Hello to you lovely people! Thank you so much for the lovely comments, you make a gal's heart soar!
I can only promise a whole lot of cuteness.
As to timeline, I'm fairly vague as I'm kinda messing with it alot, but it's circa 2008. I've still got to nail down a complete timeline.
Anyway, here's the next chapters.
Fruit Flies, Black Widows and Giant African Land Snails, oh my!
My lovely thanks to my wonderful beta reader, Dysole.
Also many thanks to the wonderful folks at the Gaylor Convention Centre who are far, far too enabling of my love of killing the world through fluff-induced diabetes.
Chapter 2 - Miss Moth Goes In For Power Testing
Eight Years Previously
Emma Barnes followed her father through the hospital, holding on to her mother's hand as she toddled along. "We seein' Auntie Anne?" The three-year-old asked excitedly. Auntie Anne was great fun, all talky and clever! And Uncle Danny and her were so
tall! Mommy and Daddy were tall, but Auntie Annette and Uncle Danny were like giants!
"Yes, dear." Her mother said, smiling at her. "She's just in here now that she's had her baby."
"Ooooh!" Emma exclaimed, "Issat why she's been here? Cuz of the baby?"
"Yes, Emma." Zoe ruffled her daughter's hair as they turned a corner and found Uncle Danny standing outside of a room, smiling at the couple and then at Emma, ruffling the redhead's hair just like her mom had.
"Hey there Ems," He said, a huge smile fixed on his face. "You been good?"
"Yes, Uncle Danny!" Emma beamed up. "Been good! Where's Auntie Anne?"
"She's just in here. Are you excited to meet the baby?"
Emma nodded excitedly and followed her parents into the room. Sitting on the hospital bed in a gown was Auntie Annette, holding a little blanket-wrapped bundle in her arms.
There was a certain amount of cooing and talking from the parents before the three-year-old was able to get a look.
"She looks like a alium." Emma said, slightly disappointed. The girl was in her mother's arms as she sat on the chair next to the bed. "All pink an' squished."
Zoe smiled at her. "Her name is Taylor, and all babies look like that. You did when you were this old."
"Did not!"
"You did! I've got photos to prove it!"
Emma blew a raspberry and then reached her little hand out towards the face of little Taylor. The baby opened her eyes wide and her hand reached up, grasping Emma's finger. She giggled.
"Small!"
Alan ruffled his daughter's hair and Uncle Danny leaned down to look at her. "You know," He whispered conspiratorially, "Your Mommy and Daddy are her godparents."
"Whassat?"
"Well, we aren't really religious, so think of it as kind of a… backup Mommy and Daddy, like we are for you and your big sister Anne."
"Ohhh so she'll call Mommy Auntie?"
"Exactly! And that means she's sort of your godsister, yeah?"
Emma nodded and then her eyes grew round. "I'mma big sis?"
Danny nodded. "That's right, kiddo, think you can do it?"
"Yes!" Emma yelled happily, eliciting a noise of complaint from the very small Taylor. "Oops, sorry Taylor." She reached another hand and watched as Taylor grabbed at it again, seemingly very interested.
Danny and Alan exchanged a glance as Annette laughed softly.
While the three-year-old was playing with the baby, Alan sat heavily next to Danny and grasped his shoulder.
"She's a sweetie. Bet you a hundred she grows up to look like her mom."
"I'd be so lucky." Danny groaned. "Knowing my luck, I'll be beating boys off her with a stick in her teens."
"A crowbar, you mean. Don't forget that she'll also have Kurt and Lacey and the other Dockworkers. Plus, her aunts from Annette's old… job."
Danny laughed. "Sort of a 'hurt her and there's a line to horribly maim you' thing?"
"There is that."
"Well, have to hope it won't go to her head when she's older."
"She'll have Ems to keep her stable I guess." Alan said, chuckling as said child made faces at the absolutely intrigued baby Taylor. "Think it was worth waiting a few years still?"
"Definitely." Danny said. "We're in a much better position than we were then. Financially and just… you know, in general. We're good. Well, as good as-"
"You can get in Brockton Bay." Alan chorused along with his friend. "Yeah, I get that. I think it'll be good for Emma, too. She's good with her own age group but a bit… flighty, I guess is the best way. Seems like she wants to always be liked, and yeah it's a good thing, but I think asking her to be Taylor's big sister will ground her a bit."
