Well, I was more meaning that Maul might be able to punch a Nazi, then use the now airborne Nazi to hit the guys behind him.
- Location
- In My Parlour like a Good Arachne
- Pronouns
- She, her
But the "Beat a MFer with another MFer." Meme is almost funny though.
She has used her shoes and plates inserted in her gloves from a distance. She can't use her own hands/feet.
Chapter 16
Saturday morning Taylor decided to skip out on riding her moped in the rain, instead taking the bus to the boardwalk. Carlos had also scheduled another afternoon Wards meeting and unless something significant came up during the meeting Taylor would have no problem catching a bus home with plenty of time to help make lasagna for dinner.
On the ride out Taylor poked through PHO. It seemed that the lack of Maul sightings all week had people looking for her elsewhere in the country, wherever she had been on the way to. Of course, she just hadn't gone out in costume this week in favor of getting ahead on her homework. The latest possible sighting was at a hotel in Colorado, for some reason. Someone had been mapping the sightings to provide a potential travel path. Even narrowing it down to the most likely sightings only would have required someone to be taking a tour of the entire country to make it work.
A different group had decided to monitor her civilian identity. Poorly. She had apparently been spotted in four different places in Brockton Bay that she wasn't sure she had ever heard of, let alone visited. Or maybe that was the PRT doing their best to ensure that people had issues matching up sightings of Maul to a lack of sightings of Taylor? Hmmm. Perhaps she should ask the other Wards about that later. At least they were intelligent enough to realize that claims she was seen in Arcadia during the school day made more sense than the claims she was seen out on the docks at the same time.
Noting that she had nearly reached her stop, Taylor put her phone back in her sling bag. Getting off the bus a couple minutes later she ignored the still light rain and made her way to the cafe that she was supposed to meet Amy and Vicky at. She couldn't sense them there, but she was early due to the bus route.
Taylor ordered herself a bagel and a bottle of water before heading to one of the tables visible from the street, ensuring that Amy and Vicky would be able to spot her easily if they showed up while she was still eating. She felt them approaching around half an hour later, well after she had finished the bagel and shortly after the rain had stopped. She finished off her bottle of water and disposed of her trash.
Taylor made her way to the door just as Vicky set Amy down. She had been flying, but not very high. Which fit what Taylor knew of her confidence having been coming back. Hopefully getting informed of the reason for her issues today would help her further.
"Hello Taylor," Amy said as Taylor stepped out of the cafe. Vicky just nodded.
"Hello Amy, Vicky," Taylor said. "So, where are we off to? You said you knew somewhere semi-private."
"There are some little booths we can use in an alley a couple blocks over," Amy replied, waving in their general direction. "So long as we are done by the time the restaurant opens for the lunch crowd."
"Not sure why we are even here," Vicky mumbled.
The three of them walked the couple of blocks to where a small restaurant had set up private outdoor booths in the wider than normal alley. Each booth had benches along the sides and back with an open area between them where a table would sit. The tables weren't in place, presumably stored while the restaurant was closed.
Amy was prepared with a couple of small towels to dry the benches off. Vicky dropped onto the bench against the building, Amy and Taylor sat across from each other on the other two benches.
"So why are we here?" Vicky asked as they sat down. "Especially since Dean seemed to have an idea yet wanted nothing to do with it."
"Well, you see," Taylor said, gesturing at Amy. "The Amy asked that I reveal certain things to you and, when I consulted him, The Dean agreed."
Amy giggled, but Vicky just glared at Taylor.
"Sheesh, just trying to lighten the mood," Taylor mumbled, before clearing her throat and continuing. "I'm a cape. Specifically a Blaster/Trump, you may have heard of 'Maul' recently?"
"You're Maul?" Vicky said, eyes widening. "How on earth did you get the PRT to agree to that wrecking ball stunt?"
"I didn't?" Taylor replied. "My uncle set that one up."
"Lucky. So you're a Blaster/Trump," Vicky continued. "What does that entail?"
"Blunt object projection and talking to snarks, mainly," Taylor said. "Though if I, er, yell at them loudly enough some of them apparently stop working? Or at least that is what seems to happen."
"Snarks?" Vicky asked, obviously confused. "What are snarks?"
"The things that give parahumans their powers," Amy answered before Taylor could. "She triggered nearly a month ago, now."
Vicky seemed to think about that for a couple of minutes. "Ok, so you are probably a new Ward, which is why Dean had a clue. Amy's patched you up at least once which explains how she knows, but why would Dean not want to be around for this?"
"Er, sorry about a few weeks ago?" Taylor said, looking away for a moment. "I kinda reacted badly to your aura."
"That was you?" Vicky asked. Oddly calmly, actually.
"Yes?" Taylor said, turning back to look at Vicky. Who did not look calm at all, actually. Then Taylor froze up as her power activated, drawing all of her attention.
[Assertion]
Fear her? Why should...
Her world exploded in pain. Bright flashes went off in her sight and she couldn't seem to concentrate on anything. The world spun around her, and at some point an indeterminate amount of time later she found herself staring at Shaper.
Hello Shaper!
Huh, who was Shaper again? She felt like she should know that. Or was it something else?
<Request>
[Rejection]
<Query>
[Elaboration]
<Determination>
[Acquiescence. Data.]
Huh. Why is Shaper telling her how to fix Taylor's brain?
