I could see my the condensation forming from my breath as I sighed and looked down on the disaster in progress beneath that was Brockton Bay. From my vantage point of around 3000 feet up in the night sky I could see the juxtaposition of decayed urban hellscape and white-picket suburban and gated communities that somehow co-existed. Two worlds so close, yet so far apart. None of their inhibtants had any idea what was coming in the next few months to years. It was almost like looking down at a bunch of ants in a glass jar going about their lives, with no idea of the Sword of Damocles that was hanging invisibly over their heads.

"Huh. I guess I kind of understand Cauldron now. They're still a bunch of dicks, though."

I shook my head, and deciding I was fine to just hang here in the air and think (the black jeans and hoodie should keep anyone from seeing much of anything this far up in the dark), I contemplated my situation. I'd found myself unceremoniously uprooted from my middle class comfortable life on Earth Prime (well, that was what I calling it) and was somehow dumped here onto Earth Bet, in, of course, the city that was ground zero of the whole "Death World" upcoming scenario. It was December 25th, 2010. Things were going to kick off soon.

I had powers, but given what they were, I was 99.9% sure that they were not shard based. Oh, and I somehow was now a teenage girl, where before I'd been a 35 year old man. So that was different. I'll spare you the diatribe about my arrival here, panic, denial, etc. I'm sure you know the drill already. After the denial, the bargaining, the acceptance, blah blah angst. It happened, it's done, let's move on from that. Interestingly, my truly ridiculous ability could affect anything except my own body – well, my physical form at least. Yeah, I'd tried to become male again. Didn't work. As for why that was, and why I was even here? I couldn't say. I kind of wanted to blame a ROB, but that seemed too cliché. Until I had some evidence to the contrary, I'd work under the assumption that this was some sort of random event, or something caused by someone else's Space Whale shard getting more than it bargained for when using some inter-dimensional bullshit. Path to Fucking Everything Up By Accident misfiring or something, maybe.

At least I knew I wasn't some kind of Taylor Hebert self-insert, my chest was way too… voluptuous to be her.

Still, my power was such utter and complete bullshit that there was no way I could imagine it actually being Space Whale-based. I'd decided to call it Reality Warp, since that's basically what it did. I could just tell reality what it was doing now, and it did. Could I actually fly? No. But I could, and had in this case, told gravity to go take some time off in relation to me. Hence the hovering in mid air like an edgelord dressed all in black and looking down at the city. Earlier in the day I'd actually deleted a bird from existence entirely with just a thought (and a wave of the hand, because of course) as a test, which led me to all sorts of existential crises of my own that I wouldn't want to bore anyone with the details of. Suffice to say, I had decided that I was reluctant to use that ability on any actual people if I didn't absolutely need to.

"This is kind of like playing a video game with all the cheat codes enabled.", I said to absolutely nobody since I was alone up here. "I can literally just decide how things are, and they become what I want. That's why I don't think a ROB did this. After all, why the fuck would anyone think this was a good or interesting power? If this was one of those Worm fanfics, the comments would be scathing on the sheer level of Gary- er, Mary - Sue-ness (sigh) that this powerset is. There literally cannot be any meaningful conflict or threat, since it can all just be cheat coded out of reality at a whim."

I frowned, and gave myself a mental kick in the ass. One, I was talking to myself, which was bad enough, and I was also monologuing - which was a negative trait on every Worm CYOA for a reason. I needed to make sure I didn't fall into bad habits. Plus, to be honest, my situation wasn't all bad despite being able to theoretically do anything I wanted. Even a normal non-powered human follows laws and customs. They can do so much more than they actually do even in their everyday lives. They decide to play by certain rules, for social reasons primarily I guess. Who was to say I couldn't do the same in my current situation? If I had been ROB'd here, they'd want something – entertainment usually wasn't it? And if this was all weird fucking cosmic circumstance, then I was basically the only arbiter of how I responded to it, and so I might as well do what I wanted anyhow in regards to that. So no real difference.

So fine, I would set my own rules on this 'Game of Worm' even if I did have all the console commands available to me. I would also need to make sure to not get caught up treating people like NPCs if at all possible. I knew from my Skyrim mod-using days that console commanding the general populace made things boring and un-fun as all hell, so it probably would be even worse here. So, limits. I'd assign my own, and follow them as far as I could. Was I willing to die for them? Could I even die? I didn't actually know, but no. I was not willing to THAT far anyways. But up to that limit, sure, I'd follow my own self-assigned rules to the game.

So, powers. Let's see. Well, flight was too good not to have, so I'd for sure use that. Did I want to make it a part of a power, like saying I had 'Gravity/Mass Manipulation' abilities? I wasn't sure about that. Seemed simultaneously a bit limiting and OP. How about a transport theme. Flight, and portals. Portals to places I had been to, or could see, maybe. Give myself a mover rating, and a solid power that could be used in combat if needed, but that had tons of utility. I waved my hand a shimmering blue/green portal came into existence, linking the middle of the air far above Brockton Bay to the top of the roof of the Medhall building. I floated through and let gravity turn back on in my vicinity as I lightly landed on the concrete. The portal faded away to nothing, and I paced about a bit, trying to decide what other powers or limits I should have.

Personal force field was a must, but only to a point. Kind of like Glory Girl, but with a damage limit and recharge time instead of an on/off effect? I'd be able to tank small arms fire, but not more than that. I didn't want to stand out for being the next Alexandria or something. I'd settle for 'really useful power set'. Plus, with some level of defence, Piggot wouldn't be able to insist I be relegated to transport only due to lack of combat ability. Because yeah, I was pretty sure I'd wind up joining the Wards eventually. I wanted to be where the cape action was, and there was no way I'd be willing to do something like join the Empire or the ABB. I may be chaotic neutral as a personal alignment, but I was not down for Nazism or sex slavery.

Okay. So powers, sorted. Backstory? Well, I was a very pale skinned, black-haired, blue eyed teenage girl. Probably about sixteen or seventeen, but I wasn't really sure. I was pretty, ah, developed, so I was positive it wasn't younger than that at least. So I'd go with sixteen for my ID at least. I guess I'd be an emancipated orphan, because why the fuck not. I didn't particular want to see if I could just decree parents for myself into existence. I was pretty sure that I actually could do that, but no thanks, I didn't want to be creating life ex nihilo at the moment.

Name? Kayla. I liked Kayla, and Kay was acceptable as a nickname. I could live with that. Last name? Something that wouldn't stand out too much. Breton. That was my family background after all. Kayla Breton, emancipated 16 year old minor with a small but adequate trust fund, attending Winslow - for as long as that would last, like a day or three, just long enough to… take the edge off the Locker incident. Then I'd join the Wards and switch to Arcadia. Yeah, I was going to let Taylor trigger. Kind of defeats the purpose of Worm if I didn't, or something. But I wouldn't leave her in there to stew past that point like would have happened otherwise.

With a wave of my hand (yeah, I was a bit of a drama queen I suppose), I brought my background into being. I was transferring into Winslow after the winter break. A wallet with a bank card and ID appeared in my pocket, along with a cell phone and $1500 cash. I decided I had an apartment in a building in a middle-class area with decent bus access to both Winslow and Arcadia. I specified to my power that no existing people were to be disrupted, so it was a vacant apartment, and there was suddenly a lease and a backstory in place. I'd taken possession today, and was moving in tomorrow morning. Everything had already been signed and approved. I suddenly had keys in my pocket as well. I also realized that I needed to be, well, not a Blank to thinkers (that'd be too weird), but they needed to see the 'me' that fit with my background and chosen powers and person. So I willed it to be so, and it was. Sorry Contessa, hope this doesn't fuck with your paths too much, but I can't be standing out.

With all that set, I then took a breath, and resolved myself to this choice. I willed my 'Power Set' into being and set a sort of block so I wouldn't accidentally re-write reality on a random whim. I specifically had to think a certain code in my mind to unlock my other powers, except in the case of an event fatal or permanently incapacitating to myself. And so it was done. I was now a 'normal cape'.

Fuck, I'd forgotten to create clothes or furnish my god damn apartment.

