Monarch [Worm AU][Alt|Power Taylor]

[Gadflow]

Induction 1.1​

"Taylor, are you ready?"

I glanced up at Julianna, the woman crooked up an eyebrow in a motion that I'm not sure if she mimicked from my mother or if my mother had copied from her. The pair of them had apparently both been part of Lustrum's gang back in the day and close enough that she claimed she had been in contention to be my godmother before the relationship between the two women got tense.

Tense might be me understating it.

Julianna was both a cape, and hadn't left Lustrum's fold like my mom had. She had stuck with the radical faction until the very end, but she had managed to stay lowkey enough that the PRT never bothered to track her down in the aftermath.

The two of them had sporadic communication after that, and I had vaguely recalled meeting her when I was very young when dad had been on a trip with Alan somewhere. Though even after years of working at it the two women had apparently never been able to actually fully rebuild the relationship they had once had, but mom still entrusted Julianna with a letter she wanted me to have if I ever triggered.

If I ever triggered and she wasn't around anymore had been the instructions apparently.

It felt a little weird for me to think that my mom had regularly been worried about me becoming a cape. That she and Julianna had sat down and talked about the best way to train me in how to use my powers if I got them seemed so at odds to how most people viewed capes. Though I guess mom had seen more people trigger during her time with Lustrum than most people ever would in their whole lives, and from the hints Julianna had dropped here and there mom hadn't just been an 'aggressive' college student.

The olive skinned woman cleared her throat, snapping me out of my thoughts and eliciting a blush to my cheeks, before I shot her a sheepish grin as the anxiety I'd been feeling all day began to creep back.

"Taylor, is something bothering you?" The concern in her voice resonated with my soul, as after everything that had happened since Emma turned on me it was foreign to me for anyone to actually care for me without reserve.

"I'm scared that this is just a dream, and when I go back it will all be over," I softly admitted, as my right hand clenched at the thought of the abuse in school, the hollowness of my homelife, the sheer isolation that had come to dominate my every waking moment. The week or so that I'd stayed in Julianna's apartment had put all of that into stark reflection.

Of course, the constant feeling of connection that my power granted me to the woman was surely a factor as well in my recovery.

We still weren't sure exactly how my power worked since I was still recovering from the locker when Julianna checked me out of the hospital early. I'm pretty sure that had involved her using her power on the orderly on duty along with the security guard to delete the tapes from that day, but she was rather tight lipped when it came to making sure I kept plausible deniability about these things.

Also I did technically have a copy of her power right now so if she didn't want me getting in trouble for anything she did it was safer for me to be in the dark, or at least she felt it was a good plan when dealing with Armsmaster and his vaunted lie detector.

Tinkers are bullshit.

"I can always stop by your place and refresh my control over your father. The compulsions won't last half as long now, but we still have a day or two before we are at the limits of my abilities." Julianna's dark brown eyes always held a hard edge and spoke to what she was capable of, but her full lips softened into a small smile, "Taylor, I promise you that if he doesn't see reason then I'll handle it."

I frowned at her phrasing, and the implication of 'dealing' with my dad. Mom's letter had said that Julianna was someone I could trust to keep me safe, but I also wasn't going to just outright trust the suggestions of a woman who I knew had a history of violence.

"He's my dad, I don't want him hurt or you to make him get arrested or something. I," I frowned as I realized I truly didn't know what I wanted. I didn't want to end up back home in the same situation as before but with me hiding even more things, while I also knew I couldn't just stay with Julianna as I still loved dad for all of his faults.

"I just don't want to feel like that ever again," I clenched my eyes shut as I forced away the memories of the locker, "and I don't want to abandon dad either."

Losing mom had basically destroyed dad and I was worried about what would happen if he lost me.

The darker part of my mind was worried that he'd be able to move on and be happy if I was gone.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of leather being stretched slightly as Julianna pulled on a pair of driving gloves, before patting me lightly on the hand, "Despite my misgivings about the man's ability as a father, Annette did marry him and so I'd not actually put him in any danger," Julianna smoothly replied, but the slight smirk on her lips told tales of how far she probably could go if she wanted to. Her power required physical contact via her hands to make a person receptive to her commands and depending on how specific her orders were the control could last for weeks or a few days.

Or at least that was how she had described how it worked to me. I suspected that there was more to her abilities than that though it felt rude to pry when she had done so much to help me.

She had stressed though that manipulating people in ways that were obviously contrary to what they would do only lasted for a few moments to minutes unless she had time to work on the subject. She'd explained briefly that the first time she had used her power had been to make an officer in riot gear to flee, but that had only lasted for a few seconds before he had snapped out of it.

Thankfully mom cracked him over the head with a stolen police baton before he could fully recover.

Her power was potent, but also the type that the PRT very much frowned upon so she found employment as a kind of villainous interrogator for hire. She had some kind of arrangement with Accord in Boston that let her appear as a legitimate member of society to avoid any issues with the IRS which meant she was pretty much the opposite of what I expected a villainous cape to be.

I guess secret lairs were probably a little hard to explain when tax season came around.

Her chair scraped against the wooden floor as she stood up, moving over to grab the black woolen coat that she swept around her business attired frame before glancing my way, "So am I going to your home by myself, or are you going to get dressed and come with?"

I felt my face heat a little at the fact she was pointing out I'd been lounging in pajamas for days at this point, before retreating to my room while muttering, "I'll come."

Though part of why I was lounging in sleepwear was that I didn't have any of my own clothes here and while the stuff Julianna had picked out for me wasn't terrible I don't think I'd worn something that didn't hide my body to some degree for over a year. The idea of wearing something fitting, let alone anything that actually showed some skin, filled me with a sense of mild anxiety at the best of times. Julianna had gone to all the trouble of buying me new clothes and a lot of those clothes reminded me of mom, both from me growing up, and from some of the pictures of her that I'd seen when she was my age which helped to settle my nerves some.

I ended up grabbing a simple pair of jeans that were far tighter than I liked and a blouse, no t-shirts here apparently, a combination that made me even more aware of how leggy I'd gotten. I was actually taller than Julianna who had openly wondered just how tall I'd end up, personally I prayed that I was done getting taller but given how the universe worked I assumed I'd miraculously end up the human equivalent of a stick bug.

By the time I returned Julianna had shouted out to me that she was going down to heat up the car. Brockton Bay didn't get as cold as a lot of cities in the northeast thanks to the bay, but this January had been more biting than a lot of years that I could recall. I locked the door behind me as I left the apartment, sliding into a puffy winter jacket that was an off-white color which had been all the store had left after the surge of purchases as the temperature dropped across the city.

The building itself was a cross between a high class apartment building and a middle class condo from what I could tell. There was an actual guard on the desk at all times who gave me a friendly wave as I walked past, and in general the place felt like it was meant to give a good impression to an outside observer but the actual residents wanted their privacy respected and paid for that first and foremost.

Idly, I wondered how many other villains might live in places like this, or if there were other villains in this very building?

Of course Julianna had already explained to me that such thoughts were dangerous for new capes to have. She'd gone over the 'unwritten' rules with me when I had been stable and lucid enough a few days ago, though she had stressed that they were at best guidelines and that the more powerful the cape or gang the more likely they were to break them if it was to their advantage.

Breaking them and getting caught of course was always a tremendous risk, but I understood her main point was that I should always have a plan in case my opponent was willing to risk the fallout of breaking the rules to win.

The parking lot was accessed through the lobby, as beside for the fire exits, and I guess the roof, there was no other entry point to the building that the guard on duty wasn't physically monitoring. I flinched as the stinging cold hit me when I entered the open carpark, my eyes looked around the concrete walled space and I noticed it wasn't full still. In total I think I'd seen five cars in it when Julianna had taken me here from the hospital, and now during the daytime I only spotted three counting Julianna's dark red generic looking car.

I think it was a Chevy, or maybe it was a Lincoln? I don't know cars or the strange symbols that denote them apart.

It was the type of car that blended in everywhere aside from a scrapyard, not too expensive looking that it would stand out where I was from but not so cheap that she'd attract attention in a gated community. The woman seemed to live and breathe low profile.

As I slipped into the car Julianna held up a rectangular sized object and I sighed before accepting the cellphone into my hands. I'd tried to refuse the damn thing when she first gave it to me, but she'd been firm that if I didn't want it near me around the house that was fine but that if I left then I was to keep it on me at all times. I was pretty sure she had a tracker or something in the phone, but given that I was a parahuman with a power that was both very powerful but very useless at the moment I understood her caution.

She put the car into drive and smoothly began to guide the vehicle to my home, "Have you decided if you are going to tell him about your powers?"

We'd talked about this some, but even now it was hard to decide if it was worth telling dad especially as he would want me to join the wards without a doubt. Mom's letter hadn't been very positive when it came to the PRT and while Julianna admitted that she was biased against the government she had answered my questions about the organization. I understood that there was likely some cherry picking of examples, especially when it came to the rumors about the Brockton Bay capes that she treated as verified facts, but I had to admit that I was a little scared of what the PRT might do if they found out about my powers.

After all, I was apparently the second cape to ever have an Eidolon package.

That isn't to say I just got powers whenever I wanted like Eidolon, but so far we'd discovered that I could make a connection to a parahuman and I gained a copy of their power. It didn't seem to fade unless the connection was broken, and the range of the connection seemed to be getting bigger the more time I was connected. When I first connected to Julianna I'd panicked when the connection was lost after she left the room I was in at the hospital to get me some clothes to change into, and now I could be a city block away from her before our connection broke.

More testing was obviously needed though. I'm pretty sure I couldn't affect a person with their own power, since I couldn't use Julianna's own power on her when we tried it but I didn't know if that applied if I copied a blaster's power like Legend.

I was also pretty certain that I could copy more than one power, and while I didn't want to assume I could copy three powers, just like Eidolon could only use three at a time, I had a gut feeling that I was right.

Of course, I had learned the hard way in the hospital that my power had a compulsion to be connected. When I woke up half delirious from the drugs after the incident at Winslow I thought my heart had been ripped out of my chest before whatever odd instinct I had gained in regards to my power kicked in. The longer I went without being connected the worse I got, a few hours it was kind of like a dull ache which would progress until I would start feeling like my insides were trying to tear themselves apart. The worse it got the more my senses changed as Parahumans, and we had recently learned people with the potential to trigger, started to stand out to me as they became highlighted by a golden glow.

Julianna had been little more than a golden, person-shaped, blob when she showed up and I'd managed to beg and cling on to her long enough to partially fill the void in my power with her own. It was only afterwards that I was able to make out the round faced, olive skinned, woman standing above me.

I'm pretty sure that my senses were still a little altered as parahumans, and potential parahumans, seemed to be almost superimposed in my vision than regular people, like they were just extra-real was the best way I could describe it.

It was so subtle that I only noticed it if I tried to, and it also made me realize just how many people had the potential to trigger and just didn't.

Lucky them, I thought bitterly.

"You've gotten quiet again," Julianna commented before she reached out to pat my forearm with a gloved hand, the kind of casual physical contact I hadn't realized how much I'd missed, "Don't worry, Taylor, I promise that things will get better from here. We'll talk to your father first and then we'll get you transferred out of that school."

I gave a small nod, "Yeah, I'm just worried. I mean dad never seemed to like the PRT, but if he knows I've got powers he'd probably throw me into the Wards just because he thinks that is the safest option."

A scoff escaped from the olive skinned woman, "Right, safe. They'd load you up with the perfect set of powers and throw you at the first Endbringer attack that came up. I've seen it happen time and again, the talents of the next generation being sacrificed by the old guard."

"But my power is perfect for that, I'd just need the rig-"

"No!" Her voice was harsh as she cut me off, "Those monsters would target you right away, they aren't stupid despite what many think, and you would die. You are Annette's legacy, Taylor, and I know she didn't want you getting yourself killed pointlessly to one of those monsters."

She took her eyes off the road for a moment to glance my way before sighing, "Taylor, I understand you want to help, to be a hero." I could hear the leather of her gloves creak as she gripped the wheel tightly, "But those things are not something that children should be fighting. Should even be near." Her last words were muttered more to herself than to me.

Before the conversation could continue we turned onto my home's street, and I really started to notice how rundown everything had gotten. I'd only been gone for a week but I was just starting to realize how bad even my part of the city had been getting without me even noticing.

It was the kind of change you were blind to when you were always exposed to it, but it was the hundreds of small changes that told the story of an area of the city that had mostly given up. A testament to the city that had once been and now the area was little more than a dying limb being left to rot.

"Are you ready Taylor?" She questioned while slowing the vehicle down to give me time to decide.

"Y-yeah," I swallowed heavily at the thought of how Dad would react to seeing me. Julianna had been having him just go about his normal day and if anyone asked about me to tell them that I was with my aunt. Of course, I didn't have an aunt but I'd always called Zoe my aunt so I guess it didn't sound as terrible of an explanation as I had initially thought.

"The compulsions will already be quite weak, but I'll counteract it fully once he's not in a position to make a fool of himself." Juliana explained as though this was the most ordinary thing in the world, though I suppose for her it was.

The car came to a smooth stop next to dad's truck and as we exited the vehicle and made our way towards the house and the perpetually broken step I felt Julianna's hand settle on my shoulder supportively, "I promise that I'll support you as best I can, Taylor, if you want to live here, or with me, or any other arrangement you desire. I promise in your mother's memory that I won't let you be alone anymore."

I could feel tears forming at the corners of my vision as I gave her a jerky nod before I threw caution to the wind and grabbed her in a tight hug. The logical part of my brain knew that I probably shouldn't trust a woman who'd kind of kidnapped me and openly admitted to being a villain, but she was also the first person in over a year who had gone out of their way to care.

As I felt her arms give me a comforting embrace of their own villain or not, she'd become the one steady pillar I had in my life by the simple fact that she was the only one who had stepped up.

I heard the front door open up and the strained voice of my dad, "Taylor?"

I broke away from Julianna and turned to face him, quickly noting that despite the compulsion that he was, or had, been under he looked terrible. The dark circles under his eyes screamed that he hadn't slept well for days and I expected he hadn't eaten for at least a day or two as well.

"Hi, dad." I murmured softly, stepping over and I just kind of hovered in front of him for a few moments before wrapping him in a soft hug. I could feel him tense, only to relax when his arms did wrap around my own form.

"You really are here? I thought this was another dream." He muttered, his voice kind of reminded me of someone talking in their sleep and I suspected it was because he was fighting off whatever remained of Julianna's compulsion she'd placed on him.

"Let's go inside dad, we need to talk." I told him as I led him back through the front door he'd been standing in.

 

[Gadflow]

Induction 1.2​

"You kidnapped my daughter!" Dad practically growled out the moment Julianna lifted the compulsion. I was pretty sure he would have tried more than just that if I hadn't put myself physically between the two of them.

Julianna though apparently wasn't too interested in keeping the peace I was trying to enforce, as she spat out, "I hardly think that giving her the support she so obviously," Danny winced as she stressed that last word before she continued, "needed counts as kidnapping, Daniel."

Dad's eyes flash with anger as he opened his mouth with some heated reply on his tongue, before his eyes shifted to me and he just seemed to deflate, "Taylor, are," he seemed to flounder trying to find the words, and I could see tears in his eyes, "I'm sorry."

I gave him a sad smile as I could feel my own eyes getting wet. I wanted to try to comfort him, but I couldn't find the words

I began to step forward to hug him, but a part of me held back because I knew that I'd just fall back into the same pattern we'd been in before. The gap between us was probably the smallest it had ever been since mom died at this moment, but I could still feel my feet at the proverbial edge looking at dad across a sinkhole of terrible decisions.

Julianna gave my shoulder a slight squeeze, we'd gone over what we needed to talk with dad about. School first, then Julianna, and depending on how the first two went would determine if I should mention my powers.

"Dad," my voice caught as my own instinct to not share rose up but I forced past it, Julianna was right in that I needed my dad on board and holding back wasn't going to help, "Emma, and her friends have been bullying me since I got back from camp last year."

"Emma?" Dad's confusion mirrored my own so well, even now I didn't understand why she had changed, why she so obviously hated me, the sheer frustration of not knowing only made the abuse she delivered to me worse.

And I had to push away the idea that rose in my mind that I could force her to tell me what happened to our friendship. I could even use Julianna's power to turn her on Sophia and Madison, or make the whole school turn against her just like she did to me, I could even make her stuff herself into a locker.

A dark satisfaction thrummed inside me with that last thought.

Or could I fix her? Make her back into the old Emma and then maybe when the compulsion was gone she'd want to stay that way?

I gave my head a shake as if I could just brush away the dark thoughts, though I suspected that I'd always be dealing with those impulses given how I was always just one power away from being able to fix things.

"Yeah, she, she's," my voice broke as her utter disdain when she hadn't even bothered to pretend she hadn't stolen mom's flute replayed in my mind, "she kept breaking me down, and I thought that if I just kept my head down she'd get bored."

I heard dad's knuckles pop as his hands grew white from how hard he was clenching them, but I kept going. It was easier the second time after Julianna had forced me to explain everything to her, "Things were getting better lately, they weren't paying me much attention. There was a girl who started to hang around with me. I thought I had made a," my voice hitched for a moment as I remembered a beautiful smile, "...friend,"

I realized I was crying at this point, as I got closer to the raw wound that was the locker, "It was just a trick. Just a change of pace for them to torture me another way."

