1.6

"- extreme climatic anomalies sighted at…"

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"- a mysterious phenomenon off the coast of Japan!"

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"Across the country, meteorologists find themselves stumped by the strange storm hanging over Boston-"

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"Possible parahuman involvement."

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"Only two suspects, really. But if I had to hedge my bets then the most likely culprit would be-"

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"Fontaine."

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"- the one they call Fontaine."

"Self-declared villain."

"Recently took part in the Canberra battle against the Simurgh."

"Unless Leviathan decided to dabble in weather warfare, something it has never done in all these years, then Occam's razor dictates that the most likely culprit is the other powerful cape with water powers."

Taylor had enough, she turned off the TV.

Even then, the images on display still replayed themselves in her mind. Just by closing her eyes she could see the text scroll, the talking heads and the befuddling column of bubbles rising far into the sky. And most of all - the impossible cascade of water, which even now continuously poured down on Iran as if someone had punched a hole into the sky and allowed its contents to rain down.

More close to home, too, was the so-called 'floating whirlpool' which had parked itself in the skies of Boston.

God, even now she couldn't get it out of her head.

Did she really cause that?

'I'm afraid the answer is complicated.' The voice inside her head interjected, a note of both confusion and apology in her words.

Taylor figured that would be the case. Almost everything related to her powers somehow ended up being more complicated than she first thought. But now she had to figure out what exactly went wrong and where. Because she had never been to Japan or Iran.

The Mayor mentioned Boston to her in their conversation, which maybe could have something to do with this, but Taylor's mind was more preoccupied with her impending death or lack thereof and local plans to actually think about where to go once those six months were up.

It didn't make any sense.

'It does, I'm afraid.'

Frowning, she considered that statement, focusing on Focalors' tone as much as her exact words.

"So I caused this." She mumbled, shifting her weight on the couch. "When I fought Ziz. Did I break the world?" Her cup of tea was warm and soothing, the light scent of jasmine doing much to center her. "No. I broke my powers, broke what you'd made, didn't I?"

Pulsing mild acknowledgement across their bond, the voice in her thoughts let her know she was on the right track. But not quite fully there.

Hydro, the elemental energy Focalors was teaching her to use, was a power that represented water. It possessed its properties, both as a substance and as a concept, and could easily take various shapes and forms depending on what she wanted it to do.

Those were the basics she was taught.

So, applying those principles, Taylor started to put the clues together in her mind.

One, if she wasn't using her Hydro powers, she couldn't control water. Hydrokinesis was a secondary consequence of being able to manipulate extra-dimensional energy. But that was a conscious act that spent the Hydro in order to manipulate existing water. Since it was a conscious choice and required someone to desire the outcome, Taylor couldn't be causing this.

At least… not consciously.

But questions about desires and the subconscious were better left for later since she didn't want to deal with therapy.

"Manipulating water relies on Hydro, the energy itself responds to desires. Can we tell whether the disasters are being caused by someone or if they are happening for another reason? Uh, I mean, am I doing this because I'm letting my attention drift or what?"

Focalors hummed in thought, before responding a few moments later.

'I cannot sense a connection between us and those disasters. It is far more likely that hydro energy has started gathering and acting out by itself.'

"Can it do that?" Contained within the simple question was a mixture of feelings. Especially concern about the possibility of every use of her powers contributing to further damage to the world. And if it meant others might start going through what she was, too.

'Elemental energy can respond and be shaped by the wishes and desires of humans. So it is a possibility.'

Right, right.

And really, if this was happening because of Taylor, then the epicenter should have been Brockton Bay. It was the place she used her powers the most, so whatever Hydro energy leak there was, it should be focused around her home. Yet nothing of the sort happened over the past few months.

Which led to the natural conclusion that what was causing this… was Canberra.

"It makes sense, I suppose."

The first time she traveled out of town and overused her powers, fighting at full power against the Simurgh. It was also the first time she managed to channel and use Hydro energy in and of itself. So by process of elimination, that battle had to be the reason behind these disasters.

'A superb deduction if I do say so myself, Detective.'

Taylor could see the shape of the issue, if not its details, as gears in her mind turned and the pieces of the puzzle were slotted into place. But there were still some questions she had to ask, and, fortunately for her, there was no greater expert on these hydro powers than the voice inside her head.