I wound up spending the night on top of the Medhall building. My personal force field basically handled the cold just as well as it would handle bullets or knives, which was nice. I guess I'd had an intention for it to be like that when I made it. I could turn it off, but really, there was no good reason to do so unless I was interacting with other people, and I was able to ignore it at will to do things like use the bathroom. (sorry Max, I pissed on your building. Hah!), eat, or drink. Since I'd never actually been to my new apartment, I couldn't just portal there, so I wound up going to the edge of the Medhall roof, and making a portal to an out of the way area at ground level. Then I checked my phone for bus info, and a map, and headed off to make my way to a store for a few essentials, and then to my new home.

A quick stop at the local Wal-Mart equivalent later, and I was the proud new owner of one air mattress, two pillows, one blanket, and some toiletries. And some make up, and damn wasn't this going to be fun to figure out. Still, I got where I needed to go, and the building was… fine I guess? Standard solidly middle class apartment building in an okay area of town – which, unfortunately, meant it was probably going to turn out to be E88 territory, though I wasn't actually sure. I didn't get omniscience as part of my travel package, and I couldn't give it to myself. I assumed my powers were limited to not being able to change my own fundamental nature, for some reason. Actually, that could be a good thing if that same immutability applied to master powers and the like. Can't make me be different that I am. Huh. Anyways, I was getting lost in thought again. I really needed to get human contact again soon before I turned into some sort of weirdo who had conversations with themselves.

I headed inside the building and up to apartment 312, which was mine. It was a decent sized one bedroom place, and I wasted no time inflating my new bed and putting stuff away. I'd of course forgotten essentials like food, and a cup to drink water out of, so I would up making a hand cup at the kitchen faucet when I was thirsty. I really wasn't turning out to be very good at this whole responsible emancipated minor thing so far. Having slaked my thirst, I bonelessly dropped down onto my bed and stared up at the ceiling. I had about $1400 bucks, and a week or so to get my shit together.

Okay Kayla, you can do this, girl. No pressure. Not like you could fuck up the entire world or anything.

The last week had been a bit of a whirlwind. I finally owned dishes (Yay!) and I'd learned that women's pants really sucked pocket-wise (Boo!). Still, I had a wardrobe, mostly gotten from thrift stores for frugality reasons. My monthly stipend from my trust fund was enough to live on, but not luxurious, and I'd blown through basically all of the cash I poofed into being when I started this… path or whatever it was... getting the essentials for my apartment. I'd learned to do my own makeup thanks to internet video tutorials. That had been a bit of a gong show, I'd never washed my face so many times in a day, but I got it right eventually. Understated and not too heavy, I was a good looking girl (woman?) even without makeup, so it was just to accent stuff.

Also, bras suck. The less said about that the better. I'd learned they needed to be properly fitted. Yep. That was a minor adventure in and of itself. "Sorry Ms. Shopkeeper. My Mom died and no one ever taught me this..." *puppy dog eyes*. I admit I may have hammed it up a tad, but it worked, and now I have more knowledge than I ever expected to have about the whys and hows of feminine support garments.

Still, I'd actually oddly enjoyed clothes shopping, which made me decide it was some sort of innate crucial gender difference between men and women. In my previously male life I'd literally always just worn jeans and a t-shirt whenever possible, but now I had a bunch of cute outfits I'd carefully selected. I guess I was kind of treating shopping like dressing up my avatar in an online game would have been before, but starring me now. Regardless, I was hot, and damn it I was going to dress well if I wanted to. Though no high heels, because fuck that. I did buy a Guy Fawkes mask for when I decided to have my first 'hero night out', to then run into the PRT after stopping a mugging or something. I wasn't sure, but it seemed to be tradition, so I'd go with that.

Still, it was Monday morning, and school would be starting today. I'd also come to the realization that I didn't really need to wait for Taylor's trigger to start my own hero career, as the PRT has to be able to put in body double or something at Arcadia before admitting new students if I was remembering right? So I'd be at Winslow for a little bit regardless until they got that sorted out and officially transferred me. I was actually undecided on if I ought to be at all involved with Taylor, Sophia, Emma, or Madison prior to the event. In truth, the only one I could for sure avoid if I wanted to was Taylor, since she'd make herself scarce on her own most likely. I had no actual idea about how the terrible trio would interact with a new transfer student, if they did at all.

Giving myself a final once-over in my floor to ceiling closet door/mirrors (and wouldn't that make other activities interesting, since you'd get a great view of yourself!) I smiled and looked at the girl (woman, damn it!) I saw. I looked vaguely hipster-trendy in my leggings (it was winter after all), a short-ish skirt, a vintage pair of Dr Martens boots, and cute top that showed off a tasteful amount of cleavage, but not enough to look like a skank or anything. I was all about that girl power, but not about giving random people a free show. I'd put my long hair into a braid and done my makeup – I'd aimed for a bit of a goth-but-not-too-much look - and I was ready to face the world as Kayla Breton, totally average normal student girl.

I grabbed my pink Hello Kitty backpack (cause kawaii, damn it!), put on my black pea coat (because winter, and also, great thrift store deal!), and headed out the door. The bus ride was honestly pretty uneventful, and I spend most of that time browsing PHO on my phone. I resisted the urge to send Dragon weird messages (assuming she was, in fact, Tin_Mother, that is), but I really wanted to help her out eventually if I could, if only because Dragon was just so wholesome and cute. If I'd been living one of those of Waifu Catalog existences, I'd totally claim her just cause she's so damn adorable. But I wasn't, so I behaved myself. No cybermommi for me.

Once I arrived at Winslow, I was able to confirm that yes, it was indeed a shit-hole. I mean, it wasn't literally falling apart, but it had clearly seen better days. Still, I made my way in, and eventually navigated the press of other kids (and didn't see anyone I could obviously point out as the Trio or Taytay) to find my way to the office. Principal Blackwell was about what you'd expect from the canon. I mean, she was brusque but not rude, but you could just tell she wasn't all about the education and well-being of the students here, Still, I got my introduction, confirmed my registration and academic records transfer were all good, and got my books, a locker, and my schedule. I went to put my stuff away, and get to class, and despite some sort of weird unconscious expectation of the world working like a story or something (I really needed to get over that), my locker was not next to anyone plot relevant. Oh well, off to homeroom.

"Okay class, we have a new student who has just transferred in. Please introduce yourself, Kayla."

Sigh, I'd thought were weren't doing this cliché. Damn teacher putting me on the spot! I stood up from the desk I'd claimed in the rear 2/3's of the room (didn't want to look too eager or too rebellious on day one, after all) and addressed the room full of students and a teacher.

"Hi, I'm Kayla Breton, I'm uh, new to Brockton Bay. I like long walks on the beach, cooking, and stabbing people who get in my personal space."

Fuck, my brain to mouth filter is almost nonexistent. Unnamed Teacher does not look impressed. I managed carry on and attempt to cringely grin and play off that little faux pas.

"Just kidding about that last bit, but it's nice to meet you all. I hope we'll all get along."

I sat back down and as class continued I heard some muttering amongst my classmates about the new girl being a psycho. Just great. Wonderful first impression. Go me.

I got through the rest of the day without making any other egregious mistakes, but I was pretty sure that word had gotten around about my home room intro, because people were giving me looks and avoiding my personal space bubble in the halls by time I was ready to head home (which was now). I actually found the personal space thing kind of convenient, though I was honestly a bit surprised that-

And there it is. Some tall and thick white girl just did the shoulder check thing into me. I didn't move, and neither did she. Huh, I'd have expected it to be the ABB kids going at me first. Shows what I know.

"Watch where the fuck you're going, bitch!" growled Probably-Empire-Wannabe-Skank #1, as my backpack fell to the ground.

I regarded her with not-really feigned disinterest and briefly considered my reply and how to handle this. Then I realized I was overthinking things massively. This was Winslow. So I mentally said fuck it, and hauled off and cold-cocked the bitch right in the jaw. I also may have forgotten to disable to my force field (not that it was really noticeable as it was flush with my skin at the moment), so she basically got introduced to the immovable object slamming into her face at the speed of my fist.

Probably-Empire-Wannabe-Skank #1 hit the ground with a kind of disturbing thud, and her head bounced off of the tiled floor. I nearly winced at that. Oops. Her two friends (because of course they came in threes) looked incredibly shocked, and I arched an eyebrow at them. They both took a step back, so I picked up and shouldered my (still kawaii as fuck) backpack and just walked away. I had decided that short of a teacher or the principal running out yelling after me, I was just done with this place for the day. The mass of student bodies nearby parted like I was Moses and they were the Red Sea as I made my way out the double doors to head to the bus. Tomorrow was sure going to be interesting.

