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A Worm Fanfic

The Taste of Peaches

By: Grounders10

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9

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Going to the PRT headquarters was still a strange experience for Taylor. There was a small part of her that was nervous as she followed the PRT trooper out of the parkade. It was the stares that did it. Most capes didn't look like capes when out of costume. Taylor couldn't help but stand out when her tails and ears were so distinctly inhuman. Which led to most of those PRT people who hadn't yet gotten used to her stopping what they were doing to watch her go by.

Not many had gotten used to her yet.

As the PRT Trooper escorting her reached the elevator the doors slid open to reveal the armoured form of Gallant. The Ward stepped out of the elevator, nodded once to the trooper, before stopping abruptly as he spotted her. "Taylor, here to sign up?" he asked, sounding surprised, and muffled, through his helmet

She smiled nervously and futilely brushed a strand of hair back. Without her old ears, it swung forward again. She was going to need to get some hairpins if it kept doing that. "Gallant, hi," she said with an awkward wave, "And I signed up a few days ago. I'm here about my costume and the rest."

"Ah, at Glenn's whims then," he nodded.

She snorted. "Not really. We've been having a hard time finding a good symbol though," she said, her mind going to the folder she had under one arm. She was still a little divided over her own proposal. It was a bit similar to some of the ones she had tossed out a few days ago and well… there was a reason Inari had asked her if she'd rotted her brain watching cartoons.

"Not for lack of trying though," Inari said from where she was sitting at Taylor's feet, "They went through dozens of them last time."

"They were rather bad," Taylor agreed.

"Yeah, I've heard it can get a bit silly. It's great to see you again, but I need to get to my ride. I'm on a patrol with Aegis and only one of us can fly," the armoured Ward said as he started for the exit. "If you get a chance to visit the Ward's rooms, Vista is going to be up there all day today and she could use someone to save her from Clockblocker."

Taylor groaned. "Oh, I see how it is. You just want me to distract Clockblocker," she mock-whined, earning a chuckle from the young hero who waved one last time before he slipped out the exit door. She shook her head and followed the PRT Trooper into the elevator the man had been holding open for her politely. "Thank you," she said, getting a polite nod from them.

"Well, he seemed happy to see you," Inari said as the elevator jerked into movement.

"Yeah…" Taylor agreed as they rose higher. The doors slid open and Taylor ducked out and to the side to let the trooper out. A few minutes later she thanked the trooper and ducked into the conference room. Glenn looked up from a folder as she stepped in with her own folder under one arm and Inari at her heels.

"Ms. Hebert, welcome," Glenn said with a smile. He set the folder down on the table and tapped it with a finger. "I have some more possibilities right here if you'd like to take a look."

Taylor smiled and held up her own folder. "I've got one as well," She said, wiggling the folder at him. He held out a hand. "Later. After my questions," She told him, taking a seat at the table. She glanced about as she sat. Only one of the work tables had someone at it and they were entirely focused on something that required the use of a desk-mounted magnifying glass.

"Did you have a nice couple of days?" Glenn asked conversationally as he took a seat across from her.

Taylor chewed her lip and shrugged. "I needed time to think," She said, getting a nod from the man.

"I'm aware. I expected something along those lines when we had our previous conversation," Glenn said, "I put quite a bit on you then. Maybe a bit too much." He grimaced wryly. He seemed genuinely pained.

Taylor shook her head. "It wasn't entirely you," She admitted reluctantly, "I didn't bother thinking about this as much as I should have before and…"

"I pushed it into your face. Yes, I realize that. Now, you had questions?" Glenn prompted, steering the conversation away from the awkward moment.

She nodded her thanks. "Yeah. I have a few," She said. Inari stepped around a stack of papers on the table and sat down on the tabletop next to Taylor.

"Then shoot."

Taylor leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. "You want to make me as big as Alexandria or the rest of the Triumvirate." It was a statement rather than a question, but Glenn nodded anyway.

"Yes," He acknowledged.

"You want to make me as big and famous and important as Alexandria, but you want me to be approachable, friendly and someone people can look up to. How? How do you plan on taking me and getting," She waved at the ceiling vaguely, searching for words.

"It's not something that's going to happen overnight," Glenn said, "Well, it could. If we were willing to put this entire thing off for a few months so that we could get you trained up in a variety of skills, but that would leave you practically locked up and neither of us wants that."

Taylor nodded. Glenn continued, "Since we don't have the time to teach you the skills you need before we debut you, we'll instead be focusing on a fairly standard introduction. Patrols, routine PR events, etc. The focus will be on getting the public used to you. It's the same thing we do with every Ward. After a few months, we will begin to move onto less standard events. Perhaps we'll have you record a song if you're up for it. If you were based elsewhere I would suggest trying to orchestrate a situation or two where you fight and defeat some minor villain after six months, however since you are going to be staying here in Brockton I suspect that will happen a lot sooner than we would prefer."

"You would, deliberately, set me up to fight a villain?" Taylor said flatly. Part of the Wards program was supposedly keeping her out of harm's way, though that was probably easier said than done in Brockton Bay.

Glenn nodded. "Yes. Someone like Leet or Uber, or…" he paused, "I'll admit Brockton is a less than ideal location for such a plan. Most places are substantially less consistently dangerous. Also, such an event would only be planned out once you had completed sufficient training for the head of the local Protectorate to consider you capable of handling yourself responsibly. It is meant to get your name in the paper, not place you in mortal peril. A Protectorate hero would be on hand to help with any issues. However, you're in Brockton Bay. Wards in this city tend to get into a fight of some kind at least twice a month, despite efforts to keep them out of the way."

The older man's shoulders sagged as he sighed. "This city is dangerous. I won't play games like that here, just like I wouldn't in Chicago, Los Angeles, or New York. The fact is opportunity will come knocking without either of us wanting it to," he said.

Taylor grimaced. "Anything else?" She asked.

"That depends on how your lessons go and what opportunities arise. Perhaps a bit of modelling work on behalf of the PRT, or helping out with humanitarian causes. Contrary to popular belief Taylor, a lot of being a good PR manager is knowing when to leap and when to hold back. And right now we don't even know how you'll be received by the public. Perhaps there'll be an incident of murderous foxes the day before your reveal, or the Simurgh will be spotted with tails or maybe another fox related cape will sweep in and save an orphanage the day before. Until you are out there, and I know how you're received, my plan is about as detailed as I can make it."

It wasn't a very detailed plan in Taylor's opinion, but she had to agree that without knowing how she was going to be received it was pointless to plan more and said as much.

"So, any further questions?" Glenn asked, "Or can we get onto business?" He slid over the folder full of possible logos.

"Sure," Taylor agreed as she cracked open the folder. The pictures inside were of a higher quality than the previous round. There were a few hearts, some with tails; some clouds; a large and detailed wireframe of a fox head; and some type of fruit with a foxtail. That last one was probably from the same guy who wanted her to wear a flower. She set aside a picture of a fox head over a star.

"Don't like it?" Glenn asked.

"Hmm, oh. No, it's into consideration," she said as she continued to flip through the ideas. She waved over Inari and showed her a particularly odd design of a fox eared chestnut. Inari snorted and pawed her own face as Taylor snickered. They were better than last time, but only a few made it into the pile for consideration. Compared to a couple of days ago, it was progress.

"So, you've once again crushed the hopes and dreams of my staff," Glenn mused as he took the folder back. He flipped through it as she snorted.

"There's a picture of a chestnut with fox ears and a fox with flowers for eyes. These might be dreams, but I'm not exactly getting hope from seeing them," she said as she carefully flipped through the five that had made it through her screening. There were two hearts, the fox head over star, a winged cloud, and an elegant arrangement of lightning bolts behind a fox head.

"Hmm… And hope is important for you?" He asked. She nodded. "Interesting…" He flipped through the suggestions. "I agree, these ones don't inspire hope." He tossed the folder onto a stack that tipped over and slowly slid out of the chair it was in. He ignored it and held out a hand. "The rest?" he requested.

She passed them over and he flipped through them. He paused at one then dropped it from the stack. "No on the lightning one. I can hear the news tearing it apart for being too militant." She nodded.

A heart cloaked in tails followed momentarily. "A cloak implies that you have something to hide," he explained, "It has come to symbolize deception and untrustworthiness." Neither of which was something they wanted. The winged cloud was tossed off. "Too generic, and militant as well. Plus you don't have wings. Thank god. The Simurgh comparisons would be writing themselves right now." Taylor winced at that. Winged capes tended to have a bad reputation these days due to the actions of the Endbringer.

"I like the fox head over the star, it's similar to the stand-in we've been using up until now. And the heart with a tail is cheerful, but I'm not so certain about it," he finished, setting the folder with the remaining two down. "And you had one you brought with you?"

Taylor carefully slid the folder across the table, a part of her stomach dropping out. It was, in many ways, guilty of the same things that she had rejected previous ideas for. Glenn flipped the folder open and raised an eyebrow at the first page. There was a heart, large and faceted, drawn in black pen and with a little note on it saying 'garnet, red'. Behind the heart was a whirlpool of nine tails. The tips were labelled 'silver' while the main body of the tails that spiralled behind the heart were labelled 'orange-red'.

Glenn looked it over for a moment before speaking. "The first thing that jumps out at me," he began, "is that this is a heart."

"Yeah…" Taylor blushed minutely. Beside her, Inari sighed and covered her snout with a paw.

"Red, instead of pink at least. With a lot of foxtails," Glenn continued, "set into a spiral, or whirlpool perhaps?" He looked up at her.

"Both," Taylor said. "Or maybe a hurricane. I mean, you can't see the center of it." That was the main reason she had decided to put the spiral into the design. It could refer to her foxiness, or her storm domain, or it could just as easily refer to her sea domain.

"Hmm, and the heart? You didn't like it last time, but this time I noticed two snuck through your screening," Glenn asked.

Inari snickered. "Cartoons rotted her brain," the fox said, earning a blush from Taylor.

"You kept putting them on," she hissed.

Glenn chuckled as the two of them stared each other down. "So you can say that you've had a change of heart then?" Taylor groaned and Inari sighed as the PRT's Head of PR laughed. "Ah, puns, they have a way of lightening the heart," he chuckled, getting a second groan from Taylor.

"Please stop," she complained. She didn't sign up to be tortured with puns.

"Yes, please stop Boss," Marcy said from across the room. She and the other assistants in the room were all giving Glenn disappointed looks.

He waved them off. "I'll be serious, I'll be serious," he said while shaking his head. "Now, seriously, what led to you choosing a heart?" he asked.

"Well…" Taylor leaned back in her chair and looked up at him. His gaze was held was expectant and she could feel that this was probably a test of some kind. "I tried all kinds of things. I spent hours doodling little clouds, hammers, waves… A lot of fox heads," she admitted, "And lightning bolts and… I eventually asked myself what I wanted from a… a symbol I was going to be wearing for years. The clouds, the lightning, the waves, the foxes, it all symbolizes me. Me, as I am now. I don't really stand for much yet."

"Which would give you room to define its meaning more than it defines you," Glenn observed.

Taylor nodded. "I guess, but I wanted something to work towards. Something to aspire to, I guess," she replied.

"A heart has many meanings. Passion, love, and purity amongst others. What does it mean for you that you'd want to put it there," he pointed to the mannequins in the corner there were wearing several alternate colour variations of her uniform. His finger was pointed dead center at the placeholder star resting on the breast of the red uniform. "There, where everyone is going to see. Where it will draw the eye. What meaning do you want people to take from it?"

Taylor rolled a strand of hair between her fingers, coiling it absently. "The heart of the storm, an island of calm amidst the passions of the world," she began softly, her words forming from the vague feelings she had channelled when creating the drawing the night before, "The world is full of passions. Hate, anger, fear, it's all swirling around us, tugging at us and trying to pull us away from our places of happiness and safety. It tries to rip us from our friends and our family. I've… the last two years have been one thing after another for me. My mother, my best friend…" Emma… "My dad, I've been pulled out of where I feel…" she took a deep breath and paused.

Glenn waited.

Hesitantly, she continued, "I want to be there again. In that heart, right there, and I want to be the one who protects it for everyone else. I am not a whirlpool that drowns lives, or the storm that breaks families." She reached out and laid a finger on the tails that surrounded the heart. She traced the circle they made around the heart. The air shivered with her next words.

