Honorguard Ra
(Verified Lizard Dude)
What you did there, I see it.
This is a new concept for me (Train Master) so I'm super excited to find out where this goes. I believe we'll all find this an enjoyable experience.
The World is my Layout [Worm AU/Alt Power]
- Thread starter GeneralPatt1000
- Start date
This is a new concept for me (Train Master) so I'm super excited to find out where this goes. I believe we'll all find this an enjoyable experience.
- Location
- Your pantry eating cheese
Hmmm any chance a LB&SCR E2 class could show up someday? Asking because memories.
- Location
- Seattle area
Thanks for the comment. That's the sort of feeling and imagining I've been shooting for. I'm glad you are enjoying it.
Most definitely. I might have to get some help in writing for Annette to get it just right.
If I had more time to write during the week, I would definitely put more in each chapter. Right now my limit is 4k words. Still, I'm glad you are e enjoying the story. Also, yay, train puns.
I'm quite happy too. I never thought it would get this much traction. We're almost at a thousand followers.
What you did there, I see it.
I think it hit almost everyone as a new concept, at least from comments I've read. I'll try to keep everyone satisfied with the progress I make.
I'm glad this chapter was good for you. I hope it drives away the darkness you felt in reading those other five.
I said recently I wouldn't go for British locomotives but if the chance comes up, I won't say no outright. Taylor would probably get them by purchasing them at the hobby store.
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Well, that's Just silly, they are after all another kind of steam engine...
That said, watching the story grow is quite a delight
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Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
- Pronouns
- He
a nice chapter. the photo with emma was adorable. it's nice to have a light hearted story in worm-verse. it reminds me of glassmaker in tone. in regards to the story, the breaking up of the merchants means that scrub will likely not trigger, so i wonder if taylor could take his place, and make interdimensional trains with labyrinth.
- Location
- Seattle area
Thank you. I wasn't sure whether it was grease or oil. I started with grease. I should have kept it.
I feel like that if you are going to go on at all about how to drive a steam locomotive, I should provide information for it- So, here, have a literal manual on it from 1890, which is still mostly valid for the later locomotives in essence if not full detail: LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE Running and Management -Table of Contents - Index
And a book on airbrakes from 1924, because the 6ET is in there in detail along with a long section at the end of the book on how it was used- Modern Air Brakes Though, the K-brake valves are not used anymore, many of the others still are, though the modern AB and 26 brake valves on the cars behave much differently. I can likely find more recent things later, if you desire.
And a book on airbrakes from 1924, because the 6ET is in there in detail along with a long section at the end of the book on how it was used- Modern Air Brakes Though, the K-brake valves are not used anymore, many of the others still are, though the modern AB and 26 brake valves on the cars behave much differently. I can likely find more recent things later, if you desire.
To be fair, I suspect that the PRT is more derating her threat level because of the impression that she's limited to the rails.
In effect, that her power is to make the trains run.
That this is a core aspect but not a limitation as not yet been explored, with the handwavable exception of the railroad police.
godzillahomer: Roger the Super-Engine
- Location
- Somewhere
Dennis: Bullshit.
Colin: She's built tracks up to-
Dennis: Bullshit.
Colin: -Medhall, in seconds.
Dennis: Bullshit.
Colin: Yes, Clockblocker, very bullshit.
Piggot: Call Panacea, I'm too sober for this bullshit.
None of the E88 stood a chance. Turns out Roger has all the powers of a steam locomotive. Super strength, Super speed, blowback based fire breath, Scalding steam and water, smokescreens (And now that I'm imaging a loco avatar, I'm seeing a Big Boy with four arms.)
Ain't the first time a steam loco personally beat a nazi.
One of the Southern Railway locos in the UK personally killed a luftwatte (Spellcheck, how did you get flyswatter from luftwatte?) pilot . An ex-LB&SCR D3 0-4-4T had a fighter pilot blow off its dome, the steam pouring out of the boiler blinded the pilot who crashed and landed in a dyke where he drowned. The plane was totaled, the loco got repaired.
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- Location
- Seattle area
Careful @godzillahomer that's how you get an Apocrypha entry. Nice work. Got a good laugh out of me.
By the way, if anyone wants to make a full newscast post based on the one I started in 2.3 and include the information Taylor gave out at the press conference and maybe some in-studio reaction before they go on the air and after the conference I'd canonize it as an interlude.
By the way, if anyone wants to make a full newscast post based on the one I started in 2.3 and include the information Taylor gave out at the press conference and maybe some in-studio reaction before they go on the air and after the conference I'd canonize it as an interlude.
- Pronouns
- Male
Awww...I reached the end....
Nicely done General! I salute you! Lol seriously though this is a fun little story.
Nicely done General! I salute you! Lol seriously though this is a fun little story.
ScottotheUnwise
Verified Crack (fic) Dealer
- Location
- Mulberry, Fl
Great story. She needs to go find some retired Hobby Store manager to buy up a significant set of tracks/trains and extras. Now, I am reading H scale for everything --but the closest I see to that in a web crawl is HO 1:87 --if she can find some "Protectorate" figures in G scale 1:25 (or just under X3) she could have some serious Endbringer fighting potential.
"Look, it's my G Scale Legend ready to give Leviathan a sunburn!" --"He's super effective."
"Look, it's my G Scale Legend ready to give Leviathan a sunburn!" --"He's super effective."
Chapter 3.1
- Location
- Seattle area
Chapter 3.1
Wildbow owns Worm
Thanks to @DrYuriMom for her hard work!
Author's note:
Sunday, August 31st 2008, 10:00 am
Brockton Bay, NH
Hebert Household
Taylor eagerly took the handles of her Mom's wheelchair and began pushing her towards the house's front door. "Thanks for bringing Mom home a day early!" she gushed to the ambulance attendants, unable to contain her happiness.
"No problem, kid. Have a good day catching up with her," The driver said as he and his co-worker smiled widely at the girl's uncontrolled emotion. The pair got back in the ambulance, pleased with themselves and their work.
Taylor proceeded to push Annette up the path to the brand new ramp ending at the front door. Danny was waiting with the door open. "And how is my lovely rose this morning?" he asked as he leaned down for a kiss, referencing Annette's middle name.
Taylor watched as her mother eagerly embraced her dad, yielding to her husband's kiss with greedy abandon. Under just about any other circumstance, the teenager would have been beet red looking for shelter from such a public display of parental affection. Still, given the events of the past week and how much she had missed her mom, Taylor could only grin and look away to give them a modicum of privacy. The youngest Hebert was still flushed, but more with the warmth that her mom was still in their lives and the assurance that her parents loved each other and both loved her more than the world.
When she came up for air, Annette finally added. "I was bored to tears, honey. I've never been so bored in my life, but I knew it was good for me and didn't want to jinx my recovery. That is until this morning. Maybe once Taylor gets us inside, you can explain to me why I suddenly perked up and found the gumption to demand an early discharge?" Taylor looked back to her parents to see her mother looking up at her man with her trademark raised eyebrow and the smirk Taylor knew well from whenever she'd done something bad and tried to hide it.
Something told Taylor this would be a bit more complicated than sorting out a broken flower pot hidden under an old packing box.
"Well, let's get it over with then. Come on, Taylor, give me a hand getting your Mom into the living room."
Taylor obliged, pushing Annette gently up the ramp and over the door's threshold. "Easy easy, don't want to irritate her injuries," she muttered to herself. Once inside, Danny closed and locked the front door. Taylor continued pushing the wheelchair through the house and into the living room.
Danny came in behind them and motioned Taylor to stand in the middle of the room. "Okay, kiddo. This is all your story. Why don't you get us started."
Taylor gulped and did as instructed. She wasn't really prepared for this, but it needed to be told. Part of her was looking forward to it, actually, but the other half was holding her breath in fearful anticipation. Facing Annette and Danny, she began her tale. "So, as you might have guessed, Mom, I got powers this week. Well, they only turned up yesterday, but all week I couldn't focus on anything until we found them by chance."
"Just yesterday…" Annette's eyes closed for several seconds ending in a deep breath and a sigh. "It seems you've been very eager to start using them," she returned, her eyes opening again, this time resting on Taylor with a gaze as serious as the young teen could remember.
"I couldn't not use them," Taylor defended, "Yesterday I was very bored. Almost as bored as you probably were. I'd been through half of the books in the house over the course of the week, and any other activity I took on I soon put down. I asked Dad to help me find something to do. He went down into the basement and began sorting through his old things. Every item he uncovered I declined until he found his box of trains."
Taylor's eyes changed from nervous to excited. "As soon as I locked eyes on them, I knew that the trains were somehow what I was looking for. I think I even went into a daze for a moment. Dad had to shake me out of it."
Annette brought up her good arm to rub her temple, but a wry grin snuck onto her face. "Dear Lord, I wonder what her mother thought of it all," she mumbled to no one in particular. Then she sighed again and looked up to Danny.
"So, Husband," Annette began with 'the look,' "Your daughter has now implicated you, not that I couldn't see your fingerprints all over this what with the fire department showing up with a pumper. What were you doing during all this?"
Danny held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Hey, don't look at me like that. At first, I was trying to help her focus and entertain her. I helped her set up her first layout," he pointed at the simple oval of track on the coffee table, which was empty of trains now. "Then she starts hearing a voice in her head that claims it's her power. It starts giving her instructions on how it works. Everything went downhill from there."
He shook his head, "I questioned the voice via Taylor, and while I was suspicious at first, it seemed to have her best interest in mind. After that, I got caught up watching Taylor discover every facet of her abilities and how much good they could do for the city. And believe me, Annette, it's a game-changer."
Annette nodded thoughtfully as her husband spoke excitedly and could only shake her head with a fond smile. "We'll talk about the meaning of 'adult supervision' later, honey." She then turned her attention back to her daughter.
"Taylor, I have no doubt you and your father fully intend to use your impressive new powers for good. I can easily imagine great good coming of it. Heck, you've made a promising start from what I can see. You've done well, little owl, and don't ever imagine I am not proud of you. Still, not to change the topic, and I know being the daughter of a professional literature nerd has been a heavy cross to bear. But can you remember back to when I had you read the Tolkien Middle Earth books? What did Gandalf tell Frodo when the young hobbit offered to give the grey wizard the One Ring?"
Taylor's brow furrowed in thought, "I know the scene you're talking about Mom, but The Fellowship of the Ring was unfortunately not one of the books I hit this week. I don't quite recall what he said after everything that's happened."
"Fair enough," Annette assured her young teen. "You were ten when I subjected you to them. John Tolkien was always long-winded, so I'll go with the movie version. It's better than most literature adaptations and, in some ways, better than his books. Gandalf said more or less that 'he'd use the One Ring for good'. His deepest desire was born out of pity for the mortals, something he learned from his beloved teacher, the source of all mercy and hope. He wanted to cure the world's ills, and the Ring would seem to yield that power to him. But Gandalf knew absolute power corrupts absolutely. Power is a trap."
