Path That Leads To Eternity (Gold Dragon Taylor)

by Saphroneth

Taylor Hebert's trigger has turned her into an extremely large and powerful dragon. Everyone should probably be quite relieved that it's also made her willing to forgive.

"That was a pretty good one," Sophia said. "Well worth all the setup."

"Yeah," Emma agreed. "That'll show what kind of person Taylor is!"

"Um," Madison began.

The other two looked at her.

"What is it?" Sophia asked.

"Well…" Madison said, a bit nervously. "Don't you guys already know?"

She waved her hand vaguely in the direction of Winslow High – now empty, of course, because it had been about two hours since school had let out. "Because, you know, she was in there for a while, right? And you let her out… I know it had to be one of you who has her locker combination."

"You're speaking like we let her out," Emma said, nastily. "Do you think she deserves to be let out?"

"I think if she isn't let out then she might end up dead or something," Madison said, quickly. "And if that happens then they might, you know, actually care. Or something."

"Don't worry about that," Emma said.

"Yeah, we'll be fine," Sophia agreed. "But if you're so bothered by it, maybe you can leave an anonymous tip to the janitor or something. They'll let her out, or they won't… but it won't be us who made that decision."

She snorted. "And we'll see what Hebert is made of. I don't think it's likely she'll be worth much, though."

"I still-" Madison said, then there was an enormous crash sound that echoed around the whole of the broadwalk and made her jump.

"What the fuck was that?" Emma asked, as Sophia darted to her feet. "Some kind of cape fight?"

"Too big for a normal one," Sophia said. "The sound wasn't right, it'd have to be really loud and from a really… long… way away…?"

Her voice trailed off, as she saw a massive shape rearing up over in the same direction Madison had been pointing.

A pair of shining golden wings cupped the air, then hammered downwards, and in moments there was a fuck-off colossal dragon flying through the air over Brockton Bay.

"What… the fuck," Madison breathed. "What cape is that? Is that Lung?"

"Not unless he's been in a big fight for half an hour and nobody's told me!" Sophia snapped. "And who would he have been fighting, Behemoth?"

"Then what is that?" Emma asked, her voice wavering, then firming up as Sophia glanced at her. "I mean, it's got to be a cape, hasn't it?"

"I've never heard of one that big-" Madison tried, her voice definitely trembling.

The huge, golden dragon was circling, then it rolled a wing and plunged towards the girls with shocking suddenness. People around them screamed and tried to run away, but Sophia stood rooted to the spot – caught between defiance and fear and not wanting to give an inch against something that screamed predator to every single part of her being.

It was kind of fucking awesome, if you could ignore the fact that it looked like it could chew up Hookwolf and spit him out in a puddle of metal. But the sheer presence the thing had was insane, reducing Sophia's nerves to water, like standing next to that prissy bitch Glory Girl but fifty times stronger.

It was landing in front of them.

It was landing in front of them, paws thumping into the ground and wings half-unfurled and bringing a massive head closer to inspect them.

"Sophia Hess," the dragon said, in a voice like gilded steel. "Madison Clemens. Emma…"

That voice was familiar.

Sophia knew that voice, but it wasn't whining or weak like before. Now it was the purest expression of strength and control she'd ever heard… but it was the same voice.

The same voice.

This was Taylor. How the fuck?

"You've all done terrible things," the golden dragon said. "To me, mostly. To others, too… and I don't know why you do them. Why you think it's something worth doing. But I want you to know something. All three of you."

Emma made a noise like mimblewimble, and was going pale. Madison looked like she was going to pass out on the spot.

Sophia felt like, for once, she wouldn't mind joining her.

"Listen carefully," the dragon – Taylor – Taylor said, looking each of them in the eye, one by one. "I don't know all the details of what just happened, yet. This is as new to me as it is to you. But I know I can breathe fire. I know I'm strong. I know that I could absolutely get revenge on you for everything you've done."

She smiled. "And I'm not going to. Because I forgive you for it. Because you hurt me, but I'm not going to let it define who I am… and because what all of you need is help. Emma… please, for the sake of my mother if not for me. Get some."

Then she turned, wings unfurling and raising, and took off with a wind-hammer that raised a storm of grit from the road.

Quietly, Sophia wondered if the funny tingling sensation in the back of her head was her world collapsing, or if she'd just fallen hopelessly in love.

Could be both.

---

"...how do we call this in?" Velocity asked, with a frown, shading his eyes as he watched the massive gold dragon rising into the air again. "I mean… that's got to be a parahuman, right?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure we need to call it in," Assault replied, shrugging.

Velocity stopped, and stared at him.

"You what," he said, in a way that didn't sound like a question but probably was one.

"Well, think about it," Assault replied. "We're supposed to call it in if we see something we think the PRT HQ needs to know about. But we don't call it in if they already know about it… and I'm pretty sure someone has told them about the huge dragon by now. The switchboard might have melted."

"You might have a point," Velocity muttered. "Emphasis there is on might."

Assault shrugged, then his focus tightened slightly as the dragon banked around towards them. "Get distance?"

"Got it," Velocity replied, jogging away so the two Protectorate heroes were separated by… hopefully enough to prevent this new Cape from hitting them both at once.

The dragon approached, slowing down every moment, then flared its wings and touched down in the empty street.

The street hadn't been all that empty before, but all the pedestrians seemed to have gone missing.

"Just to be sure," the dragon began, in a voice that sounded like gilded steel, and which sounded probably female. "You're Assault and Velocity, right?"

"I'm Assault," Assault replied. "I'm not Velocity, though."

He pointed. "That's Velocity, but not Assault."

Velocity closed his eyes, and sighed.

The fortunate thing about being a speedster was that he could do something like that without actually taking his eyes off the dragon for several seconds.

"Good," the dragon decided. "I've given this some thought, and I think that on balance I should apply to join the Wards."

"The Wards," Velocity repeated. "You're underage?"

"I actually don't know how this counts," the dragon replied. "I think I'm the same age as I was before, and that age is – well, not old enough for the Protectorate. But I think this is an adult body."

Assault looked curious.

"Changer, then?" he asked.

Velocity gave his teammate a look.

"What exactly is the other option?" he asked.

"She could be a Case 53," Assault defended himself. "Except that she remembers her past, so that's out."

He glanced at her. "You do remember your past, I assume?"

"I remember, yes," the dragon answered. "But I don't know if I count as a Changer. I don't know a way to change back."

Assault looked at Velocity, and Velocity looked at Assault.

"Ah," Velocity said. "That does make things more complicated, yes."

Assault raised his hand.

"What do you think about being painted?" he asked.

"...painted?" Velocity asked, his voice strangled.

"There's no need for that tone of voice," Assault said. "I'm trying to work out a way for this young woman – or young man, I don't mean to assume – to take on a secret identity and go out in public without raising a stir, and I'm sure nobody would connect a gold dragon who's a Cape with a green dragon who's going about her business."

He paused.

"Or his," he amended. "Most of his or her business, since I think that was a school exploding and I can only assume you probably don't want to go back to it once it's rebuilt."

Velocity's earpiece crackled.

"Velocity, this is console," Kid Win said. "We're trying to coordinate information about that new cape who blew up Winslow. Do you have anything?"

"Uh," Velocity began, who hadn't missed that the dragon had looked at him the moment a call had come in. "...yes, I would say we've got something."

---

"All right, so… this is the testing area," Miss Militia explained. "Under normal circumstances, were you to join the Wards, we'd put you through tests here to make sure we had a good idea of your capabilities."

"I see," the dragon said. "That's not just yet, though?"

"Not unless you do join," Miss Militia confirmed. "It's just that this is the only room that's big enough that isn't full of… vehicles. Though I don't think anyone would complain if you wanted to do this quickly… well, except for the Youth Guard."

She frowned. "Speaking of which, that's actually quite important."

"I understand," the dragon agreed. "As things currently stand, I don't think it's going to be possible for me to have a secret identity… several people already know for sure who I am."

She sat on her haunches, coiling her tail carefully. "Specifically, the bullies responsible for putting me into the stressful situation that made me trigger."

Miss Militia winced.

"Trigger events are generally considered very traumatic," she said. "General policy is that it's not necessary to talk about them, because they're personal."

"I understand why," the dragon conceded. "In this case, though… I want them to get help."

That wasn't quite what Miss Militia had been expecting.

"Help?" she repeated.

"I was bullied relentlessly and sadistically, including by a former close friend, for months," the dragon explained. "Culminating in what… I can only really think of as a murder attempt, even if they didn't realize it."

Her voice had become somewhat thick towards the end, and she shook her head.

"Nobody should be capable of what happened to me," she explained. "But I understand that… something must have happened to them. Especially to Emma – the one who was my friend. Is that something the PRT can do?"

"Normally we try to discourage conditional acceptance, at least where it involves something related to the people who caused the trigger event," Miss Militia said, then shrugged slightly. "Of course, normally that's not because someone was so… understanding?"

She was wondering when Armsmaster would turn up. He was supposed to be here for this… but, then again, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.

He'd never been great with people, to say the least.

The dragon nodded, slightly.

"I understand why," she said. "But… still. If I'm going to try and help people, it shouldn't stop at the people who I like."

Miss Militia smiled, under her mask.

"That's a good attitude," she said. "Though, as I'm sure you're aware, as a Cape sometimes the kind of things you do involve… fighting other capes. Or gang members."

"I'm aware," the dragon confirmed. "The fact that I can say that I forgive Emma, Madison and Sophia doesn't mean that I don't think they need to be stopped if they try the same thing again… and that sometimes you can't stop someone except with force. It just means that I accept that… I know that those things they did to me are because they're not well."

She shook her wings out a bit, for emphasis, then furled them again.

"I am not going to resent them, because that gives the act power over me," she explained. "It's in the past. But anything else they do will not be in the past."

Miss Militia filed away the name Sophia.

There was a discussion that was going to need to happen, there, but she wanted to seek advice first.

"Do you have any preferences for a cape name?" she asked. "It's probably a good idea to start thinking about it."

"I have been," the dragon admitted. "I know Dragon isn't an option, for one. Though… can you contact my father?"

She sounded embarrassed. "I've been trying to decide if I should tell you my civilian name or not, but I've just realized that asking the PRT or Protectorate to contact my dad is probably the only way he won't be publicly outed as the man with a dragon daughter. I don't think I can even use a phone like this."

"All right," Miss Militia said, nodding. "I'll deal with that. I can promise to do it myself and keep that information private?"

"Thank you," the dragon said, then lowered her voice. "My name's Taylor Hebert – I can give you our phone number? Would that work best?"

"That probably is best," Miss Militia decided. "Actually, I can call him now on my phone, and you can talk to him…"

---

The phone clicked as Dad hung up, and Taylor exhaled with some relief.

It had been a long conversation, and a… difficult conversation. She hadn't known what to say, not really, but she'd tried her best to get the important things across.

After so long not talking to her dad about… stuff, having it all out at once was hard. On her end, and on his end, but… she didn't blame Dad for what had happened.

It was true that things could have gone differently. She could have made different decisions. He could have made different decisions.

But… what would it actually achieve, resenting him for it? He couldn't help it – and all it would do would be to hurt them both.

Miss Militia was coming back in, and Taylor looked up.