"I am the storm that guards." In the silence that followed she felt a powerful blush form on her cheeks. It was so cheesy, but the words had just flowed naturally from her mouth and even now, as she realized just how childish it sounded in the air, they felt too right to deny.

"So it shall be," Inari whispered beside her, the fox's voice travelling no further than her ear. Taylor glanced her way and raised an eyebrow questioningly as Inari bowed. She turned from the fox to Glenn.

The poorly dressed man was nodding, a wide smile on his face. "You get it," he said, nodding once.

"I get it?" she repeated.

He closed the folder quietly and laid it down on the table again. He folded his hand atop it and leaned forward across the table. "Do you remember what I said last time? About the crisis of trust that the PRT was encountering?" he asked. She nodded.

"I do."

"Part of the issue is that I can make people look like heroes. I can dress them up in bright colours, give them lines, and orchestrate a hundred public appearances. That doesn't make them a hero," he frowned, "Being a hero requires so much more. It takes a drive to succeed and the compassion to care more for others than yourself. That's a rare combination to find and while I can get Protectorate members to give speeches and make kind gestures... " He shook his head. "At the end of the day, the public knows when someone is being sincere. It isn't their words, or their costumes, or how many crooks and criminals they drag in. There's something genuine that only people like Legend, Mouse Protector, or Chevalier have and the public can tell."

He leaned back from the table and gave her a smile. "I've learned to tell when people are merely going through the motions. I don't waste my time helping them. There's nothing I can do that won't eventually be destroyed when they slip up and the world sees the truth. Right now, what you just said, as cheesy and corny as I'm sure you believe it sounded… You believed every word. You get it in your heart, pardon the pun, even if you haven't learned how to act on it."

Taylor felt her cheeks burn at the praise. "I'm…" She shrugged, unsure of how to respond. He chuckled and waved her off.

"Don't worry, that's what the Wards Program is for," he said reassuringly before flipping open the folder again. He slid the first picture aside and checked the next. He hummed as he flipped through the handful of pages. "None of these are as developed as the first was, but if I'm reading your notes here right, you believe you could have multiple symbols?"

She nodded, trying to put her blush behind her. "The heart and tails are a bit big. There's plenty of room on my uniform for one, but putting them on the boots and other places would be a bit much. And if I eventually get other equipment putting large gems all over them would be... expensive?"

He chuckled. "It would," he agreed as he flipped through them. "Your appearance means that foxes will always be associated with you, and your choice of a heart means the same for hearts. With that in mind…" he withdrew three separate sketches from the folder, one of which she had idly drawn on the way over that morning. "These three would be most appropriate." The first was a rough sketch of a wireframe stylized foxhead in front of a pair of storm clouds. The second was a trio of hearts clustered with decorative fox ears. The last was a small fox sleeping on a cloud.

"... Really?" Taylor tilted her head to the side as her right ear twitched. Off to the side she heard a giggle from one of the assistants.

"The first is more serious and perfect for when a subdued design is required," Glenn said, "The second can easily be incorporated into your costume's jewelry and any merchandise we decide to sell. And the last also works well for merchandising."

Well, a sleeping fox was adorable, so she could see that and the hearts had been an idle thought that morning as well. "I hadn't thought about merchandising," she admitted, "I was just trying to find one good design."

"And you did," Glenn said, sliding the three secondary designs to the side with the first one. He made a few notes on the pages as Taylor watched. "I think we have a winner for your primary Logo design now unless you have a problem with your own work?" He looked up expectantly.

"I'm good," she said nodding. She had expected more opposition, perhaps a lecture on design or aesthetics, not what felt like some form of morality test.

Glenn slid the four winners into a new folder and handed them off to Marcy. "Run these down to the local team. Get them to work prototyping," he said to her. As she hurried off Glenn turned back to her. "And that is one of three things on our list today checked off. Next, next… uuh," he snapped a finger and pointed to the mannequins behind him. "Costume changes, right. Taylor, come over and take a look," he said, standing up.

As Taylor got up and walked around the table Glenn rearranged the three mannequins to give more room to stand around them. Other than the colours there were a couple of small differences from the original design. Along the collar, small golden swirls had been added in a repeating pattern. The skirts were an inch or two longer as well.

"We took your advice into consideration and since you gave us extra time I had them go looking into alternate colour palettes," Glenn said as she joined him. "It was decided that a light green or a light blue would be best with your skin tone and the style of the costume."

She walked around the mannequins and noted that the tail hole had been redone, which was nice since the last time it had given her a kink on two of her tails. "I like the colours," she admitted. It wasn't her normal style, but it fit the look of a hero more than her normal colours. It was still going to take a while to get used to wearing something so bright all the time, though. She pulled at the green skirt. The skirt, and the blue one as well, had a more noticeable colour gradient that grew brighter the closer to the bottom of the skirt it got. It didn't turn white, but the green and blue did get close.

"That's good to hear," Glenn replied with a smile. "Any issues with some of the other changes we made? We had the tail hole enlarged like you asked and we added these little swirls along the collar. To give it more of a connection to your powers."

"I noticed and I like them," she said, toying with one of the gloves from the red mannequin. They had added an embroidered fox head to the back in gold thread. "This might be a bit much, however." She waved the glove at him. He looked over the gloves and nodded.

"Should I tell them to remove the embroidery from the next one, or try adding a different design?" he asked as he examined them.

"Remove I think. I think they look better without it," Taylor said, getting a nod.

"I'll pass that on. Anything else?" he asked. She shook her head. It all looked good to her. "Excellent. Now I had some of our people prepare two other versions of your costume that were more extreme variations on the same theme. Just for you to look over." He looked around and waved to one of his assistants. "Get the other two out here please," he ordered.

A pair of assistants ducked into the changing booth in the corner and emerged with two very different costumes. They were both, broadly, of the same style as the original. Same skirting style, same bodice style, and even the same gloves and boots. That was where the similarities ended. The first was a combination of forest greens and soft browns with gold accents and a dark green star hanging from the chest.

The second was… there was no polite way to put it. It belonged to her evil twin. Black where there had been white. Blood red skirt with silver highlights and purple secondary highlights. All with a reworked high collar and… was the skirt shorter? She tilted her head to the side and stared at it. Yes and no seemed to be the answer. Yes, it was shorter than the rest of the outfits, but only because it simply hadn't been lengthened as she had requested, unlike the rest.

She could hear Inari palming her muzzle from across the table. Taylor ignored the distant grumbling she could hear from her advisor and turned a raised eyebrow on Glenn. "Really?"

He chuckled. "What do you think? Honestly."

She turned back to stare at the black monstrosity. "That looks like something my evil twin would wear," she deadpanned, earning giggles from the ladies.

"I can see that. And the other one?"

She stared at the forest-themed outfit and took a moment to walk around it. "Well," she began, "if I ever develop a green thumb it would work." Inari snorted. Oh yeah, she had an Agriculture Domain she hadn't explored yet, didn't she? "Was this by the guys who kept trying to propose flowers for my symbol?"

"It was," Glenn admitted, "They originally kept trying to put you in yellow and orange."

Taylor's ear twitched and she looked over to the other three more 'normal' costumes. "A light orange might have worked," she mused.

"Possibly," he nodded, making a note on a pad. "And the other one is what happens when I tell a group to give me the least PR friendly outfit they could design with the same limitations as the rest."

That got a raised eyebrow from her. "Why?" She asked.

"I was curious," Glenn admitted, "I wasn't expecting them to go for the teenage Maleficent look. Still, it's an example of what not to do. That much black and dark red would make you appear quite pale." And she wasn't exactly the most colourful person, even now. She wasn't exactly pale per se, but her skin wasn't tanned by any measure of the term especially after so little time outside this month.

"So do I pick one, oooor?" she asked, looking them over with a critical eye. The evil twin look was obviously a joke, and a lesson, but the wood themed one might not be a bad idea for the future. Something to use if she was doing something flowery. She liked the other three though. They were still brighter than she was used to, but they looked amazing.

"Well, we provided the variety since you are going to be less dependent on a consistent appearance than a normal hero," Glenn said, waving a hand to the original three. "Your face and tails will say more than the colour of your skirt, and it will help sell your image as an ordinary girl."

"The fact that you'll be able to sell collectable figurines with different coloured skirts has nothing to do with it, I'm sure?" she remarked dryly.

"Perish the thought," Glenn chuckled, "So? Which do you like?"

"Hmmm," she hummed as she walked around the mannequins one last time. "The red, blue and green are all good. The wood themed one might be useful at some point in the future so maybe don't toss it out. And uh… burn the black one?"

"I can arrange that. Now," he looked over the mannequins. "I'm going to need you to pick one for today. We need a test of the uniform and how it fits over a prolonged period of time, so I'm going to need to insist that you pick one to wear. We have the spares in the changing booth when you're ready." He waved to the booth in the corner.

Oh.

She gave the mannequins a last look over. Which did she want to wander around the building in… "I'll go with the red for now," she sighed. She hadn't planned to wear them around today, but then she should have expected that. Testing needed to be done. She sighed dramatically again and ignored the snickering from Inari as she walked over to the changing booth. True to Glenn's words there were spares to four of the mannequins hanging up. The evil twin design had apparently been enough of a joke they never made a spare.

Thirty minutes later she stared at her reflection in the mirror. As she snapped the latches of her boots together. She stood straight and brushed her hair back over her shoulder before adjusting her collar. Everything seemed to fit properly now. Her tails weren't complaining and she could breathe without feeling like she was about to send the decorative star on her chest through the nearest wall at any second. She was lacking a few pieces that were on the mannequins. The headpiece was missing, presumably unfinished, and the gloves were lacking the related golden stars that had been used previously. It was clearly unfinished in some of the details, but it was probably more than good enough for the test.

Hair and collar settled, she smoothed her skirt and stepped out of the booth. The ladies were sorting paperwork while Glenn was writing a list of names onto one of the boards. He paused and looked over his shoulder. "Ah, Taylor. You look good in it. Any issues?" He asked.

She twisted on the spot before giving a little pirouette. "Everything seems good," she said afterwards. "A lot better than last time, at least."

"The miracle of correct measurements," one of Glenn's assistants snarked. Taylor snerked as she passed, getting a smirk from the older woman.

"How do I look?" she asked Inari as she paused to watch Glenn write what she realized was the list of possible cape names onto the board.

Inari looked her up and down. "Like you're ready to kick ass in the name of love and justice," she said in a deadpan.

Taylor snorted. "You're the one who kept putting that show on."

"It's a good show," Inari defended with a huff. "You look great. Hmm…" She gave Taylor another look over.

"What?" Taylor asked.

"Nothing. You look good," Inari said. She gave the fox a look of disbelief before looking herself over again. There had to be something.

She turned up nothing by the time Glenn finished writing down the names.

"Onto our third task of today," Glenn said as he capped the marker. "We narrowed it down last time, but I have to ask if you had any ideas since last time?" He looked expectant.

She shook her head. "Not a one. I was too busy," she said.

"Ah," he said looking disappointed. "Well, we'll have to pick one of these within the next…" he glanced at his tablet, "twenty minutes. At most. You'll have to head off to the security office and they get bent out of shape if they don't have at least a temporary alias to go on the paperwork. Though, I should point out that 'temporary' tends to become 'permanent' in the PRT when it comes to names."

Taylor grimaced. "Oh." Lovely. A time limit. She stared up at the board. "Honestly, I'm not exactly thrilled with most of these anymore," she said.

"You say most, which do interest you still?" Glenn asked.

"Corentine and Kei," Taylor said. The first was either Breton or French depending on who you asked and was assumed to mean 'storm' or 'hurricane'. Appropriate for her. Kei was a Japanese word with what seemed like a thousand meanings including blessed, lucky, happy, respectful, spring, and 'sunny'. It apparently depended on how you spelt it.

"Hrm…" Glenn rubbed his chin and looked the two over. "Do you mind if I make a suggestion?"

"Go ahead."

"Corentine is our best option here," he said, "The ABB is prickly and easily offended at times. Unless you plan on fighting Lung sometime soon, which I would advise against by the way, it would be better to avoid possibly antagonizing them."