Annette smiled at her daughter to soften the dark lesson she was conveying. "Taylor, I have yet to understand the heights and depths of your abilities fully, but they are clearly pretty darned powerful. You are driven to fix all the ills of Brockton Bay. While not a bad goal at all, a great power has a way of escaping our control and going bad in ways we never imagined. I was very close to someone I idolized as a cape falling to the corruption of her good intentions. It ended with her in the Birdcage based in part on my own testimony." Annette's smile faded a bit, and her eyes seemed to look elsewhere for a moment. She quickly blinked and returned her focus earnestly to Taylor.
"Sweetheart, I can only imagine the despair of Lustrum's mother, and I never want to experience it myself. Please promise me that as long as you are a minor, and hopefully even after that as wise counsel, that you'll seek guidance from your father or me at every step of the way? I don't say this to clip your wings, dearest owl. You deserve to fly free. I just don't want to see you hurt." Annette had tears in her eyes by the end of her words and held her hands out to entreaty Taylor to accept an embrace.
Taylor herself was teary-eyed and had to remember her mother's condition again as she rushed in for a hug. Wrapping her arms around Annette's neck, she replied in a trembling voice, "of course, Mom. I'd never leave you out of my decision-making. I'd never let myself shut you or Dad out of my life. I'll always listen, I promise." She sniffled, "I don't think my power would let me ignore you either, even if I wanted to."
"Oh, dear heart," Annette cooed to her daughter as her good hand pet Taylor's hair. "Don't ever doubt yourself. In a pinch, I know you'll make the right decision. But when you have time to check in, Danny and I will always be here to give you perspective. Consider keeping Emma close once she knows, as she may provide a center when your powers are so heady. When no one else is around, remember to think before you act. And about this voice that is your power, never stop looking into your own soul whenever you are told what you can do. What you can do and what you should do are sometimes very different things. I doubt your power will ever be able to tell the difference. But you can. When push comes to shove, trust yourself, not any voice in your head. Lustrum proved to me that powers are amoral. It's up to you to provide the human touch."
Danny reached down to put a hand on Taylor's shoulder and one on his wife's good arm. "I would say never to trust something when you can't see where it keeps its brain. That's pretty difficult to determine in your situation. Always take what it says with a grain of salt, even if it seems to have your best interest in its non-existent heart. Just remember that we've got your back, and you'll be alright."
Taylor nodded happily at their words of support, her eyes still a little watery. "Yes, Mom, Dad. I'll make sure to keep that in mind. Yardmaster is pretty good at acting human, even though it obviously isn't. I'll have to run everything it says a couple of times through just to be sure about its intentions." She waited in the companionable silence for a moment, enjoying the embrace before pulling back. "Would you like to see how my power works, Mom? Or do you think we should wait until after Emma is done smothering me? I just finished addressing an autograph to myself for her at the passenger station. I know for a fact that she's going to beeline here."
"Hmm..." Annette hummed in thought. "It strikes me that Emma knows you better than anyone except your father and I, and by a large margin. None of your Dad's or my friends are particularly close to you, and heaven knows you rarely have to put up with Danny's parents. I figured it out watching the TV. Your disguise is okay, but it doesn't mask your mannerisms. How likely is it that Emma won't figure it out either when she's here or after she has a chance to sleep on it? I'd suggest she's the person most likely to figure it out and that telling her in person and influencing her acceptance of it is better than letting her come to the conclusion in a dream tonight."
"To be perfectly honest, I'm surprised she didn't recognize me at the platform. We hugged and everything." Taylor took up a musing pose, one hand on her chin and one arm across her body. "I used a different style of handwriting, but if she looks too closely between the picture we took together and me, she may figure it out right there. I wanted to wait, but it may be best to let her know when she gets here."
"It's ultimately up to you," Annette admitted with the best shrug she could muster with her healing arm. "You know Emma best. But my experience is that trying to guess the intentions of a cape is far more dangerous than the cape being fully open about those intentions. I could imagine scenarios where Emma is hurt that you didn't tell her, and she festers without telling you she figured it out just waiting to see how long you intend to hide it from her, and trust becomes broken. If you trust her, then we should move quickly to tell her, so that doesn't happen. And if you don't trust her, then things get really complicated."
Annette cocked her head and added, "And anyway, it would allow Emma and I to meet this Yardmaster of yours and Danny's together. I'd like to be part of Emma's first introduction to your 'technical advisor' and the true scope of your abilities. We'll be sure she knows she's meeting all this at the same time I am; that she's not the last one to know. She will have the hardest time holding your secret, given she has her own family. It's hard to hide something from your older sister. She'll need a lot of guidance, I imagine. Fortunately, I may as well be a close aunt given how often she's stayed here over the years."
Taylor nodded excitedly, her enthusiasm coming back out in full force. "Sounds like a plan I can follow! She'll be here any minute now, I'm sure of it."
Beep Beep
A horn and the sound of a car pulling into the driveway punctuated Taylor's words. Danny went over to the drawn blinds of the living room window and peeked out. "Yep, that's Alan's car, alright. And would you look at that? Emma is plastered to her window like a Garfield suction cup plushie."
There was the sound of a door opening, then slamming shut with all the might of a 13-year-old behind it. Danny walked to the foyer. "I'll get the door." Taylor could hear Alan Barnes raising his voice a little, telling Emma to slow down, that Taylor wasn't going anywhere. Emma didn't seem to pay that any mind. There was a pounding at the door. "I'm coming. I'm coming," Danny called.
---------------
Emma didn't want to slow down. She had waited a whole week to see Taylor again and had no more patience. When Danny opened the door, she almost fell over. Taylor's father kept her from going all the way over by taking hold of her arm. Taking a moment to get her breath back, Emma looked up at Danny, "Thanks, Mr. Hebert."
"No problem, Emma, just be more careful next time. And listen to your parents. You almost got hurt there in your rush," Danny admonished
Emma nodded, though she was only half-listening. She wanted to see Taylor. Could her parents and Mr. Hebert really judge her for that? She ached to get in the door.
"Good. Now, would you like to stay over for the night? I'm sure you and Taylor have lots to catch up on."
Emma beamed, "Of course, Mr. Hebert!" She had been planning on asking, but Mr. Hebert had beaten her to it.
"Excellent. Let me talk with your Dad then. Taylor is in the living room."
Danny moved past Emma and went to speak with her dad, who was waiting somewhat exasperated by the car. This was Emma's moment. She rushed into the door, through the foyer, and into the living room. A sight greeted her that she wasn't expecting at all.
Taylor stood next to her mother, who was in a wheelchair. Aunt Annette appeared much more banged up than Taylor, with her left arm in a sling, her left leg in a cast, and obvious bandages on the left side of her torso under her top. Her eyes went back to Taylor. First things first, though. She could worry about her adoptive aunt in a minute. Halfway between the living room entry and Annette, Emma met Taylor in an embrace for the ages.
Emma gave her best friend the greatest bear hug she could. "Taylor, I missed you so much! How are you doing?! Is your leg recovering okay?!"
Taylor squeezed back. "It's recovering alright. I have nothing to complain about."
Emma leaned back to look into Taylor's eyes. "That's good, I suppose." She turned her gaze to Annette. "Aunt Annette, I thought you weren't due back home 'till tomorrow."
"Have you ever spent a week in the hospital, little fox?" Annette responded with rolled eyes. "I was bored out of my mind!" she added with her good hand shaking in the air. "I was just looking for a good excuse to escape, and one came up out of the blue this morning on the TV, no less. I understand you got to meet that dashing new cape at the trainyards? You're still swooning." Annette allowed a playful grin to grace her lips as she looked into Emma's eyes and winked. "I want to hear all about our new hero. Now dish the deets!"
Emma blushed a little and looked away. She idly wondered why the living room blinds were closed, "I'm not swooning over Dispatcher. I was worried about Taylor all week. That's why I was in a rush to get here." She returned her gaze to Annette's. "I didn't get that much time with her. I was at the end of the line for autographs and pictures. By the time she got to me, she had needed to get back to her schedule. I managed to get an autograph from her for each of us as well as a picture."
Emma handed Taylor the autograph addressed to her and pulled out her phone to get ready to show off the picture Alan took. "What exactly does it say? I asked for a get-well message, but she didn't tell me her exact wording."
Taylor took a deep breath for some odd reason then examined the note. "To Taylor Hebert. You have a fantastic friend who went through the lengths to acquire this message. Thank her for the thought and cherish her always. I know how annoying a broken leg can be. Stay off the leg as much as you can and get well soon. Dispatcher." She looked up and smiled at Emma. "She's right. You are a fantastic friend. Thank you for the thought and the note."
A camera 'click' interrupted the girls' moment, and both turned to the sound. Annette sat in her chair with a canary-eating grin, and her phone pointed at the two best friends. "Hey," she mock-defended at their surprised looks, "you two are adorable! I couldn't help it!" The older woman stuck her tongue out when the teens glared at her.
"Hey, I'll make you a deal, Emma. Come over here and look at this adorable picture, and you can share your fangirly selfie of our new cape with me. I was like 20 feet away from a tiny old TV at the hospital. The poor thing was likely older than you two. It had a tube, for heaven's sake!"
Annette gestured, beckoning with her good arm. "Come on, I want a good look at Brockton Bay's new o'dark thirty alarm clock!" she added with a wink at her daughter when the two didn't immediately start moving.
Emma moved toward Annette, pulling up the picture with Dispatcher, and made to stand by her side. Taylor meanwhile gave her mom a slightly pouty look and mouthed at her, But it wasn't my fault!
Emma held up her phone and showed off the photo. "Well, Aunt Annette, it's not a selfie. My Dad took the picture for me." A bit of excitement and awe crept into her voice as she went on to describe the event, the colossal puffing steam engine, and Dispatcher's kind comments. The picture showed Emma being side-hugged by Dispatcher's slightly ethereal form with the front of the locomotive just behind them. "She was surprisingly solid for a projection," Emma commented, "Maybe the body is a force field with an image laid over it? Hmm."
Annette cocked her head to the side again, her trademark look when she's processing a genuinely novel thought. "That's a solid scientific hypothesis, Emma. Assuming you state it as a null, you'll do your high school teachers proud thinking like that. Maybe you might even get a chance to test it. Now take a look at these two cuties," Annette gushed as she raised her phone to lay side by side with Emma's.
The image on the screen was of the two friends embraced with Emma leaning back, providing a clear view of both their faces as well as their relative heights and physiques. Annette looked up to Emma to watch her face and wait patiently but curiously for a response. She could imagine her daughter looking on with anxious excitement, and she fought the grin which was fighting to rule her features. She absolutely didn't want Emma to feel the subject of ridicule when she finally made the connection.