I felt Julianna's hands land on my shoulders and it was only then that I realized I was trembling, shaking like I was freezing, "The girl I thought was my friend led me to my locker before first period, and that was when Emma and her friends showed up and when they, they-" It was like my mind was trapped in a loop, feeling strong hands gripping my shoulders as I was thrown into the locker being held open by a triumphantly vicious Emma.

I only found myself jolted out of the terrible loop when I felt a gloved hand cupping my cheek and turning my gaze to look at her.

"That's enough, Taylor, it's okay you're safe," Julianna softly said.

Dad jerked up to his feet, like the angriest puppet in existence, as he started to stalk over to the phone, growling out, "I'm going to call Alan," like it was some kind of curse.

"No!" Both Julianna and myself shouted, we'd been over this and as much as I wanted to get some measure of payback if I wanted to get out of Winslow we needed to not attract attention.

Julianna walked over to dad and she softly spoke to him, his anger didn't dissipate but he looked chastened for a moment before he gave her a small nod as he began to angrily pace around the kitchen as he gathered everything he needed to start making tea and coffee.

We all waited in silence until the drinks were done and dad was still angry but in control, his eyes glancing up after he took a drink from his chipped mug, an old gift from mom, "So, you said you have a plan?"

Julianna nodded, setting her own cup to the side as the woman gestured a lot as she spoke, "You are already familiar with my power," his jaw clenched at how casually she stated that, but he nodded, "The most basic plan would be for me to manipulate Winslow's Principal and tell them to transfer Taylor. It is a very simple request and one that I can rather easily work into casual conversation and a bit of physical contact."

"But wouldn't Taylor's grades make that look suspicious?" Dad asked, and Julianna gave a small noise of agreement.

I felt a small surge of resentment at his question, he'd noticed my grades had slipped and I'd never heard a word from him about it.

"Taylor could always take the placement exams. She's a smart girl, like her mother, but yes if people took more than just a casual glance it would look suspicious quite quickly."

Dad sighed, "I hate asking this, but could you just do the same thing in Arcadia as well? Make them cover things up on their end?"

"Yes, but that's even riskier if I'm being honest," Julianna replied, we'd gone over the options briefly and I was beginning to suspect she either played down the risks for me or she was playing them up for dad. "Arcadia is a far more monitored location, and given that it is common knowledge that several Wards attend there I suspect at least a number of the staff are PRT employees undercover. Also that isn't getting into the fact that Dragon may be monitoring their networks for any red flags such as a new student's records being manipulated in an odd fashion."

My fingers wrapped tightly around my own mug of tea as Julia pulled at her left glove to signal me, I told myself that I wasn't lying as I truly felt all of the emotions that flowed out as I asked, "Would that mean I still have to go back to Winslow if we can't figure this out?"

Both dad and Julianna turned to look at me and shook their heads to answer my question, dad's voice growling out, "I never want you stepping into that place ever again."

Julianna for her part managed to mostly not roll her eyes at that, she'd made a number of comments at how predictable dad was the other day and I had to admit she'd predicted him pretty accurately, before she retorted, "'I appreciate the sentiment, Daniel. But yes, Taylor will likely have to go into Winslow for me to have an opening to work my magic." Dad opened his mouth to respond but she waved him off, "I know that you could arrange a meeting, but I'll look less out of place with Taylor there. If we try to argue that I've moved here to help Taylor it will be a little suspect if I'm present and there is no one looking out for her."

Dad glared at her but gave a small nod, "Okay, fine, but the Arcadia side of this equation still seems to be the weak part of this plan of yours."

I hated that I'd manipulated him there, gotten him angry at the very thought of me in Winslow just so he'd push past any reservations of Julianna using her power on Principal Blackwell.

Julianna gave me a small, encouraging, smile that made me very aware of how good at reading people the woman was. She patted my hand and I knew she was leaving it up to me whether or not she should mention the other Arcadia plan.

She had explained to me that if she made the Winslow administration flag me as a potential trigger there were protocols in place to have me moved to Arcadia. These protocols were even more specific given that it was at school where I had a 'trigger level' event, and as such the transfer was to be automatic to avoid a potential 'Carrie' situation and to move the student in question into a more controlled environment.

I didn't bother pointing out that Carrie always had powers in the book.

Of course it meant that I'd be under a closer watch at Arcadia than if I transferred in through the normal wait list, but it would also be less likely to cause complications in the long run if someone decided to look into why a random Winslow student with below average grades suddenly jumped that same waitlist.

And I was certain that Emma would kick up a fuss if that happened to keep me from escaping..

Of course even mentioning this to dad was planting the idea that I had powers in his head at best, and I could already see the wheels turning the moment he saw Julianna with me. Though I think that had more to do with something he knew about her than me giving anything away since my power was kind of low key for the moment.

Well aside from the whole glowing golden eyes thing I got when I used my copied powers. The fact that my eyes somehow became perfect when they were in that state was more of a curse than a blessing. I'd never liked contacts, but they were never going to be an option for me now if I ever got a power I could use regularly.

Why was it that even when my power was being helpful it only further complicated things?

Dad got up from the table and poured himself another cup of coffee, obviously giving me the time to come to whatever decision I was thinking over. I gave a small nod to Julianna who smiled at me, she'd been stressing to me that regardless of what path I was going to take I needed to think of the longer term impacts of my choices from the beginning or everything I hoped to accomplish could be ruined by an early mistake.

Dad leaned against the counter as Julianna began to explain, "The other option is to have Winslow flag Taylor as a potential trigger, there are protocols in place that will automatically have her transferred to Arcadia as it is the 'control' school in Brockton Bay."

"What do you mean by that? Control school?" Dad asked, and I had to admit I was curious too. Julianna hadn't gone terribly in depth into the protocol when she explained it to me.

Of course I had been kind of a wreck the past week, yesterday had been my first really good day and even that timeframe for even a partial recovery from my trigger was faster than the norm according to Julianna.

"I suppose in Brockton it isn't a factor as there are only a few public options when it comes to high schools here." She mused before she continued, "Normally the PRT nominates one or two schools as controlled environments, which means they keep a far closer eye on staff, students, budgets, and so on, in the event that if they have to move a freshly triggered cape to that school their thinkers have the most accurate data to predict the likely outcomes of what will happen."

She fixed my dad with a pointed look that seemed to speak to some old history between them, "The PRT knows that a cape letting loose in a school is a losing scenario for them from beginning to end."

Dad gave a faint nod to her, before picking up his mug and taking another drink using the time to formulate his question, "So when should the school have initiated the transfer? Your, " he fumed for a few moments before finding his words, "'suggestions' to me didn't stop me from contacting the school and they seem content to do nothing. Last time I talked to Blackwell she claimed that since Taylor was removed from the hospital before she was supposed to be discharged that they aren't financially responsible."

Julianna made a surprised frown at that knowledge, "That seems unusual," she closed her eyes as she considered the information, "I actually thought they might have contacted you already about transferring her."

"Which means what?" Dad questioned, already anticipating something had gone wrong.

"Nothing, the plan is the same, but I guess this has piqued my curiosity. Unless the school is staffed by the exceptionally incompetent this is standard procedure so I can't help but wonder why they aren't following it."

"Emma's dad is a donor to the school, do you think that could have something to do with it?" I asked, and I heard dad set his mug down on the counter as he channeled his anger through his hands which he was currently occupying by gripping tightly on to the edge of the countertop.

When dad finally relaxed his hands he replied, "He's not a big donor, just enough to get his name on a plaque, but given how the public school budget got slashed again last year it's always possible though not likely."

Julianna clapped her hands together to direct the conversation again, "Well, I think we are in agreement that Taylor needs to be out of Winslow as quickly and with as little fuss as possible? So if you can arrange a meeting as soon as possible, Daniel, that would be for the best. Unless anyone has second thoughts?" Her question hung in the air while I shook my head and dad just glared at her for a solid minute.

"No, whatever it takes to get my daughter out of that place and somewhere safe." I didn't miss the stress dad put on how I was his daughter, but him being angrily protective of me was an improvement over the last year.

It helped to smother those feelings that dad really was just going through the motions until I was old enough to move out. That he was just raising me because that was what he had to do.

But even with this recent change I knew that in a month or two dad could backslide and fall back into that routine of being the living equivalent of a zombie.

"I want Aunt Juli in my life, dad." Both adults looked at me in surprise though I suspected that Julianna was more because I hadn't actually called her that name out loud before. Mom had called her Juli in her letter though, so I figured she wouldn't be upset about it.

"Taylor, she's dangerous!"

"She cares about me," was my soft reply, which caused dad's anger to implode on itself.

Julianna sighed softly as she looked at my dad, "Daniel, Taylor needs more than just you for support. I understood when you turned me away after," her breath actually caught in her throat for a moment before she continued, "Annette passed. After all, I am dangerous like you said."

Her eyes shifted over to me, and she shot me a warm smile, "But despite everything that happened between Annette and I she was the closest thing I had to family, and I'll do anything to keep Taylor safe."

Dad sighed as he shot her a distrusting look, "Right, I'm sure it has nothing to do with Taylor having powers?"

I heard someone gasp loudly, before I realized it had been me as a blush covered my face.

Juli though traced her glove clad fingers along the edge of her cup a few times before answering, "I won't lie and pretend that Taylor being a parahuman isn't a factor."

Her eyes had a faraway look to them, "I'd always hoped Annette would trigger, it wasn't until we did a raid on a PRT satellite office that we got a better understanding of how and why people trigger." She fixed her gaze on me, "Your mother couldn't trigger, but that didn't mean she didn't have ideas and plans for if she had. I'd love to be able to let you see that side of your mother, Taylor."

"Annette didn't like the kind of person she was by the end of your time together and we both know it." Dad's voice was angry, defensive even, but the thing I picked up the most was the edge of worry in it. Was he worried about Julianna or was there stuff he was worried about me finding out?

"And yet she still gave me instructions to look after Taylor if she triggered," the olive skinned woman's tone dripped with disdain, "So I think we can say she was conflicted at the best of times about her past."

"And what about the Wards, I assume you've done your best to convince Taylor they aren't an option?" Dad switched away from a conversation that was clearly becoming uncomfortable to him.

"Personally, I don't think it is the best plan, but I work for villains so you won't trust what I say anyway." Julianna replied, "I'd much prefer for Taylor to lay low until she has a few trusted allies, I do have some connections in that regard."

"Allies?" Dad looked at me questioning, and I had to do my best to steady my breathing.

I'd known dad might figure out I had powers, but I guess I expected to feel more in control of the reveal than I was right now. My hands shook a little as I took a few deep breaths to steady myself and compose my thoughts.

"I can connect, or at least that's what I've been calling it, to a parahuman I touch, it lets me get a copy of their power as long as I'm connected to them."

Dad didn't react right away to the rarity of my power, but he wasn't terribly interested in capes and their powers aside from how much of a danger they posed to his family, his union, and his city.

"That's," he grimaced a little as he had obviously worked through how much the PRT would want a power like mine, "I can see the issues, since I can't imagine they would pass up on the ability to have a second Panacea anytime they wanted." As he fell back into thought.

I debated telling him my suspicions of how many powers I could have on the go, or that it felt like I could go 'deeper' than just a simple surface connection if I tried though I had no idea what the effect would be.

I'd dropped enough on his plate as is, and they were just guesses afterall.

He sighed and took off his glasses, cleaning them with a cloth from his shirt pocket, "Even still, I think the Wards are the safer option. There are laws in place to protect Wards from PRT overreach."

"I know and I'm not against joining the Wards, exactly," I told myself I wasn't technically lying, "But, I, I'd like to get into Arcadia first, and see how things go from there."

Victoria Dallon went to Arcadia and I knew it was probably impossible but how amazing would it be if I could get a copy of Glory Girl's power?

I'd always wanted to be Alexandria when I was a kid.

I gave him a small reassuring, or at least I hoped it looked that way, smile, "I just would like to have some time to actually feel as normal as I can. I promise that I won't be running out into the streets looking for trouble. I mean if I joined the Wards now I'd probably end up in a fight sooner than if we wait."

Julianna had actually been very insistent on that fact that I needed to take my time before trying to use my powers in a uncontrolled environment, rattling off a lot of statistics that I guessed were made up about how many fresh triggers were seriously injured, arrested, or just died if they went out before fully recovering and learning control.

Dad sighed, "If this were any other city I'd have signed you up without a second thought, but you are right that the wards here seem to be in a fight nearly every other week."

He fixed me with a hard stare, "You will promise me that you won't put yourself in danger, if you so much as take a single step towards a dangerous situation, if I get even a hint that you are thinking of stepping over that line, I'll have those damn papers signed before the day is done. I might not like the PRT, their attitude, or what they've done for the city, but they can keep you safe from the people who would want you for your power and I can't."

I wanted to argue, to try and say that I could look out for myself, but I caught Juli's look and I knew that she was on his side right now. She was firmly of the opinion that I needed to have a working set of powers, and trustworthy people attached to those powers, before I openly entered cape life.

Of course she was more likely just to steal me away to Boston rather than let me get drafted into the wards.

"Taylor, could you go up to your room?" Dad asked me softly, "I need to have a talk with Julianna."

"Sure, dad." I replied, a little worried about a potential blow up, but I hoped that the two could get along for my sake.

Because I'd realized I really needed them both, but if I was forced to choose I wasn't sure which one I'd pick.

 

[Gadflow]

Induction 1.3​

"Well, it went better than I expected," Julianna said the moment her car pulled away from the house.

Dad had, of course, wanted me to stay, but Julianna had apparently talked him into letting me go back to her place so that I could pack up and bring my new clothes with me. She was very forceful about having a positive image about myself, and not letting others decide that for me.

Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that she had started a nationwide terror campaign, and went about 11 steps too far with her ideology, Lustrum had a lot of good advice of which Julianna, and my mom, utilized.

She and dad hadn't yet come to any sort of 'custody' arrangement, but dad hadn't forbade me from seeing her and had promised he wouldn't call the PRT about her.

Though from how Julianna talked about her connections I'm pretty sure the PRT wouldn't bother with her because if they backed her into a corner she'd be far more dangerous than letting her be.

After all, a mercenary who the villains hired to make other people tell the truth is far less dangerous than a full on villain who can control other capes with a touch and word.

"Well, he didn't call the PRT so that was a plus," I commented, watching as we drove closer to the towers and other highrises that marked the economic core of the city, "Though I got the feeling he wanted to the whole time."

"True, but he also said that I could look through your mother's things next time I was there." She grew quiet for a few moments, "I didn't think he would say yes when I asked."

I fidgeted for a moment as I found myself blurting out the question that had been looming in my mind ever since the woman had handed me mom's letter, "You and mom were you a cou-"

"Taylor! No!" Julianna seemed actually dumbfounded at my question, "I mean, your mother had a few girlfriends here and there," I blushed at that knowledge, though Juli kept talking, "but no I've never felt any attraction towards a woman."

She sighed, as though trying to figure out how to explain something very complicated, "I suspect that my relationship with your mother was a little similar to what she had with Daniel, only without the sexual attraction."

"Your mother was driven in a way I couldn't comprehend in a person until I met her. I was swept up in her wake, but in that wake I felt truly needed and appreciated for the first time in my life. If there was such a thing as a platonic soulmate, your mother was mine."

Her voice by the end sounded both wistful and sorrowful but I could hear an undercurrent of anger, and I realized that she and my dad were more alike than I thought.

"We'd talked about raising our kids together as a unit. We didn't care if it would have seemed strange to others, but at the time we couldn't think of our lives without the other in them."

I could almost see it in my mind's eye, but I knew from the letter that something had gone wrong between the two women.

"Why didn't that happen?" I asked, my voice cracking a little from the pain of what might have been my life.

I could hear the leather gloves creak slightly, "I triggered".

"A cop had managed to separate the two of us from the rest of the protest. He must have had over a hundred pounds on me and he had slammed Annette against the wall of a building we had torched. There was ash everywhere, and the heat was so bad I could feel my skin burning, and all I could think about was how I couldn't do anything to make this fucking cop stop from bashing in the skull of the most important person in my life."

"Next thing I knew, I could."

Julianna released an explosive sigh, "You'll understand once you are farther away from it how much your trigger changes things. Annette couldn't understand why I acted differently because while it was a terrifying moment to her, that event changed my whole life in ways she could never comprehend."

"She was still the leader, but now I needed, and I mean needed," her voice dipped into a growl, "to make sure she was protected and," silence filled the car for a long time, we had gone past a few city blocks before she continued, "I was young, and angry with powers that were very strong."

I could easily picture how much damage Julianna could do if she wanted to, and I could imagine how mom might have felt if she found out that was being done on her behalf.

Julianna's voice turned introspective, "It was only through dumb luck, and the fact that our cell fell apart shortly after your mother left, that I didn't end up in the birdcage. I also suspect that the PRT felt I was still a potential recruitment target, as now that I look back at it a few of my close escapes were too good to be true."

I jolted in my seat when I felt her hand squeeze mine, "I wish that things had gone differently. That Annette and I could have patched things up fully so that I could have been around as you grew up, but she had made a new life for herself and was worried about what might happen to you if I was around."

By now we were just a little ways away from her apartment building, and so the car fell into silence that was only broken once the car's engine had fully died.

"Okay, leave out enough clothes for tonight and tomorrow. I'll buy some more for your room here so you won't have to be dragging packed bags back and forth if I manage to convince Daniel of an arrangement that has you staying over here."