"Corentine…" Taylor tasted the name. "Corentine, Coren, Tine… Corentine… hmm…" She tilted her head to the side as she thought. It would work for the moment, and she didn't mind the sound either so if she got stuck with it she could live with it easily enough. "Somehow this seems like less of an issue than last time."

"Last time we were wading through dozens of suggestions for hours," Glenn said with a smile as he ran a hand through his mohawk. "This is different. We've had a few days to just let our opinions stew. Funny how that is, isn't it?" She nodded.

"Shall we make it official?" he asked, reaching for his tablet. He tapped the screen and started searching for something, probably the forms he needed to fill out.

"Corentine," she said again, letting the name linger on her lips. She glanced over to Inari. "Thoughts?"

"It sounds better than some names I've heard. Of course, I think Kei is prettier," she said before leaning closer, "but what would you expect from a Japanese spirit?" she asked quietly and Taylor had to nod. She should have expected that.

"Well I like it," she decided, "Corentine. I'm, Corentine now." It felt a bit weird calling herself by a different name.

"Shall I take that as a yes?" Glenn asked, stylus in his hand as he tapped at the screen.

"Yup. That's a yes," she agreed.

"Then give me a few minutes and I can have your paperwork touched up with the last few details and I can send you down to Security a bit early. Nice to finish up on time for once," he mused as he tapped out a staccato on the tablet.

Taylor found a seat at the table and reached over to scratch Inari behind the ear. The fox sighed and relaxed into her touch as they waited. "Corentine," Taylor repeated under her breath. That was her cape name. Strange, it didn't really sound like a cape name the more she thought about it. Most capes were fairly straightforward and picked the first word that came to mind, or at least it felt like it. The number of times she had heard of some kid calling themselves 'Invincible' or 'Juggernaut' or something edgy like 'Ice' on TV was silly, at least amongst the Independent Hero crowd, but then they didn't have to worry about copyright as much as the PRT did. After all, most Independents didn't try to do merchandising.

Five minutes later, and enough repetitions of her choice for it to start to lose meaning, she heard the printer on the conference table spin to life. Glenn plucked the pages that came out from the tray and stapled them together.

"Alright. Everything looks like it's in order, at least enough to keep the Security guys happy. I'll get the name filed after you leave, but this hard copy should be good enough for their records," he held it out to her and she took it, giving the first page a look over. Her eyes lingered at the top.

Name: Taylor Hebert

Age: 15

Gender: Female

Alias:

Corentine

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The main security office in the PRT building was on the fourth floor, one level up from the Image offices. The entrance to the security office was an airlock created from a clear glass-like material reinforced by solid metal cross braces. Containment foam launchers were hanging from the ceiling on either side of the door and in the four corners of the elevator lobby. She was not, to her surprise, escorted through the airlock but instead to a small glass-enclosed room on the opposite side of the lobby. The PRT Trooper swiped his ID at the door and gestured for her to enter.

Inside was one of those large secretary desks behind which another man in a PRT field uniform without the helmet or bulky armour. He was humming and nodding his head along to something as he worked on his computer.

"Oi! Brandon!" the Trooper who let her in barked, "I've got actual work for you."

The Trooper, Brandon, jerked up and Taylor watched as a pen went flying. It sailed deeper into the room and disappeared through the open door at the back. Brandon looked back at it. "Shit," he cursed before looking up at the other Trooper. "Knock first you- as…" he trailed off as he spotted Taylor. She waved a hand and her tails politely.

"Um, hello?" she offered hesitantly.

"Hello," he waved back with one hand before returning to staring at the other trooper with an annoyed expression. "You could've messaged me that she was coming up early Jack," he complained.

"I did. Twice," Jack, the first trooper, said with a shake of his head. "You need to keep a better eye on your phone. Don't want the chief to keep you stuck to that desk, do you?"

"It's safer here," Brandon deadpanned, "No lunatics, no dragons, no fucking werewolves made of razor blades." It said something about Brockton Bay that Taylor couldn't find an argument. Really, it did.

"On half-pay."

"Pay I get to live to spend. Now buzz off before you give the cute little Ward the idea I'm a worthless layabout."

"Bit late for that," Jack chuckled before heading back out the door. A small red beanbag bounced off the glass door as it closed behind him.

"Prick," Brandon grumbled. Taylor eyed him for a moment before glancing down at Inari.

"Slacker," the Fox hissed softly, "and a coward." She'd noticed that already.

"So," Brandon clapped his hands and waved her forward. "You're the newbie for the Wards. Here to get your ID paperwork finished up?"

"Yeah," she said as she walked over to the counter. The counter was empty except for a little bell, a miniature hula girl, and a nameplate that read 'Brandon Chambers, Diligent Worker'. At a guess, she'd say it probably wasn't official. On the other hand…

"Chambers?" she asked.

"Hmm- oh, yeah, the nameplate," Brandon nodded, "You've probably just come from dealing with my Uncle, haven't you?"

"You Glenn Chambers' nephew? Does his entire family work for the PRT?" Taylor asked as she held out the folder with her paperwork in it.

"Eh," he shrugged as he took the folder and flipped it open. "There's a few of us," he said as he pulled out the papers. "So, Taylor Hebert, age fifteen… obviously a girl, and you've got an Alias." He glanced up, "To go with the magical girl costume I see. Nice to see my Uncle's weirdness hasn't gotten any less insane."

"Hey!" She glared at him. He shrugged unrepentantly

"Let's see, standard new Ward security clearance…" he mumbled, clearly ignoring her as he started typing on the computer. She huffed and crossed her arms. A few minutes later he looked up. "So how this is going to go is you're going to follow me into that room back there," he gestured to the door his pen had gone flying through earlier, "I'll take your fingerprints, scan your retinas into the system, and have you stand in the fancy tinker tech booth while I take your photo for the ID. After that, I'll take the data into the secure office and get the Security Chief to sign off. A few more checks will be run on the data and then I'll come out with your fancy new ID. Shouldn't take more than an hour."

"An hour," she sighed.

"Yup," he cheerfully grinned at her annoyed expression. "Aren't rigid security checks fun? Come on, this way." Humming an off-key tune she didn't recognize, but which was immediately grating to the ears, he stood up and walked over to the door at the back. Taylor followed.

"I'll wait out here," Inari announced, stealing one of the few chairs in the apparent waiting room.

"Traitor," Taylor grumbled as she followed Brandon into the back room. It was fairly small, less than half the size of the waiting area, with a black booth near the far side and a camera pointed at it. Stations were set up with what she assumed were for the fingerprints and retinal scans.

She gave the black box a sideways look as she stepped up to the fingerprint station. Something felt off.

The fingerprint and retinal scans proceeded painlessly, except for the constant off-key humming, and the four retries with the retinal scanner as it refused to work properly until she got frustrated and smacked it lightly with a fist. There were a few sparks on contact, but the retinal scanner worked properly after that. Things got a bit strange when she stepped into the hollow black box.

As she stepped into the box she felt a static-like sensation run over her. "Is it supposed to do that?" she asked, her ears twitching as she tried to squeeze her tails into the confined space. She frowned at the walls as she tried to identify what it was that was bugging her.

"Do what?" Brandon asked as he typed something on the computer. "I'm going to need you to look here." He tapped the camera.

She turned her attention from the box. "It feels like static," she said, running a hand through one of her tails, the hairs of which were beginning to stick up.

"Oh that," Brandon shrugged, "You aren't the first person to comment on that. Don't worry about it. Look here." She snapped her eyes back to the camera. "Three, two… one." The camera flashed and then the lights in the room went out. The feeling of static dissipated instantly and the scent of something burning acrid reached her nose as the lights came back on.

"Well fuck. Of course, it does this shit now," Brandon groaned, smacking the computer in front of him. "You can step out of there. Don't get into trouble, I'm going to go and call maintenance." He headed for the door, grumbling all the way. "...ucking tinkertech!" he cursed loudly as he left the room.

Taylor stepped out of the box and gave it a sidelong glance. The acrid smell was definitely coming from it. She sniffed the outside of the box. Yeah, it was definitely coming from the machine. Something had died inside.

She frowned. The static charge had disappeared, but the feeling of something wrong was still emanating from the machine. Her curiosity peaked, she looked it over for a hatch. None of the visible sides had any openings, but it was backed up against the wall. Digging her fingers into the minuscule gap, scrapping out bits of drywall like a chisel through sand in the process, she moved the machine. It turned away from the wall a foot and a half before cables running from the machine to the wall brought it to a halt.

Grumbling about the lack of space, but unwilling to do actual damage to the machine, she squeezed herself into the gap and took a look at the exposed backside of the machine. She frowned. A thin layer of dust covered everything.

"Haven't they heard of maintenance?" she muttered as she scanned the parts along the back of the machine. This close she could feel the wrongness more acutely. It came from three separate portions of the machine. One near the top, one near the bottom and another right… She laid a hand on an enclosed tubular structure welded to the machine. Fibre optic lines ran from it to a nearby stack of high-density hard drives. A thick power cord ran from the tube directly into the wall. There was no plug, just a power cord nearly as thick around as her fist and it ran straight into the wall. Black metal conduits ran from it to the top and bottom of the machine. They split apart to connect to a series of several dozen black spheres that were bolted to the black interior lining of the machine.

"What do you do?" she asked as she looked at the machine. It was a scanner, that much she was pretty sure of. There was the storage system… and that was the power… those spheres had to be the sensors themselves and the tube was… She tilted her head to the side as her analysis of the machine broke down a bit. She was struck by a very definitive feeling.

"Physics does not work like this," she muttered, her eyes narrowing as she went back over the machine. She was fairly sure that the machine was supposed to take a snapshot of the space inside itself at the quantum level and then work backwards from there to assemble an incredibly detailed image that would include everything from radio waves to gravitation anomalies. Oh, and an actual visual spectrum model of everything inside. Only…

She ran her hand along the fibre optic lines reading to the bulk storage and tapped the tube. There should have been two tubes right there, not one. What had they done to get this thing to work? Fingernails scraped away the welds and she carefully pried the tube loose from its moorings. From there she carefully dug a nail into the seam of the tubular device and pried it open.

Green eyes stared at the device's inner workings. "Is that aluminum bronze?" she muttered, pulling at the device with a finger. Sparks leaped from the coiled metal to her finger. She ignored the pleasant tingle as she sorted the parts inside, a feeling of increasing disbelief overtaking her as she disassembled it. "Is that silver?" She licked the component and made a face. "Lead-silver. Here? And that's tungsten? What is he- You can't use these materials for a job like this!" she muttered in disgust and dropped the adaptor to allow the technology of the sensors to integrate with standard hardware.

Feeling frustrated and disgusted she grabbed one of the sensor balls and ripped it from the bolts and conduit attached to it. Showers of sparks pattered off her ankles as she turned it over in her hand. She frowned. "Quantum lenses?" She licked it. "Why is this made out of Quartz? How do you even make- Physics doesn't work this way!"

"The evidence before you would suggest otherwise."

Reflexively tossing the expensive piece of tinkertech was probably not the best reaction to being startled. Tossing it at Armsmaster was probably worse. Watching it bounce off the Protectorate hero's helmet hard enough to rock him back a step was absolutely mortifying and as effective as a bucket of cold water for bringing oneself back to reality.

Taylor stared as a feeling of absolute mortification settled over her. "Oh god, are you alright?" she asked, her tails, previously lashing in frustration, had frozen as she stared at Armsmaster.

The older hero massaged his forehead through his helmet as he reached down and picked up the sensor. "I'm fine. Fortunately, I was wearing my helmet," he said as he looked over the sensor. "Hmmm, this is going to be expensive to repair."

Taylor blinked. "You built this?" she asked, some of her disgust returning. This thing was an abomination of bad logic and impossibility.

"Yes," he said, "And it was working fine until you decided to disassemble it."

A soft cough from beside him caused Taylor to blink as she realized that the trooper Brandon was standing there. "Ah, it had died again before she got into it. That's why I called," he reminded.

"And yet the damage has undoubtedly been made worse-"

"Worse? You're using quartz for a Quantum Lense!" Taylor spluttered.

"And how are you an expert in quantum mechanics suddenly? I don't remember that from your test results," Armsmaster replied with a frown.

