base materials and I can handle most of the cutting. What I need help with is splitting them up into containers and serving."

They looked at me and looked around. Margie said it first. "Hun, we haven't had any deliveries of greens. There ain't barely an onion and a couple tomatoes in the fridges. Tomorrow is our regular delivery day.", she was giving me that look -'what chu talkin bout Willis?'

"Let me demonstrate." With inventory open, I started swiping stacks of tomatoes out onto the table. Carrot bunches. Spinach. Lettuce. I was really unhappy that I'd only had one variety of lettuce seed.

John took a step back. He turned and quietly started getting out big steel bowls. Margie shook her head and muttered something pithy to herself. She went to a closet and came back with a stack of Styrofoam dinner clamshells.

I took out my sword and they blanched. "Relax, it works like a wand for this." Taking a carrot bunch in hand over a bowl I tapped it. A rain of carrot slivers fell into the bowl. Lettuce next.

"Do you even need to wash it?" Margie asked.

I just smiled and smiled more when I heard them say to each other, "Cheating cheaters who cheat.." in practiced unison.

"It slices, it dices, it Juliennes! Um, what is a Julienne anyway?" I got through the onions, noting a distinct lack of tears -Niiiice- and then started the tomatoes. "And it still cuts a tomato with barely a tap."

I paused. "How much salad dressing you have on hand anyway?", I was hearing voices in the serving section of the small cafeteria. "Never mind, just get it all for now. I think we have a 'two friends told two friends' situation forming."

I made a couple salads to set aside. Better yet, I put them into inventory in their clamshells. That way, dad and I would not go without. I had held back a couple of each item anyway, just in case. I peeked out and found that one of the first people in line was the Director herself.

"What, I can't like salad too?", she snorted. "You two, get in there and give Margie and John a hand."

I hadn't noticed before but Margie walked with a limp. John walked okay, but he had a prosthesis on his leg, a full replacement to the knee.

The Director saw my look. "Most of the logistics side of the PRT is filled by semi-retired Troopers. Injuries like this have gone down since Panacea triggered, but she doesn't regrow limbs for old wounds."

The big bowls were set out and a line formed pretty fast. The Wards, a few officers and a lot of troops went through in one pass. I jumped into line and grabbed some for Mr. Calle just in case.

The cafeteria space was almost standing room only. A very forlorn pizza delivery boy showed up, was paid by Clockblocker and then handed a cup of carrot sticks as a tip. I snagged a slice to go with my salad, and headed back to the conference area where Dad and Mr. Calle were still going over the contract in detail.

"Ah, there you are." Mr. Calle handed me a packet.

I handed him the salad in a clamshell. His eyes widened appreciatively as I popped another from nowhere and passed it to dad.

"If you change your mind about the Wards program, I know several parties that would appreciate a 'courier' of your ability… No? Had to ask."

Reading through, I noted the marked passages around Tinker produced equipment. "Not a Tinker. Per se any way."

"Any production of equipment falls under those guidelines. They claim first refusal on anything you make with your powers, unless you want to push it. Since your production -as Danny explains it- requires an equal amount of resources, we can add a clause that says they only get first refusal on things made from raw materials they provide."

He was only speaking logically. It's not as if my equipment required testing or maintenance. Or did it? It was a little early to tell for that.

"What about my healing potions. Am I allowed to sell those?" I asked and felt him go still.

"Have they been independently validated?" He was being very serious now.

"Used on a couple of people already. Shadow Stalker had an arrow wound, doesn't now. Battery had bruised ribs from sparring, a low level potion fixed that."

"Hardly a definitive endorsement, but we can see if Panacea would validate your results in time. We can see to it you are reimbursed for those individually, and make sure they cannot order you to turn over more than half. Anything beyond that would be up to you and circumstance."

Mr. Calle jotted down some notes. He turned to me and asked, "How many of these do you have on hand?"

I thought about it. "Maybe ten total now. There were some drops when we farmed the skeleton spawn."

"Those words were in English, but I am not sure I get the meaning. Does that mean you can get more -with some effort?", he was rather direct now.

"Yes."

"Well, I would be willing to offer you ten thousand per bottle for five of those immediately, to be paid after validation by Panacea. Her fee would be another potion for her own use, or five thousand, which I will cover on the off chance they do not work as expected." he paused. "If there are other effects beyond immediate healing, such as regrowth of limbs, the offer will jump to fifty thousand per. Danny, is that acceptable to you?"

Dad nodded quietly.

"And to you my dear?" he was much nicer when he had dollar signs in his eyes.

"How soon can you setup this validation?" I was curious. Meeting members of New Wave would be cool now that I don't have to be just another fangirl.

He hmmmd. "Well, Carol Dallon is an associate. There is something to be gained for New Wave in having both backup to Panacea and a way to heal her if she is injured -her power does not work on her own body." He nodded. "I will try to set it up for tonight, she usually works Brockton Bay General after school and on weeknights."

"You .. keep tabs on Panacea?" Ew squick.

"Nothing like what your face says you are imagining. Let's just say if I were injured I would like to know which way to direct an ambulance for the best possible treatment…" He shrugged like he'd explained how to get a good seat in the movies.

"What if there is no one available to heal?" I asked.

He smiled. "There are always waiting lists for Panacea's time. The only real obstacle will be unfortunately your father."

"What about me?" Dad had been reading the contract backwards, phrase by phrase as he always did.

Quinn pointed at his watch. "Danny Hebert, a neutral party of the DWU has been at the Rig for half a day now. You may have just lost what coin you had with the gangs. They will feel like pushing if you have been talking to the PRT. I would suggest as a cover that you spread the word of a new Rogue who you want to hire to clean out sections of the Boat Yard." he nodded to me. "Taylor gets the materials. The DWU is seen to be willing to hire capes, but still works under the vigilance of the Protectorate -that will help keep them from thinking you are starting up your own gang. And if that Rogue eventually becomes a Ward, well we all know how hard they pitch the recruiting spiel."

