Bad Moon Rising

[Mat92]

I'm freeing up some space in my snippets thread so time to launch a new thread for a story I'm enjoying writing.

---

January 3rd 2011

As the young heroine Flechette slowly made her way through the cold sterile hallways of the Rig she desperately hoped that she'd correctly remembered the directions to her destination.

"Up three, down two and take the second left for five minutes."

Flechette muttered to herself as continued her trek. Shortly afterwards she came to a stop in front of a fairly non-descript door. The only thing that could mark it as something worth noticing was the faint sound a soldering iron, the smell of burning metal and a tiny plaque which read Armsmaster. She knocked on the door. But there was no answer. She knocked again but still no answer. She knocked a third time and was once again ignored. With a sigh she tried the door and found it unlocked.

She was met with a rather peculiar sight. Back in New York whenever she would have to meet with Legend in his office, he'd make a point of having everything appear professional. The office would be clean, his desk would be well organized with everything in its proper place and he would be in a clean and well-tailored costume (or as was the case on one rather memorable Halloween night a near perfect recreation of the Phantom of the Opera). It would appear that Armsmaster didn't share this philosophy.

From the look of things Armsmaster had just got back from a patrol. He was still mostly clad in his power armour, which was covered in dents and scuffs and burns. He'd removed one of the arms and was using his desk as a workstation to perform repairs. Any paperwork or files that he may have been working on, or (as was seeming more and more likely) ignoring had been haphazardly pushed to the floor. As the door rumbled shut behind her the noise alerted him to her presence and he looked up from his work to take her in.

"Flechette. Good to see you." He said briskly. "Please take a seat, should be one around here somewhere."

Trailing off, he bent down behind his desk and pulled out an old metal folding chair that had been lying out of sight. He quickly unfolded it and placed it on the other side of his desk. There were no other chairs in the room. As she hustled over to take her seat, she got a glimpse at the old and somewhat falling apart stool Armsmaster was sitting on and a tiny part of her noted that he was at least trying to be a good host. As she sat down and looked at him expectantly Armsmaster lifted his lips into the Protectorate handbook approved smile #489 (for use when meeting new teammates).

"So, why did you want to see me sir?" Flechette asked anxiously. "Is there some kind of issue with my paperwork or something?"

Armsmaster shook his head.

"No, nothing of the sort." He hesitated for a moment. "I have a bit of a favour to ask you."

Flechette stared blankly at him.

"A favour? Not to be all teacher do we have homework." Flechette said slowly. "But if you need me to do something can't you just y'know order me to do it."

"Technically, yes. But I have been informed." Armsmaster began as he started drumming his fingers on the desk and looking a bit awkward. "Loudly and at great length. That it would be inappropriate to order you to do this considering the impact it may have on you."

Flechette began to have the horrible feeling that she was about to be offered a great opportunity. Trying her best to hide her growing sense of dread, she gestured for her superior officer to go on.

"Ordinarily our Wards attend Arcadia." Armsmaster began to explain as he pulled out a folder and handed it over to her. "However, there've been some... odd happenings at another school in the area. If you're amenable I would like for you to be enrolled as a student at Winslow High School and see what you can discover."

Armsmaster waited patiently as Flechette read through the files. Odd happenings was definitely the best description of it. Reports of people reporting missing items which turned up days later in strange places, people saying they heard voices when there was no one else in the room. There didn't appear to be anything dangerous going on. In fact it could be just a very talented prankster but there was the tantalizing possibility.

"You think there's a cape messing with the school?" Flechette asked.

"There's a non zero chance. Winslow is a difficult environment by all reports, add in the typical stresses of being a teenager and well" Armsmaster shrugged and continued on. "Whoever they may or may not be they don't appear too dangerous but I'd prefer they be identified and if necessary be brought on board before things escalate. So, what do you say?"

Flechette nodded to herself and gave Armsmaster a bold grin.

"I'm in. Just one question I thought that Sop- Shadow Stalker was already at Winslow, why aren't you asking her to look into this?"

Armsmaster gave her a bit of a smirk and replied.

"If there is actually a parahuman involved in all of this I would prefer they are left with a positive impression of the Protectorate. Greet them with a friendly face as it were. Shadow Stalker… Would not be the best suited for that role."

Flechette remembered her brief meeting with Shadow Stalker in the wards common area which was shortly followed by a much longer association with Shadow Stalker's shut door and nodded her head in agreement.

"Good." Armsmaster nodded briefly before returning back to work on his damaged armour. "You're dismissed Flechette."

Flechette nodded and got up from her chair and turned to leave before pausing.

"Sir?"

"Was there something else?" Armsmaster grunted out without looking up.

"No it's just. Legend always felt it was best for us to use real names when we could, as kind of a team bonding thing so… It's Lily. That's all."

"I see. Then you're dismissed, Lily."

Recognizing that team bonding would not be happening today Lily quickly left the room.


January 6th 2011

In the cold Monday morning that was to be the beginning of her new life at a new school Lily sat in her new guardian's car and idly listened to him as he yelled at traffic.

"Come on move!!!!" He snarled slamming on the horn. "If I don't get there in ten minutes my wife is going to kill me!!!!"

"Ethan it's fine." Lily said exasperatedly. "I'm sure Batt- Sam won't be mad if we're a little late because of traffic."

"You don't know my Puppy." Ethan muttered darkly before a madcap grin came across his face and he let out a mildly maniacal laugh. "There's an opening."

He yanked the wheel to the right and Lily opened her mouth to scream.

Fifteen minutes and three near car accidents later they arrived at Winslow High School. From the outside it didn't look like anything special. A three-story brick building, some mildly racist graffiti was on some of the side walls but that was distressingly common in Brockton Bay. There was nothing that screamed 'Lo a parahuman walks among you' which was probably a good thing for her own secret identity but it would make investigating just a smidge harder.

She was jolted out of her musings by a hand falling on her shoulder.

"You planning on getting out?" Ethan asked. "Cause look if you're planning on playing hooky the first day no judgement here but I am not being an accomplice."

"Sorry, just lost in thought."

Lily gave him a quick grin as she unbuckled her seat belt and hopped out the door of the jeep.

"Yeah, listen don't get too wrapped up in what the boss asked you alright. He hides it well but the guys wound up a bit tight. It's probably nothing. So, you know just try to have fun."

Lily rolled her eyes and nodded her head.

"Fine, Fine. Now get going you're late."

Ethan looked at the clock on the dashboard, cursed loudly and as soon as Lily was out of the jeep drove out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell.


As Lily wandered her way through the halls of Winslow High School, she kept an eye out for two things her locker and anything out of the ordinary. As she turned a corner the first of her targets was located as she came face to metal with locker WW41. All in all, it was not a bad location, she was in a central hallway close to all her classes. A washroom was nearby and close enough to be easily accessible but far enough away that she wouldn't be exposed to any… unpleasantness.

As Lily began to load up the locker with her books and various odds and ends, she let the sounds of the hallway wash over her. Down the hall a pretty red head was holding court with her followers, clearly the top of the social ladder Lily noted. The only surprise came when she heard Sophia's voice join in with the popular crowd, she didn't see that coming. As a door slammed shut at the other end of the hall all the typical hustle and bustle of a high school came to a halt.

Following the lead of everyone else Lily turned to stare down the hallway and was rather underwhelmed by the sight. It was a girl around her age with a long shock of black hair. She was maybe a bit taller than average but nothing remarkable. Certainly not anything that would seem to warrant all this attention. The girl ignored all this and just continued down the hall only pausing to share a smile with the red head and give her a quick wave. She came to a stop at a locker a few doors down from Lily.

As she was walking past her Lily noticed that the locker was remarkably empty. The jacket the girl was wearing had been left behind and a carton of cigarettes had been removed and placed into the mystery girl's hoodie.

Down the hall the red head had ditched Sophia and her other assorted crew and was jogging towards Lily. As the girl ran right past her and hugged the mystery girl Lily mentally revised her previous statement.

"Taylor where were you all break? I tried to call you."

The red head demanded after releasing her hug.

"Sorry I was out of town. Had to get some fresh air."

As Lily walked away she lost the thread of their conversation. (Which was something she would come to regret later).


On her lunch break Lily quickly scarfed down the sandwich she'd brought in and decided to wander the school. As she was making her way down a hallway on the third floor, she started to think that maybe Ethan was right and there really wasn't anything to investigate. She'd looked over the school top to bottom and hadn't seen anything strange. It was just a typical worn down school in a not particularly great town.

As she continued down the hallway she exchanged brief nods with that Taylor from that morning. The girl suddenly stiffened up as if she heard something and started to run in the opposite direction. Following possibly humanities oldest instinct the urge to chase after something if it's running Lily followed after her. As she charged down the hallway, she could began to hear fragments of a conversation.

"Leave me alone."

"Be quiet."

"I won't do it."

Ahead of her Taylor barged in to the room the voice had been coming from. Lily paused for a moment to ponder the boys washroom sign on the door and wonder if she really wanted to do this. She ultimately landed on yes as her answer.

When she entered the bathroom she found herself watching as Taylor pulled a rather large young man in a letterman's jacket into a hug. The jock was sobbing into her neck as she tried to comfort him.

"It's alright Pete, it's alright." Taylor murmured into his ear. "It's gone, it can't hurt you. Just tell me what it said."

"He said I was worthless, that I didn't matter, that I didn't deserve to be happy." Pete stuttered out between sobs. "He told me my folks would be better off without me, I heard my mom say he was right."

"You know that's bullshit." Taylor stated emphatically as she stood up. "I'm going to take care of this alright. You just remember, don't listen to it if it comes back alright, you don't listen to it."

Pete nodded and Taylor headed out absentmindedly shouldering past Lily who was starting to feel like everyone else in this room knew more than her. Including the victim of whoever this stranger was.

Lily hesitated for just a moment before bolting after Taylor. She caught up to her in the hallway and grabbed her arm to stop her. Taylor spun around angrily letting out a snarl that barely sounded human.

"WHAT." She growled.

For a split-second Lily thought that she'd seen Taylor's eyes change color and her teeth were shockingly long but when she blinked there was just a normal if livid teenage girl glaring at her.

"Look there's something weird going on around here and it seems like you're the only one who knows what it is." Lily demanded pushing a finger into Taylor's chest. "Tell me everything you know."

Taylor looked down at the finger that was still poking her and with a smirk reached up and pushed it away.

"Look, I'm sure you want to help but. Just stay out of the way all right. It's safer."

Lily huffed in indignation and was about ready to unleash a blistering tirade on Taylor (and possibly reveal that she was a damn superhero) but missed her chance as Taylor just turned and walked away.

"Oh, could you go get the nurse for Pete?" Taylor called over her shoulder. "Sounds like he had a rough time of it."

Lily growled in frustration before turning off to follow the obnoxiously reasonable request. All the while wondering when exactly she had become the civilian here.


For the rest of the day Lily tried to find Taylor and force some answers out of here but alas she remained just out of reach. They either didn't have any classes together (or the other girl was skipping) and in the hallways she was nowhere to be found.

That was until just after her last class when Lily was walking down towards the exit she saw two streaks of red and black hair race out of the library. Lily tried to follow but Taylor and that Emma girl had vanished into the crowd.

Fine if they don't want to give me any answers maybe someone else will, Lily thought as she entered the library. As soon as Lily walked in the door it became obvious where Taylor and Emma had been. One of the librarians was desperately trying to clean up a table that was strewn about with books and newspapers and God only knew what else. Lily sidled up and put on her best pure innocent voice.

"Oh my gosh. Whoever was working here must have been looking for something important." Lily gasped oh so sweetly.

"I certainly hope so." The librarian grumbled before giving the polite workers smile to Lily.

"Now what can I do for you young lady?"

"Oh, I just wanted to ask if I could help that's all." Lily beamed.

"Thank you dear, but no need for that." The librarian patted Lily on the head who managed to ignore the condescension. "It's just a bunch of old yearbooks I can get them put away in a snap." The librarian frowned to herself. "Wonder why Alvin Draper got them so excited though?"

"Alvin Draper?" Lily asked.

"Oh, sad story that." The Librarian explained as she began loading up her cart. "He was a student here oh some forty years. He was bullied something awful and the time came that he just couldn't take it anymore. The first day back to school after Christmas he climbed to the top of the roof and well." She paused to wipe at her eyes quickly. "I'm sure you can guess the rest."

Lily thanked her and started to make her way through the halls to the exit. She had all the pieces of the puzzle she was sure of it but she just couldn't put the pieces together. What did some poor bullied kid from forty years ago have to do with a stranger here and now. The first known Parahumans hadn't shown up until the 80s but could there have been ones in secret maybe?

No that didn't feel right. If Draper was some kind of parahuman why wait until now to try for revenge? But what could it be if not that. Lily was drawing a blank and as she stood in the parking lot contemplating everything she was pulled out of her thoughts by a scream.

"Oh my god!"

"He's on the roof!!"

"Fuck is that Pete?"

Lily looked up and could see a figure standing on top of the school. He was moving oddly almost reluctantly and although she couldn't make out the words she could hear that he was yelling something. It felt like everything was happening in slow motion, she saw him jump, she heard Taylor and Emma scream from somewhere behind her, she saw his body land and crumple. She felt the two girls who were somehow at the center of all this rush past her, she saw Emma begin to apply first aid like it was second nature. Immobilizing the neck, attempting to staunch any bleeding and yelling for someone to call 9-11.