Emma blushed at the compliment Annette had paid regarding potential high school teachers. Shaking her head to clear her mind, she first examined the picture Annette had taken. "That's definitely cute," she agreed before sliding her vision back to her own photo. Wait a minute, she considered to herself, her head doing a double-take. That hair, it's almost the exact same. That curly, long, dark brown, almost black hair is her and Aunt Annette's trademark. She shook her head to herself, No, it has to be someone else. A doppelganger, maybe? She nodded in response to that thought. Then she looked at the picture again. Someone who looks exactly like Taylor, though? The hair is one thing, but the same height, the same eye color, the similar mannerisms? There's nobody else it could be.
The only answer was smack dab in front of her eyes. She took a deep breath and looked up again. Taylor stood on the other side of Annette, looking at a blank wall. She was blushing lightly and had the embarrassed expression of a child with their hand caught in a cookie jar.
Emma smiled and shook her hair again. "Either this is the perfect doppelganger, someone else is using your image as a base, or you've gotten powers." Taylor made no discernible reaction, and Emma sighed. "Y'know, Taylor, if you didn't want me to find out, you could have changed your image up a little. Cut the hair by half and change the color, change the height and age, and I would never have guessed."
Taylor's head snapped back in Emma's direction, her expression filled with fear and distress. "I wanted to tell you, Emma, I did, but I wasn't sure when to do it. Then you appeared at the station, and I knew that you'd find out soon."
Taylor was about to continue in a rush, but Emma held up her hand to stop her. "I'm not angry, Taylor. It's obvious that your Mom set up this little ambush, so I won't blame the surprise on you." Emma grinned, "That doesn't mean you'll get away with your part in everything else, so spill!"
Taylor would have bowled over Emma, but Annette was between them, so she had to settle for dashing around the wheelchair and giving Emma another hug. "You won't regret this, Emma!" Taylor exclaimed, her eyes shining in happiness.
Annette smiled warmly as the two best friends renewed their trust in one another. This time she allowed them to bask in the moment without interruption. Only when the hug broke naturally did Annette pipe up again. "Actually, little fox. I'm not done with the ambush." She chuckled as Emma's surprised and Taylor's excited face turned to her again.
"We were waiting for you before Taylor demonstrated her abilities and introduced us to the vocal manifestation that apparently has been providing all the technical advice allowing Taylor to be Dispatcher. It seems hers is a power that had to come with an instruction manual. You'll be experiencing this with me since so far it's all been Taylor and Danny running the show that has dominated the morning news." Annette leaned over toward Emma as much as her wheelchair would allow and added in a conspiratorial stage whisper, "I think you and I need to teach these two about the meaning of bedtime."
Emma looked at Annette quizzically and whispered back in a puzzled tone, "As far as I know, Taylor was in bed on time and was woken up at the same time as everyone else this morning."
Taylor ignored them and focused on the blank wall again. "So you may be wondering exactly how I can control giant locomotives on my own. Well, it all comes down to model trains and, more specifically, a place to run them." She raised her right hand and dramatically called out. "Layout portal, activate!"
A purple sphere took form in her hand, and Taylor immediately threw it at the wall. A giant 6-foot purple swirling hole appeared on the wall. From the point of impact, it stretched from the floor and rose above all of their heads. Through it, Emma and Annette could glimpse a massive model of the city of some kind. Skyscrapers like the Medhall Building, the great waters of the Bay, and the Protectorate Rig were among the most noticeable things to leap out at them.
Taylor looked over her shoulder and grinned so widely that it threatened to escape off her face. "Care to join me?" she asked. "Incidentally, this is why the blinds are closed."
Before Annette could figure out how to mobilize her wheelchair, her husband slipped behind her and took hold of the handles. "After you, milady," Danny flirted with flair and moved her forward. While her free hand absently reached over to squeeze her husband's in appreciation, Annette's attention turned back to the portal. Still, her focus was more on Emma and the young teen's mixture of excitement and uncertainty.
She had expected Emma to bound side by side after her best friend, but instead, the young teen seemed frozen, entranced by the portal as Annette, and her husband moved past her. Annette had seen much during her college years. With all those experiences, she looked closely for any sign of envy, jealousy, or fear but saw only awe...which on the whole made logical sense and brought back bittersweet memories.
Emma is me twenty years ago, Annette realized. I hope she's a better friend to Taylor than I was to her back then. If Taylor goes off the rails as she did, how can Emma prepare to call the little owl back to herself?
Emma seemed to Annette to represent the biggest wildcard in the current situation...other than perhaps this 'Yardmaster' being. The uncertainty niggled at the back of her motherly mind, right where the mama bear instincts resided. Her inability to predict Emma made her nervous. Yet Emma might be Taylor's firmest anchor to her humanity. Annette resolved to armor Emma against the temptations of power, peer pressure, and family, especially sisterly, wheedling.
Look at me being the helicopter parent, she mused in disappointment with herself. I disgust myself, but dammit someone needs to be responsible around here.
There was also the issue of her husband's apparent eagerness to get outside advice without talking to her first.
Pillow talk will be long and intense tonight; she thought to her husband in silence even as the excited, innocent young woman in her caused her heart rate to speed just a bit in anticipation of entering the Chocolate Factory. It had been twenty years, but the awe and magic felt the same.
God, now I have to watch myself before I call Taylor's pet projections Oompa Loompas. There's a reason why the universe doesn't entrust literature professors with superpowers...
-----
Taylor's heart was thumping in excitement and joy. This isn't how I saw myself introducing my powers to Mom and Emma, but it seems to be going well. "Come along," she said, motioning the other three to follow her in. Taylor crossed the portal's threshold, and Danny followed as he pushed Annette's wheelchair through the gateway. Emma brought up the rear of the party.
Striding up to the edge of the massive layout, which was about 3 feet off the ground just below eye level with Annette, Taylor turned to face them and gestured. "Welcome to the Brockton Bay Layout Room. This room is a pocket dimension that hosts a 1/160 scale model of every building, every car, every street, every wrecked ship, and every train-related object in the city. From here, I can give orders to my trains and generate projections to either guard the railroad or do other work on it. I can also send my consciousness into a projection that can walk and act in the real world. Think of it as advanced VR."
Emma's eyes were so wide they could be small saucers. She quickly walked up to the edge of the layout and stared all around. "Woah, this is incredibly detailed." She pointed to an arc-shaped building just behind Taylor. "There's the roundhouse, and your steam locomotive is still peacefully puffing smoke and steam."
Annette allowed her gaze to travel along the layout as best she could from a sitting position. Still, despite being vertically challenged, she was able to make out a lot.
"Amazing, little owl. Color me deeply impressed." Noting Taylor's warm blush from the praise, she smiled and then cocked her head back to Danny. "So, honey. You've been awfully quiet for a while. How about you share all you've seen and done in your own words and advised Taylor since this started happening. I'd like to start with an outside perspective." She turned her face back toward Taylor. "And then you can impress us all with how this all works and maybe introduce us to this Yardmaster you've mentioned. For now, I'd ask that any demonstration be small and that you not project yourself until we can talk all this out as a family...which includes you too, Emma."
"Well, I was just outside speaking with Alan, honey, so please forgive me for missing the excitement." Danny looked at Emma, "By the way, your Dad said you could stay the night and catch up with Taylor."
Emma only nodded. She was too focused on staring at the layout to reply. Danny began rubbing Annette's good shoulder and noted that his wife had an adorable sheepish look on her face, he surmised due to not having noticed his absence with all her attention on Taylor and Emma. "To start, Annette, upon first entering this place, I questioned Yardmaster as to how this whole layout thing worked. Normal humans cannot interact with it at all. If they try to, they just phase through. Taylor is the only one who can do anything on the layout.
"In fact, she can only place tracks, trains, and buildings. If she tries to walk through it or physically touch it too hard, it will cause her to phase through as well. This is part of her 'Manton limit,' apparently. If her power allowed her to affect the physical layout like that, it would transfer to the real world as an earthquake or something similar. Yardmaster said it is because this whole dimension is tied to the real world somehow via quantum mechanics we wouldn't understand."
Emma's eyes went even wider in alarm as she heard this and turned to interrupt, but Danny continued speaking, "Yardmaster assured us that it wouldn't let anything like that happen. Believe me, that part of the conversation was pretty intense." He shrugged, "After that kerfuffle, I mostly assisted Taylor in selecting her first tracks to lay and trains to activate." He motioned to his old train box that sat on the floor nearby, "Part of her power allows Taylor to take model trains and tracks and place them physically in the real world by putting them on the layout. Why don't you demonstrate for us, Taylor?"
Taylor nodded happily, "Sure thing." She grabbed the maroon and gold striped E7A locomotive from the box and placed it gently on the turntable. The ever-convenient projected screen that depicted the real-world view focused on the turntable, and the engine popped into existence. "Like so." In the roundhouse behind the diesel locomotive sat the 4-6-2 Pacific steam engine, which was still venting steam and smoke.
Danny continued as Emma moved to inspect the new train, "Following her first track-laying session, we spoke of how the NEPEA-5 legislation prevents parahumans from legally competing with human-owned companies in existing markets and how to get around that. It's something I would speak to the lawyer the union has on retainer about later in the evening." He held up his hand to forestall any interruptions. "The conversation was completely hypotheticals, I assure you."
"Anyway, we ordered pizza for dinner, and Taylor left some of her new projections in the facilities to inspect them. We'd barely sat down to eat when Taylor was told that her railroad policemen had subdued a Merchant group that had attacked them. No casualties on either side, but all the Merchants were knocked unconscious. The fight still managed to summon Miss Militia, as she was in the area and came to investigate. Taylor was then taught how to project herself, and she proceeded to have a conversation with the hero. She demonstrated a few basic abilities, but not many, and Miss Militia left on good terms. It was during this conversation that I spoke with the lawyer I referred to earlier."
Danny spread his arms wide, "And that was it for yesterday's discoveries. Taylor came back to the house, had dinner, and went to bed. You know most of the rest thanks to waking up at 1:00 am with the rest of us thanks to Skidmark and watching the news."
"A lot was happening in a short time; I can see that now. Sorry for chiding you both for how fast things have been moving, but mother's worry, you know. I think I'm getting past my own ghosts from the past, which is probably a good thing. So, Taylor, you're the hero of the hour. What can you add to your father's experience? This is your story, after all."
Taylor shrugged, "Well, I kinda expected retaliation from the Merchants, but not a response as large as they mustered. I left twenty railroad police to guard the locomotive facilities overnight. I figured it would be plenty. I was right, but if they had been real people and not projections, the men would have been overwhelmed. As you know, the Merchants, complete with Skidmark at the helm, started blowing stuff up around one in the morning. Specifically, a line of ancient boxcars and the switch junction between the Classification Yard and the locomotive facilities. They finally ran up against the switch tower next to the fuel depot and the car shops. The car shop and the tower had police fortified in them and on the roofs."
Taylor's grin turned from happy to savage, "Unbeknownst to them, my guys had a Browning Automatic Rifle, which proceeded to knock out and mow down all the attacking Merchants, along with help from the rifles the rest of the men were armed with. Incidentally, all the weapons my police use either stun people into unconsciousness or kill vehicles' engines if they hit them enough times. I intervened some by getting two engines, that GP-9 and GP-40-2 down in the Classification Yard into action with more police on their sides."
