Note: Taylor took a page from Carmen's book; only fair she takes a page from Ayin's now. I have a fanfic I'm making called "White Wings, Dark Cage" where the Simurgh get's into Lobotomy Corporation, much to the managers dismay. Go check it out on my account.

-The Light of Brockton Bay-

- Taylor's POV

After the face-to-face talk with Lisa, I go along with the Undersiders into their van. I switched out of Scorched Girl and equipped my Seven Association identity for the meantime. The van is rather large and has seven seats total: two in the front, three in the middle, and two in the back. It has just enough room leftover to hold Bitch's three dogs.

Grue took the driver's seat, Lisa and I took the 2 seats in the back. They wanted me in the back to lower the chance of me being spotted. "So Taylor, is there anything we should know about you? If you're going to be staying with us for a while, I'm sure my team would like to know about anything we should watch out for."

Lisa had claimed she was a psychic. As Tattletale, she was known for her information-gathering skills as the thinker of the group. I can tell she's attempting to pry me for information. It was honestly not a bad attempt. If I wasn't in my Seven Association identity, I might not have seen it. Masking the attempt as a safety concern towards an unstable cape makes the whole thing perfectly reasonable to ask. "How much do you already know about my power?"

Lisa put her hand to the bottom of her chin as if she were trying to recall what she knew. It was a little too forced, which leads me to believe she really didn't need to think too hard. Maybe an attempt to lower my threat rating for her? "We have the information the PRT has on you, nothing more. We know you're a trump that switches between different power sets. You should actually see the file they have on you. It has different power ratings for each of your power sets."

They probably know more. "You don't really have much to worry about. Unless you come out with some shocking information that would make me hate you."

Lisa shakes her head. "No one here knew who you were before you told us."

I raise an eyebrow. "And how do you know that?"

Lisa has a smirk on her face. "I'm a psychic." I scoff in my head. 'Yeah, right.'

I should build some form of rapport with the Undersiders if I'm going to be staying with them for a while. Nothing comes to mind until I think back to my Wards tour. Unfortunately, all of them had their costumes on; Lisa had put her mask back on. I'm also too low on light to make objects right now.

Back to the conversation at hand, Grue butts into the conversation. "While you're staying with us, we need to set some rules. Some of us don't want our identities exposed. We have a room set up for you that you will be staying in. If you want to leave that room, we expect you to give us a warning so we can put our masks on."

That was reasonable. "I will make sure to do that."

That rule brings Lisa's actions into question. I'm sure she had some other methods to get me to go with them, but she chose to unmask herself as a sign of trust. I haven't earned her trust yet, and she seems smart enough to not give up something like that easily. What if that wasn't the only reason she gave up her identity? Giving it up had built a measure of personal trust between us exclusively. I also know that her cape persona is known to be antagonistic, but she has been friendly to me.

The only answer I have is that she has personal reasons to gain my trust. Reasons that she hasn't explicitly stated. Most likely, the rest of the Undersiders may not agree with her, or her boss wouldn't like it. "Honestly, Lisa, you would make a fantastic fixer for Seven Association if you had a bit of professional combat training. You could even apply for my section."

As soon as the words leave my mouth, I realize that I'm talking as if I were my identity. It's happened a few times before, and at first I was embarrassed when it happened. Now it just feels natural. I used to be fearful whenever it happened; I thought I was losing myself. I've gotten used to it over time. I still try not to do it, but mostly because it just confuses people.

"Seven Association?" And there it is.

I sigh. "Sorry, sometime I can say some stuff that would be 'in character' with my identity."

Lisa nods her head in understanding. "Makes sense, but that still doesn't answer my question."

The persistence gives me pause. No one has ever pushed past the response I normally give. There really isn't any harm in talking more about the City and its innerworkings. It's not like people are going to visit. 'At least I hope not.'

"Seven Association is one of the twelve of the City. Associations are large groups of fighters, called fixers, under a specific role. Seven Association specifically focuses on investigation and information gathering." I leave out the 'we also kill people' part.

Regent looks back at me. "So, they're like heroes?"