Amy reacted to Vicky's aura manifesting by shrinking back in momentary fear as Taylor froze up across from her. A moment later she heard a sickening crunch, followed by a loud crash. She looked up to see that Vicky had apparently just punched Taylor out of the booth and was now flying off? Taylor who had hit and broken a sign on the building across the alley, and was now laying in a heap under it.
"TAYLOR!" Amy yelled, rushing over to where Taylor lay, Vicky all but forgotten for the moment. Lightly touching Taylor's hand she cringed, using her power to get Taylor's body breathing again when she noticed that problem. She pulled her phone out and hit her speed dial for the PRT emergency line.
"Emergency Hotline," came from her phone.
"I need an emergency pickup for Taylor Hebert at my current location," Amy interrupted. "Severe concussion, broken jaw, cervical fracture and dislocation resulting in a damaged spinal cord."
"An ambulance is being sent now," was the response. "Stay on the line for updates."
Amy put the phone down next to her and concentrated on trying to fix what she could, resisting the urge to try and fix Taylor's brain lest she make things worse there. Taylor's upgrades had almost certainly saved her life, but now were causing Amy headaches. Instead of being able to directly fix things she found she had to work around some of the new structures. She hadn't previously noticed that they didn't all register as organic to her power and thus she couldn't directly change and repair them.
Instead, Amy would have to focus on directing some of the additional cells that had been created to ensure Taylor's body could maintain the additions, having the new cells created for each structure manipulate them instead. Not having time for that she slowly worked through the reinforcements in Taylor's neck, forcibly breaking through several of the partially damaged nanotube fibers between vertebrae until she could use her hands to physically realign the vertebrae. Once that was done she was able to repair the spinal cord.
She had just barely gotten Taylor to the point where she was breathing on her own again when the ambulance arrived. They carefully loaded Taylor onto a stretcher, Amy grabbing her phone and Taylor's bag before joining them in the ambulance for the ride to the hospital. On the way she carefully repaired the actual vertebrae themselves, working around the mostly intact reinforcements laced through them, before starting the automated repair and rebuild process that would fix the enhancements themselves.
Only as she was taking a quick general overview did she notice that Taylor's Bluetooth organ was highly active, so she took a moment to turn off both of Taylor's phones. That reduced activity to a metaphorical background hum, also reducing the extra signals hitting Taylor's brain, and Amy got back to work. She took stock of Taylor's jaw and the slight fractures she was now noticing in the skull. The latter she tackled first as they looked to only be the bone, the reinforcements having held together. She made quick work of it as a result.
She had to pause again as they transferred Taylor into the hospital itself, making their way into the secure area Wards and Protectorate members were treated in when brought there. She took the time to set her standard message that she was at the hospital for an emergency and was not to be disturbed. Once they had Taylor settled in a room she got back to work, slowly dismantling many of the damaged enhancements in Taylor's jawbone so that she could re-assemble it.
Now if only she knew why she kept getting distracting flashes of things to be done to fix Taylor's brain, despite double-checking that she hadn't touched it.
Amy finally ran out of things she could do for Taylor. It had taken several hours, but outside of touching Taylor's brain she had fixed pretty much everything. She would want to come back in the morning to check that the cells repairing and replacing Taylor's enhancements were still on-track, and to monitor the progress in Taylor's brain, but that was about it.
When she admitted all of this to one of the nurses she had promptly been kicked out, politely, and told that she didn't need to be here all night. That, however, brought her to the small conference room she was currently sharing with Miss Militia.
"My apologies Panacea," Miss Militia started. "But with a Ward injured this severely out of costume we need to know what happened."
"I understand," Amy said, leaning back in the chair. It was a nice chair, she might want to make note of the model. Or maybe she was just that tired. "Long story short, Taylor revealed herself to Vicky. Vicky got quite angry when she found out that Taylor was responsible for her power loss incident a few weeks ago and lashed out. Without Taylor's enhancements she wouldn't have survived the hit at all, and I don't know how well she will recover from the severe concussion she received."
Had Amy been looking she would have seen Miss Militia sit up straighter. "Did Victoria know about Taylor's enhanced durability?"
"As far as I know she only knew that Taylor had Bluetooth connectivity. Nothing else had come up that I know about."
"I see. Are Carol and Mark aware of Taylor's status?"
"No, but she gave permission to tell them about her parahuman and post-fugue statuses after we informed Vicky today. I can show you the text messages if you like."
"That won't be necessary. Would you like a ride home? I find that I have business in the area."
"That would be appreciated."
Miss Militia rang the doorbell of the Dallon household, having requested that Amy stay with her as a witness instead of entering as a family member for the moment.
"Yes?" Carol said as she opened the door, only to stop when she saw Miss Militia. "Miss Militia, what brings you by this evening?"
"Good evening Mrs. Dallon. I find I need to discuss Victoria's actions from this morning," Miss Militia stated. "Amy here is both the only other witness available and served as the emergency medical responder."
"Come on in," Carol said, stepping aside. "Do we need to call Victoria down?"
"It would be appreciated, if only to get her side of the story."
"Give me a moment to fetch her, then I think it would be best if we met in my office."
Carol headed upstairs, which was shortly followed by some banging and mild yelling. After a couple of minutes she returned, Vicky following behind her. With a wave she led everyone to the room she used as an office in the house.
