Friday, Jan. 28th

"Sophia Hess, in light of the evidence presented here today, you are found guilty on the charges of criminal harassment and first degree felony assault, and not guilty on the charge of attempted murder. As you have violated your parole in addition to this, you have been sentenced to ten years imprisonment. This sentence will be carried out in a juvenile detention facility until your 18th birthday, after which you shall be transferred to a Federal holding facility for the remainder of your sentence. In addition, you or your guardians must pay a fine to the city of Brockton Bay for a sum total of $10,000, as well as a restitution fee to the plaintiff for a sum total of $10,000." The judge read out his sentence to Sophia Hess, who had been charged as the primary ringleader as she was the one who had physically shoved Taylor into the locker.

Sophia had a look on her face that Carol could only describe as feral. Carol almost felt herself instinctively reaching for her powers in case the young teen decided to attack the judge here and now. Before Sophia could make any kind of move, the eldery judge then moved to face Madison and Emma. Madison was an emotional wreck complete with tears pouring down her face, while Emma had been strangely detached from the whole trial, as if she was simply confused as to what was happening around her.

"Madison Clements, Emma Barnes. The two of you are found guilty on charges of criminal harassment and accessory to felony assault, and not guilty on the charge of attempted murder. As such you are both sentenced to five years of imprisonment, first in juvenile detention up until your 18th birthdays, and in a Federal holding facility thereafter. In addition, you or your guardians must pay a fine to the city of Brockton Bay for a sum total or $10,000 individually, as well as a restitution fee to the plaintiff for a sum total of $10,000 individually."

Madison broke down crying once more at the verdict while Emma merely seemed aloof. Alan accepted the charge with as much professionalism as he could muster. While it irked Carol that she wasn't able to get the attempted murder charges to stick, she was more than happy that the felony assault charges stayed and all three girls would be seeing time behind bars.

However, the stone-faced judge was not done as he turned to Principle Blackwell and the attorney representing Winslow the Brockton Bay School District. "Finally, the court has found the Brockton Bay School District guilty of criminal negligence in allowing this campaign of harassment and torture to continue. As such the court orders that the school district pay a settlement of a sum total of $2.5 million to the plaintiff for psychological trauma and physical damages incurred."

Carol couldn't help but smirk at that. While it was good to see justice served against the trio of girls, the school district was where the real money was to be earned. Winslow was going to have to fire quite a few teachers and cut quite a few classes in order to pay off this settlement, but Carol thought that that was the bare minimum amount of retribution Taylor deserved. And while no amount of millions of dollars would undo the torture done to Taylor, it could at the very least secure her future, even after Carol took her legal fees. Carol noticed Danny's breath hitch at that number as well, as he obviously never thought that he'd see the day his daughter would become a millionaire. The super heroine put a hand on Danny's shoulder to reassure him

"I do have one last thing I would like to say." The judge began as he looked at all of the defendants. "Some of you may think this sentencing is harsh, but in my personal opinion the jury was too lenient on all of you. The campaign of terror you have committed is nothing short of devious, cruel, and outright villainous. As a parent myself, I can only applaud Mr. Hebert for his self control in not attacking all of you on sight. I want all of you to understand what you have done. You have viciously tortured and maimed a fellow human being. I have been a judge for nearly 20 years, and the last time I had seen such an act of malicious cruelty was when the Teeth were still in the Bay. For all of your sakes, I can only pray that you all come out of your sentences better people than you are today. Court is now adjourned."

With a smack of the gavel, the trial had ended and the court bailiffs escorted Sophia, Emma, and Madison out of the courtroom alongside Alan. Once they were gone, Danny turned to Carol and to her surprise gave her a big bear hug. After the initial shock, Carol allowed herself to return the hug.

"Thank you." Danny could barely find the words to thank her.

"I'm just doing my job." Carol reassured him as she patted his back. As she let go of him, she held Danny by the shoulders and said, "Let's go tell Taylor the good news."

Both Danny and Carol left the courtroom with heads held high as they made their way to Carol's car to return to Danny's home. Carol noticed that Danny was looking far better leaving the courthouse than going to it. By the time they reached the Hebert household, Danny practically leapt out of Carol's sedan and ran for the door.

Danny excitedly unlocked the front door and burst into his home. "Taylor! Taylor, I have great news!"

Carol felt herself smile a bit at Danny's excitable attitude. The past few days, Danny had been depressingly morose, almost cataonic in his legal discussions with her. She'd never seen him with this amount of energy.