'Well, I could think of one or two, but in their absence I shall endeavor to answer as best I can.'

Taylor rolled her eyes.

She was having way too much fun with the game of 'detective'. Acting all humble was completely out of character for the lady.

'I resemble that.' She giggled.

"Moving on, there is one part of the explanation I am still missing. That would be the 'Why'?"

Why did the Hydro energy she scattered in her fight with the Simurgh act this way? Why was it manifesting as natural disasters? And why did it choose to reform in such specific places?

'Think, Taylor. You can figure this out.'

She felt like it was on the tip of her tongue and the prompt from her guide encouraged her to simply push ahead.

There was no way the elemental energy had a will of its own, so it had to be following some kind of… desire….

"Focalors."

The presence in the back of her mind returned its full focus to her.

'Yes?'

Licking her lips, she considered how to ask this question. Whether she wanted to deal with its implications. Only to decide she had to know as much as she could to solve this.

"The desires that can affect elemental energy. Do they need to come from… living people?"

She let the question hang in the air, hoping against hope that her hunch was wrong.

'I'm afraid you have it. It is very likely that what drew the hydro energy from its scattered state in the atmosphere to those precise places were the 'vestigial' desires left behind by the people there.'

Leaving aside the revelation that apparently places could actually be haunted, Taylor decided to roll with the punches.

Because it did explain why those places attracted all that energy.

Iran and Japan, at least.

Behemoth and Leviathan caused untold damage to those countries in the past, leaving marks which served as a constant reminder of the Endbringer's power and humanity's helplessness when faced with it. Over time they became symbols of the tragedy.

The Marun Oilfields.

Kyushu.

But it didn't explain Boston.

'Our proximity might have acted as a catalyst, but there most certainly is some form of powerful grudge in that area, or a vestigial 'desire' pulling the elemental energy towards itself.'

"Could it be the Boston Games? Or perhaps the Teeth. I've read they do some rather fucked up things." Pushing the memories of reports and rumors to her other inner voice, the teenager tried not to feel nauseous as she continued. "The Teeth definitely torture people and maybe sometimes, uh, wear people. Most of a person, at least."

'Yes.' There was a sadness in her voice now. 'Such actions could have a great deal of influence in their own way. Similar, I suppose, to the brutality of the Churls, if different in origin.'

"Churls? Rude people?" She wracked her mind for possible meanings of the word and mostly settled on churlish, but that obviously didn't suit its use as a name. "Something from your world?"

Focalors carefully considered her words, trying to choose how to explain a topic in brief, and the feelings that came from her were of pity, sadness, and a bit of anger.

'An entire people, condemned to never rise above their basest instincts ever again. A race of savages who remained as such by the will of a God and a curse. A warning to all who might walk their path.'

One of these days, Taylor was gonna have to demand a full explanation from Focalors.

The more she learnt about where her powers came from, the less she felt she actually knew. Even the implication of things like curses and gods gave her pause, enticing her to start asking questions, but right now she wasn't sure those would help with the current problem.

Nor did she think Focalors would tell her the full story.

"So the truth of the matter is that we're the ones who did this. Or at least I am."

She was speaking to an empty room, to an empty house.

With the TV off there was only a quiet, electric hum from the fridge and the small creaks and groans of a house settling. Taylor thought she might have even heard their water boiler flicking on for a moment.

"Things were pretty bad, too. Iran's dealing with a lot of flooding. People have lost their homes, property. No one's lost their lives."

But it was the unspoken "Yet" that grated at her. That her fight to save lives should have been so pyrrhic, have such a bitter bite. Why did doing the right thing once cause so much trouble for so many other people? Was this world just doomed to rot and die? Was she just doomed to screw up no matter how hard she tried?

Self pity was tempting and it took an effort of will to push it away.

Self pity wouldn't help those people she'd put in danger and it wouldn't help her live any longer.

In fact, if her powers responded to such feelings, it might put others in even more danger. So that reduced her options from two to one. Dealing with the issue.

Standing up, she swallowed the last of her now luke-warm drink, finding the dregs of the tea irritating. But it was a good sort of irritation, a way to focus, to feel the shape of the feeling without letting it settle into her.