She pointed to the miniature models down the line, "1735, 303, please detach from your trains and return to the roundhouse." The locomotives replied with toots of their horns, and they began to trundle down the tracks back toward the group. Emma's eyes had returned to normal somewhat, and she giggled as the two locomotives honked cheerfully at her and Taylor when they came into the locomotive facilities. The sound of the turntable operating came to them, and they saw it line up with an empty roundhouse stall. The E7A backed into the slot while the turntable began to cycle into position to receive the freight hauling locomotives.
Taylor returned to telling her story, a genuine smile on her face. "The Battle for the Trainyards ended when my men captured 35 Merchants including Skidmark while five escaped. A few minutes later, Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and a whole host of PRT troopers and policemen came to arrest them." Her grin grew even wider again, "I got to speak with Armsmaster via my projection. That was really exciting. You know that he's one of my favorite heroes. I trusted him with the secret of how many minions I could have out at once. That number is 80 for now. He quickly realized that he didn't need to give me the 'join the Wards for your own safety' speech you sometimes hear about. They departed on good terms with me after that."
The GP-40-2 number 303 had taken a roundhouse stall for itself, and the GP-9 was about to follow it when Taylor spoke to it again. "1735, please pull that broken down GP-38-2 out of its stall and move it down to the locomotive workshops." The GP-9 acknowledged the command with another horn blast, then rolled onto the turntable to do just that.
Taylor began to wrap up her story, "In the night, Dad warned me that the news might show up, and lo and behold they started appearing around 5 am. Then there was the first news report at 8 am. I had to go make them happy, so I followed up with the press conference."
Emma was still smiling as she discovered she could wander the ethereal layout and look closely at things without causing any harm. She was standing in the middle of the bay looking at the miniature docks when her head raised at Taylor's conclusion. "I have tons of questions," she gushed, "but since when did you know trains so well? You've never given any hint of being a train nerd. Has your power filled your head with new knowledge? Any idea what else has maybe been crammed in that noodle of yours?" Even as the girl talked, her head had moved back to the layout, and she was wandering through town to look at her house. "I can see my house from here!" she quipped with a giggle before Taylor could answer.
Taylor smiled at Emma's excitement. "Yes, my power is an encyclopedia of train knowledge. Anytime I need to know something, it'll tell me, either verbally or subconsciously, and I will just 'know' it. It can be pretty handy." She closely monitored the GP-9 from the corner of her vision as it pulled the ravaged GP-38-2 from the roundhouse.
The turntable bridge rotated back to the exit position, and the two locomotives made for the shops. Turning her attention to the backshops, she looked upon the RS-3 sitting in one of the buildings. "RS-3 unit, please start up and find a place in the roundhouse with the others if you can." The medium-sized road switcher's diesel engine cranked and then roared to life. It let out a confirming toot of its horn and started on its new task.
"Speaking of verbally," Annette rejoined the conversation after listening thoughtfully to Taylor and her husband. Taylor was relieved to note that her mom was grinning as she spoke. She'd goosed her wheelchair right up to the layout and seemed fascinated by the representation of Langdon College where she taught. "Would now be a good time to introduce us to your technical advisor? Danny indicated you could have it interact with others if you want?"
"Yes, but only verbally," Taylor said, "she doesn't have a visual representation." She spread her arms out dramatically and called out, "Yardmaster, this is my mother Annette Hebert and my best friend, Emma Barnes. Would you please introduce yourself?"
There was a short pause, and then a warm, feminine voice with robotic undertones spoke up. The voice echoed around the room as if it was an empty grand auditorium. "Good Morning Annette Hebert and Emma Barnes. Welcome to the Brockton Bay Layout Room. How may I be of service today?"
"Wow!" Emma explained as she jumped a bit despite the warning from Taylor to expect a disembodied voice. "Tay, is this voice in your head all the time?"
Taylor nodded in affirmation, "She is always there, always listening. If I want to speak to her in the real world, I can either speak aloud or mentally, and she will reply mentally. That way, nobody can overhear a conversation. Since she is connected to me, she will also hear other people's words to me. Within the Layout Room," she made a circular motion to indicate the area, "anyone may speak verbally, and she will reply in the same manner." Taylor scratched her chin, "In fact, she's usually not so dramatic when speaking. She must be picking up my habits."
Emma scowled just a little. "So you have no privacy anymore, Tay? That sounds kinda creepy. You seem surprisingly okay with it."
"Eh, it's not so bad once you get used to it." Taylor made a waggling motion with her hand, "It was surprising to be sure, Ems, but I got over it pretty fast. It is rather strange, though, now that I think about it. Maybe my power mastered me into thinking everything was fine? But then why would it let me question that?" Taylor shrugs, "I mostly think it came down to hearing a friendly feminine voice that taught me how to use my powers and who wanted to do the same thing I did. Rebuild Brockton Bay."
Annette's eyebrows scrunched together as she took in the new voice. "Yardmaster, I have a complex question that goes beyond Taylor's knowledge, which is going to help me better understand what exactly you are. Do you represent a manifestation of Taylor's id with additional objective information added like a user's manual, or do you have your own ego? And if so, do you have anything resembling a superego guiding your actions?"
Yardmaster replied with some amusement in her voice and a much quieter, indoors tone. "I do, in fact, Mrs. Hebert, have my own ego. I am a facet of the source of Taylor's powers, and I provide her instruction and advice as needed. I also have what you call a superego, though it is not as well-formed as a human's might be. I am still learning and growing in the knowledge of human society, so I expect at some point to have a fully grown conscience."
Taylor's mother nodded at this answer, seemingly comfortable with the answer. "So if you have an ego, then you self-actualize. What are your goals, Yardmaster?" Annette specifically did not look at Taylor as she spoke, looking randomly around the room instead. Yardmaster itself had made clear she wasn't talking to her daughter in some deep sense. She didn't want Taylor to feel put upon over a part of her outside her direct control.
When there was no answer immediately forthcoming, Annette added, "Taylor indicates you want to do the same thing she wants, but I'm not sure she has specifically asked you your own intentions. I'm sure that she's confident you share the same goals, and that might be true. But I've watched powers twist a well-meaning and very dear friend into a sociopath. I'd be much more comfortable with your own desires out in the open so that we can consider them along with everyone else's. I'm a literature professor and have read more than my share of dystopian novels; I even assisted in research on the subject. Taylor has invited you into the family, such as I have with her best friend. What do you bring to the figurative dinner table, and how can we help you self-actualize without harming the rest of us? I'm a believer in transparency and win-win solutions."
"First of all, Mrs. Hebert, let me assure you that I would never let any harm befall Taylor or the rest of you. I would sooner delete myself before letting that happen," Yardmaster replied in a very, very serious tone. "Should anyone threaten you directly, I would have an army complete with tanks, fortifications, and soldiers wielding the latest weapons placed around your house. Such an action may blow your cover to the rest of the city, but if someone already knows who you are, then I feel protecting you to such a degree will make you so much more safer than a secret identity." Yardmaster's tone shifted from hard and severe to optimistic. "Fortunately, I do not believe such a scenario will ever take place should we take the proper precautions, and Taylor limits any excursions in costume in real life, as well as change up her known image."
"Secondly, let me tell you my motivations. I have for many local years looked upon the Earth and despaired at the actions and depredations of the beings you call Endbringers. Behemoth the Hero-killer, Leviathan Jormungandr, and Simurgh the Hope-killer. Each of these monstrous beings has devastated cities, infrastructure, and even whole massive islands in their attacks upon humanity. All of that disgusted and angered me, but I could not act until I found the right person to host the powers I could give. Taylor is this person."
Yardmaster's tone had shifted yet again. This time from optimism to rage and anger that she hadn't been able to act before now. "Annette Hebert, I am a controller of things. In another universe, Taylor could have controlled massive swarms of insects or rats or technology or the minds of her fellow humans. However, in my mind, I could not see any of these things working to slay or inhibit the Endbringers. So I chose different abilities to give her. The ability to control trains and other vehicles. The ability to construct buildings from kits and add them to the city and create infrastructure by laying tracks, roads and repairing them. The projection creation is a tool to facilitate all of those things. Eventually, Taylor will gather enough equipment, resources, and allies to destroy any threat to humanity and rebuild its crumbling infrastructure. With my help, she will lead humanity into a new golden age, free of monsters like the Endbringers."
There was a short pause and then a sigh. "To achieve this, we will need to do several things to get our operation off the ground. The highest priority is to become legitimate. You will need to purchase the rights to the Boston and Maine Railroad. Secondly, we will need to clear the shipping channel and the Ship Graveyard. This will encourage shipping to return to the city, and the Railroad will be right there to pick up the trade they bring in and ship it to other parts of the country. This will bring jobs to the city, both for the Dockworkers and any factory that may reopen its door because they can get resources shipped in and products shipped out again. The jobs will encourage gang personnel to leave their criminal ways and gain honest employment, thus reducing their power. All of this will help revitalize the city's economy and help solidify our presence."
This was a lot to absorb, and Annette listened intently to every word that echoed through the pocket space. Once Yardmaster was done, she closed her eyes a moment and, to Taylor's shock, actually crossed herself. "Isabelle, grant me your wisdom and strength," she muttered before opening her eyes and looking at Taylor for a moment. She then cocked her head back again to Danny.
"So, what did the union lawyer have to say about the trainyards being revitalized by scab labor?"
"Well, I had to use a lot of hypotheticals, as I said earlier, but he told me that the projections could be used as much as Dispatcher wanted until she hired enough people to reach the point where they could vote to form a union or join an existing one." Danny shrugged nonchalantly, "After that, their use in the company would have to be negotiated, but he foresaw that they could be used in emergencies such as parahuman attacks. Possibilities could change as we move forward. As you are well aware, I'm the Head of Hiring for the Dockworkers and do all their negotiating. I don't see a problem arising when my own daughter runs the company we'd be working with."
Annette skeptically chewed at her upper lip but let Danny's response stand for the moment. "Say, Taylor," she turned back and spoke directly to her daughter again. "How much sleep are you operating on right now? It sounds to me that you woke up at 1 am and never went back to sleep. If our little fox is correct and you followed your bedtime, you must be running on no more than four hours right now."
Taylor shook her head, "No, Mom. As soon as I spoke with Armsmaster, I went back to bed and slept like a rock 'till 8. I'm running on closer to 10 hours."
Annette chuckled. "Then you're doing better than me, most likely. Hospitals manage to combine passable beds at best with every two-hour vitals checks and expect you to heal. I'm sure they have their reasons, but they are beyond mortal ken as far as I am concerned. I think I've caused enough trouble for one morning and would like very much to take a nap." She looked back again to her husband. "Love, would you mind navigating me to bed so that I can enjoy our decadent bed until dinnertime?"