He looked past us to the door. "Does that work for you Miss Militia?"

She sighed. "Yes, in fact it was under discussion how we could arrange a cover story for your father that wouldn't put him at risk. As for the potions, it would be good to have options out there even for villains. If they can gain the same healing without risky options like kidnapping a Ward or one of New Wave's members, and all they lose is Mr. Calle's finder fee…" Her face hardened. "Well, at least there would be some gain out of it and less danger. The very fact that you _can_ make a deal would make them more likely to negotiate than just take."

She held her arms crossed and shivered. "But we need to be careful about your being linked to the 'new cape' Taylor. I think you should consider staying at Winslow for a few weeks. That is after a week or two of convalescence. Your armor is basically androgynous enough to pass for male or female. If you play up the 'Pat' syndrome there, you will be safer in the long run."

She brought out a map. "Can you give me an idea how far those tunnels of yours go? If you extend them toward the docks or the DWU, you would have an easy -yet difficult to trace- way in or out. You'd only have to close your 'mine' entrance up whenever you left it."

I brought up my map and tried to sketch out the passages I'd mapped.

Danny looked interested and then pointed out a building just a little west of the DWU offices. "I've heard that Marquis had a suite of offices below this building, maybe fifteen or so years ago. When he went down, most of his underlings left town suddenly. A _few_ of his henchmen came to work for the DWU… There have been rumors about his tunnels."

While we were looking over the map, Mr. Calle had been -well, making a call. He'd arranged for us to meet up with New Wave. I overheard something about donating to a favorite charity instead of accepting the fee. He seemed ready for that and named off three likely recipients. It was like watching an auctioneer at regular speed. He was that smooth.

Mr. Calle took our notes and the original with him to work up our 'counter offer' for the next meeting.

Dad ended up heading back to the ferry alone. Miss Militia also went, escorting a small group of Wards out. She took them in a roundabout path along the Boardwalk and then over to the DWU.

Dad had taken his car back to his office and then made some calls to contacts saying that he was planning on hiring a new Rogue to do some work up in the Boat Yard areas. He passed this info to the ABB and to the Empire, explaining that he did not want either group to feel he was being abrupt or secretive. He'd already spoken to the Protectorate so they wouldn't get antsy over the work being done.

Lung's lieutenant, the one who most closely dealt with the DWU on the few occasions they needed something fixed, was confident that Lung would be uninterested in someone whose only power lay in cleaning up rubble or salvaging old ship metal. He was more interested if this cape might be available to remove debris after cape fights. Everything is negotiable.

The Empire had less direct dealings with the DWU. There was always a few Empire goons trying to worm their way into the association, but there were too many people of color or 'lesser' racial origins for these Empire spies to fit in easily. There were questions, but once it was ascertained this effort would be in the north, past the docks itself, there was little interest.

As for the Merchants. Danny Hebert would have no dealings with them. They were scum, full stop. It wasn't like they kept phone numbers long enough to be called. And their members tended to gaggle from one safe house to another a few at a time -with pauses as Skidmark and Squealer left town from time to time to score. He looked up when the sound of motorcycles at the gates spoke of Miss Militia and her Ward group.

Well, it was Miss Militia, Gallant, Vista and Clockblocker on two bikes, both with sidecars. Clockblocker looked sullen over having to ride in the sidecar on Gallant's bike.

"Look, Clock, you know you can't drive it on your own yet. It's more than five brake horsepower." Gallant was chiding him.

"So why can't we use the scooters?", he whined.

"You know the area up here is too broken up for that. These can handle the broken up concrete better." Gallant looked around with interest.. "We don't get up this far too often."

About this point a figure in light green glowing armor appeared on the rooftop. A few waves and a blur later, the same figure was down among them.

"Hey everyone! Glad you could come out this way and look over things with me. It looks pretty straightforward to clean up the ship zone. It won't be done in one session, or twenty, but I think I can clear a chunk of boat on each visit." I pointed to a map pinned on the wall showing the DWU controlled areas. It was actually mostly city owned property, but they leased a lot of it to the DWU for the low, low price of caretaking it.

"I scoped it out after I got here. I am loving these boots by the way." I snicker at the wistful look on Clockblocker -his whole body language was asking for me to make boots. "Sorry Clock, I don't know how to enchant stuff like this just yet. And these are how you say 'bound to account'." I turned back to pin a red pin in the map, where an old cargo vessel was aground. "Here's where I am starting. If you don't mind just making your presence known a bit."

Militia waved me on. "Go ahead. We know you have another meeting this evening. Watch out you don't Mine supports out from under the boat above you."

I took that as my cue to bolt off again. My blur steps took me about two hundred feet at a time in the open. The more up or down, the less distance I could get. It was interesting to go a slightly different route than before, which filled in more of my map. This was how I'd gotten up here after all. By putting on a little orange poncho at the ferry from the Rig, I'd zoomed off down the beach itself going north. To anyone seeing me, it would look like Velocity out for an afternoon tour of the sands. The light drizzle of the day was enough to drive normal people inside. I was a Bay kid though, weather was something you were aware of, but didn't avoid. Otherwise the winters got really long.

The old ship was half collapsed. I decided to work from the water back and got my first surprise when it turned that Feather Fall would let me float on the water like it was semi-solid. I would sink a little, with the feel of something almost solid below me. Hitting the ship proper with my diamond pickaxe started pulling blocks in fast. Iron, Steel. Copper. Some wood and plastic. Lots of aluminum. But it was sooo slow.

