Dad's yelling match with Armsmaster was embarrassing. He was just being an obstinate asshole. Not that Armsmaster was much better, what with his total inability to budge on the legalities. It ended up being Miss Militia who deescalated the situation. She gently took Armsmaster aside and got everybody to focus on the actual situation at hand. The dead gang members and possible retaliation. She stayed a couple seconds after Armsmaster left to ask us a question.
"Do you feel the need to request protective custody?" I'm... not sure how to answer that. Dad turns to me.
"Taylor?"
"Um, not right this second, no." I hedge. She nods and leaves. After Dad locks the door he starts walking up the stairs.
"We'll talk about this later Taylor, when I'm sure we aren't being spied on." I nod.
The next morning Dad wakes me up bright and early, making the mistake of barging in on me when I haven't woken up yet. He caught me in my amorphous mouthy blob form. There was yelling on my part. Loud yelling. And swearing.
Anyways after that unpleasantness he took me on an early morning drive to a construction zone. It's very noisy. Some of the guys give us strange looks, but we check in with the foreman. He gets us some safety gear and we poke our heads into one of the finished areas right next to construction. Nobody next to us.
"Alright Taylor, I really need to know what's going on here! Did you kill those people and why?"
"Why do you need to know?" He mumbles something I can't hear over the power tools.
"Because I am still on your side Taylor!! Always have been, always will be! And I can't even attempt to keep us safe if you keep stuff from me! Very important stuff like there being gang members actively spying on us.
"And I know you Taylor, you're not a violent girl. You wouldn't just go flying off the handle for no reason. Please tell me what that reason is." Oh geeze Dad, way to lay on the guilt. I don't think I've seen him this stressed since Mom died. Exactly why I didn't want to tell him in the first place.
So I start telling him. Slowly at first. All of the things that never happened. The first incident I talk about is the thug that cornered me in an alley. I wasn't all that threatened. He started getting grabby and I tried to poke him in the eyes with my acidic fingers. Accidentally killed him by stabbing him through the brain. I told him how I talked to Coil and how he tried to smarm his way into a recruitment pitch. I didn't tell him how I got rid of the body.
Next I told him how I got shot Saturday morning, and how it made me decide to never leave myself vulnerable in my human shape ever again. He gave me a hug after that one. Much appreciated Dad.
Next comes when three dudes started chasing me during my Sunday morning run. I skimmed through how I led them on a merry chase, killing them opportunistically. Dodging bullies in school came in useful after all I guess.
Finally there was when they held Dad at gunpoint. I retold the shock, fear, and white hot rage I felt when they put a gun to his head. Suddenly I found myself giving less of a fuck than in school. I allowed myself to be shackled so I could get close, and I killed them all when they gave me an opening. I was almost disappointed when the timeline ended. It meant they survived to threaten us again.
"Is that when you decided to kill the people spying on us?"
"Uh, yeah? Is that really important right now Dad? And I didn't even kill all of them."
"Well yeah it's important! It's very important. Part of the reason old people think young people are impulsive is that they kinda are. They usually don't think through their actions. And I love you to bits Taylor, but this was not very well thought out. Now I realize you might not have time to do this all the time but I'll need you to try expanding your decision making process. Whenever you go to use your powers I need you to ask yourself, how will the PRT react? How will the gangs react? How will the party I'm doing this to react? And am I secure enough to inform my dear old Dad? Can you do that for me?"
"I, uhhh" I hesitate for a second, and Dad's expression falters like I just kicked his nonexistent dog. "I can do that! I can totally do that!" His expression loosens up in relief.
"Good. Now what was this about not killing everybody spying on us?"
Dad took us back home to pack one suitcase for each of us. Apparently we're going to be hopping between Union member's places for a day or two at a time. He's also calling various law enforcement agencies to fake them out and get them to withdraw their surveillance. I know this because I'm currently eavesdropping on him from on top of the stairs.
"Because a few surveillance vans in our neighborhood had everybody in them murdered last night, and I was concerned about the safety of your officers. The PRT took over that investigation real quick, so I thought I would inform you. You know how reluctant they can be to share information, right?"
"..."
"No sir, that was not a threat. There would not be a doubt in your mind if I was threatening you. I tend not to be a very subtle man. I'm just a concerned citizen worrying about all these LEO seeming people in my neighborhood. Now for the record, do you have any surveillance vehicles in my neighborhood?"
"..."
"And are there any law enforcement surveillance operations going on in our neighborhood at all?"
"..."
"This was very productive. Thank you for your time." And so on and so on until he got through all the likely suspects. I didn't listen through all of it. I had a suitcase to pack. As I understand it, the plan is to have any law enforcement back their people off taking advantage of everybody's unwillingness to admit that they're spying on you, and everybody's unwillingness to die. Even if these guys aren't law enforcement, if they're listening in then they'll back off due to their aforementioned self preservation instinct. At least that's the theory.
So about packing my suitcase. Going to have to pack at least four changes of clothes plus pajamas and... Wait, do I even sweat now? No no, not important. Even if I have no bodily functions period, I'm still going to at least appear like I do in my everyday life. I pack all the essentials too. Just in case, you know? We're able to surreptitiously put our bags into the truck in the garage and relax a little bit.
"So it turns out the PRT does have one surveillance van keeping an eye on us. It was how they responded so quickly last night."
"So what does that mean-"
"Taylor." He interrupts. He puts his finger to his lips, the gestures to his ears, then to the radio, dashboard, the back seats, all over the truck really, and he shrugs. I nod and we spend the rest of the car ride in silence. Not my favorite thing in the world. At least the music is still good.
When we got to the union building Dad called the school to start getting my homework delivered here. The initial load I got was a week's worth of back load a few hours after he called. Oh it's already the end of school. I didn't really notice. Been busy practicing with my mouths. I can reliably recall a particular voice and mouth now. Huzzah. I got my school work done in a couple hours after I got it. That seemed, uh, really easy? Whatever. I start working ahead on my math textbooks out of boredom. Math is easy. Kind of. It has rules and constants, and can't be twisted against you. I did all the problems for two more chapters before I got bored. Then Dad brought us over to the first dockworker willing to host us for the night. He seems a little bit rough, but I know that's just from working a labor job.
"So, boss, I'm a little bit surprised you're trusting anybody from work to exist around your daughter. Only other time I think I saw her was that one time as a little kid and the photo you got on your desk." Dad chuckles.
"Oh trust has nothing to do with it Dave. Anybody puts their hands on her will regret ever being born. And it won't be me who delivers the lesson either." Dave chuckles nervously at us.
"Well the guest bedroom is over this way. Make yourselves at home."
"I'll take the couch, Taylor gets the bedroom. And don't go barging in on her in the morning either." Daaaaad!
Abilities this chapter
Time Flies (Lords Of The Night Zombies) (200CP)
There are many talented old wizards who have devoted decades of work to achieving immortality, and they didn't even start that search until they were already skilled and experienced in their magic. And many of them fall short. You have a single decade. Good thing you can make the most of your time.
Any kind of extended work or project you're working on progresses unnaturally fast. Or at least, your contribution does. Specifically, it goes five times as fast. You can read a book five times as fast, set-up a ritual five times as fast, craft five times as fast, study or do research five times as fast, and so on.
This never works on action or dynamic set pieces. You could do five days of ritual work in a single day, but the high point at the end of the ritual, the part that must not be interrupted lest horrible consequences befall everyone? Normal time.
AN: I originally had all the dialogue in the construction zone have an extra exclamation point at the end of every sentence. I changed it to bumping the size of the dialogue. Hopefully that doesn't mess with anybody's formatting. Hopefully people don't think it's too subtle either.