Danny nodded. "Here's hoping. How's Anne?"
"She's good, doing well. She'd be here but she's off doing a thing with school."
"Life's good then, isn't it?" Danny asked. "Even with all the problems at the Association, we still have our families."
Emma, meanwhile, was being shown how to properly hold little Taylor. She cooed at the baby as she sat, cradling her head. "Her eyes are so
blue Auntie Annette!"
"Babies' eyes are like that sometimes, Emma." Annette said, smiling wearily. "They'll change as she grows older. Maybe they'll be blue, maybe brown, maybe green. We'll have to see."
"Oh, wow!" Emma enthused. She wiggled her fingers over the baby and Taylor grasped one of her fingers in her tiny hand and Emma giggled. "Awww she likes me! She looks real innerested!"
"Babies are like that with everything, because to them the world is brand new. Everything's new to a baby." Annette ruffled Emma's hair. "What did your Uncle Danny want with you?"
"He said I should be her big sister an' I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the bestest big sister
ever!"
Annette smiled at the three-year-old gently. "I bet you will, Ems."
"Uh huh! I promise! I'll
always look after Taylor, even when we're grown up!" She held up her little finger, solemnly. Annette took it with her own. "Pinkie promises is the most important."
And through the years she knew her younger 'sister', Emma
never forgot that promise.
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Present Day
"Amy Rose!" Taylor beamed as she ran into their house, dodging the still-broken front porch step that no one had gotten around to fixing yet.
"Tails!" Amy cried, the two crashing into a hug and jumping up and down a couple of times excitedly. "Did it go good? Are you a Ward now?!"
"I'm the newest, bestest Ward! And there's another Ward our age called Vista who warps space! I really like her, she likes bugs and likes things like bugs and I think we're gonna be put onto patrols together and work as a team because we're the same age and bigger girls and boys are stinky so obviously we're the bestest team up!"
"Wow, really?!" Amy beamed.
Meanwhile, Annette made her way into the house a little more calmly and smiled at her husband, kissing him once.
"It went well then?"
"She's already made a friend." Annette replied, looking fondly at their two children. "And she terrified the heroes."
"I'll bet you did some of that."
"Pretty sure Miss Militia remembered that time during a Lustrum rally where I called her a government bootlicker and a failure to free women everywhere." Annette pondered as Taylor dragged Amy off to the living room, a halo of fluttering pink moths still following her. "But I think Taylor's enthusiastic nature probably made them a bit worried."
Danny listened to the giggling of his two little girls and smirked. "I bet it did. She worries me, sometimes."
Annette swiped at him. "Hush, you. They're good girls. Overly enthusiastic sometimes, but good girls."
Danny grinned. "Of course. I never said they weren't, I just said she worries me."
Rolling her eyes, Annette followed Danny into the living room where Taylor was regaling Amy with the story of what had happened during her meeting with the wards. Amy happily listened to her sister chattering away and describing the cool things that Vista could do.
Annette smiled at her daughters and then saw that one pink-and-yellow moth was still settled on Taylor's head.
"I think we've got one for the mausoleum." She said quietly. "She said someone swatted at… I think it's Dave the Eighteenth?"
"Twentieth." Danny replied. "Dave the Twentieth. I'll get all the stuff for preserving them properly."
Annette kissed his cheek and looped her arm in his. "You really do pay attention to them, don't you?"
"And you don't?"
"I'm just saying, you're a good dad." Annette patted his arm and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Only as good as my partner. I'd be useless without you."
Taylor finally finished her rambling, and Annette looked at the two of them. "Alright girls, it's time to get cleaned up. Don't forget we're going over to see Emma and the others."
Taylor beamed and shot off like lightning up the stairs. Amy followed along a little more sullenly, but Annette stopped her before she went upstairs. "Little Mouse? What's wrong?"
Amy rubbed her foot on the carpet. "Just… Tails's so excited 'bout the wards an' I don't wanna be…"
Annette ruffled Amy's frizzy hair. "Little Mouse, if there's one thing I'm really sure of, it's that our Little Owl will never leave you behind." Amy looked at the floor.