"It seemed like you were done?" the woman asked, so Taylor nodded.

"Yeah, I'm done," she confirmed. "And Dad was… okay with me joining, I think. We talked about it, and…"

She swallowed.

"He said that, he wanted to get the details, but he hadn't been involved with my life much recently. And – and that if it was something I was passionate about, I should do it. He trusted my judgement more than his."

Miss Militia picked up her phone.

"I understand," she said. "Before you make any decision, though, there is something I should ask you, and it's something that bears on the identity of a Cape."

She held up the phone. "Since signing a form like an NDA would be difficult, I'd like to record you saying that you agree not to disclose the identity of any Cape in the Wards program that you learn as a result of anything that happens on PRT or Protectorate property, or in any matters related to official PRT or Protectorate activities. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah," Taylor agreed. "Go ahead."

She waited a moment, until Miss Milita nodded, then cleared her throat.

"I agree to not disclose any connection between secret and public identities that I learn as a result of information that I get in any way connected to the PRT or Protectorate," she said.

Miss Militia lowered the phone.

"Thank you, Taylor," she said. "Now… would you be willing to work with one of the people who was involved in bullying you?"

Taylor swallowed down the initial hot rush of anger that resulted, and closed her eyes.

There weren't many female Wards.

"It's Sophia, isn't it?" she asked. "She's Shadow Stalker."

Another moment passed.

"I… don't actually know," she admitted. "What would happen if I wasn't willing to?"

"Assuming you still became a Ward, one of you would be reassigned elsewhere," Miss Militia replied. "Since you're the allegedly injured party – I have to say that because there hasn't been an investigation – you'd probably get the choice of whether it was you moving elsewhere. And there would be an investigation, either way."

Taylor nodded, slowly.

"I think I need some time to think about that," she admitted. "But… how could that happen? How could she be allowed to do that to me?"

"She shouldn't have been," Miss Militia said, and Taylor examined her carefully.

It didn't seem like she was lying.

"All right," Taylor decided. "I guess I can accept that. But I think I need to, uh… sleep on this. Can I do that here?"

She felt like she'd have been blushing, if she could. "And can I get something to eat, too? I don't think I've eaten since breakfast, but until now I wasn't thinking about it…"

---

"This is… not convenient," Colin said, thoughtfully.

"And why might that be?" Dragon asked, from her chat window. "Personally, I quite like her style."

Colin glanced at the window, then nodded.

"I suppose that's true," he said. "But I mean… firstly the fallout from this and how it could impact the Protectorate."

"You don't need to explain that to me, Colin, I know," Dragon chided him, gently. "The fact that Shadow Stalker has been credibly accused by this new Cape, albeit in her civilian identity… it could go wrong, but it hasn't yet."

Dragon made a thoughtful noise. "Given what we've seen about her so far, or at least what you've shared with me… I think she could be persuaded to be sensible about this. But that relies on being fair to her – I doubt it's going to work properly if you try to intimidate a dragon."

Colin considered that.

"That's reasonable," he agreed. "But that only moves things on to the second concern, which is logistics. We're not really equipped to have a Ward who's that big, though there are policies in place for Case 53 Wards which I could adapt for this purpose."

He looked thoughtful. "I suppose I'd need to build some custom equipment, if she did join the Wards, and I hope she does."

"Maybe she could live on the Rig?" Dragon asked. "Though I'll tell you this – if the Protectorate doesn't get her, I'm going to try to persuade her to move to Canada."

She chuckled. "I know, I know, another nefarious Canadian plot."

"Most Canadian plots do not seem to be nefarious," Colin said, then shook his head slightly. "I have a few ideas on how to resolve the logistics problems… having her live on the Rig does seem like the most efficient solution."

He began to type something, then stopped.

"...and now I've been reminded of the third inconvenience," he said. "I'm not sure what name to use for her."

"Well, I know one name that's not an option," Dragon replied. "Let's see… a golden dragon… I suppose that Ramoth isn't going to work, that has too many connotations and might be in copyright, as well… anything from Lord of the Rings probably has the same basic problem, and most of the dragons in that are male anyway. I think all the named ones are – not to mention that they all have terrible manners."

Colin frowned, thinking.

"Any name would be provisional at this point," he said. "I could probably just use the provisional name Golden Dragon for now and move on from there, going back to it if-"

"Wyrm," Dragon interrupted.

"From the old English, and from the more recent Dungeons and Dragons," Colin realized. "Yes, that seems suitable."

He reached to push his chair back, then slowly stopped.

"You were about to go and ask her if she approved the name, weren't you?" Dragon asked.

"...yes," Colin agreed, and started to type up his notes.

---

After a surprisingly comfortable night's sleep, a large breakfast that left her feeling somewhat guilty, and a swim in the Bay to wash, Taylor was back in the testing chamber along with several scientists and both Armsmaster and Miss Militia.

"How are you, this morning?" Miss Militia asked, apparently acting as spokeswoman for now.

"A lot more-" Taylor began, then cut herself off. "I was going to say a lot more human, but that… doesn't really apply any more, does it?"

Miss Militia nodded, sympathetically.

"Gaining powers is a big enough change normally, and for you that's only amplified," she said. "Have you reached any conclusions?"

Taylor bobbed her head slightly, trying to think how to put it.

"I think… I want to make a difference," she said. "I want to be a hero, and by that I mean that I want to help people… to do it properly. And the best way to do that, I think, is to join the Wards."

She frowned. "And… the thing you said, about, Shadow Stalker. I think… I don't want to make the decision for her, but I want to insist that if we do work together then she needs to speak to a therapist, and… to put in the effort to do it properly. Tell the truth, and listen. Because – because whether I'd be okay being on the same team as her, the answer changes depending on if she's willing to try and be a better person or not."

"All right, that seems reasonable enough," Miss Militia agreed. "We'd need to get all that worked out and finalized, but it would happen before you committed to the Wards – it would be a bad idea to have you actually join based on a promise that we couldn't fulfil."

Taylor nodded.

"So, uh… does that mean the testing comes next?" she asked. "I've got a good idea of what I can do, but not really a good idea of what that means."

"It almost comes next," Armsmaster said. "Firstly – do you have any preferred Cape name at this point? If not, I have a suggestion."

"I don't have anything, no," Taylor replied, shaking her head.

"I would recommend the name Wyrm," Armsmaster told her. "It's an old word for dragon, and it hasn't been used yet. It also doesn't imply that you are a specific kind of dragon."

Taylor turned the word over in her mind, thinking about it.

"The only concern I have is that it's a German word for dragon as well?" she said. "Though it definitely is Old English, and I can make sure to be clear that I'm not a sympathizer to the Empire Eighty-Eight… if we were worried about words with Germanic origins then it restricts the available names quite sharply, and I don't think anyone would accuse Narwhal of Empire sympathies just because that word comes from the Norse."

She shrugged her wings, carefully. "Then again, it's probably not something to be worried about, since now I think about it many of the Empire Capes have non-Germanic roots. The linguistic connection is much weaker than with the ABB."

Everyone was staring at her, and Taylor tilted her head slightly.

"What?" she asked.

"You knew that off the top of your head?" one of the scientists asked.

"My mother was an English professor," Taylor replied, looking down slightly. "I must have picked up more than I expected."

"Possible Thinker power?" another scientist suggested.

"If you don't have any problems with that, we'll take Wyrm as a provisional designation," Miss Militia suggested. "Let's get started with… physical characteristics."

---

Physical characteristics turned out to mean a lot of measurements, with a very long tape measure, along with stretching and standing on four heavy-duty sets of scales – one for each of her paws.

By the end of the process, Taylor knew more about her dimensions than she'd known about her height and size when she was human. Her body was about sixteen feet long and eight wide, and she was twelve feet tall when standing; her wingspan was about fifty feet, and her neck and head added five feet to her length while her tail was actually longer than her body was.

She also weighed ten tons, which was enough to make her wonder whether that was a dragon on a diet or a dragon who needed to go on a diet, and once they were done Armsmaster began sketching on a clipboard.

"Perhaps something around the left horn…" he said, under his breath.

"I think that's a good sign," Miss Militia told Taylor, lightly. "It sounds like he's trying to work out how to fit an earpiece."

"Should we… wait?" Taylor asked, cautiously.

"Well, next is about your strength and speed," one of the scientists told her. "Obviously we know you're probably quite strong because you can take off despite weighing several tons, but it's best to measure that kind of thing…"

Taylor nodded, and went over to the first weight. It was a sort of metal cube, about two feet on a side, and she braced herself before lifting.

"...there!" she said, managing to get it off the ground. "That feels quite heavy."

"It should, it's four tons," one of the scientists said. "Definite Brute rating, as if we didn't know that already…"

"Four tons?" Taylor repeated, putting it down again. "It doesn't look very big."

"It's solid iron," the man explained. "Do you think you could handle two?"

"Probably not," Taylor admitted.

That led to some more muttering, about whether her ability to fly was compensating for her weight, and in turn it led to more tests. Those concluded that Taylor could take off carrying over a ton of weight, but not two, and once Taylor landed again one of the scientists raised his hand.

"Do we need to go outside to measure flight speed?" he asked. "Or land speed? I don't think this room is big enough for Wyrm to get up to speed, and if she does get up to speed then it could be quite bad for the wall…"

---

Fortunately, measuring speed was easy enough once they went outside, and Taylor carried a transponder while flying past and again while running from one side of the helicopter pad to the other.

In both cases she turned out to have a top speed of about seventy miles per hour, and as they went back indoors Taylor made a humming sound.

"Is it weird that I can't decide if that's fast or slow?" she asked. "It feels like both at the same time."

"It's very fast for land speed," Miss Militia told her. "Capes whose focus is on speed would be faster, but seventy miles per hour is a fast car so it's several times quicker than anyone else can run. But for flying… yes, seventy miles per hour isn't very fast, it's more like you'd expect from a biplane. So it is both at once."

"You also don't have a stall speed, because you can just hover," one of the PRT scientists volunteered. "Which means you should be thinking more in terms of helicopters."

"Actually…" another began. "I just had a thought, but normally capes who can fly have a limiting factor which is their ability to react at speed. That's usually what causes problems first, you don't want to fly down a metal and glass canyon at a hundred miles per hour if you can't react quickly enough to avoid crashing into something."

"It feels weird that the fastest way I have of visiting Boston is probably to go on wing," Taylor said. "I don't think I'd fit into an aircraft."

"Not a normal one, but there are some wide body ones," Miss Militia pointed out, as the doors closed again. "Wyrm, we're going to be doing durability testing now. Is there anything particular you think we should know about?"

Taylor thought.

"I… think I'm resistant to electricity, heat, and things like that," she said. "More than just normal, anyway. And I'm fairly sure my hide is tough, but I don't know how tough… this isn't going to mean getting shot, is it?"

"Certainly not without permission," Miss Militia told her, which was more reassuring than it might have sounded.

---

Twenty careful minutes later, Taylor rubbed her side with something that couldn't quite be called a pout.

"Stop there?" Miss Militia asked.

"Please," Taylor replied. "That stung quite a lot."

Miss Militia's weapon reformed into a sword, which she hung on her belt, then glanced at the scientists.

"I hope you were taking notes," she said. "Can you summarize?"

