"So, uh," Amy said, glancing up at her sister. "You know how I'm on strike, right? Technically?"

"Well, yeah," Victoria agreed. "Of course I know. I was there when Taylor's dad gave you that long lecture about unions and how they work and what's important about them."

She grinned. "I'm surprised how much of it you took in."

"Hey!" Amy protested. "Just because I'm not doing all that Parahuman studies stuff doesn't mean I'm stupid, you know."

Then the healer sighed. "I'm just kind of… realizing something."

"Like what?" Victoria asked.

"I kind of… forgot how to spend time when I can't go to the hospital," Amy confessed.

Victoria winced. "Ouch, sis. That's… rough."

"I know," Amy agreed. "And when I realized why I've been feeling at a loose end for the last few days, it was just… so bizarre I had to stop and mention it."

"That's not just bizarre, that's showing that you have a serious issue to deal with," Victoria told her, seriously. "This stuff actually comes up in my studies, you know – it's called, uh, heroic burnout."

Amy stared.

"That's a stupid name," she said.

"Yeah, I know," Victoria agreed. "You know how it is, someone coins the term and publishes the paper first, they get to name it. We're lucky it wasn't called, uh, the Manton effect or something."

"The Manton effect is something else," Amy protested.

"Yeah, because he discovered it," Victoria pointed out, sensibly. "But that doesn't mean he couldn't have discovered other things. Everyone agrees he's supposed to have been a really smart guy."

She cast around for an example, and grabbed some paper. "Like, uh… I heard Dean talking about this when he was complaining about stuff a few weeks ago."

Scribbling a pair of overlapping circles, Victoria labelled the circles as Tinkers and Canadians, and put Narwhal, Armsmaster, Dragon and herself in the relevant slots. Then she put a third circle inside the Tinker circle, marked it Toybox, and put Dodge in it.

Amy looked at the diagram. "...no, I don't get it."

"What's this called, Ames?" Victoria asked.

"Venn diagram?" Amy said.

"Aha!" Victoria declared. "I've pounced! Now I've got you! It's not a Venn diagram, it's an Euler diagram, named after Euler who invented it. Along with about forty percent of, uh… math."

She sniggered. "Everything is an Euler something. Euler's number, Euler angles, at least two Euler's formulas… there's this math joke which is that they name things after the first person to discover it who isn't Euler, just to make sure it's not all Euler."

Amy frowned.

"Euler has lost all meaning," she said.

"Yeah," Victoria agreed, and giggled. "Yeah, it has."

She folded the paper into a crap aeroplane, which failed to make it even halfway to the wastepaper bin. "Oops. Anyway, uh… where was I going with this… right, right. So, it's a specific kind of being a workaholic, but – you know being a workaholic is an actual thing, right, sis? And being a hero makes that worse because you genuinely are doing good for everyone, but you're not going to do anyone any good after the point you burn out and it's really hard to see that coming."

Amy was silent for several seconds after that.

"I messed up, didn't I?" she asked.

"Maybe a bit?" Victoria replied. "But, uh, it's not like you didn't have reasons to, so I guess we'll just call this you… like, getting injured in a trip or fall? It's an accident, not your fault."

She shrugged. "But, uh… best guess… library? Or we could get a board game or something?"

"I'm having trouble imagining you playing a board game," Amy said.

Victoria looked hurt. "Hey! I'm not going to flip the table or anything."

She paused. "...okay, maybe I shouldn't actually promise that."

"What's a G-P-A?" Aivu asked, sounding out the odd word as they walked home after another productive day of detentions.

Taylor wasn't going to give an inch on the topic of Aivu being at school, and she was honestly done with listening to anyone at school either way. It was still something that was actually working out okay, because it was cathartic to express that so openly and detentions were pretty good study time.

"It's something you get with schools," she told her friend. "I don't know if every school does it, but, uh… a GPA is like how well you've done in all your classes through your whole time at school. It's an average. And sometimes colleges or jobs won't take you unless you have a high enough one."

She shrugged. "But I don't care about that any more."

Aivu made a curious noise. "So you used to?"

"Yeah," Taylor agreed. "Or, uh… I did before the whole bullying thing, but I didn't care about it much during the bullying because I had other things to care about. And now… well, I know what my job is going to be. It's going to be being Azata. And I'm not missing out on learning anything, so… I don't care."

She frowned. "Actually, now I come to think of it, maybe I should bring in novels to read in detention, too…"

"That sounds like a great idea!" Aivu said, landing on Taylor's shoulder and fluttering her wings enough to support most of her weight – which had the downside of blowing Taylor's hair around everywhere. "I think it's really clever!"

"Watch out!" Taylor laughed.

"I won't be able to do this forever!" Aivu replied, cheerfully. "So I've got to get my perching time in when I can!"

"I'm surprised to see you here again, Mr. Chambers?" Taylor admitted, when the next meeting rolled around that Saturday. "I know you were there for the first meeting, but I mean that you're in charge of PR for the whole of the Protectorate. And I'm… one person."

"That should show you how important we consider it to have you properly taken care of, Taylor," Glenn Chambers replied. "Or, Azata. Or both! Which is exactly why it matters."

Taylor thought about that.

"Glory Girl, Victoria Dallon – she'd get the same sort of treatment, right?" she asked.