I did take note of a certain black girl with a bad case of resting bitch face giving me the intrigued once over on my way past her as I made my exit.

I see you there, Sophia.

So it turns out that Earth Bet has some pretty awesome flavours of instant ramen. I would have never thought that Falafel & Tzatziki would be a noodle flavour, but as I slurped it up, I decided that I was glad it did. Greek/Asian fusion, I suppose? Weirder things have happened. I'd try the Orange Mole ones next week, but I was less hopeful about that one. I also decided that I really needed to get some furniture, since my lone air mattress really wasn't cutting it in that respect? Maybe some bean bag chairs?

Dinner eaten, I doomscrolled PHO until the sun set, and then it was time to go out and aim to misbehave. I did my hair up so it wouldn't be a giant handle, and put on my mask, hoodie, and black jeans, and a pair of tight leather gloves. I didn't want fingerprints or blood being an issue. I checked myself out in the bedroom mirror, and decided that I was as ready as I was going to be for this. I turned and looked out the window at a distant rooftop and opened a portal with a wave. Taking a breath I floated up into the air and flew through, letting it close behind me. As I hovered over the building's roof, I kind of realized that I wasn't exactly sure how to go about finding crime to Cape on. I didn't have super-senses as part of my powers, so it wasn't like I could pull a Superman. Nor did I have a gigantic doom-swarm to give me all the feedback for blocks around. I now get why patrols are totally a thing. You sort of just have to hope you trip across shit going down.

With that, I rolled my eyes at my own lack of planning, and set off flying over the rooftops at a decent pace, but slow enough so that I could actually pay attention to what I was passing over. I decided to give myself about four hours to find any shenanigans to get involved with, and if that failed, I'd just call it a night and try again tomorrow.

In the end, it only took about twenty minutes. I guess some tropes about Brockton Bay are true, after all. The sound of two gunshots in rapid succession echoed in the street on other other side of the block I was floating over, and so I took off towards it. I was instantly glad that my force field power protected my eyes, as I hit a bird face-first in my rush to get to the scene. Oops. Sorry birdie. In any case, I came to a stop at the edge of a roof overlooking yelling and chaos. Some guy in far too little clothing (boxes and a wifebeater? In December?) had a gun and was waving it at a woman who was desperately trying to keep herself between the weapon and a terrified kid. To be honest, I was kind of in awe, as I'd expected a mugging or a gang fight or something. This, this was straight up prime grade-A protagonist material here for a Cape debut. If I didn't know that it was totally random, as I hadn't made this happen, I'd have suspected outside interference. Still, needs must, so I dropped out of the sky like a brick and thudded to the ground behind Mr. Boxers. He spun around wildly, looking shocked and confused, waving the pistol around wildly. I didn't approve of that, and so I reached out while he was still trying to mentally process someone literally falling out of the sky, and yanked it out of his grasp.

"I'm sorry, but you're clearly using that gun in an unsafe manner. So you're not allowed to have it anymore." I gave a smirk as I delivered my one liner, before remembering that I had a mask on. Sigh.

"Fuck you!", the man screamed, as he actually rushed at me, swinging a reckless haymaker at my head. I was honestly so surprised that I just let him hit me. There was a crunch as his fist impacted my field, and Mr. Boxers collapsed to the ground screaming bloody murder and cradling his very broken hand. The woman had wrapped the kid up in her arms, and was giving the situation here some combination of confused-scared-relived look, or something. I couldn't really tell. Emotional subtlety isn't my forte, as it were.

Oh, right, injured guy.

"Stay down, I am contacting the authorities. If you attempt to resist, I'll put you down." I calmly said. I'd read up on de-escalation, and it said that being calm and assertive was most important. Mr. Boxers just kept sobbing, I think he really messed his hand up. The woman looked more scared, for some reason. That was odd, but I ignored her and pulled out my burner phone, calling 911.

"911, what is your emergency?"

"This is independent hero uhhh... I don't have a name yet. I guess that's a cliche, huh? Sorry."

"Miss, is there an emergency?"

I winced. Damn it. "Yeah, sorry. I am at uhh 12th and Wilmot, and I came across a guy in his underwear with a gun. He's shot it twice, and was terrifying a woman a child in the street. I have incapacitated the perp and the woman and kid are fine. Can you send police?"

"A unit has been dispatched to your location, please wait there to give a statement. Are any other parahumans involved?"

"Uh, no just me. Thanks." I hung up and looked down at Mr. Boxers. "The police are coming, stay down or I'll snap your ankles. I don't feel like chasing anyone tonight."

He just whimped and laid here. The woman was looking at me really weirdly, but I didn't know why. I hope this wasn't one of those stockholm syndrome loving your abuser things or something. Otherwise you'd think she'd be totally happy with Mr. Boxers being down. Oh well, not my problem.

The police response time had been really quick, all things given. About three minutes? I gave them a statement, and an ambulance picked up Mr. Boxers, who still hadn't shut up, and he went off with a police escort. It's just a hand dude. You'll totally live. The woman never did talk to me or thank me, so that sucked a bit. Still, I hadn't helped for the recognition, but because it's what a hero does, and I was being a hero. I gave my statement to an officer while his partner handled woman and kid, and after s some quick mental gymnastics I settled on giving him the cape name Singularity (because holes in space? It was that or Defenestrator. I suck at names), and provided my cape phone number in case I was needed for court or whatever. No PRT or Armsmaster showed up, I guess because it was just some new nobody cape and a non powered person. I wasn't quite sure there, but oh well. I'd been looking forward to the Armscycle.

All that wrapped up, I flew off and continued my patrol. It was at that point I found out first hand why all black was a terrible idea for clothing when out Caping in the air at night and paying more attention to the latest PHO shit show thread by Void Cowboy on my phone than my surroundings.

A white and gold flying brick managed to simultaneously try to occupy the same space as I was in the middle of the air above a building, which in retrospect is pretty damn unlikely, but I didn't realized that until later. Instead I was currently preoccupied with being knocked back like a billiard ball by a speeding Glory Girl. Problem was, she'd been carrying another girl in a princess carry, and the impact made her drop her human cargo.

"AMES!", she screamed in a panic, as her cargo also screamed as she fell, though that one made more sense to me. I was a bit more concerned about my phone, which was falling as well, right next to the aforementioned fall-ee. I quickly snapped open a portal underneath Amy Dallon (because that's who it had to be) and my phone. The portal's exit point was above me, and I deftly caught my phone in one hand as it fell to me, and grabbed a terrified Panpan with the other. I also quickly realized that I lacked Super-strength to actually be able to hold falling objects weighing as much as a human, and immediately locked my force field into place at max strength. That did the trick, and I was able to hold the poor girl.

"Ah, hi?" My wit and words escaped me, and of course, once again my full mask struck again as the poor girl couldn't tell how sheepish I looked, as she quit screaming and blinked owlishly at me.

The Golden Brick zoomed up to us, panic on her face turning to anger as she realized that she'd hit a person in mid-air and dropped her (very unable to fly) sister.

"What the fuck are you doing flying around in the dark all in black?! Amy could have DIED!"

Yep, she was about what I'd expected. Sigh.

"Vicky, it's okay, I'm okay, but uh, can you please put me down?" Amy gestured in the direction of a roof nearby, and I nodded and flew over there, setting her down gently. Vicky came with, still looking pretty pissed off. I decided I should at least say something.

"Yeah, uh, sorry, I was trying to be stealthy about the flying, looking for crimes to stop or whatever. I just got distracted by PHO. Void Cowboy is a fucking weirdo."

Vicky blinked at me, and looked over at Amy, who shrugged. I just looked between the two of them and wasn't quite sure what to do. This wasn't exactly how I'd pictured making my first impression on the city's heroes.

"So, umm... what's your name?" Vicky asked.

"Oh. I'm going by Singularity. Cause uh, the holes in space?"

She looked pensive for a moment. "The portal thingy you did under Ames?"

"Yeah, that. It's my main power. That, and well, the flying and whatnot."

"Oh. That's actually pretty cool!"

Amy spoke up at this point. "Well, thank you for saving me, though a traffic collision in air wasn't really something anyone could have planned for."