Once I got to the engine room, I found there was more. Whether it was part of the original ship or some stash of jewels, there was diamond showing in my inventory. The XP started showing up too. A feeling of euphoria hit me and I felt a pickaxe recipe unlock that was much _bigger_ than my current one.

I decided to take a bit to put it together. It was huge. It looked like I was holding a full ship's anchor in my hands. But it wasn't a weapon really, it just let me mine more blocks at once. I'd lost an hour in making it, but the other half of the boat was cleared in the hour I had left before I needed to head downtown.

The last point of interest was that I could mine the ocean itself. As I cleared the base of the boat, water had rushed in. As soon as my power brushed it, it solidified into water blocks and metals. Some gold, some platinum. Nuggets for big swipes, but still beads worth gathering. The bigger pickaxe also collected blocks as it passed. I shall name you Mr. Swipey!

****Spawn 9

I hoped Velocity wouldn't mind me kind of using his shtick as I ran downtown. Well, run is such a lie here. Unlike him I was stepping from point to point so it was an orange blur to beside a bus stop, blur on to another point a half football field or so further. My armor was a different color and all, but the orange rain poncho over it made it that color. Better though, my own armor seemed to filter out the rain so I wasn't even cold. I guess I didn't need the poncho so much,just habit.

The only interesting thing that happened was that I heard a police siren and saw a squad car chasing another car. They came careening down the street. There was a young guy crossing the street up ahead -caught dead in the path. I stepped to him, grabbed his hand and blurred away with him.

He was a little surprised at being blurred off to the side, behind a lamppost on the corner instead of in the middle of the street. He still had his hand out as if warding off the car. Cute guy, a little more metrosexual than my normal tastes but a snappy dresser under the transparent cheap poncho. His dark hair was plastered back from being wet.

I'd chosen this spot as out of the way, but had to blur step us both further because the driver of the getaway car had swerved straight for the lamppost and crashed. This was an old style city lamp, this being near the touristy area of the Boardwalk, heavy enough to take the hit. The car was some European cheapo, crumpling a lot, air-bags deploying.

"Thanks for the as- er save." he said. Mr. Unknown had a nice French accent, Canadian not Southern, no twang just a lilt. He squinted. "You aren't like Velocity 'light' are you?"

"Ouch. Really?" I groaned internally, resolving to get a poncho in my own shade. "No. My cape name is _Mine_."

"Yes, it is yours... So what is it?" he snarked back, clearly working the moment.

"Oh no. Not going to play that. Scuse me." I dodged an Abbot and Costello routine gearing up -hey, Dad likes old comedies.

The squad car had rolled up and the officer was trying to open the door. A whuff sound and the gas underneath ignited and started to flame up. Not Hollywood flame, just a steady trail up, getting hotter. The cop ran to his trunk for an extinguisher.

I blur stepped over to the car. Time to go for the big pickaxe. Hefting it, I took out the front half of the car in one swipe, and gently cleared the windshield. Ooh, glass blocks. The fire was o.u.t. -Out. The cop dropped his extinguisher and reached for the driver's door.

"Allow me, officer." I tapped the door hinge and took the door entirely to blocks. Some plastic in there. Useful. The guy was basically pissing himself as he looked at the pickaxe, then me. He just held his hands out wrists up for the cop to cuff him.

The cop's partner, done calling it in, then changing his call just flipped up a phone and started recording.

"New cape?" the cop asked, already pushing the perp into the back seat of his car.

"Yep yep. Call me Mine. M.I.N.E." I hefted the pickaxe once more then made it go away to inventory. "Oops. I have an appointment to get to, see ya!" Turning away I got a half wave from the pretty boy as I blurred a few more times down the street before I turned South-West toward downtown. A lot of the city streets ran North-East to South-West, most of the larger roads did. I was able to stay on sidewalks, only occasionally dipping into the road to avoid a group.

It was a good thing my power was doing all the heavy lifting here, because even if you figure the mega steps I was taking it was more power walking than I've done in ages. I'd better take up some exercise routines for stamina. Hopefully the Wards training would help. That is, if they accepted the contract stipulations Mr. Calle would add.

Downtown was its usual mess. Brockton Bay General was a monolithic building. I went in by way of the Emergency Room and stopped at the information desk. Swiping off my poncho to inventory so i wouldn't drip I waited for the bored looking nurse to register my presence.

"Purpose of visit?" she asked, not even looking up.

"I'm here to meet with Panacea." she glanced up then, taking in the light green glowing armor.

"She isn't here right now and only heals the worst trauma cases…" she started to drone.

"I have an appointment with her to test healing I can do."

Her eyes lost their dead look at that. "One moment. Dr. Genoa mentioned you. Mine is it?"

"That's me."

She spoke on the phone while I waited to the side of the desk. I felt a tug on my pant leg, armor, whatever and looked down to see a boy of about four smiling up at me. He had big brown eyes and a bowl cut. I smiled back. His mother was giving me 'deer-in-headlights' look from the seats a few feet away. I let him grab my hand and walked him back gently.

He was holding a bear that looked like it had been sewn up more than once. Its head flopped from the latest tear. "He's a cute one."

"t-th-Thanks. Tommy, climb up with Mommy. I think I have some apples here."

I pulled a stack of carrot sticks from inventory, in a Styrofoam cup. "Here, these should help. Teething?"

"Oh gawd yes." she paused "Are these organically grown?"

I smiled and nodded, "Never seen any hand but my own. I am Mine."

"Hello, .. Mine, glad to meet you."

About this point a voice cleared and I saw two girls, both a little older than me. One was blonde, built like a cheerleader, similar costume really -boots and a tiara. The other was brown haired and had a robe on that some would call a Burka -except it didn't cover the face.

They were a study in opposites. Blonde and dark. Perky and tired. As I stood, another contrast -aggressive and passive.