This energy seemed to completely evaporate however, as Danny froze at his own front door, his face shifting from joy to one of abject fear. "Taylor?" he whispered out, his voice suddenly small.

Immediately Carol knew something was wrong and acted. She pushed past Danny and into the house, getting ready to summon her light weapon. Surveying the room quickly, Carol quickly understood what made Danny freeze up. Taylor's wheelchair laid empty in the middle of their kitchen, and it was surrounded by blood. A lot of blood. She also saw what looked like a used kitchen knife, similarly stained red, sitting upon the chair itself.

Carol bit back a curse as worst case scenarios went on in her mind. Was Taylor attacked? No, there were no signs of forced entry or a struggle. Suicide? Was the reason Taylor rejected Amy's healing because she had planned on killing herself after she returned home? Maybe, but where was her body then? It's not like she could just cut herself open and go for a stroll, leaving her chair behind. As these thoughts ran through her head, Carol was shoved to the side as Danny ran past her and further into the home.

"Taylor!" Danny shouted from beside Carol, near manic. "Taylor, where are you!?" he continued to shout as he ran around the house, looking high and low for his daughter.

"Danny, wait!" Carol shouted, grabbing him by the shoulder. Danny snapped to her, his face snarling at whoever was keeping him from finding his daughter. "Danny, call the police. I can look for Taylor without disturbing the crime scene."

Danny moved his mouth to snap back at her, to shout something to refute her, but suddenly found himself unable to argue against the logic. "Damnit." Danny frustratedly looked at the ground as he moved to get the kitchen phone.

But before he could take more than two steps, a noise caused him to stop his movement. Thunk. Thunk. Whirrr... It was a heavy impact, a thud that reverberated throughout the house, followed by the sound of machinery spinning. Immediately, Carol moved in front of Danny and summoned a light axe in her hand. Carol's eyes zeroed in on the stairs going up to the second floor of the home, where the source of the noise was coming from.

That's when she saw her. She saw Taylor, and Carol felt her jaw go slack. Taylor was still identifiable by her rather scrawny build and long, curly dark hair. But what stood out to Carol was that she walked down the stairs, standing atop two metallic, skeletal legs. Robotic joints and pistons hissed and pushed like faux-tendons while servos rotated with every step. Her missing left arm was similarly replaced by a terrifying skeletal prosthetic.

Carol's eyes then drifted from the cybernetic limbs to Taylor's face. Covering the lower half of the teen's face was some kind of respirator, shaped like the bottom half of a gas mask. And her ruined eye was now replaced by a glowing light that burned with a crimson hue.

"Mrs. Dallon." Taylor spoke as she looked at her, her voice synthetic and staticy, as if she were talking through a radio. She then turned to Danny. "Father. There is no need to panic."

Both Carol and Danny stared dumbly at Taylor, mouths agape. Danny was the first to find his voice as he ran to his daughter. "Taylor! What… what happened to you?" he asked with nothing but fear and worry as he grabbed Taylor's shoulders and examined her prosthetics.

Carol however, was the one who answered. "My God… you Triggered." she said to herself, just barely loud enough for the others to hear. "That's why you didn't want Amy's healing. So you could do… this to yourself."

"What?" Danny asked in disbelief.

Carol kept her eyes on Taylor as she answered the older man, "The locker must've been a Trigger Event, the worst day in our lives that makes Parahumans, well Parahuman. Because of the locker, Taylor has obviously become some sort of Tinker, I think." Carol explained, gesturing to Taylor's prosthetics. "How… How did you do all of this? Did they just appear or did you have to build them?"

"I had to manually construct my augmetics, Mrs. Dallon." Taylor's mechanical voice hissed out. "As for attaching them, as you can see, I performed the surgery upon myself while you were away." Taylor then gestured to the puddle of blood and the knife in the kitchen.

"Jesus Chri-" Danny mumbled to himself as he stepped back, "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Taylor…" Carol's breath hitched as the teen's pulsing red eye focused on her. "Just… just sit down on the couch for now, and we can figure out where to go from here."

Taylor's glowing red eye stared at Carol, before she simply made her way to the sofa couch and sat down. Sighing, Carol felt herself rub her forehead in exasperation as Danny similarly sat down.

"Okay. First things first." Carol pointed to Taylor. "I am going to call Amy, have her come over, and she is going to give you a check up. You cannot be okay after cutting yourself open like that."