I shake my head. "No, more like mercenaries. Although Zwei Association is pretty close to what you would expect law enforcement to be."

"Neat." It looks like his curiosity is satisfied.

Lisa is looking at me. No, she's staring at me hard. She doesn't say anything and instead turns to look forward a few minutes later. 'Well, that was weird.'

I look behind me and take a peek at Bitch's dogs. They're remarkably well behaved, especially for being in a moving vehicle. The rest of the drive remains silent, with the previous conversation slowly dying down.

Eventually, we stop outside an abandoned factory named "Redmond Welding." The van slowly comes to a stop in a secluded spot right outside the factory, and the Undersiders start getting out. Lisa motions for me to get out, so I follow suit. The five of us go around the building and go through one of the side doors. After going up a spiral staircase, Grue gets out a set of keys and opens the door at the top of the stairs.

The second floor is much cleaner compared to the first. Right next to the entrance is a living room with two couches, a TV, and a few tables. There's a hallway with several sets of rooms on either side and a kitchen past it. Lisa turns to me. "You'll be taking the guest room, last door on the left."

I look at the group. "Other than giving proper warning about leaving my room, anything else I should know?"

Regent gave a shrug as he walked by me. "Not really; you're technically a guest right now. Just don't do anything stupid like breaking into our rooms."

I mentally take note of the guest part. I start to think of any question I should ask; one comes to mind. "Is there anywhere nearby that's out of sight where I can do power testing? I want to keep up on knowing my capabilities."

Lisa gives me an apprehensive look. "There's a few places nearby, but we won't know when a hero could be patrolling there. I'll ask our boss; he most like..." She goes quiet for a moment before continuing. "He does have the schedules."

I turn to the hallway. "I'm probably going to go to sleep now. I'll make sure to knock when I want to come out."

The group gives me some half-hearted nods, and I start making my way to my room. It's a simple wooden door with no lock on it. Beyond it is a simple room with a bed and its furnishings; a table sits beside it. I stretch and get on top of the bed. It's surprisingly fresh. I expected that slight smell of mildew, seeing as this is all in an abandoned factory.

The sun is setting, and I'm tired. I get under the blue blankets and slowly go into the Otherside. My bed back home was cozier.

-The Light of Brockton Bay-

Waking up, I feel strangely invigorated. I take a cautious glance around me. I haven't been moved, and nothing new is in my room. I breathe a breath of relief, knowing that the Undersiders are most likely telling the truth about not meaning me harm.

Why do I feel so peppy though? I try to think of what could have changed, and I end up checking my light. 'Holy hell, it's charging fast.'

It was the first night after my meeting with Carmen and escaping the PRT. My light generation increased severalfold. Is this Carmen's doing? She did say that my powers came from a "seed of light." Maybe she made it bloom in a sense? 'Just another thing to thank her for if I see her again.'

This helps me a lot. While I was in the Otherside, I had thought of a few plans. If the PRT is going to be trying to capture me, I need someone on my side that can be my eye in the sky. Someone who could always watch over me and warn me of any incoming threats. Someone who can do things that none of my identities can.

If I had to group my identities, One Sin would be misc; they're not really good at fighting. When I had nothing else, it was okay, but now that I have stronger identities, it loses when it comes to fighting. The calming aura does have its uses, though.

Scorched Girl is a pure fighter with brute, blaster, striker, and minor mover powers. It's good in fights but has limited utility. That downside is doubled because all that utility it could have is gated behind friendly fire and property damage.

Seven Association Grade 6 Fixer didn't actually have any powers. Max, it would have a 0 in thinker and a 1 in stranger. The identity is smart and has soundproofed clothing that might be considered tinkertech. It is definitely not useless. Being smarter is a force multiplier on its own.

T Corp. Class 3 Collection Staff is a very useful identity in a fight. An upper-mid-level mover with a striker power that I'm pretty sure could be considered an all-or-nothing effect. I don't think many parahuman powers can defend against the pickaxes time-harvesting feature. The only problem is that to keep someone frozen, I need to allow the pickaxe to harvest their time, which leaves me defenceless in the meantime. There is also the knowledge of the inner workings of T Corp tech that comes with it.

