"I would appreciate it, Naurelin, if you would never do that to me again," stated Carol Dallon. "Since you did no damage to the yard or house, I'm not going to file a complaint."
"I understand," Naurelin said nodding. "In my defense, it seemed like a good idea at the time."
Dean had finally recovered from his bout of laughter. "Same excuse Clock uses. Doesn't work for him, either." What he was not going to say was that he'd won the pool they had going about what Carol's reaction would be. His host wouldn't find it funny, though her daughters might.
He frowned for a moment. To his powers, Amy still seemed headed for a breakdown. The girl was seriously stressed, and something was going to happen sooner or later. He sighed. He couldn't tell Carol – she wouldn't listen – and telling Vicky would have her do something rash, leading to even more trouble. Mark Dallon, Carol's husband, had his own issues. He could probably say something to Sarah Pelham, New Wave's leader, and not cause too many problems.
"Anyway," Sarah Pelham said, "I'd like to thank you for coming, Naurelin. Did I pronounce that right?" At Taylor's nod, she continued. "Usually, we don't invite new Wards to our monthly meetings, though for you, we decided to invite you and simply ask you what you could do."
"Well, before I continue, I'd like to get something out of the way. Amy and Dean already know who I am, so does Vicky." With that, Taylor, who was in her human form, pulled down the hood, and took off the mirrored visor and underlying domino mask. "Hi, I'm Taylor."
There was a quiet "I knew it!" from Vicky before she continued. "This will make things a whole lot less awkward going forward."
"As to what I can do… It's probably better if I just show you." She held out a hand and an image of herself, in costume, appeared on the table, "I'm primarily, using the PRT classifications, a Changer and a Trump. There are two ways to think about this. One is that I'm a grab bag parahuman whose bag is about the size of the parachutes used by the Apollo program," and she paused for a breath, "or I'm a dragon with all the attendant magical powers." On cue, the image of Taylor changed into a dragon, completely with cartoony sound effects emphasizing her primary abilities; flight, breathing fire, instilling fear in those facing her, the various offensive spells she'd cast, and healing people.
"There are a few others that don't translate well to a visual presentation like this", she continued. "I can turn invisible, surround myself with silence, and have a few defensive abilities that have no visible effect."
"You know," commented Dean, "you are going to get run through the wringer the next time you go through power testing."
"Director Piggot has already told me that," Taylor answered with a sigh. "I'm not looking forward to It."
- - - - - - - - - -
In the end, Taylor spent more time socializing with the younger members of New Wave than she did talking about what her debut meant for the uneasy balance between the various groups in Brockton Bay. The adults had fallen into stunned silence as Taylor had described her encounter with Lung, which segued into the mandatory lecture from the adults about how foolish that was.
Later, as she was talking with Crystal and Eric, every one there thought she was damn lucky to have survived the encounter. "Still," commented Eric, "that was awesome."
Taylor inwardly preened a little at the attention. "Yeah," she replied, "but I'd rather not go through that again. It was rather painful."
"So," Vicky asked, curious, "If you're a dragon, does that mean you have a lair someplace? With a pile of treasure?"
Taylor sighed. "Yes, to both questions. No, I'm not about to show you."
"Aw, you're no fun," Vicky pouted.
"Looking to spend Naurelin's money, too?" Asked Dean, good-naturedly. "If it's in precious metals, it's not going to be easily converted into cash to spend. There would be tinkers who would pay better than market value for the metal just to use it in their gadgets."
"You're not going to go and, say, rob a jewelry store?" asked Eric. "Seems to me there'd be a lot of stuff a dragon would want in there?"
"Eh, none of it appeals to me," said Taylor with a shrug. "Nothing in any of the remaining stores here in the bay that says 'I need this for my hoard'". She took a drink of the provided beverage she had. "It would be wrong to steal it. If someone were to offer it to me, that's fine. For me to ram raid the jewelry store? Not fine.
"And before you ask, I did consider raiding the Fed in Boston. Beyond the fact something tells me that my hoard is just right, I wouldn't want to face any of the Triumvirate, Treasury agents, FBI, and probably the military doing it. Not worth it."
- - - - - - - - - -
"I like the girl," Sarah Pelham stated, after the group had split up into adults and teenagers. "She gets along with everyone, and is appearing to try to be responsible."
Her husband Neil nodded in agreement. "She definitely has potential."
Carol Dallon frowned. "Potential to be very dangerous, especially if she loses control."
Her husband Mark spoke up. "Name one person in this house who wouldn't be," he quietly stated. "Name one in this city, Carol, if you can." He was more in the here and now than he usually was. Vicky had been attempting to control her infamous aura a little better, especially when around the home, and it had made a bit of difference.
Sarah could only shake her head. "The one thing you keep reminding us about, Carol, is everyone is innocent until proven guilty. I find it ironic that I'm reminding you of this."
Carol gave her sister a dark look, but remained silent.