I cringed a bit. "Yeah... sorry, first night... I don't have a costume? Now I see why you guys wear bright colours."

Vicky grinned a bit at that and actually struck a bit of a pose. I admire her dedication to her persona at the least. "Well, at least put reflective strips on your outfit if you decide to stick with all black", she laughed. I nodded.

"Yeeeaaah, you're not wrong. At least I can take a hit, you were going pretty quick there."

Suddenly Vicky tensed up and then yelled "FUCK! We gotta go Ames, they're waiting on us!" Amy winced, and with that Vicky swept her back up into the princess carry, and started to fly off. She spun around quickly to face me and shouted "Sorry, nice to meet you Singularity, but we're late! Nice to meet you! Byebye!" before taking off into the night at high speed with her Pan-chan cargo.

Oddly, Amy didn't look that happy or that excited. Wonder where they were off to in such a hurry.

School the next morning was ...interesting. The rumour mill must have been working overtime or something, because people were either avoiding me, or giving me the stink-eye hard (though more than a few of the people doing that had shaved heads, so it was pretty obvious why). I made my way to my locker, and was getting my books for first period when I was actually spoken to by someone I'd kind of intended to not catch the attention of so soon.

"So you fucked up that Nazi bitch. She wound up in the hospital apparently, concussion, broken jaw."

Ah, Sophia. I wasn't really sure how to respond to her, so I took my time putting my stuff into my backpack before I stood up and looked at her. She was leaning nonchalantly against the locker next to mine, looking at me thoughtfully. Knowing what I knew about her it was probably some sort of 'predator-assessment' or something. Shouldering my bag, I looked her in the eyes and responded to her.

"Well, I certainly won't be losing any sleep over it. I'd heard Winslow was kind of like prison, but I hadn't actually expected to have someone pick a dominance fight on day one."

Sophia snorted and cracked a slight grin. I guess she approved of my response.

"Well, you've sure made the Empire idiots notice you. One of them will probably try to have a go at you again at some point, they kind of have to. That bitch you laid out? One of their higher ups, at least at far as this shithole goes. They'll have to respond to that, or look weak. And the ABB are probably sniffing around them for weakness."

I rolled my eyes as she said that, and replied. "Just fucking great. You know, I actually just want to do my school work and not get involved in gang bullshit? Whatever. If they come for me, they best not miss."

I saw a flash of approval, and dare I say admiration in Sophia's eyes. Not sure how I should feel about that. I'm not one of those people who really picks a side in the whole Trio-vs-Taylor thing. I mean, yeah, what they will do to her is pretty fucked, but for one, its actually mostly on Emma, for being a fucking weirdo to her former best friend, and second, Taylor, the Queen of Escalation, not fighting back at all until after she gets powers is kind of on her. My theory is that the only reason she grows a spine eventually is the Space Whale Conflict Juice, and she's so used to being beaten down by that point that she swings wildly to the other extreme and responds to any threat in a wildly excessive manner. But I'm doing that inner monologue thing again. Sophia was talking again.

"Heh. Well, new girl, you sure did make an impression. I'm Sophia, by the way."

"Good to meet you Sophia. I'm going to take a wild guess and assume you're not pro-Empire?" I said with a wry grin, and a bit of a wave at her everything.

She actually laughed, I didn't think it was that funny, but I'd take it. "Hah! Yeah, you could say that. I can't imagine why, obviously."

"Obviously. I guess Nazis don't have good taste, but I do. Sexy black women are one of my things, you could say."

God damn it brain. We're not supposed to be flirting with Shadow Stalker. Said Shadow Stalker looked a bit taken aback by either my forthrightness, or at a woman hitting on her. I wasn't sure which, I had no idea if she was straight or what.

"Uhhhh... Thanks? I guess?"

I laughed it off, "No problem. Sorry, I tend to just kind of say what I think without filter sometimes. It's one of my flaws. Didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything."

She shook her head "Nah, it's fine. I just hadn't expected to get hit on right away by the new girl. You really give zero fucks, huh?"

"It's kind of a personal philosophy of mine.", I respond. "Life is too short to worry about coddling other people, but even so, I should still learn to be a bit more restrained with stuff that could inadvertently offend people I'm not actively trying to piss off. So hopefully you weren't bothered. And if you liked it, let me know some time, I'd love to take you out some time."

Aaaaand brain was thinking with the lower bits again and just saying things directly. I should have reality warped a brain to mouth filter for myself. Actually, I can't, but still. Fuck.

Sophia smirked and snorted. "We'll see, new girl." At least she didn't seem offended?

"Oh, sorry, it's Kayla. Kayla Breton. I guess I should have given you my name before trying to hit on you. It's only polite. Anyways I've gotta get to class. Later Sophia, nice to meet you."

She waved and headed off down the hall, and I made my way to class. That could have gone worse I suppose?

Shockingly, no Nazis accosted me that day, but I did have a random Madison come up to me at lunch and pass me a fucking note before running off to somewhere. A note?! What was this, high school? Oh wait. It was. Anyways, said note was from Sophia, and had her phone number. I suppose that answered that question, maybe. But really, I wasn't sure what to do with it. Besides my brain having little to no restraint, I didn't actually know if I wanted to even be friends with her, let alone anything else. Though maybe she just saw a kindred Nazi-beating spirit in me or something and wanted to help. I can't really parse her kind of crazy properly, so getting an accurate read on her would probably not be easy. Turns out that only knowing someone from web novels and fanfic didn't prepare you for actually interacting with them. Who would've thought?

Getting home, I flopped down on my bed and tried to decide what to do about my cape thing. Making a costume was kind of pointless, because if all went to plan I'd be a Ward after tonight, and their weird Hawaiian shirt PR guy would be in charge of getting me an outfit to go around in. So that left the jeans and hoodie again, and running around trying to find random shit going down. Well, unless I wanted to just go at Medhall itself hard, but that was probably more heat than I actually wanted at this point.

I got up, found an oatmeal bar in the cupboard and a bottle of V8 in the fridge and sat down for a meal while I planned my actions. As I munched, I pondered my situation. I was basically flying by the seat of my pants in all of this. I knew a few things that were going to (probably) happen, but really, I couldn't remember the worm timeline accurately to save my life, I'd read way too much fanfic and probably had fucked ideas of how people actually were, and I also had no idea if this was full canon worm, or AU, or whatever. So far everything seemed to match what I knew, but I'd hardly be shocked if I ran into a friendly and well-adjusted Tattletale who didn't get off on making people uncomfortable or something. I was getting off-track, though. I needed to figure out how to get into a cape fight, but not one that I couldn't win. I just needed the PRT to arrive so Halbeard could give me the joining pitch.

"Fuck it," I said out loud, "may as well just go fly around bad parts of town. I have no other good ideas."

With that, I got into my 'gear', masked up, and opened a portal to the top of the a building in the distance. dp/B0CHQQ8XRK?binding=kindle_edition

Turns out that my first night wasn't a fluke, and Brockton Bay really was just that much of a shithole. I actually stopped two muggings and a possible rape within the first two hours just flailing about Merchants territory randomly. Huh, I wish I had Flail to Victory as a power. That would have been cool. Sadly I hadn't thought of that. Still, no capes so far, and so I decided to head over towards the Empire held areas in hope of bullying Rune or something. I was 100% sure I could take Rune. Hookwolf I'd just portal to into the bay while I ran the fuck away. I couldn't actually remember what the fuck Cricket did besides be ugly and not able to talk properly.

Deciding I needed help finding my bullying target, I flew down and landed in an alley near of a trio of skinheads that were obviously being productive by leaning up against a wall in front of some sort of bar. I walked almost right up to them before they noticed me, and my masked appearance got an immediate reaction, with the three of them going on alert and one reaching a hand behind his back. Probably for a weapon. The biggest one took a step forward and glared at me.

"Who the fuck are you?", he growled.

"Just a girl looking for her friend. You boys seen Rune anywhere?"

The goon's eyes narrowed. "The fuck you want Rune for? You a cape?"

I laughed bemusedly, which didn't seem to de-escalate the situation for some reason.

"I just want to bully cute little Rune. Do you know where she is?"

At this point the other two skinheads moved to flank me, and Goon #1 flexed a bit and got into a stance to fight. I guess they didn't want to help.

