Goddamn Teenagers (Worm, AU/time travel)

[dc2008]

Rachel watched warily as Lisa approached, accompanied by the woman from the PRT.

"Hi, Rachel!" Lisa called, with a toothy grin. "How's your new business empire?"

Rachel bristled, bit before she could respond, the woman out a hard on Lisa's arm. "Lisa," the woman said firmly.

Lisa, thankfully, shut the fuck up.

The woman pointed to a chair on the porch. "Sit. Stay."

Lisa glowered at the woman, but obeyed. Without complaint. This was new.

The woman slowly approached, stopping close enough to be heard but not too close. She smiled with no teeth and something about the woman's posture made Rachel relax.

"Are the dogs OK?"

Rachel nodded.

"Enough food, water, other things?"

Rachel nodded again.

"Do you need anything."

Rachel shook her head.

"Like I said before, we want to pay you to train rescue dogs. For us, getting trained dogs is very, very hard. Much harder than getting trained humans. We absolutely don't want the dogs to fight."

Rachel shifted. That didn't make sense to her, dogs were much easier than people. But PRT were cops and cops were stupid.

"No fucking around," Rachel eventually replied. "And your people treat the dogs right."

"Can you help us learn? You are better with dogs than us."

"No funny business and no assholes."

"We can send out people for you to meet. You tell us which ones can learn."

Rachel considered, the nodded.

"We also want to get you someone to help with people stuff you don't want to deal with. You can pick who you like."

Rachel nodded slowly. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Still she had to know.

"Why. Why be so nice."

The woman looked thoughtful. "Back home I have a friend. You remind me of her."

Rachel shrugged. Whatever. She didn't trust the woman yet but the woman was much easier to talk to than most people. And worst case she could always take her pack and run.

 

[dc2008]

Thomas poured himself a badly needed drink. He didn't bother to split the timeline.

Since that fateful visit, he had enjoyed more success in the Bay than ever. Being able to recruit parahuman support from among his trained, trusted, disciplined contingent of mercenaries had resulted in significant gains. The results were substantially greater than any he had ever obtained when attempting to assemble useful teams from the usual bands of parahuman misfits and lunatics.

Yes, his withdrawal from the PRT had limited his direct insight into the PRT, however Cauldron had continued to provide insight into local operations. Combined with his parahuman power and his remaining spies, his overall view of PRT operations had actually increased. This was only assisted by Piggot's recent reprioritization of resources, even as it placed the Empire under ever-increasing pressure.

However, Cauldron insights could be a double-edged sword. Like this latest tidbit, helpfully tucked into a Hallmark valentine's card, slid under his front door.

He glanced back down at the deeply disturbing message:

"Armsmaster supervises, in Brockton Bay, a detection suite that is among the world's most sophisticated, esoteric, and eccentric. Following the debut of Clockblocker, special attention was directed toward any indicators of potential temporal anomalies.

"When analyzed with readings obtained from and around parahumans whose powers are suspected or known to have temporal elements, Armsmaster and Dragon concluded with substantial certainty that during the past several annual periods Brockton Bay has been entirely free of anomalous temporal readings.

"These measurement periods do overlap significantly with your own periods of activity within the region.

"We have recently obtained information suggesting that in some instances powers may simulate temporal effects through a combination of precognitive and master effects."

He set down his now-empty glass. Christ. Some things I really would rather not know.

---

Notes:

As usual, multiple things are happening.

First, this is a display of dominance. This is information is presented in a way that makes it look trivial for Cauldron to obtain, but would be impossible for Coil to get. Moreover, Coil cannot verify this information, emphasizing his subservience. Yet further, even though Coil can't verify the data, he can't afford to disregard the possibility.

Second, and related, this is a warning. Coil was undoubtedly entertaining some thoughts of getting clever with Cauldron. Do they know? Could they know? It's the equivalent of a parent occasionally giving a teenager a very significant look for no reason. The parent doesn't actually know what the teen did, but the teen doesn't know that.

Third, it will generally make Coil more cautious and less likely to do overly clever stuff.

Fourth, Taylor does simply enjoy fucking with the man.

 

[dc2008]

"Hi Dinah, how was your what are you wearing!?"

"Camouflage! I have a couple sets if I ever have to go to the bad part of town, so I fit in and don't look like an easy target! We also practiced how to walk!"

