"Emma! Emma!"

Emma turned. "Sophia? What is it?"

She blinked, because Sophia seemed… different. Oh, it was still her, but her friend looked almost flushed with excitement and glee – and not the kind of hard-edged glee that Emma found so familiar.

Not attractive.

Not attractive.

"This is – okay, look, we need to – over there," Sophia said, nodding to a cul-de-sac, then pointed at one of the nearest boys. "And you can fuck right off."

"Up yours," the boy replied, wandering off, and Emma frowned slightly as Sophia half-encouraged half-herded her over to a corner where it would be hard for anyone to listen in.

"What's this about?" Emma asked. "Because I'm pretty sure Taylor's going to show up soon, and-"

"That's just it!" Sophia said. "Emma, it worked!"

"...what worked?" Emma asked.

"You know!" Sophia replied, full of conviction. "It must have been, uh, that locker thing I guess, the timing's about right, it could have been something after that, but it worked! She is a fighter, and it's absolutely kick ass!"

Emma stared.

"Look, uh, it was late last night," Sophia went on. "Armsmaster brought in a new cape who'd just joined after one hell of a debut, said she'd agreed to join the Wards and they were going through the paperwork. She fucked up Lung!"

Emma was getting a sinking feeling.

"And she said she was going to unmask to us straight off, because her powers were terrifying so she wanted to make sure they didn't think she was a psychopath or something," Sophia explained, dismissively. "I guess if they don't like my powers and theme and they keep getting on my case, it might be a problem for some people or something, but – fuck me if it isn't Taylor! And her power is so badass!"

Sophia was still speaking in a low voice, so people wouldn't overhear them, but she waved her hands around for emphasis. "She can control insects, and spiders, and stuff like that. All of them inside this, uh, huge range, it's at least a few blocks, and there's way more of those than I'd ever thought so it's even better than it sounds. She could fucking swarm the school in bugs – wasps, spiders, whatever – they might call her something like Weaver because of PR bullshit but she could be a goddamn apocalypse for the gangs – she fucked up Lung solo on her first night out. So it worked! It's brilliant!"

Emma was mostly screaming internally.

AN:

Well, she's honest at least.