"Fuck you, bitch. Wannabe dyke cape. We'll teach you a lesson. Maybe show you what a man is like after."

Oh boy! Rape threats already! I was actually kind of excited, I'd wanted an excuse to really hurt these guys and now I had one! This would forsure get the E88's attention! Rune might come!

I cocked my head to the side and looked at the goon through my mask, and spoke in an overly happy and peppy tone. "Okay. If I lose, you can rape me. But if I win, I will crush your balls and you have to tell Rune I'm looking for her. Deal?"

The goon actually looked stunned for a moment, and I took advantage of that momentary distraction to launch a force field augmented punch at his gut, which impacted with an audible thud as he doubled over in pain. I spun around to face the two flanking me from behind, and snapped a kick at the one to my right, which unfortunately missed. The skinhead to my left pulled a knife out from behind his back, and took at stab at me, which hit my field and stopped suddenly.

"CAPE!", yelled Knife-guy, as he lept back to get away from me. I sighed and dashed at the skinhead I'd kicked. He suddenly looked less interested in actually fighting me, but I tackled him to the ground and headbutted him in the nose. Obviously I took no damage, but his nose made a cute little crunching sound, like a hard candy when you bite into it, and erupted in blood. Thank goodness forcefield-chan protects from liquids as well! He started screaming for some reason, which was a bit offputting, so I scrambled to my feet and turned around to see knife-guy actually running away, and Goon #1 getting up from his gut punch, looking pissed off as hell.

I stomped on the crotch of the guy I'd tackled, who was too preoccupied with his smashed up face to defend. Hopefully I'd gotten his bait and tackle. From the new screaming I thought I might have. I grinned behind my mask and took a step towards Goon #1. He actually swung at me and connected – I really didn't have any fighting skills to speak of after all, and he clearly did. Of course it didn't do anything, but I admired his moxie. I then promptly lept on him and started smashing my head into his wildly, while clinging to him like a rabid spider monkey. He thrashed about and actually ran me into a wall trying to dislodge me while I laughed uproariously in between landing blows on his skull with mine. It took a good four hit before he dropped to the ground, and I switched into a mount position before landing a hit or two with my fists.

Bleeding heavily, the goon blearily stared up at me, his eyes not quite seeming able to hold focus.

"Well, I win!" I said cheerfully. "So I'm gonna crush your balls and you get to go tell Rune a cute girl is looking for her to bulli! I'm sure she'll be excited!"

He just groaned like his friend as I hopped up and proceeded to stomp heavily on his groin several times, eliciting a new level of painful screaming from the guy. Honestly, I wasn't quite sure why he was so upset, he was the one who'd set the rape rules. It was only fair that he take his loss gracefully. Oh well.

Since both remaining Skinheads were down, with the smarter one having fled, I decided that my work here was done and skipped off merrily into the alley I'd come from, before flying up into the night sky one I determined no one was following me. Once I got a fair ways up I started laughing my ass off, there were going to be some really confused Nazi capes soon.

POV: Shadow Stalker

Sophia crouched on the edge of a roof in shadow form, looking down at the scene of carnage on the street below and trying to process what she'd just watched. Some crazy girl in a hoodie and mask had just demanded a couple nazi fucks tell her where Rune was so she could bully her, and then had proceeded to lay a vicious beat down on them before stomping their balls so hard they were probably infertile for life now. All while laughing and giggling, and then skipping off into the night?

She'd debated getting involved at first, but now she was glad she'd stayed the fuck out of it. Hunting prey was one thing. Being a psycho bitch and laughing while emasculating guys (well, nazi guys, so it wasn't a bad thing, but still) was a bit too weird for even her, though.

With a shrug, Shadow Stalker decided she'd best get of the area before the inevitable E88 response showed up. This fucking city just kept getting weirder by the day.

One little-known fact about the Worm setting was that Fugly Bob's was open in the mornings, and that they had a killer breakfast sandwich. You know the kind that come wrapped in aluminum foil to get all the flavours to meld together and stay hot and gooey? Yeah, like that. Given that I might have had a few drinks to celebrate my amazing first real fight victory last night and woken up a bit late, I'd decided to treat myself to a delicious breakfast if I was already going to be late to school. Let me say that was an amazing choice, and it set me up for the day quite nicely.

So there I was, wandering into Winslow, chowing down on a delicious pile of sausage, egg, and gooey cheese, kind of in my own little world. The halls were empty as class was in session, but I needed to hit up my locker before going to second period (I'd missed first entirely). So imagine my surprise when I turn the corner in the hall and see Sophia Hess with her arm inside the door of a locker. She must have heard me, because she jerked back and our eyes met. Me, with my face stuffed with a bite of Morning Fug Sandwich, and her with the look of someone who just got caught with her hand in the proverbial cookie jar.

"Mornin' Sophia." I said while chewing my delicious breakfast treat. A bit rude of me I suppose, but I figured I should say something at least.

"Uh... morning, new girl?"

I took another bite as I got to where she was and kept going past her, since my locker was further down the hall.

"Well, have a good one, talk to you later!" I waved with my spare hand and continued on my way. I really didn't have time to stop and chat with her, since I was late as it was.

Damn this sandwich was amazing.

POV: Sophia Hess

What the actual fuck just happened? She'd been fucking with Hebert's shit when the halls were entirely empty (yeah, it wasn't the best idea, but they'd come up with something to do to the wimp on the spur of the moment) when the weird new girl just wandered down the hall, catching her with her arm in Hebert's locker. There was no fucking way she didn't see it, but the bitch just shrugged, kept eating her sandwich, and said hi before carrying on her way as if it wasn't anything special at all.

Pushing down a sense of panic (Apex Predators don't panic. Everything is fine.), Sophia went back to class, giving the bathroom hall pass back to the teacher before she slid into her desk next to Emma. Keeping her voice down, she leaned over towards her friend. It wasn't like they'd get into shit for talking in class as long as they kept it down.

"Ems, what do you know about the new girl?"

"Who? That Kayla chick? Not much. She apparently said something weird her first day, but after she laid out Rebecca Wilkes with one punch, no one has wanted to mess with her or anything. I haven't really paid any attention to her myself, why?"

"Yeah I knew that much, I'd planned to talk to her since she seemed pretty badass, and anyone willing to punch out a nazi cunt seemed worth knowing. I had Mads give her my number but haven't heard back. That's besides the point though, she just caught me with my fucking arm in Hebert's locker, and didn't even blink an eye or say anything about it."

"Are you sure she actually saw it?"

"Yeah, I'm sure she fucking saw it. She was looking right at me with my arm halfway stuck through the locker door."

"Shit." Emma blanched.

"Yes. Shit. I'm not totally sure what to do. I gotta talk to her ASAP I guess, to make sure she keeps her mouth shut at least. I want you there, in case it goes bad, that way it's us against her if needed."

"What? I mean, fine, but do you think it'll come to anything like that?"

"I have no fuckin' idea Ems. It was so goddamn surreal that I didn't even have time to react before she'd headed into the next hall. We'll grab her at lunch and see where shit stands."

Hopefully the new girl wasn't going to be a pain, unwritten rules were great and all, but they didn't do shit un-out you as a cape once it was done, and the fucking PRT would keep her locked down as much as possible if that happened. Fuck.

Weirdly I hadn't gotten in much trouble for coming into second period late. I mean, Gladly wasn't thrilled, but he didn't make much of a stink about it. I got told not to do it again, before getting told to also not eat in class. So I quickly stuffed the rest of my Morning Fug into my face, tossed the foil, and sat down to do some learning. Gladly had to be some sort of Cape groupie, since he was going about them quite a bit. I wasn't totally paying attention, as I was trying to plan out my night tonight. I had to get hooked up with the PRT today to stay on schedule, and so far I'd failed at finding any actual capes to cape fight with. I didn't know if I just had bad luck or what, since every fanfic I'd ever read had the main character just absolutely tripping over capes all the time on patrols.

I knew where the Undersiders were, of course (Redmond Welding), but that didn't help anything at all unless I wanted to knock on their door and politely ask them to cape fight me in the street. That didn't seem too practical given my desire to not wholly derail canon if at all possible, so I decided that wasn't a good option. I might just have to suck it up and walk into the PRT building on my own, but I really didn't want to do that. Not because it would actually be a problem, but just because it wasn't a cool way to get intro'd to the PRT. Style was important as a cape, and just wandering in off the street to sign up unasked was kind of lame.