"I'll handle this."

With those words Taylor ran back into the school and Lily followed after her.


Lily had always though that she was in decent shape, better than decent shape actually. It was part of being a hero but even so it was a struggle keeping up with Taylor as she ran through the building. She even lost her a few times but luckily she was pretty sure she knew what the final destination of all this was and as Lily made her way on to the roof. The voices she could hear through the door proved that she was right.

As she peaked through the door she could see Taylor pacing around the roof agitatedly.

"Alright, Alvin I know you're here come on out!" She demanded.

There was a pause and suddenly Taylor's arm lashed out like she was grabbing on to something. A moment passed and Lily began to wonder if she was following a crazy person but then something happened. Above Taylor's clenched fist a translucent face appeared and beneath that a neck and a torso and all the limbs typically carried by a person.

"How, how did you know I was there?" The stranger asked.

"You really don't know do you?" Taylor chuckled humorlessly. "Fine some quick lessons for you."

She released his neck and then immediately punched him to the ground. She knelt down next to him and from where she was sitting Lily could see Taylor's eyes transform from a warm brown to a sharp amber.

"Lesson one. You my friend in case you haven't figured it out are a ghost."

The now identified ghost (and Lily would definitely be having an existential crisis about that later) laughed bitterly and with a gesture of his hand sent a bunch of rocks flying at Taylor, who managed to roll out of the way of most of them. However a single rock caught her on the cheek and cut it open.

"Not bad." Taylor smirked. "Didn't think you were that far along. Now on to Lesson Two. Ghosts aren't the only things that go bump in the night."

As she said this Taylor began to grow larger, her muscles bulged and fangs started to show through her smirk.

"Lesson Three. Ghosts aren't the scariest things to go bump in the night."

With that her body was now covered in fur, her face resembled that of a wolf but the eyes had the intelligence of a person. She was a –

"Werewolf." Whispered both the ghost of Alvin Draper and Lily, who was regretting many of her life choice that had led her to this moment.

"Good guess." Were-Taylor growled. "Werewolves are scarier than ghosts and that brings us to our final lesson. Don't fuck with a werewolf's territory."

Taylor cracked her neck flexed her claws before giving a smile that would have been reassuring if it wasn't for the fangs.

"Now I'm a live and let unlive kind of gal. So tell you what if you stop messing with people. We won't have any problems."

Alvin slowly rose back in to the air and contemplated the offer, finally he shook his head.

"I can't." He said somberly. "Someone needs to make things right. To make them pay."

Somehow the lupine face of Taylor managed to look distressed and she shook her head in refusal.

"Alvin, Its been forty years. None of the people who hurt you are here anymore, none of these people did anything to you."

Despite her reluctance Taylor crouched low almost as if getting ready to pounce.

"I've watched them." Alvin ranted as he gestured with his hands and behind him a bunch of loose rocks and brick began to levitate. "This place is the same, these people are all the same, the rich and the strong and the beautiful thrive and the rest of us rot. They all need to pay."

There was nothing more to be said and he sent the rocks and bricks flying towards Taylor who easily leaped over them. She landed on top of Alvin and jammed one of her claws into his chest.

"Whatever's after this." Taylor whispered. "I hope its better."

Then with a roar Taylor stabbed him with her second claw and in one smooth vicious motion tore the ghost in two. She remained crouched on the ground for a moment just breathing before finally standing up.

"Glad that's over with."

Taylor muttered as she walked towards the door to the school. She opened the door and was surprised to find herself face to face with Lily.

Taylor looked Lily up and down while Lily for her part tried her best to not look like a delicious steak dinner.

"Fuck."

 

[Mat92]

On a chilly January afternoon Lily found herself in an isolated location with a tall and lean teenage girl. One who it must be said was bringing up memories of numerous tv-14 rated bad girls from a number of teenage dramas she'd watched over the years. Under ordinary circumstances this wouldn't be a cause for concern… Or at least not the type of concern that had her trying to subtly grab her phone from her pocket to input the panic code.

However, these were not ordinary circumstances and as she stood across from the girl she'd seen transform into a nightmare of fangs and muscle Lily tried her best to look non-threatening.

"Look." The girl began. "I don't know what you think you saw but it's not what you -."

However, she was going to finish that sentence would remain a mystery for the ages as the door behind Lily flew open. As the pretty red head Lilly had seen around the school walked out into the ongoing confrontation, she failed to notice Lily in favor of the phone she was looking at.

"Hey Taylor the ambulance finally got here and took Pete to the hospital. They're saying he should be okay. Now did you take care of the ghost or"

In the middle of her sentence the red head finally looked up from her phone and realized that the rooftop was not quite the private location she'd assumed. Nearby Taylor put her face in her hands and groaned. Emma's eyes darted back and forth between Taylor and Lily before she let out a sigh and began the damage assessment.

"So." Emma began awkwardly. "Did she?"

"Yup." Taylor replied.

"And has she?"

"Not yet."

"That's good." Emma paused for a moment. "Have you told her anything?"

"Not yet."

Emma nodded to herself quickly and after flashing Lily a quick smile which Lily returned for lack of any other response, she trotted over to Taylor's side. Fishing briefly in her purse she pulled out a pack of cigarettes which she quickly replaced with her phone and held one out to Taylor. Without a word Taylor took it and placed it in her mouth at which point Emma held up a lighter and flipped it on.

"You dropped this on the way up."

Emma said casually as Taylor bent over slightly to light the cigarette in her mouth.

"Thanks Ems." Taylor replied as she idly puffed on her cigarette and contemplated Lily. "So, how much did you see?"

Lily blinked in confusion at being addressed and as she slowly removed her phone from her pocket decided that her best bet was to keep everybody talking.

"Well, you came up and started yelling at nothing and then you grabbed somebody invisible and started hitting him. Then there was something about ghosts and werewolves and you transformed and ripped him apart."

Taylor and Emma both closed their eyes and winced in unison. Recovering quickly Emma gave Lily her sunniest smile and began to do what she did best.

"Listen, it's Lily right?"

Emma said softly as she walked over to stand in front of her and at Lily's hesitant nod Emma quickly clasped her hands and leaned in close to her while putting on her best doe eyes.

"I know that what you saw was confusing but I promise Taylor and I can explain everything."

"Are you sure that's a good." Taylor began to interject before being silenced by Emma's fierce glare.

"Never mind. Happy to exposit."

Emma turned back to Lily and put on her charm face once more.

"Alright, good." Lily began hesitantly. "So, you're capes right? Why uh, why haven't you joined the Wards I bet they'd be happy to have you."

"No, not capes." Taylor replied as she strolled over to the two of them. "The world's a lot bigger than just capes and costumes. He was a ghost, I'm a werewolf. I didn't want him haunting the school any longer so I took care of it." She breathed out a stream of smoke and continued. "There, now I need to know are you going to tell anyone about this?"

As Lily glared at her and Emma stomped on her foot for being so undiplomatic, Taylor just stared back at them unrepentant. Realizing that would be the best she was going to get Emma let out a sigh and went back to trying to salvage this.

"While not exactly how I would put it." Emma said glaring lightly at Taylor who just smirked back. "That's basically the gist of it and." Emma paused and when she continued on her voice was chocked with emotion. "Look you really do have to keep this to yourself alright. For Taylor's sake."

"For Taylor's sake." Lily sputtered. "I just saw her kill someone. That's not something."

"He was already dead." Taylor interrupted. "Alvin Draper died the spring of 61, cause of death suicide. He was the victim of long-term bullying and it was believed that was what pushed him to take his own life. A few days before the break his spirit started to manifest and I figured it would keep until after the holidays. He'd remained dormant for decades I didn't think he would get this powerful so quickly. I was wrong and I dealt with it. He's where he should have gone fifty years ago"

"Okay, fine." Lily snapped back. "Say, I believe you. You're a werewolf, he was a ghost and you just sent him to the great beyond. Why does it have to be a secret?" I mean someone nearly died here shouldn't the cops or the Protectorate know?"

Taylor let out a disturbingly loud snarl as she clenched her fists and glared at Lily.

"I handled it."

Next to her Emma reached out and grabbed Taylor's hand and with a deep breath Taylor visibly began to calm down. After a quick squeeze of the hand Emma began to try to explain.

"I know this is nuts but it really is important that we keep this all quiet because if people found out about Taylor." Emma trailed off and looked down with a haunted look in her eyes.

"Best case scenario is I get conscripted into one of the gangs." Taylor said as she stamped out her cigarette. A pointed silence fell between the trio.

"And what's the worst case scenario?" Lily asked in a quiet voice. Taylor gave a dark chuckle and replied.

"Someone gets a Wolf skin rug."

A shrill ring cut the tension and with a curse Emma began fumbling for her phone.

"Hello."

"Shoot, yeah we're on our way."

Hanging up the phone she looked between the three of them before leaning up to whisper into Taylor's ear.

"That was Aunt Annette. We really gotta go. They're all waiting on us."

Taylor gave her a silent nod and turned to Lily with desperation in her eyes.

"We got to go. Look, we've explained everything we can, if you have any more questions, we'll answer them but please, just keep quiet about this."

Taylor put out her hand and waited for a response. Slowly Lily reached out and shook her hand.

"Deal." Lily stated.

Taylor gripped her hand tightly for a moment before letting go.

"Deal."

With that said and the pact sealed Taylor gave a quick firm nod towards Lily and headed for the door. Emma following behind gave Lily a quick wave and fleeting goodbye before the door slammed shut behind her leaving Lily alone on the rooftop. Finally, she turned to follow suit and headed down the stairs idly playing with her phone all the while.


Once more Flechette found herself making the long slow trek towards Armsmaster's office and as she made her way down the fifth nearly identical non-descript corridor, she began to mutter to herself.

"Seriously why the hell would he put his office all the way back here?" She grumbled to herself. "In New York Legend's office was right after you got off the elevator, in Chicago Myrddin was right next to Director Murphy. Nice and simple but not Armsmaster oh no, he's got to be at the end of a damn maze."

"I like the privacy." A voice said from behind her.

As she turned her head ever so slowly Flechette found herself face to beard with the Protectorate Leader. She gave him an awkward smile and a stuttering apology which he ignored as he leaned against the wall across from her and crossed his arms.

"I heard what happened at Winslow." Armsmaster said without any preamble. "Did you uncover anything?"

Lily hesitated thinking back on both the vicious power of the wolf and the vulnerability in Taylor's eyes as she implored her to keep her secret. In an instant she imagined what would happen if she told Armsmaster everything she knew. Flechette would be remembered as the hero who discovered the monsters in the dark and dragged them into the light, who led the charge against the forces of the night, and then she remembered Taylor's bitter joke about a Wolf skin rug.

"No sir." Lily replied. "There were a few rumors flying about but nothing solid I can act on."

Armsmaster contemplated her silently and for a moment Lily could swear, she could swear that he knew she was lying. Finally, mercifully he dismissed her with a nod of the head and a few parting words.

"Understandable, I suppose it was too much to hope to crack the case in one day." He gave her the quirk of the lips that served as his smile. "Just keep your ear to the ground. Now as for your first patrol you're going to be partnered with Shadow Stalker. The south sides usually fairly quiet so this should just be a nice and easy introduction to the city."

Having said all that he intended to say Armsmaster turned and walked away. After he rounded the corner there was the sound of a door opening and closing.

"So, I'll just meet her in the common room?" Flechette asked the empty hallway. "Yeah, I'll just meet her in the common room."


January 7th, 2011
The wee hours of the morning.

To Flechette's shock Shadow Stalker turned out to be a surprisingly great patrol partner. She knew the city like the back of her hand, was eager to share her knowledge and was a fantastic partner for shoot the fleeing mugger.

"And that's that."

Shadow Stalker said with satisfaction as she watched the would-be criminal fall to the ground thanks to her trusty tranq darts. With evident satisfaction in her every movement she turned on her comm device.

"Yo, Clock we got a gangbanger needing pickup. Looks like an ABB recruit. Probably an initiation."

"Got it, good work you two. Just to confirm you're on Chaney drive, right?"

"That's right." Flechette responded. "Just south of Lugosi avenue."

She looked to Shadow Stalker for confirmation and got a nod and a thumbs up as a response. There was the sound of typing from the other end of the line for about a minute before Clockblocker started speaking again.

"Perfect, I've got a patrol about fifteen minutes out from you. If you guys could just hang out until they get there and give your reports. I think we can call it a night."

"Sounds good Clock." Shadow Stalker replied as she took a seat on the rooftop. "We'll let you know when we've wrapped everything up here."

"Sounds good. I'll leave you to it. I got this training module Militia wants me to do and now's the only time I got. If there's an emergency then I'll ding ya, otherwise radio silence from now on."

"Good luck, Clockblocker." Flechette said before he clicked off.

On the edge of the roof Shadow Stalker stretched and leaned back on her arms.

"Come on pull up some roof." She said patting the spot next to her. "Might as well be comfortableish while we wait."

With a shrug Lily joined her and looked out over the city lost in thought and wondering what to say to Shadow Stalker now that work was out of the picture for a few minutes.

