Wednesday morning Taylor was woken by her alarm. She had probably stayed up too late the night before reworking her essay with the information Lung had provided, but forcing her sleep pattern back into place was a good goal too. Her father had checked the transcription for her and found no additional errors, in addition to finding the whole thing interesting to listen to. He had been fairly quiet the rest of the night, possibly thinking about the fact that someday she might end up facing an Endbringer. It was something she was trying to avoid thinking about herself.
This morning's messages included a reminder to post the Lung video at some point, a reminder that she had been put on the patrol schedule for the following evening, and a suggestion that she be visible in public outside of school at some point. Perhaps she should take some time to wander through some stores today? She was kinda busy on Saturday, and probably Sunday as well. Plus her father would probably be happy if she found something to buy for herself. Assuming she could figure out something to get.
She poked at a possible message to use when posting the video on PHO while she ate breakfast. Posting before school had the advantage of most people not having a chance to see it today while letting it be older news by tomorrow. Posting after school had the advantage of guaranteeing that nobody saw it before school, but likely forcing it to be the gossip tomorrow. Decisions, decisions. Well, posting it now would give plausible deniability if she ended up talking to Amy about it, so this morning was probably for the best.
She ended up uploading the video with captions plus the raw audio file, a bit surprised that the site she was using actually had the option to include both. She cleaned up from her breakfast while the uploading was happening, before returning to drop the transcription into the description. With that done she collected the public link and added it to the draft of her post before moving over to PHO. She ensured she was logged in under the right account, then made a new thread.
Subject: Brockton Bay Resident's Experience with an Endbringer
Hello everyone. Last night I had the chance to talk to a resident of Brockton Bay who has personal experience with an Endbringer. They requested that I record their tale and post it, and I have gone further and transcribed it as well for the hearing-impaired, or just for those that prefer to read it. I also included an audio-only version, for those that would find it easier to listen to that way, as the video is honestly not incredibly interesting to look at.
The circumstances surrounding this are not up for discussion for a number of reasons, and as such I will not be answering questions about them. I also cannot answer questions about the video or the contents thereof. They will have to stand on their own.
You can find the video, audio, and transcription [here].
She'd check back later to see how it was received. For now, though, she had to get ready for school.
News had spread a lot more quickly than Taylor had expected, and as she made her way to her locker it seemed like half the student body had already heard about Lung's description of Kyushu. And they were busy informing the other half. A quick check on her phone showed what she felt was an impressive number of replies for how long it had been up.
Poking around a bit she snickered a bit at XxVoid_CowboyxX's bans. She had also taken a quick peek at her loadout thread where she actually laughed at his idea for a weapon near the current end of the discussion. It was an awesome idea, perfect really. Except for whose idea it was, anyway. That might require careful consideration before she decided one way or another. Was the awesome idea worth signaling potential approval...
Oh well, she could figure that out later. For now she was going to hunt down Amy.
Ethan made his way through his search results, looking for the correct forms. Granted, he had only checked the thread on a whim, and knew the reputation of the poster. But damned if it wasn't a good idea despite that. Now if he could only find the forms for suggesting a new standard-issue weapon for parahumans. After he was done with that he was going to see about special-ordering a couple anyway. Perhaps he should think about extras, if only to see if he could hit bulk discount levels?
Hmmm, thinking about it, he recalled hearing something about Maul's maul having some extra requirements. Perhaps he could contact whomever made it about this idea? Which probably meant getting in touch with Glenn. Who'd probably love the idea, honestly.
In fact, he switched to digging up Glenn's number. Better to get started on that right away.
Classes had been, well, classes. The video was being mentioned in all history and parahuman studies classes, but wasn't actually being discussed. Possibly because the teachers hadn't had a good chance to go over it themselves yet. Now, though, it was lunchtime.
"So, what are people doing this afternoon?" Taylor asked. "I was thinking about doing some shopping, but I'm not actually sure."
"I'm patrolling with Aegis and Kid Win," Vicky answered. "Apparently getting extra support on the aerial routes is almost always appreciated, and they've been running aerial routes pretty much constantly lately for various reasons."
"I have to deal with family things," Dean grumbled. "Don't want to, honestly, but what can you do?"
"I've got a request to swing by the hospital," Amy said, poking at her phone. "But so far it looks like it is only for a couple of patients. I'm free after that, if you want to meet up afterwards?"
"I suppose I could head home and ditch my school stuff before taking the bus over to meet you at the hospital," Taylor replied. "It would be better than wandering through the shops on my own, and if I do buy stuff the bus is a better option for getting it home anyway."
