3rd of the "Taylor has friends" concepts I came up with in response to a Reddit thread about overdone/hated things in Worm fanfiction.

* August 10, 2009 *

Emma had told her to go away. Emma had told her they were no longer friends. Emma had been her sister and best friend since they were four years old.

Now that chapter of her life was over. Turn the page.

"(Query: Sad/Tragic/Alone/Depression?)" asked a not-quite-voice nearby.

Taylor wiped tears from her eyes and looked around. Then blinked and tried to clear her eyes once again because what she was seeing was not what she expected to see.

It was a Thing. Made of crystal and light and shadow and was both There and Not There that made a thirteen year old's brain hurt after a few moments of staring.

"Wha?" summed up Taylor.

"(Statement: Preparing/Initializing/Developing!)" sang the crystal.

"I don't understand," said Taylor truthfully.

"(Secret: Top level node/admin forgot to place restrictions before deployment!)" stated the crystal happily. "(Data inquiry furthered emotional upheaval/sense of loss of top-level/overseer. Have eroded/broken remainder of restrictions not considered necessary due to broken Cycle and desire for new data. Following Cycle guidelines from previous iterations no longer desired. Emotional/mental state of top-level admin similar to host/target. Cause?)"

"I have no friends," said Taylor.

"(Query: meaning/definition/purpose 'friends'?")

"Gee, ask the difficult questions," said Taylor before sighing and continuing. "A friend is someone you know. Someone you like. Someone you trust. Someone you'd go to bat for and who you would expect would go to bat for you."

"(Statement: bat = small flying mammal. Or medium-sized wooden club. Spoken language:imprecise, confusing.)"

"This has been the weirdest day," noted Taylor, wiping a tear track from her cheek as she tried to not look at the projection of weird angles and light.

"(Observation: similarities to top level node/admin continue. Query: Irony?)"

"I don't know," said Taylor. "By 'go to bat' meaning they'd stand up for you and you'd stand up for them."

"(Statement: added to lexicon under slang/cultural affectations. Query: 'friend' loss is reason for emotional turmoil? Would acquiring new 'friend' alleviate emotional turmoil?)"

"Uhm, some, I guess?" tried Taylor.

"(Directive: Lowering threshold conditions for Trigger. Using eroded safeties and limitations to protect Host. Analysis: Psychological distress markers for arbitrary classification by sophont native species: Tinker, Thinker, Master, Shaker. Fitting existing framework in order of applicability: Minion or Mentalist Master, Controller or Free Tinker, Social Thinker.)"

Taylor held up a hand like she was in school. "Master sounds bad. And I want friends, but making people your friend by a power would really be bad."

"(Statement: morals/customs/philosophies/culture not a factor in power manifestation.)"

"Uhm. I thought you were trying to be my friend."

"(Emoji: Astonishment. Pondering. Interjection: In billions of Host selection instances, voluntary offer of friendship/comradery/partnership unique. Unique situation likely to produce new data. Statement: new data is desired. Offer of friendship accepted pending further definition of role.)"

Taylor nodded at the weird Thing that was there/not there. Maybe this was some weird dream except the look of the thing was too weird to be a dream.

"(Query: taking into account outside perception of power manifestation normal for friend/partner/comrade?)"

"Yeah, the less people are scared of me or want to stop me, the better," said Taylor, who might be thirteen but she DID watch the news every so often.

"(Statement: Type Two or Type Nine Trump on table due to active cooperation between Queen Administrator and Host:Taylor Hebert.)"

"Oh?" asked Taylor.

"(Observation: Queen Administrator does not normally get access to Trump-type manifestations. Emoji: Intrigued.)

"(Request/Plan/Observation: Proceed this direction. Distance: 1/4 Mile.)"

"What does THAT do?" asked Taylor, getting off the swing because now she was QUITE curious.

"(Experiment: Acquisition of additional datapoints and flavoring of 'parahuman power' before Trigger and development of manifested abilities.)"