Class wrapped up, and I headed to Maths class to zone out and pass the time until lunch. It was pizza day, so that was a bit exciting. I didn't really expect much from school cafeteria pizza, but pizza is kind of like a blowjob, in that even a mediocre one is good enough. Finally, after an interminable eternity of algebra, the bell rung and I was able to head towards the promised land of tomato sauce and cheese.

Or at least I would have been able to, if fucking Sophia Hess and Emma Barnes hadn't been laying in wait to grab me and drag me off into an empty classroom before I could there. Amusingly, as I was bring pulled into the room with a confused look on my face, I saw Tay-tay scooting off all hunched over, giving a look my way, with an expression on her face that made me think she was glad it was me, and not her. Keep strong Tay-tay! Soon you'll be Queenie!

POV: Sophia Hess

After I pulled Kayla into the empty room, Emma closed the door for me and stood in front of it. Not that she could probably keep anyone in or out, but she was trying to be helpful at least. The new girl looked over at Emma and grinned, before turning back to me and cocking her head to the side like some sort of weird dog or something.

"Hey Soph, Emma, what's up?"

I wasn't sure if she was being solid and totally ignoring what she'd seen earlier, or if she was fucking with me. And I needed to know to know for sure, but still. Didn't need to start something til I knew if there was actually a problem or not. I took a breath to keep calm and replied.

"I wanted to talk to you about this morning.", I said seriously.

She grinned at me. "Oh, that. Yeah, don't worry about it. If you want to prank people, that's your business, not mine. No worries!"

Was this bitch serious? Did I have to fucking spell it out?

"Not that. What you saw me doing."

Her face got this expression like she'd just had the biggest lightbulb ever go off in her brain and she proceeded to give me the brightest smile ever.

"Oh! That! Yeah I won't say anything about you being Shadow Stalker!"

Thank fuck.

"But!"

Shit.

"I need a favour! I need you to take me in to the PRT!"

What?

I was so fucking smart! Sophia was worried I'd out her as Shadow Stalker, and that gave me the perfect cool in with the PRT! I could get her to arrange for them to meet with me, so I was the mysterious cape brought in by their broody edgelord, instead of just some random girl walking in off the street! This was great!

"Yeah! I'm a cape too, you know. I should probably register with the PRT at least, and get hit with the recruiting speech and the facts about independent hero mortality weights and shit." I nodded happily as I spoke, excited and glad this had come up.

Sophia looked like her brain was trying to process the moment and suffering some lag. Emma squeaked behind me. I decided to just keep smiling and give them a moment to process. After a moment, Emma started to speak, but Sophia hushed her and looked at me intently. Damn she had a good intense face.

"Are you fucking joking?"

"Nope!" I replied, and waved my hand. A portal to the top of one of the downtown building I liked crouching on the edge of the roof of. Gotta crouch of the edge of building roofs at night overlooking your city to be proper hero, after all. Bonus points if it's raining.

Sophia and Emma looked floored as all fuck, and cackled internally in my mind at their faces, but at least I had the presence of mind to keep it internal, this time. Soph was touchy and would probably take being laughed at poorly when she was already on edge.

I dismissed the portal and smirked at Sophia. "Not joking. Totally a cape. I can do some other stuff too, brute and mover stuff, but thats the big one. Anywhere I've been or can see, I can open portals to."

"Ohmygod! That's SO COOL!" Emma squealed from behind me. Owch, that girl can hit a high note!

"Shut up Emma!", Sophia snapped, "We don't need everyone hearing us in here!"

"Shit, sorry Soph." Emma said, chagrined. Sophia turned back to me.

"Okay, so you're a cape. Done anything?"

"Stopped a few muggings, sexual assaults, that kind of thing, in Merchant territory. Oh, and I beat down some E88 dumbasses last night."

"Wait, that was fucking YOU?" Sophia looked at me shocked. I guess she'd seen me? Oops.

"Ah, yeah, probably?" I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly. "I was looking for Rune to pick an easy introductory cape fight, so that the PRT would respond and I could get a cool intro to the Protectorate Heroes?"

"Well, shit. You were fucking brutal. I'm pretty sure you actually crushed that guy's testicles." Sophia seemed... impressed? I guess that shouldn't be a shock since she liked skewering nazis in her off hours.

"Yeah, they threatened me, I may not have taken it well. So I made sure it wouldn't be a problem for anyone else in the future. Well, unless they can get Panacea to gently fondle their crushed sacks and put them back together, but I somehow doubt that's gonna happen."

Sophia laughed, and Emma seemed relax. Guess I'd made a good impression? Emma was kind of cute. This could be worth my while to make nice with her, too. Oh, Sophia was talking to me again, must pay attention to her and not oogle the sexy redhead.

"Do you have a Cape name?"

"Yeah, I went with Singularity, cause I rip holes in space. I figured it worked with the theme."

Nodding, Sophia replied, "Not bad, I've sure heard worse."

I grinned. "Skidmark?"

She grinned back. "Skidmark."

We both laughed, and then Emma joined in, making it a tad awkward. I decided to wrap this up, since I still wanted my damn pizza and I didn't want to be in here for the entire lunch period.

"Can we meet up after school and get you to take me in to the PRT? I want to get all that shit done as soon as I can. Honestly, I've been out trying to find capes to fight for the last few nights and have been getting frustrated."

"Yeah, sure, we'll meet at the double doors after school is done. Are you planning to join the wards or something, or just register as independent?"

I noticed that Sophia looked hopeful. I guess she would want another female who was willing to maim people around, it only made sense.

"That's basically the plan, though I'm going to play hard to get and see if I can get any extras out of them or something. But lets get out of here, it's pizza day, and I'm fucking starving!"

The cafeteria pizza wasn't amazing, but even mediocre pizza is pretty damn good, so I was content enough after lunch. The last couple periods of the day were uneventful for me, but I got kind of a front row seat to Madison and Emma fucking with Taylor. To be frank, I was kind of shocked to see in person just how beat down and defeated she was. I'd gotten the impression in my old life that she was some of stubborn and defiant person refusing to give in and fight back, but then I recalled that I'd read a lot of fanfic, and that my opinions and expectations may have been skewed by that.

I debated if I ought to get involved and stop things, but I decided that wasn't a great idea, since she kind of needed this crap to occur so that she'd get powers and be able to defeat Scion. Of course, yes, I could just kind of make all of that unnecessary with my abilities, but really, that would defeat the purpose of this whole exercise. I'd willingly limited myself and brought myself down closer to the level of the people of Earth Bet so I could have a meaningful experience, and so it made no sense to do otherwise for someone who was – well, to be honest, kind of an NPC based on the way she was acting.

I didn't want to just fix-fic or any % speedrun this world, I wanted to truly be a part of the story, and so for that reason, sorry Taylor, but you need to play out your story arc, as much as this part of it would suck. Be strong and soon you'll be able to be more than you are right now.

"Ms. Breton, is this class failing to engage you?", a voice broke through my internal monologue, making me blink and look around. Oops.

"Ah, sorry Ms. K. I didn't sleep well last night, I kind of zoned out."

"Well don't let it happen again, please pay attention."

I nodded affirmatively and the teacher went back to her lesson, and I waited for the end of the day to come while trying to make it look like I at least gave half a shit about class.

Once class was (finally!) done, I met up with Sophia outside the main doors of the school. I was pretty sure she'd actually rushed to get there and planned out how to pose, as she was leaning nonchalantly against a wall with a sort of 'I am so cool I don't even care about looking cool but I look cool anyhow' pose. It was mildly impressive to be honest. She gave me a nonchalant wave, and I wandered over to her.

"Hey Sophia. Ready to do this thing?"

"Yeah, we gotta get a move on to catch the bus."

I smirked at her, giving my best Lisa-style vulpine grin impression. I will neither confirm nor deny practising such a thing in the mirror in my bathroom at home.

"Nah, follow me into this dark alley instead.", I said as I started walking towards a nearby alley between a couple buildings.

Sophia arched an eyebrow, but to her credit just shrugged and followed me. I suppose it was highly unlikely that I was going to mug her or anything. Once we'd gotten out of sight, I stopped and turned to her.