"What do you want with my sister?" Victoria Dallon was the -well- bitchy one.

I ignored her and waved to Panacea. "Hello, I have an appointment with you to test my healing potions. My cape name in Mine."

Vicky switched from irritated to confused. "Of course it is yours…"

Amy face palmed with a long suffering look. She touched Vicky's shoulder, pointing at herself, then Vicky and me. "Panacea, Glory Girl, _Mine_."

"That's my name, don't..." I faltered when Panacea gave me 'the look'. "Right. Where are we going?"

Dr. Genoa rolled up then. He was a big guy, a bit heavy set and balding, but one of the jolly old men category. "Mine, Panacea. Here is a temporary ID card for the Hospital, Mine. It will let you into the staff lounges and such as needed. Do you need anything special for your healing 'potions' was it?"

"As far as I know, the only requirement has been that they can swallow." I took one out and covered it briefly while it became a juice box.

"A juice box? Really?!" Victoria Dallon is unimpressed.

I rolled my eyes and continued. "A partial drink will start things off, but the full pot is needed to have the full effect. I have no idea how long they last after the seal is breached, nor really what the shelf life is."

Vicky was about to jump in again but I forestalled her with a hand. "Yes, I really don't know. My power provides the things as a reward for beating opponents. Of course I don't know the answers -that is why we are here to test them out. Is there a risk? -With your sister standing there to monitor, I don't think so." I stepped closer, blurring just a mite. "Did you wait to test your strength out until during your first fight when you would have to hold a car up above your family for two straight minutes or did you heft a car multiple times in 'testing'" Air Quotes "until you were sure you could?"

Vicky spluttered. Dr. Genoa chuckled a little.

Amy smirked a little herself, "She's got you there, sis." Then she held out her hand for the juice box. "I can sample a little off this one and then use it in the test I think. I know of one old lady that doesn't like the idea of me doing the healing -she might go for this instead." I handed over the other pot, the one for her use at some other time. She placed it into a pouch on her belt.

"But you need to examine her for the test to be valid…"

"Oh, she lets me touch her, but she won't agree to let _me_ heal her. So far I could only tell the Doctor's what was wrong. No offense."

"None taken." Dr. Genoa boomed back at us as he led the way. "If you mean Agatha, I can only hope she doesn't decide to spite us all and stay here until the building falls."

The waiting area for Panacea's healing was full of hopefuls. One little boy off to the side was wearing a portable oxygen mask and looked very pale. Amy's eyes got tight when she saw him. Agatha was there near the front, having been there all day. I could see why.

She had some kind of skin disease that was eating the flesh off her back, arms and hands. It was clear she had endured a lot just to have a little mobility and chose to walk there on her own. Her body was feeble and emaciated but her eyes were bright. There might be more bandaging elsewhere but she was determined to be more than an invalid. The sores looked shiny, like there was gel on them. The edges looked burnt somehow, with overlaps where old scarring was overtaken by new sores.

"Good evening Amy, Victoria." She appraised me and then greeted Dr. Genoa with a nod. "You I do not know. May I ask who you are?"

"My name is Mine…" I started.

She huffed. "Abbott and Costello are long gone and their humor ill suited to this place, my dear."

"Agatha, be nice. Her cape name is 'Mine'. She is here to offer you an alternative to Panacea healing you." Dr. Genoa rumbled like a lion.

"Well I suppose it can't hurt to look, but I won't be healed by heathen gifts!", she coughed a little, wiping blood with a handkerchief.

Amy poked the straw into the juice box. "Mine's power is making things like this. Will you try it?" She held out the box and then moved her hand to the woman's shoulder, her thumb at the split in the gown..

She looked nonplussed. "Juice?"

I caught her eye as she looked at me. "Agatha, if I can call you that?" she nodded brusquely. "My gram taught me that the best gifts from God don't always come with cards saying so."

"Your gram did, did she?" She sat up taller. "It seems to me I knew someone at the University had much the same saying of _her mother_. Wee slip of a girl but tall. Went to school there and came back to work. I worked in the Library there for forty one years…" she paused. "I suppose it would be a sin to turn away gifts twice over. Here I go."

With that she placed it to her mouth and sipped. She seemed pleasantly surprised by the flavor. After two sips she looked up and there were tears forming. "I .. can feel it, I think." She was taking longer drinks, her breathing easier. The scabs most obvious on her arm began to be less angry, less like wounds and more like flesh. The skin on her arms became less transparent.

Amy nodded past her look of concentration. Dr. Genoa sighed a little and sat down nearby.

"Try to finish the whole thing if you can." I was choking a little as I turned. She knew my mother. There was no way! I found myself stepping outside into the waiting area. Vicky was out there, sitting with a young mother, playing with a couple stuffed bears to entertain the boy on the ventilator.

The boy looked up at the door, past me. "Mutter? Do", huff pshhh "you think" huf pshhh "Pana" huf pshhh "cea will heal" huf pshhh "me today?"

The woman was near tears already but grew alarmed when Victoria stood up, dropping the bears to the floor, and walked out of the room without looking back. I blurred over without a thought and picked up the bears for the wheezing little boy before he could lean over in the stroller chair.

"Oh!" huf pshhh "You are" huf pshhh "very fast, Danke."

"Have you been waiting long?" I asked the woman.

She wiped her face. "Since he was two. She always says he is too weak to survive the healing. But I think it is because we are Deutch." she hiccupped. "First we are blamed for lives lost before we are born, and now in a whole new country my baby is blamed for a girl killed by Empire scum!" she whispered fiercely. "It is not fair!"

I turned and saw Dr. Genoa looking at me. He gestured me toward him. I blur stepped right up to him and he started a little. It actually caused a bit of murmuring among the crowd. The first time must have been missed.

