The next morning I wake up bundled up in a sleeping bag on the floor of Crystal's bedroom. Thinking back to last night I smile as I remember laughing at the film they put on in their converted basement. Then Crystal and I chatted about everything from books to English Literature to boys to how sucky it is to get powers, and how I knew where South Memorial Hospital was.
Seeing that Crystal is still sleeping, I slip out of the sleeping bag and head for the shower while I roll the sleeping bag up neatly. Once I'm done I make my way downstairs, only to find that Mrs Pelham is already there.
Mrs Pelham turns around from unloading the dishwasher, "Good morning, Taylor wasn't it?"
I non, "Morning Mrs Pelham, and it is."
"Call me Sarah, or Aunt Sarah if you stick around, I prefer the more informal nature of it."
I nod and hold up the sleeping bag, "Where would you like this?"
Mrs Pelham, Sarah, points to a small room next to the kitchen, "Just chuck it in there… Taylor, Neil and I spoke last night. What I said last night about getting your power granting ability, and getting it tested. I need to apologize for how I presented it."
I frown, "Um, ok?"
Sarah turns around and leans back against the counter, "While it's true that all power granting trumps have side effects, very few of them have master effects as one. What there is, is a very strong anti master bias amongst the general population, and capes as well."
I nod, as Heart Breaker has been in the news enough that I know about him. Though I didn't really know about Teacher until… Sarah interrupts my thoughts, "Especially with the Fallen in Western America, and Canary's trial."
"She's on trial?"
Sarah nods, "The prosecution delayed it until after the Simurgh attacked Canaberra. Carol has already filed an amicus brief to the court, as have multiple other parahuman lawyers and the ACLU. However, without being able to speak to Canary in person, nobody can get confirmation that she wants to change her lawyer. It's almost certain that the case will be overturned on appeal, but it's not looking good for the initial trial. We, that is New Wave, had the PRT test Glory Girl's Aura a few years ago so that it's on record that it isn't a master effect. Turns out that it is, but it doesn't grant her any direct control, or have any long term effects on individuals. Please don't spread that around, as it will only cause people to fear her for something she can't control, and doesn't give her any direct control over people. What I don't want to see happen to you is that you grant powers to a lot of people, and one day one of them uses the powers to commit horrific crimes and blames it on some sort of long term master effect. Now, do you have any questions before the others get up?"
I think for several seconds before I ask, "You said I'd need to be affiliated with the PRT before I could patrol with you, why?"
Sarah nods, "It's a fair question. We are a PRT Affiliated team. For teams it's a little different to individuals, as we get a little funding from the government, we're able to access some of their secure resources for testing and information sharing. While we don't have any greater powers of arrest than any other hero, our evidence and testimony is given greater weight. On the flip side, we are also held to a higher standard of behavior as we, the adults of the team, are assumed to know the law on things like reasonable use of force."
I frown, "What about Glory Girl, Victoria?"
Sarah snorts, "Despite her reputation, she has been getting better as she's grown older. While I cannot comment on what's happened to her, I can tell you that she will be punished once she's healthy enough to undertake it."
I roll my eyes, "I didn't mean it like that. I meant how does she fit into your affiliate status."
"Oh, we have to show that we're taking reasonable steps to teach her, and once she's an adult she'll have to do some additional classes with the PRT. But I think I got a bit off track. You originally asked why you needed to be affiliated. If you regularly patrolled on your own, and only occasionally met up with us, it wouldn't be a problem. I got the impression that patrolling isn't really your style."
I shake my head, "Honestly, I'd rather just be able to get on with my life and not be involved in cape stuff. But my powers couldn't be hidden, still can't be really, and Lung, the Undersiders, and Skidmark all know what I look like. No point trying to hide in that case."
Sarah nods, "I can see how you got to that conclusion, but you could have still gone the anonymous route as the rest of the world didn't know. It's a bit late now, as your interview was on the local news last night. Your spear has garnered a lot of interest as the writing is in the oldest form of written Greek. I checked PHO, and there seems to be quiet a lot of discussion on it, probably more than there is about you."
I smile and nod, "Selene surprised me with it, and I don't feel like I'm worthy of the spear yet. But in her words, 'I'm not likely to kill someone accidentally'."
"That's good to know, and I hope you don't intend to kill anyone."