"So, you and that Barnes girl seemed tight." Lily's mouth said with absolutely no input from her brain.

"Emma." Sophia replied with confusion clear in her voice. "Yeah, we're buds. Why do you want me to introduce you?"

Somehow even through a full-face mask Sophia managed to give the impression that she was waggling her eyebrows. Feeling her cheeks begin to flush Lily internally cursed the fact that her costume left her face exposed.

"No, no, no." Lily stuttered waving her arms in dismissal of the frankly ludicrous notion. "Nothing like that I actually met her and that friend of hers Taylor. I just wanted to know if they were worth getting to know. Y'know."

"Uhhuh." Sophia drawled. "Like I said Emma's cool I say go for it."

"And what about Taylor?"

Lily asked in as casual a voice as she could manage. Sophia looked at her for a good thirty seconds before putting her face in her hands.

"What did you see?" Sophia mumbled into her hands.

"What do you mean?"

"Look weird shit happens around Hebert alright. Everybody knows it, nobody wants to talk about it. Now what did you see?" Sophia demanded.

"Even a man who is pure in heart, and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the moon is fully and bright."

"This ain't poetry hour at the grind house just tell me what happened!" Sophia snarled.

"Fine, fine." Lily rolled her eyes. "There'd been reports of some weird things going on at Winslow and Armsmaster wanted me to keep an eye out. At every step of the way I kept running into Taylor and Emma." She paused for a moment before continuing. "Long story short after that football player jumped Taylor ran up to the roof and I followed her. She started yelling at the air and I thought she was going nuts when she suddenly grabbed onto something and a guy came out of nowhere. Taylor said he was a ghost and that she was a Werewolf."

As the memory of that transformation and the snarling fangs ran through her mind Lily unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself.

"Her and the ghost fought and she killed it I guess." Lily shrugged and trailed off. "After all that her and Emma asked me to keep things to myself and I'm just not really sure what to do."

Sophia took off her mask and looked out into the night.

"Keep it to yourself." Seeing Lily gaping at her in confusion Sophia continued explaining. "I don't know all the details but Taylor and Emma take care of some nasty stuff and if they're saying it's best that it stays on the down low then I say we trust them."

"How can you be sure?" Lily asked.

"You aren't the only one who had a run in." Sophia smirked. "This was bout two years back, before I joined the Wards. I was patrolling and I came across the ABB attacking Emma and her Dad. I was watching what was going down and Emma was… Interesting."

"How so?"

"She wasn't scared of them, she just stared them down and it was like they were nothing to her. I took out the idiots and left before the cops arrived. A few days later I tracked Emma down and told her who I was and she and I started becoming friends." A small nostalgic smile came across Sophia's face.

"She would never shut up about this friend of hers Taylor Hebert. Always talking about books her and Taylor had read, everywhere we went she had some story about the two of them and that place. Eventually I decided that Taylor was prey and Emma needed to cut the deadweight."

"Prey?!" Lily interjected and caused Sophia to look down in embarrassment.

"I had this whole idea that the world was divided into Predator and Prey and I was a Predator." Lily gave her a decidedly unimpressed stare. "Look I was fourteen and stupid." Sophia said defensively. "Now are you going to let me finish the story?"

"Go on."

"Anyways near the end of the summer Taylor came back from some camp she was at and her and Emma were hugging and squeeing over each other. I guess I got jealous and in my infinite wisdom decided that if I beat up Taylor then Emma would be just my friend. I picked a fight and Taylor kicked my ass and Emma told me to get out."

"Wow, you were a bit of a bitch."

Slipped out of Lily's mouth. Sophia stared at her in shock before letting out a small chuckle and with a somewhat fond shake of her head she continued on.

"Pretty sure that's Taylor." Sophia snarked quickly. "Anyways I was wandering around feeling sorry for myself that night and I saw Taylor and Emma sneaking around the docks. I decided to follow them, figured I could at least get some kind of dirt on them or something. We ended up in this abandoned corner of the waterfront and Emma lit some kind of weird lamp. I remember seeing some weird fish looking people coming out and then there was singing and it all goes fuzzy."

"What happened next?"

Sophia shrugged and continued on in a whisper almost as if she was talking to herself.

"I came out of it and Taylor and Emma were standing over me saying it would all be okay. I remember thinking this was what it's like to be prey for something and they saved me." Her voice grew stronger. "I don't know exactly what happened but I know they're the good guys. If they want you to keep quiet, you should keep quiet."

The red and blue lights of the Brockton Bay PD came into view as the squad cars took a turn around and began to head towards them. Shadow Stalker put her mask back on and sprang to her feet.

"And that's quitting time."

She leapt into the night and a moment later Flechette followed after her.


January 7th, 2011
The Afternoon

As the bell rang out signalling freedom to bored adolescents all across the Brockton Bay School District Lily dashed for the door. Dodging her way around everyone else in the hallway with almost suspicious ease, she remained entirely focused on her targets. Finally, she caught sight of them standing by the exit of the school. Emma talking at a mile a minute about something and Taylor listening with a fond smile on her face as she worked on the last dregs of her cigarette. As Lily got closer she could pick up a bit of the conversation.

"So, I was thinking this weekend we could go over your Mom's notes."

Emma was saying before Taylor cut her off with a look.

"Lily, good to see you." Taylor said cautiously.

"Look, I haven't told anyone anything but I need to know what's all going on. So can we talk?"

Lily asked with just a hint of demanding. Emma and Taylor exchanged looks and through the secret best friend language consisting of eyebrow raises, slight nods, rolled eyes and flared nostrils they conferred. Eventually they deigned to switch to verbal communication so that Lily may follow along.

"Should we do it at your place?" Taylor asked.

"No, my Dad's got this party with a bunch of his contacts. The house is gonna be full."

"That's good we'll have cover no one would be able to hear us." Emma gave her a flat look. "If Mom finds out someone saw me she's going to freak."

"I get that Tay, I do. But Jake's bringing his kid. Do you really want to put up with Paul all afternoon?"

"We should do it at my place."

"Yes, we should do it at your place."

As one they turned to look at Lily who felt rather like a bug under a microscope.

"Fine, I suppose after what you saw you deserve to know the truth." Taylor said. "Come on my house is a bit of walk."

With that said Taylor began to walk off leaving Lily and Emma behind.

"She's not being rude." Emma assured Lily. "At least she's not meaning to be rude. Taylor just kind of looks at things a bit different. I really think she likes you."

Giving Lily a beaming smile Emma gestured grandly for her to go first and feeling light hearted for a moment, Lily gave her a quick bow and headed after Taylor with Emma following behind.


As they approached the Hebert household (a relatively well-maintained home in the docks with the only issue a slightly rotten second step on the porch) Lily was blessed to see a rather rare and unique sight. A nervous Taylor Hebert.

"Okay, cars not in the driveway." Taylor murmured to herself as they approached the door. "That's a good sign, watch the step, lights are off. I think we're good."

Letting out a sigh of relief Taylor slowly opened the door and stepped inside. As she turned on the light she called out.

"Hey Mom are you here?"

Taylor waited for a response and when none came, she let out a huge sigh of relief and waved the two girls in and gestured for them to sit on the couch. As Emma and Lily sat down Taylor sat down in the beat up old easy chair across from them.

"So, you have questions." Taylor stated.

"Yeah, I guess to start if Werewolves and Ghosts are real, what else is?"

"Pretty much everything as near as we can tell" Emma answered. "Sirens, fairies, vampires." Her ordinarily pleasant speaking voice turned into a growl on the last word.

"Em's you need to let that go." Taylor groaned.

"No Vampires are a bunch of jerks who lead a girl on only to break her heart." Emma snarled as she went into a rant. "You can't be with me I'm a monster. You don't tell Emma Barnes what to do Damian! My best friend is a monster for crying out loud!!!!"

Emma swiftly turned and offered Taylor an apologetic smile.

"No offence sweetie."

"It's fine hun."

With that Emma leaned back on the couch with her face in a pout. Taylor turned to Lily and mouthed the words 'long story'.

"Alright, but how do you keep all this a secret?" Lily asked. "I mean I saw you transform it's not exactly subtle."

Taylor cocked her head to the side as she contemplated the question.

"It's a lot of little things mostly." She began slowly. "To start with a lot of the more big and powerful folks left earth back around the industrial revolution. The Seelie courts, some of the nature spirits that type of thing. As for the rest there aren't a lot of us. At last count there were maybe a thousand Werewolves in the world for example. Then of course there's the onset of capes so if we're seen there's a plausible explanation people can go to before monsters are real. Add in the fact that most try to keep a low profile and we're able to be relatively safe. There are people out there who know of course but most of us try to stay away from them."

"Why stay away from people who know about you?" Lily asked. "Wouldn't they be able to help especially if you are trying to stay out of sight."

"They aren't exactly friendly." Emma replied.

"This is second hand but the way it was told to me." Taylor began. "Is that way back in the day Werewolves lived in the wild places. The places humans wouldn't go. They stayed to their towns and villages and we stayed to our woods. That didn't last though humans began to expand pushing deeper and deeper into the woods. At first, we would just fall farther back figuring that would be enough and there was still plenty to share. But the humans always wanted more."

Emma and Taylor both looked down their face solemn and Lily began to feel like something of an intruder before the story resumed.

"At some point we realized that if we wanted to keep our home we'd need to fight back and a war began. We attacked human settlements and they attacked us and it continued on for years. Lives were lost on both sides until eventually the elders of the pack realized that the humans had the advantage of numbers. Werewolves don't breed quickly but you people make rabbits look slow. For every human we killed there would be three more to take their place. It would be long and drawn out but eventually we would lose. So, the order was given that the pack was to separate. Scatter ourselves to the four winds in the hopes that smaller packs could slip through the world humans were creating without being noticed. The plan worked and Werewolves faded into legend but some of the human warriors past down the stories to their children and the hunters were formed."

"The hunters." Lily prompted for more.

"The original idea was that they would just be a protection for humans in case a Werewolf or something else tried to start a war again. When that didn't happen, I guess they got bored. They started hunting Werewolves and anything else they could find for sport." Emma explained. "They um."

Emma hesitated trying to find the right words to continue.

"They killed my Dad and left Brockton Bay thinking he was the only one." Taylor said in a robotic voice. "I was still just a pup, I couldn't even transform yet but if they ever find out I'm here they'll come back for me."

"That's why it's so important that you stay quiet about this." Emma implored Lily.

"I swear I won't tell anyone. But if it's so important that no one knows about you, why did you fight that ghost and from the sounds of it that wasn't the first time."

Taylor shrugged helplessly.

"This is my home. What else could I do?"

A somber silence fell over the group. As a loud clap rang through the room Taylor and Lily both stared at Emma in confusion.

"Alright this has just gotten depressing." Emma chirped. "Let's move onto something more fun please. Lily, do you have any questions that won't bum us all out?"

"Sure, I guess." Lily replied. "Do you have to transform on the night of the full moon?"

"That's a bit of an exaggeration."

A mature woman's voice said from behind them and as Emma and Lily turned around a look of horror came across Taylor's face.

"Their power is tied to the moon so when it's full they get amped up so to speak and it becomes harder to stay human but it's not forced upon them." The lady continued before fixing her eyes on Taylor. "Now why don't you introduce me to your friend sweetie and tell me why she's hearing all of this."

"Well, uh Mom." Taylor stuttered. "This is Lily and do you remember that spectre we told you about?"

Annette nodded and motioned for Taylor to continue.

"Over the break it became a full-fledged ghost and it was targeting Pete. We couldn't track it down before it convinced him to jump from the roof."

"Oh no." Annette gasped covering her mouth in horror.

"Yeah, I went up to the roof and could still smell the ghost there. We fought and well Lily saw us."

"I'm not going to tell anyone." Lily said quickly. "I just wanted to know all of what was going on. That's all."

"She swore Mom." Taylor said gravely.

Annette nodded in acceptance of this but there was a small frown on her face.

"I see. I have some work to do in my office I'll leave you girls to it."

With those words she headed up the stairs leaving the three of them alone.

"So that was your Mom?"

Taylor and Emma both nodded.

"I get why you were nervous about this."

"It's not anything personal." Taylor said. "After what happened with Dad she's just a little protective."

"I get it." Lily replied. "So, on a less awkward topic I get why you do all this Taylor but how did you get caught up in the craziness Emma?"

Emma let out a dramatic sigh and walked over to be next to Taylor where upon draping herself over her long-suffering friend she began her tale.

"Once, I was but a perfectly normal girl." Taylor let out a snort of disbelief and after taking a moment to glare at her best friend Emma continued. "I was once a girl who was at least 85% normal but then I made friends with Taylor. For the first few years there was nothing that would indicate there was anything strange about her but on one fateful day everything changed."

Taylor cupped her hands to her mouth.

"Get on with it!"

"Fine at the request of the plebians in the crowd I won't bother with any flourishes or stylistic descriptions of the story."

"We thank you." Taylor and Lily said simultaneously.

"Jerks." Emma muttered before continuing on. "Three years ago, I started doing modelling on the side and on one of my shoots things just kept going wrong. The lights would break, clothes would go missing and when they were found they'd be shredded. Just a lot of weird, weird shit happening all at once. One day I was telling this one about it and Taylor insisted on coming with me the next day."

