Note: Reading week is over. My upload schedule is whenever I finish a chapter. That means they'll be coming slower now.

-The Light of Brockton Bay-

- Taylor's POV

The air rushing past my face is probably fast enough to make me look like one of those cartoon characters when they stick their faces out the window of a car. I've never heard anybody tell me how flying through the air feels to them, but to me this is exhilarating. The wind moving by me is unlike anything I've felt before, and looking down on Brockton Bay as people whiz by is a sight to behold.

Although once you're in the air, you start to see just how much the city is actually suffering. When you're on the ground, you can see the garbage on the streets, but you can't see all the garbage. You can't see just how many tents are in a homeless encampment when you're on the ground. The air above even feels fresher than the stuff below.

I'm in Victoria's left arm while Amy is in her right arm. Apparently Amy often takes 'Air Vicky' to get around town, as long as it's convenient for the both of them. I had seen a few pieces of art of PHO of Victoria holding Amy like a child would hold their favourite cat, their entire lower bodies hanging. I thought it was just a joke, but now that I think about it, if Victoria moves Amy around with her own flight, then its kind of accurate.

I still feel a little scared that Victoria will drop me, but she assured me she's carried 2 people at once before. Although Victoria saying, "If anything goes wrong, we at least have Ames here to fix you up." Isn't reassuring. Amy looks like she's okay with being carried in one arm, so it's probably fine.

I'm still confused why Amy would invite me. I get that we're both heroes, but that doesn't mean she has to make me feel better about myself. Almost any girl my age in this city would hang out with Panacea and Glory Girl; I don't know what I've done to deserve this.

'What if they're tricking me?' Would Amy do that, would Victoria? 'They're going to abandon me too.' No, Amy wouldn't do that, right? She saves thousands of people a week in the hospital; she isn't cruel like that. 'She's going to abandon me like everyone else; I'm nothing but a toy she will get bored with; this friendship will burn like a matchstick.'

I stop the thoughts. I'm wearing Seven Association. Those are distinctly Scorched Girl thoughts. This is... concerning, to say the least. 'Fuck, are the others going to start bleeding through eventually?' It's already trouble that my powers affect my personality when I wear specific identities.

I... I'm just going to hope that isn't going to be a commonly recurring problem. I know Amy isn't going to do something like that. She's a genuinely caring person, and she wouldn't go to the hospital to heal if she wasn't. Maybe this won't be a lasting friendship, but I highly doubt it will be a toxic one. I should just enjoy my luck while it lasts.

That begs the question: What are we going to be doing? Emma and I used to hang out at each other's houses when I was younger. Am I going to their house? As if to answer my questions, Victoria slowed her flight to let us hear her speak. "Hillside's only a minute away. A few of my friends are already there."

Hillside Mall is a mall that's near the boardwalk. Me and my dad usually go to Weymouth since it's closer, but Hillside is a lot better. My house is located just between the ABB, Empire, and the Protectorate-controlled territories. I'm surprised that the streets around my house aren't already a battleground with the 3-way stalemate on top of it.

I can just see Hillside coming into view. The front-facing wall is a set of large planes of glass that were rounded to allow the second floor to overlap on top of the front entrance. The food court sits above the entrance, and as I get closer, I can see hundreds of people eating fast food for dinner.

I still haven't taken off my mask; I know that Amy knows my identity, but Victoria doesn't. Both Amy and Victoria had changes of clothes at the hospital, which surprised me. I could get Amy having a set, but why would Victoria have one? I guess it could make sense if she goes from the hospital to doing civilian activities often, and its not like the hospital is going to forbid the sister of Panacea from storing an outfit on the premises.

We slowly descend in front of the mall; I land with a stumble, but it looks like Amy's done this enough times already to land gracefully. There's a group of 2 guys walking up to us; Victoria runs up to give the guy with blond hair a kiss. Amy grumbles about something that I couldn't quite hear.

The guy with the red hair gave a mock look of surprise. "You got Amy to hang out instead of sitting and healing all day? By Scion above, its a late Christmas miracle." Amy's glare makes him shrink back just a bit.

"Who's this? I don't remember them, and they look like a cape." The guy with blond hair points at me.

Victoria gets out of the blond guys arms and ushers the group to get closer. "Okay, time for introductions! Everyone, this is Da'at, Brockton Bay's newest independent hero."

