Mr. Saturday Night Special

08

Commissioned by alethiophile.

"You want to take her to see…?

"Panacea. Amy Dallon," Shinji explained, taking a drag from his smoke. "Spoke to her a while ago and she wanted to do a checkup on Taylor. I figure, world's best healer says she wants to give you a free checkup, you don't turn her down. I don't know about you, but I know my insurance doesn't include that."

"Heh," Danny chuckled, shaking his head. "No, it doesn't. Should I go, or…?"

Shinji shrugged. "You can if you want, but I think she wants to talk to your daughter privately, and I need to talk to her about a few things related to the case. It's up to you. I can't tell you the right move here, Danny. I'm not a father."

Sighing, Danny sipped at his beer. "I'm not much of one either," he muttered. "She trusts you. Hell, I think she's opened up and spoken more to you lately than she has with me in months."

"Sometimes, it's easier to talk to a stranger than it is to talk to family."

"You didn't let her down when she needed you most. I should have—"

"Yeah, you should've." Danny flinched at the words, but nodded. "Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Can't change the past, only the future. If you feel like you fucked up, do something about it. Moping about it isn't going to fix anything. Where you start making it right is up to you. But doing something, and being seen doing something, are important. Bringing down the school, making sure the administration who let it happen are punished, that's something you can do."

"Alright. I'll go call Carol and see if there's any update. I don't suppose you can give me anything?"

Shinji shook his head. "Sorry, no. All I can say is that I'm getting close. Just a few more steps, and then I'll be ready. A week, maybe two."

Running his hand down his stubbled face, Danny nodded. "Okay. Would you take her to see Panacea while I talk to Carol?"

"Sure."

With that, the pair made their way inside, where they found Taylor sitting on the couch, watching the local news talking about a recent robbery. She looked up at their entry, raising an eyebrow. "Taylor, I need to call our lawyer and talk to her about the case. Shinji is going to take you to see Panacea, so she can do a checkup."

"Now?" Taylor asked, and Shinji nodded. "I'll get my coat."

"I'll be in the car. Danny, I'll see you later. I'll try to have her back as soon as I can." With that, Shinji made his way back outside and climbed in, turning on the car and setting the heater to full blast, he only had to wait a minute for Taylor to come rushing out of the house. She climbed into the passenger seat and buckled up, and Shinji pulled out.

"Brr," the girl shivered, hunching in on herself.

"It's January, what did you expect?" Shinji chuckled. Reaching out, he turned on the radio. Taylor raised an eyebrow, sending him an amused look. "What?"

"Why does that sound like it came straight out of the Maltese Falcon or something?"

It was Shinji's turn to send the girl a skeptical look. Taylor blushed and looked away under the scrutiny. "Because it is ripped from an old detective movie. Question is, why do you recognize it?"

"I've been… studying," she murmured, looking out the window.

Funny. She and Madison have something in common, he mused, shaking his head.

The rest of the car ride passed in silence as Shinji focused on the road through the light snow, while Taylor watched the scenery go by outside. Eventually, they arrived at their destination and Taylor blinked. "This isn't the hospital?"

Shinji chuckled, shaking his head. "Did you think she spent all her time there?"

"Well, I mean…" the girl blushed as Shinji pulled into a parking spot.

"It's understandable. She does volunteer a couple of nights a week, but she also does patrols with her family. Shockingly, she even has a social life."

They got out and made their way across the gravel parking lot, into Fugly Bob's. "I want a shake. You want something?"

Taylor considered it for a moment before shaking her head. "I shouldn't."

"Suit yourself," Shinji nodded. "Find us a booth, would you?"

"Okay."

Shinji made his way up to the front and stood in line, sending off a text to Crystal to let her know they were there. After ordering a chocolate shake, he found Taylor sitting in the far back and dropped into the seat beside her, facing the rest of the restaurant. As a matter of habit, his eyes swept over the other patrons, assessing. Not seeing anything of interest, he focused on the door. Thankfully, they didn't have to wait long. After a few minutes, four younger people in costume entered—Crystal, another blonde, a boy with dyed blue hair, and a brunette.

Crystal spotted him and waved, turning and saying something to the boy beside her in a suit similar to her own, save that it had blue markings instead of pink. A moment later, she floated over and Shinji and Taylor made room on the bench. "It's fucking cold out there," Crystal shivered, forcing Shinji's coat open and pressing herself against his side.

