PRT Threat Assessment
One for the Omake-bin. And before anyone comments on it, yes, I know, I added a few things here that aren't strictly "Canon". This is just a fun Omake and my own attempt to fill in some of the plot holes that have been brought up both new and old.

-o-o-o-o-o-

<< 07/24/2010 - 15:21:42 >>

<< PRT Internal Parahuman Identity and Threat Assessment Report - Security Level 4 access required >>

<< Document Internal Reference ID: PITA-23572189.R4 >>

Protectorate ENE, Brockton Bay, M.A. U.S.A.
Report Submitted By: Chambers, June; P.H.D. - Physics; M.D.; Psy.D.
Subject: Hebert, Taylor Anne. AKA Corentine
Affiliation: Wards

Appearance:
Taylor Anne Hebert is a young teenaged mostly-human female, approximately 5'8" tall, with green eyes and fox or fox-like features manifesting in the form of her ears and nine tails protruding from her tailbone. Her non-human extremities are covered in dark fur that appears either black or very dark brown depending on lighting, matching her natural hair coloration, and each of her tails are approximately as long as she is tall and possess prehensile dexterity. Early observation of Taylor Hebert after her re-appearance in the Hebert Home after gaining powers reports that her tails were originally tipped with white fur, but this feature appears to have since faded so that they match the rest of her fur's coloration. It is not known at this time why this change occurred, or if this seemingly cosmetic shift will manifest again in time.

Further, while Taylor Hebert first appeared in the Hebert Home to possess a physique described by observers as "willowy", she has since undergone a dramatic transformation over the course of several weeks that can only be explained as a result of power expression, filling out considerably in her bust, hips and thighs.

As a "Public Ward", it is expected that Taylor Hebert will often be seen in a wide range of civilian clothes tailored to accommodate her tails, but during Wards Duties, her costume(s) comprise primarily of a pearlescent torso flexi-armor made of [REDACTED] and matching skirting in different colorations made by DragonWorks, accompanied by complimentary boots, gloves, jewelry and other accessories, interchangeable depending on circumstances. Her primary hero-emblem is a red crystalline heart surrounded by spiraling fox tails mounted over her heart, but she has expressed a desire for other "lesser" symbols consisting of fox, storm, and heart iconography, and the PRT Image Department has agreed to accommodate these requests. An index of all currently finalized costumes, jewelry and variations of such can be found in attached file Ix:57564189-DIB.R47318.

Threat Assessment Summary:
Full documentation of all Official and Provisional Power Testing results can be found in document PT-5474518.R2

Mover 6: In testing Miss Hebert expressed a ground running-speed comparable to a motor vehicle at freeway speeds for nearly half an hour before signs of fatigue called an end to the test, and the ability to long and high jump over distances capable of crossing a wide street or reaching roofs over five stories off the ground. During the High Jump Test she also manifested the ability to fly. In concurrence to all of Miss Hebert's manifested abilities, this began as little more than her being able to hover shakily, but as of the incident two days prior to this report's submission (IR-534581305654-M/E-6712) her mastery of her flight power appears to have reached a level comparable to her other mover capabilities.

Shaker 6/9/12-Provisional: Note: the split rating is due to Miss Hebert's Trump rating, and the observed disparities between when she first manifests a new power, the much-reduced immediate strength after these manifestations, and the observed rates of growth and speculated upper limits based on the initial manifestation.

- Hydrokinesis (Shaker 9): Taylor Hebert expresses Hydrokinetic powers of a high degree of both range and control, being capable of shaping liquid water into complex patterns over a range of at least three city blocks, at surface pressures capable of holding up objects up to several tons and shielding against small and medium arms fire, as well as displaying the ability to freeze it into ice as of the incident two days prior to this report's submission (IR-534581305654-M/E-6712). Miss Hebert is further capable of compressing large masses of water into volumes that should not be physically possible without inducing molecular fusion to no ill effect before releasing this compressed water in directed streams easily capable of cutting through armored vehicles.