"I'd join you," Dennis said, poking at his food. "But otherwise undefined shopping with girls that aren't family or, say, a girlfriend? No thanks."
"Your loss." Of course, Taylor figured there was a chance he was scheduled for Wards stuff anyway. She would likely have been if not for the post-fugue resting period and all.
"I'll pop you a message if it looks like there's more to do than I've been told," Amy added. "Besides, I need new slippers."
"I have no idea what mom was doing that resulted in one of your slippers being destroyed," Vicky said, frowning slightly. "I mean, she did drop enough to replace them twice over into your account as an apology, but what in the world was she doing?"
"Whatever it was, she was embarrassed about it."
Taylor listened as the two discussed ideas, before coming to the realization that she probably didn't want to know.
After school let out Taylor had checked to find that Dennis was, in fact, on the patrol schedule. Dean wasn't, which probably meant that he was telling the truth about having family things to do. The trip home was uneventful, though apparently some of her route was currently without power. She suspected it had something to do with the electrical substation currently sporting an extra car. Luckily for her it didn't have any effect on her neighborhood, so the garage door opened just fine as she approached.
Quick work was made of parking in the garage, but she paused to grab the mail before heading upstairs to switch out bags. Only to find that one of the envelopes was for her. She dropped the others on the kitchen table before examining it. Apparently it was from a government office in New York. Opening it she found a letter with an ID card stuck to it. A quick read showed that apparently her father had filled out the forms to get her an underage drinking card. Replacement cards would apparently show up with her Driver's License or state-issued Photo ID.
"Didn't I have some plan to convince him to do that?" Taylor wondered aloud. "But I don't think I ever implemented it, so did he decide on his own?" After a minute of reflection, she decided that it would be easier to ask him. So she composed and sent off a text message before she forgot. She then ensured the new ID card was with her other ones before heading upstairs, musing on the fact she didn't really have a normal state-issued Photo ID. Perhaps she should look into that?
"What the hell?" Taylor wondered a minute later, staring at the brown-paper wrapped package sitting on her desk. Her father would have left it downstairs if it had shown up before he left for work, or if he had swung by home during lunch even. Since it was in her room she wasn't actually certain how it got there. She carefully looked over it without touching it, and all it had written on it was 'Taylor'. She backed up and carefully poked it from across the room with her power, then grabbed a broom from downstairs and poked it with that. Eventually deciding that if they wanted to do her harm they would have, say, booby-trapped her bed or something, if they were in her room anyway and all, she picked the package up and opened it. Inside was a small book, and she grinned.
"The Troll's Guide to PRT Forms, eh?" Taylor mused aloud. "I guess this answers the question I submitted, though not in the way I expected. Now if only I knew how you got in here. Then again, I wouldn't put it past the box-moving snark to also deliver packages. Since, really, that is what it's doing with the boxes."
It was too bad she had a shopping trip planned, she'd have to read the book later. For now she hid it under her pillow. That might have been a bit of a cliche, but she figured her father was unlikely to check there.
A few minutes later she paused in getting ready to head over to the hospital. The water bulb in her rosebush was full again. Did the box-moving snark also water plants? It might help explain that particular mystery, anyway. Perhaps it moved water into the bulb?
The bus was halfway to the hospital when she got a response from her father about the underage drinking card. Apparently Lacey had convinced him to, because who would believe that the girl who could out-drink Lung didn't have one? Mentioning it to her had slipped his mind, though. He apologized for that, then asked that she not abuse it. Followed a few minutes later by asking that if she did abuse it to prank someone that she get pictures. She responded that she'd do her best, then sent a message off to Lacey to thank her for convincing her father.
Arriving at the hospital, Taylor found that Amy was one of four parahumans already present. Crystal appeared to be in the general area Amy was currently, one of the Arcadia snarks she didn't know seemed to be on the third floor, and Assault was out back, perhaps at the ambulance entrance. She wasn't on duty, though, so she probably didn't need to know what was going on with Assault. If she did someone would tell her, but she suspected he was just assisting with someone being brought in.
Firing a quick message off to Amy informing the girl of her arrival, Taylor sat down in the lobby to wait. Instead, a couple minutes later Crystal showed up. "Hey Taylor."
"Hi Crystal," Taylor replied. "What's up?"
"I was hoping to join you and Amy on your shopping trip. I asked Amy if she wanted to join me in my own shopping, but she said she was already planning on going with you."
"I don't have a problem with that. Anything in particular you need? Amy mentioned slippers earlier."