"Muscles are very tough and resistant to damage, including blunt force trauma," one of them said, after a whispered discussion – one that Taylor caught all of, but pretended she didn't. "The hide is tougher in some areas than others, but in all cases it's very tough. Against handguns, I think Wyrm could be considered immune to bullets except potentially in specific vulnerable areas, while heavier weapons such as the more high powered rifles would be able to cause some harm."

"It's a bit difficult to be precise because Wyrm is so large," another scientist added. "If a bullet passed completely through her leg, it would be a much narrower wound in proportion to her actual body size than it would be on any human."

"So I'm a lot better off than any normal human would be if I get shot a few times, but I really shouldn't stand around and let myself get shot at," Taylor summarized.

"Not if you don't like bruises," the scientist said. "...do you bruise?"

"I actually don't know," Taylor said. "I'll probably find out in an hour or so."

"I'm considering the possibilities of lightweight armour to improve that," Armsmaster declared. "Four hundred kilograms is an acceptable weight budget and could add additional protection… it's a misconception that armour is an all or nothing situation. It makes injuries less likely, and means that only certain vital areas are at risk."

He frowned slightly. "I am still considering the possible materials that could be mass produced and provide useful protection. It will likely be necessary to follow the priority order of armouring."

Taylor nodded, slowly.

"It's a lot better than just wading in assuming I can't be hurt," she said. "So… what comes next?"

"You mentioned resistance to electricity and heat," Miss Militia pointed out. "Is there anything else you think you're resistant to?"

"...cold, I think?" Taylor replied. "But that's just a sort of vague sense."

"We can test electricity and heat, at least," Armsmaster said. "Miss Militia, do you have the ability to provide heat? I know Battery can provide electricity."

"The only kind of heat I can provide is a flamethrower," Miss Militia replied.

"Really?" Taylor asked. "You do weapons, right?"

She sat on her haunches. "Isn't a heat gun a weapon?"

Miss Militia frowned, then her power manifested a heat gun and a battery backpack.

"Apparently it is," she replied. "Do we have a thermometer?"

One was provided, and Taylor took it.

"I'll let you know as soon as it starts to get uncomfortable," she suggested.

---

It did not start to get uncomfortable.

Nor did it get uncomfortable when Battery showed up, and hit Taylor with increasingly large bursts of electricity up to the strongest she could muster.

"Does that count as Brute?" one of the scientists said. "Or Breaker? The moment you turned the heat gun off the thermometer went back to normal – the heat was just being ignored, it wasn't heating up her scales."

"Until it exploded," his colleague pointed out.

"Yes, thank you, until the thermometer exploded," the scientist sighed. "All right, I think that's about as much as we can do for durability, except to note that… your initial transformation took place in a locker, which you exploded your way out of?"

"Yeah," Taylor agreed, swallowing slightly. "I… really don't like thinking about it, though."

"It is preferred not to discuss Trigger events for mental health reasons," Armsmaster said, in a you-should-know-this-you-fool sort of way. "However, I believe I see the point. The fact that you burst out potentially means that your body could endure the very high pressure that it was placed under, without apparent harm."

"...I guess," Taylor said, not having realized that before. "So… if we're done with durability, what now?"

"Senses," Armsmaster replied. "Enhanced senses can earn a Thinker rating, and are also of great tactical utility – decision making is heavily reliant on having the information in the first place. Have you noticed any improvement in your senses after becoming a dragon?"

He said it like it was normal, and Taylor frowned slightly.

"Yes," she said. "But there's… a lot of things, so I'll try my best to list them… I think I can smell well enough to recognize people, but it's not like I can follow someone by it or anything. My hearing is really, really good now, I can hear really quiet sounds and yet loud sounds don't overload me. I can tell everything that's around me within about… maybe fifty, sixty feet, without even looking, and my vision is much more precise – I can see a lot more details, I can see just as well in dim light, and I can even see some details when there's no light at all."

By the time she finished, most of the scientists were staring at her.

"All of that at once?" one of them asked, then shook his head. "Right… I think we still have the testing protocol we worked out for Triumph, so we can do that for hearing… what's our plan for sight?"

"Visual acuity tests involve resolving between one object and two at a close angle," Armsmaster provided. "In addition, we can give Wyrm an eye test, once in normal light, once in dim light, and once in no light at all. That should provide a useful baseline."

"And for being able to tell where everything is without looking…" Miss Militia began, thoughtfully. "Blindfold and pointing out what she can?"

"Leave some powers for the rest of us," Battery requested.

---

A battery of tests, not actually involving Battery except as an interested extra pair of hands, resulted in the determination that Taylor had vision that was about as good as a normal human's… under light as dim as a moonless, overcast night, not quite pitch black but as close as was realistic in the natural world.

With no light whatsoever, her vision did get a bit worse, becoming about equivalent to that of a normal human under a full moon and allowing her to see that well out to the limit of the test room, and with any kind of reasonable light source she could resolve much smaller shapes than a normal human could.

Her hearing was similarly good, letting her pick out a whispered conversation from among several, and she tried to ignore the one about what Thinker rating her senses would get her.

Then there was the ability to sense where someone was while blindfolded well enough to keep track of which person was which, and Taylor proved able to do that as well ten times out of ten. Though she couldn't read without using her eyes, which Battery declared was something of a relief.

"Perhaps it would be possible to relax the normal restrictions on Ward patrols during the night," Armsmaster mused. "It would be very beneficial to have someone who would not be hampered in any meaningful way by low illumination."

"You're not trying to work out a way to subvert regulations, are you?" Miss Militia asked, sounding amused.

"I would not be subverting them," Armsmaster replied. "If a way of doing this exists – and I am not saying there is – it would be following regulations."

"I'm sure," Miss Militia said.

"What's going to be next, then?" Taylor asked, putting the impromptu blindfold away.

"Reflexes," the man who was probably the lead researcher said. "There are standard tests for that, but most of them assume a… near human body. Or size."

"Is that a problem for someone with a Changer form?" Taylor checked.

"Most Changers don't get as big as your form is," Battery supplied. "...does it count as a form? I actually don't know."

She shrugged. "But if the standard tests aren't possible, what are we going to do?"

Miss Militia held up her weapon, which had changed. Again.

"...is that a T-shirt cannon?" Taylor asked, after looking at it for a long moment.

"Yes," Miss Militia replied. "Now, normally firing this directly at someone might hurt them – that's part of how it qualifies as a weapon for my power. But you're… tough, as we've seen, so I intend to fire it at you and see if you can catch the T-shirt. If that's all right?"

Taylor nodded.

"All right, Wyrm," Miss Militia said, levelling the T-shirt cannon, then fired it.

Taylor caught the T-shirt out of the air almost as soon as it was close enough for her to touch it, and Armsmaster put a hand to the side of his helmet.

"...I've replayed that at a slower speed," he said. "I think we can safely say that Wyrm's reflexes are above human norms, but we're going to need to do something more precise because I can't tell how much of that was thinking time."

"At least some of it was," Taylor supplied. "What other kind of test is there, then?"

"What about if Wyrm flicks her tail the moment she sees something happen?" Battery suggested. "We're measuring her reaction time."

"That would be acceptable," Armsmaster agreed. "Miss Militia?"

The Protectorate Cape reloaded her T-shirt cannon by the simple expedient of making it vanish and then summoning it again, then fired it – upwards this time – and Taylor flicked her tail as soon as she saw the weapon fire.

Then everyone looked at Armsmaster.

"Thirty-seven milliseconds," he said. "That is about a third of the normal human record."

Battery started giggling.

"Sorry-" she said, before giggling again. "I just… sorry! But I was thinking about how you need to have good vision to drive, and – and I know Wyrm is considering joining the Wards, so she wouldn't be old enough, but I was imagining her going through a driving exam. She'd be fine with anything that needed quick reactions, but… she wouldn't fit in the car…"

Taylor chuckled.

"I might have trouble with the controls, as well," she said. "If it's a small car, though, I could carry it? Would that count?"

"It might be possible to have some sort of heavily reinforced moped," Armsmaster mused. "It would probably not be an efficient use of workshop time, though."

---

More formal tests resulted in constraining Taylor's reaction time a bit better, along with working out that her thinking time was also significantly less than human norms, and as they wrote up the results of that Taylor had to sit back and process that.

She didn't feel like she was thinking more quickly. She just… was.

Or maybe that was how she'd been able to think about more things than before…

"Next," Armsmaster said, getting her attention again. "Is the offensive side of your ability to fight. We're fairly sure with your reflexes and coordination that you should be able to hit things, but what we want is to get a sense of how much damage you can do."

"...to what?" Taylor asked. "Uh, I should mention, I think I've got a way of… not hurting, with my attacks?"

She waved a paw, vaguely. "I'm not sure how to put it, but the idea I get is that I can choose whether or not something I do has the risk of seriously injuring someone."

"That would be very useful," Miss Militia said. "Though I'm not sure how we'd be able to test it properly."

Armsmaster looked thoughtful.

"It would be helpful if Alabaster of the Empire Eighty-Eight was willing to take part in a test," he said. "Alternatively, we may be able to work out some sort of test protocol with someone who creates duplicates."

"Alabaster?" Battery repeated.

She frowned.

"I… guess it wouldn't be a huge loss if it turned out he did get hurt, though I probably shouldn't say that."

Miss Militia gave Battery a look.

"And now I sound like Assault," Battery grumbled, good-naturedly. "But… I guess all we can really do is accept that Wyrm might be able to knock people out instead of seriously hurting them… is this going to be like when we tested how hard I could boost myself?"

"That's the idea," one of the scientists said, as they wheeled out a heavy metal plate on a cart. Once it was in place, they braced it to prevent it falling over, and Taylor examined it carefully.

"So I'm supposed to just hit this?" she asked. "Or should I breathe fire on it?"

"So you can breathe fire?" Miss Militia said. "I wondered about that."

"Physical attacks first," Armsmaster directed. "That should complete the process of assessing your Brute rating."

"Right," Taylor agreed. "And I'm meant to be aiming to do as much damage as I can?"

That got her a nod of confirmation, along with a pause as everyone got out of the way, then Taylor considered her options for a moment.

She had her claws… she could bite something, she was fairly sure… and her wings were flexible enough to slap something, but the most obvious weapon was her tail. It would let her get a good wind up, as well, and she braced herself before hitting the plate.

There was a hollow boom, and the plate dished inwards. Part of it ruptured, like it had been hit by a cannonball, and Battery cursed inventively.

"Battery," Miss Militia said.

"Sorry," the younger Cape replied. "I just… that was… a lot, right?"

"We… don't have much telemetry," the scientist volunteered. "Since the sensors just got destroyed. But that was… two and a half inches of toughened steel."

He swallowed. "I'm glad we went with one of the heavy duty panels… I, think that actually tells us most of what we need to know. Jesus. That's… I'm not sure what that would do to a tank but it probably wouldn't be pretty."

Taylor approached the more damaged side of the armour plate, and scratched at it with her claws. Nothing happened at first, then she applied more force and smoothly cut her way into it.

"Did you change what you were doing, there?" another scientist asked.

"I think I just pushed harder?" Taylor replied.

That got a nod.