- Electrokinesis (Shaker 6/12-Provisional): Miss Hebert has manifested Electrokinetic powers, allowing her to arc electrical currents between her tails, hands, and select targets. Testing recorded a wide range of wattages, amperages and voltages while Miss Hebert directed a continual stream into the testing electrode with no signs of fatigue over a long period. Given time to charge the ability, however, produced a charge capable of carbonizing most organic matter, and visibly fatigued her for several minutes afterwards. Her control of this ability beyond the arcing between her own extremities currently appears to be limited to line-of-sight, however it is being classified under her Shaker powers due to its initial manifestation as a part of a localized hurricane (IR-534581304219-H.C-42), and the accompanying lightning strikes within the affected area. This is the incident that also grants her the provisional "Shaker 12" rating, as it is hypothesized that this may have been an expression of what Miss Hebert will be capable of when her powers fully "mature".

- Aerokinesis (Shaker 6/12-Provisional): Miss Hebert manifested Aerokinetic abilities at the same time as her Electrokinesis. She is currently capable of manifesting and directing small bursts of air comparable in strength to a concussion grenade with an uncertain degree of control over their target area, as well as charging this technique to create a large gale-force wind across a large area. Further, she is able to use this ability in conjunction with her Hydrokinesis to direct and shape cloud formations at a range of several miles. These formations are capable of behaving as solid objects to her, as well as to her projection so long as Miss Hebert is in physical contact with them, but to anyone else are as insubstantial as a normal cloud. These constructs are capable of lingering for several hours after Miss Hebert releases her control over them.

- Pyrokinesis (Shaker ?): During IR-534581304219-H.C-41, Miss Hebert suffered an adverse reaction to the chlorination of the testing facility's pool. While in an altered state of mind, she set a potted plant on fire through no other apparent effort than willpower and fear. Later, she explosively combusted the second box of brute-rated syringes retrieved to attempt to acquire a blood sample after altering the material state of the contents of the first. Future attempts to manifest this power after the incident ran its course were made but called off when it was determined to be potentially too dangerous to do so without further evaluation of how it relates to Miss Hebert's other powers.

- Matter Manipulation (Shaker ?): During IR-534581304219-H.C-41, Miss Hebert suffered an adverse reaction to the chlorination of the testing facility's pool. While in an altered state of mind, she transformed several of the Brute-Rated syringes brought out to attempt to acquire a blood sample into altered states of matter without direct line of sight or obvious expression of power on her part, including a cardboard cut-out, wooden sculpture and a rubber squeaky toy all in the original shape of the syringes. Further testing was not attempted on account of not knowing where to even begin attempting to manifest such a power and worry of doing so in an uncontrolled manner.

Brute 8: Miss Hebert expresses both considerable durability and strength, deadlifting over 51 metric tons, resisting piercing, lacerations, dead-blows and pressure to extremely high degrees, as well as a resistance to high temperatures, and finally of striking a test dummy with enough force to send shrapnel through the tinker-reinforced wall of the testing facility and the three offices and halls behind it. Her resistance may be adaptive, as she expressed considerably greater resistance to increasing pressure compared to all other tested methods, as well as confusion over touching a surface that would have instantly caused third degree burns to a normal human but to her felt cooler than her breakfast. Unfortunately, Brockton Bay currently lacks the necessary facilities and equipment to properly test this hypothesis. (See request for day-transfer to Boston PRT Test Facilities: TR-473584687-H.C.)

Breaker N/A: Miss Hebert has manifested no observed Breaker-type abilities at this time.

Master 2: Miss Hebert possess a projection, manifested as a white Vulpes vulpes schrencki (AKA the Ezo Red Fox) vixen capable of speech, named "Inari", but appears to have no conscious control over it. This projection seems to be a manifestation of Miss Hebert's subconscious, possessing an intrinsic knowledge of how Miss Hebert's Powers function, how to manifest the ones that haven't done so yet, and the potential dangers of doing so in an uncontrolled manner. This projection also possesses the ability to self-immolate in blue-colored fire to no harm to itself or its surroundings (IR-534581304219-H.C-55). This projection still possesses all of the natural weapons of a flesh and blood fox, so caution should still be taken if approached in a hostile manner.