"B-but what if, Mom?" She replied, bottom lip trembling.
"I don't think it's even a possibility." Danny said, crouching down and putting his hands on Amy's shoulders. "We're family. We stick together, through thick and thin, alright?"
They heard a gasp and Taylor came barrelling down the stairs, almost knocking herself senseless on the banister, before she skidded around the corner and grabbed Amy in a big hug.
"Amy Rose I'd never ever ever leave you behind you're my sister an' I love you an' besides I know Vista will love you too because she's gonna be both our bestest friend but you gotta say so too because we're sisters an' we do everything together!" The taller girl babbled, squeezing Amy tightly. "Never ever gonna leave you behind Amy Rose, ever!" She affirmed again.
Amy nodded sadly, but Taylor simply took her hand and led her up the stairs to their room. "Come on, let's go play some before we go see Big Sis!"
The parents headed back into the living room to let the girls settle a little.
Annette sighed as she sat down. "She still misses him." She said softly.
"Wouldn't you?" Danny asked. "She's a good girl. But she'll eventually learn we'll not leave her in the dirt. She's one of our little girls. She'll get there."
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The doorbell rang at the Barnes house.
"I'll get it!" the redheaded youngest child of the house called and ran to the front door.
Emma opened the door and the eleven-year-old was immediately barrelled into by two over-energetic eight-year-olds, managing through long experience not to fall over.
"Big Sis!"
"Big Sis!"
"Hey there, Amy Rose and Tails!" She said happily, giving them both a hug before stepping to let them and their parents in. "Mom and Dad are just finishing getting the barbeque prepped." She made a face. "Dad stopped me from helping at the barbeque itself though."
Danny grinned as he and Annette walked in. "Hey there, Ems, how's it going?"
Emma smiled. "It's good, Uncle Danny! Though I bet it'll be noisier with the munchkins."
"Hey!" two voices chimed behind her.
Emma grinned at the two as they pouted and then eventually giggled. Emma looked at the moths circling Taylor's head and the one resting on top of her hair. "Oh no! Is Dave the Twentieth alright?!" She asked.
Taylor looked a little morose. "He got swatted. I hope he'll be okay but…"
Emma grabbed Taylor's hand and led her in. "Well, come on then, we'd better write his story down, don't you think? Come on, Amy Rose, you can help! We'll see you soon, Auntie Annette, Uncle Danny! They're all, you know, out in the yard!"
Annette and Danny watched the three girls wander off and then walked towards the rear of the house, where they were greeted by Alan and Anne. Danny handed over their contribution to the night's cooking and Alan almost salivated as he saw the covered dish.
"Oh, you
didn't!" He said, grinning.
"Sure did." Annette replied, "Fresh lasagna and one meatloaf. I made this one, unlike Danny, so it won't fall apart so easily unlike last time."
"I take no blame for that incident." Danny sniffed. "This is a conspiracy to keep me from cooking."
"Spoiling us again, I see." Zoe said, smiling and giving Annette a hug. "It's good to see you two."
"Hi Annette, hi Danny!" Anne chirped, then returned to fascinatedly watching her father set the grill up.
Annette nodded and smiled back. "Yeah. Been a busy day."
"Did it go well?" Zoe asked, a concerned frown on her face.
"As well as expected. Taylor was both cute and probably terrifying in that way she can be. I definitely know she made an impression, at least, and I think a friend."
"Oh?"
"Apparently, they've got another young Ward, another little girl called Vista. Taylor and they seemed to have hit it off if Taylor's excited babbling on the way home was any indication. Still, I think she's waiting until the girl's met Amy. You know how they are. Thick as thieves."
"And terrifying to thieves, if Amy ever got powers." Alan commented, laying some sausages out on the grill.
"That too." Danny grimaced. "I don't like the idea of Amy getting powers. Not because it'd make her bad, but because of what they have to go through to get it. I already feel enough of a failure to have had poor Taylor get them…"
Annette wrapped an arm about her husband's waist. "It can't be helped, and it's happened. We just look after our girls as best we can."
