It took a few minutes for me to calm down and extract myself from Newter's embrace with a small sniffle. His tank top was completely dry as it seemed my body wasn't capable of creating tears while I was transformed.

I looked up at him to find a comforting smile on his face, "Sorry," I whispered as I backed away, "I-I just…"

"It's alright." He waved it off, "You've had a rough time, you seemed like you needed a good cry."

I sniffled, the air making an odd whistling sound as it passed through my wooden nostrils, "Thank you. I really appreciate it."

There was the sound of a throat clearing and I looked up to find the woman, Faultline, looking toward Newter and jerking her head to her side. I couldn't make out her expression under her mask but from the way Newter blanched before making his way back over to her side, it probably wasn't a very good one.

The room was quiet, the other occupants having stayed silent during my little episode. Gregor was still standing by the door and watching impassively and it occurred to me that he was probably there to make sure I didn't try to escape out into the club itself.

Or maybe he was just staying out of the way. From what I had gotten from my senses, the club was completely empty apart from the people in the room.

Labyrinth was still sitting on the bed against the wall, legs still pulled up to her chest, still humming that same soft tune to herself, and still staring at me. I couldn't help but notice the flowers around her had wilted slightly, vivid blues and yellows becoming less vibrant and more grey. She didn't seem to notice however, bringing another one up to her mask with gentle fingers and inhaling softly.

"Now then, Valerie was it?" I looked back to Faultline as the intimidating woman spoke, "Could you please tell me what made Newter decide to bring you here? From what he tells me, he found you at the pier scaring the living daylights out of the local fishermen."

I swallowed roughly as I was once again reminded of what had happened. I looked to Newter who shrugged helplessly, before looking back at Faultline to find her staring at me. Her welding mask made it impossible to tell what she was thinking but from her slightly tense posture, I imagined she wasn't happy. Which was justified all things considered.

I was an unknown parahuman who had barged into her club during its off hours and had used my powers on the building itself without her permission. She had more than enough reasons to be wary of me.

Her arms were crossed, still waiting for my answer so I cleared my throat and tried to explain myself, "I-my parents. Hookwolf killed them. He tried to drown me in the Bay. Put me in the trunk of a car and just drove me in. I don't remember much of what happened after that..." I stuttered out, my mind a jumbled mess, "I just remember knowing I was drowning, thinking about how much I didn't want to die."

"Why did Hookwolf target you specifically?" She interrupted.

I winced slightly as I heard the question, "My family is German. Like, old German. We came to America around twelve years ago because my father had some old friends in the city. They said they had a job opportunity or something."

Newter snorted off to the side, "German friends in Brockton Bay with a 'job opportunity'? I bet that went well."

I grimaced, "Yeah well, they left out the whole Nazi thing until we were already here. My parents may be really proud of our heritage, but they aren't Nazi's. We refused to join, cut a deal with Kaiser so they would leave us alone."

My voice shook slightly, "Hookwolf took exception to the fact that a pure blooded family like ours wasn't willing to join the Empire and acted on his own. He must have got my parents while they were home alone because I came back to find them beaten and tied to chairs in my living room."

Faultline nodded, motioning for me to continue my story.

I looked down at my hands, turning the wooden appendages this way and that, "While I was drowning, I must have passed out or something and when I woke back up, I had powers. I could feel the water around me sing to me, wanting to be used. So I did, and I changed."

I took a deep breath, "My body turned to seawater and I was able to free myself from the trunk of the car he put me in. I could feel the water around me like it was a part of my body and knew where the pier was so I rushed towards it. I didn't mean to scare anybody."

Faultline was silent for a moment and I could hear her muttering to herself quietly. I strained my ears to pick out what she was saying but wasn't able to make out anything but what I was pretty sure was the number 53, though I'm not sure what that had to do with anything.

After a moment of muttering to herself, her posture relaxed drastically, arms unfolding from her chest and coming down to rest by her sides and shoulders untensing. She turned to Gregor who was still loitering by the door and nodded at him.

It must have been some sort of signal because the large man immediately walked out of the room, closing the door behind him and leaving the four of us alone inside.

Faultline grabbed a chair from a table in the corner of the room and carried it over next to the bed I was sitting on. Placing it on the ground in front of me, she sat down and removed her mask, revealing a woman around college age. She had slightly tan skin and dark brown eyes, under which hung dark bags indicating a lack of sleep.

She lightly rubbed a gloved hand across her face, "I hate that damn mask. Why'd I have to go with functionality over comfort?" she muttered to herself, before focusing on me once more and steepling her fingers in front of her face.

"First of all, I'm sorry for the third degree, I just needed to make sure you weren't a danger to me or my crew. You can never be too careful these days with all the superpowered psychos running around."

I just nodded in understanding, "It's alright. You wanted to make sure your family was safe, I would have done the same."

She smiled lightly, "Thank you for being so understanding. Now, there's a few things we need to speak about. For starters, what do you know about Triggering?"

I scrunched my brow in thought, the phrase sounded familiar, I'd probably heard it during my time on PHO. Despite that, the specifics of the phrase eluded me.

I told Faultline as much and she nodded, "When someone with the potential for becoming a Parahuman experiences an event deemed sufficiently traumatizing, they undergo something similar to a psychotic break and lose consciousness. When they awaken, they find they have gained powers tangentially related to their circumstances."

She shook her head, "Sometimes the powers that they gain do more harm than good. There are some examples of people Triggering with abilities that just amplify the problems they face in the first place. Changer powers seem to be the most common in that regard. Gaining the ability to turn into a giant monster usually isn't very helpful to someone going through an identity crisis."

She shook her head, dismissing the tangent before it got out of hand, "While you were in the trunk of that car, you Triggered and gained powers. Breaker powers if what you've shown is any indication, likely a secondary Shaker power as well."