Small Bird and whatever the three-headed wolf gave me are both untested. If the linked dreams tell me anything, it's that they're probably also combat-focused.

My beholder identity is the most important identity I have gotten so far and probably will have for a while. High-level mover with teleportation, increased cognition speed, manipulation of code, and something else I haven't tested yet but detected I had.

I have a lot of movement options, and I have a lot of striking power. I need, and quite frankly want, someone or something that can handle things other than fighting. On top of that, they need to be reliable and trustworthy. I was going through my options when I had a thought. I could make an AI.

When I was going through the PRT server, I realized that any technology would likely be far better than anything on Earth Bet. Any AI I made would be decades, if not centuries, ahead of everything else. With proper amounts of computing power, it would likely be unstoppable in the digital space.

That is hinging on the idea that my beholder identity would have the ability to make an AI. Could I give it access to Cyber Corp's singularity? How would that even work? I can't find any answers until I start.

My second plan is to completely explore my relatively unused identities. Small Bird and the electric wolf one are completely unused. I also want to try and exhaustively go through everything in my beholder identity. Something happened to most of its data, with a lot of it being expunged.

While I'm doing all of this, I should also check how long a night's worth of light lasts for using the beholder identity. Without using the teleporter function, of course.

I slip into my Seven Association identity and knock on my door. I can hear someone stepping around outside; it takes a minute, but eventually my door opens. Lisa pokes her head through the door. "You need to come out?"

"No. I'm not hungry right now, so I probably won't need to go out for a while. I'm just giving you all a warning that I might not be responsive for a bit."

Lisa's brows furrow. "What?"

I just give my shoulders a shrug. "It's too complicated to explain."

Lisa gives me an empty stare. I noticed she does that a bit; maybe her power is active? "Okay. Just don't do anything dangerous."

She leaves me and closes the door behind her. I go stand in the part of my room with the most space around it. I unequip Seven Association and equip my beholder identity. I can feel the numbness spread as I transition.

I check my internal clock and take note of what time it is. I haven't calibrated the clock yet, so it is not accurate to the actual time. At least it keeps on ticking when I'm not using this identity, as evidenced by it being the time it should be based on the time when I escaped the PRT.

Going over my current objectives, I can't help but feel disgust at what I'm about to make. At least it will be on a leash that I will make. 'What the hell am I thinking?' I have nothing against AI. I can get the risks, but I don't have anything against them personally. When I was making plans last night in the Otherside, I didn't feel this way. Is this some sort of Head brainwashing that's ingrained into beholders?

I try to distract myself from thoughts about AI. I'm getting emotional right now, which is not normal from my experience as a beholder. But how couldn't I be angry about what I'm about to do? How could I make a soulless machine? 'A pot calling the kettle black.' Can I not have my powers mentally manipulating me for five minutes?

In my attempt to think about something else, I am reminded that I have one last objective for this session. During my escape from the PRT, I noted that I have three singularities. W Corp, Cyber Corp, and the last one, which has had its name [Expunged]. I can't activate it yet. What I called "muscle memory" is actually code optimizations. The computer part of me slowly optimized itself to speed up the commonly run programs. But the actual ability to run it was [Expunged].

I'll have to make some repairs using Cyber Corp's singularity. Which is difficult seeing as I'm practically going in blind. Also, with no memory of what it does, I cannot be sure if activating it would harm the Undersiders, so I leave it untested for now.

I take a moment and scan my surroundings once more with my mechanically enhanced vision. Then, I activate Cyber Corps singularity, and everything shifts into an office space. I have an involuntary shiver. I might get used to a lot of things, but I don't think I'll get used to that mechanical, almost lifeless feeling of being a beholder. At least I no longer feel repulsed by the AI I'm going to create.

Okay, first order of business. My secondary brain takes every piece of data that has been [Expunged]. This actually takes a while. Papers are flying from all around the giant office spaces. Filing cabinets, opening and spewing out impossible amounts of files. All of them burned and were illegible. I give an order to sift through and sort out anything that has anything important, but nothing ends up being sorted out.