I could see the recognition in their eyes and the slight shock shown from the slight relaxing of their jaws. "Wait, you were the one that took down Mush today!" The red one exclaims.

I feel a little awkward receiving the praise. "Yeah, I beat him earlier today." I give a brief pause. "The news must have covered that quick; it hasn't even been like 3 hours since it happened."

The redheaded one had a slight jerk and stopped moving. Suddenly things were a lot more tense. Victoria and the brown-haired guy were failing at hiding their nervousness behind fake smiles. 'What the hell did I say to get this kind of reaction?'

What's wrong? Did I say something bad? Well, obviously I did if this is the sort of reaction they're having. But how could wondering how the news had gotten the story so fast be a bad thing?

"No, I saw it on PHO." The red-haired guy lies. I can tell it was most likely a lie because his body language changed, his left arm had a minor twitch, and his eyes were no longer directly looking at me. I have done to many impromptu interrogations to not spot signs of lying that obvious.

Why would he lie though? If he didn't get it from the news and he didn't get it from PHO, where could he have... Oh. Only the PRT is left, and now that I think about it, news stations shouldn't even have my name if they did cover it. I haven't spread my name around enough that people would know me by name. That would mean he works at the PRT, but I doubt from the way he looks he's above 18. Which would leave the wards. If he is in the wards, then the reactions make sense; he just said something that could blow his identity, and if Victoria and Brown Hair know, then they would be panicking too.

'Oh shit, the situation's a lot worse now that I'm puzzling things out.' Unmasking capes is a bad thing. Hell, I'm wearing my mask right now because I don't want people to know my secret identity. Damnit Seven Association me, why must you be so inquisitive? What do I do? Should I tell him I know. What if I get jailed? Surely it can't be my fault for his slip of the tongue. 'This is where the friendship breaks apart.' I mentally sigh. 'Quiet down Scorched Girl.'

I look at the redhead, who is still failing to hide his nervousness perfectly. "Sorry, I think I've already figured it out." His look darkens a bit, so I quickly add a little quieter. "I won't tell, I swear."

Red Head looks at the guy with blond hair who's been watching silently. The blond-haired guy gives Red Head a nod. He gives a sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose. "It's fine. It's my fault anyway." He extends his hand towards mine, which I took. "The name's Dennis." Blond hair then shook my hand next. "Dean."

We're all quiet for a couple of moments before Victoria breaks the silence. "Well, awkward introductions aside, I think we should head in; its getting chilly."

Brockton Bay rarely gets snow being a coastal city. It still gets chilly in the winter months; my ears feel frozen from flying all the way here. Everyone gives some form of yes, and we head inside.

After going to Weymouth for such a long time, I had forgotten how much better Hillside is. The brands here are more expensive compared to most of Weymouths brands. There's no vandalism on the outer walls, no random garbage on the ground, and there aren't any windows being repaired.

Victoria is leading us along. "Let's find somewhere to sit upstairs; there's a corner in the food court where nobody tends to sit."

The food court has a couple of fast food places I've been to. I never understood why Fugly Bob's never opened another location; they would make a killing if they opened in this food court. Everybody in the city likes Fugly Bob's; I wouldn't even be surprised if the gangs had a specific rule not to rob Fugly's.

The corner is an interesting part of the food court. Its in the front right corner if you were facing the round glass wall that gives a view of the outside. It also has a door to a staff-only hallway. This creates a weird little region that can barely fit a corner booth.

We all take a seat; I'm on the very left side, Dennis and Dean are on the other side, Amy is next to me, and Victoria is in the middle. Dennis is the first to talk. "So you know I'm a cape?" Ah, so we're still on this.

"Yes, I'm sorry. I got a little carried away when thinking. You couldn't have gotten my name from a news channel, and my powers told me you were most likely lying when you said you had heard of Mush's takedown from PHO. Then some thinking led to the fact that you could only know me from the PRT, but you aren't old enough to work there. Which then leaves us with the wards."

Dennis gave a sigh. "Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag, and looking at that suit of yours, I don't think I could buy your silence." And its back to the jokes.

Its Dean's turn to talk. "You know the unwritten rules, right?" I give a simple nod.

Victoria once again attempts to break up the awkward atmosphere. "Okay, lets talk about something more exciting; I have been wondering what your powers are. You said something about being a breaker?"

I give a 'kind of' hand gesture. "I think I would be classified as a trump. Essentially, I think I 'pull' other versions of me from different realities where I have done different things in life. The process is kind of a weird experience. I only have three 'identities' so far, and only one of them I have some form of memories from."

