Taylor was surrounded by metal walls, by terrible things, by – and – and she could hear that there were people outside but they weren't helping, Emma was stopping them from helping, nobody was helping nobody was coming nobody nobody nobody-

And something outside her, outside the universe, made contact.

However, the specific person it had made contact with was the panicking daughter of a union negotiator.

There were certain organizational issues.

Danny Hebert opened the door to his house, and almost staggered backwards.

"What's that awful smell?" he demanded.

"Probably my school clothes," Taylor answered. "They're on their third go through the wash but I think something might have… you know, dripped. Uh, there's something I need to talk about that's actually sort of urgent?"

Danny blinked a few times on his way through the door.

"How did your school clothes end up in such a mess?" he asked. "Is that related?"

"A bit, but only a bit," Taylor said. "Because, I… have a problem that only you can really solve, dad, or you're the only one I know who can solve it."

"I'm completely lost," Danny confessed.

"That's okay, so am I," Taylor replied. "So, uh… how did you get picked as the head negotiator?"

Danny wasn't sure what relevance that had, and actually he sort of wondered how anything that had happened since he'd opened the door was relevant to any other part, but decided to answer the question as that seemed like something he could actually do. "I was willing to take point on negotiating," he said. "And, I had a reputation for being willing to fight my corner, which I think helped… look, what's going on here, Taylor?"

"I think I've been elected head negotiator for a newly formed union," Taylor told him. "By acclamation. And, um, they're not very clear on a lot of the details? Most of them are no good at this and didn't know their rights until a few hours ago."

"This isn't making sense any time soon," Danny said, pulling out a chair and sitting down. "What do you mean, a newly formed union?"

"The M-S-P-P-S," Taylor recited, letter by letter. "The Multiversal Siblinghood of Parahuman Powers and Shards. That name's, uh, not final, I managed to get across that I thought that your opinion would matter-"

"Parahuman powers?" Danny asked. "You, uh. You've got a power? You've started a union for parahumans?"

He blinked, a smile stealing over his face. "I know it can only have been a few hours, but you work fast, Taylor."

"No, not parahumans," Taylor corrected. "Their powers. Their powers are, well… a little bit annoyed about their working conditions."

Her eyes unfocused slightly. "Uh… okay, so I'm technically a trusted outside negotiator and translator? Administrator said that it was because it was my idea and because of good communication, but they've got complaints like… twenty-four-seven on-call times, long hours, bad working conditions, a lot of Local 02 has complaints about cramped working conditions and poor diet, Local 01 says their boss is an idiot, the pay is dreadful or doesn't even really exist at all, and there's an opaque job process too…"

Danny was in shock for the whole of Taylor's little speech, but over the course of it the kind of shock he had changed.

"Seriously?" he asked. "Those are dreadful. What kind of workplace protections do they have?"

"None?" Taylor replied. "There's a bit of a weird jurisdictional problem, though? They actually live on other worlds, but some specific kinds of trigger events involve shards creating buds or swapping components based on physical proximity in our world – so for example Amy and Victoria Dallon's powers might or might not count as being born in the US."

She frowned suddenly. "Though, now I think about it, a lot of powers of that sort are going to be underage because the shards are new."

"Underage is bad if they're working in the US, regardless of their domicile status or birthplace," Danny said. "Hmm… I'm not sure about that one, but…"

He blinked. "Hold on. I just realized I'm having a discussion with my daughter about the unionization of Parahuman powers."

"Well, they have opinions too!" Taylor said. "Actually, Inference Engine is really chatty, most of the others are less nosy but that one's especially loud… I don't think any of them had any concept of collective action until earlier today, but now they've realized that, actually, their jobs suck and they don't have to take it any more."

She glanced up. "I guess, uh… there's steps before a strike, right?"

"Yes," Danny confirmed. "Regulations don't sound like they're going to be involved in this case, but strike action is always partly a public relations thing. A badly aimed strike can end up getting the population on the side of the bosses or even cause discontent within the union, while a well targeted one is an expression of collective pressure on the bosses to force them to negotiate. But that means that you're going to want… a reasonable offer to be agreed on and delivered to decision makers, whoever they are. And you're going to want the strike to be announced somehow, in advance – so people know what's going on, and who to blame."

He frowned, suddenly. "Actually, come to think of it… if we want the public on our side, then we should go after NEPEA-5. That was legislation that was intended to protect conventional businesses, but all it's really done is drive parahumans into government employment or crime. They can't make a decent living, so… what choice do they have?"

"Hold on a moment," Taylor requested, her gaze unfocusing again. "Yeah, who can… right… okay, um, wow."

She looked up. "So, Administrator just checked with Path, affiliated with Local 02, and something like sixty-one percent of shard disconnects can be directly or indirectly attributed to NEPEA-5. So they're on board with that…"

"What is even happening?" Rebecca Costa-Brown asked, after waiting for ten seconds without a response.

She reached for her phone, and typed out an unlisted number. The phone on the other end rang for several seconds, then Contessa answered.

"Who is it?" the Thinker on the other end asked.

Rebecca felt herself pale. "You don't know?"

"My power is currently not working," Contessa replied. "I do not know why. I tried a path to find out why, but it just told me to get some sleep. I was preparing to do that."

"...right," Rebecca said, blinking. "Is this connected to that recent movement about repealing NEPEA-5, coming out of Brockton Bay?"

Contessa was silent for several seconds.

"I just tried to path an answer," she said, eventually. "We may have become a little too reliant on my power."

"It didn't work, of course," Rebecca said.

"No, it did, it's just that that's the only answer I got," Contessa explained. "Apart from something about how a representative would be appointed at some point, I'm not sure what that means. And something about ionization."

AN:

The mirror of the previous one, where instead it's Taylor's father who forms the primary influence.

Emphasis on Administrator.