"I-" Taylor paused as what she was doing finally caught up with her conscious mind. She turned back to the box. She squinted at the machine in confusion. Looking at it again the clarity she had been feeling was gone and while she could remember, if hazily, what she had discovered from her examination, more refused to come to her. It was like someone suddenly finding themselves illiterate.

"Miss Hebert, if you could please step away from the machine," Armsmaster requested.

Taylor barely registered the request as she tried to puzzle out the situation. She had understood the machine, had been able to peel it apart and understand its secrets with a glance and now… The conduits ran there and the sensors were there and there and… and… Those weren't supposed to be quartz…

"He should have used- aaaaaaah!" She started to mumble before a stab of pain, sharp as a knife, stabbed through her head. She stumbled as she cried out and fell away from the machine. Something cold and hard caught her before she hit the ground. She whimpered, her eyes screwed shut from the pulsing shots of agony running like Olympic sprinters from temple to temple. She clutched her head unable to do much else.

"Miss Hebert, are you alright?" She flinched and another small cry escaped her as she just barely registered Armsmaster's voice.

"H-head," she ground out between shots of pain. She tried to open her eyes and whimpered at the suddenly harsh light, but managed to make out the metal arms of Armsmaster's suit. She shuddered and flinched as a new surge of pain blazed through her temples. The suit felt wrong, and she was suddenly aware of how close it was to her. She shut her eyes and tried to ignore that nagging feeling again as she whimpered.

Words she couldn't follow in her state were said before she was lifted up and handed off to another. Their arms felt warmer and, well, not wrong. She cracked an eyelid as she felt them begin to carry her away. It was the security guard Brandon. There was a far more serious look on his face than she had expected from the short minutes she had spent there.

A new surge of pain stabbed through her eyes from the light and she shut them again with a whimper. The world faded as she tried to ignore the pain and she soon lost track of time.

-0-0-0-0-0-

It was a while later when Taylor was finally cognizant enough through a slowly fading haze of pain to open her eyes. She hissed at the bright light closed them again as she slowly became aware of a quiet "Beep. Beep. Beep." coming from somewhere beside her. Each soft chirp of noise sent a minor stab of pain through her skull. Nervously Taylor opened her eyes slowly once again. She hissed at the pain that spiked through her head, but after a moment the world swam into clear view.

She was laying atop the sheets of a white steel-framed bed. She turned her head and noted the blue curtains surrounding the bed. The beeping was coming from a bank of monitors and plain tan boxes with lights.

With a sigh, she let her head fall back onto the pillow. "Hospital room," she croaked, wincing at her own voice. God her head hurt. It was like an ice pick going through her eyes every few seconds just from looking around.

"Oh, you're up." She winced at the familiar voice of Inari from just above her head.

"Vaguely?" She wiggled a hand as she closed her eyes again. "My head is killing me."

"So I've gathered," Inari said softly, "They said you were tampering with a piece of tinker tech when you collapsed?"

"Mrrg, sorta?" Taylor groaned as she buried her head. "It was going fine until Armsmaster interrupted. Then everything stopped making sense." Despite the pain she could remember that much at least.

"Hmm, interesting. You know industrial domains often include a tech component," Inari said lightly. Taylor felt the far side of the pillow shift.

It took a few moments for Taylor to process what the fox had said. She rolled part of the way onto her side and looked up with one eye at the white fox. "... You said something about an industrial domain way back," she said. The words came slowly through the haze of pain.

"Agriculture, Foxes, Fertility, and Industry, those were the domains I gifted you," Inari recited from memory.

Taylor closed her eyes again and lay her head back down, curling her tails around her as she did so. The comforting warmth of her furred limbs was wonderful. "What do domains have to do with my head feeling like I invited Smaug over for a visit?" She asked.

"In this case? Possibly everything," her advisor whispered, "What led you to poke the tinker tech?"

"It felt wrong," she replied with a wince, "I could feel the tinker tech in it and it felt wrong and when I went to look at it everything just…"

"Started making sense?" Inari finished.

"Yeah…"

"Mhmm, that sounds like a technology type domain. And, if you'll let me guess, it all stopped making sense at some point?" The fox asked.

"Armsmaster interrupted me," Taylor whispered.

"Ah," Inari slipped off the pillow and curled up next to her, cuddling into her side. One hand jerkily reached down and started petting Inari behind the ears. "I had planned on having this conversation after we were done with your portals lessons, but it seems my lesson plans keep falling apart."

Taylor snorted and winced. "Ow ow ow…"

Inari patted her gently on the side of the head. "Shhhh, relax, relax. Just lay and listen to me, okay?" Taylor nodded slightly, winced, and then lay still. "Good girl. Domains are tricky things. I'm sure you've noticed that by now and all you've done is handle your own natural domains. Inherited domains are difficult for different reasons than natural ones. A natural domain is weak until you align yourself with its concepts properly. A Goddess of the night might be entranced by the stars or prone to sparkling at odd moments."

"Sparkling?"

"Yes, sparkling. Remind me to tell you about Tsukuyomi and Nyx sometime. Moving on," Inari shuffled the conversation back onto topic, "A god of fire might have a fascination with fire or an affinity for controlling it through non-domain methods. These are but a few of the more obvious indicators of a God's domains. You are hardly the stormy sort of personality I'd have expected from either storms or seas, but you come from a seaside city. Origin counts for a lot with gods."

Inari shifted and leaned against her. "Inherited domains are different. They have power borne from those who first birthed them. Because of this, they are in a state of partial awakening from the moment the inheritor receives them."

"The tails…" Taylor sighed, opened her eyes slowly to look at the tail that she was hugging.

"You're more closely in line with the Foxes domain than the other three, but even the fertility one has had an effect so far. And I don't know if you've noticed, but the grass and plants around your house have been growing bigger and brighter these last few weeks," the white fox said. Taylor hadn't been paying attention to the plants, but then again she had somehow failed to pay attention to herself either. Paying attention to plants was probably a step too far for her in her humble opinion.

"I'll take your word for it," she mumbled.

"Inheriting a domain has drawbacks because of this half-awakened state," Inari continued, "You're currently experiencing one of them. Your industrial domain seems to grant you a degree of innate understanding when it comes to technology, but only when you are aligned with it. When Armsmaster distracted you whatever mindset had allowed you to draw on it more deeply was broken and when you reached instinctively for the domain… Well, trying to tap into a domain while being misaligned with it has consequences, as I'm sure you've noticed."

That was, in Taylor's polite opinion, one way of describing having your own abilities take an ice pick to your skull like an angry sober dwarf. "I see," she simply said instead. She gently tilted her head down towards Inari. "And how, exactly, do I fix this?"

"The same way you awaken a normal domain," Inari replied, "Only, expect a bigger reaction than your natural ones. Your natural domains weren't active to begin with. These ones? They'll run wild during an awakening, which is why the Gods would normally take you out somewhere quiet with nothing important you could break and let you run it out of your system. Another world or an out of the way corner of the Celestial Realm."

Joy. In the depths of her foggy mind, she vowed to leave the agriculture domain alone. The last thing she wanted was to blackout and wake up to half of Brockton Bay plowed under and converted into strawberry patches… though she could go for a- no, bad Taylor. That was how Goddesses gained a bad reputation. It starts with a criminal warehouse and ends in a juicy delicious apocalypse…

With her skull-splitting headache, she was having a hard time convincing herself that would be a bad thing.

"So, I need to work out portals then?" She asked instead of questioning where the nearest criminal hideout was. Not that Inari likely knew that.

"Ideally, yes. Unless you'd like to plant Yggdrasil Junior in the docks district?" Taylor rolled her eyes at the sarcastic question and winced as she accidentally caught an eyeful of the fluorescent light that straddled the dividing curtain.

"No thanks," she said as she buried her face in the pillow and hugged her tails and Inari.

Inari squeaked in surprise. "Well- I think we're done for now. Let's wait until they send someone to check on you," she said, "Get some sleep."

"How long was I out?" Taylor asked.

"Only an hour or so, quite short given what you did. Get some sleep, it'll help I promise." Inari said, nuzzling her.

A few minutes later Taylor was once again out cold, this time in a far more pleasant state of unconsciousness.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Sometime later the rustle of curtains woke Taylor and she raised her head to look for the source. A black man in a white lab coat was pulling back the curtain. He paused as he saw her lift her head. "Ah," he said softly, "Miss Hebert. You're awake." He closed the curtain behind him and walked around to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

She blinked slowly and took stock. Her head was killing her, but was substantially improved from earlier. She licked her lips. "My head hurts and I could use a drink?" she said hesitantly, "Who are you?"

"Doctor Jeremiah Jackstan, Head of Medical here at PRT ENE," he said, bowing slightly to her. "Nice to meet you, Miss Hebert. I wish it was under the expected circumstances."

"... So do I," she replied with a wave of a hand and tail even as she lay back down. "How long was I out?"

"Nearly two hours," Dr. Jeremiah said with a sigh, "Unfortunately this is probably going to skew the results of today's medical examination, but it should provide a baseline in case you get these headaches again."

"Hopefully not," Taylor grumbled as she prodded Inari awake and sat up. She looked down and blinked at her outfit before internally shaking her head. Of course, she was still wearing her new uniform. She had been out for two hours, not two weeks.

"I'll go and get a glass of water and let Mrs. Dallon and the others know you're awake," he said.

"Mrs. Dallon?" Taylor repeated, tugging off her gloves. Her hands were feeling a bit clammy after wearing them for hours. She tossed them onto her pillow and stretched her arms with a sigh. That felt better.

"Yes, she was going to be here for your appointment since Panacea will be taking a look after all," the doctor replied before ducking back out through the curtain.

Taylor sighed and massaged her forehead. The pain was still sharp, but it was no longer surging every few seconds. She couldn't even remember the last time she had a headache that didn't come from smacking her head on something. She snorted. From a certain point of view, this one had come from smacking her head into the only thing harder than it now, her own powers.

Inari stirred, blinked up at her, then rolled over and passed out again, her snout buried beneath Taylor's pillow. Taylor rolled her eyes at her advisor's antics and stretched as she gave her uniform a look over. There were a few scorched spots across the bodice and the stockings. Thinking back those had probably come from the electricity jumping from the machine to her. Other than those imperfections the uniform was still perfectly fine. No chafing, or scratching, or anything else.

Not that taking a nap was much of a test.

Her ears twitched and she looked back out the hole the doctor had left open in the curtains. Her tails swayed. She could hear something… moving quickly? And getting a lot closer. Her fuzzy brain, still wracked as it was by pain, failed to put the pieces before a blonde and white missile zipped through the curtain opening and tackled her out of the bed in a flying hug.

"Taaaaaaaaylooooor! Areyouokay?" Taylor blinked as the world spun and she instinctively started floating as she was carried five feet up and through the other curtain, leaving a tear in the fabric.

"Vicky?" She asked dully as her headache thundered to the forefront again. As the world stopped moving and she was able to fix her eyes on the blonde hugging her hard enough that she was starting to feel it as more than a light force.

"Yup. You okay?" The blonde hurricane she was slowly getting used to calling a friend asked.

"Ow my head?" She offered, pushing out of Vicky's hug to rub her head again. Her friend had the decency to blush.

"Oh, whoops. Sorry Tay," she apologized as the sound of footsteps reached Taylor's ears.

"You're here with your mom right?" Taylor asked as she floated back to the ground.

"Yup and sis- Oh, um…" Vicky shot a nervous look back at the torn curtain. She blushed harder, earning a pained snort of amusement from Taylor. Served Vicky right to tackle her out of bed while she was suffering the worst headache she had ever had.

The footsteps reached the other curtained-off bed. A moment later Taylor winced as Mrs. Dallon shouted, "VICTORIA!"

"Ow ow ow," Taylor whined as she walked through the torn curtain and back to her bed. Mrs. Dallon winced herself.

"Oh, sorry Taylor," she said softly, though she immediately shifted her attention back to Vicky as the blonde sheepishly floated back through the hole she had punched. "You do not go rocketing off through a medical ward young lady!"

