How do capes in Worm keep their identities a secret. Sure, there are the unwritten rules, but come on. With the number of Thinkers in the world, keeping a secret identity (ignoring the unwritten rules) would be impossible. Does anyone REALLY believe that Lex Luthor DOESN'T know who Superman is?

Lila reached her class with a couple of minutes to spare, but her American history teacher, Mr. Walton, told her that she was wanted in the quickly sent a text to her mother, 'being pulled into office. You know about this?'

As she ambled toward the office on her crutch, she received, 'Yup, already here, having a fun talk with principal' back.

When Lila reached the office, the secretary directed her to go right into the principal's office.

Inside the room were, the principal, her mother, and a third woman that Lila didn't know.

"Ms. Clarke, come in," Principal Blackwell said, "We were just discussing the injuries you inflicted on Sophia. I was just telling everyone how you said at the time that 'it was all your fault'. Ms. Jackson is here it talk about Sophia's hospital bills."

"Actually," Lilly interjected, "you were about to tell me who Ms. Jackson is and what part she has in all of this since she is obviously not Sophia's mother."

Lila's mother was right. While Sophia could in theory be bi-racial, Ms. Jackson had absolutely no family resemblance to the girl.

"I'm a friend of the family," Ms. Jackson replied cutting of whatever Principal Blackwell was going to say. "I have full power of attorney to discuss Sophia," she concluded.

Lila noted the way Ms. Jackson's blazer was tailored. It did a decent job of breaking up the outline of the gun she was carrying in her shoulder holster. Cop? Parole Officer? She used her power to send that information to her mom's phone, which buzzed. Lilly glanced at it quickly, then turned her attention back to the conversation.

"When I looked at the video, it was obvious that Sophia purposefully tripped my daughter," Lilly said, a predatory smile on her face.

"You're right, Principal Blackwell," Lila added, "I did say that after the accident, but I didn't get to watch the video. If my mom has, then she probably would have a better idea of what happened than me. I'm still really confused about it all," she finished with a smile.

"What video?" Miss Jackson asked a shocked look on her face.

Mom held up her phone, "I have it right here," she said. "No audio, but the video clearly shows that this girl purposefully tripped my daughter."

"Where did that come from?" Principal Blackwell, asked urgently. "You aren't allowed to use phones during school," she directed her last statement toward Lila.

"It's actually all in Lila's records that we sent with her enrollment package," her mom replied. "Lila has a DaVinci prosthetic eye. It records video constantly for medical purposes. It would be covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act," she emphasized.

DaVinci Prosthetics was the company Lila created to explain her eye, make money and help people. The company had an actual physical facility in Boston run by a Biomedical Engineer that her mom knew from her college days. The company employed thirty-two people, building mostly prosthetic arms and legs. Eye prosthetics were outsourced to Lila, but the eyes sold to the general public didn't have all the bells and whistles hers did. She did have a VI, aptly named DaVinci monitoring the prosthetics out in the world for malfunctions or update ideas, video only, with a privacy mode. The patents were all held by a shell company that licensed them out to DaVinci Prosthetics. They weren't even Tinkertech, just advanced engineering and electronics. It had made her quite a bit of capital over the last year. Once she turned eighteen, she would officially own the entire company. It took her about two hours per eye to make a custom order, but she could churn out the generic eyes, which her mom called Terminator Eyes after some old movie, in about ten minutes.

Principal Blackwell opened the Lila's record folder on her desk, flipping through the pages quickly before coming to the medical form her mother had filled out when she enrolled Lila. "DaVinci prosthetic eye," she read under her breath suddenly looking like she had swallowed something particularly foul.

"The video is sent to both me and the company, so the eye can be monitored for defects or improvements," her mom continued. "A small price to pay for my daughter being able to see, I'm sure you'll agree."

"It's a custom Gen 3, so it has night vision and looks just like my real eye," Lila said, pressing on her eye, ejecting it from its implanted socket. "I just have to take it out to charge every night." That was a lie. Her eye charged from her body heat.

"Please put that away, Ms. Clarke," Principal Blackwell said, looking at Lila holding the eye in her hand.

"If you could just send us the video, we'll review it and get back with you," Mrs. Jackson said, handing mom a card. Lila really wanted to see the card, but the angle was all wrong. She would have to get a look at it later.

"Sure," smiled Lily. "And since I'm here, I think it might be a good idea to take Lila to the doctor. She took a pretty good spill and if Sophia DID trip her on purpose….," her mom let the sentence trail away.

"Sophia foot was hurt much more than Lila's knee," Principal Blackwell said.

"How much her foot was hurt doesn't change her culpability," Lilly responded. Lila thought how nice it was to see someone else on the receiving end of Lilly's mom logic.

Lila returned her eye to its socket and quickly checked the time on her HUD. If her mom took her to the doctor, they would miss Taylor at the end of the day. She still didn't have her number, so she couldn't text.

"Mom, we have to swing back by after the doctor," Lila informed. "I promised to give someone a ride home."