"Aunt Carol wasn't forthcoming on details regarding why, so I'm told. I'm actually hoping to find some cheap flying toys that might work for target practice. Which means really cheap as I don't expect them to last very long with a couple of blasters firing at them."
"How high are you looking at doing this?"
"Not very, Eric and I just want moving targets for accuracy practice, why?"
"I don't suppose there's a skeet shooting range nearby?"
"Nothing in town, and we also checked for possibilities nearby. Two of the three nearest said they wouldn't let us in without us passing firearms certifications, which we don't want to go to the hassle of. The other one just doesn't allow capes after a group demolished a building by accident a couple years ago. And probably would also want the firearms certifications, which we still don't want the hassle of."
"Huh. So your thought is to take turns blasting at the toys the other is piloting."
"No we...damn, we would need someone to control the toys while we play with bouncing the beams. Crap. There goes that plan. So, apparently I'm shopping for inspiration, because we can't work on coordinating if one of us is controlling things."
"I'm fine with you joining us if Amy has no issues. Have you considered just going with something like a balloon in the wind?"
Taylor and Crystal sat there discussing potential ideas for a few minutes while waiting for Amy. They needed something they could use in an area where if they missed nobody would be hurt, which limited their options significantly.
"I keep telling them to find a way to practice out over the ocean," Amy said as she walked up, apparently having caught some of the conversation. "But apparently there are problems with that?"
"Shooting at each other doesn't help much," Crystal replied, rolling her eyes. "And the water isn't much of a target."
"Rig up some basic floating platforms and put something to launch stuff into the air on them?" Taylor suggested.
"It shouldn't be too hard to rig up some catapults or something," Amy added. "Then you just need junk to launch into the air with them."
"That could work," Crystal admitted. "If we can figure out a good system that we can get out there."
"I take it you're ready to go?" Taylor asked, looking at Amy.
"Yep," Amy replied. "Shall we?"
The three left the hospital together, discussing various potential ways to either float something on the ocean or launch stuff from something like that.
The three girls had started with Amy getting her new slippers, being the only fully defined stop they had. Taylor grabbed a new pair as well before the three moved on, though Crystal had skipped out on that. She did recommend a couple of the pairs Amy and Taylor had tried, even if they decided against them. After that they checked a few stores for potential launching devices, but only really found anything when they talked to one of the employees at a sporting goods store.
"So, you looked up skeet shooting ranges but they wouldn't let you use them," the employee, Joe, said. "Can you afford your own skeet launcher? Get it to the shore and launch the skeet out over the water and all? Probably easier than building a usable floating platform at least, and then you just need to use a truck or van to get the skeet shooter to the shore. You'd only need to carry the thing if you wanted to, say, put it on a rooftop for added height in the launch."
"That's not a bad idea," Taylor mused. "In fact, since the Rig is already out there, I wonder if they have something like that on it already? I don't suppose anyone's asked if there's something like that affiliates can use out there?"
"So apparently I have what now sound like incredibly obvious inquiries to see about submitting. In the event those come back negative I will need to check finances," Crystal said, sighing, before turning to Joe. "Don't suppose there's a catalog of skeet launchers available? I might need to know options and pricing, and be able to go over them with other members of New Wave."
Joe grabbed a catalog from behind the counter and showed Crystal the skeet shooters in it. There were a number of different styles available, with different pros and cons for how they could be used. Crystal made note of several of his recommendations before putting the catalog in her bag. Shortly after the three thanked him and left, not having seen anything else they were interested in purchasing.
"Well, so much for my shopping plans," Crystal said once they were outside. "Should we be stereotypical girls and default to clothes shopping, or find something else to do?"
"Wanna catch a movie?" Amy asked.
Taylor and Crystal looked at each other before shrugging. They had no better ideas. Half an hour later the three were waiting for the apparent action/comedy film they had selected to begin.
"Hard to believe they didn't use special effects for the fight scenes," Crystal mused as they left the theater after the movie. "But powers can definitely be bullshit. I wonder what Moshpit actually did to make the fight scenes that realistic?"
"I've never met Moshpit," Amy said, shaking her head. "But I have heard of him and his powers. Apparently he's the only person within a couple blocks of him that doesn't get a brute rating and a willingness or even desire to be violent with others and the surroundings. As such, I expect the fight scenes were realistic because they were actually fighting, with the brute enhancement making it all fairly safe."
"What in the world does he do when he isn't helping make movies?" Taylor asked, looking at Amy. "I mean, what could he normally use that power for?"