"Of course, my rose." Danny took hold of the wheelchair's handles and slowly began to back it away from the layout.
"Girls, feel free to have normal fun, but please let's wait for more superpowered shock and awe until we can all have a joint conversation while universally well-rested. At the very least, I beg you not to project yourself until we can talk more about masking your identity, Taylor. You'll be going back to school in two days, and I wouldn't want anyone else making the connection I made straight off and our little fox made with only some gentle prompting."
Taylor nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry, Mom. I should have thought my disguise through better and not rushed out there like a cat with the zoomies. I don't have much more to do here at the moment anyway, so Emma and I can catch up for the rest of the day."
"You have every right to have the zoomies, little owl," Annette assured her only daughter. "You are taking the first step of a grand adventure, and I couldn't be prouder." She reached out as she passed Taylor and gripped her hand hard before letting go as Danny continued out of the portal. "And Yardmaster," she added before she passed the threshold. "Thank you."
"You are most welcome, Annette Hebert," the warm disembodied voice replied kindly.
Wildbow owns Worm
Thanks to @DrYuriMom for her hard work!
Author's note:
Welcome to an early Chapter 3.1! We have Annette making her much-anticipated appearance, and Danny and Taylor have to explain their handling of the situation. Emma is there too. There is a lot of recap to get the two of them informed on things. My beta agreed to become a full co-writer, so this chapter is much bigger than usual! Give it up for DrYuriMom! You can expect a lot more words for each chapter and more interludes! She'll be writing Annette primarily and Emma when not interacting with Annette and some non-cape-related things. Working together like this, the pair of us will eventually get a backlog together. We're already 2400 words into 3.2 and have a 2200 word Interlude/Vignette almost ready to go for posting in a couple days from now. We are really enjoying the new set-up. Please enjoy this chapter of The World is my Layout.
I would like to mention again that I have a Patreon. Link can be found in my signature or in the Informational threadmarks. The more I'm supported, the more I will be able to write in the future. Any gifts you can give will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I would like to mention again that I have a Patreon. Link can be found in my signature or in the Informational threadmarks. The more I'm supported, the more I will be able to write in the future. Any gifts you can give will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Sunday, August 31st 2008, 10:00 am
Brockton Bay, NH
Hebert Household
Taylor eagerly took the handles of her Mom's wheelchair and began pushing her towards the house's front door. "Thanks for bringing Mom home a day early!" she gushed to the ambulance attendants, unable to contain her happiness.
"No problem, kid. Have a good day catching up with her," The driver said as he and his co-worker smiled widely at the girl's uncontrolled emotion. The pair got back in the ambulance, pleased with themselves and their work.
Taylor proceeded to push Annette up the path to the brand new ramp ending at the front door. Danny was waiting with the door open. "And how is my lovely rose this morning?" he asked as he leaned down for a kiss, referencing Annette's middle name.
Taylor watched as her mother eagerly embraced her dad, yielding to her husband's kiss with greedy abandon. Under just about any other circumstance, the teenager would have been beet red looking for shelter from such a public display of parental affection. Still, given the events of the past week and how much she had missed her mom, Taylor could only grin and look away to give them a modicum of privacy. The youngest Hebert was still flushed, but more with the warmth that her mom was still in their lives and the assurance that her parents loved each other and both loved her more than the world.
When she came up for air, Annette finally added. "I was bored to tears, honey. I've never been so bored in my life, but I knew it was good for me and didn't want to jinx my recovery. That is until this morning. Maybe once Taylor gets us inside, you can explain to me why I suddenly perked up and found the gumption to demand an early discharge?" Taylor looked back to her parents to see her mother looking up at her man with her trademark raised eyebrow and the smirk Taylor knew well from whenever she'd done something bad and tried to hide it.
Something told Taylor this would be a bit more complicated than sorting out a broken flower pot hidden under an old packing box.
"Well, let's get it over with then. Come on, Taylor, give me a hand getting your Mom into the living room."
Taylor obliged, pushing Annette gently up the ramp and over the door's threshold. "Easy easy, don't want to irritate her injuries," she muttered to herself. Once inside, Danny closed and locked the front door. Taylor continued pushing the wheelchair through the house and into the living room.
Danny came in behind them and motioned Taylor to stand in the middle of the room. "Okay, kiddo. This is all your story. Why don't you get us started."
Taylor gulped and did as instructed. She wasn't really prepared for this, but it needed to be told. Part of her was looking forward to it, actually, but the other half was holding her breath in fearful anticipation. Facing Annette and Danny, she began her tale. "So, as you might have guessed, Mom, I got powers this week. Well, they only turned up yesterday, but all week I couldn't focus on anything until we found them by chance."
"Just yesterday…" Annette's eyes closed for several seconds ending in a deep breath and a sigh. "It seems you've been very eager to start using them," she returned, her eyes opening again, this time resting on Taylor with a gaze as serious as the young teen could remember.
"I couldn't not use them," Taylor defended, "Yesterday I was very bored. Almost as bored as you probably were. I'd been through half of the books in the house over the course of the week, and any other activity I took on I soon put down. I asked Dad to help me find something to do. He went down into the basement and began sorting through his old things. Every item he uncovered I declined until he found his box of trains."
Taylor's eyes changed from nervous to excited. "As soon as I locked eyes on them, I knew that the trains were somehow what I was looking for. I think I even went into a daze for a moment. Dad had to shake me out of it."
Annette brought up her good arm to rub her temple, but a wry grin snuck onto her face. "Dear Lord, I wonder what her mother thought of it all," she mumbled to no one in particular. Then she sighed again and looked up to Danny.
"So, Husband," Annette began with 'the look,' "Your daughter has now implicated you, not that I couldn't see your fingerprints all over this what with the fire department showing up with a pumper. What were you doing during all this?"
Danny held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Hey, don't look at me like that. At first, I was trying to help her focus and entertain her. I helped her set up her first layout," he pointed at the simple oval of track on the coffee table, which was empty of trains now. "Then she starts hearing a voice in her head that claims it's her power. It starts giving her instructions on how it works. Everything went downhill from there."
He shook his head, "I questioned the voice via Taylor, and while I was suspicious at first, it seemed to have her best interest in mind. After that, I got caught up watching Taylor discover every facet of her abilities and how much good they could do for the city. And believe me, Annette, it's a game-changer."
Annette nodded thoughtfully as her husband spoke excitedly and could only shake her head with a fond smile. "We'll talk about the meaning of 'adult supervision' later, honey." She then turned her attention back to her daughter.
"Taylor, I have no doubt you and your father fully intend to use your impressive new powers for good. I can easily imagine great good coming of it. Heck, you've made a promising start from what I can see. You've done well, little owl, and don't ever imagine I am not proud of you. Still, not to change the topic, and I know being the daughter of a professional literature nerd has been a heavy cross to bear. But can you remember back to when I had you read the Tolkien Middle Earth books? What did Gandalf tell Frodo when the young hobbit offered to give the grey wizard the One Ring?"
Taylor's brow furrowed in thought, "I know the scene you're talking about Mom, but The Fellowship of the Ring was unfortunately not one of the books I hit this week. I don't quite recall what he said after everything that's happened."
"Fair enough," Annette assured her young teen. "You were ten when I subjected you to them. John Tolkien was always long-winded, so I'll go with the movie version. It's better than most literature adaptations and, in some ways, better than his books. Gandalf said more or less that 'he'd use the One Ring for good'. His deepest desire was born out of pity for the mortals, something he learned from his beloved teacher, the source of all mercy and hope. He wanted to cure the world's ills, and the Ring would seem to yield that power to him. But Gandalf knew absolute power corrupts absolutely. Power is a trap."
Annette smiled at her daughter to soften the dark lesson she was conveying. "Taylor, I have yet to understand the heights and depths of your abilities fully, but they are clearly pretty darned powerful. You are driven to fix all the ills of Brockton Bay. While not a bad goal at all, a great power has a way of escaping our control and going bad in ways we never imagined. I was very close to someone I idolized as a cape falling to the corruption of her good intentions. It ended with her in the Birdcage based in part on my own testimony." Annette's smile faded a bit, and her eyes seemed to look elsewhere for a moment. She quickly blinked and returned her focus earnestly to Taylor.
"Sweetheart, I can only imagine the despair of Lustrum's mother, and I never want to experience it myself. Please promise me that as long as you are a minor, and hopefully even after that as wise counsel, that you'll seek guidance from your father or me at every step of the way? I don't say this to clip your wings, dearest owl. You deserve to fly free. I just don't want to see you hurt." Annette had tears in her eyes by the end of her words and held her hands out to entreaty Taylor to accept an embrace.
Taylor herself was teary-eyed and had to remember her mother's condition again as she rushed in for a hug. Wrapping her arms around Annette's neck, she replied in a trembling voice, "of course, Mom. I'd never leave you out of my decision-making. I'd never let myself shut you or Dad out of my life. I'll always listen, I promise." She sniffled, "I don't think my power would let me ignore you either, even if I wanted to."
"Oh, dear heart," Annette cooed to her daughter as her good hand pet Taylor's hair. "Don't ever doubt yourself. In a pinch, I know you'll make the right decision. But when you have time to check in, Danny and I will always be here to give you perspective. Consider keeping Emma close once she knows, as she may provide a center when your powers are so heady. When no one else is around, remember to think before you act. And about this voice that is your power, never stop looking into your own soul whenever you are told what you can do. What you can do and what you should do are sometimes very different things. I doubt your power will ever be able to tell the difference. But you can. When push comes to shove, trust yourself, not any voice in your head. Lustrum proved to me that powers are amoral. It's up to you to provide the human touch."
Danny reached down to put a hand on Taylor's shoulder and one on his wife's good arm. "I would say never to trust something when you can't see where it keeps its brain. That's pretty difficult to determine in your situation. Always take what it says with a grain of salt, even if it seems to have your best interest in its non-existent heart. Just remember that we've got your back, and you'll be alright."
Taylor nodded happily at their words of support, her eyes still a little watery. "Yes, Mom, Dad. I'll make sure to keep that in mind. Yardmaster is pretty good at acting human, even though it obviously isn't. I'll have to run everything it says a couple of times through just to be sure about its intentions." She waited in the companionable silence for a moment, enjoying the embrace before pulling back. "Would you like to see how my power works, Mom? Or do you think we should wait until after Emma is done smothering me? I just finished addressing an autograph to myself for her at the passenger station. I know for a fact that she's going to beeline here."
"Hmm..." Annette hummed in thought. "It strikes me that Emma knows you better than anyone except your father and I, and by a large margin. None of your Dad's or my friends are particularly close to you, and heaven knows you rarely have to put up with Danny's parents. I figured it out watching the TV. Your disguise is okay, but it doesn't mask your mannerisms. How likely is it that Emma won't figure it out either when she's here or after she has a chance to sleep on it? I'd suggest she's the person most likely to figure it out and that telling her in person and influencing her acceptance of it is better than letting her come to the conclusion in a dream tonight."