Looking her over, he rolled his eyes. She was wearing her jacket this time, but it stopped at the waist. "Ever consider insulated suits?"

"Yeah. They look funny. They make you look fat. It's dumb, because they're not actually that much thicker than these, but something about it just looks wrong," she complained. Leaning forward, she smiled around Shinji. "Hey, Taylor. How're you doing?"

"Ah, hi," Taylor waved back awkwardly. "Pretty good?"

Reaching out, Crystal stole Shinji's shake and popped the straw in her mouth. "Mm. Bob's got the best stuff."

Shinji sighed, shaking his head. "You couldn't get your own?"

"I am! It's just going to take a while," the blonde shrugged.

A moment later, the other three joined them. The blonde and the blue haired boy eyed Shinji with curious looks, while Amy simply collapsed into her seat and shrank into herself. "So, who's your friend?" the blonde girl asked.

"Shinji, these are my brother Eric, or Shielder in costume, and my cousin Vicky, aka Glory Girl. You already know Amy," Crystal gestured first to the boy on the outside, then to Vicky in the middle, and Amy against the wall. "Guys, this is—"

Shinji extended his hand across the table, first to Eric. "Detective Shinji Kusanagi, BBPD. Off duty right now though, so just Shinji is fine."

"Shinji, Shinji… why's that sound familiar?" Vicky murmured as she shook the offered hand.

Amy rolled her eyes and sighed. "Because she wouldn't shut up about him. They went to high school together and dated."

"Oh right!" Vicky nodded, grinning. "So you're Shinji." Looking him up and down, her grin spread. "I see why now."

Crystal stuck out her tongue. "Hiding in the corner over there is Taylor. She's a friend. Your mom's working on her case."

"One of mom's clients?" Vicky asked, as Eric extended his hand to Taylor.

"Nice to meet you, Taylor," the boy grinned.

Taylor hesitated, before putting on a strained smile and accepting the hand. "Thanks."

"Hand, gimmie," Amy held out her own hand, making grabbing motions. Taylor made to shake, but Amy just latched on. Humming quietly, she considered Taylor for a moment before nodding. "You're good. No lasting damage."

"Damage?" Eric asked, sitting up a bit straighter as Vicky's attention turned fully to Taylor and Amy. "What do you mean?"

Taylor shrank into herself and Shinji shook his head. "I'm sure she'd rather not talk about it," he said, and Taylor nodded.

They turned to Amy, who shook her head. "Doctor/patient confidentiality."

They looked to Crystal, who laughed. "Lawyer/client confidentiality. Give it up, you two."

Vicky huffed a sigh. "Fine! So, I guess you two are dating?"

Shinji mostly tuned out of the conversation going on around him as Eric went and got their food when their order came up, and the trio of teens, plus Crystal, dug in. Reaching over, he stole some of Crystal's fries as payment for her going after his shake. Eventually, the group finished their food and began taking turns at the small, single-stall bathrooms. When Amy came back out, she met Taylor's eyes and asked, "Hey, can we talk for a minute?"

At his side, Taylor looked surprised and a bit confused. She hadn't really contributed much to their conversation, but the New Wave group had managed to draw her out of her shell eventually. Shinji slid out of the booth and Taylor followed Amy as the brunette led her outside.

"Um, what's up? Is this about the…?" Taylor trailed off, wondering if it was something Amy hadn't wanted to say in front of the others about the locker.

Moving away from the building and making sure they weren't being overheard, the brunette fished around in her pocket and came out with a cigarette. Taylor raised an eyebrow as Amy lit it. "Don't you start too. I've heard enough about it from Crystal," she grumbled, glaring back towards the restaurant.

"I wasn't going to say anything," Taylor held up her hands defensively.

Nodding, Amy led them deeper into the parking lot, eventually stopping at Shinji's car. Taylor's eyebrows crept towards her hairline when Amy pulled out Shinji's keys and unlocked the passenger side door. Popping open the glove box, she smiled at what she found inside, pulling out several hard packs of cigarettes. "Thank you, detective~," she murmured, before opening one and doing something to it that Taylor couldn't see, before putting it back in the glove box.