"So Iran first, then, and then Boston probably. No idea what's going on at Kyushu but that's probably environmental and no one lives there anymore. Uh, what does Hydro energy do to an environment if it builds up too much?"

'Any elemental energy can cause mutations in both flora and fauna, with sufficient concentrations or extended exposure changing altering the environment as well. At a certain point, physics, as is conventionally understood, and magic can both fail. Hydro energy in particular has a tendency to create various forms of semi-aggressive entities.'

The knowledge that she was maybe terraforming the planet to be a Hell world based on the Primordial Sea was not exactly a pleasant bit of information.

"How do we fix it?" Lowering her cup into the sink, she flexed her will and forced the dishes to all clean themselves with only about a cup of water needed. "Obviously, Iran is up first."

Focalors paused for a moment, once more giving Taylor the feeling of having all of her attention.

'I am afraid, dear child, that right now we can't.'

"And you are absolutely clear that we can not locate her?"

Armsmaster had to grit his teeth.

"Ma'am, I'm already stretching the Unwritten Rules right now. I need you to understand that."

"I'm not saying you should show up at her house, just that there are-"

"Ma'am, I'm getting another call. Please hold."

Director Piggot simply sighed and hung up, allowing the Tinker to answer, his helmet's hands free device routing the call to his armor and leaving him free to focus on driving.

"Colin."

"Tess, calling about Fontaine?"

"Yeah. I take it everyone's been asking about her."

"You, the Director, apparently several foreign ambassadors, the Mayor of Boston, and at least half a dozen Thinkers and Tinkers. I have only had to field the Director."

"You sound surprisingly calm."

He revved the engine of the heavy duty motorcycle, borrowed from the PRT motorpool, and took a corner far, far shaper than would have been safe. Or legal, considering his speed.

"I have only had to answer to Piggot. She is infinitely more up shit creek, as I am currently in the field, and therefore can not be contacted except through her, as per protocol."

"Uh-huh. And you routed our calls from your lap to your armor?"

"Using an approved personal number. As per protocol."

Being smug would be unprofessional. Instead, Colin chose to feel satisfied that his preparation had allowed him to actually contribute to solving a problem instead of needing to spend days fielding calls where he answered the same questions a thousand times from a thousand different people with a thousand different agendas.

"So, do you have a plan for reaching her or…?"

"I am currently patrolling along the Boardwalk, Assault and Battery are taking extreme ends of the city, Velocity is on console in case she calls, while Miss Militia and Dauntless are commandeering a city waste disposal truck filled with garbage and are backing it up to the Bay."

"Huh." His fellow Tinker sounded a bit impressed. "So if she Sharks them, she'll be able to be contacted. Makes sense. Still, I actually wanted to extend an invitation, from Nautille, to see if she wanted to take part in the disaster relief operation in Iran. Things are quite bad, actually."

That was still an understatement.

Given the geographic conditions of the country, this flash flood threatened to deal a great amount of damage to infrastructure and would, if left unchecked, reduce the amount of livable and workable land by a wide margin. If not stopped by the end of the week, and at the pace the water accumulated, the country would face total collapse.

"There's also been reports of activity from the gangs."

"Now of all times? The timing is… a bit suspicious."

Colin agreed, but probably not for the reasons Dragon had.

"It's possible that they are being paid to make a ruckus and draw her out." The likes of Uber and Leet, as well as Faultline and her team, were likely acting out for that purpose. Part of the trainyard was burning, possibly due to activity from Skidmark's crew, and the less said about the Empire the better.

If they were the ones who showed themselves capable of contacting Fontaine… it wouldn't look pretty.

"I have an update, if you'd like to hear it."

Colin grunted an affirmative, dodging out of the way of a particularly ornery car driver as he turned around the corner, ignoring the expletives as he sped down the street.

"An Iranian private jet has landed, I believe they have hired a short range teleporter. ETA fifteen minutes before they arrive. Half an hour at the most."

That complicated things.

"Who did they send?"

"General Cyrus Armaiti, late fifties, condecorated for coordinating and surviving the first battle against Behemoth. His aides appear to be unmasked parahumans, probably sent as a last resort if he fails to incentivise Fontaine to action."

About as expected, but that didn't mean it was a good thing.