"Probably, but because she's part of New Wave they do it instead," Chambers told her. "And, in all honesty, I don't think it would have worked as well with her."

"Because Taylor's the best!" Aivu giggled. "And she's got me, too. I'm an important part of it!"

"I can't argue with that," Taylor said. "You really are a treasure, Aivu."

Aivu giggled, doing her best to look cute, and she was very good at it.

"We've looked over the paperwork," Danny spoke up. "And I had one of the DWA lawyers go over it, as well. She didn't see any problems, the way net profit was defined made sense… though I think there was a question about the access conditions for the fund?"

"They're set up that way to avoid abuse by any one party," Chambers told him. "The restrictions were relaxed somewhat because Taylor isn't a member of the Wards, but even if you were as trustworthy as Legend I'd still want some restrictions to be in place. The money's always released to Taylor, but the amount that any one person can release depends on the situation."

"I wondered about why that took up three pages," Danny said. "I don't actually disagree with any of it, but it seemed oddly elaborate. I can understand why, though, if it's to make sure the money is actually used for the benefit of Taylor."

Taylor reached over to hold her father's hand. "I trust you, dad."

"Thank you, Taylor," Danny replied. "But – yeah, I actually agree with this way of doing things. If this goes well – and I have mixed feelings about that – then there's going to be a lot of money in that fund, and you're going to end up very rich while still a minor. Oversight makes sense."

"Mixed feelings?" Taylor repeated.

Danny laughed.

"I know you're being bold and brave about all this, Taylor," he said. "You are bold and brave about all this. You decided to reveal yourself that morning, and it's your idea. And Aivu is just happy that more people will see her being cute."

"And see Taylor being amazing!" Aivu contributed, cheerfully.

"But to me, it's seeing so many people in the US seeing my daughter," Danny went on. "And it's still a funny feeling to a father to be thinking about that. Especially when they know who you are, as well."

Taylor thought about that, then nodded.

"That makes sense, yeah," she said. "And… it does feel weird. It's like those games you play when you're a kid about being a supermodel, or Alexandria, only… the side of that where everyone is looking at you is actually happening."

She thought about it silently for several seconds, thinking about those games and the person she used to play them with, then shook her head.

"But I've made my decision. And doing this helps people, which is what matters."

"A very mature attitude," Chambers said. "I wish some of the other capes I have discussions with could understand the same."

He winked. "And maybe I should take advice from you myself?"

Taylor stifled a giggle.

"Now," Chambers added. "I know the paperwork hasn't actually been signed yet, but I'm eager to get on to the important bit, which is the costume! We'll make sure to provide several sets, but this is the test type – if there's nothing to change, we can go straight into making all the spares."

Taylor stood up, glancing over at the large curtained changing booth that someone had managed to fit into the room they were using.

It was probably something they had to do for Wards image meetings all the time, but she did have to stifle a sudden giggle at the idea of Armsmaster and Miss Militia standing around trying to work out how to put the booth together like a piece of self-assembly furniture.

Actually putting on the outfit took about ten minutes, some of that being the time it took to work out where exactly the zipper was on the undersuit and much of the rest on doing things up, and when she was done Taylor stepped out into the room.

"Ooooh," Aivu gasped, tail flicking. "You look great!"

"I do?" Taylor replied, inspecting how she looked.

The thermal underlayer that covered her from the neck down and only excluded her hands was almost impossible to notice either by how she moved or how it looked, which was really impressive and – Taylor suspected – expensive, but apart from that everything else was more-or-less the same as the concept drawings… just, manifested in reality as a costume.

The sandals on her feet had a further concession to the temperature this far north in January, in the form of a second thermal layer underneath the straps. But the straps themselves crisscrossed back and forth in a way that looked artlessly arranged even though it had only taken her a minute or so to apply both sandals combined.

The… bracers?.. on her arms fitted snugly, with room for them to be tightened or loosened, and the main piece of the outfit, skirt and blouse and armour, felt only very slightly restrictive. The layers of the skirt rustled a little with her movements, but the inner layers felt like they were heavier and less likely to flip up… then Taylor looked at herself in the mirror, and had to stare.

She looked… a little bit wild and fey, perhaps, but also like the whole outfit suited who she was. Ethereal butterflies swirling around her, the diadem on her forehead that directed her hair and kept it from swinging in front of her face… it gave her a self-image that snapped into place, and as she looked at herself, Taylor liked who she saw.

"I feel like I've stepped out of the pages of Lord of the Rings," she admitted, smiling.

"Excellent," Chambers chuckled. "We did check with legal that we weren't infringing copyright there, but that was part of the mood board. So, how does it feel?"

"It doesn't pinch anywhere," Taylor replied, moving around and swinging her arms. "Dad, what do you think?"

Danny had been staring a bit, but he closed his eyes and wiped at them.

"You look beautiful, Taylor," he told her, quietly but fervently. "I wish your mother could have seen this."

The memory made Taylor's heart ache, but… it was an okay kind of ache.

Because her father was right. She wished her mother was here too. But… it wasn't something that had to fill her thoughts all the time.

She could remember her mother, and draw strength from that. Not be weakened.

"I do, too," she said, softly.

The moment hung in the air, then passed, and she frowned.

"So, uh… if it turns out there's a problem later, what happens?" she asked. "I don't see anything wrong now, but if something comes up when out on patrol?"