Personality wise, the projection often comes across as either playfully snarky and sarcastic or indifferent towards people other than Miss Hebert, while displaying much more tenderness and worry towards its Master. It also continually attempts to convince both Miss Hebert and others that Miss Hebert is a "Goddess", possibly as a manifestation of a repressed desire for attention on Miss Hebert's part.

Tinker N/A: Miss Hebert has not manifested any Tinker abilities as of this time.

Blaster N/A: All abilities possessed by Miss Hebert that could potentially be classified under "Blaster" more appropriately fall under her Shaker ratings.

Thinker 3: During power testing Miss Hebert subconsciously reacted to several stimuli induced over the course of the first day that were outside the range of standard human hearing, smell and vision without being consciously aware of doing so. Her hearing and sense of smell appear to be in a range comparable to a median of fox breeds, and during the written portion of the Thinker tests the room was slowly darkened to no apparent impact on her vision.

- Note: Though unable to acquire a blood sample at the time to confirm, Miss Hebert appears to be especially sensitive to the smell of chlorine, having an adverse cognitive reaction that makes her both delirious and unpredictable. Caution is highly advised while she is in this altered state of mind.

Imaging independently tested Miss Hebert's ability to sing, during which it was discovered she possesses a degree of proficiency that her father denies she had before acquiring powers. It is unknown at this time if she innately possesses high degrees of proficiency in any other skills she did not previously.

Beyond standard senses, Miss Hebert appears to have an instinctive understanding of where and how much water is around her within the range of her Hydrokinesis. After manifesting her Electro and Aerokinesis, she also now appears to be instinctively, if vaguely, aware of local weather patterns in addition to being able to differentiate between natural weather and the lingering phenomena caused by her own power use.

While not possessing any apparent heightened cognitive abilities related to sciences beyond what her previous school records would suggest, it is also suspected, though unconfirmed at this time, that Miss Hebert may possess an emergent ability to understand Tinkertech; See incident IR-534581304219-H.C-53. Unfortunately the incident resulted in Miss Hebert being knocked unconscious for several hours due to Thinker-Headache, and she does not remember the full details of what she may have learned, but recording devices in the room capture her muttering several scientific terms she should not have been aware of in the context of the device she was examining given her known level of prior education. See PT-5474518.R2 for full details.

Striker N/A: Miss Hebert has not displayed any striker abilities at this time that are not better folded into her Brute or Shaker classifications.

Changer 1: When she gained her powers, Miss Hebert manifested fox or fox-like ears and nine tails with fur the same coloration as her natural hair, in addition to her blood taking on the coloration of pure gold. Further physical changes occurred over the following weeks, altering Miss Hebert's human physical profile away from her originally thin build towards something more stereotypically "ideally feminine". It is unknown at this time if these changes are permanent or something Miss Hebert will be able to eventually control through an as-yet unknown emergent power.

Trump 6: Taylor Hebert has expressed the ability to develop new powers, either through properly conceptualizing a specific aspect of her overall powers that she has not yet become aware of, or through a perceived need to manifest them. In the former case, the new power is expressed as a macro-scale phenomenon capable of affecting a large area around her while in the latter the initial display is much more restrained. In either case, barring the inciting phenomenon in the former, these newly manifested powers start out in a rather weak state, but through practice Miss Hebert is capable of exponentially expanding their capabilities over as little as a few days, with no known upper limit to the strength of any of her currently emergent powers, nor to the limit of how many she will eventually be capable of manifesting.

Stranger 2: Miss Hebert and her Projection are unable to be examined via Tinkertech. All attempts to do so have resulted in either equipment malfunction when attempting direct observation (IR-534581304219-H.C-53 and IR-534581304219-H.C-54), or logical impossibilities such as embossed metal plates or oil paintings being produced by paper-and-ink printers when examining samples taken from her. Additionally, all attempts at analysis via Thinkers have resulted in failure, producing either further nonsense results or Thinker-Headaches so detrimental to the individuals further attempts have been halted out of health concerns.

So far, more standard equipment has produced equally inconclusive, though less nonsensical results when attempting to examine Miss Hebert or the samples, but indirect observation of the manifested phenomena she produces has been much more successful.