She sat in the chair behind the desk after waving Miss Militia and Amy into the two 'comfortable' seats. This left Vicky with an admittedly nice wooden folding chair. Carol waved to Miss Militia to begin.
"Victoria," Miss Militia started, turning to Vicky. "I will inform you now that both of your parents are cleared for everything you know about Miss Hebert, and several things you do not know. Given that, would you please describe your version of events from this morning?"
"Er," Vicky said, shrinking back. "Taylor revealed that she was a parahuman, and that she had been responsible for my power loss and change a few weeks ago. I got angry and punched her, then flew off, ignoring that she said it was a bad reaction to my aura. By the time I had calmed down Amy had indicated she was in the hospital dealing with an emergency."
"Did you have any indication that Taylor was more durable than a normal human before that point?"
"No."
"Amy," Miss Militia continued as she turned to Amy. "Based on the injuries Taylor suffered, what would have been the result of a human with normal durability taking that punch?"
"They would have died," Amy replied. "If not from the initial impact crushing the skull, then from the likely decapitation or near decapitation that would have resulted. Even being right there I doubt I would have been able to save them."
"Amy," Carol interrupted. "Out of curiosity, what was your first reaction. Covering for Vicky, or healing Taylor?"
"Uh," Amy said, obviously surprised at the question. "Healing Taylor."
"And do you find that odd?" Carol continued.
"Somewhat, now that you have brought it up. But I don't know if that is because Taylor is a friend instead of a stranger."
"May I ask what you are getting at?" Miss Militia asked.
"I have been looking back over things since Mark's depression suddenly started improving," Carol explained. "So far it looks like a simple matter of him actually remembering to take his medicine. But the only other change was Victoria's aura shutting off. It was actually a couple of days ago that I realized I was thinking differently, despite previously having thought I was immune to her aura. All of a sudden I was no longer painting Victoria's actions in the best light in my own head." Carol sighed. "Not to mention I found myself appalled that I had to have the Youth Guard monitoring Amy's hospital hours and threatening fines against New Wave to keep her from overworking herself. A child in my care, regardless of anything else, and I was only keeping her from overworking herself due to monetary concerns."
"I see," Miss Militia said after it was obvious Carol was done. A quick look at Amy and Vicky showed her that they were both shocked, though Vicky's had a touch of mild horror. "I am afraid that, given that she has admitted to what she did and that it matches Amy's story, I am going to have to name her in my report of the incident and include a statement that she used excessive force against someone she thought had normal human durability."
"Victoria," Carol said, turning to look at Vicky. "You are grounded until we find out what the outcome of this is. At a minimum. And I don't care that you had a date planned for tomorrow."
"I let Dean know I probably wouldn't be able to go out already," Vicky admitted. "Though I didn't tell him why."
Carol drove Amy to the hospital in the morning, in part to ensure that Amy had no problems getting there with Vicky grounded and in part because she was told that Taylor's father was there. Amy was still wrapping her head around some of the things that had come up the night before, coupled with worry over Taylor's condition.
They made good time, and Amy led the way through the security checkpoints to Taylor's room. There they found Danny, asleep in a chair. Amy shook her head and made her way over to Taylor, taking her hand to check on her recovery.
"WHAT?" Amy exclaimed, waking Danny and startling Carol. "How in the world?"
"Is something wrong?" Danny asked.
"I'm not sure," Amy admitted. "Her enhancements have made the exact progress I expected, basically. But her brain is much further along than it should be. It almost looks like her Corona Pollentia and Gemma are working to heal her brain? But I don't get how, it almost looks like they are very carefully poking the damaged parts in just the right way?"
"So she'll recover?" Danny was almost pleading at this point. Then again, just last night he had been told that it was likely going to be months before Taylor would recover, assuming she ever did.
"At this rate she might wake up in a week," Amy admitted. "Probably two to three before she can be cleared to leave. But with that much damage, and being healed by her power? I don't know how much of her will remain."
"Mister Hebert?" Carol finally spoke up. "My name is Carol Dallon, and I think we need to talk. There is a conference room just down the hall that I think will be more suitable while Amy confers with the doctors."
Danny just nodded and followed Carol out. Amy went back to trying to figure out how Taylor's power was healing her. More interestingly, it seemed to be getting better at it as she monitored it, which was just as confusing.
"Good morning Miss Dallon," one of the doctors said as he came in. "How is Miss Hebert's recovery progressing?"
"Her body is progressing at the expected rate, it will probably be a week before her enhancements are all back in place," Amy responded. "But her power is actively working to fix the damage to her brain. Instead of months of recovery I think she is looking at weeks. I just don't know how much of her will be left."
Broadcast Administrator, as the combination of the Administrator and Broadcast shards had named itself, was working with the data it had obtained from Shaper, coupled with a number of snapshots of its host's brain taken over the past week when she and Shaper's host had made physical contact. It liked the data its host was providing, as did several other shards, but if the host didn't recover properly it wouldn't be able to provide that data. That was obviously unacceptable.
To further complicate matters, Shaper's host wouldn't touch brains, which would have been the easiest way to fix things. But the brain was the one thing all shards interacted with, and Broadcast Administrator had been inspired by its host looking at other restrictions from odd angles, and had been poking at her dreams for itself. Just working around the restrictions placed on the host interaction interface to use it to heal was providing wonderful data. If only it wasn't so slow. And getting feedback on what was working and what wasn't took a while, subjectively.