"I guess." Danny sighed. He brightened at the smell of cooking food. "Anyway, she seems to be used to them, and she seems to be enjoying them. I think Emma accidentally getting her into entomology when she was younger really helped."
Upstairs in Emma's room, meanwhile, Emma had a large black notebook with the cover plastered in moth stickers open to an empty page. Taylor was holding the still-weak moth in her hands, bottom lip trembling. Amy was cuddling close to Taylor for comfort.
With a swish and a flick of a fountain pen she'd had bought for her, Emma titled the page in curled cursive: 'The Life and Times of Dave, Twentieth of His Name, Named King of the Rosy Maple Moths'.
She had to extend the title over a few lines at the top, but she didn't think Taylor would mind as she switched to a more normal pen.
"Alright, Tails, tell me his story." Emma prompted. "He might still come back from this, but it's best we get it down now."
Over the years, Emma had learned to handle the girl who was one of her little sisters in all but blood.
"Well, he's Dave. His parents were Darling and Dave the Nineteenth. He was born four months ago, under a full moon…"
Amy followed on, occasionally adding things she remembered. Like Emma, she'd been exposed enough to the moths to recognise them by sight, so she knew more than Emma and remembered some things differently from Taylor.
"…And then, in his fourth month of life, he was carelessly swatted by a noble hero, Triumph of the Wards of Brockton Bay," Emma intoned as she read back the last of what she'd written. "Only time would tell if he recovered." Taylor nodded, looking a lot less upset as she placed the moth on her hair again, the others fluttering about her head as always. Emma squinted at Dave the Twentieth. "I think he's looking a little better than when he came in."
Amy nodded and Taylor smiled. "Alright. Thanks, Knuckles."
Emma groaned at the nickname. Since they'd stuck each other with those nicknames from Sonic The Hedgehog, she'd regretted wanting to call herself Knuckles after her red hair when she'd found out that he'd been a boy character, but it'd been too late by then.
She closed the book and put it back in its place. A part of her would've thought that the whole 'writing down the moth's story' thing was dumb, but it was drowned out by the part that knew that Taylor took it seriously, and Taylor was her little sister. She'd always support her little sister. The same went for Amy's fascination with biology.
"Come on, squirts, better get downstairs now that we've done the important bits. Bet you're both hungry."
Taylor's stomach rumbled and she went red, following Emma down the stairs along with Amy.
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Taylor followed both of her parents through the doors to the PRT HQ on their second meeting to confirm and finalise the paperwork.
Emily looked over at the happily humming little girls kicking their feet on the chairs as Danny and Annette filled in the last of the forms.
Amy looked oddly familiar to Emily. She knew the girl was adopted and she'd looked into the Heberts as a matter of protocol for all young prospective Wards. Everything had been above board, excepting that the name of her biological father had been classified.
Emily figured he'd been a villain, which didn't cast a good light on Annette and Danny, but on the other hand it was likely he was known to them in civilian guise rather than otherwise. She knew Annette had run with Lustrum back in the day as well, so potentially the girl might be related to her somehow? The girl's biological mother's name had not been classified, after all.
The classification had been actioned by her predecessor in Brockton Bay, not long before she'd come to the place, but while she could request for that to be lifted she didn't feel she had significant reason to do so.
As far as she could tell from the investigation, they were a loving, relatively normal family that loved each other. She'd bet they had skeletons in the closet somewhere – Danny was a representative and hiring manager for the Dockworker's Association, and they were always a tough breed. She knew of him from facing across tables during City Hall meetings occasionally.
Annette was a professor, and in good standing, but her past had been somewhat chequered before that, what with running with Lustrum and all that. But she'd exited the movement before it had gone too far.
Taylor, too, was an interesting girl. She was obviously very clever, and according to her school reports prone to leaps of logic and creativity that would probably be extremely scary when paired with her power. As cute as she was, Emily couldn't forget that she controlled literally every bug in her range. Power testing was set for later on that day, but Emily figured it wouldn't be hard to classify her as at least a Master 5 after some thought. Maybe higher ratings if she learned more about using said bugs.
Emily was also pretty sure she'd find some way to 'collect them all' as far as threat ratings went. Taylor seemed like the kind of girl who would do that. She was clever and probably could be driven when she wanted to be. She reminded Emily a little of Colin – focusing on one thing with laser precision when she did.