"I have a faster way to get us downtown, though you'll have to trust me to get you down." I said as I waved my hand and a portal opened to one of my commonly-used rooftops. I hopped through and waited for Sophia to follow me, which she did after only hesitating for a moment. Once she was though I dismissed the portal.

"Damn, New Girl, pretty impressive. Now how are we gonna get down?"

I grinned and quickly snapped her up into a princess carry. She actually squeaked as I did so, and snorted, trying to hold in a laugh. That earned me a glare and a pissed off looking Sophia.

"What the fuck!"

I began to float through the air towards the edge of the building facing away from busy streets, which had the benefit of making Sophia quit squirming as she realized what was happening.

"Sorry, I should have asked, I just sort of don't think before doing stuff sometimes." I said right before floating off the edge of the building and letting gravity take back over as we rapidly plummeted towards the ground. Sophia screamed as I laughed. Of course, I turned back on the anti-grav before we went splat, and gently let her down.

"Fucking FUCK! What the fuck is wrong with you?!", she yelled at me as she smacked me in the chest. I couldn't remember if she had super strength or anything, so it was probably good that I had a shield.

"Oh c'mon Soph, admit it, it was a little bit funny!"

"...Okay, maybe a bit, but you're still a bitch."

"That's fair. I promise not to do it again without asking. It's just you're the first person I've ever gotten to fly with."

"In case you missed it, we didn't really fly, you just let us drop like a pile of bricks before the sudden stop at the end. Also, how the fuck did we just stop with zero impact or momentum or whatever?"

I pondered that for a moment, as I hadn't ever really considered it before. I guess most flyers-slash-movers still dealt with physics and momentum. I put one finger to my chin and looked upwards in what I hoped was a classic anime-style kawaii thinking pose.

"Well, I kind of just... don't let gravity effect me when I'm flying, instead of having standard propulsion I guess? I don't really know how to explain it."

Sophia gave me a blank look. "Yeah, your powers are bullshit. Portals in space and ignoring gravity. If you start shitting out black holes, I'm out."

I laughed "Nah, nothing like that. My offensive abilities are basically Minor Brute. Nothing special."

Sophia shook her head with a tiny laugh. "Fair enough. Let's get going instead of standing around in an alley like a couple of Merchants or something."

I followed her lead as we walked out onto the street and headed towards the PRT building. As we neared it, she stopped and passed me a domino mask she'd apparently been carrying.

"Alright so put this on and just chill in the lobby on a bench in the lobby or something, I'll head in a get stuff set up and call you when it's good to come to the desk, aright?"

"Sounds good," I answered, "I'll just browse PHO or something while I wait for you. Oh, and Sophia?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for doing this for me", I said as I smiled at her.

She shrugged, "No problem. Talk to you in a few."

In the end it actually took closer to an hour for Sophia to sort out whatever she needed to sort out, but eventually a PRT officer walked towards me, and I looked up from my phone. Void Cowboy had been actively being wrong on the internet, so I'd been educating him in the error of his ways on my non-cape account. How anyone could think that Legend could be defeated by fucking Batman of all people, I had no idea, so I'd been educating the ignorant heathen.

"Singularity?", the PRT officer asked.

I hopped to my feet. "That's me! Hi!" I said, giving my best happy-teen-girl-smile.

"Please follow me, Deputy Director Renick will see you now."

Huh, so not Piggot? I guess I shouldn't have expected the PRT ENE Director to just be sitting around to meet with random capes coming in off of the street, but I'm not ashamed to admit, I was slightly disappointed. I guess I'd just have to get more important to be able to meet with more canon characters.

We headed to an elevator at the back of the lobby, and did the awkward silence while in an enclosed space with a stranger thing until we got to the right floor. Following the PRT minion out and down a hall, we came to an office. The minion knocked twice and "Enter!" could be heard from inside. Minion #1 opened the door for me, and I headed in, seeing a middle aged fellow (Renick, I figured) behind a desk, and a woman with an American flag bandana for a mask (Miss Militia, obviously) standing to his side.

"Singularity, welcome, please have a seat." Renick said, with what seemed to be genuine warmth in hsi voice. I guess not meeting with Piggot had it's upsides.

I plopped my butt into a seat and gave a little wave. "Hi, good to meet you Deputy Director! And hi Miss Militia, I'm a big fan!"

Miss Militia's eyes indicated that she was smiling, which was good "Hello to you as well, Singularity."

Renick took back control of the conversation, and I let him, since I wanted this after all.

"So, Shadow Stalker says you two met out of costume, and that you were a new parahuman interested in joining the Wards?"

"Yessir, that's right!"

"Do your parents know of your situation? We do require parental permission, and I notice you didn't come in with anyone else."

"Ah, no. I'm an orphan, and an emancipated minor, actually."

He looked mildly surprised as I told him that, which was rapidly followed up by a thoughtful expression.

"Well, that greatly simplifies the situation, then. Let's get down to brass tacks, then, shall we?"

I nodded, "Sounds good to me. What's the next step?"

"Well, first of all, are you aware of what the Wards offer, and what would be expected of you?"

"Yeah, I read the stuff on the PRT site. Stipend into a college account, certain amount of hours a week, etc. It was all reasonable and acceptable. I get enough from my Trust to live on monthly, so having the money be deferred for college is fine by me."

"Good. Everything is, of course, written in more detail on the actual contract, and of course you're welcome and even encouraged to consult an attorney prior to signing on if anything is unclear or problematic. Given that, can you give us an idea of your abilities? We will, of course, do power testing, but having a general idea is beneficial."

"For sure!" I gave a big grin, this was going so well! "I have a couple of things I can do, the main one is I can make portals to anywhere I've been or can see."

Miss Militia stood up a bit straighter and seemed to pay more attention the conversation as I said that. I guess Sophia hadn't explained?

"How big are they? How long do they stay open?" Renick inquired.

"Uh, I can kinda control the size? Anywhere from enough for one person to big enough to drive a car through is what I've done so far. I've never really tried anything bigger, a giant blue glowy tear in space is a bit obvious after all. And uh, they stay open til I close them."

"Until you leave the area?"

"No, I mean, they stay open til I want them closed. Well, I guess I've never tested if there's a maximum distance or anything, but I've totally left a portal from my living room to a beach open for a couple of hours so I could swim and sunbathe but still have easy access to cold drinks. There weren't any problems with me not looking at it or being away from it."

I could tell that revelation had gotten both of their attention. I personally could think of how much easier I could make staging for Endbringer fights with my powers (Had I been there/seen it before? Just open a portal. If I hadn't? Have Strider take me there and open a portal back to base. Hell I could do it with multiple-

"Can you only do one at a time?" Renick's voice snapped me out of my internal monologue – I really needed to work on that little issue.

"Umm... No? I've done like 2 at a time before, just to see if I could, But I never tested past that."

"Power testing to ascertain the limits and duration are definitely in order, then. You said there were a couple of things? What other ability do you have?"

"Oh, I have a sort of force field, I guess like Glory Girl? And I can fly, and I have what I'd call a minor Brute rating, but I don't know how minor. I can punch dents in walls, but I don't think I could toss a car, I guess?"

Miss Militia spoke up for the first time, "A grab-bag, then? Certainly a useful set of abilities, that's for certain."

"Indeed, it certainly seems so." Renick replied. "So then, Singularity, we'll obviously have to do power testing as soon as possible. Would you like to meet the Wards or get a look around before we deal with paperwork? Or we could arrange a tour and meet and send the papers home with you if you decide to consult an attorney prior to signing."

I was doing my best to not bounce in the chair, I was so excited! "No, that's fine, let's sign me up and then I can go meet people as a new teammate instead of someone there oogling them!"

Renick cracked a good-natured grin at my excitement and reached into a drawer, pulling out a folder with a bunch of documents in it.

"Okay, then let's go through all of this, I know it's a lot, but please read it carefully before agreeing, and remember, you can get legal advice if wanted..."

Once I'd finished wading through the frankly ridiculous number of forms that needed to be filled in for an emancipated minor to officially join the Wards, I was sent downstairs to the power testing area. I had my same silent PRT officer escort (at least I *think* it was the same PRT officer? I wasn't really paying that much attention the first time) as I didn't quite know where I was going, but they got me there with no issues, so that was nice.