***

Packing done, the pair of us were sitting in her living room waiting for delivery from an Italian restaurant down the street, while Julianna was busy sorting a few folders that she had taken out of her office.

"You can start looking through these while I run down to grab the food," she told me when we got closer to what she insisted was the normal delivery time for the restaurant.

As a pleasing sounding tone alerted us that the food had arrived Julianna strode off with a smirk on her face to accept the delivery, her timing prediction proved correct. While I waited until she was out of sight to peek inside the first folder which was yellow.

She was smug enough as is without me doing exactly as I was told.

I blinked in surprise at a picture of Victoria Dallon, the Alexandria package of Brockton Bay. Invulnerable, powerful, and she could freaking fly. My eyes flicked over her picture, and I had to admit she was gorgeous, blonde hair, fit, curves that would make Emma jealous.

Everything that I wasn't of course.

Flipping away from the photo to distract myself I began to leaf through the pages of text that were stapled to it. I realized it seemed to be some kind of dossier on the girl. Flipping through the rest of the folder confirmed that this yellow folder seemed to be covering New Wave in particular.

They had been known under a different name when I was just a little kid, but they rebranded when they publically unmasked so they were one of the few cape teams who didn't have a separation between public and private. Emma's father I think actually worked in the same firm as Glory Girl's mom, whose cape name was Brandish.

Despite what Emma often claimed, I knew that her dad was barely a junior partner in the firm so I very much doubted Brandish even knew he existed.

When I heard the door to the apartment open I shut the folder and put it back where it had been, but Julianna was already shouting from the entry, "I know you were peeking at the files, Taylor."

I grumbled as she began to put the food on the table between us, obviously amused, "Come on I put them there for you to look over. We need to start thinking about what options are available for you in the city."

Glancing at another folder I found myself seeing a picture of Rune, one of the Empire Eighty Eight's capes or as most people would just call them a bunch of neo-nazis.

"She a nazi!" I spluttered.

"Don't think about the person right now, I just want you to think about the powers." She leaned close to me, her hands moving as she explained, "This is more of a thought exercise than a plan of action."

"Okay, ignoring that she's a nazi, she doesn't have a ton to offer. I mean the flying trick is cool and all, but there are other flyers. And if we want to talk about blasting power, Purity is in this city."

Julianna sighed and rubbed her left temple, "Yes, but think of it this way. A second purity showing up will attract far more attention than another telekinetic, plus Rune's abilities don't cause her to turn into a human lightbulb."

"It would still be fun to be a blaster," I grumbled, which earned a laugh from Julianna.

"Don't focus on the flashy powers, Taylor, you have your mom's creativity and that will be more potent than any power. You are the most important part of the equation and trust me when I say that so many capes are limited by the fact that they see their power as more important than what they can bring to the table."

I nodded as I could see the logic behind what she meant, flipping open another folder that showed a blonde girl in a fairly tight dark outfit with hints of purple. The picture wasn't of amazing quality and I suspected that it was taken from a security camera.

"Tattletale, she's relatively new to the Bay and the team she's in, the Undersiders, has been together for less than a year. They focus mainly on either traditional corporate espionage and hits on light gang storehouses."

The girl had a great figure too, which I was starting to think was some unfair trait inherent to capes who were blonde, which was enhanced by the skintight black and purple outfit.

"She's a thinker," Julianna continued, "Seems to be able to ferret out information from people she's interacting with but I don't know the mechanics behind her power. If it is one that is passively on that might cause issues if it causes your body to react."

"Stupid glowing eyes," I muttered realizing why that might be a bad combination, before asking, "She's a villain anyway, we've been over this."

"Just because they are villains doesn't mean you might not find common ground, and keep in mind her team hasn't kept their targets limited to the gangs and gang fronts so far." She picked up that file and set it off to one side of the table, "At the very least consider meeting her, as you don't want to be on opposing sides and getting blindsided by having the extent of your powers revealed at her discretion."

She tapped the girl's picture, "Finding a common ground with someone like Tattletale will be of great benefit to you in the long run, and it is good practice for you in how to approach other capes as she has no power that puts you in physical danger."

"So I'm just to trust a villain?" I scoffed, but that earned a frown from Julianna.

"Despite what you may think," she lectured, "most villain teams are rather close and need to operate at a high level of trust. The continual backstabbing and power plays are generally exclusive to those masterminds and crime lords who are busy pretending to be kings and queens."

"There were some exceptions to that of course, Marquis had a good head on his shoulders as long as you paid lip service to his silly rules, a shame what happened to him. Also as long as you play along with Accord's quirks, he's manageable in small doses."

I wasn't going to get into yet another argument over why Maquis was, in fact, a terrible person, so I just muttered while flipping through the folder, "I think I'll pass on meeting with OCD in the flesh."

"Wait, you said that Tattletale was part of a team?" I hadn't even noticed she hadn't mentioned the others.

Julianna paused before sighing, "There are three other members. Grue the leader," she flipped over a photo of what looked like a large man with a skull face motorcycle helmet, "He is able to create and spread a type of fog-like darkness, with some reports that the darkness can dampen the senses of those inside."

"It could be useful?" I asked, and I could already imagine a number of scenarios for such an ability.

"True, his power has potential, but he's got far more of a reputation as a mercenary than Tattletale and I worry that he may not be trustworthy until you are capable of defending yourself."

I think it was just her Lustrum bias at play, but I wasn't going to get into it.

"Rachel Lindt, don't worry about the unwritten rules here, the girl has never had a truly secret identity since she triggered." She flipped over a picture of a muscular, auburn haired girl wearing what looked to be a plastic dog mask.

"The PRT calls her Hellhound as she is able to transform dogs into massive beasts that her team primarily uses for transportation or muscle. She is extremely violent and easy to provoke, which I don't think would be a good mix for you."

Her power unfortunately didn't have a lot of appeal to me as it wasn't like I'd ever had a dog let alone have one on hand to transform, and I wasn't about to start turning people's pets into monsters.

Julianna grabbed the last photo, that of a slim, almost feminine, boy in a white outfit, "Regent, he seems to have some degree of control over others motor functions." She hesitated for a moment before adding, "I'd watch him, as someone who routinely holds back my power I suspect he may be similar."

I frowned at that last comment, as it did confirm my suspicion that Juli could do far more with her power than she had told me. Still I kept looking through the dossiers that were present and looked up at the woman, "I'm surprised you didn't include Uber and Leet."

An annoyed huff escaped Juli, "They were considered, but sadly they are too high profile thanks to their videos. If it was just Uber he'd be near the top of the list, but the tinker complicates matters."

"Right, makes sense, as it would be hard for me to approach them either at their base or during one of their costumed events without getting outed." I commented as I moved to the fridge to grab a can of pepsi before returning to sit back down.

An olive skinned hand placed the yellow folder I had looked at earlier back in the center of the table, before playfully flicking my finger to get my attention. "Use a coaster, Taylor."

I couldn't help but giggle a little at how mundane a demand that was ,while we were looking at capes like they were slabs of meat, or slabs of cosmic powers I suppose.

Julianna began running over the basics, "New Wave, particularly Victoria, is an option you might be able to pursue at Arcadia. From all reports she's a fairly brash, young woman with occasional control issues but that may be from stress. While it may be possible for you to befriend her I'd be very cautious about it as she does have some form of emotional aura ability. Do not try to acquire her power unless I've given the okay or there are extenuating circumstances, as she does patrols with the wards on a semi-frequent basis."

As the next folder flipped over I could see the family resemblance to Victoria right away, "Brandish is not ideal as she does have a tangential connection to one of your abusers in addition her powerset is very specialized. The same could be said for Flashbang but from all reports I've seen he rarely goes on patrols anymore so he's not an option unless you gain access to the Dallon home."

She flipped to the next page and tapped Panacea's picture, "I'd avoid the sister," a brown haired girl just a little older than myself, "if possible, she might be able to identify that you are a parahuman by touch. On top of that while her healing is incredibly potent it doesn't affect herself which is likely a limitation you will also be bound to."

"I still think healing could be useful," I stated for the record, before I shuffled through the papers again and asked, "What about Lady Photon's family?"

"Lady Photon is an optimal choice, possessing hardlight beams, shields, and flight," she said the last bit with a smirk at how my eyes must have lit up, "with her daughter having a more offensive variant of her powers and her son being more defensive in nature." Her head cocked to the side, "I suppose you and Shielder are the same age, perhaps when we get you into Arcadia that is an avenue to pursue," she teased.

I blushed for a moment before I glanced at my skinny, gangly form, "Right, like that would happen," my voice filled with the self-loathing I held for my appearance.

"None of that," Julianna's voice commanded as I looked up at her to see her face softening, "After all, I'm sure he's tired of busty blondes and maybe a mysterious, tall, dark-haired beauty could captivate him." She gave me a smile that I didn't reciprocate.

Because I wasn't a beauty, despite what she said. I knew I was plain at best ,and I didn't want to have another conversation about positive body image right now, so I gestured at the folders remaining, "No Faultline and friends?"

A flash of annoyance flicked over Juli's features at my obvious change of subjects, but she shook her head and answered me, "Her people are incredibly loyal to her, so if you wanted access to their powers you'd likely have to join her group and she is as mercenary as it gets." I raised my eyebrow at the sound of distaste in her voice, given her own rather mercurial attitude.

She actually looked affronted, "I'll have you know I don't accept payoffs from the PRT, a lady needs her standards after all, and Faultline has made a lot of money by letting the PRT pay her to not get involved. I suppose this might be the old me talking, but I just prefer people to be paid to do something than to be paid to not do something by the feds."

While she was talking I had been setting out the pages I'd taken from the wards folder, placing Vista, Aegis, and Shadowstalker face up on the table.

"Vista is the cream of the crop," she agreed, "Unfortunately the girl is the youngest of the group and I don't believe she attends Arcadia yet."

I flicked through Aegis' writeup, "He has flight and the whole redundancy aspect of his power seems like it could be useful as a just in case option.

Juli clicked her tongue, "True, but I don't particularly like the idea of you getting mauled in the same manner that he allows himself to be. A prime example of someone who thinks of their power as their most important trait, he has the ability to just throw himself into danger and so he does so without thinking as to if he should."

Looking at Shadow Stalker's dossier I noted that Juli had recorded that there were at least two suspected homicides linked to the ward when she was an independent vigilante. "I'm surprised that they put her in the wards."

The woman though had the answer ready, "Her power is too useful for dealing with armored targets. In theory she could bypass any number of powered armors or defensive shields to get at the target on the other side using her ability to phase her projectiles."

I hummed, "And she has her breaker state too, being able to phase through walls seems pretty useful."

Our power talks were interrupted as Julianna declared it was time to clean up the remnants of our meal. She and I cleared away the empty containers and put away what few leftovers we had in her fridge. When we came back I settled in my previous spot but I couldn't help but tense a little when I felt her behind me,

I felt the tap of what I discovered was a hairbrush on my shoulder, "Do you mind if I brush your hair, I used to do it for your mother when she was stressed."

I blinked a few times as I tried to think of when the last time anyone aside for myself had touched my hair, and I felt a surge of anger and sorrow when I realized it would have been Emma just before I went to camp.

"Yes, please go ahead," I wasn't sure if she heard my quiet voice at first, but then I felt her shift a little closer and I could feel her so close to me that I leaned back just a little to let my back press into her legs.

I found myself lulled into a kind of trance as I was lost in the tactile sensation of something just being there in contact with me after so long of feeling isolated, I was so out of it that I was so startled when she started talking again that I didn't hear a single thing she said.

Flicking a glance over my shoulder sheepishly I asked, "Sorry, missed that."

An easy laugh escaped her lips, "It is quite alright, dear, I was simply saying that Miss Militia has a power that while useful will likely draw a harsher response than we desire."

Julianna had explained that guns are an awkward subject with capes. Using one generally got you labeled as a villain by default, even though I could personally think of more PRT heroes who used firearms than big time villains.

"Can't she also use it for knives? I bet it would work for other weapons like swords."

"I think you are right," the olive skinned woman drawled out, "But unless you also had a brute power in your repertoire then you'd just be a skinny thing with a sword." Which drew a small frown on my face, I'd been meaning to start running this week but stuff kept coming up.

She laughed a little at my frown before absently adding, "Speaking of which, you need to start an exercise program as soon as possible. Good cardio is a minimum, though I believe some strength training wouldn't go amiss either."

"I was thinking about starting to go for some runs in the morning already," and I felt a small glow of happiness at the fond smile she gave me.

With graceful movements she swiftly picked up every tinker dossier and set them off in a pile away from the others, "I think it is for the best that you avoid any tinkers for the near future. Their tech can be incredibly potent, but the required resources and time are things that are likely not to be on your side for quite some time."

Her hand patted the pile, "Once you are in a position that we can be sure of your safety then we can revisit this pile."

The fact that she assumed I wasn't joining the Wards went unspoken.

"I guess that rules out Dauntless," I mused, as the Protectorate cape was slowly becoming more powerful every year. It was suspected that one day he'd surpass at least one of the triumvirate in power.

Another stroke of the brush through my hair, "Not necessarily, Taylor, you might gain his power as it currently stands," she hummed amusedly, "And get that flight ability you so desperately want."

"Everyone wants to fly!" I objected, strongly.

"Not everyone," drolled Julianna, and when I tossed a glance her way she gave a half-hearted shrug, "I'm scared of heights."

Which was enough to get a giggle to escape my lips, as it just seemed such a weirdly normal thing for a parahuman to be worried about.

The woman merely rolled my eyes at me as she moved on, "All of the speed based heroes in the bay are options, though Assault is probably the safest option and most effective."

"Why?" And I truly was curious as to her insight here. Assault came off as a pretty likable guy in the interviews I'd seen but the way she spoke implied some kind of personal connection.

"Well, let's just say that he used to be on my side of the fence until he flipped."

"Assault was a villain?!" I gasped, but then I guess it would make sense that if you could recruit someone to the other team then why wouldn't you.

"Yes, he specialized in breaking people out of prisoner transport to either maximum security or the cage. Had quite a good thing going on before he fell for the oldest trick in the book." Her voice had an amused quality to it as she spoke.

"Oh, what's that?"

"A pretty face," Juli laughed out, "I think his condition for joining was that he had to be placed on Battery's team."

I grinned in response and started to laugh before I found it catching in my throat.

Because I couldn't see anyone ever doing such a thing for me, I could only hear Emma's words in my head repeating all those things I didn't want to believe about myself, but I knew deep down they were true.

That no one would ever consider me pretty, I'd never have someone who cared about me because of me, I'd be alone until I died and no one would even remember a girl named Taylor.

Because she had been my best friend, my sister, and she'd not just thrown me away but she tore down all those lies I'd told myself.

Because if I was someone worth saving, wouldn't someone have saved me?

A sob escaped my lips, and I could feel Julianna shift closer to me, her laughter having stopped the second mine had.

"Why are you bothering," I whimpered out, "I'm nothing, even now that I have powers all I am is a leech!" My voice pitched up into nearly a scream by the end, as it was like I could still hear Emma's voice in my head but now she was tearing down my powers and how even as a cape I was still useless, dependent on others.

Weak.

I felt a hand grab my chin, hard, Juli's eyes burning with anger as she stared into my soul, "Taylor, you are not nothing. You are everything." Her hand stroked across my cheek and I could feel myself calming as her lips pressed against my forehead, "My daughter."

Her words startled me but didn't resist as I felt her pull me into an embrace, she didn't hold me like mom used to but there was a similarity between the two women.

A darker part of my mind told me I was just seeing resemblances that didn't exist, that I was latching on to the first thing that so much as glanced my way.

Her voice was soothing in my ear, as if she was trying to banish my inner demons with her voice, "It's all right. I know it is hard to believe right now but you are incredibly special, Taylor, you are irreplaceable."

I didn't really believe her though, and I spoke my voice muffled by her shoulder, "Then why didn't anyone save me?"

"Because humans are weak things, Taylor. They don't take responsibility, they ignore and hide away if it makes their lives easier, and they expect others to save them." I could feel her hand that was on my ribs tighten a little with her anger, "That's why we are better than them, Taylor, we don't ignore, we don't hide, and we save ourselves."

I thought for a moment how strange it was for a cape that seemed so lowkey to say such a thing, especially to me when it felt like I had tried to do all of those things to survive Winslow. But she sounded so sure of herself that I found myself mesmerized to a degree and I couldn't help but feel there was a deeper meaning to her statement that I didn't quite grasp.

I lost track of how long she held me as I continued to spill out all the bile that Emma had filled me with, as she just kept whispering more encouragement and soothing statements in my ear to replace it. Eventually when I'd emotionally exhausted myself she helped to lead me into my room.

I felt her kiss my forehead and I could still feel her breath on my face as she whispered to me in the darkness.

"Sleep well my little monarch."

 

[Gadflow]

Induction 1.4​

The next day Julianna was driving me back across town to drop me off at my house in the morning. I turned my head away from the window whenever we went past a bus stop lined with kids waiting to go to Winslow, as the last thing I needed was anyone reminding Emma that I still existed.

Not that I thought that she could actually do anything more to me than she had, but these reactions were burned pretty deep in my psyche at this point.

I idly wondered what surprise Julianna had to show me later on this week, but she'd told me not to bug her about it until we got the whole transfer situation covered and that I wasn't to mention it to dad at all.