"I hope it won't, but for now I'll sort out two more sets," Chambers decided. "Hopefully, even if there is a problem it'll only be one or two items that needs to be changed – that way most of the work won't be wasted."

He shrugged. "But, otherwise – well, it happens. Wards go through a lot of costumes all the time, anyway, between growth spurts, accidents with powers, general wear and tear, and the occasional actual fight. And…"

"And?" Danny asked.

"And washing machine mishaps," Chambers said, shuddering. "I still remember when Lilywhite's mother accidentally committed the classic red-sock mistake. Disaster."

Taylor giggled.

"You're sure everything is okay?" Danny asked her, then. "Because if you are, we should probably move on."

"Quite," Chambers agreed. "It's not mandatory, for the obvious reason that you're not under our authority, but I'd like to go through some advice about public appearances…"

"What do you think I should do first, dad?" Taylor asked, as they left the PRT building. "Public appearance in costume, or patrol in costume?"

"That's a tricky one," Danny replied. "And I know we spent half an hour talking about the pros and cons, but… it's a tricky one."

He sighed. "Part of me wants to say you shouldn't go on patrol at all, because that's more dangerous, but… that would be stifling."

"I wouldn't be looking for trouble, either way," Taylor pointed out. "It's just that for one of them I'd be walking up and down for people to get photos with me, and with the other I'd actually be keeping an eye out for trouble."

She paused. "While people get photos with me."

Danny chuckled. "I wonder if that Chambers guy's focus on PR has changed what he thinks is important?" he asked.

"I think photos can be important!" Aivu said, preening. "And I'd love to see what people think of you in costume! They talk about that kind of thing on the, internet, right?"

"Yeah, it's been kind of weird," Taylor agreed, thinking about the last time she'd run into a thread about herself on Parahumans Online.

It was flattering, getting all the attention, especially when so much of it was positive. Taylor wasn't sure she was used to it, yet, though.

Having access to a ready supply of photos of all the times Aivu had been cute in public was nice, though.

"Maybe I should just… turn up in costume and go to the library?" she suggested. "There's a few books to return to the library…"

When Taylor actually visited the city centre as Azata, the attention was… weird.

It wasn't something she was used to, even after the last couple of weeks at school and even after going around with Aivu. The butterflies were one thing, but it turned out that going around in costume made everyone sure that you were okay with being approached.

And Taylor was… okay, with being approached. It was a thing she could deal with. Maybe not all day, but she could cope with it for a while and it was for a good cause.

Kids coming up to have their photo taken, so she did her best to explain that she was still new to all of this while smiling. Aivu asked if they wanted to hold her, too, which they often did and which led to photo after photo of amazed kids looking like they couldn't quite believe they were holding an actual dragon in their hands.

People asking her what being a hero was like, and – again – Taylor had to apologize and say that she'd barely done any heroing yet. Not none, and she could talk about stopping someone from being bullied at school, even if it was strange to be talking over and over about having saved Sophia.

Then there were the ones who asked what her powers were.

Fortunately, they'd actually discussed that with Mr. Chambers.

"Well, I can't explain everything," she said, to the first person who asked. "I've got to have some secrets! But I've got Aivu, of course, and you've probably heard about the forests."

"That was you?" the woman said. "Those are huge!"

"Yeah, that's actually a problem," Taylor replied, chuckling. "I'm not great at size yet, so I'm only doing it in the Lord's Port area."

Aivu raised her paw. "And I can breathe sound!" she said. "Which, sounds silly, because it sounds like a way of talking about talking and everyone can talk. But it's louder than that."

"Actually, maybe we can do a demonstration?" Taylor asked.

"Oh, yeah!" Aivu agreed. "Let's give it a go!"

Taylor got a tennis ball out of a bag, bounced it on the pavement, then lobbed it into the air. Aivu scampered over to where it was going to land, then jumped, fluttered her wings, and used her breath weapon to fire out a concussive pulse of sound.

That hit the tennis ball and sent it soaring back up into the air… unfortunately, nowhere near either Aivu or Taylor.

"Oops!" Aivu said, looking embarrassed. "My aim still isn't great…"

The tennis ball bounced some distance away, and Taylor waved.

"Can you pass that back, please?" she asked.

Someone caught the ball and threw it back to her, but Aivu jumped up to catch it before it reached her.

"Got it!" Aivu announced. "See? My aim is good after all, because I launched it and then I caught it!"

"I don't think it counts if someone else has to throw it back," Tayor said, dubiously.

When she was thinking about all the attention on her, and how it could go wrong… that was difficult, that was something that worried her. But if she was just playing with Aivu, even in public?

She could relax.

And already, simply doing this once without anything going wrong was getting her used to the idea.

It took Taylor about twenty minutes to get to the library, which wasn't bad honestly, and she swapped some books for others before heading back out again.

She only had a set of three tennis balls and wanted to get more, in case one of them went missing, but on the way from the library to the closest sports shop she heard a sudden outbreak of shouting.

Someone was making a run for it, holding a bag, and Taylor glanced back along the way he was running to see a woman getting up and shouting about her purse.

"Aivu!" she called, pointing, then took a tennis ball out of her bag and threw it. It went sailing through the air, over Aivu as the dragon began running, then the tennis ball hit the purse snatcher on the back of the head and made him flinch.