"You really should have suspected something was up when that happened." Taylor said idly.

"Yeah, but I was just oh so excited that my best friend was finally taking an interest in what I was doing." Emma swooned while batting her eyes. "Anyways while they were getting their shots of me, I saw Taylor slipping away. After it was all finished, I tried to track her down. At some point I could hear some weird sounds from behind one of the doors. When I opened the door, I found Taylor surrounded by a bunch of fairies."

"Pixies." Taylor corrected her.

"What's the difference?" Emma asked.

"Look on the scale Pixies are way down here." Taylor said as she leaned over and put her hand on the floor. "While Faeries are way up somewhere round the attic."

"Fine, fine you were surrounded by Pixies." Emma said while rolling her eyes. "I still don't see what the big deal is."

"The big deal is that if one of the Fae hears you say that they are going to get offended." Taylor fumed. "And they are going to come here and I'm the one who's going to have to fight them and I really don't want to do that."

"Fine, fine. If any of the Fae are listening I sincerely and humbly apologize." Emma intoned.

"Thank you."

"Can I finish my story now?"

"Go on."

"Much appreciated."

Lily was raptly watching this back and forth and found herself wishing that she'd brought a score card.

"Anyways like I was saying I found Taylor surrounded by Pixies." Emma gave a pointed look at Taylor who just smirked back. "I panicked thinking it was some kind of weird cape or something and charged in yelling at them to leave Taylor alone. That was when I realized that she'd turned and was beating up the Pixies."

"It Wasn't tough." Taylor said. "The hardest part was tracking down the little jerks."

"I'm sure." Emma replied. "Anyways Taylor told me pretty much what we told you and I've been tagging along on these capers ever since."

"Capers." Taylor raised an eyebrow. "What are you a thirties detective?"

"Unlike some people I have sophistication." Emma sniffed before turning to Lily with a grin. "So any more questions?"

"Just one." Lily replied. "Can I help?"

"What do you mean?" Taylor sputtered.

"I mean I figure that Ghost isn't going to be the only weird thing that happens. Heck you two pretty much said that and so when the next spook shows up. I want to help deal with it."

Once more Emma and Taylor began to silently confer with each other but this time Lily tried to follow along. Taylor wrinkling her nose either meant research or she was disagreeing with a red card being issued, Emma raising an eyebrow mean she'd agreed with whatever Taylor's pursed lips meant. At some point Lily gave up and just hoped that continued exposure would lead to fluency. Finally, the two turned back to Lily.

"You're in." They said simultaneously.

"Don't see that we got much of a choice." Taylor snarked before letting out a grunt as Emma elbowed her in the ribs.

"That's nice." Annette's voice said from the stairs. "I just love to see you making new friends Taylor, but it's getting late and I think it's time that Lily went home."

"Of course, Mrs. Hebert." Lily said as she got up from the couch. "I should really get going to make my bus."

"Oh, there's no need for that I'd be happy to give you a lift." Annette replied airily. "I'm sure these two can entertain themselves for a little while."

"Really there's no need-"

Lily stopped speaking when Annette gave her the glare all mothers instinctively know and gave the only appropriate response.

"Yes ma'am. Thank you very much ma'am."


The two had driven most of the way in a silently tense silence save for Lily's occasional direction. This tentative peace was broken about four blocks away from their final destination when Annette pulled over to the side of the road.

"Now Lily I think we should have a little chat."

"Okay, what did you want to talk about?" Lily asked nervously.

"I'm human." Annette began. "Just like you and when I found out my Danny was something else I did what any self-respecting academic would do, I started studying everything I could. I learned about the history of the Werewolves, their customs and culture, their myths and legends. It's sad really, we've reduced them to nothing more than beasts in our minds but they have a society as rich as ours."

"That's fascinating but what's it got to do with me?"

"I'm getting to that." Annette snapped. "One of the things I noticed is that they were more uniform in personality than humans tend to be. Oh, they are still all individuals, Taylor is very different than Danny was but there are certain constants. I think it's a result of them being products of magic. But I digress. Wolves are proud, honorable and forthright. You'll never find a truer friend or a more dedicated enemy but no matter which you are they'll always be honest about their intention. They'll meet you fang to fang and claw to claw as Danny liked to say."

Annette paused for a moment to wipe away a stray tear before continuing on.

"They can be cunning in a fight but subterfuge, lying, intentional deception from someone who claims to be a friend. That's not something they can conceive of easily." She looked Lily dead in the eyes.

"That's how the Hunters got Danny, they'd never be able to take him in a straight fight and so they lied. One of them infiltrated the faculty at Brockton Bay University and became my friend and eventually Danny's friend. He claimed to be an anthropologist studying myths of Werewolves throughout the world and eventually he wormed his way into our trust and Danny told him what he was. The two of them went off into the woods alone together so Danny could show him everything and it was a trap. There was a fight and thankfully Danny was able to kill the bastard who sold us out so none of them knew about Taylor or myself. It seemed he had enough decency at least to not want to murder a child."

"That's horrible." Lily gasped.

"Yes, it was." Annette replied. "We humans always were good at being cruel and conniving but now we come to my point. I trusted someone with the knowledge of who the people I loved are and it left me with a dead husband I couldn't bury and a little girl asking why Daddy couldn't read to her anymore." Her face went completely cold. "Taylor and Emma trust you and I'm willing to take their lead on that for the time being. However, if I suspect even for a moment, that you are a threat to those girls… Well like I said humans are very, very good at being cruel and conniving. Do you understand me?"

Lily nodded her head and Annette gave her a brilliant smile.

"Wonderful now let's get you home."

Quote

 

[Mat92]

January 10,
Far, Far, Far too early

As Lily sat in the cold, dim office room that had been put aside for the Wards weekly briefing she pondered numerous questions of various import. The three most pressing of which were in this order. Where is Armsmaster? Who the hell decided this meeting should be held so damn early when they were all in school and as a follow up could she maim them without being caught? The last of which wasn't directly relevant to what was happening but Lily felt it still deserved investigation, are Tieflings real? Later to her disappointment Taylor would inform her that as far as she knew they were merely the invention of very lonely designers of Tabletop RPGS.

It was only when she was contemplating just storming out and taking the hit to her reputation that the door opened. Surprisingly as she turned her eyes to where she expected to see the helmeted head of the Protectorate's illustrious leader, she found nothing but air. She looked down and further down still until finally she saw a short though very broad figure. This figure arched an eyebrow at her and offered a surprisingly friendly and pretty grin.

"Flechette?" The unnamed lady said.

"We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Armsmaster's executive assistant, you can just call me Arrin." With that said she turned to look at the room as a whole and her voice took on a more authoritative tone. "Sadly, Armsmaster is preoccupied today so I'll be taking over the briefing."

At the far end of the room Shadow Stalker leaned in to whisper something to Vista.

"Working on a new toy?"

Vista elbowed Shadow Stalker in the side and tried to supress her giggles while Arrin carried on as if nothing had happened.

"As the head of the East North East division, he has many responsibilities which he must see too. For the moment this one has been delegated to me. Now if I may continue."

Her steely tone and slightly disapproving frown caused everyone to turn their attention to her and sit just a little straighter in their seat.

"Thank you, now truth be told there's not much to say so let's just get through this quick, shall we?"

She produced a small clicker from somewhere and a map of Brockton Bay was projected onto the wall across from Lily. With another click two sections in the east end were highlighted.

"To start we've noticed an increase in Empire activity in sections 7 and 8. The cause for this seems to be the actions of a new arrival on the scene. One Rachel Lindt alias Hellhound."

A picture of a rather thuggish looking girl surrounded by large and monstrous looking dogs replaced the map of the city.

"It would appear that she has decided to settle in Brockton Bay for the time being and has taken exception to Hookwolf's dogfighting rings."

"What are her powers?" Vista interjected (Lily suppressed a smile at her young coworkers attempt to deepen her voice probably to sound more professional).

"Good question Vista. The long and the short of it is that she can enhance canines to make them more vicious and seems to be able to assert some control over them. They are your only physical threat. If you can get past them to her, she's just your garden variety teenage girl. At the moment you are cleared to engage her if she is alone although I strongly recommend you wait for back up."

Sophia had raised her hand at some point and having come to a natural halt in her speech Arrin gave her a small smile and gestured for her to speak.

"What's our goal with her? Are we trying to bring her in or take her down?"

Arrin seemed to contemplate the question for a moment, almost nodding to herself as she worked through it before answering Sophia's question.

"Officially Hellhound has been designated a villain." She began. "However there have been some questions raised about how her case was handled initially. If it's at all possible please attempt a diplomatic resolution to this. I, that is to say Armsmaster would very much like to speak with her. Still if she gets violent you are of course free to defend yourselves. Our first priority is you all getting home safe."

There were nods around the room and seeing that there didn't appear to be any follow up questions Arrin continued on.

"A more detailed briefing and dossier on Hellhound is going to be sent to your emails within the hour. Now to continue the standard Empire engagement protocols are in place and I'm sure we all remember what those are." Arrin gave a pointed look to Vista who gave a sheepish grin and shrug. With a mildly fond eyeroll Arrin carried on. "Hang back, call for back up, do not engage on your own. Understand." The entire room nodded their understanding and she carried on.

"Look guys." She sighed. "I don't want to run a refresher training session on threat assessment and engagement protocols and you don't want to sit through one. Just don't be stupid out there. Now for our last new piece of business a few nights ago Shadow Stalker and Flechette brought in an ABB member who was just going through his initiation. He confirmed in interrogation that they are doing an aggressive recruitment campaign so keep your eyes open on patrol and keep your ears to the ground. Any new information well be passed along to you as it is discovered. Now let's go over the duty roster for the next two weeks."

For the remainder of the hour the meeting dissolved into background noise with Lily only coming out of her stupor when her name was mentioned it seemed that for the next few days, she'd be undergoing training and onboarding procedures every day after school. Starting the following Monday she would be working the console).


Some time later Lily found herself in the passenger seat of Sophia's truck being driven to Winslow. Turning her gaze from the window she offered Sophia a small smile and tried to break the silence.

"Thanks for the lift. I wasn't looking forward to figuring out the bus schedule from here."

At the steering wheel Sophia gave a casual shrug as she signalled left and immediately started turning the wheel.

"No worries, we were headed the same place anyways." Sophia paused for the moment and began to drum her fingers on the wheel. "So, what happened with you and Hebert?"

"We talked." Lily said slowly. "I think we're good for now."

"Cool, cool. Does she know about uhh the after school job?" Sophia asked.

Lily shook her head.

"No, not yet. It's kind of a big thing, right? I mean it's not just me it could put Sam and Ethan's identities at risk too."

"How do you figure that?"

"I mean a new ward transfers into town and gets placed with a foster family. It's not too much of a leap to they must be connected with the Protectorate and Assault and Battery aren't shy about the flirting soooo."

"I guess." Sophia said with a bit of a chuckle to her words. "Still neither of them are stupid, it's probably going to come out eventually. Especially if you're on team weird."

"You're probably right." Lily nodded. "I just need a bit of time is all. I never really had to tell anyone before. Everyone I knew was either PRT, Wards or in the Protectorate." An awkward silence fell over the cab of the truck as Sophia looked her over with something dangerously close to sympathy in her eyes.

"So, what's the deal with that Arrin person?" Lily asked in a desperately cheery tone. "Even if Armsmaster couldn't do the briefing I would have figured Miss Militia would handle it."

Sophia grabbed onto the offered subject change with both hands and Lily felt a sudden burst of affection for her colleague.

"There's some tension between Armsmaster and Militia, none of us really know how it started but outside of sometimes giving her field command on a big operation he really doesn't give her much to do."

"Any guesses why?" Lily asked.

"I overheard him talking to about it once." Sophia replied. "I was meeting with him about my… recruitment into the Wards and I must've got there early. I just heard him grousing about how she would do exactly what he told her. No more, no less and he couldn't be directing her all the time. But I don't know if that's how Militia would explain it so." Sophia shrugged and continued driving.

"Alright, so Armsmaster and Miss Militia don't really work together but what's the deal with this Arrin?"

"She's been Armsy's assistant for years." Sophia explained. "At least since he was with the strike teams and he's seriously reliant on her. Stay on her good side, trust me on this. If she's got an issue with you that's all Armsmaster needs to hear."

"He trusts her that much."

"He lets her help him work on his tech."

"Wow."


Lily rushed through the hallways of Winslow High School ducking around jocks, weaving through nerds and slipping through cheerleaders (at a respectful distance) to make her way to her first period. As she slid into a seat behind Taylor mere seconds before the bell rang and noticed that the teacher hadn't arrived yet, she breathed a sigh of relief. From her customary seat next to Taylor Emma turned around and gave Lily a playful grin.

"You didn't need to rush here. It's the tenth."

"And what does that mean?" Lily snarked and finally having finally deigned to take notice of the conversation Taylor cocked her head to the side in confusion. Having gained the audience that she was looking for, Emma puffed herself up and prepared to bestow her wisdom on these poor lost souls.