She'd only hinted that it had something to do with mom and I guess something she hadn't told dad about or had hid from him. She was being as enigmatic as possible and I really didn't enjoy being left in the dark.

I smiled a little at dad when we got home as he looked a little better. His eyes alone let me know he had gotten some sleep finally, though his alertness also seemed to renew the hostile looks he was sending Juli's way.

She leaned down and hugged me, "If anything goes wrong just call and I'll be here," she whispered into my ear, and she squeezed my hand affectionately when I nodded in response.

"Well, take good care of her, Daniel." She said to dad, which I could see dad visibly tense at those words.

He stepped forward and I felt his hand on my shoulder, but his grip was too tense and it felt less like a motion to calm me than to proclaim that I was his child to the woman he was glaring at.

I shrugged away from him, "Bye, Aunt Juli," I said as I grabbed my things and brought them inside hoping to de-escalate this situation.

I didn't hear the door shut behind me and when I turned back I could see the two of them talking, it wasn't a long conversation, maybe a few minutes at most before the two of them separated.

Juli waved back at me as she got into her vehicle, while dad shut the front door a little more forcibly than he probably should have with a wince. Once his eyes fell on me he visibly deflated, as Juli had encouraged me to pick a nice white blouse coupled with a dark skirt that flared a little to give the impression I had more of a figure than I did.

It was also the kind of thing that mom used to wear, and while I knew it probably hurt him a little to see the resemblance between me and mom I couldn't keep hiding myself away to avoid hurting him.

"So," dad began to talk but he trailed off before lamely asking, "Did you have breakfast?"

"Y-yeah," great job Taylor, I thought darkly, way to not make this more awkward.

He sighed, obviously working himself up to acknowledge the elephant in the room, before deciding to avoid the subject, "I called Winslow this morning to arrange a meeting. They wouldn't give me an appointment today, but I've got a meeting with Blackwell tomorrow after classes are out."

I blinked at that, more than a little confused because you would think they would want it dealt with as soon as possible. I mean sure I wasn't physically hurt aside from some scratches, but I somehow doubted that if a student was locked inside a locker for an hour in Arcadia that the school wouldn't be doing everything they could to handle the situation.

"Something feels wrong about this," I murmured to myself, feeling like there was some piece of the puzzle I was missing.

Dad kept going, unaware of my comment, "So Julianna knows, as much as I don't like or even want her help," I swear I could see him visibly swallowing his pride, "I want to make sure you get out of that place and I don't care how we manage it."

I smiled at that, glad to see he wasn't going to change his mind. I'd been worried about that for most of the night, because I didn't see any issues with making Blackwell do what she was supposed to do in the first place.

If she had done her job from the beginning none of this would have happened after all. Hell had she actually stopped the bullying then she wouldn't have had a girl stuffed in her own locker and gaining powers from it.

I suppressed a wince as I felt Julianna finally get out of my range, my power didn't hurt, yet, but it was a matter of time, and severity, at this point.

Sure, she could have stayed in the neighborhood but she was right in that I needed practice with my powered down state. As if I truly couldn't function for long without a connection to another parahuman then I was going to need to choose someone who wasn't Juli and soon.

The woman was amazing and supportive, but it wasn't like she could hang around a school all day and I did know that she had a life, and a villainous career to maintain.

"Before you say anything, I'm coming," I stated firmly, knowing that he was probably going to try to convince me that I didn't need to be there.

"You sure?" his worried voice shifted into one with an angrier edge, "I meant it, Taylor, you never have to go back to that place if you don't want to."

"It's fine, dad, it's just a building and I'm not going to let them control my actions anymore," I fixed him with a steady glare, "I've moved past them."

Dad's expression was hard to read for a few moments before he sighed, "You take way too much after your mother," his voice made that sound equal parts praise and accusation, "but alright I won't try to argue since the other one was already against my idea."

I bent down and started taking out the workout clothes that Julianna had picked out for me. They were way more revealing of my body than I was really comfortable with, but she'd bought them already and I didn't really have other options that I already owned so they'd do for today.

"What are those for?" My dad asked, obviously not expecting his rather sedentary daughter to suddenly show interest in fitness.

"Getting in shape, you never know when I might need to run away from Lung," I joked, though from his expression he didn't find it funny.

***

I groaned in exhaustion as I flopped onto the couch, I'd barely gotten half the distance I'd hoped to during my run and it felt like my heart was going to explode.

I felt myself being nudged by my dad's leg, he really hadn't been on board after my Lung joke, but he'd relented after he went out for a quick trip and returned with a can of pepper spray that he forced into my hand firmly stating, "Be safe."

As much as I wanted to roll my eyes at his worry, even I had to admit that our neighborhood wasn't half as safe as it used to be. When I was a kid some people still left their doors unlocked, I doubted there was a single household that did now.

"Come on, sweaty, get into the shower and stop wrecking the couch."

My jelly legs didn't want to obey at first, but I managed to get them to work after some effort. As I stumbled up to the shower I glanced in the mirror and while I felt the familiar disappointment at my figure but I didn't find my mind lingering on those thoughts as long as I had before I triggered.

I remembered Juli's comments about being a tall, raven haired, beauty, and while I doubted I'd ever be beautiful, maybe I could change my look once I got to Arcadia. There would be no Emma there, no preconceived notions of who I was, and for the first time I realized I might actually be able to have a fresh start.

Maybe I'd go to the mall later this week and try to find a style that was more mine. I didn't have much of an eye for fashion, but as nice as Juli's clothes that she'd gifted me were they were obviously based on her memories of what mom wore when she was younger.

Though her memories of mom were from when she was three years older than I was, when she'd finally grown out of her awkward looks and settled into who she would be until her untimely death.

Which is to say when mom was way more confident than I felt right now.

Plus there was the whole 'women's liberation terrorist cell/sorority' movement she was in, which kind of encouraged some styles I don't think I'd ever be able to wear.

Like almost all of the pants terrified me by how tight they were, and I don't care how many times Julianna insists that 'I have the legs' for them.

As I stepped into the shower it was soothing on my muscles that were obviously unused to physical exertion. Most of my shower routine was swift, but I always lingered and pampered my hair. I wondered if when I went out as a cape I should hide my hair, I knew it was the smart choice but Alexandria left her hair out and I'd always wanted to be the triumvirate cape.

I shook my head of the thought, knowing that I shouldn't start daydreaming about going out until I was in Arcadia and I have my power situation a little more figured out. Sure dad would threaten to send me to the wards, but he wasn't the one with powers.

He couldn't help people the way I could, well would I suppose was the correct tense.

I shut off the water and began drying myself off before padding off to get changed into the clothes I had been wearing this morning.

***

Dad had taken the day off work, though I suspected he was already a mess about it inside. Mom had always joked that dad had two families, us and the union, and when she had died one of those families was far easier for him to deal with.

Still, he had asked where I wanted to go and I'd suggested the boardwalk. Not because of the desire to buy anything, but it was the kind of place we'd have gone to as a family and while I'd been to it a few times since mom died it had always been without him.

The car ride was fairly quiet aside from the radio, though dad changed the station when one of the DJ's began sounding a little too in favor of all the 'benefits' the E88 provided for 'real Americans'.

"Fucking Nazis," I heard mutter under his breath thinking I couldn't hear it. I knew that while the ABB and Merchants were problems the union also dealt with, it was the E88 and their preying on the working class with their ideology that really got to dad.

And he was right because if the city wasn't in such bad shape, if say the Ferry was working again to help provide commerce to the discarded portions of the bay then it would bleed away at the pool of people the E88 recruited from.

They'd even come by the house one day, though dad thought I didn't know. It had been late at night, but I wasn't able to sleep and I had slipped down the hall to the staircase when I heard a knock at the door and then dad's angry voice.

Their pitch had basically been that dad should work for them, if he pushed suitable recruits their way then they were certain they could find plenty of work for dad's people as long as he made sure to get rid of those 'unworthy' of the blessings of america.

I'd never seen my dad throw a punch before in anger, but I'm pretty sure he broke the guy's nose.

They never showed up again, but things started going wrong for the union afterwards. Contracts that had been locked in suddenly were in 'review', members would get assaulted on their way to a job or when they were going home, and junk media personalities like this radio host would rail about how unions, and the dockworkers union would always be the example, were the actual cause of the labor issues in the city.

So I understood why dad fell deeper into his work and away from home, because he was fighting a war on his own to try to protect his job and those who were a second family to him.

It didn't make me feel any better to know he had effectively chosen them over me when I needed his help. Needed him to actually take notice of how I had been slowly ground down week after week from Emma's protracted campaign, but no one had until it was too late.

I pushed my introspective thoughts away and gave dad a smile that I didn't quite feel as we stepped out of the car. One of the armed enforcers glanced my way but relaxed once he spotted dad, apparently viewing an adult with a child during a school day a normal affair compared to a lone teen.

I already had an idea of where I wanted to go, a nice little coffee shop that had a deck with a great view of the bay. I'd always hoped that one day I could sit on it and watch the ferry slowly crossing the bay and feel proud that my dad had achieved the goal he had worked so hard for.

Now though, I was going to make that goal happen. I didn't know how, but I was going to do it.

Dad let himself be dragged to my destination, though he did grumble under his breath about the price of a 'watered down cup of coffee' but he bought it for himself nonetheless. I'd personally gotten some tea and was slowly adding a small trickle of honey to it from the little plastic container I'd grabbed on our way to the table.

We took a few exploratory sips of our drinks, and neither of us were happy with them. I added some more honey to my cup, while dad just scowled and took another drink of his before he started talking.

"I've been thinking about our talk the other day, about the Wards and I realized we were looking at the situation all wrong."

He gave me a look, the same look he would give someone when he was in negotiations for the union, "What about LA?" Dad's sudden question caused me to glance up in confusion, to see him looking completely serious.

He leaned forward, his cup held in his hands as his eyes stayed locked on mine, "If you are right about your," he paused and glanced around to make sure there wasn't anyone near, "gift, then you could go anywhere, Taylor. Do you think they would keep you here in Brockton when they could send you to New York and get a second Legend or to LA and have another Alexandria?"

"You could be safe, and be a hero now. You'd be living your childhood dream." He smiled softly, and his eyes shined with memories of me as a kid pretending to save the day as Alexandria.

My reply left my mouth faster than my brain could catch up, "I don't want to leave you here, dad."

"I could sell the house, move out there. I'd make it work." He said in the same tone of voice he used when he was prepared to single handedly keep the union alive in a particularly rough patch.

And it felt really nice to feel that directed towards me, to see my dad looking a little more like had before mom died. I knew that he was essentially offering to give up the union he'd worked so hard to keep going for my sake, and I loved him for it, but I could never let him do that.

Because he was right, being a hero like Alexandria was the dream I'd had since I was a child.

But I wasn't a child anymore, I'd had all of those dreams burned out of me by my former best friend.

I gazed across the bay and felt a sense of home. I knew that plenty of people considered Brockton a hellhole filled with villains and far too few heroes, but my earliest memories were of the town in ascension before the bottom fell out.

I couldn't leave my home in this state, it would be a betrayal of myself far greater than anything that Emma had ever done.

This was my home, mine, and I wasn't going to run away from it even if it was the harder route to take.

I'd traded my childhood dream for one of rusted ships and broken hearts.

Dad silently cursed when he saw my expression, knowing that this tarnished city had its hooks in me as deeply as they were in him.

"We're both idiots," grumbled dad.

We were stone faced and serious for a few more seconds before we both burst into laughter.

***

We spent an hour or so wandering along the boardwalk, I stopped in and out of a few shops but all we mostly did was windowshop. Though I did split off from dad to go and grab some study materials from a nice, if bland, chain bookstore while he was catching up with one of the enforcers who used to be a union man.

I perused through the shelves, looking for a few academic books that Julianna had pulled from the list that Arcadia recommended to use for their placement tests. If I got in I wasn't going to let my grades from my first year in Winslow stay on my record, sure Arcadia's standards were higher but I knew I could handle it.

School had always been easy for me, if it wasn't for the trio I'd probably be one of the best students in Winslow academically.

The price tag of them was a little higher than I thought they would be, so I used the credit card Julianna had slipped me just in case I needed it. I didn't want to burn through dad's money when I knew Juli wouldn't even notice how much I'd just spent.

Exiting the bookstore with the heavy load in my arms I promised myself I was going to start the strength training that Juli had mentioned as well. My path though was blocked as a blonde, her hair pulled up and away from her face, exited from an electronics shop ahead of me.

Normally I'd just step around her, but by this point I'd been disconnected from Juli for long enough that parahumans, potential and actual, were beginning to glow in my vision though there wasn't any pain to go with my heightened senses yet.

So when I saw the golden aura flickering around her my gait faltered for just a moment..

And I felt my stomach plummet when her gaze swept my way, her eyes taking me in and seeing far, far, too much.

My mind scrambled as I tried to remember what the hell you were supposed to do if you accidentally meet a cape in your civilian identity, do I just walk past her or was I supposed to approach her?

She took the decision from me, walking towards me with an easy confidence and a sway to her hips though that soon went away as a conflicted look flickered across her face. "Shit," she cursed before dropping her voice, "you're a fresh trigger?"

My first instinct was to just deny it, but I'd been going over dossiers of the capes in the city and given how she had figured out I was a parahuman, combined with her build and hair color, I knew this was probably Tattletale.

Exactly the person I didn't want to run into.

I tried to be subtle and check my surroundings for anyone else who could match the other Undersiders, then growled to myself as her mouth quirked up into a smirk as she knew what I was doing.

She leaned in slightly, reading me like I was an open book, "Fresh, but you know who I am? That's interesting."

Your power is bullshit, I cursed in my own head at her.

I knew that interesting and Tattletale together was a bad thing.

Thankfully dad saved me, even though he didn't know it, as he walked up, "Taylor," I winced as he said my name, "want me to carry those books? We've got to get home."

"I've got them," I squeaked out, wanting to keep them so that Tattletale couldn't try to shake my hand as I had no idea if I could stop myself from connecting to someone yet and now didn't seem like a good time to try.

Tattletale glanced from dad to me and I saw a flicker of something that wasn't just smug assuredness, she gave me a smile, a soft, real, smile, before pulling out a piece of paper and scribbling a number on it.

"Well, Taylor," she stressed my name with a wide grin, "I'm Lisa, and it was really nice to meet you today." She slid the paper between the cover and the pages of one of my books, "That has my cell number on it, so if you ever want to meet up just let me know." Her tone was knowing, as if she knew that I'd be calling her as a certainty.

I wanted to blow her off, tell the villainess to go to hell, but at the same time she hadn't done anything to me and Juli had been telling me to think of things longer term.

Tattletale knew my civilian name, she knew who my dad was, and she had already been flagged as potentially dangerous if I tried to keep my power underwraps not to mention the rest of the Undersiders.

So I just gave her a small nod, "It probably won't be until later this week," before following after dad who seemed to just chalk up the tension between us as a result of my poor social skills.

As he started talking about how glad he was that I was making a new friend I glanced over my shoulder. 'Lisa' was still watching me, looking me over like I was some puzzle for her to figure out.

Noticing my gaze she shot a wink my way, before sauntering down the boardwalk towards the docks.

If anyone asked if I was blushing I'd throw them into the bay.

***

The next day was a little bit of a blur for a few reasons.

One, dad realized that he had forgotten to book the day off and so he had to rush down to the docks in the morning to at least find someone to cover for some of his duties that day since he hadn't given anyone notice.

Two, my power was driving me up the wall. When I woke up that morning it was a dull fine, little more than the same kind of dull ache that I had had the day before.

By noon it was an actively painful throbbing that was like a slower, far more painful, secondary heartbeat, but it was still manageable I thought as the ramp up was slow enough that I still had almost another day until I was as at the level of pain that I had woken up to in the hospital.

The problem was that apparently it wasn't a steady increase, when we were less than an hour from our scheduled meeting with Blackwell I got bad and fast. At first I tried to fight through it but soon after I broke down and called Juli, of course I did it with my cell phone so dad was now pissed about that, only to find out that she was across town and would be meeting us at Winslow.

I fumed at the situation, irrationally blaming her for not anticipating that I'd get this bad when I knew she had checked in this morning and I had insisted I was fine. She tried to calm me down by saying she'd get to Winslow early so she could help my condition as long as we could do it without anyone noticing.

Regardless I was not in good looking shape as dad and I drove to Winslow, the pain had sapped most of the color from my face and I knew I looked like I was in shock. My nerves were on edge, leaving me twitchy and my temper was on a hair trigger from the constant pain.

It was like the pain was perfectly designed to frustrate me to do what my power wanted me to do, but not actually hinder me physically.

This had technically been part of Julianna's very stupid plan, saying that if I were to walk in to Blackwell's office looking like I had the night she found me in the hospital that it might make the woman put in the transfer of her own volition.

Because the less power usage in general, the safer the whole process would be for everyone involved.

Of course the fact that I had agreed to all this only for my power to spike me just before the meeting felt far too planned. Could powers plan? No, that's just the pain making you go crazy, Taylor, I muttered mentally.

"Fuck," I growled out as another throbb of pain engulfed my body. Dad shot a look my way but didn't say anything about my language.

He'd learned better after the first time and I'd told him where to shove his opinion.

Yeah, dad, you aren't the only Hebert with a temper.