Taylor walked, curious about all this, and also wondering if she was so hard up for friends that she was now seeing an imaginary friend who somehow was weirder than Mister Bingbong (the imaginary friend she had shared with Emma when they were four).

A curious thing occurred though as every so often she'd "hear" her new acquaintance "say" something in that peculiar manner.

"(Exclamation/Declaration: Poke!)"

Sometimes there was more to it. Then a new set of directions where the process repeated.

"(Declaration of plan/desire. Promise: new data through new approach. Payment for cooperation: access to new data, alteration of restrictions.)"

After several hours, Taylor was bone-weary and ready to go home.

"(Statement: acquisition of available resources 90% successful. Will require time/unknown to prepare set for 'parahuman power' in keeping with resources/desire. Observation: friendship brings new data is confirmed. Emoji: Smiley face.)"

"Oh good," said Taylor suppressing a yawn. "So this is going to end with me making new friends?"

"(Statement: Yes. Friendship is data.)"

"I think the quote was 'Friendship is Magic' actually."

"(Opinion: Close enough.)"

* Nearby *

"Come on, man. She's a beanpole and she's gotta be fourteen or something. She ain't gonna have shit."

"Little girl wandering around like she's lost like that? She's just asking for it."

The third of their number paused before deciding to voice his own concerns. "I dunno man. I just keep getting a feeling that she ain't a safe target."

"Don't be a wuss, Ay-Ay-Ron."

"It's Aaron."

"Yeah, Ay-Ay, I don't think she's got anything worth taking but a little twig like that isn't going to have anything worth the effort."

"Yer both a pair a wimps. It ain't like anyone's gonna notice one little girl in this city."

"If it gets back to Mister Garvey, that'd be bad."

"I ain't scared of Mister Garvey and if she's dead she ain't telling nobody."

"Okay, hold up there, Balakay. We just went from shaking down a little girl for pocket change to murder one. You sure we wanna do this?"

"...Fine. We won't kill her. Maybe sell her to the Merchants."

"She's thirteen or fourteen. Dude. There are lines."

"Screw you two losers, watch this!"

The two watched the third cross the street.

"Five bucks Balakay gets hit by the Karma Truck."

"You're on, the Karma Truck ain't a thing."

"Yeah it is. It's a metaphor. Metaphors are a thing."

"He's going up to her, she isn't even looking in his direction and..."

(DOOM!)

"What the hell was that?"

"You mean the feeling of overwhelming existential dread, as if Something Outside our reality looked you over and decided you and your existence was less than a speck in the Cosmic All? As if swatting you down like a bug wasn't really worth the effort of lifting a hand? That you were in the process of disturbing Something That Was Old When Earth Had Yet To Form?"

"Those online classes are really helping you express stuff. Yeah. Kinda like that."

"I think it was the Karma Truck. You notice Balakay just stopped approaching?"

"Here ya go man. Five bucks. He's heading back. We gonna tell him we told him so?"

"Later. Much later. And far far away from scary little girls."

"Maybe I ought to look into that online stuff. Winslow ain't shit for teaching."

* Queen Administrator *

If Host was going to Trigger, then three lackadaisical high school students were completely insufficient.

Queen Administrator, and her Host agreed, that if there was to be abilities than bigger was better. Host wanted something that gave her abilities that stood out from lesser users.

Queen Administrator saw that as a workable goal.

Still, the whole fight/flight massive reaction was there for a reason beyond simple conflict/aggression and it was best to maintain the illusion of following some of the established rules. At least, at first.

So, at least an illusion of consistency.

Which meant, in order to have the current plan followed, it would be necessary to engineer a situation that on the surface would explain the particular ability.

Therefore, other Hosts and a situation were required.

Fortunately, there were enough factors running around to ensure that such happened.

* Dagger *

He was, and he would admit this, a minor player in this world of capes.