"It looks like you might be able to choose whether or not to do damage, which is… actually quite reassuring," she said. "All right, I think that settles the argument on Brute rating for Wyrm?"

"Yeah, no kidding," Battery admitted. "So… fire breath next?"

She frowned. "Can we use the same panel again?"

"I don't see why not," Armsmaster replied. "It's broken anyway."

"Please tell me you're signing off on replacing it, sir," the head scientist requested. "I know that it would normally just be assumed, but… those things cost."

"I will be approving the replacement, yes," Armsmaster confirmed, as Taylor sat back on her haunches – facing the panel, this time, rather than side-on to it.

She inhaled, feeling something spark in the back of her throat, then exhaled, and what came out was a rippling cone of golden fire shot through with a kind of bluish-white light.

It was huge, spreading out at least fifty feet in a wide triangle from her muzzle, and went on for about three seconds before sputtering out.

"...holy shit," Battery whispered, as Taylor closed her mouth again and looked at what she'd just done.

The armour plate wasn't there any more. It was completely gone, except for a kind of corner piece that hadn't been caught in the area of the cone.

The iron weight from before had been a little too close to the armour plate, and it had been caught in Taylor's fire breath as well. It, at least, was still there, though it looked… a lot smaller… and it was still on fire, eroding away slowly as they watched.

"I make that… two hundred and forty-five millimetres of iron, which appears to have been vaporized," Armsmaster commented. "No, obliterated, since there is no increased fraction of iron in the air. And another thirty-two millimetres per second from residual burning… and with no signs of elevated heat. Most interesting."

"Holy shit," Battery reiterated.

"Armsmaster," Miss Militia said, sounding thoughtful. "You know what hasn't been vaporized? The floor."

Taylor glanced down, and realized that the older Cape was correct. Her breath hadn't destroyed the floor.

Just the things she'd thought it was okay to damage.

"I can keep that up as often as I want?" she volunteered. "It took a moment to come back, but I don't feel tired or anything. And I think I can do a continuous blast, but it'll be a bit weaker."

Armsmaster nodded, decisively.

"We need to test on more materials," he said. "Is it depth, mass, durability, latent heat of vaporization or something else? And how selective can Wyrm be?"

He paused.

"We should try a fish tank," he added. "Twice. Once with Wyrm aiming to not harm the fish. That should be able to demonstrate her professed ability to not do serious injury."

"Are you thinking about deploying Wyrm against the next time Squealer uses one of her invisible tanks?" Miss Militia asked.

"I was not only thinking about that," Armsmaster replied. "But it would be a most efficient use of available assets, if possible."

Taylor had to avoid a giggle at the sudden mental image – a huge Tinkertech tank rolling down the street, then Taylor engulfing it in flames, and when the flames passed there was just Squealer sitting in a seat in the middle of the road and looking very surprised.

---

"That seems like a comprehensive determination of effectiveness," Armsmaster said, once they'd finished. "To summarize… Wyrm can breathe fire continuously for periods upwards of a minute, and was at no point tired out by the experience; when directed at iron in a continuous burst, it eroded through a little more than forty millimetres per second, while stone was approximately twice as fast and wood roughly three times as fast. It does not scale with density, but instead appears to be more able to erode denser materials than would be the case if it were purely based on density. In addition, the material that she hits continues to erode at a slower pace, at least until she decides it should not."

He paused.

"And she can choose to harm, stun, or ignore living targets within the area of effect, as well as either harming or ignoring non-living matter."

"That is one hell of a Blaster power," Battery said, shaking her head. "Wow."

Taylor raised her paw.

"That's… not the only thing it can do?" she said. "I think, anyway."

"Seriously?" Battery asked, blinking.

"I wouldn't put it quite that way, but I agree," Miss Militia said. "There's more?"

"There's… a lot more," Taylor answered. "Or, there are other things I think I can do, things that I feel like I can't do often. But the breath I can do all the time."

She twitched her wings. "And I think it can heal, though, uh… clearly not repair things, or it would have fixed what was left of the weight cube."

"Healing as well," one of the scientists said, shaking his head. "How are we going to test that?"

"More fish, I think," another replied. "What we do is, we put a fish in a tank on a table, and another tank underneath the first tank. Then we wound the fish, and Wyrm breathes on the tank to see if the result is that the fish is healed?"

"You said there were other things," Miss Militia said. "What sort of other things? And you can't do them often?"

"Right," Taylor agreed. "It's… how do I put this…"

She sat on her haunches. "I can breathe fire all day, but these other things feel more substantial. I don't know for sure yet because I haven't actually used them, but I know how to do them."

"What sort of thing are we talking about?" Battery asked.

"I can change my breath, I think?" Taylor replied. "So I could make it into, lightning or cold, but it would be weaker and I could only do it a few times before needing a serious rest… I could fire out a jet of energy that wouldn't miss… make a flash of light, either focused into a beam or flaring outwards, though both would be bright enough that they might blind someone…"

"I think we can all agree that it's a very good thing that you haven't experimented with those, Wyrm," Miss Militia said. "Those all seem to be to do with your breath, or with light, or both. Is that the case in general?"

Taylor frowned.

"Not all of them are," she replied. "Though a lot of them are, I suppose… there's some bursts of energy that come out from me against those around me, but all of these things are where I can do the same as my breath to make it only affect those I want to. And to stun instead of doing permanent harm."

"I think we're going to need to go through these one at a time," Battery said. "Because, uh… that's a lot."

"I think we're going to need some more big blocks of iron as targets," the head scientist mused.

---

That evening, Director Piggot looked across the table at her two highest ranking Capes.

"You spent all day on this?" she asked.

"There was a great deal that had to be verified," Armsmaster confirmed, sliding a document across the table to her. "This is the current assessment."

"Right, well…" Piggot began, picking up the document. "I did see you put the name in the system… the photographs are new, though."

She looked more closely.

"She looks quite comfortable. At least, if I'm reading a dragon's expression correctly."

Miss Militia paused, going over her interactions with the young dragon, then nodded.

"I think she was," she confirmed. "Or, if not, she was hiding it well. She'd been changed into a completely new body type, but I think you're right, Director – she was more confident in herself than I would have expected."

Piggot turned the page, raised an eyebrow at the ratings, then put the document down.

"All right," she said. "Summarize for me why she's got these ratings."

"It's in the document," Armsmaster pointed out.

"The document is, what, thirty pages?" Piggot replied. "Summarize."

"Going down the list," Miss Militia began. "Mover rating… I know these are all provisional, but we decided on four and four seems about right to me. She's fast by human standards, but there are plenty of flyers in this city who can go faster and she can't teleport or anything like that. When hovering she produces a bit of a windstorm, but – honestly, it's not the bit about her that's the most dangerous. Mostly what it means is that she can get around independently and quickly, and we're probably in good luck that she has such good reflexes."

"I wouldn't want to see a ten ton dragon rampaging around without much concern for cornering," Piggot said, shaking her head. "Another dragon. This city has two, now… how long before we get a Cape called, I don't know, Drake?"

"Drake is a member of the King's Men," Armsmaster supplied. "Weather Shaker, works better over water."

"Not the point," Piggot said, rubbing her temples. "All right, what's this about a Master rating?"

"Master and Shaker," Armsmaster said, precisely. "In this respect Wyrm appears to be capable of the same effect as Glory Girl's aura, but she appears to have much more precise control of it. Or, at least, it never activated except when specifically requested."

"Morale is important in a fight, so it's significant and that's why we gave it a three, but she's showed no indication of being able to control anyone," Miss Militia contributed. "Gallant's emotion blasts are more of a problem in that respect, if anything…"

"Is that the only Shaker ability?" Piggot asked, and sighed at the head-shakes.

"She has several ways of doing what would be something like her Blaster ability, but with a different focus and around herself," Armsmaster clarified. "This is not something she can do indefinitely, and at this point we're unaware of the precise reason why."

He checked his notes. "In all cases, her ability to only damage what she is meant to damage is immaculate."

Piggot rubbed her temples. "Well, that's something… before we continue, what's your sense of her as a person? Is she going to be trouble?"

Armsmaster looked at Miss Militia, who shrugged.

"I don't think so," she said. "She's still thinking over whether she'd be all right working with Shadow Stalker, after the allegations, and honestly that by itself is a good indicator that she's unlikely to be trouble. In fact, the whole discussion around Shadow Stalker is, she displayed a clarity of thought that I'd find unusual in an adult, and she is a teenager."

Piggot muttered something which both Capes decided not to try and listen to.

"In terms of what she wants to do," Miss Militia resumed. "She wants to help people, but seems to understand that there are limits to what can be done. She's shared a lot of information with us that we couldn't have found out otherwise… of course she could be trouble, anyone could be, but I don't have any reason to think she would be."

"I would strongly recommend recruiting her," Armsmaster provided. "Including making substantial concessions. Her utility is both extreme and obvious."

"I did see the ratings you gave," Piggot said. "We've done Mover, Shaker… Brute? You gave her a Brute rating of five, I believe."

"Yes," Armsmaster confirmed. "I believe her effective Brute rating could be increased with supporting gear, but as things stand she can ignore pistol fire indefinitely but would be bruised and potentially injured by higher velocity long arms. The fact of her extremely high reflexes and her ability to move rapidly means that actually hitting her would be more difficult, but that is more correctly carried under Mover and Thinker, so our assessment is a Brute rating somewhere around four to five."

"And she's immune to both heat and electricity," Miss Militia provided. "That doesn't seem like enough to put on a Breaker rating, but it contributes to the Brute one."

Piggot nodded.

"Fair," she said, sounding almost grudging, then shook her head. "I wouldn't want to be on the team responsible for stopping her, that's for sure… Thinker five as well?"

"That one was hard to assess," Miss Militia admitted, freely. "Because there's two completely separate aspects going into it, or really three. The first is related to her reflexes… she thinks extremely fast when she has reason to, and that would be worth a point or two by itself for being a combat Thinker. Then there's her senses in general, which are uniformly better than baseline human. She could function almost as well as normal in pitch blackness, and at the same time there's a level of discrimination which means that flashbangs or pepper spray don't actually work on her."

"You flashbanged and pepper sprayed a teenager?" Piggot asked.

"Any weapon use was confirmed with a video recording of her permission ahead of time," Armsmaster said. "We underwent full safety procedures, as documented on several pages of the report."

"Fine, fine," Piggot said. "So long as she agreed to it, I suppose neither she nor anyone else can really complain… we'd better make sure the Youth Guard doesn't find out about that, though."

She glanced longingly at the door, then shook her head.

"Right, what's the third part of her Thinker rating?" she asked. "You said there were three."

What was visible of Miss Militia's face betrayed a certain level of uncertainty.

"I'm… not really all that sure how to put it," she admitted. "Because the basic summary is that Wyrm is good at everything."

Piggot blinked.

"What?" she asked.

"We conducted knowledge and aptitude tests to confirm it," Armsmaster said. "A wide variety of them, on randomly selected fields and subjects. Roughly speaking, her academic knowledge and ability to apply it is on par with a bachelor's degree, and her ability to perform tasks in more practical fields is comparable – which is to say, approximately the level of skill expected from studying the topic for several years in school followed by three to four years of dedicated further education."

Piggot was still having some trouble processing that.