I wrapped my arms around myself, letting the baggy hoodie I was wearing act as a kind of support blanket of sorts. We'd agreed that I should wear some of my old clothes because a new trigger who just had a traumatic incident doesn't just go off on a shopping spree and change her whole wardrobe.

Well, Glory Girl might, but not Taylor Hebert, habitual wallflower and target of a red haired bitch with a mean streak.

As dad brought the car to a stop I could sense Julianna waiting near the entrance, my cape sense was at the highest it had ever been and I could feel a faint tug in my mind that let me know that was a potential power in that direction.

I'd gotten a few faint tugs on the drive over, but this being Brockton Bay there was a 80/20 chance that the power was connected to some insane and/or murderous gang member.

I practically rushed out of the car, willing to beg her to let me connect to her and make this sensation finally stop, but I soon slowed to a walk when I saw her glowing, golden, form standing there talking with Principal Blackwell who looked rather displeased to have been stopped from leaving the school premises.

Julianna's form in my vision turned towards us though I couldn't see her facial expression due to the glow, before turning back to Blackwell before explaining the present situation, "It was lucky that I showed up early, it seems the Principal here was under the mistaken impression that our meeting wasn't until next week."

I scowled at the woman in question, both because she had blatantly been going to blow us off and because her presence here meant that I had no chance of convincing Juli to let me connect to her power.

I felt like I was rapidly getting worse, and I think it was because I was so close to another parahuman. My head was throbbing, my chest hurt, and above all I was feeling that gaping sensation of being alone again that I had felt in that locker.

I needed to not feel alone, pain I could deal with, but I could almost feel the locker around me and the crushing isolation that came with it if I let myself get even a little distracted.

But I knew that Juli would be really angry if I tried to connect to her in front of people and I couldn't do anything to risk our relationship. So I pushed through the pain and the 'locker' even if I'm sure I looked somewhat manic and on the edge of a breakdown.

Which I suppose was the look we wanted in the first place, I thought as we trudged the short distance to Blackwell's office.

I glared at Blackwell from where I sat once we got to our destination, and she seemed a little put off by my efforts to burn a hole through her skull with just my eyes as she studiously avoided looking at me.

"I understand that this meeting was in regards to a transfer of Taylor?" Blackwell said evenly, trying to sound like she was in control but with just a bit of false sympathy, "I understand the desire but the fact of the matter is Arcadia has a waitlist and we just can't override that due to some personal issues between students."

I heard something shatter before I realized I had just grabbed a mug on her desk and chucked it against the wall behind her, ceramic chips landing on her suit jacket as my voice was in full Hebert rage mode, "Personal issues! You want me to shove you into a locker for an hour or two and see if you think I just have a personal issue with you!"

Juli pulled me back, her voice soft in my ear, "Taylor, are you okay?"

I almost snarled out that I was fine before I stopped myself, forcing myself to breathe before softly admitting, "I don't know, I don't feel really in control right now."

"I think you might want to step outside, I'm sorry that I didn't realize how badly your power would affect you." She sounded genuinely apologetic, but it wasn't like she could know my power would get this bad.

I just nodded, "Yeah, sure, I'll go out to the parking lot." Noting the hint of fear in Blackwell's eyes when she looked at me.

Good, let her be scared of the girl she'd done nothing to help. Maybe next time she heard a report of bullying she'd remember this and do something about it.

I passed dad who looked as angry as I was, he gave my arm a squeeze as I went past and I managed to give him a weak smile. I passed by the empty secretary desk and out the office door to enter the hallway. In my head I went to turn left and out of the school, but instead I went right.

At first I wasn't sure why, but then I could feel the tug and I realized it was close. Another power nearby, I must not have sensed it because I was so close to Juli!

My pace quickened as I moved giddily towards where the gymnasium and the rest of the athletic sections of the schools were. Was the parahuman a student or perhaps one of the teachers, it didn't matter they were so close and I felt my excitement building as I entered the female changing room to reveal a golden form with their back to me.

I made it across the room in a few strides, a smile on my face, the figure spinning in place but my hand managed to grasp their forearm and instantly I felt my power activating in a rush. The figure in my grip went rigid from surprise at the unexpected contact.

This person's power felt so different from Juli's, it was aggressive and pumping that aggression into the cape. Far too much aggression I thought, as I wondered at the long term consequences on the other cape's mental state.

I let out a shuddering gasp of relief as the connection fully snapped into place, it was strong, stronger than any I'd had with Julianna and I wondered why. The gold haze was swiftly draining from my vision as I could feel the new power settling inside of my own and I could only stare in horror at the sight in front of me.

Sophia Hess was a cape, and I had just connected my power to hers.

 

[Gadflow]

Just a quick note, I have done some edits to the previous chapters after I realized some mistakes I had made regarding the timeline. Mostly just in regards to the Undersiders were already an established team by this point and I hadn't realized that so it is now mentioned in both chapter 1.3 and 1.4.

***

Induction 1.5​

I quickly took in the space around me as I realized I was in the girl's locker room that was next to the gym. I'd learned to hate this place after I'd had my clothes stolen while I was in the showers and after that I'd tried to avoid ever having to be in here.

"Hebert?" Sophia's voice was filled with confusion at my sudden appearance, and that made sense since it was after school and I hadn't been to Winslow for over a week at this point. In fact her reaction seemed so normal that for a moment I thought that she might not be aware that I'd just used my power on her.

Maybe, I could play this off as something she could understand, me wanting to talk tough because I was getting transferred to Arcadia. A plan started to form in my head quickly, and just when I went to open my mouth a cruel grin spread across Sopia's face.

I knew Sophia was fast but I couldn't even get a sound out of my mouth before she had pulled me towards her using my outstretched arm for leverage, before spinning us in place to use my own momentum to slam me into the lockers.

A starburst of pain radiated from my skull as my head banged off the softer metal of the door instead of the less forgiving metal frame, and that was only thanks to the dumb luck of my legs bumping into the wooden bench that ran along the length of the lockers. I groaned as I tried to steady myself but I felt wobbly and black stars danced in my vision.

Sophia's hand palmed my face and shoved me against the metal of the locker again, grinding my face against it, "Too bad I didn't leave it open, I'm sure it would have fel-"

I swung in the direction of her voice, and my fist hit something but my momentary surge of triumph was quickly dispelled as I had to hold back a whine of pain as I think I just broke something in my hand when I punched her.

How the hell did I manage that?!

I could hear the squeak of Sophia's shoes on the tiled floor as she backed up a pace or two, a dark chuckle in her voice, "Seriously, Hebert, you finally fight back and you don't even know how to throw a punch? Could you get more pathetic?"

When I heard the squeak of her shoes again I tried to throw myself out of the way of her, but Sophia was almost as tall as me and had far more strength behind her, and so she was easily able power through my evasive attempt to slam me into the lockers again pressing her forearm against my throat to cut off my oxygen supply.

"Too bad you weren't such a useless weakling, Hebert, otherwise I might get some enjoyment from this." My body attempted to double over as she slammed her free fist into my gut, driving what air I still had in my body out of lungs, only to still be held firmly in place by her forearm. Spots began to dance in my vision from lack of air as I reached up with my hands to try and pull her arm away from my airway.

The moment my hands made contact with her skin I threw caution to the wind and sank my connection deep into her and in that instant we both let out screams of pain, as it was like a hot nail had been driven through my skull. The pain quickly vanished when Sophia's arm suddenly was no longer in my grip and my mind struggled to understand what I was seeing as the other girl turned into a kind of grainy, shadowy, form to retreat from me.

I wanted to reject the answer my mind came to, but it was impossible to deny it with the power she had just displayed. Sophia was Shadow Stalker, there was no other reasonable answer.

My pain vanished to the background as my mind worked in overdrive, the puzzle that had been the last few years filled in more than it ever had before though far from complete. As this explained so nearly why she was never punished for what she did in school, why the faculty always took her side and by proxy Emma's.

Emma had to have known who Sophia was when I came back from camp. It would explain a lot of what had changed, but I still didn't know why she changed. Had Sophia done something to Emma, did she have some other unknown master power or was it something else? Was Emma just such a cape groupie that she was willing to throw me away without a second thought?

I felt my anger flare, as for the first time in two years I felt like I had the chance to strike at the source of everything that had gone wrong for me.

As she rematerialized Sophia was clutching her own head, as the effects seemed to be lingering longer for her than they did for me. She glared up at me, only for her eye to widen in surprise as I charged at her in the hopes of getting my hands on her in the hopes of repeating whatever had happened before.

Sophia though wasn't going to make it easy, as she slipped into her shadowy form again, pushing threw me only to rematerialize behind me and even further away, "You're a fucking cape?" She growled out, her eyes now warily tracking my hands as I could see her lips murmur a word to herself.

While she was circling me I ran through how I could negate her power. I hadn't shown off my actual power yet, just whatever weird power interaction we had just had, so I still had Sophia's own abilities as a trump card in my back pocket. If I used her power at the same time as she did would they cancel out?

I debated trying to grab something on the ground and throwing it at her. I knew that it was possible for Sophia to change the state of her projectiles but it would also mean I'd be giving up the element of surprise in favor of caution.

Plus, she might not even use her shadow form if she saw me throw a charged projectile at her as she might just dodge it and that would ruin the whole plan. I gritted my teeth as I readied myself, the only way to make sure I got a hold of her again was if I charged in and managed to cancel out her power with my own copy of it.

I shifted closer to the lockers, causing Sophia to move further into the open space of the room as I didn't want this to not work and end up stuck in a wall or something. At least I'm pretty sure she could go through walls, or at the least some solid objects.

I sprinted at Sophia again, and I felt a flare of satisfaction as she tried to pull the same trick as last time by slipping into her shadow form to escape, only for me to tap into her power and enter the same state.

I almost faltered when I felt everything vanish, I could still see but it wasn't with my eyes as everything was perfectly clear. I had no lungs, but I could feel my form pulling the oxygen out of the air around me. I had no heartbeat, and that was a silence which was deafening.

A moment later my heart was throbbing in like a massive drum in my head as I made contact with Sophia, both of us back to normal and my reckless charge driving Sophia to the ground as I could hear her shout out in confusion, "What the fuck!"

I landed heavily on top of her as my hands groped around in a panic for her arms to both give me skin to skin contact and to keep her pinned down. I felt a moment of triumph as I grabbed her left hand, and I dug deep with my power as the pain this time was just proof I was winning and I could take it if it meant beating Sophia.

She gritted her teeth in response to the pain and even through the agony that warped her features I could tell that she had suddenly reevaluated me, no longer just weak little Taylor but a threat in her eyes.

I felt a little surge of warmth at the idea of one of my tormentors being afraid of me for a change. A smirk tugged at the edge of my lips, but the girl beneath me used my moment of inner distraction to make her move.

Sophia's free arm moved to grab something near her waist, and I shifted and moved a little too slow to stop her. A hiss escaped my lips as I felt a sudden blossom of pain in that hand and barely registered the blood now trailing from it as the world around me seemed to blur as Sophia used my precarious position against me and flipped our positions.

I winced as my head bounced off the tiled floor, the lights in the ceiling leaving trails as I idly thought I might have concussed myself when my eyes began seeing light trails, even still I managed to catch the flash of silver in Sophia's hand and the instincts of going to a school with a large gang presences kicked in. I shifted my body as soon as her arm began moving, making the knife catch on my now raised shoulder instead of wherever Sophia had originally aimed for, as I quickly groped and grabbed the handle of the knife causing Sophia to abandon it to avoid my groping fingers.

But my other hand hadn't been idle either, as I slid my hand under her shirt to grab a firm hold of her waist and I pushed every bit of effort I could into her once I felt contact with her skin.

The whimper of pain that escaped from Sophia's lips was all the confirmation I needed, but I felt some kind of resistance break though I didn't understand quite what that meant.

I felt, more than saw, her pass out on top of me, as my vision was fading. Soon followed by the discovery that my body was far too weak after the fight to push her off of me as I too fell into darkness.

***

I glance up from my school work, aware of a presence in my room that shouldn't be there. I try to keep my breathing steady when I realize how close he is already and then he gets closer. I can feel him leaning heavily into my shoulder, way too heavily. Mom says he's just trying to bond with me, but I've seen how my brother looks at him and I know that I'm not the only one who feels this way.

I groaned in pain as I mentally stumbled away from a vision of someone else's life, vaguely aware of a sense of movement despite me sitting down and propped up against another person.

I must be in a car.

I can barely hear two people arguing as I fade away again.

"I swear to god, if you planned this I'm going to kill you!"

"Really, Daniel, do shut up. Yes, Citrine, I need a favor the-"

I tried to listen further but I felt myself slipping away as the darkness took me once again.

No one believes me.

Mom tells me that I'm just not willing to let go of dad.

The one teacher at school I thought would understand practically said I was just seeing what I wanted to see.

They're wrong!

He's always there, whenever I think I have a moment of space, a place to breathe, he's there!

Always too close, he only goes away when I'm gasping for air and half-collapsed on the floor from yet another panic attack.

They all look at me like the attacks are somehow my fault, like I want to be lying on the floor gasping for air!

I just want to breathe!

My lungs burn with an echo of the pain from the vision, and I quickly realize we aren't moving.

My body still doesn't want to respond, my head is trying to tear itself apart. I feel someone starting to move my numb body only for a female voice that I recognize to speak up, and loudly.

"Don't pull them apart! I don't care how difficult it makes things but keep them in contac-"

Julianna? I try to speak up but my mouth, like the rest of my body, is a stranger to me right now.

I try to fight against the pull of the darkness all around me, I push and fight against the tide of black that pulls me away again.

My eyes open for a second to see a man in scrubs, a mask obscuring his face, above me only to be swept away into the tide when I feel something sharp and small puncture my skin.

They were all lined up for a 'family' photo.

This is no family, it hasn't been since dad died.

I can hear footsteps and suddenly I feel him leaning against me. He wasn't supposed to be near me! I only agreed to this stupid, fucking, photo because Mom promised that I'd not have to be near him.

I had already been struggling to breathe having to be in proximity to him for so long, but now my lungs just forget how they worked. I struggle to pull in air in tiny gasps, my chest burning with exertion as I try to not to have an attack in front of my entire family and be the problem child, again.

To see everyone's looks of disappointment, of relief that it was her and not them.

I just want to breathe!

I can feel him lean down close, to anyone else it looks like a man trying to have a private word with his step-daughter.

But to me, he breaks me when he tells me that I was right all along, that it was always predatory.

I break.

But I can breathe!

***

I jerk upwards, my mind reeling as I try to parse together what I just experienced.

Only for my head to explode like a bomb had gone off inside of it. My eyes tried to take in the room, but the pain in my skull made even the dimly lit interior seem far too bright. I idly realized that I seemed to be on top of some kind of cot when it shifted below me and one of my arms didn't seem to move right.

Glancing down I managed to squint enough to figure out the reason for that, as the arm Sophia had stabbed was being forcibly cradled against my chest by a sling.

The sound of my voice was rough as I croaked out, "Where am-" Only for my question to be interrupted by the sound of a chair scraping across the cement floor nearby, along with the sound of footsteps getting closer.

"Taylor, you're awake!" I heard my dad's voice and a smile began to form on my face moments before I felt his presence and he seemed suddenly far too close to me as he went to hug me.

And for a singular moment I was back in that vision, my personal space violated and it all being done in the guise of a loving parent.

"Get the fuck off me!"

I didn't realize it was me who screamed until I'd already pushed myself as far away from him as I could down the cot I had been sitting on. My chest heaving with a panic that wasn't fully mine as I squeezed my eyes shut in the hope of pushing away the lingering memories I'd just gotten trapped in again.

My mind was so consumed trying to parse my emotions from those that weren't mine that I nearly missed my dad being grappled and tossed away from me in a singular smooth motion.

"Step the fuck back," I heard a voice growl at my dad, as I blinked my eyes in confusion at the figure I now recognized as Sophia.

Sophia, my bully, had just tried to protect me?

But when she glanced back my way I understood, her gaze was fully unguarded in that moment as I realized what she thought was going on.

I shook my head, and stumbled to my feet so I could get close enough to whisper to her, "It's not like that, I promise." Her head snapped at me as if she didn't believe me, and I fixed her gaze with mine, "He's not a predator, Sophia."

She seems to almost recoil at my use of the word, her eyes drilling into mine for something before she stepped away from both me and dad. Walking a little towards the other cot that had been setup next to mine.

Dad for his part seemed stunned, and I moved over to his side, "Dad, I'm sorry. I just…saw some things when I blacked out and when you tried to hug me it kind of pulled it all back into my head."

A part of me broke a little when I realized dad was looking at me differently, there was still the love in his eyes, but he had never really liked capes all that much and this whole incident only seemed to have driven home that I was one of them now. A cape, a parahuman, fundamentally different from him in so many ways now.

Not to mention I'd promised not to do anything cape related and somehow ended up in a fight with a ward in her civilian identity.

I couldn't hold back the smile as I corrected myself, I'd beaten a ward. Sure, I had no idea what was going on with my power there but I'm still counting it in the win column.

The fact that it had been Sophia probably was a big part of why I felt more alive than I had for years, even if things had gone completely wrong I felt almost absurdly content with everything today.

My little internal morale boosting was interrupted by the subject in question as Sophia broke the silence, "What did you do to me, Taylor?" Her voice sounded strained, almost hesitant, and as I turned to look at her she had wrapped her arms around herself. Letting me see a mirror in how I had likely looked in the days after the locker that I still had trouble fully remembering.