He waved me into another treatment room than the one Panacea was in with Agatha still. "Please, don't. Just don't. She doesn't need to feel any worse over this. It is not because her teammate and cousin Fleur was killed by an Empire punk and the Schmitt's are German. The boy has multiple issues, any one of which could take his life in under a year. Inoperable brain tumor is just one, but that is the one Panacea can't do a thing about. Lungs are bad. Heart is undersized. He can't gain the weight needed to provide tissue for Panacea's power to work on…"

I cut him off. "So he is going to die one way or another. I don't see an issue here. Offer the mother one of my potions."

His eyes hardened. "And what Mr. Calle spoke of the fee?"

"This one's on me. I can't promise that will be the case again. I don't yet have a support system, although I might go Ward soon. The things I make do cost money, one way or another. But I can find a pro bono gimme in the bag … this time." I nod to the door, "Ask her to bring him in."

Mrs. Schmitt wheeled her son in and looked at me oddly. "What is this?"

"I'm no Panacea. My stuff may not heal him all the way, or even part of the way. And it is untested on tumors, heart… Well it is largely untested. But it has healed a crossbow bolt wound completely, broken bones you get the idea. I plan to charge for them, but not in this one case. It's up to you if you want to go for it. And I would ask if you would allow them to record it as well. There might be something to learn from even a partial success."

"Yes, of course! Even a chance at that...", she was nodding and shaking my hand.

Dr. Genoa had already gotten an orderly to bring in a camera and set it up on the bed. Putting up safety rails he prepared to move the little boy onto the bed.

"Nein!" huf pshhh "No needles!" the boy started crying woefully.

"Hey now" I called softly, "No need for that and no needles right now." I patted the bed. "You go here. The camera watches you. I give you some juice and maybe some nice carrot sticks if you like. No muss, no fuss."

He sniffled and looked at his mother, "You promise." huf pshh.

I reached out for him and he held up his arms. Daaawww. I got a hold and took a tiny step, blurring it so that his weight and the machine all moved smoothly. Hmm, that might come in handy if I wasn't really solid when the blurring happened. He also weighed nothing to me, so I could probably heft and move anything I could heft at all.

With him settled, I opened inventory and took out one of my four remaining potion bottles. It turned into a juice box in front of him, making him clap. I also pulled out a little cup and placed carrot sticks in it like they were falling out of my hand. His eyes were wide. I looked around to find all three of the other adults in the room with wide eyes. Okay it was pretty cool when you were on the other side of the trick.

"Now the juice is the important thing, Let's get a few sips in and then you can see what else I can do, hmmm."

He took the box and his mother leaned in to help with the straw. Sip. Huf Pshh. Sip. Sip Huf Pshh. Sip, loong sip. His mother looked at his breathing machine but Dr. Genoa waved her off.

"It doesn't assist if he is breathing on his own."

"May I have a carrot now?", his own eyes widened as he realized he was not wheezing.

I handed over the carrots, adding a little cup of ranch dip. The sticks were still crisp, like I'd just cut them.

"These are .. good." He was breathing easier. He was yawning a little. But he soldiered on and finished the box. The carrot sticks he only got to the second before he was nodding off. His mother was smiling so hard I thought she might break something.

Dr. Genoa ushered the orderly and myself out, The boy's mother was in the chair by his side, her hand brushing his hair lightly. He dialed down the lights a bit. He had just about closed the door when he stopped, very still.

"Is that something of yours?" he asked overly calm.

I glanced past him and saw a little globe of white light wobbling along the floor toward me. "Ah. Yeah… Sometimes when I manage to do the right thing, I get a reward." I reached out and it jumped to my hand. A little fanfare played. Doo-do-do-dooo.

The door to the next room opened and Panacea was there. She pointed down to another, albeit smaller ball of light wobbling toward it. "You take that one. Might perk you up."

Panacea leaned over and touched it. A little flash and a doot-doot noise. She stood up blushing. Once she realized everyone was looking at her, she blushed so hard the light freckles on her face looked lighter than her skin. She shut the door again.

walked me to the outer hallway. "As Mr. Calle requested, the footage of both healings will be available to the PRT, himself and if you wish it, you directly. I don't suppose you have a contact number I could use?"

I shook my head. "Not yet, soon though. I will get it to you once I have a cell -for this."

"Of course, of course. Thank you. For the Schmitt's. For shaking up Amy a little. For Agatha as well." He nodded once and stepped back in the room. I blurred down the halls, coming to the stairs and down them in three steps or so. I was opening the ground floor stair before the one three flights up closed. I almost ran into Victoria standing there outside.

She turned and her eyes were misty. She saw me and turned away. "She can't do it."

"What?" I was a little off guard still thinking about the boy.

"She can't heal his brain. It would be torture to have him be almost well, almost normal and still die. She has nightmares about it." Victoria Dallon was giving off waves of emotion now. Sadness rolled off her like a palpable sensation.

I cringed but I blurred over to in front of her. "Stop. She won't have them over the Schmitt boy any more. I healed him. Or at least I healed a lot of what was wrong with him. She may need to clear up some lingering thing my pot may not work on, I dunno. But he was breathing okay on his own, he fell asleep right there."

Her eyes locked on and she had her phone out and was thumb typing something. Before long she hit send and she looked up hopeful. "You up for coffee?"

" I'm more of a tea drinker usually." I noted.

"There is a shop by the Boardwalk. It has just about anything that you can drink in cups. I'm buying." She almost reached out for a bridal carry.

I say almost because I twirled around and let her reach through the blur as I stepped to the side. "Buying maybe, carrying no. If you mean Michon's I can meet you there in a couple minutes."

She eyeballed me. "You may be fast, but I can fly."