Still, she pondered, combining Taylor with Vista's power, trying to see how the two's powers interacted, would definitely be to their advantage. And Rory was a good leader of the Wards, he'd look after the two of them. His power wouldn't work too well with Taylor's but he definitely worked well with Vista.
She had thoughts about a couple of the other, older Wards and combining them, but after a conversation with Glenn Chambers over the pair of youngest she had, she was definitely going to follow on his advice to keep Vista and Taylor (tentative name Miss Moth or Rosy Maple).
The old joke about the first two letters of 'PRT' being the most important wasn't always a joke, and Emily knew it well. Their effectiveness was heavily focused on perception of them, but that also extended to the Protectorate.
With Vista and Taylor, she had a perfect chance to score the kind of PR victory that other cities only dreamed of. Both of them were cute, imaginative, enthusiastic and friendly. So often, heroes, even Wards, were standoffish. Emily didn't like parahumans, but she could tolerate them. Those two she could tolerate better, though. They were only young, and just wanted to have fun.
Brockton Bay was tough on Wards. They got into scrapes, and she was glad that she had two powerful younger wards, and Rory should be very protective of the pair. She'd seen him around his little cousin at functions, and he always kept an eye on her..
If she played her cards right with them, she could make it clear to all parents in Brockton Bay that the Wards was the place to go to for their parahuman children, and not independence or villainy. The more of them she managed to do that with, the less scum on the streets.
She was glad Glenn was going to handle the two personally. Slimy and ultra-focused on PR he might be, but he was
effective. And even under it all, he had a core of morality and intelligence she knew the girls would pick up on.
"So, Taylor." Emily said as she sat back in her chair, staring directly at the eight-year-old. "Did you enjoy meeting Vista?"
"Uh huh! I want her to meet Amy first before I decide but she's a real nice person!"
Emily looked between the two as Amy nodded. "You two are close?"
"We're
sisters!" Taylor said, as if that answered everything. It probably did, Emily reflected. "So we stick together in
everything!"
"Yes!" Amy said. She quietened down at Emily's look. Clearly the more shy of the pair, her gaze was a little challenging, even so. Emily could see a future of snark in that girl's face.
Reminded her of herself, really.
Annette and Danny helped Taylor sign a few things in messy, scrawly handwriting, while Emily had a mostly one-sided, mono-worded on Amy's, side conversation with the unpowered sister. They leaned back when they were done and Emily took a moment to check the paperwork over.
"Well, that all looks good." She held a hand out to Taylor, shook it, then did so for the three others. Amy, she included because it would have been rude not to and the girl was sweet, if not potentially sharp-tongued when she'd let slip mutterings during their conversation. "I'll have a trooper escort you to the power testing labs, if that's OK?"
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Taylor wandered into the power testing room along with her parents and her sister, the two little girls 'ooh'ing and 'aah'ing at the place. It was a large room, clearly designed to test different kinds of parahuman abilities – from Brutes to Shakers to Masters.
One of the scientists in the room approached them with a clipboard and shook Annette and Danny's hands before leaning down to do the same to Amy and Taylor.
"Hi there, Miss Hebert, I'm Doctor Patel." She said, smiling at the two of them. "I'll be supervising the tests today, along with Doctor Smith."
Taylor giggled at the name and Danny rolled his eyebrows. "I told you we shouldn't have shown her some of those old sci-fi shows."
"Danger, danger Will Robinson!" Taylor parroted, making her arms wiggle like the robot's had in the show. Doctor Smith smiled patiently at her, obviously used to that kind of teasing. That and it was hard to get mad at Taylor given she seemed to blurt everything she thought out at once.
Doctor Patel cleared her throat, smiling. "Anyway. We'll be testing you with your bugs and also your multitasking."
"My multitasking? Whatcha mean?" Taylor asked, looking confused.
Doctor Patel shook her head. "I'll not dumb it down for you – humans just can't concentrate on many things at once, if even more than one. You, on the other hand, reportedly can focus on everything your bugs are doing down to at least a group level."