Taylor kept a stern gaze on the Parahuman lawyer, and after a few seconds finally responded with, "As long as she does not touch my bionics, fine."

"Good, good." Carol nodded, glad that Taylor wasn't going to be difficult about that. "Now then, while this is up to you and your Father, I would highly suggest the two of you go to the PRT headquarters for registration."

Taylor's one organic eye narrowed on Carol as she said that. "And why would I want to do that?"

"Because Taylor, unless you wish to be labeled as either a vigilante or a villain, you will need to be registered. Independent heroes like my family have to do it, as well as rogues such as Parian. Given the fact that your prosthetics will be very difficult to hide, the faster you get registered the better. Even if you don't wish to become a Ward, being known to the PRT will allow them to come help should a gang come after you." Carol explained.

Danny looked horrified at that thought. "Do you think the gangs would come after us?"

Begrudgingly, Carol nodded her head. "Tinkers are a luxury for any organization. And the fact that Taylor essentially will have no secret identity, there's no doubt in my mind that someone like the E88, Merchants, or even the ABB would come to kidnap her and force her into their gangs, Unwritten Rules be damned."

"The ABB?" Taylor asked, tilting her head. "I am not even Asian."

Carol shook her head. "If it means getting a Tinker under his control, I doubt Lung would care what ethnicity you are. He'll either put a gun to your head or drug you to the gills till you're cooperative."

Danny's jaw dropped further, as he then turned to Taylor. "Taylor, we are going to the PRT after Amy heals you." he demanded, not asked.

Taylor's one narrowed eye then focused on Danny, the teen silent. Carol could only guess what was going through her mind, and to be perfectly honest, Carol very much did not want to know what was going through the mind of a nascent cybernetics Tinker. Probably wondering who she could turn into the next Robocop, or where she's going to get her raw materials from.

That's when an idea dawned on Carol. "Tinkers who are affiliated with the PRT receive stipends for materials and supplies required to complete their projects."

That seemed to get Taylor's attention, as she raised her head to look at Carol with a less intense, almost excited gaze, before Taylor seemed to get her emotions under control once more.

"Fine. We may head to the PRT following the checkup." Taylor's respirator buzzed out.

Carol nodded her head. "Good. Now if you excuse me, I have some calls to make."

Amy Dallon checked her watch for the third time as she waited at the Dallon family front door. Tapping her foot impatiently, she called up the stairs. "Vicky! Come on, we're going to be late! The hospital is expecting me soon!"

"One second, I need to get everything ready for my dinner with Dean afterwards!" Vicky called out from her room.

Amy felt both a spike of annoyance and jealousy run through her, before she shoved the emotions down. It was a well practiced response towards her pseudo-incestual feelings towards her step-sister that Amy made sure to master.

It didn't take long for Vicky to fly down the steps, wearing a pair of tight skinny jeans, and a white designer blouse that Amy spent a little too long examining.

"Okay, ready to go Ames?" Vicky asked, unknowingly interrupting the ogling.

Amy swallowed. "Uh yeah, yeah sure. Lemme just get my-" suddenly Amy's thoughts were cut off as her phone started ringing. Brows furrowed in confusion, Amy pulled her cellphone out, and was surprised to see Carol calling her.

With a button press, Amy answered the call and brought her phone to her ear. "Hey Mom, what's going on? Is everything okay?"

Vicky raised a brow as Carol responded. "Yes and no. Where are you? And is Vicky with you?"

"Yeah she's here. We're at the house, Vicky was just about to fly me over to the hospital for my shift." Amy answered.

"Good. Before you head to the hospital, I need you to come heal a priority patient, Taylor Hebert." Carol ordered over the phone.

Amy scowled and frowned, both at Carol telling her to change her schedule without asking her first, and at recalling Taylor. "Taylor Hebert?" she asked out loud, which caused Vicky to frown at the memory as well. "I thought she refused any Parahuman healing?"

"She did, but I convinced her to see you now. And…" Carol paused, thinking on what to say. Amy then heard her sigh as she said, "Look, you'll see it when you get here, but Taylor has Triggered, and I want to have her checked out as soon as possible."

That statement made Amy's eyes go wide. "Should… should you be telling me this?" Amy wasn't sure how much this kind of thing was breaking the Unwritten Rules.

"I know this is strange, but it'll be easier for you to see what's going on than for me to explain over the phone. This is something of an emergency, so please, get here as fast as you can. I've texted you and Vicky the address." Carol then abruptly hung up.

"Goodbye to you too, Carol." Amy dryly remarked as she put away her phone.