"You see, on this very day one year ago a certain Mr. Jason Issacs served divorce papers to one Mrs. Penelope Issacs, maiden name Ducharme who happens to be an English teacher at Winslow high school. Who in fact should be coming through that door in." Emma looked at an imaginary watch on her wrist and began counting down. "5, 4, 3, 2,"

The door flung open and a haggard woman stormed in and slammed herself down behind the large oak desk at the front of the room. She took her sunglasses off of her face and looked around the room with bloodshot eyes.

"Aright, the first unit is going to be on Shakespeare and I think it's best to start things off easily." She said doing a rather remarkable job at keeping her voice steady and in control. "So, we're going to watch an adaptation of one of his plays to get us started. Now I just need a volunteer to go get a tv from the AV room."

She paused and looked around the room to see if there were any eager hands raised from students who desperately wanted to help out teacher. There were none and so with a subtle scoff and roll of the eyes she scanned the room.

"You new girl." She said pointing at Lily. "Go get them for us and then we can watch the Scottish play."

"Sure, no problem." Lily said in surprise. "If you could just tell me."

But there was no response as the teacher put her face down on the desk and proceeded to ignore everything that was happening around her.

"Come on." Taylor whispered as she stood up. "I'll show you where it is."


As soon as they were outside the classroom Taylor looked left and right and upon seeing the hallway was devoid of people breathed a sigh of relief. She immediately reached into her pocket and pulled out her ever-present carton of cigarettes and proceeded to light one up in full defiance of the laws of God and the board of education. With a small smile on her face, she turned and offered one to Lily who silently declined. As they began on their epic quest Lily remembered a question she'd forgotten to ask when she was over at Taylor's place.

"So why all the smoking?" Taylor just cocked her side in confusion and Lily tried to explain. "I mean I know they're addictive and all but most of the smokers I know could at least wait for lunch."

As they walked down the hallway Taylor mulled over the question.

"It's the smell." Taylor said suddenly.

"Excuse me?"

"The smell, they help with the smell." Taylor explained. "It's hard to understand if you're not part of the pack but I'm not a human who becomes a wolf and I'm not a wolf who becomes a human. I'm both and I'm neither, so, the senses they don't fully go away when I'm like this." She gestured down at herself. "Not much gets away from this nose and there's a lot of stink in a city. These help me filter out the scents, it keeps it bearable."

"This place smells that bad huh?" Lily asked for lack of anything better to say.

"Oh, you have no idea." Taylor sighed. "This Christmas I was able to get out of the city and it was freaking magical."

"Hey, hold up. Stay right there, girls." A whiny impotent voice which was desperately trying to sound authoritative.

"Shit."

Taylor growled as she flicked her cigarette to the ground and quickly stomped it out. As soon as that was done, she pivoted around (keeping her foot covering the cigarette) and glared at the oncoming man. Lily in confusion followed suit and watched as a man who clearly hadn't realized that his middle age was closer to him than his high school days approached them.

"Mr. Gladly, good to see you." Taylor drawled and met his glare with indifference.

"Now, Taylor." He began putting as much authority into his voice as he could muster. "You know there is no smoking here."

"I'm aware." Taylor replied. "Why are we standing here talking about things we already know?"

"Ms. Ducharme asked us to go get a tv for the class." Lily interjected in the hopes of bringing this all to an end.

"Taylor, I saw smoke coming from you."

Taylor shrugged.

"It's cold my breath must have been steaming."

"You expect me to believe that." Gladly asked incredulously. "Do you really think I'm that stupid?"

"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers too." Taylor replied "Look if you want to give me detention or something just do it. I'm sure my mother would love to talk about all of this with you at the parent teachers conference when I let her know."

"Your, your mother?" Gladly stammered before clearing his throat. "No, no I'm sure there's no need for that. We'll just call this a friendly warning, shall we?"

With that he offered a pained smile to the two girls and turned to walk (not run) away.

"What did your mom do to him?" Lily asked in awe.

"I don't know and I don't wanna know." Taylor replied. "Come on it's just a few doors down."

A few moments later they had nabbed a tv that was only semi ancient and a VCR which looked like it should still be functional and were on their way.

"Hey does this feel light to you?"

Taylor shook her head as she continued pulling the cart.

"Feels 'bout the same as ever. Now c'mon let's get this over with. I want to tell mom how much the bard gets butchered in this.


The two rolled the cart into the classroom and were given a hero's welcome, or at least a few people gave them a half-hearted smirk or a wave.

"Good, you're back. What was the hold up?" Ducharme asked as she stood up from her desk and headed over with the video.

"Gladly wanted a word." Taylor grunted as she and Lily maneuvered the cart into its proper position. Once they were successful the two headed back to their seats. "The guy's on a power trip."

"So, what really happened with Gladly?" Emma whispered as the two of them sat back down.

"He saw Taylor smoking." Lily whispered back.

"Yeah, he was getting all geared up to give me a detention but soon as I mentioned that Mom would want to talk to him about that, he backed down."

"Your Mom is the woman I want to be." Emma said only half joking.

Taylor was chuckling and about to respond when she heard something from the front of the room.

"What in the world???"

Taylor perked up in her seat and called out to the front of the room.

"Ms. Ducharme is everything okay?"

"Yes, yes." Ms. Ducharme said as she crouched down in front of the VCR. "Just a little technical difficulty. I just need to get a look." She paused for a moment. "Girls did you check if it was in working order when you picked it up?"

Lily and Taylor looked at each other in confusion.

"No ma'am we just grabbed one and left." Lily replied. "Is something wrong with it?"

"Yes. It's gone." Ducharme responded absentmindedly.

Taylor exchanged a look with Emma and Lily and headed towards the front of the classroom.

"What do you mean it was all right there?"

Taylor asked as she crouched next to her teacher and peered into the VHS slot. To her amazement when she looked inside it was empty, the little bits of metal and technology weren't there.

"It's like someone stripped it." She muttered to herself. "Maybe someone should go grab another one?"

"Yes, yes of course." Ducharme nodded. "Madison would you and let's see Emma go get us another one. I'll need to go see Principal Blackwell and let her know what's going on." With that said she headed out into the hallway and was shortly followed by Emma and a short blonde girl. Finally with a shrug Taylor headed back to her seat.

"Do you have any idea what's going on?" Lily whispered.

Taylor shook her head.

"No clue, maybe someone just stripped it for a prank let's just wait and see what happens."

Despite her calm voice and reasonable suggestions Lily could see Taylor flexing her hands and aggressively tapping her foot. For some reason she was reminded of Shadow Stalker in those moments just before they would spring an ambush on some unsuspecting thug.

At the front of the classroom the door opened suddenly and Emma and Madison barged in. Emma immediately made a beeline for Taylor while Madison stood at the front of the room looking around in confusion.

"It's every one of them." Emma hissed.

"Wait what?" Lily began before yet more people came through the door.

"Ah Madison, were you able to find one that would work?" Ms. Blackwell asked from next to Ms. Ducharme.

"No, Ma'am we looked but all of the VCR'S were empty." Madison said sounding completely and utterly baffled.

"We picked up some of the TV's and they felt light too." Emma said from her seat.

"I see." Blackwell said. "And Ms. Hebert you and Lily were the first ones to discover this correct?"

"Yes." Taylor said slowly as she wondered where Blackwell was going with this.

"And you didn't see anyone who might have done this?"

"No." Lily replied. "What are you getting at?"

"Nothing, just trying to get my head around the order of events. Now when the AV room was locked last night everything was in working order and now after you two were alone with them this has happened." Blackwell shook her head in a frankly insulting attempt at feigning sympathy. "I'm sorry girls but as it stands it doesn't look good for you."

Almost as one a number of voices rang out through the room.

"I really don't think that's fair." Ms. Ducharme began.

"So, what in five minutes I did all of this!" Taylor scoffed.

"I can get a lawyer here so fast!" Emma seethed.

"Let's just calm down." Lily implored.

"I just want to watch a movie!!!!" Numerous voices exclaimed.

"ENOUGH!!!!!" Blackwell screamed and the room fell silent.

Principal Blackwell kept her gaze firmly on Taylor's who met her with a glare of her own and a slight baring of the teeth.

"Now clearly, we don't know exactly what happened here." Blackwell began. "But school property was vandalized and the culprit." Here she intensified her glare at Taylor. "Well, be identified and punished appropriately. Good day to you all."

There was silence through the class that was only broken by Ducharme clearing her throat.

"I suppose our movie day has to be postponed." She began. "So, if everyone could just take out their copies of Macbeth we'll start from the top and we can watch the movie another time."

As the class all busied themselves with either pulling out their course work or preparing a suitable napping place. Taylor took the opportunity to whisper a plan to her friends.

"Meet me at lunch. We need to figure out who did this before Blackwell pins it on me."

 

[Mat92]

As Lily left her third period class with thoughts of algebraic equations swirling round her head, she found herself walking straight into a rather solid mass of steel in the shape of a teenage girl. Strong hands wrapped around her biceps and held her steady before she fell and as she looked up into the concerned eyes of one Taylor Hebert, she tried to suppress a blush… Judging from the muffled chuckles coming from a nearby red head she failed at this self-appointed task. Taylor quickly looked her over and offered a small grin.

"You alright there Lil's?" Taylor asked with a grin.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Lily nodded as she belatedly realized that Taylor was still holding and extricated herself. "What's the plan?"

Almost as one the three of them began to move on down the hallway taking care to keep their voices low all the while. As they headed towards the AV room Emma began to speak.

"First things first we're going to take a look at the scene of the crime." Emma said seriously (Taylor rolled her eyes and shook her head with a fond smile). "We'll see what we can find out there. With a bit luck we can find whatever did this and wrap it all up before Blackwell can be even more of a bitch."

With that explanation given the three arrived at their destination and after a quick glance around to see if anyone was watching the three entered the glorified closet. As soon as they got inside Taylor dropped to the floor and bracing herself on her hands she began to sniff. After a few moments without a word Lily crouched down next to her.

"Find anything?"

Taylor frowned and didn't look up at Lily.

"Lot of scents here." She said distractedly. "It's hard to shift through, you, me, Madison's perfume and all the people who come by here. Just give me a minute."

Taylor turned her attention back to the floor and Lily realized the conversation was over. She stood up and walked over next to Emma. As she leaned back against the wall she began almost without realizing it to tap her foot agitatedly.

"Just give her time." Emma said from out of nowhere. Lily turned to her and cocked her head to the side in confusion. "Taylor, just give her a minute she'll find something."

"I've got it." Taylor cried as she jumped to her feet.

"You know what did it?" Emma asked eagerly. Taylor shook her head quickly.

"No but I got a scent and it's not human. Let's go."

Without another word Taylor dashed out of the room like a shot with Lily and Emma right behind her.

"Not human." Emma panted. "Anything more specific."

"No, never smelt anything like it before." Taylor replied clearly not having any trouble breathing.

"But we're sure whatever it is, it's responsible?" Lily asked sounding somewhere in between Emma's tortured breathing and Taylor's infuriating refusal to sound even slightly winded.

"Playing the odds." Taylor replied as she turned to head up the stairs to the third floor. "We've got something weird going on and there's something I don't recognize. I figure it's best to check it out."

Taylor banked left and a moment later Lily and Emma followed suit. They continued down the hallway finally coming to a stop at a room at the very end.

"Knott's room?" Emma muttered to the group.

"Makes as much sense as anything else." Lily replied. "If they stripped a VCR why not strip a computer?"

Taylor didn't say a word before she opened the door and stepped inside the classroom. She began to sniff the air.

"It's faint." Taylor said. "Whatever's doing this I don't think they're here anymore."

Feeling depressingly certain that she knew what was going to happen, Lily walked up to a computer she selected at random and tried to turn it on. Nothing happened. She moved onto the computer next to it and was again unsuccessful. From the corner of her eyes she could see Taylor and Emma doing the same in the other rows to similar results.

"Taylor, you got anything?" Emma asked.

"No." Taylor snarled. "It's even harder to get a scent here than it was downstairs. Too many people coming and going. If only I had some more time."

The bell rang and with that their time was up.

"Shit." Emma groaned. "Okay, let's just get to class and we'll figure something out later."

"Let's swing by the office." Taylor declared. "I want to see if I can hear what Blackwell's doing."

With that they had the illusion of a plan and headed off to put it into action.


As they walked down the first-floor hallway towards the administration office, Taylor could hear Blackwell perfectly and a concerned look came over her face. As they drew closer both Emma and Lily could hear what was being said as well.

"I don't care what you define as an emergency officer." Blackwell seethed as the three of them put their ears to the door. "I have been getting the runaround from you all FUCKING morning. Now school property has been vandalized and stolen. Are you going to come down here and investigate it or not."

There was silence as all three girls looked at each other in horror and waited to hear the next part of the one-sided conversation.

"Fine, first thing tomorrow morning." Blackwell grunted. "I hope you know I'll be making a formal complaint about your behavior today. What is your badge number?"

With that the three of them quickly made their exit and made for a quiet out of the way corner. Once in the case of Winslow high was located by the library. Very few members of the student body would be coming by there.

"Okay." Taylor sighed. "We've got till tomorrow morning to sort this out and we can't afford to give Blackwell any more ammunition so we have to be in class. Any ideas?"

Emma looked at the ground and frowned in contemplation while Lily bit her lip and ran an idea through her mind.