"Honey, why is that a thing you feel you need to be practice?"

Dinah shrugged. "Dr. Weaver seemed to think it was a good idea? Or maybe it was a trick? In exchange we taught Aisha about dressing and acting more respectable. I don't know, it was fun to hang out though."

 

[dc2008]

Lisa fumed on the drive back to town. "I can't believe you dragged me out here! You clearly didn't need me to talk to Rachel, you did that fine! And when I tried to help you told me sit down and shut up!"

"Have you ever had a dog?"

"No?" Lisa sounded confused.

"I have."

Lisa made a sort of inarticulate growl. "Setting aside you literally telling me I need to speak dog to talk to Rachel, which, oh my God I don't even, that doesn't explain why you had me sit there silently for an hour!"

Taylor shrugged. "I didn't want to come empty-handed, so I gave her a gift no one else could."

Lisa put her head in her hands. "I hate you."

 

[dc2008]

"Hey, kiddo, how was your thing?"

Taylor looked up from her seat at the kitchen table, unamused. "I'm not twelve anymore, please don't call me that."

Her father laughed. "But really, how was brunch?"

"Good."Taylor looked pensive. "It was good. It's like I have friends again. Or acquaintances. People I enjoy spending time with. Whatever. It helps that other!me has vetted them all for the empowerment group thing."

Her father smiled. "I'm really glad to hear that. Tell me about them over dinner?

Taylor gave a small smile. "Only if you tell me about the new used car Kurt and Lacey picked out today."

 

[dc2008]

Brian walked into the lobby of his building and stopped dead. Standing right there wasAlec, wearing pajamas and those stupid slippers of his. He was… collecting a pizza from a delivery woman?

Seeing Brian, he waved. "Yo."

"Alec, what are you doing here?!"

"Fucking your mom."

"What!? No, goddamnit Alec, did you follow me!?"

"Did you follow me?" Alec laughed. "Fuck you, I live here."

"But…" Brian paused. Right. PRT monitored building. Fuck.

Shortly Thereafter…

"Aisha?" Brian asked, hesitantly.

"What up," she replied, not looking away from whatever training manual she was going through now.

"Lisa, your running buddy, do you know where she lives?"

Aisha remained focused on her task. "Down one floor and a couple doors over, why?" Aisha looked up and stared at him skeptically. "Wait, she was your friend, how do you notknow that?"

…

"Hey, bro? You don't sound so good."

 

[dc2008]

Amy tuned out the sound of her sister pacing around the studio apartment, until she heard a loud thud. She looked up, to see a window opened way too far.

Vicky looked abashed. "I might have, ahh, broke something on your window?"

Amy continued staring.

Vicky fidgeted. "I wanted to fly around the block, clear my head, but I didn't want to go all the way downstairs because it takes forever.

Ami sighed and pulled out her phone.

"Oh, does the building have like a repairman, that's awesome!"

"No, I need to call the security people and tell them the window alarm is my idiot sister, not a villainous flyer."

"Oh." Vicky wilted further.

---

Note: Also, to be clear, Glory Girl didn't break the window pane. There was a locking mechanism on the window to prevent it from opening too far (where "too far" means "enough to allow entry"), and to make sure if it did open too far an alarm would be triggered. Basically a higher-tech, alarmed version of the thing I have on my windows to ensure kids can't fall out.

 

[dc2008]

To be clear, the apartment building the teens are in is not some super fortress. Rather, it's a fairly normal building, with slightly stronger doors/windows on certain floors, and with alarms and security cameras in common areas that actually function and are actually monitored. In addition, there are some PRT people who get paid a small extra amount in exchange for living on-site and being "on-call" at certain times. The apartments not in use by the PRT for official business are rented out on short term leases, usually to federal employees or their dependents, to recoup costs. These rentals have a provision allowing the PRT to reclaim the unit on short notice if they need the unit.

It's reasonably likely that some of the Protectorate members have apartments on-site, although I haven't decided for sure. It's reasonably priced, passes whatever security regulations are in place around taking work home, has the ability to facilitate secure comms and is conveniently located. The apartments are also on the small and cramped side and you can't get enough bedrooms to really comfortably raise a family in one, but I expect some capes won't care.

Heck, now that I think of it, Taylor might be living there. Haven't decided.