They were a little surprised at the explanation. "Wait, does this mean you can get multiple different powers?"

This made me think. I knew that Scorched Girl definitely had something going on with the cannon. I wasn't sure if the other 2 had powers, though. I definitely feel stronger when wearing them, but it isn't really parahuman-level strength. Seven Association was smart, but it wasn't thinker-level smart.

"I think I'm going to get multiple. I'm not sure yet. Even though I already have 3 identities, only one of them has obvious powers. The other two just seem pretty normal, all things considered."

Amy looks confused. "Is the one with powers the religious-looking one? It has a fairly weak shaker aura, kind of like Vicky's. I'm not sure if you've noticed, because its a weak calming aura."

I did not know that. How did she know? I haven't worn that identity around her before. "When did you learn this?"

Amy leans in to whisper in my ear. "You put it on while you were knocked out the first time you came into the hospital. Don't worry, no one else saw."

It's a relief I didn't blow my secret identity on the first day with powers. Amy continues talking, this time loud enough for everyone else to hear. "While you guys are talking about power stuff, can I hold onto your forearm or something? I want to look at the thing in your head some more."

That's probably a good idea. Any info I can get on it is good, in case something goes wrong. I roll up my sleeve just a bit, and Amy grabs my forearm, just below the wrist.

"Aw, Amy's almost holding hands. I think I'm going to cry." Victoria gushes, wiping away a fake tear.

"Shut up... Vicky." Amy mumbles. She looks so out of it right now that I'm pretty sure she didn't even hear what Victoria actually said.

Dean gives me a look of concern and confusion. "There's a thing in your head?" I guess that would be concerning to most people.

I quickly give Dean and Dennis a rundown of what Amy found in my head. They don't look worried anymore. "I have heard of some people's corona pollentia changing, especially with changer and breaker powers." Dean says.

Dennis waves his hand dismissively; he looks a little uncomfortable. "Enough with the weird brain growth. You said that you had another 'identity' with powers. Is it the one you're using right now? I'd assume its some kind of thinker power, seeing as it took you only a couple seconds and a slip of the tongue to see right through me."

I shake my head. "No, this one doesn't seem to have any powers. This identity worked as a... private investigator of sorts." Dennis looks confused at the 'of sorts.' "My identity's job is partly an investigation of the client's problem and also partly fixing the client's problem."

Before they can voice their concerns on what the term 'fixing' could mean, I continue. "Look, this identity came from a very, very different kind of world. I could explain it all now, but I feel that is something I should do when I go for power testing."

This gets both of them and Victoria to lean back, their questions unanswered. We talk for a while on nothing specific. Victoria tells me a story about how she found a couple of 'empire wannabe's' surrounding a black guy who climbed up a tree to escape. "I won obviously; I get the guy down from the tree and make my way to try and zip-tie the thugs. One of them is being really difficult, though, so I put him up in the tree. The sheer amount of slurs these guys know is astonishing. I wouldn't be surprised if the empire has their own book called 'Mad Libs for Racists.'"

Amy suddenly pulls her hand back with a groan. "Ugh, looking at that's giving me a headache. It still makes no sense."

It doesn't matter if Amy can't find anything; I'm still quite thankful she's even trying. "It doesn't matter. It's still nice of you to try and help me. Even if you can't find anything, I'm happy you tried. Thank you." Amy reddens a little. "Your welcome."

Victoria sits up from her spot and flies over the table, landing on the other side. "Let's get moving. I wanna go to Lululemon; I need another pair of leggings." While the others start to get up, Amy looks exasperated. "Vicky, didn't Carol tell you to not buy any more clothes? You've already spent like a grand this month."

Victoria gives an indignant pout. "New wave makes enough." Only to elicit a quiet grumble from Amy. "We would be if Carol wasn't so insistent on not being paid."

New Wave didn't accept payments? Even though I know Amy doesn't take direct payments from patients who want healing, I thought she at least gets paid for her time at the hospital. Why wouldn't she? Amy works like 50 hours a week at the hospital; she should be getting a minimum of $100 an hour.

Setting that aside, it looks like Victoria doesn't care because she still dragged the group to Lululemon. The place is to expensive for me to buy stuff, not with my dad's income. Victoria keeps pulling things off the shelves; half the time she pulls it off for herself, the other half she pushes them into Amy's arms, saying something along the lines of, 'These would look great on you.'"