I had already guessed that I had just experienced Sophia's trigger, but this was the first bit of evidence I had that she had seen mine. My hands shook as a flicker of one of her memories flashed through my mind, and I had to suppress the urge to use the ward's power.

It had been so easy to hate Sophia during our fight, as I'd always thought that she was the source of everything that had gone wrong for me since I had come back from summer camp. But I couldn't find that hate inside of me now as I, probably more than anyone else alive, actually understood why Sophia was the way she was.

I wanted to despise her, but it was hard to hold on to that when now all I could see was someone who was as broken as me.

"I'm not sure what happened," I muttered more to myself than to her.

I glanced over at my dad and saw him starting to stand up to come closer to us, and I felt a flare of annoyance at him. Dad had his heart in the right spot, but he wouldn't be able to understand what Sophia and I had just experienced and I knew his presence would complicate everything even further if he realized she was one of my bullies.

I moved closer to Sophia, wincing on my first step when the sling shifted unexpectedly causing my shoulder to light up with pain. Once I was close enough I spoke softly enough so only she could hear me, "We need to talk," I looked over at my dad to communicate the issue, "In private."

"Could we use your power to get out through the windows on the roof?" I asked while giving a quick glance up at the roof.

I'd realized this was one of those old factory buildings that had the big glass sections in the middle of the assembly floors. I could vaguely recall dad mentioning that they used to do that to save on electricity so they didn't have to light the insides during most of the day.

Sophia's eyebrow raised at my question, but she grabbed at the presented distraction as she glanced up measuring the distance mentally. "Should be doable, but you need to use my power when you have the most momentum in the jump though not when you are at the highest point."

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little shocked at her just calmly answering my question, as I just couldn't reconcile myself and Sophia ever having a civil exchange at the best of times.

She didn't leave me anymore room for thought as she bent her legs and I watched her intently, taking in as she crouched for extra power as I could see her strong legs tense before she launched herself before using her breaker state to keep that momentum and move up and out through the glass in the roof.

"Hey!" Dad cried out, before he turned to see me readying for a jump as well, "Taylor, don't!"

I gave him a soft smile, "Dad, just, trust me."

I leapt, ignoring dad's shouts, and felt the exhilaration of tapping into Sophia's power, the first time the silence of my body had felt deafening but I was prepared now. Feeling the air rushing through me was amazing and, well, I'd always wanted to fly.

And this was the closest I'd gotten so far.

So far I promised myself, but I was going to get the ability to fly one way or another.

As I passed through the glass I managed to connect enough with the surface to push my altered form towards the solid part of the roof. As I dropped into my normal form I almost face planted when I landed off balance and forgot I was down an arm to steady myself.

I could feel an embarrassed flush on my cheeks as I spotted Sophia, who was sitting on the raised brick barrier at the edge of the roof looking in my direction with an eyebrow raised.

She gave a dark chuckle, "Yeah, it took me a lot of practice to figure out exactly how I was going to land when I changed back to normal."

She sighed and ran a hand through her dark brown hair and I noted that it was free, normally she kept it up but somewhere during the course of what had happened today it had come loose. Maybe it was because I wasn't used to seeing her like that, or just how it framed her face but she looked far more like a normal teen than the attack dog Emma had used against me for over a year.

"So, your dad's alright, yeah?" We both knew she wasn't asking if she had hurt him when she tossed him, and I just nodded as I moved a little closer to her.

"Yeah, I, I was still kind of stuck in your," I trailed off at her nod, we both understood what I meant and there was no need to dredge it up in more detail.

Sophia though seemed to have no such issue as she gave me an appraising look,, "Taylor, I won't lie I always thought it was weird how you just took it, but I never would have thought you were scared of hurting Emma." She shook her head, "Do you know how fucked up that is?"

I opened my mouth to argue but she just cut me off with a laugh, "Seriously? You don't think I'm right? Tell me, Taylor, had it just been Madison or me would you have just taken all that shit?"

My uninjured first tightened as I glared at her, "Emma means nothing to me, why would I care if she got hurt."

She fixed me with a serious stare before stating, "Emma almost got killed by the ABB when you were at camp, I saved her." It took me a moment to register what she said, and then I heard my knuckles pop as a low growl formed in my throat as for a moment I forgot about the last year and all I could think of was some gangbangers had almost killed my oldest friend.

The word friend echoed in my mind as I could see Sophia's victorious smirk.

"Right, you really have moved on, Taylor." She moved past me, bumping my good shoulder like she had hundreds of times but this time was different.

There was no shove, no attempt to trip me, she'd just done it because what?

"What is your game, Sophia?" I spun in place to keep my eyes on her, but she had merely glanced down through the glass to see into the room below.

"Your dad is still down there, and your step-mom?" She questioned before shaking her head, "No, your dad is way too uncomfortable with her, your aunt?"

"Family friend," and she let out a humming sound.

"Well, your family friend is fucking dangerous." She muttered more to herself as she tried to get a better look, "Only people who walk around with that kind of confidence are capes, especially the ones who know that they don't have to dress up to be scary."

I scowled, how was it that Sophia was on my dad's side when it came to Julianna? Changing the subject I hissed, "Look, can we just talk about what happened."

Pushing away from the window I watched as Sophia's athletic form paced back to the edge of the roof, she was quiet for longer than I expected and a stray thought passed through my mind and before I could stop it a question burst from my lips, "Do you know where my mom's flute went?"

Sophia looked at me with utter confusion before a flicker of anger crossed her face and she almost looked upset? Then when she spoke I was shocked to realize she actually was upset, "That was your mom's?"

"Yeah," my voice had sunk into a hushed tone, "It was something she had taught me to play, I brought it to school because I…"

"You wanted them to feel close," Sophia finished my thought and I heard her growl to herself, "Fuck! I didn't know it was your mom's."

She paced away picking up a loose brick and throwing it from the roof with an angry shout, and I felt like I was in a cage with an angry wildcat that simply had something else to be pissed at for now.

Sophia was still pacing when she began to speak again, her arms tense at her sides as she practically growled out, "Emma, she just said to steal it, she was so convinced it would get a rise out of you." She just shook her head at that thought before she stopped short.

"It's at my house, I was keeping it as a trophy for if Emma ever got you to fight back," she sighed and as she looked at my I could actually see a hint of sincerity in her expression, "I thought it was just a stupid flute!"

She flung her arms up in the air in frustration, or exasperation, or maybe she was just still pissed.

"Fuck!" Her voice echoed across the rooftop.

Yeah, still pissed.

Silence settled on the roof after her outburst, and I let it hang for a while longer before I replied in as calm a voice as I could manage, "Just, give it back to me please. I don't care what kind of state it's in." I hesitated for a moment before adding, "Sophia, I believe you wouldn't have taken it had you known."

Because I knew she'd lost a parent too, and I wanted to believe there was an actual person inside of that angry shell.

Sophia just gave me a nod of thanks before she returned to her previous haunt at the edge of the roof as she settled down on top of the worn bricks, "Look, I'm technically supposed to report this because you know my identity."

"I'm not joining the wards."

She actually tilted her head in confusion before it morphed into a more dangerous expression, "What, you going villain, Hebert?"

"No!" I closed my eyes as I tried to think of how I wanted to explain, "I want to help people, but I don't want to just be some kid-cop for the PRT."

"Yeah, I get that. It was the wards or juvie for me." Sopia muttered, "It's just kiddy bullshit and constantly being told we can't do anything until the real 'heroes' are too busy or fucked up."

She flopped on to her back, "And the fucking paperwork! I have to fill out a form for each fucking bolt I shoot!"

She propped herself back up, an anticipatory look on her face, "Look, Taylor, I get that we're two fucked up people who don't like each other, but maybe we could work together?" A confident look on her face, "They shipped me off to LA last summer for 'training' to try to make me a better fit for their bullshit. Most of it was useless but I could pass the useful stuff along, help you get in shape, maybe teach you to throw a better punch," she smirked at that last comment.

"Sophia, you have to be," I didn't finish my sentence when I realized I was actually considering her offer. It kept her close and gave her what she wanted which meant I probably wasn't getting reported to the PRT.

And she was right, I needed training.

Julianna might be a cape but she wasn't a combatant and I was a little worried that she'd hire some villain to train me if I asked.

Really did not need to go any further down that rabbit hole, thank you.

Even with all those points, I didn't understand why I was considering the offer. Sophia was essentially a third responsible for my trigger, which should be enough for me to hate her for let alone everything else she'd done to me.

But, I didn't. I don't even think I hated her before I saw her trigger because she'd always been a symptom of the disease that was Emma. I didn't think we'd ever have been friends but Sophia didn't strike me as the kind of person who would pick on a girl she felt was weak when she could have been roughing up some of the gangs in school.

So I asked the only question that I felt made sense in my confused state, "Why?"

She pushed herself to her feet, moving closer to me as she spoke as her eyes appraised me like a diamond she'd just uncovered, "Because you are a fighter, Taylor. Half the wards would have just given up rather than fight a losing battle, but you kept going you crazy bitch."

She gestured vaguely in my direction, "Look, I don't know what bullshit your power pulled off, but you got caught flatfooted and then came up with a plan in god damn moments on the spot." Her lips were in a smug smirk at this point, "That's the fucking killer instinct there, and you either have it or you don't. Trust me, all the best heroes are like that, no hesitation when the chips are down."

I'm pretty sure our definitions of what a hero was were very different, but she wasn't wrong that heroes like Miss Militia and Armsmaster never hesitated when they fought. Still maybe I could help to make Sophia realize that being a hero was more than just having a killer instinct and fighting.

I groaned again as I realized I'd done it again, assuming I was accepting this offer.

What was wrong with me?

Still, she was right that this didn't make us friends and it gave me someone on the inside of the wards who had PRT training that she was willing to pass on.

And I really wanted mom's flute back, though I did think she would give that back regardless of my decision here.

"Maybe we can figure something out."

I'd never seen a truly genuine smile from Sophia before now, and it really caught me off guard when she put out her hand for me to shake it.

I hesitated for a moment before taking her grasp with my good hand.

"Partners," Sophia stated as if it was being carved in stone.

Wait, what?

What did I just get myself into?

***
Sophia left shortly after, and I just let her go because if I was being honest I had dealt with enough of her particular brand of crazy for today.

I groaned though when I realized I hadn't gotten off of the roof before she left, as I was expecting her power to fade away once she was out of range which my earlier experiments with Julianna had led me to believe would be only twenty seconds or so given Sophia's speed.

Minutes passed and I could still feel her power tucked away inside of mine, and as I really concentrated I could make out a faint golden thread that seemed to stretch off into the distance.

Has my range drastically increased now? Or was it something else?

Julianna had implied that most capes understood their power on an instinctual level, but was mine somehow different because it relied on other parahuman's abilities. Would my understanding grow as I gained more powers?

No, that didn't feel right, and it felt like what I had done with Sophia was fundamentally different to what I had done with Julianna in the aftermath of the hospital.

My minor brushes with Julianna's power had been light, temporary, while what had happened with Sophia felt far more permanent. I also realized that I could still faintly feel Sophia in the distance, just a general sense of direction and a kind of resonant wave that let me know when she was using her power.

It was oddly calming to feel the wave come to me, it reminded me of when I was a kid just letting my feet sit in the water to feel the surf come in.

Of course the place we always used to go when I was little was now filled with people strung up on drugs or pushing them so I pushed the memory away before the present poisoned more of my happy memories.

I didn't have many left at this point.

Tapping into Sophia's power I passed through the windows and down into the assembly floor below, and as I came out of my shadowy form I couldn't even try to hide my grin that time.

Dad though apparently had held in his temper for as long as he could, "Taylor! What the hell were you thinking! We find you beaten unconscious, and stabbed, and the first thing you do is run off with the girl who did that to you!"

"Dad, it was pers-" but my response was cut off.

"I'm going to contact the Wards, you wanted to get a hang of your powers and obviously whatever you and Julianna are doing isn't working!"

I wasn't sure when I had marched up to him, and it only struck me how tall I was getting when I didn't have to tilt my head up as much as I thought to look him in the eyes. My voice was far calmer than it had any right to be, as in my own anger I breathed out the poisonous thought that had been in my head for days, "You don't get to act like a parent just because someone else suddenly wants the job."

The moment the words left my lips I gasped in shock, and I could feel the tears sliding down my face as I watched all the color drain from dad's face, and after just a few moments I felt panic settle in that he'd gone into shock from just my words alone.

"I'm sorry," I muttered to him before I fled the room, shoving through the closest door, which was a heavy wooden affair, I entered into a room that seemed like a makeshift surgery that was empty save Julianna who was talking into a cell in her hands.

Her eyes widened as she took in my state, "I'm sorry, Citrine, I'll need to call you back to finalize the details." She said into the device before finishing the call, "Taylor, what happened?"

It took me several attempts to talk as my first few tries were halted when I tried to hold back a sob, "I said something terrible to dad."

I jolted a little when I felt her arms around my shoulders, as I hadn't even heard her getting closer to me. "I'm sure it is nothing that an apology won't fix, but how about I take you back to my place and you two can talk tomorrow when things aren't so raw?"

I nodded at her suggestion, and as she began to guide me outside of the building I leaned against her to take more comfort from her presence.

She leaned in close and softly whispered into my ear, "I'm proud of you, Taylor."

 

[Gadflow]

Induction 1.6​

I didn't see my dad the next day.

Everything still felt too fresh, and when Julianna had asked me if I wanted to call dad I said no. I just couldn't trust him or myself not to say something to make things worse even though Juli kept insisting that it was perfectly normal for a teen to fight with her father.

I really don't think that most teenage rebellions involved getting into a fight with a junior member of a parahuman law enforcement agency. Though now that I thought about it this situation might not be as rare as I thought it was given how disorienting it was when you got powers a lot of new capes probably got in fights with the PRT or Wards.

Which of course didn't help me with the other problem at all, seeing as how Sophia Hess was far more than just some 'ward'.

I had no idea what I had been thinking when I accepted her 'deal' and if I was having second thoughts surely she would be too? For all I knew she was already setting me up for a fall with the PRT to cover what she'd done to me back in Winslow now that she'd had time to put her thoughts together after our weird power interaction.

I shuddered as a fragmented memory that wasn't mine briefly flashed through my mind. They were coming less and less frequently but I was beginning to worry that this is how my power was supposed to work, and that I could only gain someone's power permanently by having to go through their trigger?

The best Julianna and I had been able to come up with was that for me to permanently acquire the power I had to experience the same event that gave them their power. Kind of putting me in the correct state of mind, even though that meant that I'd have to experience the worst moments of every parahuman I connected with.

I really shouldn't have expected that getting powers was going to make my life better, all I wanted was to be a hero not be forced to push my sanity to the brink for every bit of power gained.

I took a few breaths to calm myself, as I returned my mind to the issue of my newfound 'partner' I had to admit that Sophia wasn't dumb. She'd openly admitted that she was on some kind of probation so even if the PRT didn't outright believe me there was no way that the school could coverup the fact that Sophia was involved in a protracted bullying campaign.

I'd been keeping records of everything they'd done since the start of this year after all.

And if they tried, well that was a problem that Julianna could easily fix and no one would be the wiser. Getting people to tell the truth wasn't really abusing your powers, it was just making sure they did the right thing.

Reigning my thoughts back to Sophia she did strike me as someone who greatly valued her freedom, even if it was slightly constrained by the wards right now. I'm pretty sure she'd prefer to deal with me than to end up on the run or in juvie.

A knock on the doorframe of the room I had in Julianna's apartment caused me to glance up, seeing the olive skinned woman smiling at me, "You ready for that surprise I mentioned the other day? I'd like to show it to you before you start studying for your placement tests later."

"Still not going to give me any hints?" I smiled with anticipation as I'd forgotten all about her surprise after my impromptu first cape fight, which I was still calling a win despite Julianna's insistence that I'd gotten lucky.

Even if I had passed out, at least Sophia had blacked out first.

And so, a win for me.

"Nope, now do you want to get changed or are you okay with being seen outside in a dress?" Julianna teased, as she had apparently taken my time away from her place to fill the closet here with even more clothes I'd normally never wear. She'd managed to cajole me into a kind of slim fit, but flowy, dark green dress this morning and I had to admit I kind of did like it.

Thankfully I had some tights to put on underneath since it was still cold out for the bay, and I had no intention of suffering for the sake of Juli's fashion choices.

Though Julianna had started to insist on me dealing with some of my physical insecurities, she'd even shown me how to apply a light shade of lipstick in order to make my thin lips look just a little bit plumper.

Despite what she said I hadn't stared at myself in the mirror that long once she had finished applying it.

It's just that for a second I looked like how I remembered my mom, and not the plain gangly girl that I was. It only hit me once I looked at the tube she handed me that this was the exact same brand and color mom had always used.

I'd managed to hold back my tears, but it hurt to realize that she probably would have taught me this trick herself already if she was still alive.

I should go and see her soon, I hadn't been there since Christmas.

Mom had always loved Christmas, if for no other reason than she viewed it as open season to go after anyone who made a big deal if someone said 'happy holidays'. Yeah, mom might have 'left' Lustrum's movement officially but she never really left it in spirit.

A smile came unbidden to my lips as I had to admit that mom disagreed with a lot of people. I could still remember her tearing into someone who had claimed her swimsuit was too revealing when she had taken Emma and I to a public pool.