"What's going on?" Vicky asked as soon as Amy hung up.

Amy sighed as she tried to wrap her head around what was going on. "It's Taylor, apparently. Carol says that she needs some healing and has consented to my help. Said it was an emergency." Amy paraphrased. "She texted us the address, wants us to head over ASAP."

Vicky quirked an eyebrow. "Why would she change her mind now?"

"I don't know. " Amy shrugged. "Carol said Taylor triggered, so it may have to do something with her powers."

Vicky grimaced at that piece of information. "Well we're not going to learn anything by standing here guessing." Vicky said as she looked at the address on her phone. "Come on, it'll be a quick flight over. Hopefully you won't be late to the hospital."

Amy nodded, and assumed her normal position as Vicky picked her up and the two began flying for the Hebert Household. True to Vicky's word, the flight only took a few minutes as they approached the smaller home, spotting their Mother's car in the driveway. They landed on the Hebert's front yard before making their way to the front entrance. After placing her sister down, Vicky moved and knocked on the door.

The two sisters stepped back as the door swung open, and they were greeted by their mother.

"Good you're here." she curtly greeted. "Inside, quickly." Carol then stepped back to allow her daughters in.

Vicky raised an eyebrow as she walked inside first. "Geez Mom, where's the fire?" she asked as she moved through the doorway, and to Amy's surprise, freezing as she entered, mouth hanging open.

Curious as to what she was looking at, Amy stepped around her and her jaw dropped as well. There, casually sitting on her living room couch, was Taylor Hebert, half girl, half cybernetic monstrosity. Amy unconsciously moved forward, examining how the prosthetics led directly into the amputated limbs of Taylor. She saw how incisions on the attachment points were still fresh, and her eyes then traveled to the blood staining the floor all around her.

"What the fuck did you do to yourself?" Amy had to ask.

"I made the necessary repairs to my body." Taylor bluntly answered through a grating, synthesized voice that made Amy wince.

"Jesus." Vicky muttered from behind.

Carol then cleared her throat, getting Amy's attention. "As you can see, Taylor's Trigger forced her to take some... drastic measures with her own body. Before we head over to the PRT, I want you to take a look at her, ensure that she is healthy."

Amy dumbly nodded as she turned back to Taylor, whose intimidating red cybernetic eye was staring directly at the healer. "Do… Do I have your permission to heal you?"

The silence was heavy between the two as Taylor's eyes bored into the healer. After several seconds, the teen responded with, "As long as you do not affect my bionics, you have my permission."

Amy swallowed and placed her hand on Taylor's shoulder. Immediately the healer was granted access to the entirety of Taylor's biology, or what was left of it. "Okay, you have three infections, probably from your impromptu surgery, clearing that out now. You're low on blood, but I guess you finished up closing your wounds before you went into shock. I can convert some of your fat cells to replenish that, but make sure you eat a good amount of food to make up for it. Lastly…" Amy's eyes narrowed. "I'm concerned about some heavy metal poisoning from your prosthetics. Your body is being exposed to way more metal than it would ever normally be. I can clear out any build up of excess iron now, but if left alone this can be deadly."

"The poisoning is irrelevant in the long term." Taylor bluntly answered as Amy let go of her. At the healer's confused expression, Taylor continued. "I have plans to replace the current augmetics with less, primitive enhancements that will come with fewer detriments. In addition, I plan on replacing all of the blood within my body with an Autosanguination substitute. This fluid will more efficiently carry oxygen and waste, allowing for faster disposal of such toxins."

Amy's mouth dropped open again as she tried to figure out what to say. "Replace all…" Amy shook her head to clear her thoughts. "How will you ensure that the fluid won't get diluted as your body begins to produce regular blood again. Regular injections?"

Taylor shook her head. "I do not plan on doing injections. As I said, this will be a full replacement, removing as much natural blood from my system as possible at one time. In addition, further enhancements and replacements will reduce the amount of bones and bone marrow in my body, slowing the production of natural blood cells to near nothing."

Amy looked like she was trying to catch flies with how long her mouth remained open. "Wait, your circulatory system does far more than just carry nutrients and remove waste. What about your immune system? By replacing the bone marrow you'll be leaving yourself vulnerable to disease because you won't be producing white blood cells anymore."

"I have already accounted for that. This replacement will also render my current immune system obsolete, as the Autosanguination fluid will be far more effective in combating disease than white blood cells." Taylor swiftly responded.