Coil and the saner villains leave the place alone, for the same reasons that the white hats avoid anything that might be interpreted as going after dependents of capes. Skidmark likely wouldn't care, but no one would believe he was smart enough to find out about it on his own, so if he did attack the starting assumption would be that he was a cat's paw. There also is nothing there he would want.

Brian, Lisa, and Alec are technically paying rent, which is reduced by a housing allowance, and is a non-issue anyway due to Coil's severance pay.

Amy's apartment is being paid for by national office, as part of a "this girl might save the world" protective package. Her apartment has higher security than the others.

Vista absolutely does not have a unit, she is too young, but Rennick and Piggot have a vague sense that they might help her get one when she's a bit older if her home life remains awful. I'm going with the explanation that CPS in BB is apocalyptically short-staffed and underfunded, such that Missy's case is not bad enough that their solutions would be an improvement.

The teens are not living on-site at the PRT for a variety of reasons, including without limitation: (1) the PRT building is a "legitimate" target, the apartment building is not, (2) Piggot has strong feelings about letting teens run around under-supervised on what is in her mind a military base, (3) Youth Guard similarly has very reasonable concerns about what might happen if Wards become too detached from the "real world", and (4) from a budget POV it has advantages.

 

[dc2008]

"The trainees will arrive soon," Taylor said.

Rachel nodded, slowly.

"I will be here. If there are problems, get your dogs to safety and let me handle the cops. No violence from you or the dogs."

Rachel nodded, reluctantly.

"And remember, cops are stupid."

Rachel nodded in agreement.

Shortly thereafter

"Stand down! Goddamnit!" The unfortunate trooper radically revised his threat estimate of the woman. "Back to the cars, all of you, we are done for today."

Later

Taylor watched, stone-faced, as the nervous trooper faced Director Piggot.

"To be clear, you volunteered," said the director, slowly.

"Yes, ma'am."

"To work with the parahuman dog trainer."

"Yes, ma'am. It was a good advancement opportunity."

"Specifically to learn how to handle dogs."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Notwithstanding your pathological fear of dogs."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Which you did not disclose to anyone."

"Correct, ma'am."

Piggot stared at him, then turned to Taylor. "It is clear I overestimated the abilities of my NCOs. Your request to personally screen the next batch of candidates is approved."

---

Note:
He panicked and was going for a weapon. He would have pulled a gun if Taylor had not had them disarm. Taylor did have a weapon, and physically got between the trooper and the dogs. However in the moment the troopers were not 100% sure which was she was planning on using the weapon. Taylor's reputation in the barracks has shifted a notch or two more toward badass, not just because she was so intimidating with the troopers but because of how effortlessly she took control of the situation with the half-feral parahuman.

I cut down the scene heavily though, because what remains is enough to convey the gist of it and the extra words didn't add enough to be worth keeping.

 

[dc2008]

"Lisa," Brian said, interrupting her rant. "You told me you wanted to meet over lunch to discuss quote 'matters of mutual concern'. However, so far you have simply bitched about how our PRT friend treats you like you treat everyone, except nicer."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "Obviously it's a matter of mutual concern!"

"Look," Brian said, leaning forward and lowering his voice. "It's not like you are wearing an ankle bracelet, if it's that bad you could just skip town."

Lisa looked affronted. "And give up this mentoring opportunity!? Are you crazy!?"

Brian sighed. "I don't get the big deal? She's just whoever in the Chief Director's office drew the short straw and had to come deal with the Bay's nonsense."

Lisa looked personally offended. She leaned forward, her tone manic. "She's not—look, she is the PRT. She is to RCB what RCB is to everyone else. She's not here because she has to be," Lisa gestured in an incomprehensible way she clearly thought conveyed meaning. "The mentoring and intervention and stuff is something she chooses to do. Her 'day job' is, like, S-class threats and national policy! International policy! I'm 85% sure she's the reason the Nine are a greasy smear! She's, like, the most knowledgeable person on the planet for thinker and anti-thinker techniques! Capes included! It's like being mentored by, I don't know, Eidolon! Or Scion! I'd give an arm? All Coil's money? An eye? I'd give a lot for this opportunity!"

Brian was unimpressed. "So you want to have her baby. Why am I here?"

Lisa scoffed. "I couldn't talk about this with Aisha, she'd never let me hear the end of it."