If a fight broke out in the city against Fontaine, chances of victory would be minimal, least of all due to the presence of the sea at their doorstep.

"We'll have to find her before they arrive then."

A tall ask, but not an impossible one.

It just didn't make any sense. Nothing of the personality analysis and listed behaviors they had on Fontaine even hinted at this kind of behavior. As frustrating as the girl was, international terrorism was orders of magnitude above her usual disregard for the law and authority.

"Could she have been subverted in some way? And if so, when did she do this? Her range is… extraordinary, but this would be multiple events occurring across the world at the same time. That would be its own problem in and of itself."

"A possible explanation. There aren't any high profile Masters that we know of in your area, and current understanding was that Fontaine is immune to mental forms of coercion after the Simurgh failed to affect her at Canberra."

Or maybe she was lying, and the Simurgh did affect her.

"Did Eidolon ever explain how he knew she wasn't affected?"

Dragon didn't respond for several moments, likely trying to sort through her notes on the fight, attempting to see if she ever picked up that piece of information.

"No…" She paused for several seconds. "Even in the post battle debriefing he didn't elaborate much more than, ah, here it is, control F, and there - sending you a copy of the relevant section for later. No, he just said that he knew for sure her brain wasn't being messed with. And no further elaboration, just dismissal."

Armsmaster felt a mixture of guilt and shame. The girl might well have lost her mind trying to protect others. All because they had assumed whatever defense she might have had would have been enough.

And if she was a Ziz bomb….

"Collate this information. Priority Red, straight to the Chief Director's desk and to Narwhal, I suppose. Did we ever determine for sure if she was Manton limited or not?"

"I will review the footage I have of the battle at Canberra, as well as comb through the internet for whatever else I can find. In the meantime I've requested Nautille and Narwhal to sortie in preparation. We are an hour out from New England, if you can keep things from escalating until I do, we can start trying to solve this issue. But… I have to ask… do you have a plan?"

A plan for "dealing" with Fontaine if needed.

"Yes." He debated not elaborating. "We have a contract opened with the Toybox right now, along with a contract with Doormaker for an S class response. Current Thinker estimates are to deploy Sere and six different Protectorate affiliated Masters in a direct line of contact with Fontaine."

"I thought you suspected she was immune to Master effects?"

"No. Only immune to Ziz's effects."

Dragon made a noise of realization.

"Wait, so you made sure Eidolon was choosing his words that precisely?"

"Asked him, recorded the whole conversation, and sent a copy directly to Alexandria and Director Costa-Brown. The former didn't appreciate me being underhanded, but I was, and I still am, rather concerned."

"I take it the Chief Director was more open about her appreciation?"

"She promised to speak with Alexandria and get her to bring Eidolon in for additional clarification, possibly even some power testing to attempt to replicate the reported effects."

Going unstated was the immediate solution to their problems.

They still had to find Fontaine.

"Heads up, Armsmaster, apparently some of the foreign diplomatic staff in the city have started making calls. I can't monitor them directly, but they're using diplomatic numbers and several of the calls are international."

"Understood. I'll inform the director and attempt to broaden our search. Hopefully it will be enough."

They could only hope that it was.

"What do you mean 'we can't'?!"

Taylor was on her feet already and that's the only thing that kept her from jumping up.

'Because I'm not sure your body would survive it.'

Strangling the feelings of bitterness and the spew of acid she wanted to spit out, the teenager grit her teeth and clenched her fist.

And it was… good.

This anger came from a single place, the feeling of shame she had in seeing the direct harm she'd caused to others combined with the urgency of the deadline she was facing. When compounded by the very slow progress she was making, the fact that there was something obvious and simple she could fix, she'd actually felt a sense of relief.

She was intellectually aware of these things.

It didn't make the venom in her heart stop boiling.

That took several long, silent seconds of deep breaths, bent over the sink, trying not to scream.

"Ok." She grunted out. "Say I understand. Why?"

Why was it dangerous? Why couldn't they still help? Why didn't they help despite it being dangerous?

'To keep it brief, that much elemental energy poses a direct threat to the physical stability of your body. Not just in that it could hurt you, but in that it could activate your other, dormant abilities. We can try to help, but only when it's safe to do so, and only indirectly. And because if we try and fail things can get much, much, much worse. Violently so. Permanently and irrevocably so.'

