Friday morning Taylor's alarm woke her. Why did today require starting at six? She crawled out of bed and got ready for the day, not that she really knew what the day was going to bring. Still, she prepared her sling bag, slipped both phones into it, and headed downstairs.
She found that her uncle was waiting for her. With donuts, at least? He quickly dragged her out to his rental, and they were off. She consumed two donuts on the way, and then found that they had stopped near the ice cream parlor near the PRT building.
"You need to go change into your costume," Jacob said, gesturing in the general direction of the ice cream parlor itself. "Hurry up."
Taylor grumbled but made her way to the back of the ice cream parlor, down into the tunnel, and eventually to the Wards common area. She slipped into her room and put her costume on, remembering to move her phones from her sling bag to the utility belt. She left the sling bag itself there but dropped a can of soda into another pocket of her utility belt before heading back to the ice cream parlor. From there she had to make her way over to where Jacob had moved the car in the meantime.
She slipped the wok and entrenching tools off of her back to not damage the seat as she got into the car, and then they were off. She still didn't know to where.
An hour later they had made it a couple of towns over and had pulled into a work site. Specifically, it looked like they were tearing a building down.
"Why are we here?" Taylor finally asked.
"To get you confirmed as a cape on PHO the fun way," Jacob replied. "Instead of the boring way wherein the PRT verifies you."
"And how are we doing that?" Taylor asked, curious.
"For starters, I checked, and somehow nobody has registered 'Maul', so get your phone out and register already."
Taylor did so, indicating that she was a cape to get the (Unverified Cape) tag. "Ok, I have an account, now what?"
Jacob handed her a small camera with a head-mount harness as well as a safety harness and grinned. "Now we see about having you demolish a building." He held up a second, larger camera. "On film. As a 'PRT approved parahuman therapy activity'."
"Somehow I don't think I will be able to take the whole building down by myself."
"Well, not by yourself, you will have some non-parahuman assistance."
"Who?"
"The crane operator, of course."
An hour later Taylor found herself safety-strapped to a cable, somewhat kneeling on a large wrecking ball. The safety talks, tying and retying the harness, how to approach everything? Worth it. Because she was having the time of her life as the crane operator swung the wrecking ball in the general direction of the building, Taylor pushing the wrecking ball's 'force' out in a line and doing her best to aim it for maximum destruction with each pass. The fact it was like dozens of wrecking balls were striking all at once in a perfectly synchronized line on each pass helped ramp up the damage.
It only took nine passes for Taylor to get the final perfect hit and cause the entire building to do a combined falling over and collapsing in on itself. She whooped at this, and then had to wait for the crane operator to lower the wrecking ball down to the ground so she could get off. She seemed to have a smile permanently affixed to her face, not even being bored while waiting to be able to get off the wrecking ball was stopping that.
By the time she was down Jacob had hooked the camera he had been using up to a laptop and downloaded the footage. He silently held his hand out and Taylor dropped the head camera she had been wearing into it. Jacob made quick work of downloading that footage as well. Twenty minutes later they had three video clips and a number of stills.
The first clip was the head camera footage, which was occasionally very boring. The second was Jacob's footage, which was also occasionally very boring. The third was an obviously amateur pass at editing the two together, switching between the not-boring parts of each. The stills were taken of interesting parts of the whole operation, including several of Taylor on the wrecking ball that were obviously not in the clips themselves.
Jacob downloaded all the clips and stills to Taylor's 'Maul' phone and showed her how to upload them such that the moderators on PHO would be happy to use them as evidence that she was a cape, then had her send them on. She would make the videos publically visible afterwards, and one of the stills not in the video footage was sent directly through the contact form as added proof that she wasn't just taking advantage of someone else's upload.
They thanked the crane operator for his time and the experience, and he thanked them for making the entire thing much easier, faster, and safer. After some shaking of hands Jacob and Taylor got into the car.
"That was incredibly awesome," Taylor finally said. "Too bad it won't be able to happen often."
"Wait until you can let the masses watch the clips," Jacob offered as he pulled onto the road. "I bet a thread on PHO for how you got verified would explode."
Taylor grinned some more. Today was shaping up to be a good day to be a cape.
By the time they made it back to Brockton Bay Taylor's 'Maul' account had been tagged (Verified Cape). She proceeded to update her account, cropping one of the 'kneeling on the wrecking ball' stills to use as her photo, and then flipped the videos to 'public'. This was followed by making a new thread. "How Maul Got Verified" ended up with four still photos and three video links. The description was minimal, stating mainly that she thought the videos said enough on their own.