- - - - - - - -
Taylor sighed. "Carol doesn't appear to trust me," she muttered.
"She doesn't trust me either," said Amy, her voice sour. "Thinks I'll go bad and turn all evil overlord." Amy's expression turned to one of mischief. "I wonder if they know that you can hear them?"
"They didn't ask," admitted Taylor, "and I don't volunteer the information."
"So wait," asked Eric. "You can actually hear them clear enough to understand what they're saying?"
"Yep," was Taylor's answer. "Right now, Carol wants to come up with ways to stop me should I go out of control. Neil and Sarah are telling Carol to table it, and Mark is telling her it will be just fine."
"What's happened with Dad is kind of my fault," admitted Vicky. "His depression was made worse by my Aura. I've been trying to keep it under control more here at home. He's remembered to take his meds more often, which is a good thing."
"I could help," said Taylor quietly. "One of the powers I have removes abnormal conditions from a person. Most diseases, poisons, petrification, and most forms of insanity."
"I can tell Mom," said Vicky, "but she's not likely to act on it until she comes to trust you. Which might be never."
"Admittedly, I probably didn't start things off on the right foot… paw… whatever."
"However," commented Eric with a grin, "it was hilarious."
- - - - - - - - - -
"Taylor," asked Amy, "could I talk with you a moment? Privately?"
"Sure," replied Taylor hesitantly.
With that, Amy began walking upstairs to her room, with Taylor following her. She closed the door behind Taylor after she had entered. "I realize you barely know me," she started, "but I need to ask you a favor."
"Okay," answered Taylor, somewhat confused.
"There's a reason my mother doesn't trust me," Amy admitted. "I'm adopted, and I'm probably the daughter of a villainous parahuman. I think I know who it might have been, but I don't want to say." Taylor remained silent until Amy continued. "Something's going to happen, sooner or later, and I'll need a place to crash when it happens."
"I don't think it would be a problem." Taylor replied, watching Amy look a little less stressed. "I'll have to check with my dad to be sure, though." And with that, she texted her address to Amy's phone.
- + [@] + -
"Chances of something bad happening to me in the next week?" The young girl asked to herself, late at night. Unbidden, she muttered the answer aloud. "92.52%"
"Chances are it will involve my parents?" After a pause, "2.678%
"Chances are it will involve one of the gangs? 9.075%.
"Chances are it will involve the PRT? 15.61%"
Dinah stopped asking her questions as she could feel the beginnings of a headache, putting her notebook into her hiding spot behind the nightstand next to her bed. She was pretty sure she'd triggered; not knowing about how something would turn out had stressed her to the point where she'd collapsed at home, only to pick herself up a moment later with the strange compulsion to answer questions that could be answered with a probability. Fortunately, she had a mental 'switch' she could use to keep from answering questions when she didn't want to, but it could only be used so often. It let her attend school without blurting out probabilities all day, which would out her as a parahuman in short order.
"Nothing I can do about it until it happens," she muttered as she fell asleep.
- + [@] + -
Taylor had flown back to the PRT building shortly thereafter. Vicky had given her permission to Dean to drive her home, in a manner so facetious that Amy stated that she needed some ham to go with all that cheese, which ended the night on a positive note.
She changed back into her civvies, and met Dean in the parking garage where he was waiting. There were a couple moments of quiet, broken by some classic rock being played on the radio before Taylor broke the silence. "What do you know about Amy's home life?"
"Why do you want to know?" Dean asked in return.
"Amy needed a bolt hole in case things went south with her mother," she explained. "Said she was adopted, and was probably the daughter of a villain here in town. She's expecting something to happen, sooner or later."
"Yeah," replied Dean, "Amy is extremely stressed out. The doctor's at Brockton General cut her to one third the hours she was putting in, which appeared to help, until Carol pushed her into going to other hospitals around the area. Eventually, the Youth Guard had to intervene and read Carol the riot act, and also quoted the Federal statutes she was in violation of. Amy's limited to twenty hours per week across the entire area now, and Carol's unhappy about that.
"She's even less happy when she found out that the hospitals have been putting money aside in an account for Amy which becomes hers when she becomes eighteen, which she only found out because of the Youth Guard going back to the hospitals for wages owed," He paused as he turned onto Taylor's street.
"Carol is a person who sees things as Black and White," he said sadly. "Makes her very good at what she does, but makes her very hard to live with. I know Amy has heard her talking with Sarah about not wanting to take her in, and she always introduces them as her daughter Victoria and Amy."
"That's messed up," Taylor muttered.
"A couple of things to keep in mind," Dean said, nodding in agreement with Taylor's statement. "Amy needs a friend she can count on. Too many people just want to be her friend because she's Panacea, and no one wants to know Amy. The second thing is that should you betray her trust, the last thing you will see is your beating heart as Vicky rips it out of your chest. She loves her sister very much, despite her mother."
With that, they had arrived at Taylor's house, and they parted ways in silence.