As Carol Dallon proceeded to softly reprimand her daughter Taylor turned her attention to the rest of the people who had entered the now rather full area around her bed. The doctor nodded to her from where he stood beside Mrs. Dallon. Beside him was a girl about her age. Short with frizzy brown curls for hair and dense freckles across most of her face. If Taylor had to pick a word to describe her it would be mousy, though the frown she had definitely ruined the effect. She had to be Amy Dallon, also known as Panacea, Vicky's sister and the best parahuman healer in the world. Allegedly at least.

"Miss Hebert," Dr. Jeremiah slipped between Panacea and Mrs. Dallon with a cup of water and a small paper condiment cup like those you see people use for ketchup. "Here, drink these." Taylor accepted them both and glanced down at the paper cup. A small white capsule sat next to a blue one in the cup.

"These are...?" she asked.

"Tylenol and aspirin. A good baseline to start with. Let me know if they don't have any effect in an hour," he said. She nodded and drank them down as she sat back onto the bed.

"And that is why we will be having a further discussion later, Victoria," Mrs. Dallon finished, leaving her blushing daughter as she turned to Taylor. "How are you feeling Taylor?"

"Better than earlier," she replied as she wrapped her tails about her. "Still feels like I've got a bunch of picks getting jabbed into my skull whenever I do too much." She glanced at Vicky.

"Sorry," came the sheepish response as Vicky looked down at the floor and scuffed a shoe against the tile, chipping the floor with the first strike. She stopped after that.

"They said you tried to take a look at some tinker tech. Please tell me you didn't do something that foolish?" Mrs. Dallon asked. Taylor felt her cheeks heat up.

"I- let my curiosity get the better of me, and it was going well until Armsmaster interrupted me," she muttered the last bit as she sipped the water.

"If I may, Mrs. Dallon," Dr. Jeremiah said, getting their attention, "Based on all reports she appears to have suffered a very sudden thinker headache. Though she has recovered significantly faster than most I've heard of."

Mrs. Dallon nodded. "Well, I'm merely her lawyer, not her mother. That said, please don't go poking strange technology when you aren't sure what it does Taylor," she requested.

Taylor's blush deepened. "I- I'll try not to? I just wish I knew why tinker tech feels so wrong to me," she said with a frown.

"Wrong?" the doctor asked, withdrawing a notepad and pen from his coat. "In what way?"

"Just… wrong? Like reality isn't working right or something. It's hard to find the words," Taylor replied. It was probably more a case that English wasn't designed to convey the concepts she was feeling. Being around tinker tech was like listening to a pair of gears locked against each other, grinding as they tried to force the other to turn their way, and yet still somehow both continuing on their way despite the impossibility of it.

"I see," he made a note, "I'll pass that on to those more knowledgeable in such fields than I. For now, why don't we get to work on this examination?"

"Yes, let's get this done so that Taylor can get back to resting again," Mrs. Dallon agreed.

"Does this mean I need to get up again?" Taylor asked with a sigh, rubbing her forehead at the thought.

"Well, as a start why don't we begin with Panacea's examination?" The doctor suggested. "If there's nothing serious from her incident earlier we can proceed normally."

Taylor gave the brunette girl a sideways glance. She still looked grumpy. "Are you expecting issues?" she asked the doctor as she watched Panacea. For being Vicky's sister she couldn't have been more different just from a cursory glance.

"No, but better to be sure," he said with a smile, "Your father has signed off on the papers for Ms. Dallon to take a look so if you would hold out your hand we can get started." Taylor turned to Panacea as the mousy-haired girl in the white and red robes stepped around the doctor

"Taylor, this is my sister, Amy," Vicky said.

"Yeah, I'd figured that out," Taylor replied, giving Amy the best smile she could with her head still pounding. She ignored how Mrs. Dallon ordered Vicky to be quiet. "Hey, I'm Taylor. Nice to meet you," she said, holding out her now empty left hand.

"Do I have your permission to touch you?" Amy asked, halfway holding out her own hand.

"Didn't the doctor just say my dad signed off?" Taylor asked, glancing at the doctor who shrugged.

"I prefer getting a verbal confirmation beforehand," Amy said, reaching out to take her hand. "Hello, as my sister said," she clasped Taylor's hand tightly, "I'm Am..y…" Taylor blinked as Amy trailed off and went still.

"Ummm…?" Taylor looked over to Mrs. Dallon and Vicky who were both looking confused. "Is that normal?" The hand gripping her own tightened its grip further. She gave a light tug on her hand. It was like Amy's hand had been replaced by a vice.

"Not a bit," Vicky said, floating over. She waved a hand in front of Amy's face, which had gone strangely blank. "Hey! HEY! AMES! Anyone home? Heeelloooo?" She waved her hand a few more times. "She's completely zoned out. Why don't you let go Tay?"

"I would," Taylor said, trying to do just that without success, "But I'm getting worried if I use any more of my strength I'm going to break something." She tugged at the fingers that were gripping her hand and wrist so tightly that they had gone white. She managed to peel one finger away, but when she went for the next it snapped back like a bear trap. "Help?" She asked.

"Perhaps a tranquillizer?" Dr. Jeremiah suggested.

"Amy is immune to tranquillizers doctor," Mrs. Dallon reminded him.

He sighed. "Yes, of course. I forgot."

"I'll get her hand open," Vicky sighed reaching for her sister's hand, "Sorry if this hurts Ames." As Vicky's hand closed over Amy's and Taylor's several things happened simultaneously. There was a snap-crackle and the sudden scent of burning ozone filled the room as electricity discharged abruptly from Taylor, Amy let go with a cry of pain, and all three of them were sent flying back from each other with enough force to knock all of them over.

Taylor was flipped back across the bed into the medical equipment. The constant beeping ended in a flat final tone as she crumpled part of the equipment and sent the rest to the ground. Amy was caught by the doctor before she hit the floor and Vicky went flying back through the curtain, punching yet another hole through it.

"What was that?" Taylor asked as she pulled herself out of the wreckage of the medical machines. She shook her head and blinked. Her headache was gone. Her brain still felt a bit fuzzy, but the pain had just up and left. "Huh, that's odd…" she muttered.

"That's what I'd like to know," Vicky said, floating back through the curtains. Her hair was frazzled and poofy and looking like it belonged in the eighties. She spotted Amy struggling upright in the arms of the doctor and immediately zipped over to her. "Ames! Please be alright!" She begged.

"I'm… fine I think?" Amy said slowly. Taylor pulled herself upright after disentangling one of her tails from the heap of steel, plastic, and miscellaneous cabling. The other Dallon sister looked rather disoriented in Taylor's opinion. "Did something happen?" She asked, earning stares from the rest of the group. "What?"

Taylor's ear twitched as she heard a bang across the room. "DOCTOR JACKSTAN!" A voice shouted as boots pounded the hallway outside the curtains.

"IN HERE!" Dr. Jeremiah shouted back before turning back to Amy. "There appears to have been an odd interaction between your powers and Miss Hebert's."

"Oh," Amy winced and pulled herself up, rubbing her forehead. "That would explain why my head is killing me."

"I gave you my headache?" Taylor said incredulously. Everyone turned to her and she blushed. "My head stopped hurting just now."

Vicky started snickering. Taylor pouted at her as Amy just gave her sister a death glare. "You blew us up, just to get rid of your headache?" Vicky started laughing, clutching her stomach as she rolled over in mid-air.

Mrs. Dallon sighed. "Well, perhaps examining Miss Hebert while she has a headache is another thing that should be put on the list of things we don't do around her," she suggested.

"There's a list?" Taylor asked. She hadn't done that much before. Before anyone could respond, and no Vicky laughing even harder wasn't a response, two PRT Troopers and a nurse came charging through the 'door'. One of the guards caught his foot on a bit of loose steel piping and went down as it went out from under him.

Inari peered down at him as everyone stared. "Perhaps we should leave this place? It seems cursed," she suggested. Taylor just nodded her agreement as the PRT Trooper groaned.

Vicky continued laughing her ass off even after Taylor swatted her with a tail.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Ten minutes and several explanations later, Taylor was sitting in a proper examination room along with the three Dallons and Dr. Jeremiah. Amy was sitting in a corner wrapped in a blanket with a glass of water and her head covered by her hood that did nothing to conceal the occasional groan that she emitted. Whenever she did Taylor winced. She really hoped she hadn't given the other girl her headache, but at this point, she'd be the first to admit anything was possible.

"So, we've learned a valuable lesson," the doctor began as he rifled through a cabinet.

"That we should start with the traditional check-up first?" Inari suggested.

"That Ms. Hebert and Ms. Dallon's powers are incompatible," Dr. Jeremiah corrected as he fished out an otoscope pen and the disposable sleeves for it. He glanced over to the corner where Amy was sulking. "Are you sure you can't remember anything?" he asked.

Amy's hood shifted and she peered out from under it with a scowl. "Positive," she said softly before retreating back into its shade.

"Unfortunate. Mrs. Dallon, I don't believe we require Amy any further today. It may be best if you take her home," he said.

Mrs. Dallon nodded. "It would be for the best, however, I did promise Taylor's father to keep an eye on her during this…" She paused and glanced to Vicky who was hovering around her sister like she was about to shatter into tiny pieces at the slightest touch. "Vicky."

Vicky looked up. "Yeah, mom?"

"Please stay and keep an eye on Taylor until she heads for home, then come straight home," Mrs. Dallon said.

"I- Okay," Vicky nodded.

"You don't need to do that Mrs. Dallon," Taylor said, shaking her head. She stopped as a dizzy spell hit her briefly.

"Your father asked me to. Since I cannot Victoria will have to do so instead," Mrs. Dallon said as she walked over to Amy. "Come on dear, let's get you home."

"Thank you Mrs. Dallon," Taylor said as they walked past, "And I'm so sorry Amy." The headache afflicted girl waved a hand and grumbled something that earned a sigh from her mother.

"Get better Ames!" Vicky waved after her, "I'll be home when we're done with this." As soon the door shut on them Vicky sighed and floated behind Taylor. "This could have gone better."

"It could have also gone much worse," Dr. Jeremiah said as he walked over with the otoscope. "If you wouldn't mind looking down Ms. Hebert, I can get to work."

It had been a very long time since her last complete physical, but even then the feeling of a cold probe going into the top of her head was just bizarre. The rest of the physical was just as strange and embarrassing.

An hour and fifteen minutes later she and Vicky stepped out, though Vicky was floating, of the PRT's medical ward. "I wonder what he wants with clippings from your tail?" Vicky wondered aloud as she floated along beside her.

"Don't know. Don't care. Ugh," Taylor grumbled, "I do not remember physicals being that bad."

"The PRT insists on being extra thorough, especially when they don't know for sure the person's biology. Can I just say that gold blood is weird by the way," Vicky replied, "So where to next?"

"The doctor said to head back up to security, so let's head there," Taylor said as she watched Vicky pet Inari behind the ears. The former Goddess was content to be carried by the blonde who had no issues with petting something she found adorable. It was, Taylor thought as they descended the elevator, amazing how improved someone's opinion of someone else could be when they didn't have to share a house.

That said, she was perfectly happy to let Vicky carry the foxy menace if she wanted to.

As they got off the elevator on the fourth floor they found an interesting sight awaiting them. The door for the secondary security office was smashed and the remains were being vacuumed off the tiles by a bored-looking custodian. Behind him, Taylor spotted that Brandon, the security guard from earlier, was back working at the desk.

"Come on. Let's see what they want," Taylor sighed. She floated over the spread of glass shards and over to the counter. "Hey."

Brandon looked up from whatever it was he was doing on the computer and grinned. "Ah, the fluffy menace returns," he said cheerfully.

Taylor scowled. "Who are you calling a menace!" She wouldn't deny the fluffy, but she was not a menace. Her tails bristled as she glared at the unphased security officer.

"My poor door didn't explode without help," he replied, still grinning as he waved at the door. "One of those fluffy steel rods you call tails took it out when I was carrying you through."

Taylor cast a look back at the door and blushed at the look the custodian was giving her. "Oh, um…"

Brandon chuckled. "Yeah, don't worry about it. Actually, do. It's probably coming out of your pay." Taylor gave him a look. Would they really do that?

"You're an ass," Vicky said, scowling at the security guard.

"So I'm told. Here," he set an envelope down on the counter. "Here. Your ID, security briefing, and a temporary access pass to the tinker labs here on base."