When Shaper's host came back into range Broadcast Administrator reconnected and traded data on what it had been doing, and got some more suggestions back. When Shaper's host made physical contact Shaper relayed information on what was working and what wasn't in real time, improving the rate of recovery of Broadcast Administrator's host. In return, Broadcast Administrator provided Shaper with the data it was using to bypass the host interaction interface restrictions.
Amy finally finished being astonished at Taylor's recovery and made her way down the hall to where Carol and Danny were meeting. She knocked on the door and waited for them to invite her in.
Carol finally responded with a "come in" and Amy entered. Neither adult looked like they had enjoyed things.
"Have you figured out what is going on with Miss Hebert?" Carol asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"I am still not sure," Amy admitted. "The entire idea that her power is healing her brain, but only her brain, goes against a number of things I thought I knew. We likely need to wait and see what happens. But I think her power was using mine to see what it needed to do, it is the only reason I can think of that things would speed up a little while I was monitoring her."
"You probably deserve that greenhouse Taylor keeps saying you need," Danny finally said. "I am starting to think I should be looking into getting you one."
"What greenhouse?" Carol asked, now confused. "Why would Amy need one?"
"It is apparently Taylor's idea," Amy admitted. "She came up with it when I healed her after her trigger event. I just didn't believe her. My power would apparently be quite happy if I played with plants, and Taylor had the idea of making rainbow-petaled roses."
"How in the world does healing equate to that?"
"Oh, er, healing is kind of a side effect of complete control over the biology of things I touch? Not that the power testers got what I was saying at the time."
Carol stared at Amy for a minute, then continued. "Ok, I actually studied cases of people only using part of their powers for a couple of months. They all cracked. How in the world did you not go insane from limiting yourself to just healing since you triggered?"
"Er, I didn't realise that I was already starting to crack until I accidentally ignored most of my self-imposed limits?"
"When was that?"
Amy actually blushed. Well, she had already slipped, and had revealed a bit more than she intended. What was one last bit? "When I ended up dragged into the tinker fugue that enhanced Taylor to begin with." She could admit that much on her own authority. Taylor could technically provide her part as well. Neither were allowed to talk about Riley, even with Riley's permission.
"Maybe I will make Victoria build you a small greenhouse as part of her punishment," Carol finally mused. Allowing any cape to go nuts because they didn't use their power was bad. If Amy was right about her power? Carol didn't want to think what kinds of situations snapping could cause.
Amy, on the other hand, was busy trying to wrap her head around a seemingly fully sensible Carol. When did the world stop making sense?
On the ride out Taylor poked through PHO. It seemed that the lack of Maul sightings all week had people looking for her elsewhere in the country, wherever she had been on the way to. Of course, she just hadn't gone out in costume this week in favor of getting ahead on her homework. The latest possible sighting was at a hotel in Colorado, for some reason. Someone had been mapping the sightings to provide a potential travel path. Even narrowing it down to the most likely sightings only would have required someone to be taking a tour of the entire country to make it work.
A different group had decided to monitor her civilian identity. Poorly. She had apparently been spotted in four different places in Brockton Bay that she wasn't sure she had ever heard of, let alone visited. Or maybe that was the PRT doing their best to ensure that people had issues matching up sightings of Maul to a lack of sightings of Taylor? Hmmm. Perhaps she should ask the other Wards about that later. At least they were intelligent enough to realize that claims she was seen in Arcadia during the school day made more sense than the claims she was seen out on the docks at the same time.
Noting that she had nearly reached her stop, Taylor put her phone back in her sling bag. Getting off the bus a couple minutes later she ignored the still light rain and made her way to the cafe that she was supposed to meet Amy and Vicky at. She couldn't sense them there, but she was early due to the bus route.
Taylor ordered herself a bagel and a bottle of water before heading to one of the tables visible from the street, ensuring that Amy and Vicky would be able to spot her easily if they showed up while she was still eating. She felt them approaching around half an hour later, well after she had finished the bagel and shortly after the rain had stopped. She finished off her bottle of water and disposed of her trash.
Taylor made her way to the door just as Vicky set Amy down. She had been flying, but not very high. Which fit what Taylor knew of her confidence having been coming back. Hopefully getting informed of the reason for her issues today would help her further.
"Hello Taylor," Amy said as Taylor stepped out of the cafe. Vicky just nodded.
"Hello Amy, Vicky," Taylor said. "So, where are we off to? You said you knew somewhere semi-private."
"There are some little booths we can use in an alley a couple blocks over," Amy replied, waving in their general direction. "So long as we are done by the time the restaurant opens for the lunch crowd."
"Not sure why we are even here," Vicky mumbled.
The three of them walked the couple of blocks to where a small restaurant had set up private outdoor booths in the wider than normal alley. Each booth had benches along the sides and back with an open area between them where a table would sit. The tables weren't in place, presumably stored while the restaurant was closed.
Amy was prepared with a couple of small towels to dry the benches off. Vicky dropped onto the bench against the building, Amy and Taylor sat across from each other on the other two benches.
"So why are we here?" Vicky asked as they sat down. "Especially since Dean seemed to have an idea yet wanted nothing to do with it."
"Well, you see," Taylor said, gesturing at Amy. "The Amy asked that I reveal certain things to you and, when I consulted him, The Dean agreed."
Amy giggled, but Vicky just glared at Taylor.