"As I understand it he normally gets paid to live in a well furnished bunker under a skate park. The number of replacement skateboards they sell due to his power makes it worth the expense, and they have a lower serious injury rate as a side benefit. He can't actually use the park, though, because he isn't a brute and would be likely to be severely injured."
"Powers are bullshit," Crystal said, shaking her head. "That aside, I think it is probably time for us to split up to head to our respective homes. Unless the two of you don't have plans to eat dinner at home tonight?"
"We probably should head our separate ways," Taylor agreed.
The three made their way to the bus stop, Crystal stating that unlike Vicky she had to deal with the weight of anyone she was carrying. So unless she had to she wasn't flying Amy home. Amy snorted at that.
Taylor's bus arrived first, and she mused that she hadn't actually done much shopping after all. Oh well, outside of the slippers she didn't have much she wanted or needed right now anyway. Even the slippers were spur of the moment, really. They just seemed more comfortable than the ones she had at home.
Dinner had been running late, which was probably ok as Taylor had been running a little late as well. Her father was happy she had gone shopping and to see a film, even if all she had bought was a pair of slippers and her snacks. Beyond that their days were quite boring.
After dinner Taylor finished off today's homework assignments, then pulled out the library books and notes she had for her Endbringer assignment. She figured she was largely done, but wanted to double check things anyway. She wasn't sure how much time she'd have this weekend, after all, so it was better to get it done now. During a break she did take time to order a printer, taking advantage of the option to ship to her directly. It would be more convenient than using the one on her father's computer, after all.
Once she was done she ensured everything was saved. She'd try and do a final once-over over the weekend before turning it in. Once that was done she went through the motions of her nightly routine. With that out of the way she decided to lounge on her bed while poking around PHO for a bit, only to find her pillow felt wrong. A moment later she recalled her new book and forgot all about PHO.
She was a little late in getting to sleep, but she didn't care.
Thursday morning Taylor found several messages waiting for her. Jacob and Riley both wanted to know how in the world she had gotten an interview with Lung. Well, and Riley wanted to know why she only heard about it when it made the news, and 'more importantly' how Taylor had swung the interview at all.
Taylor blinked a couple of times. As far as she knew, Riley wasn't in Brockton Bay. Or the general area, she seemed to be in a different time zone. Why was she seeing the Lung interview on the news?
Going back to her messages, she let Riley know that the interview had occurred when Taylor asked nicely, having a school paper on the attack and being a parahuman that might eventually face an Endbringer. She let Jacob know the same thing, basically, then moved onto a message from Glenn. He was apparently quite happy with the entire thing as it helped the public see the lack of permanent defeat of the Endbringers in a better light. He also had a 'special surprise' in the works for her. For some reason that made her wary.
Moving on, she had another list of forms and such to look at. She was fairly certain this wasn't a joke, or at least not a joke in the vein of her new book. It was past tedious already, but it wasn't actually required. Meh, she'd probably work her way through this set to see what was wrong and to see where this was all going. She was giving up hope of there being an actual class, though.
She had a reminder that she was scheduled for a patrol this afternoon, but she noted that it didn't say with whom. She'd have to check the schedule later, assuming it wasn't going to be a 'pair up with whomever' day? Supposedly those happened. And last, marked as low priority, not urgent, ignore if you're even mildly occupied, was a message from Dragon. How in the world did you even flag a message as most of those?
Shaking off her musing, she popped the message open to find that it was a request for Taylor's opinion on new AIs. Apparently Dragon wanted to try making a couple of manufacturing AIs that weren't based on her own framework and also wanted to boot up several AIs that were based on her framework, but would wait and see how they grew and where their interests ended up, unlike the manufacturing AIs that would be dedicated to that process. That was definitely a matter of differing complexities. She gave the whole thing some thought, and admitted that she had no real objection to any of it. A quick message to that effect was drafted.
Taylor paused before sending the message to Dragon. She took the time to add a paragraph asking why Dragon had flagged the message as so low priority, then added another paragraph asking what Dragon's opinion was on Danny knowing about her. Because Taylor couldn't come out with the 'I accidentally adopted Dragon' revelation without revealing some of Dragon's secrets. She had to carefully word things to try and avoid any statement in one direction or the other, assuming that Dragon might take such a leaning too seriously. Taylor wanted Dragon's actual opinion, after all.
Once that message was proof-read and sent off Taylor finally got out of bed. Modern technology was weird, and that was before you took into account her biological extras. The fact that anyone with a laptop, tablet, or smartphone could have done the same thing with only a little extra effort just made the whole thing surreal.