"Access pass?" Taylor asked quizzically as she accepted the envelope and opened it. She fished out her ID, a rectangular plastic card with her face and information on it. There was another rectangular plastic card, this time in bright yellow as opposed to the white of her ID, and a thick booklet.

"Yeah, Armsmaster wants you to head down and speak with him. Uh, that's a pass for you only by the way. No tag along," Brandon said, pointing at Vicky who pouted. "And make sure you read the security briefing. There'll be a test on it sometime next week. You'll be informed of the day before and required to appear, so I'd get to reading as soon as you can." Taylor stared at him with horror. The day before? Next week? It wasn't exactly a thin booklet, really it was more of a book than a booklet.

"He's joking. Wards aren't tested until after a month," Vicky said, scowling at the guard.

"Ruin my fun girly, get out of here. And remember, that pass to the labs is only for you. Cheers," He rudely waved them off and turned his attention back to his monitor.

"Come on," Vicky adjusted her grip on Inari, hooked a newly freed arm around Taylor's and dragged her off, taking flight as she did, an act that forced Taylor to take to the air to avoid being pulled off her feet.

"Hey!" She protested as Vicky dragged her over to the elevators.

"That guy is an ass," Vicky growled as she floated by the button. "How does he still have a job?"

"I think he's already on probation or something," Taylor said, thinking back to the other PRT Trooper who had escorted her to the security office in the first place.

"Joy," her friend deadpanned. Silence descended while they waited for the elevator to arrive and the door to open. When it did it was, thankfully, empty. Vicky hit the button for the third floor.

"Third?" Taylor blinked.

"I'm going to the wards common room to wait for you," Vicky said.

"In that case, I'm getting off here," Inari declared, wriggling out of Vicky's arms.

"Aww," the blonde pouted.

"Weren't you supposed to go home after the medical appointment?" Taylor asked as Inari found a place by her feet.

"Nope~ I'm supposed to keep an eye on you until you go home," Vicky chirped, crossing her arms and smirking at her. "I," she pointed to herself, "am supposed to lurk until you head for home."

"Oh, except you can't follow me to the labs," Taylor said.

"Nope, so I'm going to go wait." The elevator dinged as it arrived on the third floor. "You have fun Tay~" Vicky waved as she floated out of the elevator, nearly running over a harried-looking PR employee as she did so.

Taylor sighed and hit the button for the labs. The doors slid shut and the elevator lurched back into motion, heading for the floor below the parkade.

"You know, I'm surprised she hasn't commented on your outfit," Inari said. Taylor snorted as she pulled the ID's lanyard over her neck and fished out the temporary pass out. She used the convenient clip to attach it next to her ID on the lanyard.

"So am I," she confessed. Somehow Vicky had gone the entire hour and a bit without commenting.

"I mean, she was the one who teased you about wearing something just like this," Inari continued.

"I know."

"And she's not normally this restrained."

"We've only known her for a few days Inari. You don't know that," she reminded her advisor who huffed.

"... She tackle-hugged you out of your bed despite you having a headache," Inari pointed out. Taylor elected to ignore her advisor as the doors opened and she stepped out into the entry hall of a security checkpoint.

Metal detectors and x-ray machines stood in both the in and outbound lanes while fully armed PRT Troopers not only manned the counters but stood in the corners with containment foam launchers at the ready. Above their heads were more sprayers mounted on swivel turrets that tracked her the moment she stepped off the elevator. And who knew what else might be hidden in the walls or floors.

She followed the convenient signs and walked up to the inbound security lane. "Hello?" She said hesitantly to the Trooper manning the counter. "I was told Armsmaster wanted to see me." His impassive black reflective helmet looked back at her. She had no idea what he was thinking and for a moment she understood what Glenn had said about trust. You couldn't see the person behind the mask, you couldn't guess what they were thinking.

"You're the new Ward, right?" He asked. She nodded. "Right, ID." He held out his hand and removed it from around her neck and handed it over. He scanned it through and then the temporary pass. "Okay, you are cleared for access today only. Make sure you return the pass to where you got it once you're done up here, alright?" She nodded. "Good kid. Anything metal on you?"

She glanced down at the decorations on her uniform. "Uuuh, maybe?" She tapped the large star on her chest. "I have no idea what these are made from."

He nodded and set a plastic tub down on the counter. "Put the envelope in here along with anything metal that you can easily remove. Like those gloves," he said, gesturing to her arms. She obeyed and deposited the items into the tub which went into the x-ray machine. "Head on through."

Unsurprisingly the metal detectors went off and she was waved to a stop by the Trooper on the other side. He unhooked a spindly looking device that unfolded into a startling array of thin metal sticks. There was something odd about it, something… wrong.

"That's tinker tech isn't it?" Taylor asked.

"Can't say," the PRT Trooper chuckled as he turned it on and waved it over her. He stopped and suddenly tapped it on the side. When that failed to do anything he gave it a whack. "Shit. Davies, get over here and use yours. This one just died." The trooper on the outbound lane ducked under the rope barrier and pulled out his own tinker tech device. He waved it over her and stopped after a moment.

"The hell? This one just died as well," Davies said, giving his a hard whack.

"Um?" Taylor looked between the two of them. "Is this normal?" She asked.

"Not really, no," the first one said. He reached for his radio. "Console, this is checkpoint seventeen A. We've got a serial failure of our tinker tech scanning devices. Can you get Armsmaster over here?"

The radio crackled. "Understood checkpoint seventeen A. You said a serial failure?" The woman's voice on the other end of the radio asked.

"That is correct. Serial failure of two Rohanson scanners," the Trooper confirmed.

"Understood. Armsmaster is on his way," the woman on the other end said.

It was a boring few minutes as they waited for the hero to show. Eventually, the armoured form of Armsmaster came walking around the corner, his halberd strapped to his back. "Console said you were having an issue with your scanners," He said, addressing the lead agent on arrival.

"Multiple scanners have died sir," the lead agent replied, handing over his scanning device. Armsmaster turned it over with a frown.

"Interesting," he withdrew a screwdriver from a hidden compartment on his armour and opened up the back. After a few minutes of poking around inside it, he looked up at Taylor. "This matches what happened to that other scanner down in security," he said, closing it back up. "Turn them in and get new ones. For the moment avoid using them on Ms. Hebert. It would appear her presence has a detrimental effect on tinker tech devices."

Taylor blushed as multiple black faceplates turned to her. "Sorry?" she offered with a helpless shrug.

"Yes sir… and you want us to let her into a laboratory filled with delicate tinker tech equipment?" The agent's voice was filled with disbelief.

"Her presence has only had a noticeable deleterious effect on active scanning devices. She will not be near any during her short visit. Now finish processing her," he ordered. The agent nodded reluctantly.

"As you wish. Hand over her ID and things," he ordered the Trooper behind the counter.

Feeling mortally embarrassed Taylor accepted them from the chuckling Trooper behind the counter without comment and promptly followed Armsmaster when he waved for her to follow.

The laboratories on the sixth floor were few, this was the PRT's downtown HQ after all, and those it had were of a lower security rating than those on the monolithic Rig in the harbour. All except two at the end of the last hallway. One was marked as being for the use of 'Kid Win' while the other was labelled as for 'Armsmaster'. The large double steel doors slid open when Armsmaster scanned his ID and let them both in. She followed, jumping as the doors slammed shut, just barely avoiding the tips of her tails.

The laboratory inside was large, spacious, and full of equipment that made her skin crawl. "Um, what is this about?" She asked as Armsmaster set his halberd down on a table.

"I have questions about earlier," he said as he took a seat at a console and tapped on the black screen. It sprang to life and he pulled up a word processor with a trio of rapid taps.

"Go ahead?" She had no idea what else to say as she looked around for another seat. To her surprise there didn't appear to be a second chair. Probably as a way of keeping people from lolling around and disturbing him while he was working.

"Earlier you started disassembling the tinker tech scanning device utilized as a tertiary system by the security department for issuing IDs. Can you explain why?" he asked.

Taylor leaned against the wall since there didn't seem to be a place to sit. "Well… I guess my curiosity got away from me?"

"Why? Your doctor's report says that you can feel tinker tech as a… 'wrongness'. Could you elaborate?" Armsmaster asked, his head glued to the screen as he typed in what had to be notes.

"I… it's like I'm feeling something scraping against my brain. Like… Like two gears that are constantly grinding against each other but somehow they're turning instead of locking up, despite the fact they shouldn't be able to," she said, frustration bleeding into her voice as she eyed the array of machines in the room that gave off that same sensation.

"I see… You said something about using Quartz. How much could you recognize of the machine? How much do you know about how it functions?" He asked.

"Uh…" Her ear twitched as she thought about it. "Some of it? I mean, the hard drives were obvious, but it took me a bit to realize that you were using coherent plasma at modulated frequencies to carry immense amounts of information down those conduits before translating that information into something a normal hard drive can store… Which," she paused as she wracked her hazy memories of the device, "should have caused it to explode because iron piping does not handle temperatures that high without melting. That thing should have exploded and set half the floor on fire the moment it was turned on."

"And yet a precisely modulated bombardment of positrons can create a coating that allows it to withstand such temperatures. It is a rather expensive and time-consuming process, however." Armsmaster countered. She stared at him. She was ninety percent certain, despite her hazy and nebulous connection to her industry domain, that physics did not work that way.

"I don't think physics works that way," she stated, quite bluntly.

"And yet, they do," Armsmaster countered.

"But only when a tinker made machine does it," she countered. The tinker turned from his computer with a frown. They stared at each other for a few moments that felt much longer to Taylor as she nervously matched his gaze. He opened his mouth, and then sparks started flying from one of the machines in the laboratory.

He spun in his chair and practically lunged across the room to slap a button on the machine. Taylor leaned to the side to get a better look at the device around another bulky piece of laboratory equipment. It was long, with some sort of plexiglass covering over a containment area. Through it, she could see a gold and sea-green shaft of something.

"Um…?" She hesitated. He pointed to the door as he fiddled with the controls.

"Thank you for answering the questions. Leave now," he said calmly even as more sparks started flying.

"Okay, let's go Inari," Taylor said, clapping her hands as she hastily obeyed the Tinker. The door slid open as she slapped the controls and she hastily hurried out into the hall, Inari at her heels. As the doors slid shut behind her she paused to look back at them. She caught a glimpse of Armsmaster heaving something out of sight.

"That was weird," she sighed, looking down at Inari. "Did you?"

"Not me. But it might have been you," Inari said with a tilt of her head. "Tinker tech doesn't appear to like you, which is… interesting."

She scowled. "That's like saying nearly getting blown up is 'exciting'."

"Well, it would be," Inari pointed out.

Taylor groaned. "Let's… let's just leave. Before the walls start exploding into taffy or something else silly," she said, putting words to action and heading back towards the checkpoint and the lifts.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Fifteen minutes, one checkpoint and one very annoying security guard later, Taylor opened the door to the boardroom turned PR office. Glenn and a number of his assistants were gathered around his tablet on the center table. Most of them looked up as the door swung shut.

"... When I asked you to test it I didn't mean torch it," Glenn said dryly as several of his assistants swarmed her, tittering about the damage to her uniform.

"There was electricity involved," she sighed. He nodded.

"So I heard. You've caused a bit of chaos over the last few hours," he sighed before chuckling. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired and a bit fuzzy," she admitted after a moment.

"Don't you mean fluffy?" Asked one of the assistants who immediately turned red as Glenn and Taylor both glanced her way. "Sorry."

"You're lucky. From what I've seen thinker headaches tend to be a lot worse," Glenn said. She nodded. She had heard much the same from the doctor, and the complaints from Amy. "So I assume you'd like me to arrange for your ride home, seeing as all of your appointments are over and done with."

"Actually," Taylor interrupted, brushing a lock of hair back over an ear that no longer existed. Her fingers twitched as they failed to find her old ears. "Actually, I was hoping to see if any of the other wards were still in the Wards common room?"

"Oh?"

"I ran into Gallant earlier, he said that Vista and Clockblocker were in the common room… and Vicky said she'd head over there to wait," she explained, earning a nod from Glenn.

"Let's see…" Glenn glanced at his tablet and nodded. "Yeah. Your father wanted you home for six, but I think I can give you an hour or two before you'll need to get ready. Do you have your ID on you?"

