Crack!

Taylor winced as glass ended up embedded in her hand once more. Taking a moment to be angry about it, she then sighed and went over to the sink to grab the dustpan and dustbrush. Thankfully, the glass she'd had was emptied, otherwise there'd be more of a mess to clean.

Seriously, this shouldn't be happening. According to Balmung, most parahuman abilities came with instructions, subconscious and sometimes hidden though they may be.

Then again, she wasn't a parahuman, so why should she have any sort of handle on her sudden bouts of strength anyway?

You really should consider just getting some eggs. I mean come on, a dollar or less for a dozen? Great for multiple examples of testing just how gently you need to put pressure on things, and it's great for making omelettes!

I don't see why you're bothering her at all, Sprite. Obviously, she just needs some time to get used to it and she'll therefore adjust to it naturally.

'Guys, the commentary doesn't help.' She thought at the bickering voices. 'At all.'

Sorry.

why should I be sorry?

of course you're not sorry. oaf.

who you calling an oaf, you pixie?!

'Guys! Just let me get some fruit juice in peace for five minutes!'

There was a feeling like both Sprite and Balmung simply turned away from each other in a huff and started sulking in their respective 'corners'. As it gave her the peace and quiet she wanted, Taylor didn't bother to try and fix it right away. A thought occurred to her, so she voiced it. 'Why are you called sprite anyways?'

Um, because you called me that.

'Okay, why did I name you Sprite.'

Because you did.

'That's not an answer.'

I happens to be true. And besides, I can't really tell what's the actual reason.

'why not?'

Because I'm not exactly a fricken mind reader here.

'So how are we talking?'

I- ahhh...

oh pipe down you idiots. tryin' ta get some sleep here.

shut up Balmung

"Taylor?" Taylor froze at hearing the tired voice, and she had a feeling that both Balmung and Sprite were in a similar state of panic and FREEZE. "What are you doing up so late?"

She tries to paste on a smile, though she thinks it falls a little short. "Um, just trying to get a snack." She rushes out.

His gaze leaves her face, slightly, and she tries not to cringe as he has no doubt noticed the slight cut in the shoulder of her shirt.

"I just got back from running." She says quickly, trying to keep him from asking. This obviously does not work.

"And what kind of 'running' would end up with you getting a cut on your shoulder with blood seeping through?" He's looking more awake now, and angry as well.

"Running through the bad part of town?" She suggests.

Even tired, the head of the Dockworkers Association of Brockton Bay had an impressively pinning stare. "Are you asking me or telling me?"

Wilting under that impressive stare, she stays silent.

"Are you trying to be a hero?" He asks, sudden concern coloring his voice. "Because as much as I approve of such I would much rather you tell me before you go out."

She shrinks in further before weakly saying "I wasn't really trying to be a hero. I was, I just-" She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "I couldn't sleep. Too much energy. So I thought getting out and running would help tire me out."

"Did it?"

She sighed. "Not really. Sprite says that it's likely to be some sort of conflict drive, not unlike the need for it most Parahumans face-"

Her father interrupted her. "What are you talking about honey?" He asked, confused. "And who's Sprite, someone I know?"

She stopped, and thougth about how to answer it, stumped. you could always just do it bluntly. Like that would do us much good. 'Shut up guys.' She closed her eyes, and went with Blamung's idea. "Okay, see-" She stopped and looked up at him. "We should probably get you sitting down for this." And with that, she trundled him down the stairs with a quick jump over the stairs and a grab of the much larger musclebound man as if he were nothing but a toddler, carrying him down to the dinner table in the kitchen and sitting him in a chair. Her use of superhuman strength, however slight, had the positive of stunning him for a short time and for her and Sprite to get their facts straight enough to convey. They already knew what happened, they just didn't know how to explain it right before then. Since she needed a little more time, she grabbed a few things to make coffee the way her father liked it, taking the rather strong coffee from the pot she'd made earlier and gingerly adding in a few teaspoons of sugar (not quite avoiding cracking the mug) and a large amount of liquid creamer. She set it down in front of her father and sat down across from him, waiting for him to take a sip.

"When I was in the locker, I went through something. According to the Parahumans Online forums (because the actual wiki pages are near-complete wastes of space), what happens to make a parahuman is that a normal person with the capability to become a parahuman goes through an incredibly bad time- like the Locker was for me- , often without any sort of support but not always, and that is called a 'Trigger Event'. Most parahumans have had at least one, though second triggers like Narwhal have had two and Balmung says that a few never had one but instead received theirs through another method. For me, this was much the same except, something," She paused here, unsure of how to word it. "I want to say it fractured the process of gaining my parahuman ability, but it really just barged in."

"I thought you said you weren't a parahuman, back in the hospital." Her dad pointed out.

She nodded. "Yeah, apparently that was maybe ninety, ninety-five percent true. I'm not a parahuman, but I had the structures scientists and doctors have identified as being a source of sorts for Parahuman abilities. While I don't have any sort of control over it, I do indeed have the source of one, a Shard as they call themselves. Normally, they aren't really alive, but mine is, probably because of that odd thing that barged in during the process. We decided to name it after another version of myself, given that we could see glimpses of other Earth Bets, and Balmung was alive. That said, the original Balmung was an intelligent Endbringer who fought as a hero and as a villain to save lives. Nearly indestructible, and dreadlocked like my Balmung is now, but dedicated to be sure.