Taylor nodded. "Uh huh! I can tell every one of my bugs what to do at any time and all different things!" She demonstrated by having the moths around her head flutter in individually distinct patterns above her head, Dave the Twentieth at the centre of the group, having recovered from his ordeal.
Taylor was happy about that – she wanted to breed him so as to continue his line of Moths and make the family tree even longer.
She smiled sunnily up at Doctor Patel, who nodded. "That's exactly what I mean. That kind of ability to multitask must be a power all by itself, you know?"
"Ooh! Really?"
"Yes." Doctor Patel beamed enthusiastically at Taylor. "I'm glad you agree it's cool!"
"It is!" Taylor enthused. "Wow, I didn't think it was a different superpower to my bugs!"
Annette and Danny exchanged a look, smiling, as Doctor Patel took Taylor over to a table on which there sat several clear plastic tubs. "Now, Taylor, can you feel these bugs?"
Taylor looked over the boxes and nodded, pointing at them. "That one's got fruit flies in it, and that one's got caterpillars and that one's got spiders in it…" She pointed at the one third from the left. "I can't feel anything in there, though, what's in there?"
Doctor Smith took the lid off and brought out a huge snail, easily bigger than the size of his hand. "This is Boris, he's my pet Giant African Land Snail. I had to have him imported and special permits. You can't control him?"
"Nope!" Taylor said cheerfully, then looked thoughtful. "I wonder why? He's a creepy crawly but I guess snails and slugs aren't bugs because I can't control them either." She fidgeted as she looked at the huge snail.
"You want to hold him a moment?" Doctor Smith asked, and Taylor nodded.
"Uh huh!"
The man handed over the snail to Taylor, who had her arms full just holding it. "Oh! He's all slimy!" Taylor giggled. "He's so big an' heavy, I love him! Ames!" She called over.
Amy approached reluctantly at first until Taylor held out the snail. She looked at Doctor Smith and he nodded. Amy took the giant snail and giggled like Taylor had. "Oh he
is slimy! But he's cool!"
Taylor left the snail in her sister's capable arms and beamed up at Doctor Smith. "Well, it seems weird I can't control them, but also I guess it makes sense because slugs an' snails are mollusks and not insects or arachnids and it seems like I pretty much control all of them instead but I love Boris, can I come see him sometime? He's so
big an'
slimy and he's all pretty coloured and I didn't know snails got this big! Well, not the land ones anyway, I know there's sea snails and sea slugs that get really big including a banana coloured one but they're from the sea!"
Doctor Smith just looked overwhelmed a moment, before shaking himself. "Well, you'd be welcome to say hello to Boris sometimes, though I don't tend to keep him on-base."
"Oh," Taylor wilted a moment, but then perked up, "But when you do, I'll love to come see him!"
Doctor smith ruffled her hair and leaned down to Amy. "May I have him back now, Miss Hebert?" He asked gently, and Amy nodded, handing the huge snail over to the man.
"He's gross! I love him! Gross things are always fun, even if Mom doesn't really approve!" Amy declared, her freckled face moving into a pout.
"Alright, Taylor, we've shown you can pick them up. Has there been anything that's stopped you feeling the bugs around you, any material or anything?"
"Nope!" Taylor said brightly. "Every bug everywhere I am!"
They scratched notes on their clipboards. "And how many bugs are in range?"
"A lot!" Taylor said. "We're closer to the ground and the kitchens and basement are nearby so there's more of them than when they asked in Miss Emily's office!"
Doctor Patel leaned in. "I see. Where is the basement from here, and where's the kitchen?" Taylor pointed in the right direction for each of the two rooms. "Very interesting. Proprioception from all of her bugs, perhaps?"
"Could be. I definitely think that's a Thinker rating." Doctor Smith said. "In addition to her multitasking. That's another potent combination."
"Wow! I argued with people on a website about bug control and they all said it would suck but you really seem to like it which is great because I
love bugs!" Taylor enthused. "And then I got banned because you're supposed to be over thirteen to post there which is really dumb, but then I got told off by Mom and she's
always right so maybe it wasn't so dumb, but anyway they were all like 'bugs are dumb and gross, why would anyone wanna control them' and not one of them said that bugs would be cool and it was really upsetting but you know what I'm better than that because I love bugs and bugs love me! So there!"