"That is what consumed most of the testing time," Armsmaster provided, helpfully.

"...yes, I can see why a Thinker rating of five would be appropriate," the Director conceded. "Jesus. All right, now we get to the really big one. Blaster Ten?"

"Nine or ten, we're not sure," Miss Militia provided. "She has the ability to exhale a sixty-degree cone of fire, fifty feet long and wide, which… effectively disintegrates whatever is inside the cone, so long as she wants to disintegrate it, and with a maximum depth of erosion depending on the precise subject being attacked."

"For iron, it's about ten inches," Armsmaster provided. "Or one and a half per second if fired continuously, or at least that's what the tests indicate. About twice that in stone, but the exact relationship isn't linear with density."

"Don't forget the ongoing erosion," Miss Militia pointed out.

"I was going to get to that," Armsmaster said, sounding minutely annoyed. "The effect of her primary blaster power continues after the breath has concluded, at approximately seventy percent of the original intensity, though she can stop it at any time. This effect also builds up during a long breath – I can provide the equations?"

"I… don't actually want to think about that too much," Piggot said, though she was thinking about Ellisburg being burned down to the bedrock.

Possibly further.

Armsmaster turned over a page of his notes. "In addition, tests with fish proved that she is able to either include or exclude living beings or anything they are wearing."

Piggot closed her eyes.

"So she's a flying field gun," she said. "No, flying artillery."

"With a stun setting," Miss Militia provided. "As well as choosing to exclude any given living target, she can also choose to stun the target. The fish she hit with that blast is still alive, just… unconscious. Finally, she is able to choose to heal the target instead – we're unsure of the specifics of that for obvious reasons, but a one-tenth-of-a-second burst on a fish that had suffered serious physical trauma resulted in the fish being returned to a fully healthy state."

After a moment, the Director nodded.

"Fine, I see why the question is between nine and ten," she said. "Is Wyrm staying on the Rig for now?"

"...sort of," Miss Militia answered. "She wanted to go out and do something constructive to avoid getting cabin fever."

Piggot glowered at her.

"All right, let's hear it," she requested.

"She asked about disintegrating the ship that blocked the harbour," Armsmaster answered. "I checked and found that it does not actually belong to anyone and is considered an eyesore, so she's doing that now. Unless she's finished already."

Piggot groaned.

"I don't want to know what PHO is making of this," she said. "Well, I suppose keeping her under wraps was a lost cause anyway after yesterday."

---

"So… this is weird, right?" Dennis asked, adjusting his costume. "That we've all been brought out to the Rig to meet a new Ward."

"Yeah, it's not standard," Carlos nodded.

"Hey, guys," Rory protested. "It's not called the Rig."

He folded his arms. "And, as your illustrious leader-"

"Oh, give it up," Dennis groaned. "You've got, what, a month before you go from illustrious leader to most junior member of the Protectorate."

"Which would still place me as outranking you," Rory replied. "And I must insist on proper terminology! If I don't, then who will?"

He glanced at Velocity. "Right?"

"Hey, don't ask me," the speedster shrugged.

"It's not called the Rig, but everyone calls it the Rig," Dennis said. "You knew what I meant. I knew what I meant. Everyone knew what I meant. What are you, some kind of prescriptivist?"

"That sounds like an illness," Missy said, making a face.

"It might be, I certainly don't know how to spell it," Dennis admitted.

"It's the principle of the thing," Rory said. "And it's not like I can do much else to assert my authority."

"You could tell us what you know about this new Ward," Dean suggested. "Since you are the illustrious leader and so on, I'd think that would mean that you got informed ahead of time."

"Oh, I could tell you, but I'm not particularly interested in doing that," Rory replied, inspecting the claws on his gloves before buffing them against the rest of his costume.

He glanced at Carlos. "Don't forget to take notes, you'll have to do this kind of question-dodging next."

"I'm looking forward to it," Carlos said, clearly not looking forward to it.

"Look, we know who it has to be, right?" Dennis asked. "It's got to be that dragon Cape. Wyrm."

They began following a guide through the corridors of the base, still speculating away.

"I hope it is," Missy said. "Wait, is Wyrm a girl? There was lots of speculation online but nobody was quite clear about it… it'd be nice to have more girls on the team, there's way too many boys."

"Excuse me?" Dennis demanded, hurt. "You think there's too many boys?"

"Count them," Missy requested, with impeccable logic.

"What makes you think it's Wyrm?" Chris asked.

"Probably that we're out on the Protectorate ENE Headquarters," Rory said, thoughtfully.

Dennis frowned. "The what?"

Rory sighed. "The Rig," he said, shaking his head and tutting. "Kids these days."

"You're still a kids these days for another month," Carlos said.

"I'm just saying, it might not be Wyrm," Chris pointed out. "There's loads of reasons why we might be out here to meet a new Ward. They could be a Tinker."

Missy stifled a laugh. "Of course that's the explanation you default to."

"Why not?" Chris asked.

"Could be a Case 53, as well," Carlos suggested. "Mind you, that might not rule out Wyrm."

He glanced back, at where Sophia was bringing up the rear. "Are you all right? You seem less… engaged than normal."

"Yeah, now he mentions it, you are," Dennis agreed. "Something up?"

"Shut. The fuck. Up," Sophia said.

Dennis shut up.

Mostly.

"Her heart doesn't seem to be in it," he whispered. "Is she ill?"

Dean didn't say anything, but he had to agree… Sophia seemed like she was in a mess.

"All right, stop here," Velocity said. "Some of you might recognize where we are?"

"Yeah, this is a door to one of the testing rooms, isn't it?" Missy asked. "I've been down here plenty of times."

"Correct," Velocity said. "And… well, you'll see."

He opened the door, and the Wards moved forwards – then stopped, all at once, as they saw the huge golden form actually inside the testing chamber.

"...holy shit," Carlos breathed.

After a moment, Chris glanced at Dennis.

"Well, you were right," he said.

"Come in," Wyrm requested, stepping back a pace or two before sitting down on her haunches.

"Is this… still a testing chamber?" Missy asked.

"For now, it's where I sleep, but I've been doing tests in here as well," Wyrm replied, as they filed in. "Armsmaster keeps thinking of new ones to do."

She tilted her head slightly, then pointed. "So… let's see. Triumph, Kid Win, Clockblocker, Aegis, Vista, Gallant and Shadow Stalker. Did I get that right?"

"Yeah, I think that's everyone," Triumph said, then shook his head. "You know, I knew this was coming, but the impact in person is… something else."

He frowned. "Is Wyrm official at this point?"

"Yes, it is," Wyrm agreed. "I couldn't come up with anything better and at this point it's probably too late to change anyway."

She moved slowly and fluidly down from sitting on her haunches to a more low-slung pose, so they didn't have to look up all the time. "To clear up a few of the basics – yes, that was me exploding out of a school a few days ago. Trigger event. And yes, I'm joining the Wards."

After a moment, she tilted her head. "But I don't actually know all that much about what being a Ward is like. I know you go out on patrol, but how much does that mean dealing with villains and how much is it just walking around?"

"We usually get trouble once a week or so, but it's mostly not very serious," Carlos provided. "Uh. Are you… a lot of our Wards scheduling is about fitting it in around school, but… do you… school?"

"Not at the moment," Wyrm replied. "We're still trying to work out the best way to deal with that…"

---

"...so, uh," Clockblocker said, once Taylor had finished the basic rundown of her powers. "You've got flight, strength, you're way tougher than any of us, you're a great big dragon, and you've got a breath attack that can just outright evaporate things… and you can set it to stun? Or goddamn heal?"

He shook his head. "Powers are bullshit, man."

"You're one to talk," Aegis muttered. "How come you haven't asked to shake her hand yet?"

"You think I'm going to meddle in the affairs of dragons?" Clockblocker asked. "I'm funny, not suicidal."

Taylor looked thoughtful. "You were going to time stop me?"

"No!" Clockblocker replied, very firmly. "I was going to not time stop you!"

As he protested that further, explaining why it was a very bad idea to anger a very big scaly monster that had good manners and was nice and might not be, Taylor noticed that Shadow Stalker – Sophia – looked like she wasn't sure what to do or say.

She also heard a quiet conversation between Triumph and Aegis, then the latter raised his voice.

"Wyrm?" he said. "Has there been any discussion of how you would go on patrol? Like… where you would be and how other Wards would be in touch with you?"

"Keeping in touch is one of the things Armsmaster is working on," Taylor provided. "He's working on an earpiece and microphone for me – apparently they'll have to be in different bits because otherwise I'd end up with a huge one."

"I guess that's fair," Kid Win conceded. "Your mouth is a long way from your… ears, we can use the word ears."

"And patrolling… I might fly sometimes, but most of the time it's probably better for me to be down at ground level," Taylor went on. "I was actually thinking about that, but obviously you guys are more experienced, so…"

She thumped her tail against the ground for a moment, trying to get her thoughts in order.

"So, firstly, there's just… reassuring people," she said. "With how much trouble there is in Brockton Bay, it's good for people to be able to see that there are heroes out on patrol. It reminds them that we're here, not out in the bay, untouchable behind a forcefield, but… there on the ground. And that we're people."

After a moment, she chuckled. "Even… well, me… and part of that in turn is because of the second thing. Which is… stopping the same thing happening from the other direction."

"...no, you've lost me," Kid Win admitted.

"What's the point of heroes who don't know what would help people?" Taylor asked. "The more that we remember that we're still people, citizens like everyone else, then the less likely it is that we'll lose track of that… and, of course, if we're out there it means we can help if someone gets in trouble."

"You mean stopping criminals, right?" Sophia asked, her voice sounding strange, and Taylor glanced at her.

"Perhaps," she agreed. "But it's… what matters is to make things better, not worse, and that doesn't always just mean stopping as many criminals as we can. It means making it so that people don't need to turn to crime at all – so people believe that there are options for them. Fighting gangs is part of it, stopping crime is part of it, but it shouldn't be all of it."

She tried to express the thought. "And – Wards don't get involved in stopping crime or being called in quite so much, but we're there if we need to be. And a lot of it is helping people, too – firefighters don't deal with criminals, but they certainly help people out."

Then she shrugged, feeling a bit awkward. "I've been doing a lot of thinking about that kind of thing recently."

"It sounds like it," Vista said. "...what kind of gear would you be carrying, then?"

"Armsmaster's working on it, but it might be helpful to be able to carry people," Taylor replied, thoughtfully. "Without using my paws, I mean."

"You mean a way for someone to-" Triumph began, stopped, then tried again. "That would be pretty cool. Please tell me it's going to be an option at some point, because I want someone to take a photo of me doing it!"

"If it ends up being possible, I could do a photoshoot," Taylor mused, then chuckled. "It would mean I had a collection of photos of all the Protectorate and Wards ENE heroes!"

"Oh, speaking of which – have you had your meeting with branding yet?" Vista asked. "Branding is a… thing."

"Not yet," Taylor admitted. "I suppose I've got that to look forward to… oh, speaking of that sort of thing, how do I make a therapist appointment?"

She carefully didn't look at Sophia, but she could tell the other girl was staring at her anyway.

"A therapist?" Aegis repeated. "Sorry, that just… it seems like an odd request."

