'SCION DEAD' read the headline of the newspaper. Taylor shivered as she looked at it while she sat in her bed at home, trying to force it make sense. She continued to read the news and what the paper dubbed 'Golden Midnight War' where Scion ended up being attacked by superheroes from other worlds. And not like Earth-Aleph, no, but like places that had more supers than Earth-Bet did.

Earth-616, a world of 'Marvels' is what they called one of them. Their premiere super-team called themselves the Avengers. And had been active for most of a decade and had a World War II superhero on it. Then the other main world, Earth-Prime. They had their Justice League compared to our Protectorate.

And not governed by something like the Parahuman Response Team. But they were all based in the United States of America, which helped keep everything from going totally nuts. Some people wanted to have a Tri-USA elections. Nuts!

And Brockton Bay ended up being in the middle of this massive, interdimensional war. The picture of Scion being chased by a three hundred foot tall, purple armored alien boggled the mind. One of the heroes said that their worlds should be safe from consumption, as it would destroy their (Marvel) Earth and break a promise he made to not eat their world.

Taylor just stared at the words for a second, trying to see if it could make more sense.

But back to Brockton Bay and 'center stage', so to speak. Because of the battles, Brockton Bay ended up riddled with interdimensional paths that traversed through Earth Bet's New York City, Earth-616's New York City, Earth-Prime's Metropolis and Gotham. More dimensional trails existed, leading to other Earths or other cities, but the four main cities now lay tightly entwined. But you could get from New York City to Beijing of Prime-Earth in only a couple of hours (and three military check-points).

Brockton Bay metro area went from about a million people to part of a megacity of over forty million people. People wanted to call it Bet Brockton Borough. Public Transit threaded through at least three cities to get where you needed to go. Usually. Some routes went to weird places.

Golden Midnight, when the sun appeared in the night as Scion fought The Triumvirate, the Justice League's Trinity and the Avenger's most powerful three heroes before the planet eating alien showed up. Taylor shook her head and stopped her mind from its loop back to the beginning. She slid out of bed.

She shuffled downstairs to find her dad making a late breakfast.

"How are you doing, Taylor?" he asked in worry.

"B-better," she managed. The locker loomed large in her memory. And all the bugs. It took two days at home for her to start to figure out things with her dad staying by her side almost constantly. Because the hospitals were too full of critically injured people, they sent her home much earlier than they wanted.

"No worries about creepy crawlies any more?" Danny asked as he took his eyes off the frying pan and its eggs.

She shook her head.

"I'm going to be on the phone a lot talking to our lawyer about... the locker. I might be able to swing getting you transferred to another hotel, but there is some worry. No one is sure how permanent these paths ares."

"Where?" Taylor felt a bit of hope lift her heart.

"Well, either Midtown Manhattan or Gotham Heights, which are much nicer schools. The new bus route passes both of them to get you to Winslow."

"Dad? Can I go out for a walk? Fresh air might help," Taylor said as she hunched over more. And help get her feeling better. "I might even jog to help with the... stuff."

"Do you want me to walk with you?" he asked as he put his hand on her shoulder.

"N-not this time."

Danny went to the kitchen and came back with with a three inch long cylinder. "Take this. It's a can of pepper spray. I'd feel a lot better if you have this, especially with how messed up things are outside."

Taylor nodded even as she headed up to her room to change into some outdoor clothing. A few minutes later, she walked out the door and onto the sidewalk. She looked up and around, seeing the shimmering portals to other places, with sunshine pouring through them at different angles and it looked like snow through about a third of the portals. Seeing that, she went back for her heavy jacket and then started walking.

Maybe she could visit the library? Her legs turned her down another street and through a portal. She followed another sign (one of four) that told her where to turn to take a portal out of Gotham's Broadway and back into a road not far from the library.

A huge shadow blocked the sunlight above them.

"Kaiser! Come out, you pathetic little bug!" shouted a man, somehow louder than a storm.

Taylor looked up to see an armored man in red and purple, floating a super-tanker above them. I'm going to die.

"I'm here, mutant," a voice that echoed of a helm made of interlocking blades said as a group walked out of a small alley across from the library.

The floating cape turned to orient himself on the group of armored Empire Eighty-Eight capes. Kaiser stood with his twin bodyguards at his side, with Hookwolf at his right side and Kreig on his left. Showing no worry about being outnumbered, the purple and red unknown came down to within twenty feet of Kaiser.

"I am Magneto, little king-"

"And why should I care?" Kaiser sneered.

The old man in the armor stared down at Kaiser for a long minute. "Nazi, I am a Holocaust survivor. I survived Auschwitz. So explain to me why I should not squash you like the bug you are?"

Kaiser blinked as he obviously did not expect that. "What?"

"I said-"

"Magneto, that is enough." Another new cape had appeared in a blur and stopped to hover next to the purple and red armored figure. He wore a high tech blue outfit with a red cape and a golden 'S' diamond on his chest.