"To be perfectly honest, I'm surprised she didn't recognize me at the platform. We hugged and everything." Taylor took up a musing pose, one hand on her chin and one arm across her body. "I used a different style of handwriting, but if she looks too closely between the picture we took together and me, she may figure it out right there. I wanted to wait, but it may be best to let her know when she gets here."
"It's ultimately up to you," Annette admitted with the best shrug she could muster with her healing arm. "You know Emma best. But my experience is that trying to guess the intentions of a cape is far more dangerous than the cape being fully open about those intentions. I could imagine scenarios where Emma is hurt that you didn't tell her, and she festers without telling you she figured it out just waiting to see how long you intend to hide it from her, and trust becomes broken. If you trust her, then we should move quickly to tell her, so that doesn't happen. And if you don't trust her, then things get really complicated."
Annette cocked her head and added, "And anyway, it would allow Emma and I to meet this Yardmaster of yours and Danny's together. I'd like to be part of Emma's first introduction to your 'technical advisor' and the true scope of your abilities. We'll be sure she knows she's meeting all this at the same time I am; that she's not the last one to know. She will have the hardest time holding your secret, given she has her own family. It's hard to hide something from your older sister. She'll need a lot of guidance, I imagine. Fortunately, I may as well be a close aunt given how often she's stayed here over the years."
Taylor nodded excitedly, her enthusiasm coming back out in full force. "Sounds like a plan I can follow! She'll be here any minute now, I'm sure of it."
Beep Beep
A horn and the sound of a car pulling into the driveway punctuated Taylor's words. Danny went over to the drawn blinds of the living room window and peeked out. "Yep, that's Alan's car, alright. And would you look at that? Emma is plastered to her window like a Garfield suction cup plushie."
There was the sound of a door opening, then slamming shut with all the might of a 13-year-old behind it. Danny walked to the foyer. "I'll get the door." Taylor could hear Alan Barnes raising his voice a little, telling Emma to slow down, that Taylor wasn't going anywhere. Emma didn't seem to pay that any mind. There was a pounding at the door. "I'm coming. I'm coming," Danny called.
---------------
Emma didn't want to slow down. She had waited a whole week to see Taylor again and had no more patience. When Danny opened the door, she almost fell over. Taylor's father kept her from going all the way over by taking hold of her arm. Taking a moment to get her breath back, Emma looked up at Danny, "Thanks, Mr. Hebert."
"No problem, Emma, just be more careful next time. And listen to your parents. You almost got hurt there in your rush," Danny admonished
Emma nodded, though she was only half-listening. She wanted to see Taylor. Could her parents and Mr. Hebert really judge her for that? She ached to get in the door.
"Good. Now, would you like to stay over for the night? I'm sure you and Taylor have lots to catch up on."
Emma beamed, "Of course, Mr. Hebert!" She had been planning on asking, but Mr. Hebert had beaten her to it.
"Excellent. Let me talk with your Dad then. Taylor is in the living room."
Danny moved past Emma and went to speak with her dad, who was waiting somewhat exasperated by the car. This was Emma's moment. She rushed into the door, through the foyer, and into the living room. A sight greeted her that she wasn't expecting at all.
Taylor stood next to her mother, who was in a wheelchair. Aunt Annette appeared much more banged up than Taylor, with her left arm in a sling, her left leg in a cast, and obvious bandages on the left side of her torso under her top. Her eyes went back to Taylor. First things first, though. She could worry about her adoptive aunt in a minute. Halfway between the living room entry and Annette, Emma met Taylor in an embrace for the ages.
Emma gave her best friend the greatest bear hug she could. "Taylor, I missed you so much! How are you doing?! Is your leg recovering okay?!"
Taylor squeezed back. "It's recovering alright. I have nothing to complain about."
Emma leaned back to look into Taylor's eyes. "That's good, I suppose." She turned her gaze to Annette. "Aunt Annette, I thought you weren't due back home 'till tomorrow."
"Have you ever spent a week in the hospital, little fox?" Annette responded with rolled eyes. "I was bored out of my mind!" she added with her good hand shaking in the air. "I was just looking for a good excuse to escape, and one came up out of the blue this morning on the TV, no less. I understand you got to meet that dashing new cape at the trainyards? You're still swooning." Annette allowed a playful grin to grace her lips as she looked into Emma's eyes and winked. "I want to hear all about our new hero. Now dish the deets!"
Emma blushed a little and looked away. She idly wondered why the living room blinds were closed, "I'm not swooning over Dispatcher. I was worried about Taylor all week. That's why I was in a rush to get here." She returned her gaze to Annette's. "I didn't get that much time with her. I was at the end of the line for autographs and pictures. By the time she got to me, she had needed to get back to her schedule. I managed to get an autograph from her for each of us as well as a picture."
Emma handed Taylor the autograph addressed to her and pulled out her phone to get ready to show off the picture Alan took. "What exactly does it say? I asked for a get-well message, but she didn't tell me her exact wording."
Taylor took a deep breath for some odd reason then examined the note. "To Taylor Hebert. You have a fantastic friend who went through the lengths to acquire this message. Thank her for the thought and cherish her always. I know how annoying a broken leg can be. Stay off the leg as much as you can and get well soon. Dispatcher." She looked up and smiled at Emma. "She's right. You are a fantastic friend. Thank you for the thought and the note."
A camera 'click' interrupted the girls' moment, and both turned to the sound. Annette sat in her chair with a canary-eating grin, and her phone pointed at the two best friends. "Hey," she mock-defended at their surprised looks, "you two are adorable! I couldn't help it!" The older woman stuck her tongue out when the teens glared at her.
"Hey, I'll make you a deal, Emma. Come over here and look at this adorable picture, and you can share your fangirly selfie of our new cape with me. I was like 20 feet away from a tiny old TV at the hospital. The poor thing was likely older than you two. It had a tube, for heaven's sake!"
Annette gestured, beckoning with her good arm. "Come on, I want a good look at Brockton Bay's new o'dark thirty alarm clock!" she added with a wink at her daughter when the two didn't immediately start moving.
Emma moved toward Annette, pulling up the picture with Dispatcher, and made to stand by her side. Taylor meanwhile gave her mom a slightly pouty look and mouthed at her, But it wasn't my fault!
Emma held up her phone and showed off the photo. "Well, Aunt Annette, it's not a selfie. My Dad took the picture for me." A bit of excitement and awe crept into her voice as she went on to describe the event, the colossal puffing steam engine, and Dispatcher's kind comments. The picture showed Emma being side-hugged by Dispatcher's slightly ethereal form with the front of the locomotive just behind them. "She was surprisingly solid for a projection," Emma commented, "Maybe the body is a force field with an image laid over it? Hmm."
Annette cocked her head to the side again, her trademark look when she's processing a genuinely novel thought. "That's a solid scientific hypothesis, Emma. Assuming you state it as a null, you'll do your high school teachers proud thinking like that. Maybe you might even get a chance to test it. Now take a look at these two cuties," Annette gushed as she raised her phone to lay side by side with Emma's.
The image on the screen was of the two friends embraced with Emma leaning back, providing a clear view of both their faces as well as their relative heights and physiques. Annette looked up to Emma to watch her face and wait patiently but curiously for a response. She could imagine her daughter looking on with anxious excitement, and she fought the grin which was fighting to rule her features. She absolutely didn't want Emma to feel the subject of ridicule when she finally made the connection.
Emma blushed at the compliment Annette had paid regarding potential high school teachers. Shaking her head to clear her mind, she first examined the picture Annette had taken. "That's definitely cute," she agreed before sliding her vision back to her own photo. Wait a minute, she considered to herself, her head doing a double-take. That hair, it's almost the exact same. That curly, long, dark brown, almost black hair is her and Aunt Annette's trademark. She shook her head to herself, No, it has to be someone else. A doppelganger, maybe? She nodded in response to that thought. Then she looked at the picture again. Someone who looks exactly like Taylor, though? The hair is one thing, but the same height, the same eye color, the similar mannerisms? There's nobody else it could be.
The only answer was smack dab in front of her eyes. She took a deep breath and looked up again. Taylor stood on the other side of Annette, looking at a blank wall. She was blushing lightly and had the embarrassed expression of a child with their hand caught in a cookie jar.
Emma smiled and shook her hair again. "Either this is the perfect doppelganger, someone else is using your image as a base, or you've gotten powers." Taylor made no discernible reaction, and Emma sighed. "Y'know, Taylor, if you didn't want me to find out, you could have changed your image up a little. Cut the hair by half and change the color, change the height and age, and I would never have guessed."
Taylor's head snapped back in Emma's direction, her expression filled with fear and distress. "I wanted to tell you, Emma, I did, but I wasn't sure when to do it. Then you appeared at the station, and I knew that you'd find out soon."
Taylor was about to continue in a rush, but Emma held up her hand to stop her. "I'm not angry, Taylor. It's obvious that your Mom set up this little ambush, so I won't blame the surprise on you." Emma grinned, "That doesn't mean you'll get away with your part in everything else, so spill!"
Taylor would have bowled over Emma, but Annette was between them, so she had to settle for dashing around the wheelchair and giving Emma another hug. "You won't regret this, Emma!" Taylor exclaimed, her eyes shining in happiness.
Annette smiled warmly as the two best friends renewed their trust in one another. This time she allowed them to bask in the moment without interruption. Only when the hug broke naturally did Annette pipe up again. "Actually, little fox. I'm not done with the ambush." She chuckled as Emma's surprised and Taylor's excited face turned to her again.
"We were waiting for you before Taylor demonstrated her abilities and introduced us to the vocal manifestation that apparently has been providing all the technical advice allowing Taylor to be Dispatcher. It seems hers is a power that had to come with an instruction manual. You'll be experiencing this with me since so far it's all been Taylor and Danny running the show that has dominated the morning news." Annette leaned over toward Emma as much as her wheelchair would allow and added in a conspiratorial stage whisper, "I think you and I need to teach these two about the meaning of bedtime."
Emma looked at Annette quizzically and whispered back in a puzzled tone, "As far as I know, Taylor was in bed on time and was woken up at the same time as everyone else this morning."
Taylor ignored them and focused on the blank wall again. "So you may be wondering exactly how I can control giant locomotives on my own. Well, it all comes down to model trains and, more specifically, a place to run them." She raised her right hand and dramatically called out. "Layout portal, activate!"
A purple sphere took form in her hand, and Taylor immediately threw it at the wall. A giant 6-foot purple swirling hole appeared on the wall. From the point of impact, it stretched from the floor and rose above all of their heads. Through it, Emma and Annette could glimpse a massive model of the city of some kind. Skyscrapers like the Medhall Building, the great waters of the Bay, and the Protectorate Rig were among the most noticeable things to leap out at them.
Taylor looked over her shoulder and grinned so widely that it threatened to escape off her face. "Care to join me?" she asked. "Incidentally, this is why the blinds are closed."