"What…?"

"Don't worry about it," Amy dismissed with a wave of her hand. "Anyway, why I dragged you out here." She closed up the glove box after pocketing her spoils and replacing a few opened packs, then closed the door and leaned against the car. Studying Taylor over the cherry on her smoke, she was silent for a few moments before nodding. "I can't do brains."

"Okay? I don't think there's anything wrong with mine—"

"You have a brain tumor."

"What?!" Taylor yelped, straightening up as her heart began to race. "Oh God—"

"Relax," Amy sighed, "it's benign. You have two, actually. So does Vicky. Eric. Crystal. Me too, presumably, but I can't use my powers on myself directly." She paused, taking a drag, before quietly asking, "Do you see where I'm going here?"

"No. Why would you all have brain tumors?" Taylor asked, now very confused. "I knew Brockton Bay was bad, but…"

The brunette snorted a quiet laugh, before shaking her head. "Because that's where powers come from. Well, we think," Amy shrugged. "They're related, anyway. Surgically removing the tumors removes the powers."

Taylor's eyes went wide at that and she looked around to make sure they weren't being overheard, panicking for an entirely different reason now. "I don't—"

"It's okay. I'm not going to tell anyone. It's part of the unwritten rules. Don't harass a cape in their civilian identity. Don't try to find out someone's civilian identity. If you do find out, don't tell anyone. Our parents were pretty big on hammering those into our heads growing up, because not respecting them got one of our family killed, some years back."

"O-oh," Taylor murmured. Biting her bottom lip, she asked, "What now?"

Amy shrugged, before pulling out a notepad and pen, scribbling something down before handing it to Taylor. "That's up to you. That's my number, if you want to talk some time."

"Why?"

Amy took a breath and let it out in a long sigh. "As a community, we don't like to talk about it, but every parahuman goes through what's called a trigger event. Basically, a 'worst day of your life' situation, and then you get powers as a shitty consolation prize. Some are worse than others. Vicky had hers when someone fouled her during a basketball game. Crystal had a stalker chase her down and," she trailed off, wincing. "Mine was when Vicky was injured two years ago, before she got her powers, when a gang attacked the mall."

Dropping her butt, she crushed it under her heel and pulled her hood up, nodding towards the restaurant, where the others were making their way over. Reaching out, she handed Taylor Shinji's keys. "Point is, it sucks. For all of us." She paused, before rolling her eyes, "Well, most of us anyway. But it helps to talk about it. Like, a lot. And if you don't want to talk about it, it still helps to have friends who know what it's like. You don't have to put on a cape if you don't want to. No one's forcing you to. But if you want to talk about that, or do some experimentation, it'd probably be handy to have a healer on tap, right?"

Taylor considered for a moment, before nodding slowly, once. Quietly, she said, "Bugs."

"Hm?"

"I control bugs," Taylor murmured.

"Hm. Okay. Talk more later?" Amy asked, and Taylor nodded. "Think about talking to Crystal too. She's got a lot more experience with this than us."

"Talk to me about what?" Crystal asked as the others joined them.

"The best way to kiss my ass," Amy snarked. "We ready?"

"Brat," Crystal rolled her eyes. "We're good."

Amy held out her hands and Vicky picked her up, and the small group lifted into the air, before taking off. Taylor held out Shinji's keys and he collected them, before starting the drive back to Taylor's home. As they drove, Taylor thought over what Amy had said. As they neared her home, she eventually asked, "Can I tell you something?"

"Sure."

"Will you keep it a secret?"

Shinji glanced over at her, but found she was looking out the window. "Yeah."

She was silent for a few moments before finally forcing out, "I have powers."

"Okay."

Taylor turned in her seat, studying him. "'Okay?' That's it?"

"What do you want me to say?"

Taylor opened and closed her mouth for a moment, before crossing her arms and glaring halfheartedly out the windshield. "I don't know? Something other than 'okay?' You don't really even sound surprised."

"I'm not," he admitted. "Thing is, there's actually a protocol for this. You were visited by a PRT agent while you were in the hospital, right?"

Frowning, the girl thought back to her short time in the hospital and nodded. "Yeah. I think so. I guess he kind of got lost in the shuffle between all the nurses, doctors, police, and the other detective."