I wandered on in, only to be greeted by actual scientists in actual labcoats! I almost squee'd, but managed to restrain myself – it was just so exciting though, made me feel like an actual, real cape! Which I was, I guess, but still, my point stands. It was squee-worthy. A tall, lanky, bespectacled and lab-coated actual science guy stepped forward as the door closed behind me.

"Hello Singularity, I'm Dr. Zeigler, I'll be taking you through power testing today."

I gave a little wave. "Hi Doctor! I'm actually kind of, well, more than kind of, well uh-"

I took a breath to calm down, trying to restrain my happy grin from reaching levels that might make the guy uncomfortable.

"Hah, sorry, just excited. Power testing makes it all kind of, real, you know?"

He chuckled and nodded. "Quite so, you're not the first new hero to have that reaction. It's quite alright, I understand how you feel."

He grabbed a clipboard and pen off of a nearby table and motioned to me to follow him as he headed off into the testing facility. I quickly followed, beyond psyched to finally get my power ratings/threat assessment.

Two Hours Later

So yeah. Turns out that Threat Assessments are for, well, threats. i.e. not Wards. So I wasn't going to be getting one. It was a bit disappointing, but oh well, it made sense. I'd given a decent showing of my powers, though I didn't go too nuts with the portals, I didn't want anyone to think I could make like fifteen of the things, or make them the size of buildings or anything. The last thing I wanted was to be used as a glorified transport nexus or taxi. Ultimately I decided that letting them think I could have one portal unattended while actively using a second was sufficient, but when asked to open a 3rd, I had the first collapse.

My shield stood up to small arms fire as designed, but I made sure they knew to not unload full auto weapons at me or anything. Oh, and it turns out that I was a better Brute than I'd thought I was, since things like personal shields that make you tougher are factored into a Brute assessment, not just strength! So that was cool. I was about three times as strong as a typical girl my age and build, but my field gave me the advantage of not needing to worry about breaking myself if I punched something, which was a plus.

My flight was useful but nothing crazy. I couldn't go supersonic or anything, I was about as fast as a really quick bird at max speed. Which, honestly, given the portals, was more than fine with me. Line of sight teleport combined with flight was pretty powerful anyhow, as all I had to do was go up far enough to see where I wanted to get to. Well, and I had plans for making that more convenient (as well as a way to dispose of really annoying people), but I was playing those close to the chest for now.

Dr. Ziegler's voice broke me out of my reverie, I'd been waiting for him to wrap up the paperwork.

"Well, that's everything Singularity. Thank you for coming."

"No problem, it was fun! What do I do now?"

A throat cleared behind me, and I jumped into the air, startled, and then just kind of hung there as a woman chuckled a bit from behind me.

"Sorry about the surprise, I didn't realize you hadn't noticed me come in", Miss Militia said as I turned around and floated back down to the ground slightly sheepishly.

"Oh! Ah, no problem! Hi again!", I waved at her. Sigh. Get a grip, Kayla. You're making yourself look like a spaz in front of Miss Milfitia!

She was looking at me with a shocked/amused expression. Why is she looking at me with a that expression?

"...Fuck, I said that out loud, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did. But it's fine. Nothing I haven't heard before after all, and I am sure you didn't mean it disrespectfully."

"No! Not at all! You're just uh, very... attractive!" I squeaked a bit at the end of that sentence, as I did my best to rein my runaway embarrassment in. Thankfully she just shook her head and laughed a bit.

"It's fine, Singularity. I am however here to escort you to meet with the other Wards. Well, the ones currently here at least.

"Sounds good, let's go!" Anything to get me away from this place, the scene of my disagrace. I can't believe I called her Miss Milflitia to her face.

We stood in front of a large metal door as a red light spun around and an alarm went off. Miss Militia had thankfully been very chill about my earlier faux pas during our trip up here. I knew what was going on with the light show, but I figured I'd best act like I didn't, so I looked at her inquisitively.

"The alarm and light are so that the other Wards inside have time to mask up before the door opens. While you are all welcome to unmask to each other, it is not required or anything."

"Oh, that makes a lot of sense." I nodded. The lights quit flashing and the door slid open. Sadly there was no hiss. I'd kind of mentally expected a hiss, but I guess this wasn't some sort of air lock, so why would it hiss when opening?

We walked in to what basically looked like the shared area of a dorm, without the attached dorm rooms. There were several couches, including a big and comfy looking one facing a large TV. A kitchen/cooking sort of area off to one side, with a fridge, stove, etc. A couple of bathrooms were tucked off in a back corner. Seating around a conference-style table, and a big whiteboard where it seemed a game of hangman had been happening at some point. Oh, and the Wards. They were there too. All looking at me. Eep!

"Everyone, this is Singularity. She's a new Ward who officially joined today. Give her a warm welcome and make her comfortable, okay?"

Miss Milflitia was really living up to the 'Mother' part of her name, which made me really happy. I'd hoped she was as awesome as I'd expected her to be.

A guy in a white costume with clocks on it stepped forward and offered a hand to shake.

"Hi,I'm Clock-"

I immediately knew what was coming - having both meta-knowledge and an inside girl who'd warned me about him - and I knew how I wanted to play it. I reached out and covered my hand in my force field a fraction of a micrometer above my skin. 'Freezing' that in time would do fuck all to me, after all. I grasped his hand and gave it a good shake.

"-blocker." he finished. As I kept pumping his hand in our shake. I gave him my most radiant smile.

"Hi! I'm Singularity! It's so great to meet you!"

Clockblocker looked floored as the other Wards began to crack up laughing, and I put on my most innocent look and did my best to seem slightly confused, as one would if they didn't understand what was going on. I look around at the laughing Wards, some of whom were literally doubled over.

Shadow Stalker had been leaning up against a table and snorted, scoffing at the confused posture Clockblocker had.

"Seems like Clock has performance issues when it comes to you, New Girl."

"Wait! Hold on!", a young voice piped up as I turned my focus to it's speaker. Ah, Vista. She kept speaking. "Did Shadow Stalker just make a joke?"

That caused more laughing, though Sophia seemed to get a bit tense before she visibly relaxed and then shrugged at Vista.

"Hey, I can't be edgy all the time. I'm just disappointed that Clock has his mask on, the look on his face when Singularity no-sold his power would have been priceless to see."

I switched my very-confused-but-cheerful-and-optimistic face for a very-confused-and-somewhat-hurt one as I looked back to the would-be prankster. I then turned the guilt-causing puppy-dog eyes on full blast, while making sure to put as much trepeidation and worry into my voice as I could.

"Were... were you going to do something bad to me, Clockblocker?"

I blinked rapidly, causing my eyes to start to water as I blasted him full on with weaponized cuteness. Poor bastard never stood a chance.

"I, uh, I mean, I" he stammered, having trouble getting a coherent sentence out as I obliterated his ability to form a coherent train of thought with my sheer kawaii-powers. Then I let a Vulpine Grin(tm) (sorry Lisa, I'm stealing that shit) form on my face, as I let his hand go.

"Cause that would have been hilarious! Can you imagine if you'd used your power to freeze me or something and I'd just been paused for several minutes like a deer in the headlights? Priceless!"

His posture slumped a bit as he looked around, obviously confused, realizing that instead of being the pranker, he'd been the prank-ee. I giggled and patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't feel bad, Clock. You never stood a chance. I was forewarned of your nefarious plan!"

"H-how? Who told you?"

I flounced (that's a real thing, look it up!) over to Shadow Stalker and glomped onto her, making her squirm uncomfortably. She really was not used to being in that kind of situation was she? I'd have to work on that!

"My good friend and future crush Shadow Stalker, of course! She's got a hell of a sense of humour!"

While Sophia valiantly tried (and failed!) to extricate herself from my glomp, silence hit the rest of the Wards as they looked at us like we'd grown an extra head each or something. Even Miss Milflitia seemed to be slightly surprised, though it was a bit harder to tell with her, cause bandanna-mask. Vista was the first to get her shit back together, as was to be expected from the Ward that had been here the longest. So professional!

"... You two know each other, don't you, like, as civilians?"

"Ye-p!", I responded, popping my P as was legally required in a situation like this.

"And Shadow Stalker, the grim and dour, warned you about De- er, Clockblocker, and you came up with a way to get around his power, to reverse-prank him?"

I nodded emphatically. "Uh-huh!"

Vista took a deep breath. "Guys, I think we might need to initiate M/S protocols here."