Amy felt like she should be horrified by what Taylor was saying. Her suggestions were something only someone like Bonesaw would say. But instead, the first thought in Amy's mind was how she could accomplish all of this with her own powers. It was like speaking with Taylor opened up a proverbial dam of bio-tinker inspirations.

In order to create a stronger immune system, Amy could easily remake the bone marrow in her body with something more similar to the bone marrow of reptiles like crocodiles, who have a far more robust immune system. Red blood cells could also be modified to carry more oxygen like Taylor wants, which would increase the rate of natural healing as well, creating something of a minor healing factor. The natural filtering of toxins would be more complex, but could be done more with modifying existing organs.

"What about cybernetic organs? Surely you could create replacements which could do the job of filtering out toxins with less complication than replacing all of your blood." Amy asked as her powers began feeding her new ideas for organ enhancements she could make. More efficient livers and kidneys could also filter out most issues with an increased build up of toxins.

"That is something which I am already having ideas for." Taylor acquiesced. "But there is no reason to only choose one or the other when both are improvements to the human form. Every organ within my body is only as strong as nature allowed it to become, which when compared to what I can create, is nothing."

Ideas kept flooding into Amy's mind. Not just the kidneys and liver, but every organ could be enhanced biologically through her own powers as well. It would be rather simple for her to make the lungs take in air in low oxygen environments, or filter out airborne toxins. She could give eyes superhuman vision that could see in the dark or other spectrums. Heck, she could even create completely new organs pre-programmed with genetically engineered cells that would enhance other existing bodily systems to Parahuman levels. The possibilities were endless...

"Amy!" a voice shouted, snapping her out of her fugue. Amy turned her head and saw it was her sister who called her name. "You okay? You kinda zoned out there."

Staring blankly at her sister's face for a second, Amy recentered herself. "Yeah, I'm good. Just… thinking."

Vicky gave her sister a look of concern, before turning to glare at Taylor.

Before she could say anything however, Carol intervened once more. "So Amy, is Taylor healthy now?"

Amy blinked at her step-mother for a second, before realizing that healing Taylor was the whole reason she came here in the first place. Nodding, Amy said, "Yes. Taylor, I declare you as healthy as can be, given your circumstances. If you cannot get your… enhancements done to prevent the buildup of toxins, call me on this number and I can get you sorted out." Amy then hastily scribbled down her number on a nearby piece of paper.

That got both Carol's and Vicky's attention. Amy almost never gave away her personal contact information, even to friends or other capes. She learned quickly that people would constantly call her for personal healing whether she wanted to help or not. Taylor took the paper and shoved it into a pocket, but didn't vocally respond to the healer. An awkward silence then descended over the group as they waited for Taylor to say something, but didn't.

"Well then." Carol said before the silence went on for too long. "Thank you for the help Amy. I don't want to keep you from the hospital anymore than we need to. We should get going to PRT."

"Wait, before that." Vicky interrupted. "You can't just go to the PRT with Taylor looking like… that." Vicky vaguely gestured at the cyborg. "She needs some kind of costume."

Taylor rolled her eyes at the suggestion, and stood up. Everyone got out of her way as she moved towards a nearby closet. Opening the closet, she began digging through the various blankets and clothes stored there, until she found something of use. They watched as Taylor pulled out a blanket of deep crimson color, and threw it over her body like some kind of cloak. She then grabbed a small rope normally used to tie up curtains and wrapped it around her waist as a makeshift belt. All in all she looked like some kind of blood colored monk.

Everyone stared at Taylor for a few seconds, before Vicky shrugged and said, "To be honest, looks pretty good on her."

"Right." Carol sighed. "Well then, I called ahead and told the PRT that we're coming. While technically I was only your legal representative for the case against Winslow, I am more than happy to represent you as legal counsel for the PRT as well."

"We'll be happy to have you on." Danny answered for Taylor, who only shrugged as she made her way to the front door.

"Let's go." Taylor buzzed out. "The sooner we can finish this meeting, the sooner I can get back to Tinkering." She then walked out the door, uncaring for the protests of the others as she made her way to Carol's car

A/N, 6/20/21: Chapter 2 done. Thanks for all the support everyone, I'll be honest I'm surprised this story got so many follows so fast. Guess the Worm and Warhammer communities have a Tyrranid-level hunger for more stories. And for the question on the update schedule of this story, I'm mostly just posting chapters when I don't have chapters ready for my other stories yet. Anyway, thanks and I'll see you all in the next one.