"Maybe we should just let the cops come." Lily said hesitantly and as the two others looked at her in confusion she hurried to explain. "I mean it's impossible for you to have done it right? So the cops are going to come on by and not find anything and they'll put it on the back burner. No harm done"

Taylor and Emma were both shaking their heads in disagreement.

"It's not a bad idea Lily." Emma explained. "Except we were looking around the room afterwards. They might be able to find fingerprints or something right? And that's not going to look good for us."

"Plus, this is all electronics and stuff that's been taken." Taylor said. "That's one of the signs of a tinker I think."

"It is." Lily said absently. "I mean that's what I read on PHO." She hastened to explain.

"Bingo." Taylor replied pointing a finger gun at Lily. "If they put two and two together and come up with that the Protectorate might come nosing around and I'd really prefer to avoid that."

Lily desperately hoped that her poker face was still as good as it used to be and tried to ignore the intruding thought that Jouster still owed her fifty bucks… She could deal with that later.

"So, we've got to sort this out by tomorrow morning." Lily said thoughtfully as she looked up and started going over the angles in her head. "We can't just stay after cause someone will notice us. Does anyone know what time the school should be cleared out?"

"The janitor's lock up at 6:30." Emma replied. "They're the last ones here."

"How do you know that?" Taylor asked.

"Oh you remember Jason?"

"Tall guy, blonde, you dated him for five minutes."

"That's the one. His uncle's a janitor here and it just kind of came up in conversation one time. I'd forgotten my purse and he was able to -."

"Hem-Hem." Lily cleared her throat and once Taylor and Emma looked suitably contrite, she continued. "So, I think our best play is for us to go home like normal and then we can meet back here at… Let's say seven that should give us a window for everyone to have cleared out and after that we find this thing and we can go from there."

"Alright but how are we getting in?" Emma asked.

"I could bust the doors down." Taylor replied with a shrug. "Might cause us troubles down the line though."

"Would you two excuse me?" Lily asked as she pushed herself off the wall she'd been leaning on and began to walk away.

As Lily sauntered down the hallway, she kept her eye on her target. Making sure that she was in just the right position so when the jock who'd been playing pass the football with his buddy fumbled his catch and stumbled backwards, she just happened to be in his way. As he toppled into her and sent her falling forward Lily wrapped her arms around the startled janitor in a (seemingly) desperate attempt to stay standing.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry." Lily simpered as she made no attempt to get back on her feet.

"It's fine miss." The janitor stuttered as Lily's nimble fingers worked their way to the key ring in his back pocket.

"I'm not normally this clumsy." Lily continued as with a deft touch she removed the keys she'd been looking for with no one the wiser She quickly pulled herself from his grasp and pasted on her best innocent girl smile.

"Thanks so very much. You have a nice day."

With that she turned and headed back to her friends.

"You too." A voice called after her and was ignored as Lily made her way back to her two waiting friends. Emma arched an eyebrow and offered a smirk as she approached.

"So, what was that about?"

As an answer Lily reached in to the pocket of her jeans and after a quick look around to make sure no one was watching showed them a key.

"Is that?"

"Yup." Lily nodded. "Entrance to the main door and the skeleton keys for the classrooms."

A wild grin came across Taylor's face and she quickly pulled Lily into a hard hug.

"You are fantastic." She whispered into Lily's ear before pulling back. Off to the side Emma watched all this happen with an amused smile on her face. A smile which grew bigger along with the blush on Lily's face.

"So, seven right?" Emma brought everyone back on track. "I can get here no problem, I'll just say I'm out and Dad won't ask any questions. How about you Taylor?"

"Mom's working on a new book. She'll be researching until midnight probably. No worries." Taylor replied before turning to Lily. "Are you going to be able to make it?"

"I'll need to make up some excuse for my folks." Lily replied. "But I'll come up with something. So, it's settled, we meet back here at seven."

With those words the plan was set and the trio split off on their separate ways until the appointed hour came.


Five P.M rolled around and found Lily lying in bed with her blankets all wrapped around her as she prepared for the performance of her life. As a quick experiment she gave a few coughs and practiced making her voice sound kind of whispery and wavering. As the heavy thump of footsteps came closer and closer to her room, she prayed to any god that would listen that she was up to the task before her. A shaggy head of brown hair and a mischievous grin entered the room.

"Hey kid, you ready to head out-." Ethan paused as he registered the sight before him and fully entered the room to sit on the side of her bed. "You feeling alright?"

Lily weakly shook her head and let out a few coughs hoping that she managed to hit the right levels of pathetic.

"No, I don't know what it is I just started feeling awful around lunch and by the time I got home." She coughed some more and let out a small whine. "I just wanted to get in bed."

She looked at Ethan with the biggest eyes she could muster and judging by the concerned frown he wore it was working.

"Do you want me to stay home?" He asked as he leaned in to feel her forehead. "You aren't warm but… that's pretty much the end of my doctoring."

Lily shook her head.

"No, no I should be fine, I'm just gonna hang out in bed." She blindly groped behind her and pulled out a thick book from the shelf built into her headboard. "If I went in, I'd just be reviewing the manual. I figure that I can do that just as well here."

Ethan's face was relaxing as she spoke and Lily pressed the advantage while he was wavering.

"And if it's not okay I've got the sick time built up." Lily decided it was worth a few more coughs. "Excuse me, I've got the sick time so either way."

Ethan stood up from where he was sitting and given in to some surprising parental instincts pulled the covers up around Lily.

"You don't worry about a thing." He said as he made her comfy. "I'll clear it all up with Arrin and Armsmaster. You just rest up and hopefully it's nothing more than a twenty-four hour bug."

Lily nodded as she snuggled into the blankets and gave him a thumbs up. Just as Ethan was about to leave Ethan paused at the door.

"You have mine and Sam's phone numbers, right?" He waited for her to nod before continuing. "Good if you need anything don't hesitate to call alright. Battery and Assault are manning the console so one of us can beg off if we have to."

Lily nodded and as he finally left the room, she tried to ignore both a twinge of guilt for lying to him and a warm feeling at how he'd responded to the lie.


Two hours later Lily was pacing back and forth at the front of Winslow High School with her only company being the amused gaze of one Emma Barnes.

"I can't believe this." Lily muttered. "Where is she?"

"Hey I told you Taylor is always late." Emma shrugged. "Just give it a few minutes and she'll be here."

The sound of running footsteps was coming closer and Emma looked past Lily to take in a sight that put a smile on her face.

"And speak of the wolf." Emma snarked. "We've been waiting Tay."

Lily turned around ready to give Taylor a piece of her mind when her mind ground to a halt at the sight of what Taylor was wearing. In complete defiance of the cold January evening Taylor was clad only in a pair of sweatpants and a tanktop which exposed some surprisingly defined arms. Something that Lily was noticing in a purely platonic fashion of course.

"Sorry, sorry." Taylor rambled. "The bazaar finally got the work done on these." Here she gestured at her outfit. "And I had to swing by to pick them up and it took a bit longer than I thought it would."

"It's fine Taylor." Emma grinned. "We're just teasing right Lils." She elbowed Lily who picked up on her cue.

"Exactly it's not a big deal." Lily said as if she hadn't been grumbling about it for the last fifteen minutes. "Why couldn't this wait though?"

"You'll see." Taylor replied with a mysterious smile on her lips. "Let's get this done."

With that said the three of them entered the school and as they stood in the front entrance Taylor began idly sniffing the air.

"Think I got them." Taylor said. "In the cafeteria, let's move."

As Taylor walked away Lily got to see the transformation happen once more and this time, she was expecting it. The most surprising thing that Lily noted about it was how fluid the shift was. Years of late night monster movies had conditioned her to expect a violent, sudden transformation as a human being becomes what it was never meant to be. But this was like watching water change shape as you moved it to a different container and Lily thought she understood what Taylor had meant by her being both the wolf and a human. In one step she was twice the size she had been before. In another her muscles expanded and her limbs changed shape. With a third step fur came into place on her body and the tank top she had been wearing faded away while the sweatpants grew with her.

"So that's why you had to get the clothes." Lily murmured and as Taylor turned to look at her with a grin full of razor sharp fangs, she tried not to shudder.

"Yeah, pretty neat right?" A disconcertingly friendly voice came out of the beast's mouth. "Getting the spells on these cost a lot but totally worth it. Right Em's?"

"I guess." Emma said as the trio walked down the final hallway towards their destination. "I just don't understand why you couldn't get it done on something more fashionable."

Taylor's only response was a roll of her eyes and a slight cocking of her head.

"Do you two hear that?"

Lily and Emma were both about to shake their heads no but there was something just on the edge of their hearing. It sounded like cheering. They hesitated at the large cafeteria doors for a moment before Taylor flung them open and all three of their jaws fell wide open.

The tables in the cafeteria had been arranged in a circle to form a crude ring and in the center of that ring were two robots one red and one blue, that were repeatedly punching each other. Directly behind the robots were two tiny green humanoids roughly six inches tall were working some kind of controller and about a half dozen more of their ilk were watching the fight unfold.

"Gremlins." Emma muttered. "I read about them in one of Aunt Annette's books. They're scavengers, they collect scrap from people and repurpose it into their own creations. I always figured it would be like swords or something."

Sadly, it appeared that Emma's voice carried more than she thought it did and the two competitors turned around and took notice of the three of them. The fight grinded to a halt and silence filled the room until a voice called out.

"GET THE INTRUDERS."

The two robots charged towards them with Taylor running to meet them. A number of the gremlins hopped into what appeared at first glance to be toy spaceships that took off flying towards Emma and Lily. With a yelp they both ducked down as a full size bowling ball was fired from the tiny guns of one of the ships right where their heads had been.

"Lily." Emma murmured in a daze. "What happened to my physics?"

"We'll figure it out later. Come on."

The two of them bolted out the door and as they closed the door behind them, they could hear the sounds of something small and very fast hitting it. This was followed by the oddly comforting sound of Taylor's roar.


The Hallways of Winslow High School

As they ran down the hallway Lily let out a soft curse as some red and hot just barely missed her.

"Now they have lasers." She grumbled as her and Emma continued to dash down the hall trying to find something they could use to defend themselves.

"It could be worse." Emma panted. "Imagine if they had a shrink ray."

Lily let out a bit of a laugh at that thought.

"Not sure I'd notice a difference." She chuckled as they ran. "Two up ahead, let's take a left."

The two of them did and in the momentary shelter of a stairway they began to make a plan.

"Alright you know the school better than I do. What's near here, is there anywhere we could find something we could use as a weapon?"

Emma considered the question for a moment before snapping her fingers as she came to a revelation.

"The gym just two hallways down." Emma said excitedly. "If we get there, we can get bats, rackets, whatever. I figure with how much bigger we are that should be enough to turn things around."

"Sounds good." Lily said as she looked warily down the halls. "It looks like the coast is clear let's book it."

"I hope Taylor's doing alright." Emma said under her breath as she got ready to make a run for it.


Winslow Cafeteria

As the two pronged needles plunged into her skin and the electricity coursed through her body Taylor roared in pain and with eyes full of rage glared at her two opponents. Sadly, as she was writhing on the ground the promise of her wrath did not seem particularly intimidating to the two pint sized mechanists. With a snarl Taylor finally managed to pull the taser from her chest, breaking the circuit and ending the pain. With a mighty pull on the line the robot that had been tasing her was pulled towards her.

As soon as the red menace was finally within reach Taylor grabbed it around what would have been the throat on a living creature. Then with ease she lifted it high into the air and slammed it back into the ground. She was about to finish the job when she was struck by two fast moving projectiles. Rearing back in pain Taylor glared at the blue robot as it approached her. One of its arms had changed into a cannon and it was firing bowling balls at her similar to the flying machine that had chased her friends from the room. She managed to dodge the next two shots and the third she caught.

With a smirk that shouldn't have been possible on a lupine mouth she reared back and returned fire. The ball hit the robot square in the head and knocked it clean off. Not missing a beat Taylor turned and tackled the red robot where it had been struggling to get back up. Moving quickly she put her sharp claws and powerful muscles to use as she worked on ripping the thing apart.

"That's enough. We surrender."

A tiny voice cried out and Taylor turned to see one of the gremlins cautiously approaching her. As he drew nearer Taylor got the chance to actually get a good look at the creature. As said before it was small and green skinned with long arms and very thin dexterous fingers compared to the rest of its size. The large blue eyes that took up most of its face were wide and fearful as it approached with its hands held up in the universal symbol for "I come in peace, please don't hurt me oh mighty fanged one."

"I don't know why you wanted to attack us." He said as he approached. "But we are deeply sorry for however we have offended you."

Taylor let out a disbelieving laugh.

"You attacked us and now you want to play the poor defenceless innocent?" Taylor scoffed. "Nice try but I'm not buying it."

"I admit we may have acted hastily." The creature said slowly as he felt out every word trying to find the best thing to say. "But you must admit a werewolf barging into one's home is rather shocking. We were frightened."

"I guess I can see that." Taylor said hesitantly. "Look I'll tell you what, if you just call off the people who are after my friends we can start over and talk this out."

"Of course, of course." The gremlin replied as he reached into a pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a miniature walkie talkie. "Flyder, come in Flyder. This is Tavi do you read me?"

"Yeah, I hear you boss." A hesitant voice came through the walkie talkie. "Just a little busy at the moment."