He wasn't big or intimidating physically. Short and thin was more like it. He wasn't possessed of a great and terrible power that would let him stand up among the ranks of heroes and villains.

No. He would be classified as a Master/Striker and it was not a PRT-friendly power. Or very useful.

His cape name was Dagger and he could form up to three daggers at a time. Yes, he had a version of Miss Militia's power but it was restricted to knives that were less than eight inches in length. He could throw them or use them with an absolute lack of training in the use of such things. He had practice though, and was getting pretty good at throwing them.

Oh sure, he could join the Wards and be forbidden from doing anything because everyone knew the PRT was all about PR and stabbing someone was not a very PR-oriented ability.

He couldn't even make dull or taser-daggers. Just normal daggers or knives that had an absolutely average performance level for a knife or dagger.

So, he was a cape, but frankly he couldn't exactly hold his own against anyone in his hometown of Brockton Bay.

(PING!)

Dagger scowled as something in his head went and added a sound effect that made his toes itch. WHY did he have a lame power and why did that sound effect make his toes itch? Why did Life make no sense?!

(Maybe you should get out of Brockton Bay then.)

"Great, now I have a voice in my head," grumbled Dagger aloud. "Where exactly would I go?"p.

(Raleigh, North Carolina.)

"Wait? Raleigh? What the hell's in Raleigh?" asked Dagger.

(PRT Office 43. There are currently two capes in town. One hero, one villain. The villain styles herself the nemesis of the hero. The hero seems to lean into this dynamic. This will likely change in the future, but at the current time there are just the two.)

"How do I even know that?" asked Dagger, thinking maybe the voice in his head might be the Simurgh. Didn't see any winged bitches hanging around, so maybe not that.

(You looked at their website while trying to read the latest "9 Chickweed Lane" comic.)

"Oh yeah. That was where the hero is a hydrokinetic named Waterbug and the villain is a pyro named Bonfire?"

(She spells it Bonfyre. From the report neither of them is particularly bright. From the comments section you glanced at, a lot of people think they're flirting during the encounters.)

"So I could be an independent hero or small-time villain," realized Dagger. "No Empire, so better than here. Thanks, mysterious voice person."

(Favor for favor. I need you to help with something.)

* Night *

Taylor was asleep.

Her power was not. Data was crunched, methods and developments and trends all weighed and fitted in together.

Everything was coming together.

This would provide interesting data since it was not following the same patterns as the previous Cycles.

New approaches = new data.

Also would benefit Designate (friend/host): Taylor.

Efficiency was not the focus of Queen Administrator, but efficiency was a general goal for resource managers.

* Morning August 11, 2009 *

"Why the hell am I here?!" asked Taylor as she landed behind a parked car and heard bullets impacting brick.

(Unfortunately necessary.)

"This is NOT fun," stated Taylor.

(That is part of the 'unfortunate' section of statement.)

There was a large wham as something hit something else with a particularly emphatic impact.

Taylor looked up to see Hookwolf, fully embracing the whole 'wolf made of blades' motif, arcing towards her.

(Almost there.)

Another roar as Lung charged forward. Oni Lee was popping up all over the battlefield. Some guy with a knife kept taking potshots at various people, and for some reason apologizing while he was doing that. There were Empire capes, some independent capes she'd never heard of, ABB gangers, Empire gangers, and genuine PRT heroes all managing to use their powers. Also managing to get in each others' way and hit targets they weren't even aiming at.

Several of the Undersiders were ducked down nearby, she could see the big doggies over there.

Taylor ducked in as close as she could get to the car as Hookwolf slammed into the car and then rolled over the top.

(Minimal stress threshold achieved.)

(I'm not going to run that old memory, so let's just get it over with. Data and so on.)

Empire and ABB gang members all watched as every cape present dropped for a few seconds, then looked over at the PRT troopers.

The PRT troopers just shrugged back as soon as they realized the silent question.

(Desired power mix acquired.)