"Sprite on the other hand..." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Sprite is more a manifestation of whatever it was that barged in and attached itself to me the way Balmung was going to, based on my personality -also like Balmung. Sprite also acts as a filter to one of my more esoteric abilities- a variant of what she calls 'Psychometry', which is a Striker-Thinker power where anything I touch, I know practically anything about it. To a degree, I can also get skills that object was involved with, as I figured out when I touched your handsaw and hand sander in the basement. I, don't think that part is permanent." She said, thinking about it, eyes on the ceiling. "I don't really recall how to use them at the moment, though I'm sure Sprite could tell you."

There was a silence in which Taylor wasn't really ready to see the look on her father's face, so she kept on studying a slight mis-match in the ceiling's plastering. Did something break through once and it got patched up unevenly? "I'd feel a little better about this if I had more proof on the matter."

May I speak up a little? He seems a little worried.

'Of course. If you can find a way that doesn't speak through my mouth. I think he'd find that rather freaky.'

There was a pleased sensation from Sprite's "direction". Of course.

There was a tap on Taylor's left shoulder and she looked there, finding a smiling, if see-through ethereal version of herself looking very much like her mother. If at about twelve years in age and five feet in height. Childish and innocent, but starting to bloom into a woman, who happens to be rather tall. Sprite looked over at their father and continued for her. "Hello Danny. I'm Sprite." Thankfully, she sounded more like Taylor herself -though ethereal-, much like in her own head, rather than Anne-Rose did. "We're not entirely sure on why this is happening, but Balmung and I have a few ideas. One possibility is that Balmung's enforced drive towards conflict was also instilled in Taylor, but from Taylor's Psychommetry, that really isn't likely. What is more likely is that there were a few surprise packages inside the energy-data packet that turned into me when it was installed in Taylor. I can't really think of anything else like that, but it does explain multiple things, such as the minor Brute package that Taylor just showed off, the non-Manton-Limited shields and relatively minor gravity control she's been showing ever since waking up in the hospital to cover for her body's slow adjustments to being moderately healthy again after both the locker and some part of me fighting off all the infections the locker gave her, as well as my own ability to be here in front of you and talk when I am, in reality, mostly just a secondary personality glitch created by forces outside of our understanding." She'd have given the ethereal-looking 'girl' a dirty look if she hadn't fully agreed. She was lucky she didn't feel the need to hide any supposed weakness.

"personally? I think the stupid fairy is right about that part." Both Taylor and Danny started at that and looked towards the new voice. Deep and rough, the voice rather fitted the violently-inclined Balmung, just as her athletically muscular form covered only by a well-filled sports bra (high B-cup or low C-cup at the most, thankfully. Unlike Emma's D-cups) and compression shorts that went to mid-thigh, with odd white beads littering her dreadlocked near-black hair. The face however, though agitated and almost angrily bored, was unmistakably Taylor's. "whatever's driving Taylor outta the house ain't me. 'Sides, if it had come from me, then her Brute-Thinker package would have a more instinctual guidebook to it because she'd want it and I'd help control it. No broken dishes that way, mostly." She looked down at Taylor. "you do know that Sophia probably won't take being looked down at well, right?"

Taylor nodded. "But a few people have her on a leash, so she probably won't do anything serious anytime soon."

"Unless she thinks she can get away with it." Sprite pointed out.

Taylor rolled that thought over in her head and shrugged. "Well, at least we have that pepper spray in case we meet her in a dark alleyway."

There was a simple, assenting silence acknowledging the point and the four of them simply sat there, fully awake and Danny enjoying his coffee. Then he spoke up. "You said that you wouldn't be able to speak with me without one of those surprises, correct Sprite?"

Sprite nodded. "Yeah, I'd just be forced to use Taylor's mouth to speak. Which with Balmung speaking too that could be a bit of a pain." She added, giving the muscular lookalike a dirty look.

"What precisely are you doing then to speak?" he asked calmly, curious about what is going on with his daughter.

"I-" Sprite blinked. How Taylor was sure she did that, she wasn't sure. "I'm not entirely sure." Sprite not knowing something? Even after only a week or two, that's a little creepy. There was a pause. "Um, I think I'm using the power I was born from through Taylor as a relay to create an illusion of myself so that you can see and hear me, while I am semi-physically outside her body through Astral Projection, which is known in Layman's Terms as an Out-of-Body Experience. I think that's what's going on."

"well that was fast." Balmung noted dryly.

Sprite frowned. "Yes, that was rather fast. Almost like it was, prepared or something." She looked over at Balmung. "I haven't found much of anything prepared like that. It's kinda spooky."

"well, whatever it is, I think Taylor's calmed down enough to sleep for a few hours." Balmung noted, beginning to fade away. "after all, if we want to not be arrested for Truancy, we should probably get that GED test out of the way, right?" With those words, Balmung was gone completely and back inside her head.

"She's right." Sprite said, looking at Taylor. "You need some sleep, best get to it." And with that, Sprite faded away as well, appearing in Taylor's mind as well. She looked over at her dad, who smiled back.

"Go on kiddo, I'll be fine." As she started making her way to the stairs, interrupted by a yawn, he continued. "It's nice to know that you won't be completely alone. Especially if you do get into a fight." A moment later, as she was at the top of the stairs, he added softly. "Good night."

She mumbled a good night back, and disappeared under the covers, dead to the world.

A bit short, comparatively, but it felt like a good place to stop, and it shows PROGRESS!

So yeah. Still trying to get out of the beginning, without leaving you in the dark. This is new territory for me, frameworking properly, but hopefully it's working out well enough. Feel free to tell me what you think and where I or my writing in-story or in general could be improved.