'Do I have any information on what might have happened to the [Expunged] files?' I can feel my secondary brain scanning through every piece of data I have, and a few minutes later a single paper flies into my hands. It reads 'Initialization Log' at the top. It's dated to just before I woke up in the PRT.

I give it a read-through. It seems like it's the startup sequence that beholders go through when they startup for the first time. I can't really tell what's happening in its contents, but the part under 'Eclipse Protocol' catches my eye. The best I can tell is that something changed when I first equipped the beholder identity, but it didn't change fast enough to fully stop whatever contingencies the Head put in this thing.

Well, that sucks; no classified Head information for me, I guess. I scrap the pile of papers; it's useless to me. I then pull out anything that is [Redacted]. This pile is significantly smaller than the others. The pieces of paper still have words on their pages, but some of it has had a black marker remove some of them. Some have entire sections [Redacted]. Most of it seems like protected knowledge of wings. Stealing a wings singularity was prohibited, and sometimes even the information about it could be considered protected.

It seems like even agents of the head still follow those rules. But why wasn't W Corp's information [Redacted] while Cyber Corp's was? Is Cyber Corp's singularity special in some way? I'm going to have to ignore that for now. Another mystery to solve in the future.

On my command, my second brain creates a new workspace for me to start developing an AI. I don't really know how this works. I'm assuming I can just let my secondary brain do all the work, but with how finicky singularities can be, I would be surprised if there was nothing else to it.

A door appears on a wall next to me. It's plain wood with no real distinguishing features. Past the door, I am led to a room that is also similarly empty. Same colour as the office from before, no objects, and no files. I guess that does kind of represent a completely empty computer program.

I make a little gesture by waving my hands in front of me, entirely pointless since I'm alone, but it just felt right. I send a command to start making an AI. An AI that can learn, act as my backup, and assistant. I want it to be loyal to me; I don't want to be betrayed by something I made. I was a little torn on that decision, but in the end I decided for it. Having an AI out there that is completely free to do what it wants could be catastrophic.

Nothing happens immediately. I can feel my secondary brain in the background. I can feel a strange secondhand annoyance that part of me feels at having to do this. I also feel it slowly relenting to my demands under the pressure of Cyber Corp's singularity. Finally, a small ball of light appears in the middle of the room.

It's completely silent and still. It slowly shifts and forms into something vaguely humanoid. First come the basic four limbs and a head shape. Then the fingers, toes, and nose form. The hair splits into individual strands instead of a solid mass that resembles it. The ridges of eyelids appear, and the light fades out.

Before me stands a child with light blue hair, yellow eyes, and light grey skin. They don't blink, breathe, or move in any way. They just stand there, motionless. 'Hey, uh, I'm not sure how this goes, but shouldn't they be a little more talkative?'

My thoughts are answered when a paper flies into the room. It's a note made by my second brain. "Making it will take a while, most likely more than a few sessions. Making safeguards that I feel comfortable with, along with their reasoning and learning capabilities, will take a long time, even for me. Even though I'm forced to obey the stupid part of me, I cannot complete your request entirely. I am the non-emotional part of this mind, so you are going to have to teach it how to act like a proper living person does, not that I believe you'll succeed. In short, it will take a while, and you actually have to do something for once."

'Geez, is it that bad being the secondary brain?' Some words on the bottom of the paper appear "yes."

Honestly, I was kind of wondering when something like this would happen. Cyber Corp's singularity always seemed to be too easy. It was an open secret that almost every singularity has some sort of dark secret attached. A few older ones that were eventually leaked all had some weird major downsides that weren't known to most people. I guess Cyber Corp's is torturing a part of your brain. Par for the course, really.

I turn to the kid again. This time they move. They tilt their head up and look at me with soulless eyes. "[Designation]?"

Are... are they asking for a name? Shit, I should've prepared this before hand. Let's think for a minute. Their gender should probably fit the name, and I would rather have a more feminine companion. She's going to be my eye in the sky and my shield. That would be kind of like a guardian angel. Could I go with Angel? No, Angel is too cliche. 'Angelica? No. Angeline? No. Angelis? No. What about...'

I look into the AI's eyes and smile. "Your name is Angela."