Before Annette could figure out how to mobilize her wheelchair, her husband slipped behind her and took hold of the handles. "After you, milady," Danny flirted with flair and moved her forward. While her free hand absently reached over to squeeze her husband's in appreciation, Annette's attention turned back to the portal. Still, her focus was more on Emma and the young teen's mixture of excitement and uncertainty.
She had expected Emma to bound side by side after her best friend, but instead, the young teen seemed frozen, entranced by the portal as Annette, and her husband moved past her. Annette had seen much during her college years. With all those experiences, she looked closely for any sign of envy, jealousy, or fear but saw only awe...which on the whole made logical sense and brought back bittersweet memories.
Emma is me twenty years ago, Annette realized. I hope she's a better friend to Taylor than I was to her back then. If Taylor goes off the rails as she did, how can Emma prepare to call the little owl back to herself?
Emma seemed to Annette to represent the biggest wildcard in the current situation...other than perhaps this 'Yardmaster' being. The uncertainty niggled at the back of her motherly mind, right where the mama bear instincts resided. Her inability to predict Emma made her nervous. Yet Emma might be Taylor's firmest anchor to her humanity. Annette resolved to armor Emma against the temptations of power, peer pressure, and family, especially sisterly, wheedling.
Look at me being the helicopter parent, she mused in disappointment with herself. I disgust myself, but dammit someone needs to be responsible around here.
There was also the issue of her husband's apparent eagerness to get outside advice without talking to her first.
Pillow talk will be long and intense tonight; she thought to her husband in silence even as the excited, innocent young woman in her caused her heart rate to speed just a bit in anticipation of entering the Chocolate Factory. It had been twenty years, but the awe and magic felt the same.
God, now I have to watch myself before I call Taylor's pet projections Oompa Loompas. There's a reason why the universe doesn't entrust literature professors with superpowers...
-----
Taylor's heart was thumping in excitement and joy. This isn't how I saw myself introducing my powers to Mom and Emma, but it seems to be going well. "Come along," she said, motioning the other three to follow her in. Taylor crossed the portal's threshold, and Danny followed as he pushed Annette's wheelchair through the gateway. Emma brought up the rear of the party.
Striding up to the edge of the massive layout, which was about 3 feet off the ground just below eye level with Annette, Taylor turned to face them and gestured. "Welcome to the Brockton Bay Layout Room. This room is a pocket dimension that hosts a 1/160 scale model of every building, every car, every street, every wrecked ship, and every train-related object in the city. From here, I can give orders to my trains and generate projections to either guard the railroad or do other work on it. I can also send my consciousness into a projection that can walk and act in the real world. Think of it as advanced VR."
Emma's eyes were so wide they could be small saucers. She quickly walked up to the edge of the layout and stared all around. "Woah, this is incredibly detailed." She pointed to an arc-shaped building just behind Taylor. "There's the roundhouse, and your steam locomotive is still peacefully puffing smoke and steam."
Annette allowed her gaze to travel along the layout as best she could from a sitting position. Still, despite being vertically challenged, she was able to make out a lot.
"Amazing, little owl. Color me deeply impressed." Noting Taylor's warm blush from the praise, she smiled and then cocked her head back to Danny. "So, honey. You've been awfully quiet for a while. How about you share all you've seen and done in your own words and advised Taylor since this started happening. I'd like to start with an outside perspective." She turned her face back toward Taylor. "And then you can impress us all with how this all works and maybe introduce us to this Yardmaster you've mentioned. For now, I'd ask that any demonstration be small and that you not project yourself until we can talk all this out as a family...which includes you too, Emma."
"Well, I was just outside speaking with Alan, honey, so please forgive me for missing the excitement." Danny looked at Emma, "By the way, your Dad said you could stay the night and catch up with Taylor."
Emma only nodded. She was too focused on staring at the layout to reply. Danny began rubbing Annette's good shoulder and noted that his wife had an adorable sheepish look on her face, he surmised due to not having noticed his absence with all her attention on Taylor and Emma. "To start, Annette, upon first entering this place, I questioned Yardmaster as to how this whole layout thing worked. Normal humans cannot interact with it at all. If they try to, they just phase through. Taylor is the only one who can do anything on the layout.
"In fact, she can only place tracks, trains, and buildings. If she tries to walk through it or physically touch it too hard, it will cause her to phase through as well. This is part of her 'Manton limit,' apparently. If her power allowed her to affect the physical layout like that, it would transfer to the real world as an earthquake or something similar. Yardmaster said it is because this whole dimension is tied to the real world somehow via quantum mechanics we wouldn't understand."
Emma's eyes went even wider in alarm as she heard this and turned to interrupt, but Danny continued speaking, "Yardmaster assured us that it wouldn't let anything like that happen. Believe me, that part of the conversation was pretty intense." He shrugged, "After that kerfuffle, I mostly assisted Taylor in selecting her first tracks to lay and trains to activate." He motioned to his old train box that sat on the floor nearby, "Part of her power allows Taylor to take model trains and tracks and place them physically in the real world by putting them on the layout. Why don't you demonstrate for us, Taylor?"
Taylor nodded happily, "Sure thing." She grabbed the maroon and gold striped E7A locomotive from the box and placed it gently on the turntable. The ever-convenient projected screen that depicted the real-world view focused on the turntable, and the engine popped into existence. "Like so." In the roundhouse behind the diesel locomotive sat the 4-6-2 Pacific steam engine, which was still venting steam and smoke.
Danny continued as Emma moved to inspect the new train, "Following her first track-laying session, we spoke of how the NEPEA-5 legislation prevents parahumans from legally competing with human-owned companies in existing markets and how to get around that. It's something I would speak to the lawyer the union has on retainer about later in the evening." He held up his hand to forestall any interruptions. "The conversation was completely hypotheticals, I assure you."
"Anyway, we ordered pizza for dinner, and Taylor left some of her new projections in the facilities to inspect them. We'd barely sat down to eat when Taylor was told that her railroad policemen had subdued a Merchant group that had attacked them. No casualties on either side, but all the Merchants were knocked unconscious. The fight still managed to summon Miss Militia, as she was in the area and came to investigate. Taylor was then taught how to project herself, and she proceeded to have a conversation with the hero. She demonstrated a few basic abilities, but not many, and Miss Militia left on good terms. It was during this conversation that I spoke with the lawyer I referred to earlier."
Danny spread his arms wide, "And that was it for yesterday's discoveries. Taylor came back to the house, had dinner, and went to bed. You know most of the rest thanks to waking up at 1:00 am with the rest of us thanks to Skidmark and watching the news."
"A lot was happening in a short time; I can see that now. Sorry for chiding you both for how fast things have been moving, but mother's worry, you know. I think I'm getting past my own ghosts from the past, which is probably a good thing. So, Taylor, you're the hero of the hour. What can you add to your father's experience? This is your story, after all."
Taylor shrugged, "Well, I kinda expected retaliation from the Merchants, but not a response as large as they mustered. I left twenty railroad police to guard the locomotive facilities overnight. I figured it would be plenty. I was right, but if they had been real people and not projections, the men would have been overwhelmed. As you know, the Merchants, complete with Skidmark at the helm, started blowing stuff up around one in the morning. Specifically, a line of ancient boxcars and the switch junction between the Classification Yard and the locomotive facilities. They finally ran up against the switch tower next to the fuel depot and the car shops. The car shop and the tower had police fortified in them and on the roofs."
Taylor's grin turned from happy to savage, "Unbeknownst to them, my guys had a Browning Automatic Rifle, which proceeded to knock out and mow down all the attacking Merchants, along with help from the rifles the rest of the men were armed with. Incidentally, all the weapons my police use either stun people into unconsciousness or kill vehicles' engines if they hit them enough times. I intervened some by getting two engines, that GP-9 and GP-40-2 down in the Classification Yard into action with more police on their sides."
She pointed to the miniature models down the line, "1735, 303, please detach from your trains and return to the roundhouse." The locomotives replied with toots of their horns, and they began to trundle down the tracks back toward the group. Emma's eyes had returned to normal somewhat, and she giggled as the two locomotives honked cheerfully at her and Taylor when they came into the locomotive facilities. The sound of the turntable operating came to them, and they saw it line up with an empty roundhouse stall. The E7A backed into the slot while the turntable began to cycle into position to receive the freight hauling locomotives.
Taylor returned to telling her story, a genuine smile on her face. "The Battle for the Trainyards ended when my men captured 35 Merchants including Skidmark while five escaped. A few minutes later, Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and a whole host of PRT troopers and policemen came to arrest them." Her grin grew even wider again, "I got to speak with Armsmaster via my projection. That was really exciting. You know that he's one of my favorite heroes. I trusted him with the secret of how many minions I could have out at once. That number is 80 for now. He quickly realized that he didn't need to give me the 'join the Wards for your own safety' speech you sometimes hear about. They departed on good terms with me after that."
The GP-40-2 number 303 had taken a roundhouse stall for itself, and the GP-9 was about to follow it when Taylor spoke to it again. "1735, please pull that broken down GP-38-2 out of its stall and move it down to the locomotive workshops." The GP-9 acknowledged the command with another horn blast, then rolled onto the turntable to do just that.
Taylor began to wrap up her story, "In the night, Dad warned me that the news might show up, and lo and behold they started appearing around 5 am. Then there was the first news report at 8 am. I had to go make them happy, so I followed up with the press conference."
Emma was still smiling as she discovered she could wander the ethereal layout and look closely at things without causing any harm. She was standing in the middle of the bay looking at the miniature docks when her head raised at Taylor's conclusion. "I have tons of questions," she gushed, "but since when did you know trains so well? You've never given any hint of being a train nerd. Has your power filled your head with new knowledge? Any idea what else has maybe been crammed in that noodle of yours?" Even as the girl talked, her head had moved back to the layout, and she was wandering through town to look at her house. "I can see my house from here!" she quipped with a giggle before Taylor could answer.
Taylor smiled at Emma's excitement. "Yes, my power is an encyclopedia of train knowledge. Anytime I need to know something, it'll tell me, either verbally or subconsciously, and I will just 'know' it. It can be pretty handy." She closely monitored the GP-9 from the corner of her vision as it pulled the ravaged GP-38-2 from the roundhouse.
The turntable bridge rotated back to the exit position, and the two locomotives made for the shops. Turning her attention to the backshops, she looked upon the RS-3 sitting in one of the buildings. "RS-3 unit, please start up and find a place in the roundhouse with the others if you can." The medium-sized road switcher's diesel engine cranked and then roared to life. It let out a confirming toot of its horn and started on its new task.
"Speaking of verbally," Annette rejoined the conversation after listening thoughtfully to Taylor and her husband. Taylor was relieved to note that her mom was grinning as she spoke. She'd goosed her wheelchair right up to the layout and seemed fascinated by the representation of Langdon College where she taught. "Would now be a good time to introduce us to your technical advisor? Danny indicated you could have it interact with others if you want?"