Magneto sneered. "Superman. The alien."

Another figure with a red cape appeared, though she wore silvery armor and a helm that covered the top of her head. "And Thor."

In a flash of white light, a third figure that Taylor immediately recognized appeared. "Legend!" she shouted out in amazement.

Legend nodded to the young teen. "We all agreed to a truce because we have too much to fix right now, Magneto. Even the villains from your worlds agreed to this, during this unprecedented crisis of multiple Earths."

Magneto stood up taller. "I am... just giving the Empire Eighty-Eight a friendly heads up that their bigotry will not tolerated after the truce is over." He gave them all a glare, as if daring to start anything.

Kaiser stared up at the mutant villain. He then turned his back and walked away casually while he left his back open to attack.

Magneto watched the varied worlds heroes as he started to float the tanker back into the bay it came from.

"Hey! You! Magneto!" Taylor suddenly yelled out.

"What?" he asked with a sneer of disdain in his voice.

"There are ways to make things harder for them while fixing Brockton Bay, you know. If you can just wave your hand and move ships like that, you could clean up the bay so that shipping and jobs can come back and help the city," she explained with dry lips. She licked her lips afterwards.

Superman grinned while looking over at Thor and Legend. "We have a few minutes, don't we?"

Thor nodded along with Legend as the three of them shot over to Brockton Bay's waterways. Already ships floated out of the water by Magneto's overwhelming magnetic power. Superman shot over to lift another large ship while Thor surveyed the waterways and frowned at the depths of the bay.

"How about over there where all those warehouses are destroyed. Just need to make sure that there is no one hidden in there," Legend said as he shot over there in a streak of light.

"Six people. Four near the center in a shed and then two separate people on the north side," Superman called out.

Legend looked over those areas. "No more hidden in the area?"

"X-Ray and telescopic vision, so I'm pretty confident, but maybe you can make some loud bangs or something?" he replied as he floated the boat towards the warehouses.

Legend shot off towards the middle, sending out sparkling rays that cracked like gunshots.

Back near the library, Taylor walked with a bit of zip in her step as she felt better. Maybe things would change for the better.

The smartphone showed the picture of a girl shouting at capes. And the capes actually listened.

"Bullshit. She's nobody. So why bother listening?" the girl in black complained as she stared at the screen.

A new message popped up from her best friend with a derogatory message about the 'Youtube' clip. Whatever the hell that was. Google?

Shadow Stalker locked her phone and then started to jump from roof to roof, passing through a portal that the locals called Hellsgate and hence to enter into the lower east end of Gotham.

Half an hour later, she spotted her prey. The low life thug watched people as they walked near his alley as he obviously looked for an easy mark to rob. Just a garden variety mugger.

"You do realize that this is not Brockton Bay?" a gruff voice asked from behind her.

She managed to not jump in surprise. She looked over the figure that loomed in the dark. "The Batman."

"Yes. Gotham is my city. And children with crossbows are not welcome," he said in a very deep, angry voice. "Gotham does not need a careless bully leaving people that we need to get rushed to the hospital." He glared at her. "I'll give you one chance. Leave."

"I've only shot one thug," Shadow Stalker stated as she glared right back. "I usually just scare them and take them down in hand to hand."

He stared at her for a long minute. "I'll watch your work." He faded back into the shadows and disappeared almost instantly.

Behind her mask, Shadow Stalker grimaced in anger. She turned back to the thug just in time for him to grab an old woman and pull her into the alley. She hesitated a second, then leaped into action. She ghosted towards where he would be and landed her knee on his armed side to send him to the ground in a tumble. "Get out of here," she shouted to the woman.

"Damned bitch! Why you interfering with my meal ticket?" the thug demanded as he scrambled to his fee.

"The truce only holds if you don't do a crime, dipshit," the hero said to him in a snarky voice. She dashed forward and let his fist hit shadowy vapor and then punched him hard right under his ribcage. She ghosted through another attack and hooked an elbow as she kicked the back of his knee.

One more phase through him as he fell to the ground stunned and she kicked him right on his left ear with the full force of her powerful legs.

"Effective use of your power," Batman said blandly as he stepped out of the shadows behind her.

When did he get back there? "Yeah? So what?"

He tossed a coin shaped item to her. "Press the green button when you enter Gotham and want to patrol. You will wait for someone to patrol with you. Press the red one if you get in over your head."

"I don't need no babysitter," Shadow Stalker snapped out.

He narrowed his eyes and just stared at her for five seconds. "Consider this probation for breaking rank above you."

The girl stayed stock still for a few seconds. "Sure. Whatever."

Batman stepped back into the shadows as he nodded to himself. He fired his grapple into the air at a tall building and shot up and out of sight.

His com buzzed. "It looks like my guess is probably right. Shadow Stalker disappeared for two weeks and then suddenly is introduced as the new Ward."

"Well, it's slightly better than just sending her off to Juvenile Detention," Batman said in a flat tone.