Her mother's eyebrow raised a little. "I guess if you promised," she finally said.

Lila followed her mother out of the office and the both walked toward the entrance.

"How bad are you actually hurt," her mother whispered, a dubious look on her face.

"Well, I had to make it look convincing," Lila replied in a whisper. "I was almost at human normal when she kicked me. I got a free ace bandage and a crutch out of the deal. I may turn the crutch into an assault rifle," she joked.

"Funny," Lilly said acerbically. "Joking about school shootings, in school."

"Mom, if I was going to go crazy in school, I wouldn't need a machine gun," Lila replied. "I'd just have to pick a random direction and run."

As they approached the front of the school Lila spotted Nazi Nate with a hall pass leaning on the wall near the entrance. How had he even known she was leaving school? When he spotted her, he stood and took a couple of steps forward.

"Hold on a second, mom, I need to take care of something," she said. "I'll meet you at the car."

Lilly gave her a nod and kept walking out the door. Lila walked straight over the Nate on her crutch.

"Are you…," was all Nate got out before Lila interrupted him with a finger pointing up into his face.

"Nate, let me be crystal clear, so there's no confusion," Lila said, keeping eye contact. "No matter who trips me, no matter who picks fights, no matter what happens in this school or anywhere else, I will never be a Nazi. It is not going to happen. Get that through your thick head before I have to drive it through myself. Possibly with some kind of nail. Clear enough," she concluded.

"Jeez," Nate replied, "I was just going to ask you out."

"Okay, then let me clarify further," Lila said. "I. DON'T. DATE. NAZIS. I don't hang out with Nazi's. I don't associate with Nazis. Maybe you should be taking notes," she said before spinning around and exiting the building, still pretending to need her crutch.

Lila hobbled across the street and got into the back seat of her mother's car.

"Admirer?" asked her mother. "That's not who we're taking home, right?"

"Nazi admirer," Lila replied, "and no. Can you turn on the radio?" That was Lila's way of signaling her mother to turn on the white noise generator. The device shifted the crystal matrix in the windows and vibrated it in time with whatever music was playing. It made it impossible for anyone outside the car to record what they were saying or even read their lips.

Lilly switched on the radio to a Tejano station that she liked, but annoyed Lila.

"What was the point in breaking someone's foot, Lila?" her mother asked.

"I had just received a thirty-minute rundown on all the crap she pulled on Taylor over the last year," Lila replied. "Then, there she was, waiting to do it some more when we walked out the door. All she had to do to avoid injury was nothing. Instead, she decided to try to trip me, just because I was hanging around her bully target. No thanks, she deserved what she got. She's lucky it was only one broken cuboid."

"The way they tell it, her entire foot was shattered," her mom retorted. "Are you sure you didn't go overboard?"

"Mom a broken cuboid hurts like hell and takes forever to heal if you don't stay off it," Lila said. "I knew exactly what I was breaking and exactly how much force I applied. She's likely going to need a metal plate in her foot to hold the bone together while it heals. Other than that, no damage. I even left her tendons and ligaments alone, and believe me, I didn't have to."

"So, who's this Taylor," Lily asked? "Are you sure she was even telling the truth?"

"Yeah, mom, I'm sure," she replied with a little eye roll. "Do you really think a normal person could fool me? I was simulating heavy therapist skills and major empathy, just to get her to talk. She reminds me of how I was just after the wreck, when I was still getting a handle on my powers."

"Does she...you know, have powers?"

"I doubt it," Lila replied. "If she did, she would have used them on her bullies or at least found some way to avoid them."

"Bullies, plural?" Lily asked. "How many are there?"

"At least three," her daughter said glumly, "One used to be her best friend. Can you imagine how much psychological ammunition she has on Taylor?"

"Well, you probably did mostly the right thing, but you're going to have to learn to solve your problems without violence," Lily said.

"Mom," Lila retorted, "I solve most of my problems without violence. VIs, replacement eye, self-education, quantum-crystal computing, and clean energy. All done without violence."

"And how many laser beams did you build into your eye, sweetheart," her mother asked, with a saccharine tone.

"Absolutely none," Lila replied honestly. "Force beam, heat ray, and hard-light projector, sure, but no laser. And, honestly the heat ray is hardly enough to cause second degree burns." That was true. At least if she ran any more power through it, it got too hot and melted the socket. She should really do something about that. The force beam could hit with a punch of a half-kilo C4 shaped charge, sure, but only once or twice before it had to recharge. The hard-light projector all depended on how hard she made the light.

"Right," her mother replied, "new rule. No weaponized eyes at school."

"That's cool," Lila said with smile. "That just means I can pack in a couple more sensor suites. Now, where is that card Ms. Jackson gave you?" she said, switching topics.

Her mom produced the card from her pocket. It was only an email address to something called 'Everest Financial'.

"Did you notice the shoulder holster?" she asked her mom as she let her power connect her to the internet.

"Are you sure?" was her mother's question back. "What am I saying? Of course, you're sure. I can think of a lot of jobs where she would need a concealed weapon, though. Maybe she's security."