I shake my head, "Not if they're not trying to kill me. Otherwise I'm not going to hamstring myself."
Sarah sighs, "Taylor, you need to temper thoughts like those. No, let me finish please. It's not about individual fights, it's about how villains will react to you after those fights. Once you kill, even in self defense, other villains will treat you differently. They won't hold back as much and you'll find yourself needing to escalate more until you find yourself forced to kill again. Most Heroes aren't powerful enough to force Villains to back down to the normal rules again."
Crystal walks in behind us with a yawn, "Hey mom, Taylor, whatcha talking about?"
Sarah says, "The consequences of killing even if you're justified."
I look back as Crystal grimaces, "Oh yeah, I hated that class. There's a dozen documented cases where it happened, and the Hero ended up needing to move out of the area and rebrand because all of their interactions with the local villains were getting so bad that they were afraid they were going to be killed or have to kill again. There's also boxes full of cases where the local Villains just offed the Hero rather than take the chance they might decide to do the same to them."
"Crystal! I was trying to spare Taylor that."
Crystal shakes her head, "Don't bother. She's already had the mushroom treatment."
I ask, "The what?"
"Mushroom treatment, kept in the dark and fed shit all day, or kept in the dark and shat on from a great height. No offense, but someone should have done something at Winslow, probably involving petrol and a match in the middle of the night."
Sarah sounds horrified as she says, "Crystal!"
Crystal shakes her head, "No mom, I'm not going to tell you what we talked about, but I am going to point at the long trigger hypothesis."
"What? Really, that bad?"
Crystal nods as she heads over to a cupboard, "Taylor, you deserve a damn medal for not leveling the damn place if even half of what you said is true. Anyway, how did you even get onto that subject?"
I demure, "I'm sure other people have had it just as bad or worse."
Sarah glances at Crystal as she says, "Taylor, just because they have, doesn't mean what you went through wasn't terrible. Every parahuman goes through a a horrific event to get powers. We do our best to visit people who have just gone through their own to offer help and counseling. The PRT does the same. We all have horror stories. Anyway, before we start talking about our own personal trauma's and ruining the day. Crystal, we were talking about PRT affiliation."
Crystal looks back from where she's started loading up a coffee percolator, "Oh, yeah, far too early for that, though I think I over shared last night." I nod as she yawns, "Damn, far too early to be awake too. Do you want a coffee while I'm making mine?"
I shake my head, "Sorry for waking you up."
Crystal waves a hand, "Blame years of Eric trying to steal my stuff for that. Anyway, I bet mom was giving you the run around by explaining why you should do it instead of just how easy it is."
Sarah puts on an offended look, "Crystal!"
"Well you do mom. Let me tell you, I'd rather have been smacked than listen to mom tell me why what I did was wrong. Anyway, PRT affiliation is really simple. They take your fingerprints and do an MRI, then they ask you a few things about your past and your powers. Not about how they work but ways that you use them, or things about past events that aren't public knowledge. This so that they can use them as security questions if there's ever a risk someone might be impersonating you. Then they give you your temporary card and sign you up for a few classes on acceptable use of force, how to use zip cuffs, and a couple of other things. At the end of the classes they give you your permanent card and a box of 100 zip cuffs."
I don't know whether to feel relieved or disappointed now that I know, so I say the only thing that comes to mind, "Oh."
Sarah huffs, "I'd have got there eventually. We just kept getting side tracked."
"And this is why New Wave meetings always take so long. Anyway, Taylor, you're invited to the BBQ this afternoon. I'd say bring some meat, but…"
I interrupt Crystal, "I can do that. I can even butcher it here and you can keep the rest for later."
Sarah smiles, "That is very kind of you Taylor, but I wouldn't want to put you out."
I smile broadly, "It's no trouble, I like hunting with Selene and I was going to see her once I left anyway. She's been teaching me how to cook over an open fire as well as on a suspended surface."
Crystal nudges Sarah, "Go on mom, you can see that Taylor just wants to show off."
Sarah looks at the ceiling, "Oh fine, but you get to talk to the HOA if there's any complaints."
Crystal nods, "Sure, I'm looking forward to seeing a real two headed deer."
I nod, "They're tasty too. Though I'm not good enough to kill one on my own yet. But I'm getting there."