My first step left her talking to air. By the second I was a block and a half away. I was in line inside when she landed at Michon's. I normally avoided the place as even looking inside made my pocket book whimper. But she was buying.

"I can't stay long. I am supposed to report in at the Rig once they get the results. And I don't have a phone." The tea was wonderful, a spicy one I would hate myself for not being able to enjoy it again, She popped for some cookies as well, sharing them.

Her own concoction had more sugar on it than the cookies, let alone the frothy top. She was smiling when she read the text she got, but sobered at the end. "So. Selling healing. How's that work?"

I shrugged. "Like any other high demand low supply kind of work. My lawyer suggested it actually as a safeguard. If there was a way to get to the healing, quietly, without the fuss of kidnapping or extortion, then even a true villain wouldn't stoop to that if they needed it. Why bother becoming the next kill on sight if you can just pony up some money and get it quietly. The fees -the part I collect- go toward my college fund and my supplies for making things. The Hospital that hosts it will take a cut for the room and for monitoring the results until the patient checks out. If it is one of those rare big rollers that wants privacy, it can happen anyplace they want me to send the pot. Blind ship, no problem." I was being serious, not flippant. I had a feeling she would not take flip well.

"The same thing my sister does for free." she sipped.

"Does your sister think Dr. Genoa should just come to work each day for no paycheck?"

"Well, no it's not the same thing."

"Um... Yes, it is. No, wait a sec. The pots are part of my power, but they take effort to create. It's not like a Tinker but there is a trade of resources involved. They aren't guaranteed to drop for every fight I'm in, but they do." I took out a nugget of gold. "I can pull this right out of sea water. Money is _not_ the main issue, it is however a way to filter out the nosebleeds and bruised egos that seem to think a 'healer' has nothing else better to do. I set my requirements right damn now and if I have a spare for little boys who can't breathe it is my own choice to throw that money away. And your sister needs to learn to value her abilities and herself before she loses herself in it."

"Now I don't want you two mad at me. I'd really like to be able to call in for a heal if or when I need it and can't. But I can pay it back. And if you don't feel the same way I am sorry." I glance out to the bay where the waters were golden in the last rays before night.

"Heh. Right now I really want to find out if I can do a different kind of miracle."

I stood and chugged the last of my tea and as another customer left I blur stepped out the open door, across the boardwalk and dropped down a dozen feet to the dunes. I was blurring so it felt like nothing more than a step. Looking at the wave I picked a point about three feet deep and headed for it, blur stepping. Hitting it I stepped along the length of the wave, one two three steps before I found myself mired in the water. It took a tap from Mr. Swipey to clear a half sphere around me that held solid long enough for me to run up the incline. I was watching the Rig's lights and made for the ferry.

There was a launch heading out. I made for it, finding it easier to keep my eyes on the flashing lights of the boat moving along. I made for it and then passed it, only having to swipe another sphere when I stumbled on the wake. Once I got ahead of the boat it was like glass, the tide being at a lull. No big waves in the bay itself. I ran to the landing and got up on it.

Much to the amusement of the Trooper standing watch I started doing a victory dance. Raise the roof. Raise the roof. As the boat pulled up I saw Armsmaster and Miss Militia looking very concerned. They were joined by a very skinny pizza boy with a stack of pies who followed us inside. Once out of sight, and the pizza boy stayed with us to my dismay, they tore into me about testing unknown powers with no safety precautions.

"But I did try it out first. I ran along the shore on waves most of the way to the dock. The only issue was when the wake tripped me a little. It isn't like there was any real danger."

Miss Militia gave me a gimlet stare and ticked off her fingers. "Sharks. Rogue waves. Force field."

I stopped at that. "Force Field?"

"Yes. Force field. Like the one that is around the Rig 24x7 and only drops when we radio ahead and give a password. If we hadn't seen you getting ahead of us you would have face planted and dropped in deep water -in full armor."

"You almost gave your father a heart attack." Armsmaster added.

I looked around. "Dad is here already?"

"Right behind you kiddo." the FREAKING PIZZA BOY!

I jumped at his voice so close. He gestured to the pizza warmer. "You mind grabbing this? The jacket is too hot."

I just swiped the whole warmer to inventory. Touching his jacket I swiped that to inventory as well.

"Fascinating." Armsmaster was making notes.

Dad just looked at me and did his Scotty voice, "We better get the pies to the kids. They can't take any more delays."

I just raised my hand in the Spock. "Dammit Jim, I'm just a country Doctor." and I changed it to a thumbs up for Miss Militia. "Pots work. Used two, the one I promised in front of Panacea. I used another one on a little boy they said was pretty much inoperable. The mother agreed on camera and he was able to breathe easy without the machine and fell asleep while I was there."

Armsmaster opened the door for us and I saw text flashing by on his visor as I passed. "That would be Agatha Sanders and Hubert Schmitt. Mrs. Sanders is resting easy. They examined her lesions and found all of them in remission. No signs of continued damage. Her internals are good according to Panacea. She also examined the Schmitt boy. He is resting easy. Heart, lungs all good. The tumor in his brain is already half the size it was the last time they examined him. It appears to have changed status to benign, She was able to obtain a blood sample without needles." He seemed lost for a moment at that bit of trivia.

There was a pause as we waited for the Wards to prep. One young man with red hair and a domino on his face dodged past us and looked around.

"I could have sworn I saw the pizza guy on the ferry. Did he not come in?" he looked like a wounded puppy. "Aw man, we wanted to throw you a welcome party."

"Not official until I sign." I looked at Dad.

"I faxed over the changes this afternoon. If you want to go through with it, it's a good contract." From a union man that was saying something. I took the sheaf from Miss Militia and signed quickly before I could think on it.