That in turn meant he tripped over, catching himself with his hands, but by the time he was getting back up again Aivu had managed to sprint closer and jump on top of him.

"I've got my tail tangled around your ankles!" she said. "So don't run or you'll trip up again!"

"Thanks, Aivu!" Taylor said, catching up with her dragon, then put the snatcher in an arm lock she'd seen in a movie once.

It seemed to work fairly well, and Taylor wondered if that was her do-things-okay power at work, then mentally dismissed that. "Can you take the woman's purse back-"

"She won't need to go far," the woman interrupted. "Thank you, Azata. And… Aivu, I think?"

"That's me!" Aivu agreed proudly, and sat back on her haunches to pick the bag up. "This is yours, right?"

"Yes," the woman agreed, taking it back. "Um. Has anyone called the police yet?"

"Get off me, bitch!" the purse snatcher demanded, struggling, and Aivu gasped.

"Why are you using such bad words?" she asked. "Do you think that makes it more likely that Azata's going to let you go?"

That question seemed to confuse the would-be thief so much that he hadn't recovered by the time the police arrived.

"This is so weird," Amy said, mostly to herself.

"What's weird about it?" Victoria asked, trying to stifle a giggle. "You're on your way to a proper union workplace. Next thing you know you'll be standing outside somewhere and picketing it!"

Amy snorted. "I don't think so," she replied. "But, uh… thanks for coming with me, Vicky."

"Not a problem, Ames," Victoria replied. "But I wasn't finished… anyway, one of the things you'll need to know as you become unionized is that you need to watch out for people who break strikes."

Amy frowned. "What, you think someone's going to try and hurt me because I'm not healing?"

She paused. "I guess that's technically possible, but they'd have to be unusually stupid even for Brockton Bay."

"Yeah, I know," Victoria confessed. "Really, that's mostly a setup for the next bit."

"Oh, no," Amy complained. "You're trying to set up a joke, aren't you?"

"Yep!" her sister agreed. "Of course I am."

"Leave that to the professionals," Amy advised.

Then looked confused. "...actually, are either of us professionals? I guess I will be, soon, but are you?"

Victoria looked baffled as well.

"I don't think so," she said. "New Wave gets money as a whole from merchandising, but I think I'm technically an amateur. Unless my allowance counts."

"Probably best it doesn't, it's way below minimum wage," Amy frowned. "Maybe you should go on strike."

Victoria sniggered. "I don't think that's the kind of New Wave that Mom and Aunt Sarah were hoping for," she said. "But it would certainly make headlines. Anyway, now I've got something to hold over Dean's head – he's the professional, he can treat an amateur like me to something nice!"

"Like that doesn't happen all the time anyway," Amy riposted, then groaned. "All right, let's hear this so-called joke you've been setting up."

"You won't have any trouble with anyone who goes through the picket line," Victoria declared, grandly. "Everyone knows Panacea can deal with scabs."

There was a silence broken only by the sound of shoes on tarmac.

"That was terrible," Amy said, eventually.

"Wow, you didn't even dignify it with a smile," Victoria frowned. "It must have been really bad. Anyway, uh, here we are… the Dock Worker's Association. Or… is it Union?"

"Depends who you ask, I think," Amy shrugged. "Not like anyone's going to not know what you're talking about…"

She considered. "Now that I'm safe here, do you want to head off for a couple of hours?"

"What, so you get the legal discussions all to yourself?" Victoria asked, sniggering. "...actually, you know what, sure, so long as Azata and her dragon aren't around. Otherwise, you know, dragon, so I'd be interested in sticking around."

She shrugged. "The forests and stuff are cool, but not really a thing I'd spend ages on."

"...so the key point is that you have a unique tension involved," Felicity said. "There's a bit of a public relations side of things here, which is always a factor in union rates discussions."

"Always?" Amy asked.

"Always," Felicity confirmed. "Unions can get a bad reputation at times, partly because of decades of negative press from people who benefit from the weakening of unions, so it's always important – but in your case, there's an argument to be made that pay for the amount of work you do would be an absolutely insane sum. Which makes it look like you're profiteering."

She slid a sheet of paper across the desk, and Amy stared.

"That is… a big number," she said.

"Yes," Felicity agreed. "And it's really too high for it to look good as a weekly wage."

Amy did a double-take. "Weekly!? I thought that was a salary!"

"You see my point," the lawyer chuckled. "On the other hand, if you offer your services for a Union-standard weekly wage, or even for free as you've been doing, what this means is that the hospital's per-patient cost drops by an enormous amount – which leads to extremely high profits, and those profits are unearned."

"I'd ask if they'd just make the treatment cheaper, but of course they wouldn't," Amy sighed.

"Naturally," Felicity said, shooting Amy a quick smile. "And it leads to wage depression across the whole of this part of the US, for medical workers, because they need fewer workers to do the same amount of work. What we can do, however, is turn this into an advantage."

She tapped the huge weekly wage number.

"The idea is, you get the normal union wage you'd get as a member of SEIU, no more…" she said. "...and the hospital is also required to donate an estimated equivalent of what your piece-work rate would be to a charitable cause. That's still a benefit for them overall, because you're doing the hard cases that would otherwise cost them more or the things they simply couldn't treat without your help, but it should avoid making anyone too upset."

"I think that makes sense, but I need to think about it," Amy replied. "Thanks for everything you've explained… is it okay if I go out to think for a bit?"