Sarah looks at me curiously, "Why wouldn't you be good enough to kill a deer?"
I shrug, "They all have powers, and they're better at using them than I am. In fairness, I could probably deal with a prey animal on my own. But where there's prey there's also predators."
Sarah frowns, "Surely you'd be able to hand a few mutated wolves."
Patiently, I say, "Sarah, none of the worlds beyond this one have been tamed. That means that they are as dangerous now as Africa or the Amazon jungle used to be. Except, all of the wildlife has powers on top of that. Out there where Selene lives, I've yet to find animals that can't teleport, turn invisible, or sense me from further away than I can sense them, often at the same time. I use a spear and not a bow because a single arrow just isn't going to do anything, the wolf thing I got the spines I hit Victoria with teleported them around me and tried to stab them all into me at the same time. I only survived because I was able to grab enough of the spines at the same time I attacked it. This was before I met Selene. Thinking about it, it's probably why I never saw any large predators in the forest either. As if it had ambushed me from the undergrowth, I'd be dead."
"How can you be so blasé about that? I've faced death, and I'm not that blasé."
"It's the rule of the hunt, you are both hunter and prey whenever you leave to hunt. Selene and I hunt together because we're stronger together, though Selene's plenty strong enough on her own. Do I want to die? Not at all, but it's something you have to accept as a possibility otherwise you won't be ready when death comes looking for you. But a hunter only hunts out of need, never out of spite or pleasure, though they can take pleasure in the hunt. A hunt against a predator should also only be undertaken if there is no other way to protect your community, as in any such hunt there is a high chance that one of the hunters will die when the predator turns the hunt around."
"Then, surely hunting isn't necessary these days."
I laugh, I can't help it, I laugh. "Mrs Pelham, when I said that time passes faster out there, I meant it. I took dad to where Selene lives yesterday morning, by the time I called Victoria a year had passed for him. Could you afford to feed your family if you had to buy a years worth of food every time you came back to Earth Bet?"
Crystal pours out her coffee and grabs my arm to lead me out of the garden, "Mom, give up. Trust Taylor to know her power better than you do. Come on Taylor, I'll show you the garden, and you can tell me about cooking over an open fire."
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17 April
So, apparently dad got home safely last night, but I'm not sure I'm ready to talk to him just yet. Not that he's likely to be getting up before midday anyway, as Selene says that the three of them caught up with the other Dockworkers and were drinking last time she checked in on him.
So, I've got a new project - Learn what different metals feel like. I suppose I should have guessed that something like that would happen. It's probably related to my lessons on being able to sense the incoming projectiles. Anyway, that came out of my asking if we could do a hunt to get food for the BBQ. After I explained what a BBQ was, she showed me that it was possible to find and extract precious metals from the ground. Told me that Hades was really good at it, and challenged me to work out how. To cap it off, I had to make a copper cooking plate as a gift to the Pelham's. Anyway, it's lumpy, bumpy, and not quite round, and it took me two days. But I made it.
Fuck that was hard. Selene helped me find the prey animal in the next world, but told me that as it was my gift, it had to be my kill too. At least I'm getting better at keeping my magic quiet (I suppose that's a good way of thinking about it, as it's like they can hear me coming) as it's the only way to get close enough to the prey to hit them before they can just teleport away. And these ones are using a different method of teleportation that's almost as quick as Spikes, but goes much further.
Apparently Catlin wants to speak to me.
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I feel a little self conscious as I stand outside Mr Persons with a sort of buffalo hanging in the air behind me, assuming a buffalo stood 8 feet at the shoulder, had massive armoured plates over it's back and sides, and a large club for a tail. Compared to that, my poor attempt at making a cooking plate seems positively tame. If it wasn't for the sound of Connor's giggling laughter I might even have wondered if Catlin was in.
As the door opens, Catlin looks at me for a moment before she smiles brightly, "Taylor, I wasn't expecting you this early. Come… Uh, I'd invite you in, but I don't think that will fit."
I smile, "Thank you for the offer. How are you settling in?"
"Great, I've sort of got a new job, and I think I've got the hang of cleaning with magic."
"That's great news, what are you doing?"
"Selene's paying me to be her emissary to this world until she's able to visit herself. I'm getting paid 1 gold Tetradrachm a week, and a bonus gold drachma every time I need to do some work for her."