I swiped my armor over to jogging clothes, sans mask. "Hi everyone. I'm Taylor. And I. bring. Pizza." Sweeping my hands through the air, I pull the warmer from inventory.

Cheers from the group. Armsmaster and Miss Militia step back, taking my dad off to get coffee as we get to know one another better. Sophia is absent. She was going to have to come clean about Emma and a whole lot of work to be more than that coworker I don't actively want to chop into itty bitty bits and set fire to. Unfortunately the first note on my issue phone was to report to therapy -group therapy no less- the day after tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will be spending my day taking a series of tests to asses my educational state. A GED was possible if I scored well enough. I could then skip the final years of High School entirely -something I felt worth trying.

****Spawn 10

The ride in to Winslow -yes, I had to take my exams at my school of record- was something I was dreading. I knew that Sophia was under house arrest at the Rig pending her probation hearing. The little known fact is that as a Ward, she -all of us- is a serving member of the armed forces. This means we fall under Uniform Military Code of Justice. She was looking at charges ranging from the Assault itself to Unlawful Detention, Conspiracy. They decided to drop the attempted murder as it turned out she did phone in a report of someone being in the locker. The school staff had not acted on it. The "court-martial" would begin in several weeks.

During that time, she was to be remanded to New York, where the officers of the PRT would be determined as panel members. It was very hush-hush. While she could easily slide on the whole thing, one thing was guaranteed, she would not serve on the same Wards team as me.

I had not heard of any arrests at Winslow, but repeated questioning had affected the students there. The gang colors were muted or worn under jackets. There were less people in the halls. I got multiple stares as I arrived, several of Emma's toadies looked like they had seen a ghost.

Dad was escorting me to the Principal's Office, the new one as Blackwell had 'retired'. He wrote me out a pass to the room where my tests were to be taken. Several people were going to be taking proctored tests today.

One good thing about it all was when I passed the room that HAD been Mr. Gladly's class, where Emma was sitting looking out the window. My steps drew her attention and she glanced my way, froze and looked again. I couldn't help but throw a 'bird' gesture her way. Bitch. But I didn't stop.

In the room set aside for the test procedures, two boys and a girl -at least I thought it was. She(?) had hair trimmed close to the head, but not a true skinhead look. It took me a significant time to recognize the smallish girl under all the baggy clothes and close trimmed hair. Madison. Her face was puffy and bruised looking. But it was just as well she didn't look closely at me.

We'd been pointed to desks in different corners of the room, they had already started when I joined in. Being the lazy shits they were, they told me to finish the test in the time allotted or retake it another time. It was English. Of course I finished well before the deadline. The math test was comprehensive but I had been doing well on math tests long before the Trio started in on me. I can't say my power affected my math skills much, but there was a stronger instinctive understanding of volume in place. I was a solid two hours before they gave a break.

With just those two I would prove my placement levels. Then I could transfer out of this dump. Madison seemed oblivious to my presence, trying to focus on the tests. It wasn't until I rose after finishing early that she looked up and began to hyperventilate. I handed in the math portion and walked out as the proctor began calling for the nurse to come. It was petty, I know. I only wish I'd had some pencil shavings to drop on my way by.

I walked towards the office again, basking in the hall pass that allowed me to leave after I'd completed my tests.

"YOU!", I heard the voice down the hall towards the science department. It was Emma. Of course batting her eyes would always get her a hall pass. I wonder how long she'd been waiting.

I kept walking.

She came jogging up closer and stopped short. "I - I thought you were dead."

"Not for lack of you trying.", I stated.

"But the body… they pulled you out in the morning!"

"Idiot. I was in the Hospital. I met Panacea.", neither a lie. Just not the exact truth.

She looked lost. "But, the cops. The questioning. Sophia." she was holding her arms, hugging herself.

"Not buying it. Hess spilled. She never bothered to wipe her phone. You are sooo boned."

Her face went harsh, angry. "It was all your fault anyway. Acting so prissy. Never fighting back. Ghandi in a hoodie.", she spat that like a curse.

"Well thank you for that. You really know how to compliment someone. I'm a big fan of his work."

"You won't be so confident when Sophia gets back! You…" She was desperate now, fumbling.

"Let me stop you there. What makes you think she is coming back?" At this point I had reached the office area. She held back uncertainly. "No reason to hold back now, I think there are some people there who want to talk with you." I'd noticed the police as I rounded the corner. Officer Williams was there as well as two female officers of the fireplug variety -short, made of steel and perfectly capable of destroying anyone trying to drive over them.

Williams turned toward us, his eyebrows going up. "I did not expect to see you here today Miss Hebert." He had the face of a poker player.

"Had to take my placement tests at the site on my records or wait until next quarter. My transfer is in the works."

He looked past me. "Ah, Miss Barnes. Have a seat there. You should be present when your locker is searched. Oh don't bother calling your dad, he is in route already."

There was nothing left for me in these halls. I waited for dad to come pick me up.

Uber and Leet's warehouse hideout

"Dude, did you change your mind about Minecraft of what?" Roy was on his souped up laptop, connected to and working in his own Minecraft map of Brockton Bay.

Leo walked in from the bathroom, toothbrush still in his mouth. "No. Still seems like a major time sink with no end goal." He chuckled, spitting into the sink in the island of their loft like living area. "Why?"

"Well, I still haven't opened it up beyond maybe ten users. Two are still building their first cabin and trying not to die. But one is racking up XP and accomplishments really fast. They play like you when you really concentrate on something. They already have two farms in secure locations, have farmed both spiders and skeletons. This is not day 3 material here."

Roy in his persona as Leet, the Fire-and-forget-doing-it-again Tinker, knew when to maximize his creations so that he got the most use out of them. This server was intended to allow him to gather income by managing a high end experience, as well as getting people hooked on the DLC. He didn't want it to come off too easy.