"Private security knows not to carry a firearm inside a school," was Lila's reply, as her mind bypassed the firewalls protecting Everest Financial's internal infrastructure. She found that the company didn't have the computer infrastructure to support an office. It was possible that the company was an internet-based company where everyone worked from home. The only infrastructure Lila could find was the company's dedicated mail server. Lila quickly looked through the accounts.

Only three dozen accounts. Even her fake holding companies held up to scrutiny better than this place. She found Ms. Jackson's account and began to examine it. A lot of email exchange with Sophia about her after-school job, a few from the school talking about fundraising and a couple about Sophia, but not a lot else. This account looked like it only existed to communicate with the school and Sophia. Lila began taking a look at the account settings. There it was. The smoking gun, so to speak. The email account automatically forwarded to another account, an account with a .gov suffix.

Crap, Ms. Jackson was with the Parahuman Response Team. No wonder she could carry a gun inside a school, but why the interest in Sophia? Was she just a family friend or was it something more? Lila spoofed a packet to Ms. Jackson's phone, following it to its destination. The phone; it was the same weird design as Sophia's second phone. Double Crap. Lila withdrew from Ms. Jackson's phone and Everest's servers, making sure she covered her tracks by leaving a false trail for the access back to the PRT's own servers.

Lila pulled up all the existing photos of the current Protectorate ENE Wards team. Only one was female and tall enough to be Sophia. She quickly compared any shots of Shadow Stalker with the footage she had of Sophia. Best guess put her at a fifty-seven percent match. There just wasn't enough of her exposed to get a good match, but with everything else, but Lila was almost certain that Sophia was Shadow Stalker. Lila pulled up all the information she could find on the Ward. She only joined the team a couple of months ago. Before that she was a fairly violent vigilante. That made sense from what Lila had seen of the girl. If the PRT servers weren't protected by Watchdog, she would have jumped on them to confirm. Just great, so much for staying off the PRT's radar.

Lila blinked and saw her mother staring at her expectantly. "Well," Lily asked, "what did you find?"

Should she tell her mother what she found, or lie about it. She occasionally told her mother little lies for her peace of mind.

"Well," Lila said finally, "she isn't a security guard. It looks like Everest is a front for the PRT. Elizabeth Jackson is a friend of the Hess family, so looks out for Sophia occasionally," she lied, "Nothing else nefarious that I could find."

"Hhmmm," her mother replied. "Do you think that Ms. Jackson is using PRT influence to keep Sophia out of trouble? She shouldn't be using her position like that."

"I don't think so," Lila continued lying. "I think she just shows up when they can't get in touch with Sophia's mom. Ms. Jackson is number two on her emergency contact list." That was a lie too. Ms. Jackson was the only name listed on Sophia's emergency contact list.

"She better get in trouble after that video," Lilly said. "It's pretty clear she tripped you on purpose."

"I'm sure they'll do something," Lily said, knowing the reason that Sophia was getting away with the things she was doing. It made sense that Principal Blackwell knew Sophia's identity. How else would Sophia be able to get out of school in an emergency? She would think that her PRT handler would try to reign Sophia in a little. If they hadn't just met, Lila would send her an email telling her to do her job. As it was, she would have to wait a bit. She needed a plan to get Sophia off Taylor's back. It would have to wait a couple of months though to avoid outing herself as a parahuman.

"If not, I will have to come up with a completely peaceful and not at all violent plan to get her to stop," Lila said.

"Right," her mother replied, "That sounded so convincing. Do you practice that in a mirror?"

"I'm serious mom," Lila replied. "I would like to do this non-violently if at all possible. Somehow, I think Emma's going to be more of a problem than Sophia."

"Why is that?" Lilly asked.

"Emma used to be Taylor's BFF," Lila said sadly. "When you take that kind of relationship and turn it on its head, it doesn't just all go away."

"It sounds like you had an eventful day," Lilly mused, biting on her lower lip. "How much did you actually talk to this Taylor girl?"

"A couple of hours across two classes and lunch. I have Chemistry and World Affairs with her tomorrow," Lila replied.

"I see," her mother replied.

"What?" Lila asked.

"Nothing, dear."

"It's obviously something."

"Do you remember how you became friends with Janice Hooper?" her mother asked. "That."

"That was pre-power, mom," Lila said, "and I was eight."

"Still," her mother left the word hanging there.

"I'm going to work on some designs," Lila said, changing the subject, before activating her HUD. She ramped her intelligence almost to max, leaving her interpersonal skills at five percent. She concentrated her attention to armor. The other fifty percent, she began to use to plan for the eventual confrontation with Taylor's bullies.

The next hour passed silently, as her mother read some news articles while Lila designed some hard-light armor and customized it. She realized about ten minutes in that she was designing the armor for Taylor. Maybe her mother had a point about Janice. And the psychotherapist.

special thanks to KevinJN. Your review of the previous chapter led to some last-minute rewrites that I feel helped the story a lot.