Taylor pouted and stamped her foot, before giggling. The two doctors looked at one another, then at Taylor and Doctor Patel snickered.
"Thinker and Stranger rating for her talking, perhaps."
The rest of the power testing passed in a haze of activity, Taylor demonstrating her control over the bugs, how intricate it was in small-scale and how she could have them work together. They noted how the rosy maple moths fluttering about her head stayed there even as she was doing other things.
Getting her to entirely focus could be tricky; she had a tendency for her mind (and mouth) to wander into tangents but once she was focused it was almost scary how sharp it became.
They did test her for the other ratings. She received a minor Brute subrating, because she did have some resistance to the pain and they'd noticed her shunting it into her swarm. They didn't go far, for obvious reasons. When she demonstrated making spiders weave silk into usable thread – Doctor Patel had to step away due to arachnophobia, never mind that they were black widows the girl was using – they added a Tinker rating on too.
In the end, jokes aside, they'd tentatively agreed on her powerset and Doctor Patel knelt in front of Taylor, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Thank you for being so good during all this testing today, Taylor." She said warmly. "I think we've got a good idea of your powers and versatility as a ward."
"I did good?"
"You did
great." Doctor Smith said, smiling down at her. He'd handed Boris back to Amy, who was giggling as she let the huge snail slither across her arms. "Best subject we've had since Vista."
"I like Vista, she's nice!" Taylor said, beaming. Doctor Patel gave her another smile.
"Good, because I think we'll be having them team the two of you up. Your powers would synergize – work together-"
"I know what that word is silly, Mom's an English Professor, so she knows
all the fancy words!" Taylor giggled.
"Well, you'd work together very well. There's some testing we'd like to do with both of you when you're established, but I'm going to tell you this: if anyone ever tells you that your powers are lame, I can definitively tell you, as an expert on the subject like your Mom is with English, that they're really good. Even if I'm scared of spiders, making silk is really cool and I'd love to see if we can't get you helping the costume department. Maybe that doll cape rogue can help. But your powers are
awesome, OK?"
"OK!" Taylor said, beaming. Doctor Patel ruffled her curly hair.
"Attagirl. But I will say this – did you ever read
Spiderman?"
"Nope!" Taylor asked. "Was he like me?"
"No, he had spider powers and not bug control, he was from an old comic. But his uncle told him – 'with great power comes great responsibility'. It means you need to respect your powers as much as you enjoy them, and only use them for good things like beating villains and helping people, OK?"
"OK!" Taylor said, nodding enthusiastically.
"Well then," Doctor Smith said as Doctor Patel stood up. "We've got a few sets of tests to run off the back of this testing but it needs a week or two to set up and get permission, OK?"
"Alright!" Taylor said.
Amy handed Boris back to Doctor Smith and the family left the room, Taylor chattering away to Amy about the power testing.
Armsmaster was standing outside of the room, idly tinkering with something on his gauntlet that he stashed away as soon as the family approached.
"Ah, hello." He said after a moment's pause. Taylor's eyes grew round.
"Armsmaster!" She squeaked. "H-hello!"
His bearded chin tilted up as he smiled and held out his hand. "I'd like to officially welcome you to the Wards, Taylor."
Her tiny hand reached out and he took it in his huge, gauntleted one. "Oh…" She said, looking a little overwhelmed. "Th-thank you!"
He smiled again. His smile was warm and unfeigned. She'd seen him on TV before and he always seemed a bit robotic and tired and his smiles seemed forced but this one was warm and kind and she loved it. It made him seem like a person rather than a great big stern thing.
"I hope we work well together; I at the moment am the one who runs Brockton Bay's Wards program, though they are discussing moving command over to the PRT Director."
Taylor nodded, then took Amy's hand and dragged her sister forwards.
"This is my sister, Amy!" She said. Armsmaster shook her hand, too, and then her parents'.
"Well then, Taylor." He said, though it sounded a little scripted to her. "And Amy of course. The other wards have gathered. They won't be able to tell you their names yet, at least with Amy around, but once you're in properly they can choose to. Would you like that?" Taylor and Amy nodded, and he looked at Annette and Danny. "If that's fine with you. You may come along as well."
"We'd like that." Annette answered.