"Sheesh, just trying to lighten the mood," Taylor mumbled, before clearing her throat and continuing. "I'm a cape. Specifically a Blaster/Trump, you may have heard of 'Maul' recently?"
"You're Maul?" Vicky said, eyes widening. "How on earth did you get the PRT to agree to that wrecking ball stunt?"
"I didn't?" Taylor replied. "My uncle set that one up."
"Lucky. So you're a Blaster/Trump," Vicky continued. "What does that entail?"
"Blunt object projection and talking to snarks, mainly," Taylor said. "Though if I, er, yell at them loudly enough some of them apparently stop working? Or at least that is what seems to happen."
"Snarks?" Vicky asked, obviously confused. "What are snarks?"
"The things that give parahumans their powers," Amy answered before Taylor could. "She triggered nearly a month ago, now."
Vicky seemed to think about that for a couple of minutes. "Ok, so you are probably a new Ward, which is why Dean had a clue. Amy's patched you up at least once which explains how she knows, but why would Dean not want to be around for this?"
"Er, sorry about a few weeks ago?" Taylor said, looking away for a moment. "I kinda reacted badly to your aura."
"That was you?" Vicky asked. Oddly calmly, actually.
"Yes?" Taylor said, turning back to look at Vicky. Who did not look calm at all, actually. Then Taylor froze up as her power activated, drawing all of her attention.
[Assertion]
Fear her? Why should...
Her world exploded in pain. Bright flashes went off in her sight and she couldn't seem to concentrate on anything. The world spun around her, and at some point an indeterminate amount of time later she found herself staring at Shaper.
Hello Shaper!
Huh, who was Shaper again? She felt like she should know that. Or was it something else?
<Request>
[Rejection]
<Query>
[Elaboration]
<Determination>
[Acquiescence. Data.]
Huh. Why is Shaper telling her how to fix Taylor's brain?
Amy reacted to Vicky's aura manifesting by shrinking back in momentary fear as Taylor froze up across from her. A moment later she heard a sickening crunch, followed by a loud crash. She looked up to see that Vicky had apparently just punched Taylor out of the booth and was now flying off? Taylor who had hit and broken a sign on the building across the alley, and was now laying in a heap under it.
"TAYLOR!" Amy yelled, rushing over to where Taylor lay, Vicky all but forgotten for the moment. Lightly touching Taylor's hand she cringed, using her power to get Taylor's body breathing again when she noticed that problem. She pulled her phone out and hit her speed dial for the PRT emergency line.
"Emergency Hotline," came from her phone.
"I need an emergency pickup for Taylor Hebert at my current location," Amy interrupted. "Severe concussion, broken jaw, cervical fracture and dislocation resulting in a damaged spinal cord."
"An ambulance is being sent now," was the response. "Stay on the line for updates."
Amy put the phone down next to her and concentrated on trying to fix what she could, resisting the urge to try and fix Taylor's brain lest she make things worse there. Taylor's upgrades had almost certainly saved her life, but now were causing Amy headaches. Instead of being able to directly fix things she found she had to work around some of the new structures. She hadn't previously noticed that they didn't all register as organic to her power and thus she couldn't directly change and repair them.
Instead, Amy would have to focus on directing some of the additional cells that had been created to ensure Taylor's body could maintain the additions, having the new cells created for each structure manipulate them instead. Not having time for that she slowly worked through the reinforcements in Taylor's neck, forcibly breaking through several of the partially damaged nanotube fibers between vertebrae until she could use her hands to physically realign the vertebrae. Once that was done she was able to repair the spinal cord.
She had just barely gotten Taylor to the point where she was breathing on her own again when the ambulance arrived. They carefully loaded Taylor onto a stretcher, Amy grabbing her phone and Taylor's bag before joining them in the ambulance for the ride to the hospital. On the way she carefully repaired the actual vertebrae themselves, working around the mostly intact reinforcements laced through them, before starting the automated repair and rebuild process that would fix the enhancements themselves.
Only as she was taking a quick general overview did she notice that Taylor's Bluetooth organ was highly active, so she took a moment to turn off both of Taylor's phones. That reduced activity to a metaphorical background hum, also reducing the extra signals hitting Taylor's brain, and Amy got back to work. She took stock of Taylor's jaw and the slight fractures she was now noticing in the skull. The latter she tackled first as they looked to only be the bone, the reinforcements having held together. She made quick work of it as a result.
She had to pause again as they transferred Taylor into the hospital itself, making their way into the secure area Wards and Protectorate members were treated in when brought there. She took the time to set her standard message that she was at the hospital for an emergency and was not to be disturbed. Once they had Taylor settled in a room she got back to work, slowly dismantling many of the damaged enhancements in Taylor's jawbone so that she could re-assemble it.
Now if only she knew why she kept getting distracting flashes of things to be done to fix Taylor's brain, despite double-checking that she hadn't touched it.
Amy finally ran out of things she could do for Taylor. It had taken several hours, but outside of touching Taylor's brain she had fixed pretty much everything. She would want to come back in the morning to check that the cells repairing and replacing Taylor's enhancements were still on-track, and to monitor the progress in Taylor's brain, but that was about it.
When she admitted all of this to one of the nurses she had promptly been kicked out, politely, and told that she didn't need to be here all night. That, however, brought her to the small conference room she was currently sharing with Miss Militia.
"My apologies Panacea," Miss Militia started. "But with a Ward injured this severely out of costume we need to know what happened."