"Of course," Felicity told her. "I'll be around until five, there's something else I need to sort out."

Amy nodded her thanks, and stood up to go and look for her sister.

And Taylor.

And Aivu, who was definitely not at the top of the priority list.

"That's just… amazing," Amy said, quietly, sitting on the edge of the dock and dangling her feet over the lip. The tide was mostly out, so it was a long way down to reach water level, but it looked nothing like it had the last time she'd seen it.

The water below her was crystal clear, enough she could see right down to the bottom, and soft white sand filled the dock's interior. Around the outside, meanwhile, the fenders were still in place to prevent a ship crashing into the dockside, but they'd been augmented by thick, gnarled tree roots that wound in and out and looked tougher than the rubber fenders.

And the dockside had trees reaching for the sky, in places where they wouldn't get in the way of moving a crane, but which spread a gentle green light along with a fragrant aroma over the tough moss forming the places where people would actually work.

It didn't look quite as wild or untamed as Azata's first work, but it certainly looked a lot more sylvan than anywhere Amy had ever imagined a ship could dock. And yet… when she looked at it, she felt like it would actually work?

It might be a bit more inconvenient than it would have been without the trees there, but it still would work, and the amount of clean-up that Azata's powers had done was just crazy.

Or should she call her Taylor?

Oddly enough, Amy wasn't used to thinking about an out Cape who wasn't a family member. With Dean or Gallant, and Chris or Kid Win, and the other Wards she knew – and the Protectorate members, as well – the distinction really mattered, because she didn't want to give anyone away.

But Taylor had thrown that aside for herself, and it was almost disconcerting to Amy.

...almost, though.

She shifted back a bit, leaning against a tree trunk, and sighed slightly as she touched the tree's roots and felt what it was like.

It had the same odd mixture of being purely natural and signs of being absolutely not natural, in ways that she couldn't quite work out – and, somehow, it had hypoallergenic pollen – but just being around the life from this place was… soothing.

It was like Taylor, Azata, whichever, had reminded her that she could do more with her power than just fix an endless parade of overall quite similar people with quite similar problems. Even just feeling the intricacies built into the plants around here was a breath of fresh air.

She did think it was a bit of a pity she couldn't join in with what the others were doing, though. Vicky and Taylor and Aivu were all playing catch with tennis balls, building off Taylor's much-filmed display on the Boardwalk, and what Taylor lacked in the ability to fly she made up for with an easy, impressive skill.

Then Aivu came flying a little over towards her to catch one of the balls Victoria had missed with, catching it with both her forepaws, before flipping it back up in the air and whacking it with her tail.

"Phew!" the little dragon said, landing next to Amy. "I'm glad I didn't have to go swimming, salty tastes in my mouth can be yuck!"

Amy laughed.

"There's something I could say about that, but I won't," she said. "Because you're a young dragon."

"But mature for my age, right?" Aivu asked, pleadingly.

"I wouldn't know," Amy replied. "How old are you?"

"Five," Aivu answered. "And if I don't seem mature that's good!"

She leaned in closer. "Being mature usually turns out to be reeeeally boring!"

Amy saw that Victoria was trying to overwhelm Taylor with tennis balls, now, and that Taylor was doing quite well for herself given the situation.

Then Aivu sat down on Amy's lap.

"Uh," Amy said. "Is this your way of asking to be scratched?"

"Sure!" Aivu replied. "I'm not going to say no to that!"

Amy nodded, slightly, and started running her hand down Aivu's back. It was more of stroking-a-cat than scratching her, but Aivu made a pleased purring noise anyway.

Amy felt almost like joining in.

The shock of feeling Aivu's incredibly bizarre biology wasn't quite enough to make her lock up, this time, but it was close. She could have spent all day exploring the ways the little dragon's body did things like make insanely tough scales or turn a bar of chocolate into enough energy to hover for half an hour.

She couldn't tell if it was like powers worked or not, and it was a fascinating mystery to ponder.

"You know, there's a book that we're reading!" Aivu said. "Taylor's reading it to me. It's about someone who's good at singing and has a whole nine little dragons as pets and companions! They're not as smart as me, but they're fun to read about."

Aivu tilted her head. "I can't remember exactly what it's called, but I bet Taylor does…"

Amy decided to ask about those books.

She did need something to read in her free time, after all.

"How many detentions in the last two weeks?" Emily Piggot asked.

"Depends if you count periods," Sophia replied. "I guess, uh… well, most days she ends up spending most of the day in detention. Since she got her powers, anyway, so most of the week before last, and last week, and most of this week so far."

Piggot frowned.

"Do you have any insight into why?" Miss Militia asked.

"Well, uh… she brings that dragon with her to school every day," Sophia said. "And they tell her not to, and she completely refuses to. Sometimes she says they can't meaningfully punish her. Either way, she ends up in detention for that, or for disrupting class in another way."

"Hmm," Piggot said. "That could be one of two things."

"Just two?" Miss Militia asked. "What do you think they are, Director?"

"One of them is that she could have a problem with authority, so she'd always end up escalating to this point," Piggot began. "That's… not necessarily a problem, but it could easily become one in a crisis situation. The other is that the school has some kind of vendetta, either against her or against parahumans as a whole."

She turned her attention to Sophia. "Do you think that's possible?"