I had heard those words before while browsing PHO though I couldn't really remember what exactly they entailed. I looked at Faultline in questioning.

"Breaker, Shaker? I've heard of those before but I'm not sure what they mean." I said.

Faultline nodded toward Labyrinth, "Labyrinth is a Shaker, one of the most powerful Shakers in the United States in fact, her powers allow her to alter her surroundings in an expanding sphere around her."

She looked over at the young woman prompting me to do the same, "Unfortunately her powers come with drawbacks, the least being that she can't move out of place once she starts using her powers to full effect." If Labyrinth noticed or cared that Faultline was speaking about her, she didn't show it, lightly plucking another flower from the growing bed around her and bringing it up to her mask like the others.

Faultline watched her for another moment before shaking her head with a fond smile and turning back to me, "Breakers are Parahumans who can shift the state of their bodies into other forms, the most famous Breaker would probably be Legend though we have one or two here in the Bay as well, like Shadow Stalker or Brandish from New Wave, though hers is more secondary."

I nodded, I had heard of Shadow Stalker, the vigilante's power let her transform into a cloud of dark smoke and allowed her to move through walls like they weren't even there. I guess that my ability to transform into different materials was sort of similar.

And though I had heard that Brandish could transform into a ball of hard light that was nearly indestructible, she rarely used the ability unless she absolutely had to, something which had always seemed odd to me.

"Your ability to change your body and clothes into materials that you touch make you a Breaker as well. Although… try to deactivate your Breaker state. If you don't wish to show us your face, I can have Newter retrieve a spare mask for you or you can use mine."

I startled slightly at the request, "Oh! Um, no need for a mask I guess. You've basically already seen my face and you were nice enough to show me yours. Just give me a second."

I closed my eyes and focused on my powers, willing them to switch off and turn my wooden form human once more. My brow furrowed as I felt some resistance from my powers before they gave in, something that had never happened in the short period since I had gotten them.

As my wooden form turned back into skin and cloth, I suddenly felt very winded, like I had run around the track at school in a dead sprint without stopping for breath.

"That was way more difficult than changing between materials." I panted out.

Faultline hummed, "It's possible that switching between materials expends your stamina. You might not just feel it while transformed, you didn't get tired while in your Breaker state did you?"

I shook my head as I regained my breath, "No, I didn't need to breathe either."

"That's probably what it was then." Faultline nodded, "Versatile powers like yours usually have some kind of drawback that isn't obvious at first. I figured they were dampening your emotions but that might have been a secondary effect. You will have to practice with it to alleviate your power's drawbacks. Which brings me to my second topic."

Faultline stood from her chair as the door to the room opened, revealing Gregor standing there holding a small device, or at least it appeared small in his massive hand. She motioned for him to enter and he did so, closing the door behind him. As he approached, she grabbed the device from him and held it out for me to take.

I took it and held it up for inspection. It was a blocky phone, one of those older models where the screen and tiny keypad were in plain view on the face of the phone. I had seen models like this collecting dust in electronics stores, usually on sale for fifty dollars a pop. It was a burner phone, meant to be easily replaceable, thrown out after just a few uses. Which begged the question…

"Why are you giving this to me?" I asked warily.

"I'd like you to join my crew." She came right out and said it, leaving me slightly stunned, "We are an independent mercenary group who sell our services to the highest bidder given a few caveats. We've been operating on the east coast for around two years now and are always looking for new members, so long as they are willing to follow our rules."

I clenched the burner phone in my hand, "And what are those rules exactly?"

"It's very simple," Gregor spoke up for the first time, slightly surprising me with his accent. I'm not sure what I expected him to sound like, but having a slight Icelandic accent wasn't it, "Don't kill, don't steal from the crew, don't insult the appearances of those on the crew, and secret identities stay secret outside of the crew."

Faultline nodded along with him, "There will be accidents of course, but as long as you don't go out of your way to do those things, they can be forgiven within reason."

I looked down at the blocky phone in my grip before looking back up at her, "And I assume joining your crew comes with perks?"

She smirked, "You will get a percentage cut of every job you take, usually around fifteen percent but sometimes more depending on your performance. The Palanquin has several free rooms so there's free housing, though if you want to earn a bit of extra money, you can work in the club down below."

"We also have get togethers around once a month and just hang out!" Newter spoke up from his side of the room, "There's usually pizza and everything!"

Faultline laughed lightly, "That too." She looked toward me, eyes softening, "If you don't have an answer right now, you can use that phone to contact me once you do. It has unlimited minutes and my number is already in the contacts."

I fiddled with the phone, accessing the contacts and there it was in neon green lettering, 'Faultline'.

I took a deep breath as I considered the offer. On the one hand, everything had been taken from me, my family, my life, and most likely my home as there was no way I could go back and live there with the Empire still occupying the street.

On the other hand, there was still something I had to take care of.

I looked back up to Faultline, "I can't give you my answer right now. There's something I have to take care of. Mind if I take a rain check?"

She nodded, "Of course, take all the time you need. Gregor will show you out."

I stood, and gave Faultline a small smile, "Thank you for everything Faultline."

She smiled, offering me her hand which I took, "Please, call me Melanie. I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other again really soon."

I let out a startled laugh as I let go. That woman's either extremely confident, or even sharper than I had given her credit for. I turned and followed Gregor out of the room, shaking my head in mild amusement.

As I walked, my mind wandered to the situation I still needed to take care of. Or more precisely, the person I needed to take care of. Betrayal still burned hot in my veins as I thought of the other blond haired girl.

I felt my teeth clench as I made my way out of the club. Christine had a lot to answer for and I would get those answers.

One way or another.


Next two chapters are already on my Pat re on If you'd like to read them early and support me at the same time