"I understand," Amy said, leaning back in the chair. It was a nice chair, she might want to make note of the model. Or maybe she was just that tired. "Long story short, Taylor revealed herself to Vicky. Vicky got quite angry when she found out that Taylor was responsible for her power loss incident a few weeks ago and lashed out. Without Taylor's enhancements she wouldn't have survived the hit at all, and I don't know how well she will recover from the severe concussion she received."
Had Amy been looking she would have seen Miss Militia sit up straighter. "Did Victoria know about Taylor's enhanced durability?"
"As far as I know she only knew that Taylor had Bluetooth connectivity. Nothing else had come up that I know about."
"I see. Are Carol and Mark aware of Taylor's status?"
"No, but she gave permission to tell them about her parahuman and post-fugue statuses after we informed Vicky today. I can show you the text messages if you like."
"That won't be necessary. Would you like a ride home? I find that I have business in the area."
"That would be appreciated."
Miss Militia rang the doorbell of the Dallon household, having requested that Amy stay with her as a witness instead of entering as a family member for the moment.
"Yes?" Carol said as she opened the door, only to stop when she saw Miss Militia. "Miss Militia, what brings you by this evening?"
"Good evening Mrs. Dallon. I find I need to discuss Victoria's actions from this morning," Miss Militia stated. "Amy here is both the only other witness available and served as the emergency medical responder."
"Come on in," Carol said, stepping aside. "Do we need to call Victoria down?"
"It would be appreciated, if only to get her side of the story."
"Give me a moment to fetch her, then I think it would be best if we met in my office."
Carol headed upstairs, which was shortly followed by some banging and mild yelling. After a couple of minutes she returned, Vicky following behind her. With a wave she led everyone to the room she used as an office in the house.
She sat in the chair behind the desk after waving Miss Militia and Amy into the two 'comfortable' seats. This left Vicky with an admittedly nice wooden folding chair. Carol waved to Miss Militia to begin.
"Victoria," Miss Militia started, turning to Vicky. "I will inform you now that both of your parents are cleared for everything you know about Miss Hebert, and several things you do not know. Given that, would you please describe your version of events from this morning?"
"Er," Vicky said, shrinking back. "Taylor revealed that she was a parahuman, and that she had been responsible for my power loss and change a few weeks ago. I got angry and punched her, then flew off, ignoring that she said it was a bad reaction to my aura. By the time I had calmed down Amy had indicated she was in the hospital dealing with an emergency."
"Did you have any indication that Taylor was more durable than a normal human before that point?"
"No."
"Amy," Miss Militia continued as she turned to Amy. "Based on the injuries Taylor suffered, what would have been the result of a human with normal durability taking that punch?"
"They would have died," Amy replied. "If not from the initial impact crushing the skull, then from the likely decapitation or near decapitation that would have resulted. Even being right there I doubt I would have been able to save them."
"Amy," Carol interrupted. "Out of curiosity, what was your first reaction. Covering for Vicky, or healing Taylor?"
"Uh," Amy said, obviously surprised at the question. "Healing Taylor."
"And do you find that odd?" Carol continued.
"Somewhat, now that you have brought it up. But I don't know if that is because Taylor is a friend instead of a stranger."
"May I ask what you are getting at?" Miss Militia asked.
"I have been looking back over things since Mark's depression suddenly started improving," Carol explained. "So far it looks like a simple matter of him actually remembering to take his medicine. But the only other change was Victoria's aura shutting off. It was actually a couple of days ago that I realized I was thinking differently, despite previously having thought I was immune to her aura. All of a sudden I was no longer painting Victoria's actions in the best light in my own head." Carol sighed. "Not to mention I found myself appalled that I had to have the Youth Guard monitoring Amy's hospital hours and threatening fines against New Wave to keep her from overworking herself. A child in my care, regardless of anything else, and I was only keeping her from overworking herself due to monetary concerns."
"I see," Miss Militia said after it was obvious Carol was done. A quick look at Amy and Vicky showed her that they were both shocked, though Vicky's had a touch of mild horror. "I am afraid that, given that she has admitted to what she did and that it matches Amy's story, I am going to have to name her in my report of the incident and include a statement that she used excessive force against someone she thought had normal human durability."
"Victoria," Carol said, turning to look at Vicky. "You are grounded until we find out what the outcome of this is. At a minimum. And I don't care that you had a date planned for tomorrow."
"I let Dean know I probably wouldn't be able to go out already," Vicky admitted. "Though I didn't tell him why."
Carol drove Amy to the hospital in the morning, in part to ensure that Amy had no problems getting there with Vicky grounded and in part because she was told that Taylor's father was there. Amy was still wrapping her head around some of the things that had come up the night before, coupled with worry over Taylor's condition.
They made good time, and Amy led the way through the security checkpoints to Taylor's room. There they found Danny, asleep in a chair. Amy shook her head and made her way over to Taylor, taking her hand to check on her recovery.
"WHAT?" Amy exclaimed, waking Danny and startling Carol. "How in the world?"
"Is something wrong?" Danny asked.
"I'm not sure," Amy admitted. "Her enhancements have made the exact progress I expected, basically. But her brain is much further along than it should be. It almost looks like her Corona Pollentia and Gemma are working to heal her brain? But I don't get how, it almost looks like they are very carefully poking the damaged parts in just the right way?"