-

Final Notes: Miss Hebert defies all previously understood models of expressed parahuman powers, not only in the shear breadth of them, but in their individual scope as well. While grab-bags are not unheard of, and some are even known to possess more powers than Miss Hebert currently does, it is entirely unprecedented for one to show this level of power across all of them, as grab-bag capes tend to follow an inverse-quantity-over-power scale. Fortunately, she also appears to be remarkably mentally stable for a new trigger. While initially shy, she responded to prompting readily, and despite her overall excitement to discover her powers, extended testing resulted in behaviors more typical of the boredom and fatigue observed in ordinary teens tested as part of our control groups, rather than the more focused behaviors observed in most capes of the same age group. This is possibly a result of her remarkably calm trigger event compared to the average cape.

The only real concern at this time is the projection's continued insistences that Miss Hebert is a deity. This most likely stems from the isolation and loss Miss Hebert experienced following her mother's death, expressed as a disproportionate desire for recognition coupled with her power's overwhelming ability to alter reality. While these worries are offset by her seemingly easy integration into and navigation of the Wards' social dynamic, it is still recommended that appropriate mental health consoling be acquired for her continued recovery.
 
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The "violating the laws of physics" line is one that has long bugged me. Who wrote the laws of physics? We did. All the laws, all the theories, everything we think we know about the universe came from observing the universe and working backward from that. If a thing happens, it is breaking no fundamental, underlying truth of the universe. It merely demonstrates that our understanding, at that point, was incomplete. Every time I watch a movie with somebody denying what is happening in front of them, point blank, with no other reason that it isn't possible, I lose respect for the writers and staff of the movie. Trying to work out ways something can happen, or at least could appear to happen the way whatever did happen appeared to be, is great. Just refusing to admit it happens is wasted screen time and bad science.

The three most important words in any branch of science: "Huh, that's interesting....."

On the contrary, it breaks my SoD if your average Joe ,when witnessing something that defies conventional knowledge, immediately try to puzzle out how it happens instead of freaking out.

Bad Scientist: "Magic doesn't exist!"

Good Scientist: "We have not found any conclusive evidence that magic exists, but I really hope we do!"
 
My effort was not to disguise the links. I know the gag has been around long enough for people to recognize it, and only wished to amuse myself through the homage. Further, only the first one is the OG Rick Roll. Bonus internet cookies to anyone who follows the others and are amused further through context.
 
Um...aren't the Endbringers being forced to follow directives that Eden forced on them before she literally crashed?

Dragon: "Never thought the Endbringers and I would have something in common."

The Endbringers weren't supposed to be activated for another 250 years, when they would trigger the 'consume everything and reproduce without limits' part of the Cycle. Eidolon woke them up, albeit unknowingly. How much influence he had over them after activating them is not even hinted at. I did like in one story, though, where they picked targets according to things Eidolon had heard or been reading about.
 
The Endbringers weren't supposed to be activated for another 250 years, when they would trigger the 'consume everything and reproduce without limits' part of the Cycle. Eidolon woke them up, albeit unknowingly. How much influence he had over them after activating them is not even hinted at. I did like in one story, though, where they picked targets according to things Eidolon had heard or been reading about.
Worm AU where Eidolon got counselling and the Endbringers never emerged, GO!
 
Pretty sure that or variants (I seem to recall fic bits (Preparations, I want to say?) by mppi, in his snipplet files) have been done before, where Eldy gets killed and no more endbringers, and I know in "It gets Worse" by Ack, David gets *laid* and all of the sudden the Endbringers are *spoilers as it's the most hilarious fic*
 
Pretty sure that or variants (I seem to recall fic bits (Preparations, I want to say?) by mppi, in his snipplet files) have been done before, where Eldy gets killed and no more endbringers, and I know in "It gets Worse" by Ack, David gets *laid* and all of the sudden the Endbringers are *spoilers as it's the most hilarious fic*

Link, please? Quick searches didn't return anything even remotely close.
 
Don't forget murder.