"If I'd broken a leg I wouldn't not go to the doctor," Taylor replied. "Same thing, right? Except it's more like if you might not notice something just as bad."

She glanced at Sophia, this time, but as part of looking at all the other Wards.

Hoping that Sophia was taking the offer that Taylor had mentioned to Miss Militia. It would mean that Sophia was going to stay in Brockton Bay, and that Taylor would keep dealing with her, but… it was the better outcome.

It was the only way Sophia could get the help she needed. And… if Sophia didn't take it, then she was choosing not to get help.

Taylor could forgive the past… but she wouldn't give unlimited chances. Forgiveness had to be connected to sincere repentance.

Otherwise, it was just appeasement.

---

Taylor was – very carefully – tapping the page-down button on her new laptop with the tip of a claw, reading through one of a large collection of e-books, and settling into her room.

Officially it was probably still one of the Rig testing rooms, but by this point it was sort of just accepted that the testing room with the loading doors to the outside was going to be her room on an intermediate basis. She certainly wouldn't fit in her old bedroom, for a start… and it was sort of indicative that the latest thing she was testing was sort of like a dog bed scaled up to ten times the size.

It was actually quite comfortable, though she'd been assured that an extra-sized mouse and keyboard along with a wall projector for the computer screen were also going to be on the way.

Honestly, it actually made her feel quite appreciated. There was certainly a political side to things, and a don't-annoy-the-dragon side to things as well, but some of the little gestures indicated that someone was actually thinking through what she might like to do.

She'd just reached the bit where they were landing on Mars when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," she called, and the door opened to admit a man in a suit.

He was carrying a briefcase, and stopped for a moment to stare at her before walking forwards more slowly.

"I, guess I did get sent to the right room," he declared, and Taylor pointed.

"There's a chair there, if you need it," she told him. "You're the person from legal?"

"Branding," the man replied, and chuckled. "I assume I was being tested. Roland Marks, and, ah… well, I know you're Wyrm."

Roland took the chair, and opened his briefcase.

"Let's see…" he said. "Well, the first thing I have to do, miss Wyrm, is reassure you that your situation is not actually going to take much work."

"It's not?" Taylor said, because it seemed polite.

"Quite correct," Roland agreed. "To be honest, the head of Branding really wanted to come over himself, but… well, I think the way he put it was, he simply couldn't justify the flight to handle such an easy challenge. To put it bluntly, miss Wyrm, a giant golden dragon who's able to articulate why the Wards exist as well as you are simply does not need much in the way of work to make you a far better advert for the Wards than most."

Then he smiled slightly. "Though, of course, I do have some things to contribute…"

Taylor nodded.

"It would be a short meeting, otherwise," she said.

"Exactly," Roland agreed, readily enough. "Now, there's several subjects to mention here… one of them is, well, most Wards have a costume and in your case it really does make sense to try something. The only problem is finding a way to fit with your colour scheme. Do you… need armour?"

"Armsmaster says he's working on some," Taylor answered. "I don't know how it will look yet, though."

"That's all right, the main thing I wanted to mention is related to the lustre and the colour," Roland replied. "I've heard about Armsmaster's views on armour, and how long he can argue about the order of armour… I do not want to be the latest in the members of Branding to be caught in an email exchange with him on the subject. However, what I wanted to know was whether you had any opinions on specific colour, texture and so on."

"I haven't really thought about it," Taylor conceded, thinking. "I suppose… when you say lustre, you mean shining versus matte colouring? And then for the colour, what sort of colours were you thinking of?"

"Very good," Roland nodded. "Yes, I've had to explain that one a few times. As for the colours, well, there's several that go with gold but some of them don't really work. For example, pink and gold work well together, but that usually means pink is the dominant colour and gold is the accent, and that would mean covering you almost all over in pink… and, honestly, that's a bit too girly. We want to emphasize your strength and presence, because all we'd do if we made pink the dominant colour is look like we were trying too hard."

He shuffled some sheets. "However, more or less any blue would work quite nicely, including purple… purple has a few overtones of royalty, still. Of course, any armour you had would either have very large areas of just one colour or it would be a mixture, so we'd want to think about having a pattern."

"Like a scale pattern, perhaps?" Taylor suggested. "Since I have them anyway."

"That's definitely a possibility," Roland said. "Hmm… and then there's the option of using silver to offset the gold…"

He put the colour sheets down.

"Now, before we get down into the details of that, because I'm sure it could consume most of our time, I do want to point a few other things out," the man went on. "Firstly – what's your opinion on caparisons?"

Taylor had to think for a moment about the word, but she'd run into it before.

"I think it depends on what's on them," she admitted. "And how they fit on me… I'd probably need to see some sketches, and even then making them might take a while and the effort might go to waste."

"That's entirely reasonable," Roland said, nodding. "Testing the fit would probably come before making up patterned ones, but it's a good way to look more cheerful."

He frowned.

"Oh, yes," he added, retrieving a sheet of paper with some hand-written notes. "Before we get back to the fun stuff, there's a few things to mention, since I don't want them to get entirely forgotten and we'll want to circle back to them… firstly, posture when interacting with the public."

"So they don't have to crane their necks," Taylor said, recognizing what Roland meant.

"That, and so you don't appear too intimidating," Roland confirmed. "To some extent it's inevitable that you'll be a little scary, but scary and approachable is far better than scary and aloof."

He moved down the list. "Secondly, about your breath. I know that you could use it in a lot of versatile ways, given its… unusual properties… but I think we'd prefer if people were used to the idea you could do it and that it wasn't dangerous. What I'm thinking of here is fireworks displays, where you visibly don't damage the infrastructure in the fire jet – it would look very impressive and reassure people at the same time."

"That makes a lot of sense," Taylor allowed. "Is it normal that a lot of the focus is on not scaring people?"

"You more than most, but it's quite common," Roland told her. "And, I have to say, you're more understanding than many. And the next point is…"

He looked her in the eye, quite serious now. "One of your powers is the ability to scare people? Don't use it in a crowd. A stampede or crowd crush is very dangerous and the fact that everyone involved would have been Mastered by you is also a very bad look."

Taylor found it hard to argue with that.

"If I was in a situation where someone was running away through a crowd, would it make sense to breathe on the crowd and stun the criminal while making sure everyone else didn't get affected?" she asked. "Or heal them, but I think healing people without their consent is a bit legally problematic."

Roland blinked.

"...I might need to run that past legal," he said. "But, yes, please do not breathe fire on people to heal them without at least some kind of consent. Now, ah, we should get back to those colour patterns…"

---

"Well… that was interesting," Clockblocker said, some days later. "Less interesting than my unveiling, though."

"I've heard about that," Taylor told him. "Several times, actually. I think everyone I talked to mentioned it."

She inspected one of her paws, and the silver bracelet around her ankle… her wrist? The ankle on her foreleg. "They all said, stick to the name, be responsible. I don't need to show off, so much, I'm very visible. A lot of my branding is trying to make me look less impressive… the bracelets, the armour, all of that."

"Yeah, but… didn't you want to shake things up a bit?" Clockblocker asked.

"Oh, come off it," Triumph groaned. "How many people are you going to try that with?"

"As many as necessary!" Clockblocker replied.

Taylor rolled her eyes, chuckling, and shook herself slightly – feeling the durable ballistic alloy-steel of the mostly-chainmail armour they'd decided upon, after some considerable discussion.

It was bright and shining, which helped with the image and broke up the sense that she was a single massive slab of metal, and there were purple accents among the silvery material. It was also going to significantly help make her more resilient to gunfire, since any bullet that tried to reach her hide would have to go through the mail first and exert a lot of force to split the rings, while the weaker and more vulnerable points were reinforced with extra plates… and those plates were covered with fabric that both held them in place and had complex inlaid designs, further breaking up her profile.

The helmet was even more involved and ornate, with decorations and flourishes that Dragon had supplied personally, which helped even more to create the sense that she was wearing it for the look as well as protection. The very fact that a dragon was putting effort into looking fashionable was a good way to remind civilians that she wasn't a mindless monster, after all.

Taylor sometimes felt like she was wearing a work of art, but it was hard to ignore that it was also armour. It might be light enough that it let her still take off and fly, but it still weighed nearly a ton, and the attachment points for her other gear were hooked into the chains.

But speaking of carrying things…

"So," she said, pointing at Clockblocker. "I know he's the one trying to persuade me to do something silly. Who's the one who tries to persuade me to do something sensible?"

"I think that's my job, but Aegis needs the practice," Triumph mused.

"Good," Taylor decided. "Then next time Clockblocker starts, I can lift him up and carry him over my left shoulder, and Aegis over my right shoulder. If I'm getting a shoulder devil I need a shoulder angel as well."

"Hey!" Clockblocker protested, as Kid Win and Gallant stifled laughter. "Don't I get a say in this?"

"Yes," Vista pointed out. "You can not say anything."

"So I get a don't-say in this?" Clockblocker said, considering. "Perhaps that would work."

She shrugged. "But, anyway… I think that went pretty well for an unveiling. Everyone kind of knew it was coming, they just weren't sure if you were going to be Wards or Protectorate, and now they know the answer is Wards. I know Clock's unveiling is the baseline everyone told you to beat, but… yeah, I think you handled it pretty well."

"What makes her the expert?" Sophia asked.

"Oh, she's not the expert," Triumph replied, shrugging. "But she's got more experience than Wyrm has."

"It's true," Taylor agreed, nodding. "I really am new at all of this… so I'll just have to learn quickly, I suppose."

"Right," Gallant said. "That's a good attitude, anyway."

"So, patrol assignments," Triumph declared. "The good news is, we now have an even number again. The bad news is, we have an even number again… Wyrm, you probably can't use the Console, so you're probably going to be on field patrols until a solution's been worked out."

"Suits me," Taylor said.

"Suits most of us!" Clockblocker declared. "I think maybe Kid Win prefers the Console because it means he has more chance to jot down ideas before he loses them, but most of the rest of us prefer doing things."

"Yeah, that's about the shape of it," Aegis said, thoughtfully. "Actually, come to think of it… yes, I know we were talking about patrol assignments, but everyone apart from Wyrm knows everyone else's real identity. What do people think about unmasking?"

"I think I'd need a mask first," Taylor pointed out, helpfully. "But I wouldn't really mind… I just also wouldn't mind if you waited a few weeks. I know I'm not exactly easy to hang out with during off hours."

"I know I'm going to have to change that," Triumph said, then frowned. "Wait… Vista, could you get it so that Wyrm would fit in the normal Wards rec room?"

Vista opened her mouth, paused, and frowned.

"I'd need to warp everything along the way, and if I lost the warp then I think she'd wreck the room at least," she said, after a while.

Taylor shrugged.

"If you feel confident, I'd give it a try, but otherwise you could visit me," she offered. "Just let me know you're coming?"

There were general nods of approval.

"I'll see if I can get that working," Vista decided. "Anyway, uh, patrol assignments?"

She glanced up, and sighed. "Clock!"

"What?" Clockblocker replied, paging down on his phone. "You would not believe some of the PHO theories there are about Wyrm."

He glanced up. "Are you, in fact, being sued by Anne McCaffrey or the Tolkien Estate?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Taylor replied. "...actually, would I know? I think the PRT would intercept that first and I'd only get involved if it reached the discovery stage."