"So she'll recover?" Danny was almost pleading at this point. Then again, just last night he had been told that it was likely going to be months before Taylor would recover, assuming she ever did.
"At this rate she might wake up in a week," Amy admitted. "Probably two to three before she can be cleared to leave. But with that much damage, and being healed by her power? I don't know how much of her will remain."
"Mister Hebert?" Carol finally spoke up. "My name is Carol Dallon, and I think we need to talk. There is a conference room just down the hall that I think will be more suitable while Amy confers with the doctors."
Danny just nodded and followed Carol out. Amy went back to trying to figure out how Taylor's power was healing her. More interestingly, it seemed to be getting better at it as she monitored it, which was just as confusing.
"Good morning Miss Dallon," one of the doctors said as he came in. "How is Miss Hebert's recovery progressing?"
"Her body is progressing at the expected rate, it will probably be a week before her enhancements are all back in place," Amy responded. "But her power is actively working to fix the damage to her brain. Instead of months of recovery I think she is looking at weeks. I just don't know how much of her will be left."
Broadcast Administrator, as the combination of the Administrator and Broadcast shards had named itself, was working with the data it had obtained from Shaper, coupled with a number of snapshots of its host's brain taken over the past week when she and Shaper's host had made physical contact. It liked the data its host was providing, as did several other shards, but if the host didn't recover properly it wouldn't be able to provide that data. That was obviously unacceptable.
To further complicate matters, Shaper's host wouldn't touch brains, which would have been the easiest way to fix things. But the brain was the one thing all shards interacted with, and Broadcast Administrator had been inspired by its host looking at other restrictions from odd angles, and had been poking at her dreams for itself. Just working around the restrictions placed on the host interaction interface to use it to heal was providing wonderful data. If only it wasn't so slow. And getting feedback on what was working and what wasn't took a while, subjectively.
When Shaper's host came back into range Broadcast Administrator reconnected and traded data on what it had been doing, and got some more suggestions back. When Shaper's host made physical contact Shaper relayed information on what was working and what wasn't in real time, improving the rate of recovery of Broadcast Administrator's host. In return, Broadcast Administrator provided Shaper with the data it was using to bypass the host interaction interface restrictions.
Amy finally finished being astonished at Taylor's recovery and made her way down the hall to where Carol and Danny were meeting. She knocked on the door and waited for them to invite her in.
Carol finally responded with a "come in" and Amy entered. Neither adult looked like they had enjoyed things.
"Have you figured out what is going on with Miss Hebert?" Carol asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"I am still not sure," Amy admitted. "The entire idea that her power is healing her brain, but only her brain, goes against a number of things I thought I knew. We likely need to wait and see what happens. But I think her power was using mine to see what it needed to do, it is the only reason I can think of that things would speed up a little while I was monitoring her."
"You probably deserve that greenhouse Taylor keeps saying you need," Danny finally said. "I am starting to think I should be looking into getting you one."
"What greenhouse?" Carol asked, now confused. "Why would Amy need one?"
"It is apparently Taylor's idea," Amy admitted. "She came up with it when I healed her after her trigger event. I just didn't believe her. My power would apparently be quite happy if I played with plants, and Taylor had the idea of making rainbow-petaled roses."
"How in the world does healing equate to that?"
"Oh, er, healing is kind of a side effect of complete control over the biology of things I touch? Not that the power testers got what I was saying at the time."
Carol stared at Amy for a minute, then continued. "Ok, I actually studied cases of people only using part of their powers for a couple of months. They all cracked. How in the world did you not go insane from limiting yourself to just healing since you triggered?"
"Er, I didn't realise that I was already starting to crack until I accidentally ignored most of my self-imposed limits?"
"When was that?"
Amy actually blushed. Well, she had already slipped, and had revealed a bit more than she intended. What was one last bit? "When I ended up dragged into the tinker fugue that enhanced Taylor to begin with." She could admit that much on her own authority. Taylor could technically provide her part as well. Neither were allowed to talk about Riley, even with Riley's permission.
"Maybe I will make Victoria build you a small greenhouse as part of her punishment," Carol finally mused. Allowing any cape to go nuts because they didn't use their power was bad. If Amy was right about her power? Carol didn't want to think what kinds of situations snapping could cause.
Amy, on the other hand, was busy trying to wrap her head around a seemingly fully sensible Carol. When did the world stop making sense?
- Location
- In My Parlour like a Good Arachne
- Pronouns
- She, her
Huh. Shaper is about to get a decent boost in capabilities now that I think about it. ::::3 Yay Trump ratings.
- Location
- Australia
An afternoon of manual labor huh? Not a jail term? For trying to decapitate a Ward?
Apart from that I'm liking this new take on un-mastered Carol. I don't think I've seen a reasonable and logical Carol before.
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- Location
- Canada
Blast it all, Vicky!
On another note, nice to see Carol being reasonable with Amy now.
- Location
- Australia
I...
I'm not sure if my sigh was disgusted or disapointed. Victoria was terrified about the possibility of getting caught with excessive force in canon (Being quite thankful for her sister), but now that it actually happens, this?
Particularly when she sh/would have killed Taylor?
I'ma stick with it cause you've earned that much, but I'm stuck looking at this chapter going 'really?'.
I'm not sure if my sigh was disgusted or disapointed. Victoria was terrified about the possibility of getting caught with excessive force in canon (Being quite thankful for her sister), but now that it actually happens, this?