She held up the ID hanging from the lanyard around her neck. Glenn tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at it. "What?" She asked at the odd look that came across his face.

"Pockets." He snapped his fingers and pointed at her. Off to the side Marcy groaned. "We forgot pockets," he said with a grimace, "Well that's going to be fun to fix. Marcy-"

"Yes, I know," she sighed loudly, "Put pockets into the skintight armour-plated bodice, or find a way to hide it in the skirting. Already on it." And she was already carrying a notepad over to the mannequins in the back. Taylor glanced down at her outfit. It wasn't that skintight… was it?

"Well, while we get to work on fixing that little issue," Glenn said, "The Wards' Common Area is down the hall on the other side of the elevators. Right-hand side. You'll need to scan your ID to get in."

"That's it? Just ID?" She asked. You would have thought that there'd be a little more security on the Wards' rooms. Mind you, just getting here required going through two layers of security checkpoints, to begin with.

"Just ID. We keep it simple for the Wards. Besides, most people who break into a PRT building aren't interested in the Wards. They're interested in the labs or the jail cells in the basement," Glenn said.

"Ah." Right. Even in Brockton Bay, most people were more interested in breaking their comrades or minions out of jail than getting a kill order on their heads because they decided to take a little detour through the kids league. "I'll get going then." She waved to the door.

"Have fun. I believe Gallant is back from his patrol by now, so you should be able to say hi to him as well," Glenn said before going back to his tablet. Taylor slipped back out into the hallway with Inari as they fell back into debate.

She followed his instructions down the hall and past the elevators until she reached the door marked 'Wards Quarters and Common Area, Authorized Personnel Only'. "This looks like it," she said, glancing down at Inari who nodded.

"Let's go say hello," Inari replied as she pawed the door. Taylor removed the lanyard with her ID and hesitantly swiped it against the card reader next to the door. The red light turned green with a soft chime and the door slid open to reveal a very nicely carpeted hallway that ended in another door. The left wall was another of those one-way mirrors, which meant there was probably a security guard behind it watching everyone who entered. She waved as she walked the length of the corridor. There was no reason to be rude after all.

The next door clicked after she waved her card against the reader. Popping the steel door, also plastered with a warning against non-authorized entry, open she entered what she assumed was the main common area for the wards. The room was spacious with the same carpeting as the hallway behind her and clearly set up as a lounge with a wall to wall TV and several large couches. In the back corner was a small kitchenette with a table, stove, fridge, and four microwaves.

Several of the couches were occupied and their occupants looked up as she and Inari entered. "Hey! Welcome to the party!" Clockblocker said, greeting her with a wave from the far. He was wearing a simple domino mask instead of his helmet. His eyes were fixed on the big screen TV.

"It's not really a party," Gallant said from another couch where he was sitting with Vicky who was cuddled to his side as she snacked on popcorn, her own eyes riveted to the big screen. "Nice to see you again Taylor," he added with a wave. He wasn't wearing a helmet or a domino mask, though she could see one of the latter on the end table next to him.

"Hey Tay. You took a while," Vicky greeted with a wave, sparing a brief glance.

"I stopped by to ask Glenn if I had time to come by here," Taylor replied, as she stepped around the corner armchair and got a proper look at the TV and the last occupant of the room. Sitting in the middle of the room on a footstool was Vista, dressed in ordinary clothing with her helmet on. The youngest ward had a look of concentrate with her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. "Is that Mario Kart?"

The screen was split in two with one controller in Vista's hands and another in Clockblocker's. In the top half of the screen she recognized Peach and Mario and in the bottom half of the screen was… Brewer? Bower? Booser? Whatever his name was, the villain of all the Mario games. The bottom player was in first while the Peach player was in second.

"Yup, they've been going at it since before I got back," Gallant sighed, stealing a bit of popcorn from his girlfriend.

"Hey! Get your own!" Vicky huffed.

"And I'm winning," Clockblocker added.

"Are not! I'm winning this one!" Vista said, speaking for the first time, "and hello Taylor. Welcome, just let me finish beating this idiot and I'll be right over."

"She said that with me as well," Gallant commented, earning a snicker from Vicky who cooed and Inari hopped up on the seat next to her. Taylor claimed one of the armchairs beside Vicky.

"I'm winning this time!" Vista insisted.

"Nope," Clockblocker said as a blue turtle shell slammed into the Bokser cart on the bottom screen, mere inches before it would have crossed the finish line. Peach's cart flashed by and across the finish line, taking first place.

"NO!"

"YES!"

Vista whirled to her feet and pointed the controller in her hand at Clockblocker dramatically. "REMATCH!"

"Again?" Gallant sighed. Vista blushed, but continued pointing the controller like a sword at Clockblocker's heart.

Clock yawned and stretched as he dropped the controller into his lap. "Yeah- no. At least not for a few minutes. I need a break and we've got our lovely new teammate to say 'Hi' to. Hi Taylor." He waved.

"You just don't want to lose!" Vista huffed before turning to Taylor. She paused, mouth half open and her head slowly tilted to one side. "What are you wearing?" She asked, her tone incredulous

"What? It's my new uniform," Taylor huffed, curling her tails around her legs as she curled up in the chair.

"You look like you belong in Sailor Moon!" Vista said.

"Yeah, I was trying to avoid saying anything," Vicky chimed in, "but why do you look like a magical girl? Did you seriously rot your brain watching cartoons?"

"So you don't like it?" Taylor frowned.

"What? No, you look amazing!" Vista said, shaking her head rapidly, "It's just I didn't think you of all people would go for cute."

"Gee, thanks," Taylor deadpanned. She would be lying if she said that hadn't hurt just a touch. Vista flushed and palmed her face while Clockblocker started laughing.

"What she's trying to say," Gallant said, stepping in, "Is that after the song you picked, and the dark colours, we were all betting on something more dark angel or anti-hero-esque."

"Besides, it isn't cute," VIcky said, causing Taylor's head to snap towards the blonde. Vicky was pointing at her with a piece of popcorn. "It's elegant and mature. Seriously, you might look like a Sailor Moon extra, but you make it look good." Vicky popped the piece of popcorn into her mouth and reached for another.

"Thanks," she said, blushing.

"No problem, but just one question."

"What?"

"Is that star permanent, ooor...?"

Taylor glanced down at the star on her chest. "Oh, temporary. We finalized my logo today so they're working on it right now," she said.

"So what did you pick?" Clockblocker asked as he got up and headed for the kitchen with its fridge.

"... You're just going to have to wait," Taylor said after a moment. Vicky eyed her over a handful of popcorn.

"... It's a pink heart, isn't it?" Her friend asked pointedly.

"... No." She technically wasn't lying.

"Uhuh," Vicky said unconvinced before shovelling a bunch of popcorn into her mouth.

"Want anything Taylor?" Clock asked from the kitchen. Taylor went to reply, only to cause as a loud rumble shook the room, and her stomach. "I'll take that as a yes," Clock cheerfully said as Taylor's mouth clicked shut. "Pizza pocket good?"

"Maybe a few?" Taylor asked and her stomach grumbled, much more quietly, a second time. Due to everything that had happened she hadn't eaten lunch.

"I can do that," Clock announced cheerfully.

"So what's your name?" Vista asked suddenly as she sat down on the footstool facing Taylor.

"You know my name," Taylor replied. Vista rolled her eyes.

"Your hero name, have you picked one yet?" Vista clarified.

Oh. "We did that today too," Taylor replied with a slight blush.

"And?" Vicky asked, poking her nose into the conversation again. Taylor glanced at her and looked around. Both Gallant and Clockblocker were also staring at her. Great.

She sighed, then smiled hesitantly. "Hello, I'm Corentine," she said. It felt so strange to give a different name.

"And I'm still Inari," Inari piped up, earning herself a few head pats from Vicky.

"Corentine, bit of a mouthful, isn't it?" Clock commented.

"Coming from the guy who named himself Clockblocker?" Gallant snarked with a glance towards the kitchen. "That's a nice glass house you have there Clock. Maybe you should stop throwing stones?"

"It does get expensive after a while," Clock admitted. There was a beep as a microwave door shut. "It's still a bit long. How about we just call you Coren instead? Nice and short."

"I like them both," Vista said with a smile.

Taylor sighed. "I'll answer to either, I guess… It is a bit long," she admitted. Which had been one of her main gripes about it.

"Coren it is," Vicky said, reaching across the small gap between the furniture to give her a one-armed hug as the other protected her bowl of popcorn from Gallant's wandering hands.

"So," Vista clapped, now only a foot in front of Taylor. She hadn't even seen the girl move. She was holding out Clockblocker's controller. "Up for a game?"

Taylor blinked at the controller. How long had it been since she even touched a video game? Well over a year at least. "Uuuh, sure?" she slowly agreed after catching Vicky nodding furiously in the corner of her vision.

"Great!" Taylor blinked and Vista was back on her footstool and navigating the menus of the game. Somehow, she suspected that this wasn't going to go her way.

Five races and five losses later Taylor handed her controller off to an amused Clockblocker in exchange for a plate of pizza pockets. "Thanks."

"No problem," he said with a grin as he took his seat again. "So, did they forget to give you a mask, or have they not gotten around to that yet?

Taylor paused, pizza pocket halfway to her mouth. Vista had turned from the victory screen and was giving her a curious look as well. "... I'm not going to have a mask," she said.

Clock stared at her. "Seriously? Why not?"

"Officially it's because I'm supposed to be the first open Ward," Taylor said.

"And unofficially?" Vista asked, leaning over the back of her footstool to stare at her upside down.

"There isn't much of a point." She waved a tail in Vista's direction to emphasize her point.

"Oh."

"So the whole furry fox thingy is a permanent look, huh?" Clockblocker asked. Vicky made a small choking noise and started coughing. Gallant patted her on the back awkwardly.

"Yeah, basically," Taylor admitted before sinking her teeth into the pizza pocket. It was hot, really hot actually, the sort of hot that usually ended in someone complaining about burns on their tongue. She eyed the pizza pocket carefully and gave the gooey cheese a poke. Yup, hot. She took another bite and shrugged. It was a nice hot.

"Something wrong?" Gallant asked as he handed Vicky a pop can of coke that she immediately started chugging.

"Just a bit warm," she replied.

"Just so we're clear," Clock said, "you're not a changer, right?"

"It's about the only thing she isn't," Vicky gasped, coughing into her hand.

"Seriously?"

Taylor rolled her eyes. "I think I mentioned that last time," she reminded him, taking another bite out of her pizza pocket.

He shrugged. "You've got so many powers that it's a bit hard to keep track of what you don't have," he said, "You weren't a tinker or a thinker or a stranger either, right?" Inari snickered and his face fell with disbelief. "Oh come on. Leave some powers for the rest of us."

Taylor blushed again and simply chewed on her pizza pocket. It wasn't her fault that she had basically a bit of everything. She glanced down at the pizza pocket. They were seriously hot, and she was starting to think that it might not be actual heat. "Hey Clock, what's in these?" She asked as she took another bite.

"Uuuh," Clock frowned, "I'm not actually sure? Gimme a sec." He vaulted the armrest and headed back over to the kitchen. There was a rustling of packaging. "I- Whoops." Why did that sound bad?

"Whoops?" Gallant asked, sounding both worried and unimpressed.

"I may have gotten into Aegis' stuff. By accident." Taylor leaned around the corner of the armchair as Vista groaned and Vicky started hiccupping. Clock was standing by the microwaves and holding up a box that read…

"Uncle Jose's Death By Fire: Ghost Pockets," she read aloud. "These have ghost peppers in them?" She glanced down at her plate and took another bite. She shrugged. "I'm not seeing a problem. They're really good." She ignored the incredulous stares everyone but Inari was giving her.

Inari hopped into her lap. "Let me try some," she asked.

"Bad idea! Really bad idea!" Vista said, waving her arms in a panic even as Taylor broke off a piece and held it out for Inari. The fox chomped down on it and there was a moment of frozen silence as she chewed, then stiffened. She started shaking.

"Inari?" Taylor asked, carefully passing her plate over to Vicky.

Inari looked up at her with wide watering eyes as small bits of blue light started dancing along the edges of her fur. "It burns," the fox croaked, "Oh god it's getting worse. It's so HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!" With a soft whump and a flare of blue flame, Inari leapt from her lap and dashed straight for the counter, leaving a trail of blue fire behind her as she bounced off a chair, knocking it over, before leaping up onto the counter and into the sink.