"I understand, release the prisoners and come on back. It seems like this was all a misunderstanding."

There was a pause for almost a minute before Flyder finally responded.

"I'd love to do that sir but I can't."

"And why not." The now named Tavi fumed.

"Because they're the prisoners." Emma's voice rang through the walkie talkie loud and clear. "You all right Taylor?"

Taylor now back in her human form walked over and leaned in a bit closer to Tavi and the communication device.

"I'm good Emma. Same deal applies just let them go and come on back. This is all a big misunderstanding."

"If you say so." Emma replied. "You missed a heck of a show by the way."


The Winslow high school gym. Approximately 10 minutes previously.

With a mighty swing of her bat Emma Barnes sent one of the Gremlin ships careening through the air and crashing to the ground. As she turned around though more were coming and she was left to desperately dodge around oncoming projectiles.

"I could use some help over here." She gasped out before ducking as a ship flew by her head.

"Bit busy myself." Lily panted from where she stood surrounded by ships. With a slightly muffled yelp she rolled away from a laser that was aimed at her and came up to her feet to destroy the ship with one swing of her bat.

"We can't keep taking them out one at a time." Lily panted as she darted her eyes around looking for anything she could use. Finally, she spotted it in the coach's office. A bag filled with the bane of every teenagers existence.

"Keep them off of me." Lily whispered before making a run for the office.

"Wait what?!" Emma demanded but it was too late, Lily was already gone and Emma was left to swing wildly at every ship around in an attempt to defend herself.

Lily returned to the battlefield a mere minute later, although for Emma it had felt like an eternity, armed with a single dodgeball. Taking a moment to assess the situation Lily let the ball fly and Emma was witness to something amazing. The ball ricocheted around the room, never slowing down and hitting every single ship and sending it crashing to the ground. In mere seconds it was over.

"How did you do that?" Emma gasped and Lily gave a shrug.

"I just have a good arm I guess."

Emma didn't get a chance to respond because she overheard one of the Gremlins talking and things progressed from there.


"So, you see." Taylor was explaining as the three of them and the Gremlins sat in the circle that had previously served as the arena. "People are noticing the stuff you're taking and if people come looking it's only a matter of time until they find you."

Tavi who seemed to have stepped forward to serve as a combination leader and spokesperson for his people frowned in contemplation.

"That is concerning." He said gravely. "We've avoided taking from new equipment because humans always seem to get angry about that." He sounded genuinely confused about why anyone would be angry at his people for repurposing technology. "We settled here because everything was so old, we didn't think anyone would notice. No harm was meant."

"That's the public school system for you." Emma snarked. "Twenty years ago is cutting edge."

"I understand your concerns." Tavi said as he ignored Emma's insightful commentary. "But where else can my people go? We need to be able to build and create. It's what we are. Where can we go that we wouldn't be noticed."

Taylor looked up at the ceiling and ran the problem through her mind. Somewhere hidden but with access to technology that the Gremlins could tinker and toy with without alerting anyone.

"There's a scrapyard." Taylor said slowly. "Out on the edge of town, they handle pretty much all the electronics for the city, plus the usual cars and appliances all of that stuff. There's a ton of space, you could build homes for all of you and hardly anyone goes there except to drop stuff off so it'd be easy for you guys to stay out of sight. Does that sound good to you?"

Tavi nodded hesitantly before replying.

"It does sound promising." He said slowly. "However, I would need to see it first. If it is acceptable though I do believe we have a deal."

"There is one other thing." Lily interjected. "The stuff you took from the VCR's could you put them back in one piece? Our Principal is trying to pin it on Taylor."

"Easily done." Tavi replied. "It would appear they were substandard parts anyway." He glared at one of the damaged robots as he said this. "Flyder and Hacken, you two are in charge of that. Taylor would you be so kind as to show me our new home?"

"Of Course." Taylor replied as she shifted into her werewolf form and offered Tavi a place on her hand. "We'll be back shortly. You guys just sit tight."


The next morning.

As Taylor walked down the hall, she spotted Emma and Lily standing near the AV room where all of this had started listening intently to what was going on inside. They both frantically gestured for Taylor to come over and as she approached, she could overhear the most delightful conversation.

"Principal Blackwell." A tired and yet still authoritative voice grumbled. "We have checked every single piece of equipment and it is all in perfect working order. Do not waste the Police's time again. Good day to you."

With that the door swung open and a uniformed officer stepped out and paused to offer the three girls a polite smile and nod of the head before leaving. Blackwell exited after him and the look she shot the three was decidedly less friendly before she stalked off back to her office. As soon as she was out of earshot the three of them burst into laughter. Sadly, the moment of mirth was ended by the sound of the bell.

"I've got to go." Lily said as she adjusted her backpack. "I've got art first thing. I'll see you guys at lunch."

"See you then." Taylor replied and with that Lily left with a quick grin and a wave for the two of them. Emma waited until Lily was out of earshot before grabbing Taylor by the arm.

"Something's up with Lily." Emma whispered urgently.

"What do you mean? Is she okay?" Taylor asked in confusion.

"She's fine but look last night when we were dealing with those Gremlins in the gym. She took them all out with a single dodgeball."

"Okay, that's cool and all but I don't see why we should be concerned about that."

"I don't know if we need to be concerned." Emma said. "But Taylor that ball bounced all over the room like twenty times and it didn't slow down one bit. Physics doesn't work like that. There's something she's not telling us."

Taylor looked uncomfortable and hesitated before responding.

"Are you sure?"

Emma nodded her head resolutely and Taylor took a deep breath.

"Lily says she's our friend and I trust her." Taylor began and held her hand up to keep Emma from butting in. "Let me finish. If you're saying she's not telling us everything than I believe you but if she hadn't seen me transform, I wouldn't have told her about me being… Well you know." Taylor shrugged. "We've all got secrets Em's. How about we give her a chance to trust us with them before we call an inquisition."

"Fine." Emma said sullenly. "I'm still keeping an eye on her though. I don't like not knowing what's going on."

"I know."

---

Next time on Bad Moon Rising:

Emma comes running up to Lily and Taylor who are just relaxing on the steps outside of the school.

Emma: Emergency, emergency I need you to save me.

Lily: Why what's going on?

Emma: My dad's throwing this big gala thing and I have to be there. It's going to be so boring. You need to come.

(Emma is giving the puppy eyes).

Taylor: Fine... Do I have to wear a dress?

Scene cut to the party Taylor's hanging out by the food, Emma's schmoozing with her Dad and Lily is staring at a girl her age walking in. Lily and the girl bump into each other. They exchange small talk and then the girls date interrupts by dragging her away.

Scene cut to Lily and the girl in a classroom.

Lily: It's not right how he treats you!

The girl looks away sadly.

Scene cut Lily is on the boardwalk looking out over the water. She looks sad but there's a small smile on her face. Emma and Taylor come up behind her and both put an arm around her.

Taylor: You did the right thing.

 

[pailRomantic]

This is really fun! I love a good AU and Lily has been a great protagonist to experience everything through.

 

[Mat92]

This is really fun! I love a good AU and Lily has been a great protagonist to experience everything through.

Click to shrink...

Glad you're enjoying it. This is a blast to write

 

[Mat92]

The long awaited return (trust me I hate myself more than you do)
We're gonna keep to the two part format for these just cause when I tried to include everything all at once the investigation and confrontation ended up feeling kind of rushed/abrupt (and I want to put something out after being sick all damn week) so here's the plan. I am going out to lunch with family shortly and after that I am going to bang out the second part and knowing my luck it'll go up sometime around midnight where I am.

---

It has been said in the ancient texts that at one time Winslow High School had been a fairly decent school. The test scores were at least within the average for the state and the school was well kept and clean. There are few remaining who remember those days and yet some relics of this glorious past still remain.

On the lawn behind the school were a trio of picnic tables under a still rather pretty tree. True the paints were fading and it could be hard to get to them when they weren't being turned to some illicit purposes but if you managed this feat, they were still a pleasant place to spend some time with your closest friends. It was here that Flechette would face her most fearsome foe.

Lily stared her opponent dead in the eyes and contemplated her next move, her enemy was calm and collected with their face giving nothing away. If there was any information to be gleaned from the cold, hungry eyes across from her Lily wasn't going to be the one to get it. She was at a disadvantage but she was never one to back down from a challenge.

"Do you have any fours?"

Across the table from her Taylor allowed her mask to slip just long enough to let a smug smirk slip though before she shook her head.

"No, go fish."

As she pulled another two cards from the deck to add to her already overflowing hand Lily grumbled some rather choice words which she'd picked up from a foster father bout three homes back, a rather salty PRT lifer.

"My, my such language." Taylor tutted with mock disapproval. "Best not let Blackwell hear you, she already thinks me and Emma are bad influences." Lily raised a middle finger and didn't look away from her cards.

"Alright, alright fine. Do you have any sixes?"

Wide-eyed with astonishment Lily handed over three sixes to Taylor who placed them in front of her along with one from her hand and let out a low hum of satisfaction. It was the hum that finally broke Lily.

"Ok, how did you do that!?"

Taylor's only response to Lily's eminently reasonable demand was to tilt her head in confusion. Once she had successfully managed to resist the urge to give her friend head pats Lily continued to demand answers and quite possibly justice.

"You get a card from me on literally every turn." Lily fumed. "How are you doing that?? Are you cheating, is this some kind of." She fumbled around for a word. "Wolfy nonsense."

"You have a tell." Taylor shrugged.

"I have a tell?"

"Yuh-huh."

"I have a tell." Lily repeated slowly. "I have a tell in go fish."

"It's a very distinctive tell."

Before Lily could demand any further explanation and perhaps demand lessons in how to properly play the apparently deceptively challenging game of go fish the two were interrupted by a well dressed tornado. Emma ran up to them and immediately collapsed next to Taylor with her face falling on the table.

"Help me." Emma whined.

"Oh, for crying out loud." Taylor muttered before grabbing the back of Emma's shirt and pulling her up to a proper sitting position. "Please, please, please tell me you didn't try to haggle the jorogumo sisters down again."

"No, no, no this is something different." Emma said cheerfully seeming to forget whatever the impending tragedy and or calamity was. "Besides I still maintain I did nothing wrong. I merely wanted to negotiate for the best price I could."

"Emma, you threatened to step on every spider you saw if they didn't give the silk to you for pennies. Literal pennies."

Having been witness to a fair number of these arguments in the past few days Lily acted quickly to cut it off before it could really get started. Leaning across the picnic table she snapped her fingers in front of her two friends faces to bring them back to work.

"So, what's the emergency Emma?" Taylor asked.

"It's my Dad." Emma explained. "Every year he throws this big party for all his coworkers and their clients and their rich brats and he's making me go this year. She shuddered in horror and grabbed by her shirt and pulled her in close. "I can't put up with these people for a whole night. They are so god damn boring."

Emma broke down in tears and burrowed her head into Taylor's neck. Almost instinctively Taylor wrapped one arm around Emma in a loose hug while her other hand began to rub her back soothingly. Slowly Emma's sobs began to recede and she pulled out of the hug and looked at both Lily and Taylor with vulnerable and imploring eyes that begged for someone, anyone to save her from this fate. Moving without thinking Lily reached across the table and took Emma's hand in hers, simultaneously Taylor rolled her eyes

"Alright, what do you need from us?" Lily asked.

"It's nothing much." Emma replied. "I just need you two to come and keep me company… Maybe keep me from dumping a glass of punch on the head of some frat boy dickhead. Beyond that just you know have fun"

"I can do one of those things." Lily said as she nodded her head firmly.

"I'll take it." Emma cheered before turning to Taylor. "What about you Taytay, my best friend, my compadre, my sister from another –"

"I don't have to wear a dress do I." Taylor said and you best believe she made damn sure that her demand did not come across as a question.

"Just wear something other than a hoodie." Emma beamed. "You two are awesome, it's on Saturday, six o'clock. Don't be late."

Without waiting for a response Emma dashed off to most likely rack up a rather hefty charge on her dad's credit card to make sure he suffers for subjecting her to this. Taylor and Lily stared at the empty space where a red head once sat in confusion and frustration.

"We just got played, didn't we?" Lily idly asked.

"You just got played." Taylor chuckled. "I was always going to go. Mom and me got our invitation a week ago, I just wanted to watch Emma beg a bit."

"Huh, well done." Lily gave a little golf clap. "Still, this could be fun right?"

Taylor burst out into round and raucous laughter.

"No, no it won't." Taylor chortled as she came down.

"I see." Lily murmured. "By the way Jorogumo?"

"Spider ladies." Taylor explained. "Big spider ladies. Emma's got a bit of a thing for silk and they make some really nice dresses."

"I see… Emma's going to get us into a fight with them, isn't she?"

"Most likely."

"Problem for future Lily." Lily stated as she pushed herself up from the table. "I gotta run and next time we're playing a real game and I'm taking you down."

"Whatever you say Lil's, whatever you say."


That night found Lily slumped over at the console in full costume as she monitored the Ward patrol through the upper west side. Moving only somewhat lethargically she flipped on the microphone.

"Keep your eyes open. We've had reports of a number of carjackings in the area. Intel says it might be some of the merchants getting parts for Squealer. Best to stop them before they get to her.