Particularly when she sh/would have killed Taylor?
I'ma stick with it cause you've earned that much, but I'm stuck looking at this chapter going 'really?'.
There are, shall we say, other explanations that come later. Though we won't see them all until Taylor is out of the hospital they are already written (and were planned as part of the justification here even before I wrote this chapter).
- Location
- Canada
HOLD YOUR HORSES GUYS!
Vicky didn't use her aura for a while. She cracked. Like Brandish said!
The incident can probably be written down as power-induced psychosis, with the punishment being to perform community service for Taylor and whoever she designates for a month or something. Amy, your greenhouse is about to get built
Vicky didn't use her aura for a while. She cracked. Like Brandish said!
The incident can probably be written down as power-induced psychosis, with the punishment being to perform community service for Taylor and whoever she designates for a month or something. Amy, your greenhouse is about to get built
FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
A new chappy for Taylor Varga and Mauling Snarks? It's not my birthday is it?
- Location
- Australia
Yea, hadn't seen your message yet.
It's just... Everyone's so calm... And talking about 'groundings'.
It's like seeing someone mow down a family of 5 with a gun and then get 'house arrest'. Rage monster Danny, who almost lost Taylor not two weeks ago (IIRC the timeline in this fic) just found out about her head being pumled in, and he's calm.
Yes, I can kinda see other parahumans being semi-accepting due to Victoria having her powers fucked with, but 'Constantly worried about super-villain Amy' has just seen most of her fears realized in Victoria, and she's thinking about 'maybe I should make her build a greenhouse'... Despite her being portrayed as relatively black and white along with New Wave's 'Accountability' stance.
You have the credit, I'll hold my horse... But everyone seems too damn calm about this.
FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
I read it as a case of "I'm so angry it merely looks like I'm calm" situation.
- Location
- Australia
Reasonably though.
Going from 0 to 9001 instantly, I can understand and see that.
I...
No. I don't see it. Maybe 'I'm in too much shock to know how to deal with this properly'... I suppose that could work.
Oh, fridge moment. Why would Mark be recoving without Victoria's aura? I could see someone who was Bipola around her normalizing as the lack of awe/pleasure at pressence/etc allows the brain to finally ballance out, but I would think Mark would get worse massively without his daily Victoria/super-dopamine fix.
Edit: I'm going to quickly clarrify I'm not a psychologist, more ligitimate question from someone who knows bugger all.
Extra Edit: Idea. Without his fix of GG to make him feel fine enough to not take his meds he's now taking them properly? He might still be irregular but I suppose that could result in some improvement.
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Not quite right. Not quite wrong. Her aura doesn't want to be used and is, in fact, fighting being activated for the time being. But there are still issues that will be revealed.
Note that she has also been told that the PRT is going to be pointed at Vicky. She is going to start with whatever it is they decide once they finish investigating, and Vicky is grounded until she finds that out at a minimum. What happens after she finds that out is going to depend on what the PRT does.
Danny has also been informed by now that the PRT is looking to punish Vicky but is more in a "hope Taylor recovers" state than a "punish those who harmed Taylor" state. If he doesn't see anything being done he would, of course, switch gears eventually.
I see it as a problem that is being made worse. But you don't have all the details yet. They come later, and then you might have all the pieces available to see the whole picture.
- Location
- Australia
Duly noted. I suppose people could be caught up in processing. It doesn't quite feel right to me, but as said, horse is in the stable. Even if it's looking at the door funny
Anyhow, I came up with an idea over the next couple of minutes. No clue if it's right, but now I'm on edge to see what they do and have calmed down from trying to tear at all the plot threads.
Vicky, you dun goofed is an UNDERSTAMENT!!!!!! It's only you being in New Wave that's stopping you from being arrested I do believe, and even that might not save you. If you are not arrested, LEARN FROM THIS!!! Hitting first and thinking later if at all IS NOT THE WAY TO GO GIRL!!! No, not the way at all. Jeeze this is a mess and only going to get messier. Great...
Cryptix
Oberon Main
- Location
- LA
My guess is good standing with the PRT + Amy saying that she was affected by a lack of use of her power, something that is actually known in this AU.
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
-That argument might work in a court, but it is garbage. The stress caused by not using powers is caused by the powers themselves. If Vickys power got smacked down and started holding back a portion of her power, why would it cause stress to get her to use what it doesn't want used? She didn't crack, she was an impulsive teenager acting in a fit of pique. If all the facts were known, it would probably be charged as attempted murder, and eventually get broken down to attempted negligent homicide, if there is such a thing.-HOLD YOUR HORSES GUYS!
Vicky didn't use her aura for a while. She cracked. Like Brandish said!
The incident can probably be written down as power-induced psychosis, with the punishment being to perform community service for Taylor and whoever she designates for a month or something. Amy, your greenhouse is about to get built
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- Location
- Australia
She's currently got PRT capes with her, and she's a high end Alexandria package friendly to the PRT.
They're probably soft balling things to get her to come in willingly...
Hey, were they in public?
*Checks*
Semi-private, but the public is going to know about Victoria near on punching the head off of someone else... That's going to go down well./Sarcasm
Vault166
Demonic Giggling Crow (Wants the Shiny!)
- Location
- The Vault Of Crows
I do believe the closest analogue would be involuntary manslaughter, but that doesn't really fit. After all she did want to punch Taylor.