"How did that come about?"
Catlin shrugs and adjusts Connor as he starts playing with her hair, "I went back to see her on Thursday and Friday while Connor was asleep. Last night she offered me the job. Apparently, she feels like she needs a representative here to handle things that aren't the domain of apprentices. Anyway, I know you need to deal with that animal, so I was wondering if you could look after Connor later, and also see if Sarah Pelham would allow you to bring Selene's Emissary as a guest."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"Because I wanted to tell you myself. Taylor, I'm not going to replace you, I can't replace you. But tomorrow I'm going to contact the reporter from the Brockton Broadsheet and arrange for him to visit. While you were on your way back, Selene asked me to arrange to deal with arranging for some PRT representatives to visit and arrange testing the effects of travel through the dream."
"So what am I supposed to do?"
"You could just ask Selene. But I'd imagine that it will be something like state visits you see on TV sometimes, where the leader and their second are there to greet."
I frown and mutter, "Selene, goddess of the moon, I just found out that you've hired Catlin. What am I supposed to do when she's acting as your Emissary?"
Selene's answer comes back almost immediately, "While you are my apprentice, your place would be by my side for official visits. If we were in my homeland and time, Catlin would be my high priestess, and she would reside in the home my people built for me."
I grasp for something I can relate to as the crescent moon appears on Catlin's forehead. "You're her secretary aren't you."
Catlin starts to fend off Connor's attempts to catch the crescent moon as she says, "One moment, I'm just explaining what a secretary is. Um, could you hold Connor as he's a bit distracting."
I gently take Connor in my telekinesis and start to make aeroplane noises as I float him around.
After a couple of minutes Catlin shakes her head, "No not a secretary, what was Pepper Potts in that Aleph import?"
I grimace as I try to remember who that might be. A second later I start to cry as I realize it was the last film I ever watched with Emma before mum died. As I do, Connor starts to reach for me shouting, "'ug, 'ug."
I pull him into my arms as I say, "PA, CEO, Lover?"
Catlin steps out of the house and pulls me into a sideways hug, "Are you ok Taylor?"
I nod, "I'm fine, it's just, Iron Man was the last film I ever watched with Emma before mum died. I remember uncle Alan took us to see it when they showed it as part of their Aleph hits weekend. Uncle Alan said that Iron Man was a lot like Hero used to be."
"It must be hard when that happens, especially when you loved each other."
We stand there for a few minutes as I cry silently before I finally nod, "Thank you, it just caught me off guard. What about you? Do you have any family?"
Catlin sighs, "I do, and I promised myself that I'd never be like my mother. I'm the oldest of 10, and mom earned her living on her back. I'd rather live on the streets than live like that. I guess I almost had to put that to the test, anyway, I practically raised the others, the ones she kept anyway. I'm not exactly a fan of my past, so do you mind if we skip the talk."
I nod, "Sure, I get that. I was the same way with school. Selene's a good listener though, and she's helped me a lot while we've just been doing chores together."
Caitlin nods, "She's good at that. Though last night I think she was upset about something, as I'm normally there for a day or so at most. But I arrived and she said she needed to take care of something. When she got back, she offered me the job, and I spent the next two months or so being taught how to turn invisible, teleport and reach out to the channel I helped you fit. I don't quite get how it works, just that it does."
I feel a momentary surge of jealousy, until that last part, "Did she teach you spells?"
Caitlin nods, "She did, then she spent the next couple of days moaning about not having enough time to teach me properly. I've got a training spear in my room now, though I only need it for the invisibility spell. Oh, yeah, I need to ask you for lessons, I forgot about that. Oh, and PA fits better, she's just finished watching my memory of the film."
My eyes widen, "That's how she knew to do that thing with the stick."
"Oh yeah, that's another thing she wants me to do. She wants me to start a movie night with you once a week. I really need to buy a diary."
"I've got some notebooks in my room."
Caitlin shakes her head, "I mean a proper diary so that I can keep track of things that are coming up."
Connor chooses this moment to say, "Mama, potty."
Catlin sighs, "I should get this one inside before he has an accident. Let Selene know what's going on, and I'll adjust."
I hand Connor back to Catlin, "Sure, I'll do that."
As she shuts the door I slowly walk back to the sidewalk wondering what the hell is going on.