It also had a response within minutes from Jacob's verified account to reassure everyone that the activity was PRT-approved. And that he had been observing by holding the ground camera. This was easily proven by the fact that the head camera footage caught sight of him a number of times and one of the stills showed him quite clearly.
"So what are we going to be doing now?" Taylor asked as they sat in a parking lot on the outskirts of town. "Since getting verified the 'fun way' has been completed and it isn't even lunchtime yet?"
"Originally I hadn't planned on anything, but now I am thinking we could have some other fun," Jacob replied. "In particular, if I understand some of the things Amy and Riley reported correctly, should we get you good and hungry you might be able to pull off eating a challenger. Which should be funny, given that you look nothing like you should be able to handle one, even in costume."
"And how exactly do you plan on me getting that hungry?"
"By putting your enhanced strength to some use helping to wrestle some currently awkwardly positioned dumpsters back into position where they can't quite get the proper equipment into the alleyways."
"And you know about this how?"
"I checked the local PRT board and saw the request for parahuman assistance when I was done responding to your new thread. If it works you get good press. If it fails you tried and probably still get good press. The press might be better if you fail, actually, because trying and failing when you don't have the right power for the job can look even better than accomplishing something easily."
"You know what? Why not. Might have to visit Amy afterwards to clean my arteries, though."
Course of action decided they headed for the boardwalk.
"How in the world did that happen?" Taylor asked as she looked at the dumpsters. There were two of them in the back alley, and she could see where they normally sat such that you would need to approach from either end to get at them with a truck, and that would still require careful work. But they had been spun significantly from their original positions and were now blocking the entire alley, including sticking into at least one door in the buildings.
Might be two doors, she would have to pop over to the other side to see if there was another door involved. Or maybe just jump on top of the things?
"We believe it was a minor cape battle," one shopkeeper answered. "And they slammed against the dumpsters, causing them to slide against each other. We just can't seem to get them to move the right way when we pull on them." He gestured at one of the two smaller forklifts they had gotten into the alley, the other being at the other end and thus on the other side of the dumpsters. They had explained that larger forklifts wouldn't be able to do much more than the smaller ones, they didn't want to cut the dumpsters unless it was necessary, and the angle the dumpsters were at made it impossible for the garbage or transport trucks to move them. Which left parahuman assistance or a crane right now.
"Well, I can climb up and see if I can spot what is going on in the middle. Maybe it just needs a poke in the right spot?"
Taylor suited actions to words and easily jumped up onto the dumpsters, though her landing needed some work. She then peered down between them.
"It looks like they have locked onto each other back here where some bits of metal seem to be sticking out?" Taylor called after having to use a phone as a flashlight to be certain of what she was seeing. "Why would they have those anyway?"
"I think it is supposed to be keeping them from being flat up against the wall," the shopkeeper answered. "So that the lids open properly and a couple of other things."
"Well, do you have anything I can use as a pry bar to try and dislodge them from each other? And you may have to push the dumpsters towards each other so we can get them free of each other before we pull them apart again."
It took almost two hours of maneuvering, but eventually they got the two dumpsters apart. Taylor had to use a long pipe as a pry bar to get the two to separate while they were pushed together a little by the forklifts, and then the same pipe had to be used to keep them from locking back together as they were pulled apart.
Though she didn't think she was strong enough to do so alone, somehow the pipe was now severely bent. But the dumpsters were no longer jammed in the alley.
"Thank you Maul," one of the two shopkeepers said, shaking her hand. "Normally it takes a few days to get assistance like this."
"No problem," Taylor said. Then blushed a little as her stomach growled. "But I think it is about time I go get something to eat?"
"Heh, so it seems," the other shopkeeper chimed in. "Do you need any lunch money, so to speak?"
"I don't think so," Taylor responded. "I am thinking about eating a challenger."
The two shopkeepers looked at each other, then at Taylor. "Well, good luck with that, kid," one of them said as the other clapped her on the shoulder. "We'll have to check the wall later to see if you pull it off."
Taylor waved goodbye to the two shopkeepers, and then to the forklift driver that was slowly working on getting back out of the alley, before heading out to the boardwalk proper. It wasn't long before she made her way to where her uncle was waiting.
"Finally got them sorted?" Jacob said as Taylor approached.
"Yep, but now I'm hungry," Taylor replied, grinning at the thought of them having discussed this conversation in advance. She then lost a little of the grin as her stomach growled again. "I think I would like to try that 'challenger' you told me about."
"Well then, I guess we should visit Fugly's." And they were off.