"Roger that." The crisp voice of Aegis said into her ear piece. "Win and I are ready for anything."

"If you –" Lily cut herself off with a large yawn. "If you say so."

"Hey keep your head up." Kid Win said cheerfully. "I know working the console is boring but you're finished all the onboarding. Armsmaster said you should be on the regular patrol roster next week."

"When did he say that?" Aegis asked. "This is the first time I heard about that."

"Shit." Win cursed. "I shouldn't have said that. He's planning to tell you that at the after patrol debrief. Just act surpised… Please." He finished off in a small voice.

"Sure, thing Kid." Lily laughed. "But how did you find out anyways?"

"Oh since we're both Tinkers Armsmaster and I meet at least once a week." Win explained. "He goes over what I'm working on and offers some notes, sometimes I get to help him with something he's doing. We just kind of pick each other's brains but this week I didn't have anything to show him so we just sort of talked about work and he mentioned that you were done."

Kid Win was cut off by the faint sound of a car engine roaring by.

"That's our carjacker." Aegis cried. "Talk later console, let's move."

The communication cut off after that and Lily quickly hit the alert that the Ward's were engaged in active pursuit before leaning back in her chair to await the result.

"Good night so far?" A measured voice asked from behind her.

Lily jerked up from her seat and turned around to face Armsmaster. It just wasn't natural for a man in one hundred pounds of power armour to move that silently.

"Yes sir." Flechette replied. "Aegis and Win are in pursuit of that carjacker up on the westside." A light on the console switched from yellow to green. "And it looks like they got him."

"Good to hear." Armsmaster stated. "Please pass on my congratulations when you speak to them. I just came by to inform you that starting Monday you'll be on the active patrol roster."

"That's great." Lily said as she officially acknowledged the capture performed by Win and Aegis. Turning back to Armsmaster she met his narrowed gaze.

"You already knew." He stated flatly.

"What no, I just figured it was about time."

"No harm done." He interrupted her. "I'll still need to have a talk about information security with Win." He nodded sharply to himself and turned to leave.

"Keep up the good work." He said without looking back. "Oh, and your request to be off the standby list this weekend has been approved."

"Thank you, sir."

Lily called out to the back of her superior officer who didn't respond and so Lily turned back to her work and wondered what would come this weekend.


Lily waited in the lobby of the Brockton Grand Hotel and tried to look like she belonged. It was a surprisingly upscale hotel catering primarily to cape tourists, out of towners who wanted to come and gawk at all the superpowered folks causing a ruckus throughout the city, or at least that's what the brochure she was reading said (in slightly nicer words). Lily looked around the room for Taylor or Emma and once more tried to adjust her heels so they'd be comfortable (she was finally average height but at what cost) when she was interrupted by a cheerful voice.

"Hey Lily."

Emma was waving as she walked over accompanied by Taylor and Mrs. Hebert and as Lily took stock of what the three were wearing, she prayed that her eyes would stay in their sockets. Mrs. Hebert had decided to stick with the tried-and-true little black dress and as the roving eyes of every man and most women she passed proved, she could still pull it off.

Emma had decided to opt for a slinky red dress that while Lily hadn't met Mr. Barnes yet she felt fairly confident in assuming he did not approve of. Judging by the smirk on Emma's lips she was fully aware of that fact and was most likely counting on it.

Finally, there was Taylor who had decided to take advantage of the fact that Emma had not specifically said she needed to wear a dress and was clad in a suit which was nicely fitted to her lithely muscled body. Lily looked down at the old blue dress she'd bought for some school dance at some point and started to feel just a tad self-conscious.

"You look great." Emma said as she gave Lily a quick hug. "Dad wants me to go meet some people with him so I gotta go. I'll see you all in there."

With that she strutted off and left the three of them standing there and it was at that moment Lily's brain decided to remind the rest of her that the last time she spoke with Mrs. Hebert it ended with thinly veiled death threats. So, with that cheerful thought looming in her mind she turned to look at the mother and daughter due to find both looking at her with considering frowns on their faces. After a moment Taylor nodded to herself and turned to her mom.

"I think we should bring her in."

"Alright if you say so." Annette murmured before looking back to Lily. "If you don't mind me saying you look a little out of sorts dear."

Lily rubbed the back of her neck and nodded her head with a sheepish grin.

"Yeah, this isn't exactly my type of crowd. Not really sure what to do to be honest."

"It's the same for Taylor and I." Annette whispered as she wrapped an arm around Lily and Taylor to bring them both into an impromptu huddle. "So, Lily do you want to know our game plan?"

"Yes." Lily said with only the slightest hesitation.

"We are going to eat all his food, I am going to drink all his booze and we are going to be our full unabashed selves to all the rich jackasses here and we are going to make Alan Barnes regret ever inviting us." Annette stated with a disturbing amount of malevolent glee. "So do you want in?"

Lily looked around at the well dressed and well to do and was torn on what to do. Thankfully the decision was made for her when a rather rotund gentlemen with a frankly ludicrous moustache and sideburns combination tossed his coat to Taylor and without even looking at her walked off with a casual instruction to "check it for him, that's a good girl." Taylor dropped the coat to the floor and proceeded to stomp on it.

Lily turned to Taylor and Annette with a mischievous grin on her face.

"I'm in."


For the first hour and change of the party the plan had been working perfectly. Taylor and Lily had done some serious damage to the buffet table and while Lily had needed to tap out after the 150th shrimp cocktail, Taylor had moved on to the fondue and was still going strong. While this meant the plan was still working it did leave Lily left to her own devices and so she wandered the edges of the party looking for what else to do.

"And frankly you my dear dumbass are a hack. For the good of literature, I implore you to never write again. You, sad pathetic excuse for a Heinlein impersonator!!!!"

Annette's voice roared out as she loomed over a rather small, fidgety sort of man. Some author that used Mr. Barnes's law firm for his contracts or copyright Lily guessed based on the rant Annette was giving and took a break from to give Lily a quick wink. So, things were evidently going well there. Still as Lily continued to do her loop around the party she was beginning to wonder if it wasn't time to make her escape when she bumped into someone and a glass of something spilled on her.

"Oh my, I am so sorry."

"It's fine, it's fine." Lily said. "Don't worry about it." She trailed off as she looked at the bluest eyes she'd even seen and noticed that the face they were attached to was rather attractive as well.

"I really am sorry." The stranger said. "I don't have anything to clean this with but is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

"Well, how about your name?" Lily replied (and mentally high fived herself for her smoothness, take that Jouster who's the disaster Lesbian now!).

"Niamh." The girl said giving her a shy smile. "And what's your name?"

It turned out that Jouster was right and she was in fact a disaster because in the face of this perfectly reasonable everyday question she faltered. She was completely incapable of remembering her own name due to this beautiful stranger. In an attempt to regain her charm and social skills she subtly pinched herself on her thigh. It was at this point the stranger began to look concerned.

"Are you oka-"

"Lily." The now blushing superheroine blurted out. "My name's Lily. It's really nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Niamh beamed.

With the basic niceties exchanged the social skills of both girls had reached their limit and Lily frantically tried to think of something, anything she could say to keep the conversation going.

"So, do you come here often?"

Internally Lily cringed at using the most cliché of clichéd pick up lines when Niamh gave a sweet laugh.

"No, no this isn't really my kind of place." She said through the laughter. A laugh that didn't quite match her eyes. There was not a sadness exactly but a kind of wistfulness in them.

"Me neither. I'm kind of friends with Emma." She pointed out her acquaintance to Niamh and the two watched Emma effortlessly charm a few members of the great and good. "She invited us to keep her company… And then promptly ditched us."

"I'm in the same boat." Niamh paused for a minute. "Wait us, I thought you were alone."

"I just decided to take a bit of a break from the others. Taylor should be over by the buffet still."

The two quickly looked around and sure enough Taylor was still at the fondue section. They both burst out laughing when a foolish knave attempted to approach and was scared off by Taylor quite literally snarling at him.

"Taylor's tayloring properly and her mom should be around here -."

Lily was cut off by the sound of yelling and when she turned to look for the source she found Annette Hebert, a respected professor of literature punching a man in the throat.

"I'm guessing that's the last member of your little coterie." Niamh giggled as Lily put her face in her hands and groaned (Nearby Emma steepled her fingers in front of her face and reveled at another scheme working perfectly).

"Yes, yes she is." Lily grumbled. "Gonna need to deal with that later."

"Nim." A loud and frankly obnoxious voice yelled out as some pretty boy charged at the two of them and grabbed Niamh's arm to pull her away.

"Hey, we were talking!" Lily seethed as she grabbed onto the interloper. He looked her up and down.

"I'm sure nothing you say is worth my dear Nim's time." He sneered.

"It's Niamh." Her interjection was ignored by everyone but Lily.

"Come along Nim. We're done here" The stranger said as he let go of her arm and strutted away.

"Alright Gary." Niamh answered in a soft voice as she scurried after him. After a few dozen steps she stopped and turned to give Lily a furtive wave goodbye. Lily returned the wave and narrowed her eyes.

"Alright Lily time to go." Taylor's voice said as someone put an arm around her shoulder and began to lead her out.

"Lousy chauvinistic jackass." Annette seethed from the other side of Lily. "Firm hand around the house my ass!"

With that Lily was brought back down to planet earth.

"Wait what happened there?" Lily asked as the three of them reached the exit.

"That." Annette paused as she tried to find a word that would perfectly reflect the amount of loathing and disdain that she was feeling. "Lawyer had the audacity to tell me that I was raising my kid wrong. Apparently, Taylor needs a stern fatherly hand to teach her proper decorum." Annette spat on the ground. "Decorum's bullshit. Remember that Lily it's a bunch of lies made up by a bunch of rich pricks."

Before anything else could be said a red blur came out of nowhere and jumped onto Taylor's back. With the ease of long practice Taylor immediately braced her hands under the legs of her neck (and rather fetching) backpack.

"That was perfect!!!" Emma cheered. "Dad's never going to make me go to another one of these things again."

"Happy to help kiddo." Annette laughed. "Let me guess you want to sleep over?"

"Please and thank you." Emma replied sweetly. "Might be best to give Daddy some space."

The quartet paused as they could hear the sound of Alan Barnes cursing up a storm.

"Pretty sure he picked that one up from Danny." Annette mused. "Anyways Lily do you want to stay over as well. We've got one more air mattress."

"No thanks Ms. Hebert." Lily shook her head. "I'll just give my folks a call and head home."

"Are you sure I'd be happy to drive you."

The memories of the last time she was alone in a car with Annette Hebert ran through her mind and Lily semi frantically shook her head no.

"Well, if you're sure."

Annette shrugged and began to walk the rest of the way to her car with Taylor who was still carrying Emma following suit after a quick goodbye.

"Alright, good food, got to hang out with Taylor a little bit, aid and abet some teenage rebellion and met a cute girl. All good things." Lily muttered to herself as she pulled out her phone and began dialing Samantha's number. "Cute girl has a dick of a boyfriend. Not so good. Calling this night, a 7 out of 10."

As the phone was ringing Lily idly looked around here and caught sight of Niamh and her boyfriend having a seemingly intense conversation behind some trees in the hotel's garden. Ending her call Lily crept closer and hid behind a tree where she could see and hear the two of them.

"Nothing happened Gary." Niamh growled. "I'm keeping my end of the deal."

"You'd best if you ever want this back." Gary showed Niamh something and although Lily couldn't see what it was from her vantage point, she could see the naked want and desperation in Niamh's eyes. "You keep being my arm candy, making me look good and I'll give this back to you. When I feel like it." He sneered in a monstrously cruel voice.

"Bastard." Niamh spat out.

"Sticks and stones etcetera, etcetera." Gary laughed. "Now come along. We've things to do and places to be." The two headed off and thankfully in a direction away from Lily.

"Well, I'm going to need to look into that." Lily swore to herself.

---

Damsel in Distress spotted, saviour mode activate

 

[Fallout5368]

"You'd best if you ever want this back." Gary showed Niamh something and although Lily couldn't see what it was from her vantage point, she could see the naked want and desperation in Niamh's eyes. "You keep being my arm candy, making me look good and I'll give this back to you. When I feel like it." He sneered in a monstrously cruel voice.

Click to shrink...

So I'm going to guess this girl is an animal that can turn into a human. Likely a Selkie(Seal) considering that this is a port town in the Northern part of the US.

 

[ares20]

So I'm going to guess this girl is an animal that can turn into a human. Likely a Selkie(Seal) considering that this is a port town in the Northern part of the US.

Click to shrink...

Yea, I am thinking Selkie, or Swan Maiden.

 

[RavenWolffe77]

Wow! I just found this fic and I'm having a blast!

It's extremely rare to have a Were!Taylor fic, but this is on a whole 'nother level. I really hope you keep this fic going, because AFAIK it's the only one of its kind that isn't long dead.

Most definitely looking forward to reading more!

 

[W00KY]

Yea, I am thinking Selkie, or Swan Maiden.

Click to shrink...

Nice call! My immediate thoughts went to kitsune and their "hoshi no tama". Interesting how many shapeshifters in legend need a special item to use their abilities and are helpless without them..

Though beyond "very blue eyes" and quite pretty to Lily we do not have much of a description.