"SOP is to check in on victims of any sort of extremely stressful situation. That's because it's kind of an open secret that most parahumans got their powers after something bad happened to them."

"Oh."

Shooting her a glance as he turned onto her street, Shinji slowed the car and pulled to a stop on the curb and dropped the car into park. "Besides, it's not like you're the only one."

"Yeah. New Wave," she murmured, and Shinji shook his head.

"Not just them."

Blinking, Taylor sent him a curious look. "You too?"

"Yep."

The girl hummed, before unbuckling her seat belt and turning in her seat to face him more fully. "What can you do?"

Shinji thought about how to phrase what he wanted to say. After a moment, he said, "I guess you could call it a Thinker/Striker power."

"I know what those are," she nodded. "But what does it do?"

Reaching up, Shinji palmed his face. "I really don't think—"

"Come on. Please?"

The detective sighed. "Best sex of your life."

"Eh?" Taylor blinked, before turning beet red. "No way! You're pulling my leg."

"Yes, way. Basically, I know what a girl likes and wants, and things get better the longer it goes. And that's all I'm going to say on it."

The girl shook her head. "That's… kind of weird."

"Not really. There are weirder powers," Shinji shrugged. "So, what about you?"

"Ah! Right. I control bugs."

"Really?" Shinji asked, as internally he grinned. Taylor with the same powers she had in what he remembered of canon, he could work with. He seemed to recall that her shard got up to some absolute bullshit that bugs by themselves shouldn't have been capable of, to the point where she had to actually be enhancing her bugs and the things that came from them somehow—like a low-tier Tinker.

Frowning, the girl looked away. "You don't have to sound so enthusiastic about it. It's just bugs. They're useless."

"Is that what you think?" Shinji raised an eyebrow. Checking the time on his dash clock, he nodded towards her belt. "Buckle up."

Taylor nodded and fastened her belt, then Shinji pulled away, taking them back into town. Stopping at a packing supply store, he bought a pack of envelopes, before taking them to a park. "Bring me a bug."

"Okay…" the girl hesitantly nodded. After a few moments, she rolled down her window and a wasp flew inside.

"Put it in here," Shinji instructed, opening the envelope. Once the wasp was inside, Shinji sealed the envelope. "Stay here and don't watch. Close your eyes."

"Is this really necessary?" Taylor sighed.

"Yes," he grinned. "Close 'em."

Taylor closed her eyes and Shinji got out. He walked several yards away, behind a small building, before moving into a group of trees. He put the envelope at the foot of one, covering it over with leaves so it wouldn't be visible, then wiped his hands off and made his way back. He opened the car long enough to shut it off and grab his keys. "Alright. Go get me that bug."

"What? I'll never be able to find it!" she protested, even as she climbed out.

"Sure you will. I have faith in you. Don't think about it too hard and just go get it."

Taylor grumbled quietly to herself, stuffing her hands in her jacket pockets, as she started following the sidewalk, Shinji following behind her. "This is dumb."

Shinji ignored her complaining as the girl walked along, turning around the building and looking around for a moment before walking towards the trees as a frown pulled at her lips. After a few moments, she stopped and bent down, digging the envelope out. "Huh. Okay. But what good is it? I can't see or hear through them. Bug senses are a mess."

"For now. You can't see or hear through them yet. I bet you could practice and get good enough to do it. Train with them in private and figure out what works best. Use a bunch at the same time. And as you just demonstrated, even if you can't see or hear through them, you can clearly pinpoint one bug in whatever your range is with complete accuracy. There are lots of possibilities there for gathering information, tracking, infiltration, and more."

Making an annoyed sound, Taylor asked, "What am I supposed to do in a fight though? Bugs aren't exactly going to hurt someone." Shinji looked down to the envelope in her hand. The envelope containing a live wasp. "Oh. But, no, I can't. Someone might be allergic."

"So use the threat of it. No one likes bugs, Taylor. How many can you control? A dozen? A hundred?"

"Uhh… there are about," Taylor blinked, "2,561,486. How, how did I know that?"

"Thinker power. How many of those can you control?"

"All of them," the girl whispered.

"Well, there you go. A biblical swarm of bugs. And remember, it's winter. More will breed come spring. So, what do you think? Think someone is going to be willing to fight when they're covered in that many bugs? When they've got bugs crawling up their pants, biting and stinging every inch of skin, on the face, up the nose, ears, eyes."