The two of them had entered Fugly's, drawing a small crowd with them. Taylor walked up to the counter and ordered a challenger. Jacob indicated he would pay if Taylor failed, so they set her up at the challenger's table.
Taylor was mostly content to wait, looking for all intents and purposes like she was simply very patient. In reality she was playing tetris on her personal phone thanks to the heads-up display in her visor. Having direct access to the controls in her brain helped her performance in the game significantly.
Finally her plate was brought out. One challenger burger, a basket of fries, and a root beer. Taylor finished her current round of tetris, then picked up the fork and knife provided. She couldn't bite into the burger properly if she wanted to anyway.
Forty minutes later Taylor finished the last of her second refill of soda, followed by a small burp. Her plate was clear, the fry basket was empty, and she felt that she was pleasantly near-full.
"Any chance I can get a milkshake to go?" Taylor asked.
Ten minutes later her picture had been taken, she had her milkshake, and Jacob was visibly holding back laughter. The fact she finished the milkshake in public, someone even checking that the cup was empty when she threw it out, just made it better.
Jacob brought Taylor back to around the ice cream parlor so she could go change back into her civilian attire, but asked that she exit via the gym. School hadn't quite gotten out yet so none of the other Wards were around to see her pass through.
She found her uncle's car a block away from the gym, apparently he had swung around through the gas station while she was getting changed. They then headed back to the Hebert household.
"I have to pack up and head out to be able to catch my flight," Jacob explained as they were pulling up to the house. "So I won't be around for dinner, assuming you are hungry by then."
"Alright, have you let dad know?" Taylor asked.
"He has known for a couple of days."
The two entered the house, collecting the delivered mail on their way by. Jacob headed straight upstairs to the guest room while Taylor looked over the mail.
"Huh, a packet from Arcadia?" Taylor mumbled as she opened the large envelope. Inside she found some introductory materials, a new student ID with her photo from the school department, her class schedule, and information on getting into her new email account. Huh, her photo was a bit out of date given that she was wearing glasses in it.
Taylor took a few minutes to get the email account set up in her personal phone, finding she already had several messages once she was done. Most of them were introductory in nature from her new teachers, but they included information what to expect in class for the coming week. All of them indicated that she need not be ready to participate fully on Monday as they did not know when she would get the introductory package, but it would be appreciated if she would make an attempt.
Going over each class she found that she probably wouldn't have any issues, though Monday's English class was going to include the monthly 'try and stump the teacher' session? This month was to provide a quote from one of the listed authors and see if the teacher can figure out which author. Bonus points for succeeding in stumping the teacher, detention if you can't cite the book and page your quote came from for verification, and entire multi-word sentences only.
Taylor grinned, she had a plan and honestly hoped nobody had beaten her to the punch, so to speak.
Jacob left about half an hour before Danny came home with a pizza. Taylor surprised herself by eating half of it.
"So what did you do today?" Danny finally asked. "Jacob wasn't forthcoming about his plans."
"He wanted me to get my verified cape tag on PHO the fun way," Taylor replied, pulling out one of her phones to show him the videos.
Danny took a few minutes, looking like he was unhappy and unbelieving at once, then took a few deep breaths. "Right, you are a lot tougher than you used to be. Given that I suppose it does look fun."
"The thread on PHO has, as Uncle Jacob expected, exploded. And it looks like my consumption of a Fugly's Challenger has gotten a thread as well." Taylor poked around until she found a video, then showed that to Danny as well.
"And you still ate half a pizza? What did they do to you, install a bigger-on-the-inside stomach?"
"I think I just digest faster now."
Danny just shook his head and looked over various posts with Taylor for a bit.
Hannah stared at the video she had been watching, then switched to looking at the reports open next to it. Finally she shook her head and pulled out her phone. A few quick taps later and it was ringing.
"Hello, Power Testing, ENE," came from the other end. "How can we help you today?"
"Hello, this is Miss Militia," Hannah said. "I do believe you need to revise your testing methodology and ratings for certain types of blasters, specifically those such as Maul."
"On what basis?"
"Search for 'How Maul got verified' on PHO and watch the videos. Then tell me you handled her testing properly."
A few minutes later Hannah wondered if she should have mentioned the tinker-fugue granted abilities she knew Miss Hebert had. It didn't take her long to decide that the power testers could still take the flak for that one not being documented. After all, they had screwed up badly when testing what Miss Hebert had told them she could do by apparently assuming she had to be moving the blunt objects. Her paperwork said nothing of the sort, so why they had assumed that was a mystery. Then again, they also hadn't realized that a foam bat might count until Miss Hebert produced one of her own to demonstrate.