"And this username! Gawd I hope it's not some child genius Thinker with a Sesame Street fetish. Who calls themselves 'The Bert' anyway?"

Leo smirked. He was not going to be the one to tell Roy that the first bloods were always the most likely to pay for new downloadable content. But DLC was the way to go for money in games. Best of all, Leet only had to 'modify' the game. He'd actually got Uber involved in the making of the maps, but Leet had coded the randomizer and the seeds for the spawns. It was really cool, since it used a news feed, an RSS ticker really, to seed the spawns where crimes were committed. Of course, he knew no one but a villain would call PRT cover-ups crimes, but they counted to Leet's algorithm.

"Meh, they get too big for their britches, you can drop a giant robot on their ass.", Uber was there in place of Leo now, preparing for their venture tonight. It was time to play some games.

A smile now. "Oh yes." Then he pauses. "Huh. There is another one moving pretty fast, but not nearly so OP. North end of the city. Has one underground base, but isn't doing much in it so far." Roy rolled his eyes as he noted the name on that one."Huh, TC_Oil. Must be some relocated Texan. Well that is, unless those beta invites went further than intended."

"You just had to make it truly random, Dude."

They both stood and headed for their individual carts. They were good for another couple runs at least, but after that, he was putting a dummy in a Bowser costume to drive it remotely. At least then he wouldn't need to be Luigi.

The tunnels under the house were nicely filled with more spiders when I went down. All the torches had gone out overnight, and new spawners had appeared here or there. Miss Militia and Vista came over to 'talk' and we had a blast blowing away spiders down there. Clearing them took a couple hours. It's a good thing any little nap made me rested and renewed like a full night's sleep. Afterwards, I put torches around my garden plot and all the nice little veggies popped out. Vista whooped it up then.

"So, I um brought some more seeds over. Do you think you could clear some more land for squash, blueberries, grapes, and snow peas?" She was about to unleash the puppy eyes on me again so I just nodded yes.

I looked at Miss Militia who was whistling slightly, rocking back and forth. She held out two packets, corn and watermelon.

"Fine, but you know the saying about reaping what you sow? In this case it is eat what you hoe."

I cleared more area and set the blocks of soil up for them to hoe. Vista was using her tricks to work a larger area at a time by compressing the blocks to drag her hoe across. Well, I suppose I should call them Hannah and Missy, they'd unmasked to me not long after Dad left the pizza party.

We set up the water blocks, going heavy on the blueberry rows and soon there was the hint of new growth showing. "We should be able to harvest tomorrow. I brought some seeds of my own, wheat. Got to try making some bread." I blushed a little. "Dennis was groaning about all my foods being Vegan, so I figure I can try making pizza." I looked around. "Though how I do the pepperoni is the real question…"

The new tunnel was all North East and put me closer to where Dad's office was located. I struck out with straight passages that way, placing doors a few places. Finding myself in the basement of the building dad worked in by the map, I started looking around. The room was unusually well furnished. Lots of dust covers and red carpet.

Okay. So this is that place dad used to talk about, the underground bar and private Casino Marquis had maintained as a base of operations. There was a set of stairs and a key box on the wall at the top of the stairs. I opened it and found a set of older style keys the kind the warehouses use. A light switch there showed the place had power as well.

Opening the door required unlocking the inside deadbolt. Stepping outside on the surface, I found myself a few doors down from the DWU, in a lesser used section of the docks. The outside of the door looked like bricks, much like the old building around it.

My map showed the location with a pushpin mark. Closing the door, the only hint of a difference was the lock and it was painted red brown as well. I tried the key and relocked it from the inside. From the dust inside this place was long forgotten, and now it was mine. They _did_ want me to set up other places to come out to help protect my identity.

I found vista happily gnawing a carrot. "Try this." I popped out a paring knife sized dagger. In her hands it cleaned the carrot easily. She tapped it like I would, but it didn't just become sticks. But she was able to get easy bite sized cuts off it.

"Eh, keep it anyway. It might come in handy."

Some things grew faster than others. The berry bushes look like they might take a couple days before they would be ready to pick. The corn and wheat might be ready before morning. I put all the extras into inventory, leaving some shopping bags of tomatoes and lettuce.

The drops were a little lightweight this time round, but there were fifteen pots. I gave Hannah and Missy one each to keep with them. I think I was going to have to find something bigger to hit to really get a good drop. New things seemed to work the best. I guess I am a little greedy, as I didn't let on that only the first four or so had fallen while they were nearby. The rest I'd gathered before they arrived or while I was clearing toward the docks.

"You know the director would probably welcome a pot if they could fix her kidneys." she pulled her mask up again and started back up the stairs to the basement.

We met dad just putting the finishing touches on a lasagna. He took it out of the oven and put it on the table. "You ladies want to join us. I have it on good authority we have greens for a salad as well.

Hannah looked pensive but pulled down her scarf again. "Fine then, but I hate getting stains out of my bandana, so I'm not going to be sneaking bites under it."

Dad pulled the blinds in the kitchen and waved them over to sit. I had plates out and did a three tap to send lettuce, tomato and onion into the bowls. Dad reached into the 'special' shelf and took out a wine bottle. We hadn't opened wine in two years now -the corkscrew was a little rusty.

We ate and we were happy for the evening. The sauce was excellent, the salad crisp. The company was oddly intense. Hannah had taken a seat we didn't usually use anymore and slipped right into it without a ripple. Missy smiled wide and I realized this was all a setup on her part. Or perhaps a multi faceted attack strategy, something of a win-win-win.

We were scheduled to go on patrol at about midnight. The small car Hannah drove in her civilian persona would take us to the DWU office and we would head out from there, southward. It really wasn't that far from the Boardwalk.