Sophia frowned, thinking hard and trying to look like she was remembering things instead of scrambling.

"I guess it's possible?" she said, slowly. "I don't think it is, nothing's been serious enough that I'd have to complain about it… Taylor hasn't complained, has she?"

"No," Piggot replied. "So it's not likely to be the second one, or if it is then it's going to be minor."

She frowned. "Unless she's had a bad experience with authority figures so she doesn't trust them. That's not quite the same thing as having a problem with authority, but if that one were true then she might not trust the PRT to sort things out…"

"If I may?" Miss Militia said.

"Go ahead," the Director invited.

"I'm basing this off my experience with her during her power testing," Miss Milita explained. "But I didn't feel like she was especially suspicious of the PRT or Protectorate. Maybe a little, but she was all right with myself and Triumph, and I read Assault and Armsmaster's reports and she didn't seem overly hostile in those either."

"That's a good point," Piggot admitted. "So… what do you think, then?"

Miss Militia was silent for several seconds.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe we should ask her."

"Or maybe not?" Sophia said, not realizing she was going to speak until the words came out of her mouth.

Both women looked at her, curious, and Sophia swallowed.

"What I mean is… maybe she's telling the truth?" she tried. "I mean, uh. About not being able to meaningfully punish her."

"Go on?" Piggot invited.

Sophia tried not to panic as she dragged together what she'd thought of, trying to turn it into a full justification that wouldn't see the PRT going through Winslow with a fine-toothed comb and collapsing the entire building on top of her.

And Emma.

And probably Madison, too.

"She's… she wasn't doing great at school, before she got her powers," Sophia said, leaving out why. "And I guess she's doing better now, but… the whole thing with her dragon, Aivu, a lot of that is that she keeps saying that they can't punish her in a way she cares about. And I guess if she doesn't care about her GPA, and all detention means is that she gets to be in a room alone with Aivu and read – if she doesn't care about any of the other school stuff – then, then she looks kind of cool to the kids there? And she doesn't mind what happens to her? And it's almost like, even if they don't mean to, the school is giving her what she wants."

Sophia shook her head. "But if that changes, I guess she'll know that someone was talking about it, and that might give me away to her. And if the teachers are being funny about it, then fuck knows what might happen if one of the ones who knows about me says the wrong thing."

Sophia had a very good idea, actually, and it rhymed with – but did not involve – 'bail'.

"Interesting," Piggot said. "So… you're saying we should avoid rocking the boat?"

"Yeah," Sophia agreed, trying not to sag with relief. "If something changes, if she complains, I guess that might be different? But right now it seems to be working out okay, and honestly I guess I'm kind of jealous."

Where the fuck had that come from?

"Jealous?" Miss Militia repeated, sounding amused.

"Yeah," Sophia replied. "She doesn't need to keep up a separate civilian identity, she's just her all the time. She doesn't need to keep up her GPA or whatever, even though she probably could, because her future is just… she's going to be Azata. That's all she needs to say."

Once Sophia was out of the meeting, and out of the PRT building, and halfway home, she slipped into an alley and leaned against the wall.

"...I do not want to think about this," she complained.

Then pushed herself upright again, and kept going.

"Hmm," Danny said, inspecting Aivu the following weekend. "You know… I think you're definitely getting bigger."

"I should be!" Aivu replied, brightly. "I'm meant to grow up to be big and strong, and Taylor's helping!"

She stretched. "I'm still a little dragon, but not as little as I used to be!"

"Yeah, you said how much you were looking forward to giving me a ride," Taylor agreed, smiling. "Though… actually, Dad, do you think we could measure how she's growing? It'd be nice to do that… I don't mean, you know, with a tape measure or anything, but do we have a doorframe we could use?"

"I-" Danny began, then stopped. "Actually, I just remembered that the merchandise has already hit the gross level, so saying that we don't want to leave too many marks on the house is silly."

"You sound sad," Aivu told him. "Why?"

"Oh, just…" Danny waved his hand. "Thinking about, things. About when we moved in, and when I used to do that for Taylor. I sort of… stopped, a while ago."

Aivu made a distressed noise.

"Hey," Danny told her. "It's… getting better. And Taylor's right, you've been a good friend for her so far so I think we should do it…"

"I'm glad it's getting better," Aivu told him, exhaling in relief. "I'd love for it to be finished getting better, but going through the bit where it's getting better is needed for that! But… do what? I don't know what it is you're talking about and it sounds like you both know."

Danny got up, and rummaged in a drawer for a suitable pen.

"Here we are," he said. "Let's use… the one to the living room?"

Aivu followed the two Heberts, head tilted in confusion, then Taylor studied her for a moment.

"Put your toes here," she said, pointing to the threshold. "And stretch out your head as high as you can against the door without moving your toes, okay?"

"Okay!" Aivu said, stretching sinuously, and Danny balanced a thin book on her head. "Oh!"

"And… you can move your head away, now," he told her, then carefully marked a line which he labelled with Aivu and 1/22. "There we go."

"Ooh," Aivu marvelled. "So that's how tall I am today! And then you can do more lines later and we'll see how I grow!"

"Exactly," Danny confirmed. "I remember doing this with Taylor, and… well, I was around a couple of times when Alan did it for Anne and Emma."