"Yes, but only verbally," Taylor said, "she doesn't have a visual representation." She spread her arms out dramatically and called out, "Yardmaster, this is my mother Annette Hebert and my best friend, Emma Barnes. Would you please introduce yourself?"
There was a short pause, and then a warm, feminine voice with robotic undertones spoke up. The voice echoed around the room as if it was an empty grand auditorium. "Good Morning Annette Hebert and Emma Barnes. Welcome to the Brockton Bay Layout Room. How may I be of service today?"
"Wow!" Emma explained as she jumped a bit despite the warning from Taylor to expect a disembodied voice. "Tay, is this voice in your head all the time?"
Taylor nodded in affirmation, "She is always there, always listening. If I want to speak to her in the real world, I can either speak aloud or mentally, and she will reply mentally. That way, nobody can overhear a conversation. Since she is connected to me, she will also hear other people's words to me. Within the Layout Room," she made a circular motion to indicate the area, "anyone may speak verbally, and she will reply in the same manner." Taylor scratched her chin, "In fact, she's usually not so dramatic when speaking. She must be picking up my habits."
Emma scowled just a little. "So you have no privacy anymore, Tay? That sounds kinda creepy. You seem surprisingly okay with it."
"Eh, it's not so bad once you get used to it." Taylor made a waggling motion with her hand, "It was surprising to be sure, Ems, but I got over it pretty fast. It is rather strange, though, now that I think about it. Maybe my power mastered me into thinking everything was fine? But then why would it let me question that?" Taylor shrugs, "I mostly think it came down to hearing a friendly feminine voice that taught me how to use my powers and who wanted to do the same thing I did. Rebuild Brockton Bay."
Annette's eyebrows scrunched together as she took in the new voice. "Yardmaster, I have a complex question that goes beyond Taylor's knowledge, which is going to help me better understand what exactly you are. Do you represent a manifestation of Taylor's id with additional objective information added like a user's manual, or do you have your own ego? And if so, do you have anything resembling a superego guiding your actions?"
Yardmaster replied with some amusement in her voice and a much quieter, indoors tone. "I do, in fact, Mrs. Hebert, have my own ego. I am a facet of the source of Taylor's powers, and I provide her instruction and advice as needed. I also have what you call a superego, though it is not as well-formed as a human's might be. I am still learning and growing in the knowledge of human society, so I expect at some point to have a fully grown conscience."
Taylor's mother nodded at this answer, seemingly comfortable with the answer. "So if you have an ego, then you self-actualize. What are your goals, Yardmaster?" Annette specifically did not look at Taylor as she spoke, looking randomly around the room instead. Yardmaster itself had made clear she wasn't talking to her daughter in some deep sense. She didn't want Taylor to feel put upon over a part of her outside her direct control.
When there was no answer immediately forthcoming, Annette added, "Taylor indicates you want to do the same thing she wants, but I'm not sure she has specifically asked you your own intentions. I'm sure that she's confident you share the same goals, and that might be true. But I've watched powers twist a well-meaning and very dear friend into a sociopath. I'd be much more comfortable with your own desires out in the open so that we can consider them along with everyone else's. I'm a literature professor and have read more than my share of dystopian novels; I even assisted in research on the subject. Taylor has invited you into the family, such as I have with her best friend. What do you bring to the figurative dinner table, and how can we help you self-actualize without harming the rest of us? I'm a believer in transparency and win-win solutions."
"First of all, Mrs. Hebert, let me assure you that I would never let any harm befall Taylor or the rest of you. I would sooner delete myself before letting that happen," Yardmaster replied in a very, very serious tone. "Should anyone threaten you directly, I would have an army complete with tanks, fortifications, and soldiers wielding the latest weapons placed around your house. Such an action may blow your cover to the rest of the city, but if someone already knows who you are, then I feel protecting you to such a degree will make you so much more safer than a secret identity." Yardmaster's tone shifted from hard and severe to optimistic. "Fortunately, I do not believe such a scenario will ever take place should we take the proper precautions, and Taylor limits any excursions in costume in real life, as well as change up her known image."
"Secondly, let me tell you my motivations. I have for many local years looked upon the Earth and despaired at the actions and depredations of the beings you call Endbringers. Behemoth the Hero-killer, Leviathan Jormungandr, and Simurgh the Hope-killer. Each of these monstrous beings has devastated cities, infrastructure, and even whole massive islands in their attacks upon humanity. All of that disgusted and angered me, but I could not act until I found the right person to host the powers I could give. Taylor is this person."
Yardmaster's tone had shifted yet again. This time from optimism to rage and anger that she hadn't been able to act before now. "Annette Hebert, I am a controller of things. In another universe, Taylor could have controlled massive swarms of insects or rats or technology or the minds of her fellow humans. However, in my mind, I could not see any of these things working to slay or inhibit the Endbringers. So I chose different abilities to give her. The ability to control trains and other vehicles. The ability to construct buildings from kits and add them to the city and create infrastructure by laying tracks, roads and repairing them. The projection creation is a tool to facilitate all of those things. Eventually, Taylor will gather enough equipment, resources, and allies to destroy any threat to humanity and rebuild its crumbling infrastructure. With my help, she will lead humanity into a new golden age, free of monsters like the Endbringers."
There was a short pause and then a sigh. "To achieve this, we will need to do several things to get our operation off the ground. The highest priority is to become legitimate. You will need to purchase the rights to the Boston and Maine Railroad. Secondly, we will need to clear the shipping channel and the Ship Graveyard. This will encourage shipping to return to the city, and the Railroad will be right there to pick up the trade they bring in and ship it to other parts of the country. This will bring jobs to the city, both for the Dockworkers and any factory that may reopen its door because they can get resources shipped in and products shipped out again. The jobs will encourage gang personnel to leave their criminal ways and gain honest employment, thus reducing their power. All of this will help revitalize the city's economy and help solidify our presence."
This was a lot to absorb, and Annette listened intently to every word that echoed through the pocket space. Once Yardmaster was done, she closed her eyes a moment and, to Taylor's shock, actually crossed herself. "Isabelle, grant me your wisdom and strength," she muttered before opening her eyes and looking at Taylor for a moment. She then cocked her head back again to Danny.
"So, what did the union lawyer have to say about the trainyards being revitalized by scab labor?"
"Well, I had to use a lot of hypotheticals, as I said earlier, but he told me that the projections could be used as much as Dispatcher wanted until she hired enough people to reach the point where they could vote to form a union or join an existing one." Danny shrugged nonchalantly, "After that, their use in the company would have to be negotiated, but he foresaw that they could be used in emergencies such as parahuman attacks. Possibilities could change as we move forward. As you are well aware, I'm the Head of Hiring for the Dockworkers and do all their negotiating. I don't see a problem arising when my own daughter runs the company we'd be working with."
Annette skeptically chewed at her upper lip but let Danny's response stand for the moment. "Say, Taylor," she turned back and spoke directly to her daughter again. "How much sleep are you operating on right now? It sounds to me that you woke up at 1 am and never went back to sleep. If our little fox is correct and you followed your bedtime, you must be running on no more than four hours right now."
Taylor shook her head, "No, Mom. As soon as I spoke with Armsmaster, I went back to bed and slept like a rock 'till 8. I'm running on closer to 10 hours."
Annette chuckled. "Then you're doing better than me, most likely. Hospitals manage to combine passable beds at best with every two-hour vitals checks and expect you to heal. I'm sure they have their reasons, but they are beyond mortal ken as far as I am concerned. I think I've caused enough trouble for one morning and would like very much to take a nap." She looked back again to her husband. "Love, would you mind navigating me to bed so that I can enjoy our decadent bed until dinnertime?"
"Of course, my rose." Danny took hold of the wheelchair's handles and slowly began to back it away from the layout.
"Girls, feel free to have normal fun, but please let's wait for more superpowered shock and awe until we can all have a joint conversation while universally well-rested. At the very least, I beg you not to project yourself until we can talk more about masking your identity, Taylor. You'll be going back to school in two days, and I wouldn't want anyone else making the connection I made straight off and our little fox made with only some gentle prompting."
Taylor nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry, Mom. I should have thought my disguise through better and not rushed out there like a cat with the zoomies. I don't have much more to do here at the moment anyway, so Emma and I can catch up for the rest of the day."
"You have every right to have the zoomies, little owl," Annette assured her only daughter. "You are taking the first step of a grand adventure, and I couldn't be prouder." She reached out as she passed Taylor and gripped her hand hard before letting go as Danny continued out of the portal. "And Yardmaster," she added before she passed the threshold. "Thank you."
"You are most welcome, Annette Hebert," the warm disembodied voice replied kindly.
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- Location
- Seattle area
Great story. She needs to go find some retired Hobby Store manager to buy up a significant set of tracks/trains and extras. Now, I am reading H scale for everything --but the closest I see to that in a web crawl is HO 1:87 --if she can find some "Protectorate" figures in G scale 1:25 (or just under X3) she could have some serious Endbringer fighting potential.
You must have misread something somewhere. Taylor's trains are all N-scale 1/160. Hobby store visit is in the cards at some point. Thanks for the read!
You have given us another good chapter. Keep up the good work. I am looking forward to reading the next chapter.
I am surprised Taylor revealed her secret to Emma so soon. Hebert family interaction is alway good and is always an A+. The chapter was a nice fluffy one. It is good to know that you can handle action and fluff with equal skill.
I am surprised Taylor revealed her secret to Emma so soon. Hebert family interaction is alway good and is always an A+. The chapter was a nice fluffy one. It is good to know that you can handle action and fluff with equal skill.
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Honorguard Ra
(Verified Lizard Dude)
I love this story SO DAMN MUCH! It's productive and fluffy. I'm glad to see that young Emma has a good head on her shoulders. Taylor with zoomies, that'll definitely happen during the hobby store visit. Likely will have a very amused shop keep watching her zip around, squee'ing over the models.
- Location
- Italy
*Snrk* sure, Taylor, I cannot see that happening, ever. That's about as probable as you joining a villain team or killing an invincible superwoman.
- Location
- Somewhere
hmm, if Taylor does manage to re-open the bay's docks, that means her fleet will likely need to expand to cover the cargo. She'll likely also need new rolling stock if Bet uses Intermodals like the real world does.
Heck, the Bay could be a good location for hydraulic locos. No large tunnels, not too hot, no too steep grades.
Heck, the Bay could be a good location for hydraulic locos. No large tunnels, not too hot, no too steep grades.
Annette mentioning Gandalf's attitude towards the Ring becomes even clearer in the expended version of the first movie, when he recites what is written on the Ring.
And I am glad that Taylor did not dismay what her mother was saying. She knows the potential offered by her power, but also she is aware that a huge responsibility lies on her to use it right and her family will always be there to help her.
And I am glad that Taylor did not dismay what her mother was saying. She knows the potential offered by her power, but also she is aware that a huge responsibility lies on her to use it right and her family will always be there to help her.