And like that I felt another memory tainted, Emma was like a red haired poison somehow corrupting everything she touched in my mind. It was impossible at this point to separate the girl I had known from the monster she was now.

She's nothing to me anymore, I've moved past her and become more than she'll ever be.

As weak of a mantra it was I found it was actually starting to help. Emma had only held power over me because I had let her, as much as I hated to admit it Sophia wasn't wrong when she said that had it been anyone other than Emma I would have done more than just trying to weather the attacks.

Even with my understanding that something terrible had happened to Emma, it didn't actually change how I felt about her now. It gave me some closure perhaps, filled in the puzzle that was our failed friendship to near completion. Even still it didn't excuse what she had done to me, Emma could have thrown me aside and that would have been fine.

I closed my eyes tightly and shoved all thoughts about my former best friend down. I'd let her dominate the last two years of my life and I was done doing that. I pulled out the tube of lipstick and gently applied it around my lips, and I couldn't help but smile at my reflection because I felt like I was reclaiming myself one very small step at a time.

Julianna stepped over, cupping my jaw so that she could examine the job I'd done, "You look lovely, dear."

I beamed up at her from the compliment, especially given that Julianna had a kind of Spanish nobility look to her features though they were softened by age from the pictures I'd seen of her when she met my mom when they were young.

"Now, come come, we've dawdled enough," Julianna ushered me through the apartment as she swung a longer, heavier, black winter coat over her shoulders to protect herself from the late January cold.

The pair of us moved through the building, though I made sure to wave at the security guard as we went past, and out to the parking garage where Julianna's car awaited. I winced a little as I could feel the cold of the leather seat radiating into my butt, and I tried to scoot my winter coat down a little more so I could sit on it.

"I should have thought to preheat the car," Julianna grumbled, as she turned the key in the ignition as the car came to life without the angry cough that dad's truck made in cold weather like this.

"Thankfully we don't have terribly far to go, just save your questions until I tell you it is safe to ask them. Though I'm sure you'll figure out when is the appropriate time." Julianna was rather serious at that moment, and I nodded feeling a sense of excitement in my chest at what this surprise could be.

We headed in the direction of the college campus, but Julianna kept driving us past where my mom had worked and towards an area where the Brockton Bay of past and future competed for space. Old stone and brick faced buildings stood next to modern concrete structures, though I couldn't help but feel that the older buildings had more dignity to them than their newer cousins.

I heard the ticking sound of Julianna's turn signal as she turned left and across the road into the parking lot of one of those big brick buildings with stores on the lower floor and apartments above. We rolled slowly along the length of the building until she pulled into a small employee parking lot in the back of the building.

Fishing a key from her pocket she grinned and tossed it to me, before glancing at the staff doors that were spaced out along the back of the building. "Second door, Taylor," she explained.

I couldn't help but grin in return, wondering what this could be and I scurried out of the car only for my breath to hitch for a moment as I got a mouthful of freezing air I wasn't prepared for. Still, cold wasn't going to stop me and I almost slipped on some black ice in my rush to get to the door. The key slid into the door smoothly and it turned with a satisfying thunk as the heavy deadbolt inside slid clear of the door frame.

Caught up in my excitement I swung the door open, and inside was just a normal room that housed a small, spiral staircase for roof access. My disappointment must have shown on my face as Julianna just laughed and pushed me inside, the bolt sounded much louder on this side of the door as it slid back in place automatically. She walked just past the stairs before kneeling down and she grunted a little with effort as a section of the floor slid away to reveal another matching staircase that went down into darkness.

A small clicking sound caught my attention as a small flashlight came to life in her hands before it was handed to me, "Go on ahead, Taylor, just watch your step," the woman said as she was pulling another flashlight from one of her coat's pockets.

I couldn't contain my excitement, as the light in my hand illuminated the stairs that went deep enough that if this building had a basement we were definitely going deeper than that. The stairs weren't awkward given my height, but I had to think that a shorter person would find them difficult to manage as they were quite tall; though it also meant I began to move downwards fairly fast. The metallic footfalls of mine and Juli's steps echoed loudly off the cement walls and as I flicked my light to and fro it was obvious that this had been added to the building later and not some addition that was taken advantage of by whomever had set up shop.

It was also cold down here, and while I could see my breath outside easily enough here it hung like a thick cloud and my glasses were already fogging up which forced me to stop a few times to wipe them off. Yet another reason to try and figure out some solution to my vision issue, thankfully gaining Sophia's power hadn't permanently made my eyes glow. Though I would be lying if I didn't want perfect vision all the time even at the expense of golden eyes.

Once we hit the bottom my small beam of light played across an open space and I could see a number of objects that seemed to be covered in cloths or tarps. There wasn't much dust in the space which made me think that either Juli had cleaned it up already or someone else was using this space.

"I'll go and turn on the generator, get the lights going." Julianna stated out loud for my benefit, as her heels clicked across the floor. I couldn't help myself and I moved over to the nearest obscured pile and lifted up what I now could confirm was a heavy, dark, cloth. Lifting it I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at for a moment until part of the object flopped over and I realized that it was a few of the padded mats that we had at the school gym.

Which was a little boring, so I moved on to the next target. Unlike the mats I had an idea of what this was as I pulled the cloth up and over to reveal what looked like an older, but not as old as the one that was back at home, computer sitting on top of the kind of desk you could buy in any department store. Simple metal frame with a cheap wood to act as the top of the desk with a pair of drawers on the left side, though the dark leather chair that was partly tucked under the desk was far nicer and probably worth more than the desk was.

But lacking any power to run it I moved on from the desk and further along the wall. The large, bulky, shapes in the middle of the room I suspected was some furniture, most likely a couch and some other smaller but too large to be a chair shape, towards what looked like a roughly human shape covered the same dark fabric as everything else.

Before I could uncover it though, lights flicked on throughout the room without warning forcing me to squint as my eyes had adjusted to the limited sources of light in the room.

"Sorry, I forgot to shut the lights off before I left last time," came Julianna's voice from the opposite side of the room, a humming sound coming from her direction thought it was muffled when she slid a metal door shut over the opening in front of her. She rubbed her hands together and grinned as she saw what I was standing near, "Oh, wait until I'm over there I want to see your face when I pull off the cover," she excitedly said as she made her way over to me.

She moved directly next to the object, her eyes entirely fixed on mine as her hands looped themselves in the folds of dark cloth, "Tell me when you are ready."

Her excitement was infectious and I felt a grin pulling at my lips, "Ready."

There was no whooshing sound as the fabric was far too heavy to get pulled off smoothly, but it did slide and pool forward towards me so I didn't get my first look at what was underneath until the last of the cloth slid over the 'head' of the object.

Helmet though was the correct word apparently, a smooth black metal object that reminded me a lot of Alexandria's own design. An orange visor was in place to protect and hide the eyes and upper face, and I could see a kind of stretchy black cloth that could be pulled up to cover the exposed lower face.

The rest of the armor also seemed to take a lot of inspiration from the female member of the triumvirate, smooth black armor plates with gold highlights on the forearms, hips, chest, and waist to break up the mix of black armor plates and off-black bodysuit below.

I reached out slowly, and I couldn't stop the excited giggle that emerged from my mouth when I made contact with it, "This is so cool!" My fingers explored over the surface, feeling the cold metal as it transitioned to the strange feeling material that made up the flexible suit underneath. Circling around the back I could see that the helmet was designed to let my hair flow free, an idea that I both liked and knew could be a problem in a fight.

My feet stopped though when I got a look at the left shoulder, where Julianna had been standing for the reveal, as there was a single etching of a rose in gold on the shoulder.

"I thought that you should have a bit of Annette with you," Juli said softly, "I had this costume created when I heard about your incident, but she was the one who had come up with the design. You were rather enamored with Alexandria at the time it seems," and I couldn't help but laugh a little at my younger self's hero worship of triumvirate cape.

"It's amazing, but why?" I picked up the helmet and gazed into the orange visor, imagining how it would feel to have someone looking at me in this costume and for once I was happy of how tall I was for my age as it would add a lot to the presentation.

My head snapped in the direction of another cloth rustling, as Julianna pulled the covering of what I correctly had identified as a couch and what was a weird chair/couch hybrid thing which Julianna settled herself into.

"Well, first, I didn't pay for it, Annette did." She held up her hands to stall off my questions, "Annette was the leader of the Brockton Bay cell here and it fell apart when she," her voice trailed off for a few moments, "Retired."

I nodded, it made sense so far and Juli kept going, "After Lustrum got caged," and her voice was surprisingly not at all like the bitter tone mom had always used when she talked about the woman getting punished on behalf of her movement, "Annette realized that the PRT never knew or didn't care about the few properties the movement had purchased in the bay. She got in contact with the Number Man, a cape banker of sorts, and arranged to sell off or have him run the properties."

"I believe most of the funds are in a trust to help pay for your future studies, if things were better in the Bay economically maybe there would be some excess funds in a small account but I am doubtful there is much." She gave me a moment to interject, but my mind was still playing catchup over the fact mom had a secret lair before she continued.

"Aside from the trust most of the funds are used to maintain this safehouse and upkeep of the building above." She gestured to the back of the room where the generator she had turned on was humming, "The generator is not tinker tech, but the fuel is. It runs very clean and it is very efficient though expensive. The building above was much busier years ago, but I don't think half of it is occupied from what I could tell from snooping around last week."

She gave a loose shrug of her arms, "You'd have to contact Number Man's organization for more precise information, and Annette's account codes should be hidden among her things but I haven't had a chance to look yet."

"I have a trust fund?!" I squeaked out now that I had the chance to. I was just a poor kid and the idea of me having one seemed ridiculous, but if my college was even partially taken care of already then that would be a huge weight to lift off of dad's shoulders. I frowned though as the obvious question popped into my head, "Wait, why doesn't dad know about all of this?"

A sigh escaped from the woman, "I'm sure you've noticed by now that your father is somewhat stubborn?" I gave a hesitant nod before she continued, "Annette approached him about the situation once, and he was firmly of the opinion that to use any funds linked to her more villainous past wasn't something he could accept."

A slow, satisfied, smile formed on her full lips, "Of course Annette would never sacrifice an advantage for her daughter and so she just handled it via her old cape connections."

It did sound like my mom I had to admit, "So this was what, your old Lustrum base?"

"Something like that, your mother kept it running in case any of the girl's needed a place to lay low at and she did her best to keep her cape-related activities separate from her home life." She nodded at the computer, "Your mother didn't use it for much more than keeping track of old members of the movement and the occasional purchase from Toybox, a," she paused as though considering her words, "tinker black market of sorts. Just be aware that all tinker made items need maintenance from a tinker despite what many will claim."

The couch loudly announced me standing up as I moved to begin circling around the armor again, my fingers tracing along fabric, metal, and ceramic all combined into one amazing looking design. I lifted the helmet up and winced as my still recovering arm reminded me that I'd just been stabbed a few days ago. I felt a flicker of annoyance at both my body and Sophia in that moment as I sat the helmet back down on the mannequin it had sat on, as much as I might want to put it on I knew it was smarter to wait until I was ready.

Because I knew the moment I put this costume on I wouldn't be able to stop myself from going out into the city. The idea that such an amazing looking costume was all mine had me grinning ear to ear, but I looked at julianna with a question, "Is this not tinker made?"

She shook her head with a chuckle, "No, but it was made by someone who is rather skilled at design. I was also given a lengthy plan on how to repair and improve it in case it is damaged or you get additional resources. I left them in the desk over there if you need them." She gracefully rose to her heels and moved closer to me, "I was told the bodysuit underneath is insulated along with a second one provided for warmer weather, also the plates should deflect low caliber rounds at range but you should not consider yourself bulletproof."

I felt her finger poke me in the nose, "So you need to get yourself a defensive power as a priority, young lady." With that she started to walk towards a small door that was just off from the living/kitchen area, "I'm going to check the state of the sleeping quarters, I sealed the place up as best I could after your mother passed but I want to make sure nothing got in and made a nest in the bedding." The door was left part way open when she vanished from sight, "Feel free to check through the computer, I disabled the password so just put in a new one as it's yours."

I wouldn't lie and pretend I wasn't excited as I watched the computer boot up, and while it wasn't a brand new model it was still superior to what I generally had to work with and I giggled happily when I realized it had internet access.

Like any self-respecting young cape the first thing I did was open PHO.

Clicking through a few threads just to check what was going on I saw that Sophia had been spotted on patrol last night, though apparently the cape watchers had noticed she hadn't slipped off once from the rest of the wards as far as they could tell.

As interesting as that knowledge was, it made me feel a little uncomfortable that people just tracked the wards like that, and while bans got handed out whenever people tried to guess at identities it annoyed me in a way it never had before.

Was it because I knew Sophia better now, or could it simply be that now that I'd triggered I could imagine these people talking about me like that? Putting me under a microscope and wondering why I was acting in such a manner or if I was being punished for something by a bunch of people who could never understand what I'd been through. It wasn't limited to Sophia as I felt annoyed at just the general attitude of so many of the non-capes towards the wards. I just wanted to login and tell off these commenters for treating the wards like they were a reality show for their own amusement.

My fingers went to hit the login button when I noticed someone was already logged in.

'Monarch'

Who was that? Was that Julianna's handle? I hesitated for a second as I clicked on the account to look at the post history, and I felt my breath hitch as I saw that all activity had ended a little over two years ago.

Was this mom's account?

I couldn't stop myself as I started looking through the old posts, and it didn't take long for me to find a pattern that certainly matched my mom. Most of them were offering advice to younger women in what seemed to be one of the many subforums on the site. Of course there were also quite a few in defense of Lustrum and that her getting sent to the Birdcage for the crimes of her followers was a massive injustice.

I'd never looked too much into the birdcage, only knowing the general kind of stuff like that it was some kind of prison that parahumans who crossed the law too many times got sent to. I think Dragon, the world's greatest tinker, maintained it and once you got put in there you never got back out.

As my eyes kept reading further I reflected that mom had always downplayed the movement when I asked her about it, but here in black and white it was obvious that she still believed in the movement's leader. More than a few back and forth arguments between mom and another poster where she pointed out how Lustrum being sent to the birdcage failed to meet any reasonable standard seeing as how the woman had never formally been charged before that.

Mom acknowledged that Lustrum had been arrested a few times, mostly at rallies or protests, but she'd never been charged with a crime she herself had committed. Mom compared that of course to how leaders of actual violent movements, like the Bay's own E88, weren't singled out to be hunted down and caged as evidence that as long as you didn't mess with the status quo then really the government and PRT didn't seem to care.

While on the other hand she pointed out, a charismatic female leader threatening the status quo got caged with zero evidence to actually link her to any crimes. I couldn't help but think of my own power and feel a new worry I'd never considered forming. If I could copy any power would I be viewed as too dangerous and end up sent to the birdcage?

No, I'm being way too paranoid about all of this. I'm going to be a hero after all, why would the PRT want to send a hero to the birdcage.

Shaking my head I kept reading to distract myself, getting drawn into mom's argument as she made some parallels to the rise of the Elite. Noting that they only formed as a group when the government decided that parahumans couldn't be allowed to freely participate in the economy or media with their powers.

Because tough shit Parian, you've got cloth powers so get out there and beat people up with puppets unless you are willing to work for the PRT!

Okay, maybe I was letting mom's attitude influence me a little here but she had a point. When you made people's only viable choices be work for the PRT in some fashion or become a villain it was going to push at least some neutrals to become villains.

Parian was someone I had actually been thinking of trying to contact and see if I could get a costume made, as the girl was one of the few rogue's who seemed to be avoiding the vigilante route. Of course how long her position might last I wasn't sure, the Bay wasn't very kind to rogues given the presence of the E88 and ABB.

I scowled at the thought of the gangs, criminals flocking to pillage a city that was dying or being reborn depending on your social class and postal code.

The Empire Eighty Eight, who somehow despite being American saw no issues with proudly proclaiming themseles nazis. The worst part was they preyed on the large number of unemployed white blue collar workers who found their jobs being shuttered and moved to other cities now that the Bay was no longer a shipping hub. Which meant that on top of having the largest number of capes in the bay they also had a lot of unpowered muscle.

On the other side was Lung, technically he had a gang called the Azn Bad Boys but the whole gang's strength was based around the dragon. He had fought Leviathan and the Endbringer had fled, how he had ended up in the Bay after that I wasn't quite sure of but here he was. He'd subjugated every one of the Asian gangs to his cause and they were infamous for kidnapping young girls and forcing them into brothels or shipping them away to be sold like property.

Both of them were filth that the PRT should have dealt with, but after some digging I'd found out what I figured was the sad truth. The E88 always attended Endbringer fights, and given that they had Purity who was just behind Legend when it came to blaster power that was a boat the PRT probably didn't want to rock too badly.

And everyone prayed that Lung would decide to attend another Endbringer fight, I'd read that the PRT sent a representative to him every time with bigger and bigger offers of compensation in the hope that eventually they'd entice the dragon.

It just felt wrong to me that two horrible groups got a pass because they could be useful at the expense of making the people of the Bay suffer. As if the citizens of Brockton were just necessary sacrifices for the rest of the world whenever an Endbringer attacked.

I had stumbled on some information though that I hadn't known before.