He looked at his daughter. "Do you want me to talk to Alan about it, Taylor? I know you said no last time, but…"

"I still think it's a no," Taylor replied. "It could just mean you'd have a big fight, and – and I know that Emma's not my friend any more, and that's not changing. But you still get on with him okay, right?"

"Okay, yes," Danny told her. "But whenever we do talk, I can't help but think about what Emma did to you."

"I can't stop you if you want to talk about it, Dad," Taylor said. "If you think you should, go ahead. But you asked me if I wanted you to talk about it, and that's my answer. I don't want you to. But I don't… want you not to."

Aivu scratched her chin. "Um. I think I get that? But it's funny to try and tell what's going on there."

She fluttered her wings. "What's going to happen eventually?"

Taylor stopped, and thought about that.

"I don't know?" she admitted. "But… I feel like planning for that is the wrong thing to do. I should try and take it when it happens… otherwise it's giving too much of my time to them and I don't want to do that. I'd much rather keep helping out."

She smiled. "Sooner or later I'll be ready to give us a really good garden!"

"I'm sure you will be," Danny replied. "Though I'm more interested to see what would happen if you used your power on the container ship."

He shook his head. "The city administration in those days was a bunch of… idiots."

"You were going to use a stronger word, weren't you?" Taylor asked, giggling.

"Not with Aivu around," Danny replied, primly. "How much do you actually remember about the riots?"

"Not… a lot," Taylor admitted. "I know they completely screwed up the city in ways it hasn't recovered from."

"It could have recovered," Danny replied. "But it didn't, because the city administration couldn't be bothered."

He snagged an old envelope, and sketched out a very rough map of the docks – the docks, the shoreline, and a squiggly line for the deep-water channel out of the docks area and into the ocean.

"Some of the shipping lines based here tried blocking other ships from leaving, to increase pressure for… some reason," he said. "A lot of the sailors were mutinying or rioting, the ones who were trying to do the blockade got arrested, and the City said later that they couldn't get enough sailors to clear the ships out of the way."

"...uh," Taylor began. "How? Wouldn't the sailors from the trapped ships be able to move them? How much expertise do you need to move a ship, anyway?"

"If it's in working order, you could do it with maybe six to ten people?" Danny replied. "A third of the typical crew. That's for a really big ship. A lot of the reason for the crews as big as thirty is to handle a crisis or allow for people to, you know… sleep. But there absolutely should have been ten sailors available, it wasn't a formal strike, though I heard rumours they didn't want to pay overtime or danger money."

"I guess I can kind of get that," Taylor admitted. "But only kind of. It seems really short sighted."

"It was stupid, if that's what it was," Danny pointed out. "Those ships have massive amounts of money tied up in them, they'd have been losing money every day for every ship, and nobody was willing to pay to get them out of the way?"

He shook his head. "But the real stupidity is with the cargo ship."

Picking up a banana, he put it on the envelope across the shipping channel.

"That one was sunk as a protest," he explained. "And, well, that blocked off access and it's been sitting there for years. Right?"

"Right, that's what they told us, in school," Taylor agreed.

"And what happened then was that the City just let it rot," Danny told her. "I'd guess the Mayor's office had a bad scare and they wanted to kill the shipworking industry, not realizing or caring how important it was to the economy. Scuttling a ship is opening the seacocks, and it sinks until it can't sink any further… but it's a container ship. Any point in the first year or so they could have sent in divers to close the seacocks, then removed half the containers with barges, and it would have been floating again. Way too deep to be safe, but that would let them get it closer to the shore or pump out water or even just sail it out into open water and sink it there."

He sighed. "It still makes me mad, to be honest. That was a much more fixable problem back when it happened, but now it's so badly rusted – and so are the rest of the graveyard ships."

Aivu had been listening quietly to the whole lecture, staring at the map Danny had drawn, but she jumped up onto the table as he mentioned that.

"So… all we need is for Taylor to use her power to get rid of the banana?" she asked. "And then things are great?"

"Hopefully," Danny answered. "If it works."

Aivu snatched up the banana and began eating it. Without peeling it, naturally.

"I'm saving the city!" she declared. "Yum."

Some distance away, Amy picked up her copy of Dragonflight.

It was one of the first things she'd got with her first paycheck, now she had her union card and an actual official wage schedule and so on, and she was already enjoying it a lot.

It was a bit… old fashioned in some ways? But it had been written in the sixties, or something, and it was great fun to read anyway. She knew there were going to be little dragons in the later books, because Aivu and Taylor had mentioned them, but the big dragons were interesting to see appear as well.

Even if she kept having the odd daydream about having a dragon as a friend herself. It was just this… idea, that wouldn't go away.

"Azata, it's a surprise to see you again," Richard said. "A welcome one, don't get me wrong, but… a surprise. Usually power testing only happens once."

"Or twice," the other scientist added. "If someone works out something big."

"Or twice, fine," Richard grumbled. "You win, Mike. This isn't that big of a surprise… what are we going to be looking at?"

Taylor – Azata, in costume, something she still had trouble remembering – shrugged, a bit awkwardly.

"I'm mostly going off what Aivu said?" she admitted. "And I went through making sure I had a song or poem for each of the new things, so I can do them when I need to."

Aivu beamed.

"Actually, we may as well take down some notes about your nature power, while we're here," Michael began. "If that would be all right? We've had the reports about how big it was, and what changes happened, but how much power do you really have over it?"