For her fourth domain, how bout magic?
Here's an odd thought. When the domains started activating- the whole sun/wind/etc acting odd, part of the list was water falling upward. That could just be the sea domain, but falling UP? That sounds like Gravity Control/Celestial Forces to me, which would tie in to the mention about the Sun. Sound plausible? o_O
 
The Endbringers weren't supposed to be activated for another 250 years, when they would trigger the 'consume everything and reproduce without limits' part of the Cycle.
Er, I've never heard that before. My understanding was they were supposed to be part of the controls for the experiment - need to keep two bits of the planet from interacting? Drop an Endbringer between them with orders that None Shall Pass. A country's actually managed to get on top of the parahuman problem and is getting too peaceful? Send in an Endbringer to fuck things up. Etc.
 
Er, I've never heard that before. My understanding was they were supposed to be part of the controls for the experiment - need to keep two bits of the planet from interacting? Drop an Endbringer between them with orders that None Shall Pass. A country's actually managed to get on top of the parahuman problem and is getting too peaceful? Send in an Endbringer to fuck things up. Etc.

In Eden's Path vision, she was revealing the sudden appearance of 20 "super weapons"* between the biggest and strongest remaining parahuman feudal states 300 years later. In her thoughts, each nation was being led to believe that these super weapons had been deployed by an enemy to trigger war, not to keep the nations apart. If she had kept the Path running through landing, Earth Bet(and all of the other Earths) wouldn't have had a chance, though its possible that she knew impact would briefly incapacitate the shard regardless, so didn't want to waste the energy by leaving it running, as it is a massively power hungry shard, to the point that, as I believe Wildbow said elsewhere, more mass than exists in our solar system converted into pure energy to run it, which is why it is set up and run through several checks to ensure she chose good parameters between worlds, before shedding the shards left** after burning off so much mass.

Manipulating nations into behaving was what she would directly do, for far less effort, using Thinker and Master powers. That was her role during that phase of the Cycle.

*I believe that was the term used. I could be wrong.
** Wildbow said traveling Entities had mass best measured on the 'size of galaxy' scale. Since he also said that they continue to travel by drawing all of the Entities birthed by each Cycle to a single planet and blow it up, I don't think he quite thought things through enough.
 
** Wildbow said traveling Entities had mass best measured on the 'size of galaxy' scale. Since he also said that they continue to travel by drawing all of the Entities birthed by each Cycle to a single planet and blow it up, I don't think he quite thought things through enough.
Yeah, Wildbow is infamous for being bad at math.

He also wrote one heck of a Cosmic Horror Story.

Wildbow is Lovecraft's reincarnation confirmed?
 
Every time I watch a movie with somebody denying what is happening in front of them, point blank, with no other reason that it isn't possible, I lose respect for the writers and staff of the movie. Trying to work out ways something can happen, or at least could appear to happen the way whatever did happen appeared to be, is great. Just refusing to admit it happens is wasted screen time and bad science.
meh, having laypersons do this is fine, plenty of people who expect things to work the way they expect and no other. I can even see iit happening sometimes with scientists, especially if the new evidence directly contradicts/invalidates a theory/concept that the scientist holds dear or uses to justify themselves. Scientists are human too and there's plenty of them who would HATE to have to admit they were wrong about something. The best of them of course would put their hurt feelings aside and concentrate on making a new/better theory

I didn't bother checking the other links, but two major things gave you away.

First, I been on the internet long enough to recognize XcQ youtube links.

Two, a youtube link where we would expect to see an image host is just a little suspicious.

Good try though, most people just color the text and don't actually make links.
the first was a rickroll, but the rest were just links to songs (all of which I'm at least familiar with, and a couple of which are old favs):cool:
and yes they were amusingly appropriate to what was being discussed. :lol:
 
In Eden's Path vision, she was revealing the sudden appearance of 20 "super weapons"* between the biggest and strongest remaining parahuman feudal states 300 years later. In her thoughts, each nation was being led to believe that these super weapons had been deployed by an enemy to trigger war, not to keep the nations apart. If she had kept the Path running through landing, Earth Bet(and all of the other Earths) wouldn't have had a chance, though its possible that she knew impact would briefly incapacitate the shard regardless, so didn't want to waste the energy by leaving it running, as it is a massively power hungry shard, to the point that, as I believe Wildbow said elsewhere, more mass than exists in our solar system converted into pure energy to run it, which is why it is set up and run through several checks to ensure she chose good parameters between worlds, before shedding the shards left** after burning off so much mass.

