"Well done, Amy," Sarah Pelham said, warmly. "All of us know that Trigger events can be stressful, especially one during a gang attack, but you did well to use your power that way."

"Yeah!" Victoria agreed. "Take it from me, that was great!"

"Thanks," Amy replied, smiling briefly, then went back to looking at her hands.

Her cousin Eric Pelham grinned. "So, is this welcome to the team, Amy?"

He looked back and forth across the New Wave team meeting, which for a family team had a serious resemblance to a cookout. "Not that I'm trying to pressure her, or anything."

"You so are," Crystal Pelham said. "But, seriously, Amy. It's really cool that you've ended up a healer, you know?"

She held out her hand. "There's supposed to be this idea that powers reflect people, so my brother's a blockhead-"

"Hey!" Eric protested. "I've got the same powers as you!"

"Strong shields, blockhead," Crystal summarized. "So being a healer is… a big thing."

Amy mumbled something under her breath.

"What's that?" Carol asked. "Speak up, Amy."

"It's not just healing," Amy said, a bit louder, then swallowed.

"Then what is it?" Crystal asked. "Sorry, Amy, I didn't mean to… it's just an idea, it's not proven or anything."

"I think I can guess," Neil Pelham said.

Amy's uncle gave her a smile. "But remember, this isn't something where powers make the person bad. It's the opposite. People are what make powers good or bad."

Carol looked like she wanted to dispute that, but a technically not laser-powered glare from her sister prevented her from actually speaking up.

"What do you think it is, Uncle Neil?" Victoria said. "She definitely healed me. I felt the bullet wound go away… and I guess it's a good thing that that was before anyone else noticed."

"It is," Sarah agreed. "If nobody knows about the weakness of your forcefield you'll be a lot safer."

"Remember," Neil began. "Amy, you triggered with a power to help your sister. If anything tells us about you, it's that."

Amy nodded, slowly.

"I can… change things about anything biological," she said. "Except myself. And – and I don't do brains."

"Probably for the best," Sarah decided. "Brains are where a person… is. Changing that could be very dangerous."

"Yeah," Amy said, softly.

"Uh," Crystal began, and everyone else looked at her.

The oldest of the New Wave second generation was scrolling rapidly through something on her phone. "Hang on a minute, I need to check something…"

"Really, Crystal?" Carol asked. "In a meeting?"

"It's relevant!" Crystal defended herself. "I need to… uh… Aunt Carol, I just realized something."

She pointed at Amy. "Amy? If you can't just heal, but you can't do brains, can you do, uh… custom stuff? Like, modifications?"

"That's biotinkering," Mark Dallon pointed out.

"I could, yeah," Amy said. "But… I shouldn't, right?"

"You definitely shouldn't!" Carol agreed. "There's a reason why biotinkers are some of the capes with the worst reputations, next to Masters!"

"But that's what I'm getting to," Crystal said, half her attention still on her phone. "You could do pets, right, Amy? What kind of modifications could you do?"

"Uh," Amy began, frowning. "I guess… I could completely remove the allergen causing proteins for cats and dogs? I think that's a thing?"

"So are normal hypoallergenic dogs," Crystal pointed out. "I'm thinking bigger… custom colours? I know there's some animals that can glow in the dark, you could do that, right?"

"This is such a weird conversation," Eric said.

Carol folded her arms. "Why are we even talking about this?"

"What about a dinosaur?" Mark said, which made everyone else look at him.

He shrugged. "Hey, uh… if you're going to think about this, may as well think of something cool."

"How would that even work?" Amy asked. "I – I can't do brains."

"But you can modify a chicken to have a muzzle and teeth and stuff," Mark replied.

"Or a crow or something," Crystal said. "They're smart. And rainbow feathers for a parrot, too… and that's before getting into human body modification."

"This is ridiculous," Carol protested. "You're all sitting around talking about illegal uses for Amy's powers. Healing is certainly legal, so that's what she should do."

Crystal coughed.

"That's it, Aunt Carol," she said. "That's why I needed to look something up. So, I know this is a weird thing to do, but… what does NEPEA-5 actually say about capes profiting from what they do?"

"They can't," Carol answered, then frowned. "Or… it's complicated, but it amounts to that capes aren't allowed to compete with non-capes in the open market with their powers."

"Exactly," Crystal replied. "Tinkertech is fine, because it involves doing things that can't be done by normal technology. There's an open market for healing, you know, medical insurance and stuff, but – there isn't one for the kind of pet customization that would let someone have an actual fucking dinosaur as a pet. Or, or whatever! And that's before getting into how much some people pay for art online – how much do you think they'd pay to be able to actually be their-"

She made a choking noise.

"Crystal?" Sarah asked. "Are you okay?"

"I just realized I was about to use the word fursona in a serious family gathering," Crystal said, then went red. "...nuts."

Eric tried desperately to restrain a giggling fit, while Victoria didn't even make the attempt.

"But, seriously!" Crystal went on, over the sound of two of her younger relatives trying not to die laughing. "The kind of money Amy could make from this is insane. And I'm almost certain that NEPEA-5 doesn't even apply – we could be talking about eight figures a year, easily."

Everyone looked at Carol, except Eric who was mostly struggling to breathe.

"...I may have been too hasty," she admitted.

Director Piggot didn't like it, but nobody had really expected her to.

AN:

A different approach to NEPEA-5, and how in that case Amy could get around it.

NEPEA-5 isn't actually well defined, probably precisely because a law with defined effects would be something that you could puzzle out a way to get around.