"So, uh… dad?" Taylor said, nervously. "I've got something to tell you."

Her father looked at her.

"I've got two guesses," he said. "The first guess is, you're a parahuman."

"Yeah-" Taylor began, then stopped and blinked.

"Uh," she said, rubbing the back of one arm behind her head. "You had two guesses?"

Danny Hebert looked at his daughter.

"Well," he said. "You're a four foot tall two-tailed cartoon fox. So it was that or there was some kind of really weird accident over the last couple of hours."

He stepped into her room, and sat down heavily on the bed. "I'm more confused by how you've got a different voice, though."

"That kind of came with it," Taylor replied, jumping up onto the other end of the bed. "It's a Changer power, which seems to convert me into a bipedal fox form like you said, but it's also some kind of Breaker state because things don't affect me normally. I had an accident while I was upgrading the computer and electrocuted myself because I took my gloves off for the delicate work, but it didn't bother me for more than a couple of minutes."

She flicked one of her tails. "These all just floofed out. I was kinda scared at the time, but then a couple of minutes later it wore off. Though it is a bit weird that I seem to be a boy like this."

"So that voice is real?" Danny asked. "This is really strange."

He frowned. "Wait, did you say you electrocuted yourself? Why were you taking apart your computer?"

"I'm a Tinker too!" Taylor said. "I'm not sure what kind of Tinker, but I fiddled around a bit with the computer by hand and I was able to fix a few basic mistakes in how the parts were put together. Even if I did zap myself. So it's now about fifty percent faster, and I bet with some proper equipment and parts I could make something really good."

"Slow down?" Danny requested. "That seems like too many powers?"

"I think it's all one power, just one weird one," Taylor said. "I guess at least I have a good secret identity… so long as I can make sure to keep this version of me separate from, you know, the human one."

"They should really do a class on how to handle finding out your child has powers," Danny complained.

"That might not be a good idea," Taylor frowned. "While it would be useful for the peace of mind of the parents, attending the class would make it much easier to work out which adults had children who were capes and thus work out the identity of the capes. So there might be pamphlets distributed by the PRT, but actual classes would be counterproductive."

"Well," Danny began. "Uh. I'm not really sure what to…"

He paused, then shook his head. "No, I do know what to do. This weekend, let's go down to the DWA. There's loads of random parts in the junk room there, if you're actually a Tinker then maybe that can get you started."

"You don't want me to go to the PRT?" Taylor asked.

"Not… yet," Danny replied. "Maybe once we've got more idea what we're getting into. But for now… let's take it slow, okay?"

By ten-thirty-two AM that Saturday, Taylor – in her Changer state, naturally – found herself confronted by one of Brockton Bay's minor villain gangs.

"...uh," she began. "Is there a reason you guys are in here?"

"Is there-" Leet began, boggling at her. "Seriously? You are asking that?"

"Well, I can't think of why you'd be in here except to steal something," Taylor said. "But you guys normally do video game themed heists and other crimes, and this is just a warehouse full of old stuff the Dockworkers' Association has been gathering up for the last few decades and never got around to getting rid of. Admittedly it's quite a good supply of parts for various kinds of Tinkering because the spread of available components is so wide that there's likely to be something that can be repurposed for just about any task, but I don't get why here specifically. So I asked."

Uber and Leet slowly exchanged a look.

"You… okay, quick question?" Uber said. "Have you ever heard of Mobius?"

Taylor shook her head, ears flicking in confusion.

"What about the other places, man?" Leet said. "The comics and TV shows don't use the same continuity and there's been a bunch of retcons too."

"Fine, fine," Uber replied. "What about, uh… Knuckles?"

"You mean the things on your hands?" Taylor asked, just as confused as before if not more so. "Of course I've heard of them."

"Hold on a moment," Leet said. "Urgent discussion."

Taylor listened as they whispered something to one another, then reached out with one of her tails and flicked a project she'd been working on into the air.

It landed in her gloved hands with a muted thump, and she flicked it on as she checked the ammo levels.

"Okay, look!" Uber said, breaking out of the huddle with his teammate. "It's absolutely insane to me, but my associate here has pointed out that there's at least a possibility that – somehow – you're both not from a parallel universe and you haven't heard of the Sonic games."

"Sonic?" Taylor repeated. "I've heard of those, vaguely… aren't they about a blue hedgehog that runs really fast?"

"We have got a lot of work to do," Uber said. "What is that, anyway?"

"Taser blaster," Taylor replied. "It was the best I could come up with over the last hour or so. It uses spark plugs for ammunition."

She waved it in their direction. "But why are you guys interested in this, anyway? In me? You still haven't answered."

"Well, my two-tailed friend," Leet said. "We need to introduce you to a classic video game, that has someone who looks an awful lot like you in it."

"...really?" Taylor asked. "How much?"

"Trust me, it's uncanny," Uber interjected. "It's probably a good thing that all the recent games are imports from Earth-Aleph, actually, or you might have been sued."

"Yeah, Aleph still has a Japan for there to be a Sega from," Leet said. "Anyway, if you really want to know, then here's a bet, okay?"

He pointed out the door of the warehouse, which was ajar enough to let in light. "Run as fast as you can in that direction for thirty seconds, then turn around and come back. If you only make it a couple hundred metres, then maybe you're not-"

"Just use feet, man," Uber interrupted.

"SI units are better!" Leet said.

Taylor considered using her taser blaster on them while they were distracted, but she wasn't actually sure of the legal status of capes in a situation like this – she hadn't debuted and they weren't actually doing anything wrong at the moment.

Or, if they were, so was she… right?

Shrugging, Taylor wound up, then started running.

She was so surprised that she forgot to stop before reaching the water… the results of which only meant she was more surprised.

Colin stared at the camera footage.

Then he sat back in his chair.

"I really hope Uber and Leet don't find out about this," he said.

"Too late," Dragon said. "They just came out of the same warehouse."

"...the Director is not going to like this," he decided.

Dragon shrugged on the screen.

"Look on the bright side," she said. "Maybe the Director's never played the games."

AN:

Tinker Tails-or.

That's it. That's the short.