Taylor shuddered and shook her head. "No."

"Alright then. So, how about we practice with this some more tomorrow—"

"Why not now?"

"Well, I am supposed to get you home…" Shinji hemmed.

"An extra hour can't hurt, can it?" she asked, and Shinji sighed as her pleading tone actually managed to get to him.

"Okay. Fine. One hour."

"Yes!" the girl cheered.

"Come on, let's get in the car. I'd rather do this where it's warm," Shinji grumbled, leading her back to his car. They piled in and he began. "Alright, bring as many of them as you can here, where we can see them. I want to see what you can do."

"Okay!"

Shinji had just finished pulling on his tie when his phone rang. Seeing it was the office, specifically from Sgt. Baker's desk phone, he picked it up. "Kusanagi."

"It's Sgt. Baker. Tell me you've got something, son," the man spoke quietly into the phone.

"Yes, sir. I've got one more lead I want to run down, before I'm ready to have a search warrant issued."

"Thank Christ. Listen, you need to hurry up. The chief wants this one bad, so does the DA. The mayor wants it shut down just as bad. The commissioner is… cagey. He wants it, but not at the risk of his job. They're going to close the case if you don't deliver something soon."

"Fast is sloppy, boss. I can sink it with another week. I just need some time to apply pressure to another witness."

"You don't have another week," Sgt. Baker warned. "You've got two days to finish up what you're doing, get a warrant, and get us something concrete."

"Shit. Yes, sir."

"Good man."

With that, the sergeant hung up. Shinji dropped his phone on his table with an annoyed grunt. "Fuck."

Okay, today's a school day. I can take a couple of hours to prepare, then go after Hess. Lean on her hard. Problem is, I haven't had time to really get any info about her out of Emma. So… Go into the school, call Emma in, talk to her officially, then go from there.

Nodding to himself, he pocketed his phone and made his way into his work room. Pulling out a spare set of cuffs, he opened one of the drawers and began taking out parts. Shinji wasn't a Tinker, but you didn't have to be to be mechanically or electrically inclined.

Let's hope I'm remembering right and this works. Fuck I hope it wasn't just fanon.

Shinji checked his watch as he considered what he had learned from Emma about Sophia, while making his way from the school to his car. It boiled down to a few simple facts that only really reinforced his impression of her.

Sophia didn't respect authority, she only respected strength. Sophia felt she was at the top of any food chain and believed herself to be a 'predator,' and most other people as 'prey.' She had a troubled home life—father in jail, mother a drugged up whore in the literal sense, selling herself for drugs and money. She hated most of the other Wards, or thought they were weak, and felt like Piggot and the entire system were handicapping her in her handling of villains—which they were, Shinji knew, because that was the Cauldron Idiot Plan.

Perhaps most importantly… Sophia didn't have a patrol tonight, Emma's parents wouldn't be home, and Emma had convinced Sophia and Madison to come over so they could finalize the plan for Taylor's big return, next week. It gave Shinji a window of opportunity to hit Sophia in her civilian life, in the place where she would be expecting it least. Somehow, he doubted Sophia would be as easy to deal with as Madison and Emma.

Madison, once he had her cornered, was willing and eager, and had jumped on his dick of her own volition. He was coming to understand that the small brunette was a special kind of twisted in the head, but he could appreciate it when it worked out for him. If she wanted to be his minion, he would make use of her.

Emma… Emma was just plain fucked up. He had gotten the story out of her, after fucking her. She had nearly been raped by a member of the ABB and it was only Sophia's intervention, as Shadow Stalker, that saved her. The event broke Emma and Sophia spent the summer putting the pieces back together how she liked, in her own image, culminating in convincing Emma that she needed to cut all ties to her old life outside of her parents. Taylor was the first to go, but Emma confessed that Sophia had begun mocking Madison behind her back and suspected Madison would be the next project.

In short, Madison required the least amount of work. Some attention, some positive reinforcement and a little negative reinforcement when she needed it, and she was good. He didn't even have to take a heavy-handed approach to her with his power, beyond making sure to blow her mind with really good sex every now and then. Emma was going to be the complete opposite end of the spectrum, and Shinji had already begun the process of mentally breaking her down, destroying what Sophia had done, so he could build her back up better than she was. She needed a lot of consistent negative reinforcement, verbal and physical both, and an equal amount of aftercare and positive reinforcement.