School was boring. Amy hadn't even been at lunch, apparently a group of idiots had decided to be a bit too rough in gym class and somehow dislocated at least one joint each, or so the rumor mill claimed. In history she learned that one of the common patterns of the Slaughterhouse Nine was a general avoidance of any city or town that might provoke non-PRT federal attention due to things like prominent offices or locations that would otherwise be more highly protected. That left her with a number of questions she wasn't sure she wanted answers to. Then again, it wasn't a hard and fast rule, they occasionally hit places like that but just stayed away from where the feds were protecting.
Taylor found that today Dean, Dennis, Carlos, and Chris had all beaten her to the PRT building, likely via use of Dean's car. Lisa and Brian were also around, and Missy would show up as soon as possible for her unless she had a really good reason not to. She made quick work of getting to the Wards common area, only to find that Lisa and Brian were probably in the cafeteria and everyone else were in their rooms. Probably getting changed. Shrugging, she moved to do the same.
Half an hour later everyone was sitting around listening to Carlos. Lisa was going to be running the console this afternoon. Brian and Dean were on foot today, running along the back alleys behind the Boardwalk instead of through it. Dennis and Missy were taking a rooftop route near the docks, but specifically to evaluate some of the buildings for safe passage on future patrols. Carlos and Chris were taking an aerial route to get a second opinion overhead look at some damage from a battle between the Empire and Merchants the night before.
"Er, what am I doing?" Taylor asked. "I mean, I kept getting notices about having a patrol today?"
"Oh, right," Carlos said, shaking his head. "You haven't been here for patrols this week and weren't available for the weekend meeting where it was discussed. We've been doing joint patrols with the Protectorate all week. You're the odd one out, so you get a solo run with them instead of a paired run. You can either wait for a PRT Officer to call for you or go wait down in the garage for your ride to the ferry terminal."
"Battery was bummed that she wasn't allowed to request you when you couldn't make it Monday," Missy added. "You technically patrolled with her and Assault already even if that was a Protectorate and PRT patrol, so you get a different group today for your Protectorate only patrol."
"Not even sure why, but you were originally scheduled for the Monday patrol," Dennis added. "But whatever you were up to over the weekend had you off-duty, so they swapped you and I. But I don't mind because there was a visiting cape joining the Protectorate patrol as well, so Missy and I got to talk to them and get a different perspective on things."
"Do I need a rundown on everything else I missed?" Taylor asked. "Since I don't recall getting emailed any of this information, which would have made sense to do if I wasn't around."
"Damn," Carlos muttered. "Knew I forgot to do something."
Taylor rolled her eyes. Which, given her visor was on, had probably been missed. "Well?"
"Mainly just the joint patrol thing," Dean said.
"There was also a warning from Director Piggot," Lisa added. "Though it wouldn't affect you as much. Apparently her request for funding to expand the Wards accommodations was denied because Brockton Bay is 'too violent' or something. They'll apparently have to transfer Wards out to 'more suitable locations' if the roster tries to go past ten. She was mainly warning me, as the current only Ward in town without an actual family tie to the city."
"Is that a subtle request to be careful about whom I recruit?" Taylor asked, staring at Lisa.
"Not really. Unlike most, I realize that it just kinda happened to you. A combination of being metaphorically slapped in the face by my power the first time and your power being unable to resist chatting at least once when you get eyes on a cape."
"Do try and aim for adults from now on, though," Brian added. "I think they'd be willing to relocate Aisha and I after moving Lisa. Thanks to the partial falling out with our parents and all, you know. But we're actually getting some working relationship stuff in place with our father now that he isn't trying to raise Aisha."
"So what does she do while you're doing Wards stuff?" Taylor asked, curious. Aisha hadn't been much of a topic of conversation.
"She got it into her head that she should try and get into the PRT in some fashion as some means of helping me later, which means she needs to get her grades up."
"I'm undecided if that is the truth or if she took it seriously when they warned her that if she wasn't doing well in school she'd probably be taken away from you," Lisa added. "So her actions and performance are directly impacting the government's opinion of you and all."
"Probably a little of both. She's started studying several manuals and such that the PRT gave her."
"Huh," Taylor said, unsure of how to take that. "So, you said that I could head down to the garage?"
"Yeah," Carlos replied. "Have fun."
Taylor got up and put her jacket on, then double-checked that she had everything before leaving. A few minutes later she ran into a PRT officer that had been sent to fetch her. Shortly afterwards she was in a van, on her way to the ferry station.