Amy doesn't look enthusiastic about any of the choices. They both look like their happy with the back and forth though. 'Back to being a third wheel'

-The Light of Brockton Bay-

- Amy's POV

Vicky keeps on trying to get me to buy stuff for myself. It's a fruitless endeavour; she can never really accept that I don't like the same clothing styles as her. Apparently it's impossible that I would rather wear baggier clothing and not her quite revealing tops. 'Those do look good on her, though.'

I take a look around. Dennis and Dean look clueless. I don't get why guys are like this when shopping for what they want to wear. I swear most men would wear nothing but the same outfit every day if it wasn't unhygienic. I get not wanting the closet full of stuff to wear, but even I admit I need more than 1 pair of shoes.

I then spot Da'at standing nearby; they never did tell me their actual name. They look dejected right now, and nobody seemed to notice. I knew Da'at was a little younger than me; based on her biology, I could estimate it to about a year and a half. She's been nervous hanging out with us. She didn't seem nervous at the table, but the chemicals that were in her brain say otherwise. Even before that, she seemed nervous about hanging out.

I know she doesn't go to Arcadia; I would have recognized her at school if she had. That probably means Winslow, in a school like that she wouldn't make many friends; she doesn't seem like the kind of person to be friends with gang members. 'It might be rare for her to hang out with people she could call friends.'

I've been thinking about it this past hour. I wasn't really thinking to hard when I invited her, but it would be nice to have a friend to talk to. From what I have seen, Da'at is a nice person. If I were to make a friend, then someone who isn't as loud as Vicky's friends and someone who's also a good person would be who I'd want.

Now that I think about it, when I first saw Da'at, her outfit was ruined. I still don't know what happened to get her into that situation, but I won't pry. She should be missing a pair of clothes now because of it. I get an idea and turn to whisper to Vicky. She gives me a wide smile and nods her head.

One trick I learned is that once I know someone's biology, I also know their exact proportions. Meaning I could semi-accurately tell what clothing would fit for someone. Picking a nice dark-grey shirt and black leggings, I turn to Da'at. "I've been convinced by Vicky. I'm going to buy you these; I think they'd look good on you."

She puts her hands in front of her. "You don't have to buy me anything. I'm happy just being here."

I shake my head. "Nope, sorry, I'm buying no matter what you say." I give her a grin.

Before she can argue further, I pull her along to the checkout. As we're walking, I can see her brain firing at a rapid rate. She's nervous but happy, very happy. Something peculiar happened that caused me to worry. Out of nowhere, there was a slight burst of overwhelmingly bad emotions. Some for sadness, depression, anger, and for some reason desperation. The change somehow happened without any chemical reactions, which shouldn't be possible.

Wait, this feels way too similar to master effects. Before I start to really panic, I remember something Da'at said just a little while ago. "My power effects the things I say and do if I'm not careful." Ah, that could explain it.

After the burst, Da'at shook her head slightly and did a surprisingly good job at suppressing whatever emotion just came about from her powers. I feel bad for her; those were pretty heavy emotions. Even if they were only light, depression, sadness, anger, and desperation are still very bad.

I end up buying the outfit for her and giving it to her. Da'at gives me a hug and says, "Thank you." She still looks nervous accepting a gift. 'I guess she has some self-esteem issues'

The shopping trip doesn't last much longer after that. It's getting late, and the sun is about to set. No one wants to walk outside at night, and if Da'at lives somewhere outside the boardwalk, then that worry is triple for her. I can feel my stomach churn as Vicky gives Dean a kiss goodbye. Dennis makes some cruddy joke before heading off.

Da'at surprisingly initiates a hug goodbye. "Thank's for having me out; it means a lot."

Vicky gives her a warm smile. "It's fine; I liked having someone here that matches how Amy usually acts."

Before we go our separate ways, I get an idea. "Can I get your phone number? It would be nice to chat with someone who doesn't replace half their words with emoji's."

Vicky lets out a 'harumph' but doesn't deny it. Da'at seems shocked that I asked for her number but gave it anyway.

We say our final goodbyes, and Vicky picks me up to fly back home. About 20 seconds after we start flying, Vicky speaks up. "Already gave her your number. You sure you're just friends."

"Yes, we're just friends; now stop pushing your luck before I turn your hair blue." Vicky just gave me a mock scared face before laughing and picking up speed towards home.