Sophia… he had gotten the impression that she was going to be a fucking problem if he didn't come down on her hard and fast. She was strong-willed enough not to fold as Emma had, and she wasn't desperately thirsty like Madison. She also had the Protectorate backing her, so she thought she was untouchable to anyone outside the Protectorate—and her handler had done everything she could to reinforce that notion. The problem was… she wasn't exactly wrong. The moment it came to light that she was a Ward, the moment the DA went after her on any sort of parahuman-related grounds, jurisdiction would fall to the PRT. Everything he got on her absolutely needed to come from the civilian side of things, if it went to trial.

If, Shinji mused. If I can get her under my thumb, that's another story.

He shook his head as he considered that thought. Less than a month ago, Shinji had been on the straight and narrow for years. He had resisted the temptation to use his power and become, as Crystal had put it, a mini-Heartbreaker. And it had been tempting. It would have been easy to track down certain people, make friends with them, get close, and then influence them. Not just capes, but people within the city's political infrastructure, women inside nearly every major gang in Brockton Bay, women in the PRT and Protectorate at the highest levels. All he needed was to knock over the right dominoes… Find the right person, turn her, then get her to make introductions and turn the next, and the next, and so on until he had built up a network of women loyal to him.

But he hadn't. The risk was too great and Shinji himself didn't like the idea of using his power on people who didn't deserve it unless it was necessary. Which is why what happened with Crystal was his biggest regret, and the biggest part of why he'd avoided her for five years.

And now, here he was… An assassination of a fellow police officer under his belt—never mind that the man was corrupt and actively selling out his brothers in blue. Two girls influenced with his power, one of whom he was basically planning to completely rework from the ground up, mentally speaking. Planning to do the same to a third. Maybe more. Probably more.

All because canon was coming. Or at least, something like it. Enough events were playing out similarly that he couldn't just ignore it anymore, or take a 'wait and see' approach. Shinji didn't want to die—he didn't want to become a statistic, should any one of the events from canon come to Brockton Bay and shit all over the city. Bakuda, Leviathan, the Nine, Golden Morning. If he could avert some or all of that, or find a way to just quietly fuck off and leave it all behind, then he would. But at the end of the day, he was most concerned with staying alive. And it was looking more and more like the best way to do that was to use his power to make sure of it.

To that end, building a group of people who could keep him alive and take out potential threats made sense. Hess's power was useful. If he could get her under control, turn her into a well-trained attack dog instead of a rabid mutt biting at everything that came near, then she would be very handy to have…

He was pulled from his thoughts as he arrived at Emma's subdivision. Pulling down to the end of the cul-de-sac, Shinji made sure his badge was visible and parked. He got out of the car, heading back up the street. Slipping around to the rear of Emma's house, Shinji quickly unlocked the back door with his auto-pick. Moving to the alarm keypad at the front of the house, he disarmed the system using Emma's own code. Then, he moved up the stairs, following Emma's directions. Finding her bedroom, he slipped inside and looked around.

Grabbing her desk chair, he pulled it behind the door and sat down in the dark, after checking to make sure that the girl's vanity mirror wouldn't give away his position. He spent a moment checking his taser and making sure it was fully charged, before pulling out his cuffs. Those, he checked the switch on again before turning them off and holding them tightly in his hand, in the open position. He was only going to get one shot at this, and if she phased reflexively, he was fucked.

Still… No reason not to use the same tactic twice if it works.

Eventually, he heard the front door open and close, and three sets of footsteps coming up the stairs. Carefully standing, he silently moved the chair away and got ready, pressing the switch on the cuffs. A moment later, the bedroom door opened and he watched as Emma cleared the doorway, flipping the light on and moving towards her desk. An unfamiliar, darker form followed behind her, followed by Madison, who immediately stopped and closed the door, clearing the way for him.

Shinji made his move, lunging the three or so feet between himself and Sophia and slapping one of the cuffs on her wrist, before grabbing the other arm and twisting it behind her back. "POLICE! Sophia Hess, you are under arrest!"