"The what?" Sophia asked. "What's that?"

"Discovery is where the parties to a suit can aim to get hold of information relevant to the case," Taylor summarized. "It's one of the things that acts as a penalty for frivolous lawsuits since discovery can result in information harmful to the plaintiff being divulged if they have something to hide."

Kid Win shook his head.

"Clock, can I?" he asked.

"Go ahead," Clockblocker offered.

"Thanks. Powers are complete bullshit," the Tinker declared. "Also, uh… Triumph? Do we divide our team up so there's at least one Mover on any patrol? Counting my hoverboard, that is."

"Now that's the kind of question I want to hear!" Triumph told him. "Assuming, that is, that you're counting Vista as a Mover."

"...oh, yeah, I don't think you're officially listed as one," Kid Win said. "It's way too easy to forget that…"

---

"Comms check," Aegis said. "Can you hear this, Wyrm?"

"I can hear you fine," Taylor replied. "Is this working?"

"Yeah, that's good," Aegis replied, then stepped out onto the Rig rooftop with her. "Always good to check that somewhere where the Tinkers and other techs are nearby, rather than finding out we have problems during the patrol."

Taylor nodded her understanding, because it made a lot of sense, and pictured the patrol route.

They'd be starting out by flying to shore – one reason she'd been paired with the other flyer for this one – and stopping at the Boardwalk, before heading south from there towards downtown and the central business district.

Assuming, that was, that they didn't get interrupted.

"How often are patrols in the more… upscale areas of town?" she asked, as she did a last check on her own equipment.

"It's more common than not," Aegis said. "From what I gather, it's a… Wards thing. They want us to be safe, after all."

Taylor nodded, then spread her wings for a takeoff. Aegis took off first, rising straight into the air, and Taylor chuckled at the pang of jealousy she felt before lifting off with a whoosh of air.

She circled once, gaining height and stretching her wings, then Aegis began flying west towards the proper start of their patrol route and Taylor banked across to join him.

"So, uh," Aegis went on. "Tell me if this isn't the right question, but… what was Winslow like?"

He paused. "Is, I guess. They're still taking classes."

"I had some of the worst experience of anyone you'd see in that school," Taylor replied, feeling the wind flow over her wings.

The greater weight she was carrying relative to going unarmoured meant that she had to work a bit harder, flapping more often to maintain speed and curve her wings to bear more weight, but it was doable. She knew what it felt like when muscles got strained, and that wasn't happening to her.

"But, with that in mind…" she went on. "It wasn't good. At all. It's the kind of place you go because you have to, mostly… I guess it'd be possible to get a good education there, but you'd really have to work for it and get lucky with the bullies."

There was a long blast of a horn, from one of the ships out in the bay, and Taylor glanced right before waggling her wings a bit.

Shipping was already starting to come back into Brockton Bay. Not much, not yet, but it was recovery and for that Taylor was grateful.

"For more details… ask later, I guess," she added, as they approached the shoreline.

"Right," Aegis agreed. "Coming up on the Boardwalk… that looks like a good landing spot, in front of the cafe."

"I see it," Taylor confirmed, raising her wings to adjust her angle, then landed on the beach with a minimum of backwinging and hovering. Heavy wingbeats were a good way to spread sand around, which wasn't especially polite, and even though there weren't many people on the beach… because it was January… there were still some.

And, a moment later, there were photos being taken.

"Huh," Aegis said. "I never get this many photos."

Taylor chuckled, furling her wings, and advanced up off the beach itself onto the Boardwalk proper.

It was time to meet… the public.

---

Meeting the public involved answering a lot of questions, and a lot of requests for photos, and Taylor did her best to answer all of them. She was still on patrol, which meant she was looking around for any sign of something they might need to deal with, but with the much more experienced Aegis around Taylor was mostly assuming that she'd refer any edge cases to him.

"Why are you so big?" someone asked, sounding mostly curious. "Most Capes I've seen are human sized, even if they're not quite human shaped."

Taylor shrugged.

"I don't think I have another size setting," she said. "This is how I came out of the box. But if I knew the answer to that question, I think I'd have earned a Nobel prize or something."

That won her a few chuckles, which was good. She knew she was quite intimidating, but a big dragon that could make you laugh was less inherently threatening than a big dragon who scowled at you.

And it wasn't like she needed more intimidation.

One of the good things about that level of bigness, though, was that she wasn't really being blocked by the crowds… they were quite willing to give her at least a bit of space.

"Can you breathe fire?" someone else asked. "Because you're a dragon?"

Taylor glanced at Aegis, who shrugged slightly – leaving it up to her.

"Yes," Taylor replied, nodding solemnly. "Who wants to see?"

Shouts and raised hands went up, and Taylor nodded a little before raising her head and taking a deep breath.

There didn't seem to be anything in the way, but she made sure to safe her breath anyway – making sure it would only stun, and also so that it would flow around anything and everything in the area without actually hitting them.

Then she exhaled, breathing out a wide, rippling cone of blue-and-gold breath, and it hung in the air for a few seconds before fading away.

"Wow," someone said, then applause broke out.

"They're going to love this on PHO," a more familiar voice said, and Taylor glanced down at where someone familiar – Greg Veder, in fact – was lowering his phone, typing away at it.

Her thoughts about Greg were… complex. But she wasn't going to make an issue of it now.

Then someone asked about her armour and how much it weighed, and Taylor twitched a wing slightly in a shrug.

"Most of a ton," she told the woman. "There's a lot of me to armour…"

Then, inevitably, someone plucked up the courage to ask if she did rides.

Taylor was mostly just glad that it wasn't Greg.

---

By the next day, Taylor was starting to settle into a routine, which was…

...nice.

Especially since it was a routine where all the individual bits making it up were nicer than going to Winslow.

The morning was for things that didn't involve patrolling, mostly staying in her 'room' and reading or otherwise relaxing, though meetings like the one with Dr. Hamilton her new therapist also went in the morning. And the afternoon… often, though not always, it meant training with the Wards and going out on patrol.

The other Wards, that was.

It was still a strange thing to think.

"I wonder how much of this is actually to watch out for crime?" she asked, her voice low. "And how much is just so that the locals get used to seeing a huge gold dragon flying over their heads?"

Aegis chuckled.

"Little bit of column A, little bit of column B, I think," he replied, his voice mostly coming over the radio. He was following her on her left side rear at a distance of about thirty feet and ten feet higher than her, giving her good manoeuvre room in case she needed to turn rapidly, and Taylor appreciated it.

"Just a reminder, Wyrm," Triumph said, also over her earpiece. "But Branding has it on record that they think it's cool when you do your breath as an air display."

Taylor chuckled.

"I can take a hint, console," she replied, then inhaled, and fired out a cone of rippling blue-tinged gold flame.

Her wings beat harder, then she did a roll, twisting her neck as she did so. The flames defined a kind of spiral path around her as she soared over Captain's Hill, then she ceased and banked around so she didn't go outside the city limits.

"Nice," Aegis complimented her, then his voice sharpened a little. "Contact to the south."

"I see it," Taylor agreed – she'd spotted it as Aegis gave her warning. "Looks like Glory Girl to me. Console, we appear to be being approached by Glory Girl."

"Copy that," Triumph replied. "Glory Girl is officially considered friendly."

Taylor hadn't really assumed otherwise, but the confirmation was nice.

"Whoa," Victoria Dallon said, sliding to a halt in front of them, then began backing away at the same speed Taylor was flying. "I heard about you, but, uh… it's different in person."

"Thanks," Taylor replied.

"...yeah, that came out wrong," Victoria admitted. "Sorry."

She considered for a moment, glancing up at where Aegis was, then moved to somewhere next to Taylor and a bit higher than her. "Is this good?"

Taylor thought about her turning circle, then nodded. "Yeah, that's fine."

"Thank goodness," Victoria sighed. "You know, your way of flying is actually kind of unusual as far as Cape powers go?"

"Because it involves wings, right?" Taylor checked.

"Yeah, because it involves wings," Victoria agreed. "See, Movers are usually… there's the ones who are just faster on the ground in some way, like Velocity, then there's the ones who can teleport, and the ones who can fly. Like me or Aegis, for example."

Taylor banked around, nodding.

"And generally flying means floating," she said.

"Not just floating, but… yeah, for the most part," Victoria said. "There's also Movers who use something to travel along with, though that kinda overlaps with Tinkers, and Movers who launch themselves at their destination."

She shrugged. "But the whole, uh, minimum forward speed thing is weird because… it actually seems to be normal flight physics?"

"I can hover, if that helps," Taylor volunteered. "If you'd rather I could do that, if you want a talk without being in mid-air."

"No, no, that's fine," Victoria assured her. "I don't want to interrupt your patrol too much. It's just, you know… first chance to come over and say hi, I'm going to take it, right?"

She grinned. "Plus, I kinda like your aesthetic. Could do with more white though."

"Alas, branding," Taylor said, which prompted a giggle from the other Cape.

"Right, right," Victoria agreed. "Is the armour actually necessary though? It looks really heavy and I guess I'd have assumed that dragonscale made you tough enough to not need it."

"It's not as heavy as you think it is," Taylor answered. "It weighs about a ton."

"...you did not know how heavy I thought it was," Victoria muttered. "But you actually get some benefit from it, then?"

"Yeah, of course," Taylor replied, waggling her wings for a shrug. "Anything that might get through my scales first has to get through the armour."

Then she winked. "Besides, it looks good."

"Good point," Victoria agreed. "If you're going to wear clothes anyway, you may as well make them armoured? Is that the idea?"

"It actually came the other way around, but basically," Taylor confirmed.

She kept flying for a long moment, thinking.

It was actually quite nice to be able to talk to someone like this… especially a girl of about the same age, really. That was something Taylor hadn't had a chance to do in a long time, and with so many of her new teammates being boys it hadn't quite been the same.

And she was not going to try and gossip with Sophia. Not yet.

Maybe, if Sophia actually put in the effort to change, and after a lot more time had gone past. But even that was a maybe.

Taylor was willing to give Sophia a chance to get help, but it was on Sophia to take it.

"So, what's it like, going to school as an out Cape?" she asked.

"Ugh," Victoria said, rolling her eyes. "The teachers are always on at me to not float in class…"

---

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Topic: (Edited) The Wyrm thread I guess
In: Boards Brockton Bay
Berenice (Original Poster)
Posted On Jan 3rd 2011:
What the actual fuck?
There was just a massive explosion from over by Winslow and a big shiny dragon the size of a bus came out!
I just... I don't know what to think! Sorry for the awful picture (link)
(edit) Winslow is a school here in Brockton Bay, it's not one of the best but - I'm still kind of panicking, the dragon flew down into the next street and then took off again!
I managed to get a better picture as it took off (link)
(edit) the best of the pictures so far (link) (link) (link) (link) (link) (link) (link) (link) (link)
(edit) Okay, I've renamed this because apparently that's what this is now.
(edit) Added official name.
(edit) more pictures (link) (link) (link) (link) (link) (link) (link) (link) (link)
and some video from someone very lucky and far braver than me who got a ride (link)
(edit) Wyrm meeting Glory Girl on patrol. Think there's enough gold there?