Images were sent to Taylor's mind of death and devastation. Of abyssal horrors of tentacles and teeth. Of lands turned into a swampy morass filled with monsters wielding mystic powers. And all of this came with the knowledge that all of this was caused by a god screwing something up.

"With great power comes great responsibility, I guess."

She exhaled forcefully, shifting the balance of her weight and unclenching her fingers and searched for something to do.

'Our best bet right now is to stabilize your body enough that you can purify the corruptive influences of the grudges manifesting those disasters. Purification is a relatively simple and harmless procedure, but it would require you to be in close proximity to these disasters.'

"How close are we talking?"

Her range was usually pretty large, so if this could be solved by being in sight of the disaster, it would be the best possible scenario.

'I'm afraid it's much closer. You will need to be in direct contact with them.'

"You gotta be kidding me."

'Yes, I'm not particularly enthused about the prospect either.'

And with so little access to her powers, Taylor would be hard pressed to defend herself while dealing with whatever was causing the problem. She would get squashed like a bug if she tried it!

'And if I try to use hydro on it…'

'You'll just be adding fuel to the fire. Hydro will add to hydro, increasing the scope of these calamities unless they can be purified.'

So much for wanting to blast them from far away with her energy beams.

All it would do is make the situation worse!

Ultimately, however, with the dishes put up there was nothing else to do, not when she was too wound up to read or study. And she certainly wasn't going to watch more TV.

"Wait, what the Hell?"

For some godforsaken reason, she could feel a truck full of… of garbage being backed up towards the bay! It was absurd! Who the Hell was dumb enough to try and get her attention like that?!

Summoning a frickin' Megalodon to express her displeasure, she had the giant water shark flit around the area, snapping its teeth in extreme annoyance, as she stomped upstairs to get her costume.

Seriously?!

Now of all times?!

Throwing her clothes into a pile at the foot of her bed, it took her all of ten seconds to tug on the breeches, secure the small belt used to keep her skirt in place - she could fly, she would not be giving anyone a free show, no matter how ugly she was - and then had a blouse, a sweater, and then her coat on.

Dad had gotten her several special hangers from the college so she could lay it out all neat after helping her clean it. Taking care of what she wore was important, even if she didn't need to wash it. Not when she could simply manipulate things like sweat or grime or dirt out of the threads. But it had been… nice working on it with him.

"I'm gonna have to call him about this, aren't I?"

'Well, this time you have the excuse of it not being your fault. And it wasn't a kidnapping either so he won't get too angry at you.' The giggling from her powers didn't lend much believability to the claim.

In fact, dad might get even more upset if he knew this was because of the whole 'left home for the day to fight Simurgh' thing she did.

"I'll call him at work after I'm done with the assholes trying to ruin my work." In the end, the sweater was to stay warm, since it was about forty degrees outside right now, and she wasn't completely immune to feeling cold, and her coat needed to be on before she added the cravat.

That actually needed a moment of work to get it tied properly.

But once that was done, she pulled the boots on, buckled them into place, and snagged the opera mask from her closet.

Not really in the mood to put her hair into a braid, she made sure the straps on the mask didn't get tug or pull on anything, did her best to keep the layers in order, and then started heading downstairs.

When she heard someone knock.

On the front door.

Which had a window.

A window with a curtain that was currently out of the way.

So Charlotte, who was standing on her doorstep wrapped in a scarf that covered most of her face and with a pair of steaming coffees in a paper carrier, looked at Taylor with eyes absolutely wide in awe and shock, jaw hanging ajar as her glasses slid down the bridge of her nose.

She was just… standing there.

Staring at Taylor.

No… staring at Fontaine.

"Shit."

Taylor wanted to freeze up, to panic, to try and flee upstairs and hope the other girl would just leave.

Her rent-free tenant simply sent a surge of determination across their bond.

'Thanks, Focalors.'

And she powered forwards, striding towards the door, forcing herself not to cringe away. The costume giving her a confidence she knew as half a pantomime. But that was ok, it was just how things were. It meant when she opened the door, Charlotte, deeply unsure and looking torn between bolting and firing off a thousand questions, Taylor just needed to gently take her hand and drag her inside.

"Could this wait? I'm… kinda busy right now."