There was apparently some third faction run by a man named Coil, but all that I was able to find out is that he controlled a decent portion of downtown and didn't seem to use any capes for muscle. He had some well trained mercenaries, if he even was a he I supposed, and they were skilled, or well armed, enough that they held off any of the probes that the other gangs sent into his territory.

"Ah, you found your mom's account." Julianna's voice sounded behind me, causing me to jolt in the chair and look over my shoulder at her.

I flushed with embarrassment, but smiled up at her as she cupped my cheek softly, "It's alright, I thought it might be good for you to see a little of the unfiltered woman." She snorted when she saw one open tab that contained the post about Lustrum, "Ah, Lustrum, your mom always held her in such high regard."

I raised my eyebrow at her, "You didn't?" It sounded a little odd given that she'd been a part of the woman's movement.

She pondered my question for a moment, "I think she had excellent ideas, but applied them incorrectly." She paced over and sat down on the edge of chair-thing before shrugging, "It's honestly a rather dull argument for me to recap, but to sum it up I felt that the movement would have been better focused on parahuman women and not just society as a whole."

She opened her mouth to speak and then seemed to reconsider, "I'll leave it there for now, I don't want to ruin today with politics." She leaned forward, a slight grin on her lips, "So what do you think of your mom's old codename? I think it would make a great cape name for you."

I couldn't help but smile in response, it would make it feel like mom was with me in a way, "Monarch doesn't sound too villainous does it?"

She waved off my comment, "Taylor, the PRT will always object to a name that doesn't sound like it comes out of a children's cartoon, so don't you worry about them at all."

"I do like it, would it be weird if I used her PHO account or could I contact the mods and have a second one made?" It was a well known fact that most capes had an official (or unofficial for some) account and a 'civilian' account, so I could probably get a cape account under the name Monarch.

She pondered my question for a moment before shaking her head in the negative, "It might be best to start a fresh one as it might look suspicious if her account becomes active around the time when you make your debut. Not that your mother wasn't careful but trust me when I say that people will treat you differently if they know of Annette's past." She looked around the space and nodded to herself, "Well, this place is yours now to do as you see fit. It had been some kind of attempt at a private bomb shelter or panic room before Scion appared so it should be quite secure. We never had any issue with it back in the day."

Leaning back on to the chair-couch hybrid she stretched for a moment, "It's not on any building plans so as long as you don't look too suspicious coming in and out you should be fine. The building's cameras are run by the Number Man's organization so don't worry about them spotting you."

I felt a surge of panic at the thought I'd been caught on camera by a villain, "You mean a villain knows what I look like!"

Juli looked a little surprised at my reaction and smoothly stood up, "Don't think of Number Man as any more villainous than an offshore banker, and keep in mind that he's the only way that many perfectly good and upstanding capes can make a living because of shortsighted people in power."

She pulled me into a hug and I nodded, feeling my panic slip away because obviously she'd be more familiar with how all this works, "Okay, I, it just feels like with Sophia and everything else it's like I keep messing up before I've even become a cape for real."

"I think you've done rather well thus far, the incident with your former schoolmate was unfortunate but it seems to have worked out." She stroked my hair before sliding one side behind my ear, "So, do you want to look around your new hideout more or go home and start studying?"

I shook my head at both options, her calming me down had steeled my resolve in another way too, "I want to talk to my dad."

For a second I thought I saw a flicker of annoyance across her features, but it must have just been the lighting as she smoothly replied, "Alright, I'll go up and warm up the car this time and then we'll head over. Remember though you need to start studying for your placement tests."

I nodded in agreement, but I couldn't help but feel there was a little more force behind her words than usual. She had been the one encouraging me to talk with dad so why was she upset?

Unease gripped me and I banished it by tracing my fingers through the hair she'd tucked back behind the ear and smiled at the mimicking of her gesture. I almost turned to follow her but my curiosity grabbed me as I glanced at the desk drawers I hadn't investigated yet.

Julianna had left the room by the time I opened the top one only to feel disappointed at the absence of anything inside, or at least that was what I thought before my eyes caught a hint of black on the underside of the desk. Bending over I felt a surge of excitement as I saw two objects tucked into what looked like a pair of straps that were anchored into the bottom of the wood.

I reached in and pulled out the objects, and I let out a gasp of surprise as I found myself holding a knife in a black sheathe and some kind of heavy metal cylinder. I set the cylinder down and pulled out the blade to reveal an almost amber colored metal, "Well, that's weird," I muttered to myself but no reason to leave it just sitting down here so I slid it into one of the big pockets of my coat.

The Bay was dangerous after all.

Turning my attention to the cylinder I hefted it up and noticed it had metal rings on one side that reminded me a little of those toy lightsabers that had been all the rage when I was little. Acting on a whim I swung my arm with that end pointing out and let out a pleased giggle as the pieces telescoped out into a hefty, matte blck, baton. I gave it a few experimental swings and frowned when I realized how heavy it felt after just that small test.

I really needed to get into shape if I was going to become a cape.

It took me a minute or so to find the small latch that would let the baton retract, but soon it too was secured and hidden inside the right pocket opposite from where I had put the knife. Smiling, I left the room and flicked off the lightswitch near the entrance before ascending up the stairs to meet up with Julianna.

***

The drive over to dad's was quiet for a few reasons, and the most obvious being that Julianna still seemed to be annoyed over something but she was doing a much better job hiding it than she had down in the lair. What she couldn't cover up though was that a winter storm had snuck up on the city and she was having to put all of her concentration on the road.

She'd suggested going back to her place which was closer, but when she admitted she was perfectly confident of getting us to dad's in the storm I'd stood my ground. I didn't want to leave dad stewing any longer with those terrible words I'd shouted at him the last things I'd said to him.

Even if they were all true a dark portion of my mind reminded me, memories of how he had checked out when I needed him most flashing in my mind.

Pushing those less charitable thoughts aside I began to try to plan. There was a good chance we'd just blow up at each other again, but I hoped to avoid that. I just wanted the chance to explain what had happened, maybe help him to understand that I was different in more ways than I just had powers now.

Julianna had said that with enough time I'd start to realize how I'd been changed and after the whole incident with Sophia I think I understood what she meant a little. I'd never have been able to 'partner' with Sophia before I triggered and while a part of me resisted, or at least realized how crazy of an idea it was, I just couldn't hold on to my hatred for her.

Did I forgive her for what she'd done to me, no. But our past wasn't going to be a factor I considered going forward, if she could help me and she kept to her end of the bargain then I could deal with Sophia.

I wondered if it was because she was a parahuman or if my trigger just made me more willing to work with people in general? My last thoughts in the locker had been about how no one would really care that I was gone. I had been isolated from people for such a long time that I had triggered, so would it make sense that my trigger would change me psychologically to move past my own issues in order to form those connections faster?

Maybe I should pick up some psychology books, they might give me some insight into what was going on in my head.

It was getting dark as I bumped up in the passenger seat as Julianna's car caught the edge of the curb as she pulled into my driveway next to dad's truck. I glanced at her, took a deep breath to steady myself, and said, "I think I'm going to go in and talk to him by myself." She didn't say anything right away, but the growing frown along with the creak of her leather gloves tightening let me know how she felt about my request.

It's not that I didn't trust her, but she and dad were like oil and water which wasn't a mixture I needed when things were as delicate as they were.

"Okay, but if you don't text me in ten minutes I'm coming in." Her words were clipped, and it was a far cry from the smooth tone she used in normal conversation.

"Sure," I nodded in agreement as I opened the passenger door before sliding out of the seat, avoiding the broken snow covered step as I slid my key into the lock and unlocked the deadbolt. I braced myself, fearing for the worst, as I opened the door and breathed a sigh of relief at the relatively unchanged interior as I peaked my head into the living room.

I'd been worried that he'd spiral again and I'd find him half a case of beers deep and staring listlessly at the tv. He'd gotten like that after mom died, finding it easier to just go to work and then vanish into a stupor when he was home rather than try to accept what had happened and move on. I'd be forever grateful to Alan Barnes for snapping my dad out of that state, even if he and Aunt Zoe were completely oblivious to their daughter's transformation into an utter monster.

I could hear the shower running upstairs, which was a little weird because dad normally showered in the morning and even if he had been doing something physical at work by his normal schedule he was almost an hour late getting home. Though the storm might have slowed him down I reasoned.

I paused when I saw a familiar bag sitting next to the stairs and recognized it as one of my school bags that had mysteriously vanished from my locker. This was before I learned that regardless of my best efforts I couldn't keep the trio from stealing whatever they wanted from it. I felt my hands shake a little as I moved closer, anticipation and anxiety warring inside of me as to what was inside of the canvas bag.

My fingers trembled as they undid the plastic clasps that held the bag closed, and I lifted the top flap to reveal a slender object wrapped in a dark brown, slightly, threadbare towel. It took me only a few quick tugs to pull the towel free and soon I was reverently holding my mother's flute in my hands, it was beaten, dented, scuffed, and maybe even unrepairable but it was hers.

Just holding it again made things feel better, like life made just a little more sense. If my powers helped to get back mom's flute then they were worth it.

I just stood there in the hallway by the stairs for minutes as I ran my hand over the familiar, but damaged, metal, before I looked down at the bag it had been resting in. I reached down and pulled out the towel which revealed nothing further, though the flittering flashes of a yellow piece of paper caught my eyes as it escaped from the towel and danced in the air before landing on the floor. Stooping over I picked up the small piece of paper that looked like it had been torn from the corner of a larger piece of lined legal paper.

'S H, Cell' was scribbled above a local cell phone number in a far neater hand than I expected of Sophia, as I never thought she took school too seriously. Then again I hadn't either before a concerted campaign to make me fail had forced me to start pushing myself if only to overcome the sheer number of extra obstacles in my way. I slipped the paper into a pocket inside of my coat and placed the flute back inside the spot it had been before as I swung the whole bag over my shoulder before I made my way down the hall and into the kitchen.

It was obvious dad had been in here last, as the room still felt warmer from the residual heat of his presence and the coffee maker was in the process of making a fresh batch of the dark, terrible tasting, liquid. Which meant that dad had been planning on working late on something as he generally avoided coffee this late in the day or else he had a lot of trouble sleeping.

I swung my gaze around the kitchen seeing nothing of note on the small island or the countertops. Turning around I looked over our kitchen table and saw that it was covered in papers, a handful of pens in different colors having been used to highlight and encircle sections of text. My curiosity roused. I padded over and as I read the words on the first page I felt a spark of rage begin to smolder in my breast.

It was a ward contract.

I wasn't even aware that I'd clenched my fists together, before I hissed in pain as I saw blood ooze from the cracks in my fingers. My nails had gotten longer than I normally kept them these last few weeks, letting them bite easily into the flesh of my palm.

"Shit," I muttered to myself while I hung the schoolbag off the back of a kitchen chair, before I pulled out the first aid kit I knew was stashed under the kitchen sink after that time mom had sliced through part of her thumb when making dinner while Aunt Zoe had been trying to help out.

I felt a pulse of pain in my chest when I realized that was almost five years ago now.

Quickly checking over the breaks in the skin I was glad to find there was only a small puncture in the skin where one nail had pierced through. An easy enough wound to treat, though I was only part way done when the shower shut off and shortly after I heard a door open upstairs.

"I'm home, dad." I called up, hoping that my voice didn't show too much of the anger I felt in my blood, before hastily texting Julianna that everything was still okay when I realized I'd forgotten her instructions.

The footsteps faltered for a second upstairs before I heard my dad's voice, "Taylor?"

"Yeah, dad, I," I trailed off for a moment, "We should talk." I winced at my words which sounded even more awkward in the air than they had in my head.

I swear I could hear him sigh from the kitchen, "Sure, Taylor, just let me get dressed." As I heard his feet pad further down the upstairs hall I turned my attention back to the table. There were a few pamphlets that were stacked loosely and as I flipped through them they seemed to be some kind of PRT materials about young parahumans.

I felt a stab of panic, had dad gone to call the PRT? No, dad didn't have a cell phone and mom had never let him install a phone upstairs, or else she'd never have been able to sleep when the union guys called dad at odd hours. So as long as he didn't go straight for the phone when he came down then I wasn't about to get 'volunteered' into the wards.

Hopefully.

The sound of the stairs squeaking alerted me to dad's approach, and he looked like he'd somehow aged years in just the few days I'd been gone. He gave a weak smile at the sight of me, but it dropped when he saw what I was standing in front of. I gestured across the papers that dad had obviously been working on, wordlessly asking for an explanation as I didn't trust my own words not to set him off.

I retrieved my backpack as Dad tiredly pulled a chair out and sat down in front of the papers, "Someone from the PRT came by, apparently they do these 'crisis point'," he did air quotes with at the term, "Checks and when you weren't at the hospital I guess that was a flag in their system to do another followup." He picked up the pamphlets before putting them back down, "She gave me those, and I printed off the wards forms because I wanted to see it all in front of me in black and white."

"Who was it?" I asked, curious as to which member of the PRT got sent and to distract myself from the anger, misplaced or not, I was feeling towards dad. There weren't many female capes in either the PRT or the Wards, only four if I counted Sophia, with the other three being Battery, Vista, and Miss Militia.

"Miss Militia, she seemed a little suspicious that you weren't here if I'm being honest. I don't think she believes you were abducted, but I've heard that the gangs try to grab up young capes so maybe that is what she was worried about." I narrowed my eyes at dad's not so subtle reference to how dangerous things were for new capes.

Dad's lack of tact aside I felt a little disappointed at having missed out on meeting Miss Militia, she was one of my favorite local heroes, though I found my estimation of her dropping a little if she participated in these not so subtle methods the PRT seemed to use when finding out about new triggers. I wondered if all those big PR hospital visits were just cover for them looking in on a potential trigger?

Honestly, aside from the fact that the PRT was a government organization they seemed to have a very similar playbook to the gangs when it came to forcibly recruiting capes.

"And the wards contract?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm, as I already knew a lot of what was in it.

"It isn't as bad as you think, they cover your higher education and they train you, Taylor. Not even getting into the fact that they'll keep you safe," his eyes drifted in the direction of the front of the house, as he had obviously spotted Julianna's car when he'd come downstairs and walked past the front door.

I tried to take a deep breath to calm myself, but when I went to breathe out it felt choppy and just broadcast my frustration, "We talked about this, you agreed to let me settle in at Arcadia first." I tried to stay calm but the last of my words sounded more like a hiss escaping from me..

"Taylor, that was before you got into a fight days later with a ward!"

"It's not like I knew that at the time!" I snapped back, my nostrils flaring as my breathing became heavier and faster.

I heard a pen snap in my father's hands, "You lost control, Taylor. Everything we talked about before was based on the idea that you kept a low profile and stayed safe. If you couldn't keep yourself in check during a visit to Winslow, how are you going to go for an entire day at Arcadia?"

"Maybe ask me what happened first before you started contemplating signing the next three years of my life to the government!" I flinched at how loud my voice was before I softly confessed, "Why can't we just talk?"

"Taylor," dad's voice just sounded so weak in that moment, "I just want you safe, from the gangs, from everything. I want you to get as close to a normal childhood as you can, in as safe of a place as you can."

I tried to keep it in but a broken laugh erupted from my lips, as I just shook my head at him, if he wanted to save my childhood he was two years too late for that as my eyes glanced over at the chair that had been mom's traditional place.

He looked like I had just slapped him in the face, but I didn't feel the guilt I thought I would. I loved my dad, but he'd failed me so much over the last few years that a part of me took some level of satisfaction in seeing him forced to acknowledge the fact that he wasn't the only one hurt by mom's passing.

"I know I failed you." Dad growled more to himself than to me, "I've been trying to support you and I thought that if I just gave you some more time then things would get better, but that's not what being a parent is about." He stood up and fixed me with a look I hadn't seen since mom died, "You are going to join the wards and I'm going to make sure they move you away from the Bay. Taylor, I don't care if you hate me for it but I'm going to keep you safe from Julianna and the rest of this damn city."

I could feel my pulse pounding in my skull as he talked, he wanted to send me away from him, from my home! I had to reign in Sophia's power to start from instinctively using it. "It's always about you, isn't it." I softly said, "You don't even hear me, or even think about what I want. It's just about you in the end isn't it?"

I leveled a glare at him, the world going fuzzy before I realized that somehow my eyes must be glowing as the world was crystal clear when I pulled down my glasses, "Mom would be ashamed of you."

"Annette's dead, Taylor!" Dad's voice was so sharp and angry that it startled me, the world suddenly growing blurry as I fumbled to put my glasses back on.

What had just happened?

By the time I could see again dad had already moved over to the phone, angrily punching in buttons and so I did the first thing I could think of.

I ripped the phone cord as hard as I could, the tiny plastic clip pinging as it broke free from the phone and dad's furious gaze turning towards me.

I knew logically that dad would never hurt me, and even in his lowest point I'd never once worried that his neglect could become abuse.

Emotionally however, I wasn't prepared. I wasn't prepared for the rage in his eyes, or how he suddenly seemed far larger in his fury, and for the first time ever I felt afraid to be in his presence. My hands shook, and my steps faltered as I backed away from him. My mind flashing with the smells of decay and rusted metal mixing with the presence of a father far too close.

I needed to get away, I needed to breathe.

I slipped into the comforting embrace of Sophia's power and fled out the back door, into the storm and as far away from the house as I could.

***

A/N Sorry for the delay, I'd gotten 12K words written before I realized it was probably smarter to split this off instead of just making some monster chapter.