"Making it be the right size is a problem," Taylor admitted. "It's sort of like it's easy for it to run out of control, but mostly when I'm trying to keep it small and it can influence a larger area. It's like… it tries to help as much as it can, if I put a personality to it."

Michael nodded, noting that down. "Interesting."

"It's why I haven't used it on the container ship blocking the shipping channel yet," Taylor added. "Or other ships in the boat graveyard, though I'll be doing one of those before I do the container ship itself. It's – I feel like it wouldn't cause me any actual problems, but I want to be a bit more sure."

"I think you should just go ahead and do what feels right, Taylor!" Aivu advised. "But, um, it's up to you so I'm not going to push you or anything…"

"Yeah, I know what you mean, but I'd hate to get it badly wrong and make things worse," Taylor said.

"Did you intend to create the altered design for the ship berth?" Richard said. "We had some engineers look at it, and it's an impressive piece of design."

Taylor shook her head. "Not at all," she replied. "It just… worked out that way."

"Well, however that happened, it's very convenient," the PRT scientist told her. "I think that's a bit of a theme, with your powers… convenient, but not necessarily going as expected."

He finished typing. "All right, now… are you going to need any other materials for the tests?"

"It'd be good to have someone around to test some of them on!" Aivu said. "Oh, and, um… someone who can make fire or lightning or something like that. I guess I can do it with sound though."

"Someone around to test on," Richard repeated. "So, these abilities include one with a target? Is there anything dangerous about it?"

"Not dangerous, no," Taylor replied, glancing at Aivu, who nodded. "But it might be a bit uncomfortable? I think?"

Michael nodded. "I'll send for someone, then," he decided. "And… someone who can make fire or lightning… I'll see who we can get hold of."

He clicked on something with his mouse, then glanced up. "In the meantime, is there anything else?"

As it turned out, the first available cape was Battery, who shook Taylor's hand just after entering the testing area.

"I've heard about you from Assault," she said. "It's nice to meet you… and, of course, I've heard about Aivu too."

Aivu jumped up, wings humming, and waved.

"Hi!" she smiled. "What's your power?"

"Aivu," Taylor laughed. "I don't know if that's rude!"

"It can be, but I don't mind explaining," Battery replied. "I can charge myself up with energy, and then release it to get stronger or as electricity."

"Ooh!" Aivu gasped. "That's perfect! Tay – um – Azata, let's do the rainbow one!"

Battery looked confused.

"The rainbow one?" she asked.

"One of the ones we're testing today," Taylor explained. "Aivu calls it Rainbow Dome… hang on a moment."

She flicked through her notebook, refreshing her memory, then nodded.

"Okay," she said. "So… this should last a minute or so, I'm guessing you don't need that much time to set up?"

"Are we going to be testing now?" Michael checked. "I'll get the camera running."

"Just let me know when, I'll do a small burst," Battery told her. "It shouldn't take more than a second or two… actually, before you do, I'll show what it should feel like. This is more of a bug zapper than anything dangerous to a person. If that's okay?"

Taylor nodded, holding out her hand, and Battery charged up for a moment before discharging again. The fzzzap made Taylor wince, and the two scientists noted that down.

"Okay, here we go," Tayor said, shaking her hand out, then closed her eyes. "Haste, ere it vanish, haste to view the rainbow in the cloud."

Multicoloured light danced between her palms, then burst outwards in a wave of yellow light chased by the other colours of the rainbow. The result glowed faintly, forming a dome of shifting colours about twenty feet across that was predominantly – but not entirely – yellow.

"Red is fire, blue is cold, green is acid, and purple is sound!" Aivu told them. "And this is lightning!"

"Do you need to keep that up?" Michael checked.

"No, I can focus on other things while it's up," Taylor replied, and walked around a little to show the dome moved with her.

Battery charged up, then fired out a jolt of electricity, and it didn't work. Then she charged up a larger burst, and that didn't work either.

"You said there was a fire version?" she asked. "That would help next time we got in a fight with Lung."

"I wonder how much power it would take to overcome that," Michael mused.

"Oh, you can't!" Aivu replied, cheerfully. "Not with lightning! You just have to wait for it to end."

"We… actually can't write that down," the scientist told her. "Or, we can't just say it's true. We can say that's what you said, but that's about it."

Aivu looked sad, then shook herself out.

"What about the other one?" she asked, as the rainbow dome shimmered before fading away again. "Can you help with that one as well, Battery?"

"Sure, why not," Battery decided. "What is it?"

The other new trick was one that grew tree roots up through the floor, to hold someone in place. Battery demonstrated that she was quick enough to dodge them when she knew something was coming, but if the roots actually did snag her they held her in place well enough that even a full charge didn't let her break free.

"You're full of surprises," she said, once the roots dissolved again and released her ankles. "And that one could be particularly useful with a slippery target."

"Like that man who stole a purse!" Aivu suggested. "Even if it doesn't slow them down for long it lets you get closer!"

Michael came over and frowned at the floor.

"Well, the roots didn't come from anywhere," he announced. "They just appeared. I'll make another note in the Azata Is Weird file…"

AN:

Even if projections coming from nowhere isn't exactly unprecedented, Azataylor has quite the power list.

Also, economic and financial stuff. And Amy, for that matter.

And a look at Shadow Stalker spinning some wheels.