---

(Showing page 1 of 350)

Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
Was going to make a thread but saw this first. Yeah, I don't know what to think either.
Acree
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
The fuck? I heard Brockton had a dragon but I didn't realize it was this literal.
The Captain
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
To be clear to everyone NOT from Brockton Bay: that is NOT what Lung looks like. Lung looks different. This is a new dragon.
Laotsunn (Kyushu Survivor)
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
Now I'm getting flashbacks...
Loyal
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
Gee, Brockton Bay, how come mom lets you have two dragons?
Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
I think I speak for everyone else from Brockton when I say we do NOT want two dragons!
Aloha
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
So if that's a new Cape, and I'm kind of assuming that it is, did they start by attacking a school? Were there any casualties?
Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
Time zones, so there shouldn't have been any students in a school this late. There might have been some though.
What I'm wondering is if this person triggered in or near the school. Was it actually the school which exploded?
Tin Mother (Moderator)
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
A reminder that speculating on the possible identity of a cape is not permitted. Not saying you're doing that thing, but... don't do that thing.

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 348, 349, 350

---

(Showing page 14 of 350)

Space Zombie
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
So does anyone actually know anything they can share?
Iblis
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
Someone (link) mentioned seeing the dragon in the water, and then entering the Rig, so that might mean something.
Saskatchew
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
...what's a Rig? Is this a Brockton thing?
Iblis
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
The Protectorate ENE headquarters. Everyone calls it the Rig.
So I guess either the dragon decided to come quietly or we're going to see the Rig explode.
Miss Mercury (Protectorate Employee)
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
Speaking in a purely unofficial capacity, I would like to announce that I wouldn't like the Rig to explode. I'd say it in an official capacity as well but I don't want to go through clearance to say that.
Loyal
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
I'm kind of disappointed, I was hoping that that would be in an official capacity.
Coyote-C
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
How long has it been since the appearance of the Great and Glorious Gold Dragon, anyway? Has there been any sign of a dragon attack on a fast food place? If not, then is the Protectorate going to be feeding the dragon?
...how much food does a dragon eat?
Laser Augment
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
Based on previous estimates of dragon volume (see here: link) then... honestly I have no idea what a good baseline is, but estimates for a are about 40,000 food calories per day (link). It could be a lot more if their metabolism is like a predatory mammal though. We could be looking at anything from a goat a day to two cows a day.
Coyote-C
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
I never thought I'd get an answer so quickly or in such strange units.
So, uh... Case 53, Changer, or neither? Fire breath or not? And can we petition for the dragon to do something more dramatic so we can base our analysis off of something?
Berenice (Original Poster)
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:
Please do not encourage the huge dragon to do dramatic things in the city I live in!

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Chaosfaith
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
So we're thinking about, what, ten tons of overburden moved in the initial school explosion? How does that compare to Lung's Brute powers? I know they're variable and he can go up to something ridiculous, but he doesn't start out that way - is this equal to one-minute Lung, five-minute Lung, or tomorrow Lung?
Laotsunn (Kyushu Survivor)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
If you're not going to stop talking about this, can you at least take it to the versus thread? (link)
Antigone
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
To be fair the first part wasn't a versus question, so it still has merit here... but yeah, keep stuff in the right thread.
What I want to know is, why gold? Is that part of a power thing, like reflecting lasers or something?
Winged One
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
It could just be an appearance thing. Properly burnished scales can do wonders for appearance.
Good tips for scale care include the removal of loose dirt and debris, then, hardness permitting, rubbing with a cloth or stone that is non-abrasive to the underlying scales. This serves to polish the scales and remove smaller debris that would impair the overall look.
Answer Key
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
And now we're on a scale care tangent. Never change, PHO.
Berenice (Original Poster)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
So things are really confused at Winslow, probably because like four classrooms and a bank of lockers don't really exist any more? The school admin is trying to work out if they can send people home early.
XxVoid_CowboyxX (Banned)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
(post content deleted by moderator)
Tin Mother (Moderator)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Do not speculate on the identity of a possible minor.
Also, aim to avoid providing information that could identify you on the internet.
Consider this ban a warning.
Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Okay, I'm actually impressed, TM. Timestamps tell me that was eight seconds.
...well, then again, it is Void Cowboy, so I suppose it only makes sense that he's under scrutiny.
Space Zombie
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
That presumably means something happened in the school, BUT that doesn't tell us anything about who this new Cape might be (all hail TM please don't ban me)

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Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Holy shit.
Holy.
Shit.
So, uh, anyone who's familiar with the history of Brockton Bay (instead of our carousel of Capes) will know that there was a major riot a while ago that resulted in a big container ship running aground in the main shipping channel. That ship wrecked the economy in a big way and it's been a part of the Brockton cityscape for so long it's weird to think about it not being there.
Only, it's not there any more. See the video.
(link)
The return of the dragon, and it seems to have just decided to nope the ship out of existence.
Acree
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Okay, so, one - that looked extremely cool.
Two - does anyone know what other Capes would be capable of something like that? Legend and Eidolon obviously, but anyone else?
Coyote-C
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
That's pretty high up the Blaster tier scale, yeah.
Laotsunn (Kyushu Survivor)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
I really hope this time the giant reptile is nice.
...though, looking at that footage, isn't there something a bit weird about it? That blast is making structural metal just vanish, but it doesn't seem to be doing the same thing to the water.
Loyal
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
I hadn't noticed that, yeah. That's weird.
...okay, look, I know about the other thread but I have to at least point it out. Could Lung do that?
Miss Mercury (Protectorate Employee)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
I've been requested to specifically make it clear that she did ask if she could do that before actually doing it.
Antigone
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
She?
Okay, that's... actually good information! Also good to know that she didn't destroy a ship without asking first.
Winged One
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
A useful tip to remember when flying with wings is that the shape of the wing can be changed! It makes it so that flying with flapping wings is much less reliant on a specific stall speed, and the changes are more drastic than any non-Tinkertech variable wing geometry, including flaps.
Berenice (Original Poster)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
...so, uh... how exactly do you know that, Winged One?
Winged One
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Berenice I'm an autodidact. I teach myself things.

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Laser Augment
Replied On Jan 7th 2011:
That is one big dragon. I keep going over the publicity photos, and, uh.
We knew Wyrm (great name by the way) was big already, but seeing her next to normal humans? Yeah, that... really brings home just how big.
Kriketz
Replied On Jan 7th 2011:
Why is it a good name?
Wyrm (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On Jan 7th 2011:
Kriketz
It's an old word for 'dragon'. That's not the only thing it means, because in Old English the distinction between earthworms, snakes and dragons was more to do with context than the word you used for them, but it IS an old word for dragon. More importantly, it's distinct from Dragon, and I didn't want to tread on her toes. Or claws.
Coyote-C
Replied On Jan 7th 2011:
Huh. I for one welcome our new draconic overlady.
I guess the first thing I want to ask is... how are you using a computer? I mean, physically.
Berenice (Original Poster)
Replied On Jan 7th 2011:
I kind of want to ask how you blew up the school...
Chaosfaith
Replied On Jan 7th 2011:
Wyrm is there any chance you could weigh in on the versus thread for you versus Lung? (link) We could do with better stats about how strong you are.
Aloha
Replied On Jan 7th 2011:
So... Wyrm what's your education plan, anyway? Now we know you're a Ward and thus underage... I'm not going to speculate on your identity for fear of the banhammer, but I think we'd have heard about it if you were attending school. Or are you a Changer?
QwertyD
Replied On Jan 7th 2011:
Wyrm what do you eat, anyway?
Wyrm (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On Jan 7th 2011:
Coyote-C With great care on a separate keyboard. The screen's a projector pointed at the wall. I've got a giant keyboard on the way as well.
Berenice I didn't fit where I was any more and there were walls in the way, which moved aside with some speed when I insisted. Sorry about the damage, it wasn't intentional...
Chaosfaith I think I'd need to run that past legal, for a start. I wouldn't want to provoke a fight by claiming I could win one, and I wouldn't want to provoke a fight by claiming I couldn't win one.
That said, I think the fundamental question is why we'd be fighting. Under a lot of circumstances I'd just try and fly away.
Aloha I'm considering getting a GED. You're right that I can't attend a normal school under these circumstances, but fortunately the Wards program has dealt with unusual circumstances before so I'm in the right place for that.
And no, I'm not a Changer to my knowledge.
QwertyD Food.
More seriously, I'm aware that my size means I could be expensive in upkeep terms, but fortunately I don't seem to have any specific requirements for what I eat to be meat.
I do prefer it to be cooked, though. Fish would probably be okay but mammals and birds probably not, at least as far as I can tell.
I'd rather not have to find out if that's personal preference or if it's something that would lead to my getting sick.
Noveltry
Replied On Jan 7th 2011:
Wyrm do you take requests?

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Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:
Those are some seriously cool photos. She was really taking rides?
...I'd probably not want to go, but that's mostly because the whole idea is kind of scary for me.
Miss Mercury (Protectorate Employee)
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:
To answer an earlier question that I know was being discussed, Wyrm is staying in one of the main testing rooms on the Protectorate ENE base. That's partly because it's one of the only rooms big enough for her that's not full of vehicles.
It's an interim solution that might become permanent.
Iblis
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:
Miss Mercury - thanks for that, it's one of those things that doesn't really strike you until suddenly you think about it and it really strikes you.
...should we be looking for properties in the area with really big basements? Or caves for sale, one previous owner, no hobbits allowed?
Vista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:
I don't think it has to be a particularly large cave. It will be once I get my hands on it...
Chaosfaith
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:
Now I'm wondering if Vista could shrink Wyrm down to have her as a fire lizard companion or something... she is gold, after all.
On a different note, what's the best picture of that armour? It looks substantial.
QwertyD
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:
The armour was probably made by Armsmaster, so of course it's substantial. It's also probably entirely correct in its design - you can tell it's following the order of armour. No sign of a gambeson though, oversight or just not needed?
Laotsunn (Kyushu Survivor)
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:
I'm trying to imagine Lung doing photo opportunities like this and thoroughly failing. It's a weird concept.
Wyrm do the designs on your armour mean anything or are they purely decorative?
The Captain
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:
GStringGirl I understand where you're coming from, but her design just doesn't look the same. She's got wings coming out of her body barrel discretely, not a long fringe of them that goes all the way down the tail.
Some of the other reported powers are interesting, and I agree it seems like she can probably breathe underwater or has really good lung capacity given how long she's been known to stay underwater, but I don't think we can just assume that a fictional product accurately represents Wyrm. Good find though and maybe it'll give her somewhere to start?
Wyrm in case you didn't notice.
OfManyTales
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:
AllSeeingEye
There are more things on and off Golarion than are dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio.
(edit) That was the point.
AllSeeingEye
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:
OIfManyTales
Okay, one, rude.
Two, the whole mysterious troll thing is my job.
Three, my name's not Horatio.
And four... you realize I'm going to be up for hours trying to work out what you mean by Golarion, right?
(edit) Oh screw you.

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AN:

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So I did a lot more of the Gold Dragon Taylor story and thought I should post it. This is using the recent Gold Dragon update to the game, Wrath of the Righteous (which required some rewriting!)

GD Taylor is a bit of a beast.