Manipulating nations into behaving was what she would directly do, for far less effort, using Thinker and Master powers. That was her role during that phase of the Cycle.

*I believe that was the term used. I could be wrong.
** Wildbow said traveling Entities had mass best measured on the 'size of galaxy' scale. Since he also said that they continue to travel by drawing all of the Entities birthed by each Cycle to a single planet and blow it up, I don't think he quite thought things through enough.
Remember there are more many universes than there are atoms in any given universe. They blow up all versions of a planet which means they are using more fuel than exists in any single universe by a factor that is best expressed in terms of scientific notation.
 
meh, having laypersons do this is fine, plenty of people who expect things to work the way they expect and no other. I can even see iit happening sometimes with scientists, especially if the new evidence directly contradicts/invalidates a theory/concept that the scientist holds dear or uses to justify themselves. Scientists are human too and there's plenty of them who would HATE to have to admit they were wrong about something. The best of them of course would put their hurt feelings aside and concentrate on making a new/better theory

Once or twice is fine, but doing so the whole movie is ridiculous. I also hate "there must be a rational explanation", because it is generally used to say "you'd have to be an idiot to believe this" combined with "this is wrong because it is wrong". Ghosts, aliens, whatever are only an irrational explanation if they don't actually exist, yet we dismiss anybody who researches a lot of topics as kooks without ever looking at their evidence or experimental parameters.*

* I'm not speaking as a conspiracy theorist here. Even when somebody IS a kook, you can sometimes learn things from what they try and what results they got. Even Flat Earthers get one thing right: It's important to question what everybody "knows" is true. They then fail on all other points, as there are simple tests that can be done to prove it wrong, but that first idea is right.

Remember there are more many universes than there are atoms in any given universe. They blow up all versions of a planet which means they are using more fuel than exists in any single universe by a factor that is best expressed in terms of scientific notation.

Bring the mass of several thousand galaxies to the space of one planet, and no amount of energy will be enough to launch them without atomizing the Entities, which are tough but nowhere near invulnerable*, or creating a black hole so large the entire universe would notice it forming. Bringing all of that mass into a relatively small number of planes and launching from there would be a bit more reasonable, but recall that they had not gathered all of the information that let them upgrade to the version we see in Eden and Zion.

*After all, almost all of the Entities DID perish the first time they tried this.
 
Once or twice is fine, but doing so the whole movie is ridiculous. I also hate "there must be a rational explanation", because it is generally used to say "you'd have to be an idiot to believe this" combined with "this is wrong because it is wrong". Ghosts, aliens, whatever are only an irrational explanation if they don't actually exist, yet we dismiss anybody who researches a lot of topics as kooks without ever looking at their evidence or experimental parameters.*

The best fictional scientists don't go 'this is impossible and it shall forever be impossible' when confronted with the weird stuff.

They go "This is impossible"
"It's still happening my friend."
"No, I mean, according to (relevant theory) this is impossible."
"Well, it is still happening, so either there is somebody screwing around to make it look like that theory is wrong, or the theory is wrong."
"We are going to need to find an explanation for this outlier."
"Yup. And if we can't find somebody doing the screwing around, that is likely to be expensive."
"Quite. So... who are we going to ask for funding for our new and exciting research first?"
 

The refusal to engage in the process is the problem. It's very human to want to defend whatever beliefs you have for how the world works, but defending those beliefs is a thing that has to be fought for good science and progress to happen. Showing scientists refusing to participate in science while the other, "real people" laugh at them for being so wrong feeds the anti-intellectualist popular sentiment.

Then there's wondering how the actors can say some of these lines with straight faces. There's a very B movie where an actress(playing an actress in the context of the movie) names the eponymous serpent after learning it was a genetic hybrid of piranha and anaconda DNA.* I can fully believe that the looks on the faces of the other people in that scene were recorded in the first take, as they all have the thought, "How can you say that and still manage to dress yourself?" written on their faces.

* Piranhaconda (TV Movie 2012) - IMDb
 
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