"Holy shit!" Vicky flinched backwards, taking flight as zooming back a few feet, knocking her boyfriend over in the process.

As Taylor was swatting at the blue flames in her lap her ears twitched at the sound of water running and a constant glug, glug, glug. After a moment the blue flames flickered and died, having done nothing more than scaring the life out of her. That done she floated out of her seat and looked over the back of the armchair. A glowing ball of blue fire was filling the sink while part of it seemed to be sucking on the end of the faucet.

"It buuuurns," Inari complained from her ball of spectacular, but otherwise harmless, blue flame. Clockblocker scooted another foot back as he reached for the fridge and fished out a container of coffee creamer that he poured out into a small bowl.

"Here. Maybe this will help?" He offered. Inari looked up from the faucet and jumped out of the sink, sending droplets of water everywhere as she leapt to the table and started lapping at the cream. Then she froze. Taylor watched as a twitch vibrated down the length her body like a burning wave.

"THAT MAKES IT WOOOOOOORSSSSSSSSEEEEEE!" Everyone flinched at the scream as the fox dived back into the sink and started chugging more water.

Taylor stared for a moment before holding a hand out to Vicky. "Can I have my plate back?" she asked. After receiving it from a hesitant Vicky she took a bite from the pizza pocket and shrugged. "It's not even really hot," she said, looking at the pizza pocket.

"Do you have taste buds?" Vicky deadpanned.

"My tongue is working just fine," she replied, sticking it out like a mature superheroine as her advisor continued to try to drown herself in the sink.

After a few minutes, mostly consumed by her eating and Inari whimpering in pain whenever she wasn't trying to rinse her mouth out with a lake, the Fox pointed a quavering paw at Clock. "I will have my revenge for that Clockboy!"

"It's Clockblocker, and I was trying to help!"

"I know your reputation! I'll have my revenge!"

"I haven't done anything wrong!"

Taylor tuned out the vowing of vengeance in the background. It was just Inari being a drama queen again. "So, another round?" she asked Vista, looking for a distraction from the chaos that inevitably seemed to follow her around these days.

"Ummm… Will she be okay?" Vista asked, looking back at the burning fox in the sink.

"She'll be fine. This sort of thing happens every other day it seems," Taylor replied with a shrug. Albeit it was the first time that Inari had spontaneously burst into flame. But she seemed fine.

"There will be great vengeance!"

Mostly at least. "So, game?"

Vista shook herself off. "Sure," she said, shooting one last worried glance at the blue flames in the sink. Later Taylor would reflect that Vista must have been a bit distracted by the blue flames and back and forth vows and denials between Inari and Clock. After all, she actually managed to win once before things wrapped up.

-0-0-0-0-0-

There was something to be said about having regular meetings with the local Director. It made things simpler at times to be sure. But, and Glenn could not stress this enough, it also meant that things were developing an annoying tendency to go wrong. Or at least to go odd.

"I would like an explanation," Director Piggot began as she looked around the room whose occupants consisted of Armsmaster, Glenn, Dr. Jackstan, and the head of building security Richard Locke. "I would like an explanation for why there is a… Broken Tinker Tech quark-imaging chamber; A broken EKG machine among other very expensive, and I cannot stress this enough, very expensive pieces of medical equipment; several broken glass doors; three Rohanson scanner, which do not grow on trees; a near containment failure in Armsmaster's laboratory; and reports from our security team of a burning fox in the Wards common area."

The severe woman looked about the room with an expression of disappointment and anger that may as well have been chiselled from stone. No one spoke. "Well?" She demanded, "I would like an explanation. Glenn."

"I'm responsible for Miss Hebert's image, not testing her powers or keeping her in check," he pointed out, ignoring the way her lips got more severe in the corners. This didn't even make his list of one hundred worst first days for a superhero. And he had seen scarier glares direct his way more than once. From his ex-wife to begin with.

"Doctor?" She asked, turning on the head of medical.

"There was an unexpected power interaction," Dr. Jackstan said calmly, "It happens. At least this time no one wound up needing to be admitted to an actual hospital. It's not like I can anticipate when there's going to be an issue with this sort of thing. Power interactions are notoriously unpredictable."

"He's right-" Armsmaster began.

"Did I ask for your opinion Armsmaster?" Piggot asked sharply. The hero fell silent and she turned her attention back to the doctor. "You are correct that there is little we can do to assess the likelihood of an inconvenient power interaction, however, the damage done by the presence of Miss Victoria Dallon-"

"Has already been paid for," Dr. Jackstan said, "Her involvement was either minor or incidental to the rest of the event. I emailed New Wave a bill and Miss Victoria's mother has already delivered a check as of an hour ago to pay for the damages."

Piggot closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. "Very well Doctor. Your report on Miss Hebert?"

"Based on admittedly not ideal testing she appears to be in perfect health," he replied, "However, her blood tests are… We're running the samples through more conventional methods of testing right now. The tinker tech system that we normally use has proven to be useless for analyzing her blood. Which is, I can confirm, a bright shining gold that glows slightly in the dark."

"Has she broken more equipment?" Chief Locke asked.

"No, the machines were no worse for wear after running her blood through them," Dr. Jackstan said with a shake of his head, "However, the results they turned out are completely useless and are, in and of themselves, utterly inexplicable. I've already forwarded them to Dr. Chambers for proper analysis, though I expect 'Powers are Bullshit' to be the most detailed explanation we receive."

"What happened?" Piggot asked.

The doctor frowned and shuffled awkwardly. "Well… The first test spat out a Japanese style ink painting of a nine-tailed fox. Very beautiful, but not something that the system should have been capable of printing in the first place." Glenn palmed his face to conceal a chuckle as he remembered the incident with the syringes. It appeared that that wasn't going to be an isolated incident.

"Other subsequent tests with the same and different machines resulted in..." The doctor consulted a notepad. "One drawing with crayons, two more ink paintings, an oil painting in renaissance style of Miss Hebert, and an ancient greek styled copper plaque inscribed with dancing foxes and fish."

"Those systems don't use-" Armsmaster began.

"Copper plates. I know. Once we've run her blood through the conventional system I'll let you know the results, but at present, there is nothing else I can do," the doctor sighed. "It has been an interesting few hours, Director."

"So I see…" The Director sighed. "Locke?"

The heavy-set and heavily muscled man stepped forward. "I've disciplined the security guard for leaving her unattended around the imaging machine," he said, "Otherwise I can say that all procedures were followed. The damage to the glass doors was unfortunate, but Ward Hebert was unconscious while she was being carried out."

"Any recommendations?"

"Our issues started with a breach of protocol. I'll run the men through a refresher course on how to interact with new and prospective Wards. Hopefully, it'll stick this time."

Piggot nodded firmly and turned her attention to Armsmaster. "Which brings us to what could have been the most dangerous incident of the day. Would you kindly explain why you thought bringing a parahuman with a notably adverse effect on tinker tech into a tinker tech-filled laboratory was a good idea?" She asked, "Did you bother considering the consequences?"

"I did," Armsmaster said, "and all evidence suggested that her effect only applied to Tinker Tech that was directly attempting to scan her person. Evidence that continues to be supported by the events of this afternoon."

"You nearly had a containment failure on that object we recovered from the docks while she was in the room," the director growled, "In what way does that continue to confirm anything?"

Armstmaster drew himself up. "No other machines suffered failure nor showed signs of undue degradation due to her presence. I inspected everything myself," he said, "the item in question appears to have reacted to her presence. The machine itself had suffered no damage from her presence, but it is a scanning device and not a proper containment unit. I hadn't deemed the item dangerous enough to require one since it showed no hostility unless actively handled by a living being."

"It reacted to her presence?" Glenn repeated.

"Correct," the armoured hero nodded. "I can say with certainty that it was not her adverse, and unpredictable, effect on scanning devices that caused today's incident. The trident reacted to her presence and attempted to breach the limited containment systems present. I've secured it properly and it fell dormant once again after she left the room. I am planning on having it transferred to the Rig for more intensive study tonight." Which would place it conveniently away from Taylor since Wards rarely were allowed on the Rig. Glenn approved.

"I see…" Piggot sighed. "Another twist to this mystery. Find out what it wants with one of our Wards Armsmaster." He acknowledged the order. "And in the future, keep her out of the laboratories. I don't want to see what else she can break just by being present. Clear?"

"Understood. Does this extend to the power testing labs?" He asked.

"No," she replied before turning to look at the rest of them. "I would very much prefer that this shall not become the norm for us. We are not Salt Lake or Winnipeg. I have greater expectations of behaviour from you and our Wards. Am I clear?"

"Very clear," Glenn said as the rest chorus their agreement.

"Good. Now, what is this I hear about a burning fox chasing Clockblocker around the third floor?" He could hear the pain in her voice as she asked the question. This, he decided, was going to be a long meeting.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Sleep was a wonderful thing. It was the glorious respite from a long day of madness that allowed one to emerge refreshed and capable of facing the new dawn's challenges.

It was also a clawing monster that, for those few who lacked the wherewithal to get up swiftly, clung to those who eschewed the bright light of the morning. People like Victoria Dallon, Vicky to her friends. Yet, even for her, the morning would come when the light spilled through the blinds of her room and cut across her sleeping face.

Vicky grumbled as the morning light disturbed her sleep. "Hrmble," she grunted as she stirred. Eyes cracked open and were immediately shut with a hiss at the bright light. "Uuugh." she rolled over and cracked a tired eye open at the clock on her bedside table.

11:44 blinked back at her.

"Too early," she grumbled as she face-planted back into the pillow.

"VICTORIA!" She flinched as her mother's voice filtered through the door. "TIME TO GET UP!"

"So much for sleep," she grumbled and pushed herself up, rubbing her face as she did so. She brushed her hair out of her face and grumbled as it just fell back. She yawned and stretched. "Stupid pillooooooow, ugh. Need to get a new one," she grumbled

"VICTORIA!" Her mother shouted again.

"GETTING UP!" She bellowed, tugging at her sleep shirt and shorts. They felt a bit tight. She yawned again and stumbled to her feet. Something tangled with her feet and she tripped towards the door.

"Stupid feet," she yawned, taking flight. She floated down the hall, yawning as she went. Why did her mom have to shout for her to get up? It was eleven forty in the morning, way too early to get up on a summer day when you didn't have anything to do.

She floated past her sister's room. Amy's door was open and the brunette was reading a book. "Hey Ames," she waved as she floated by.

"Hey Vick-" Her sister cut off suddenly. "What are you- How- hey, wait!"

Victoria floated on, her fuzzy brain not registering her sister's urgent tone. Instead, instinct carrying her onwards through a familiar regimen. She pushed open the bathroom door and reached for her hairbrush. She ran it through her hair, or tried to. The brush ran into something that tickled her head after a few inches.

"Eh?" she pulled her brush loose and stared at it as her hair twitched. It looked fine. She yawned and tried again. Again it ran into something again.

"Vicky!" Vicky turned a half-awake gaze to her sister who had just shouldered open the door.

"I'm using the bathroom Ames, you can us-" She started as she made another attempt to brush her hair. Again there was something in the way.

"Not that," Amy cut in, "Your head, your butt! You have- Have you even looked in the mirror today?"

"No?"

"Ugh." Amy marched forward and grabbed her face.

Vicky blinked as they stood there, well she was floating, but Amy stood there with her hands on Vicky's cheeks. "Hello? Ames?" She waved a hand in front of her sister's face. The other girl's eyes were open, but no one seemed to be home anymore. She'd just grabbed Vicky, then zoned out completely. She stared at her sister for a long moment as neurons started firing and the early morning haze that always bothered her when she first woke up started to lift.

"Ames?" she asked again. No answer. This was… This was like the day before, with Taylor. Being careful she reached up and gently grabbed Amy's arms where they were covered by her long sleeve shirt. The moment she pulled her sister's hands away from her face Amy's eyes lit back up and she blinked rapidly.

"What just happened?" Amy said shakily, staring at her with wide eyes.

"The same thing as yesterday," Vicky replied, staring at her.

"Same as- Mirror, look in the mirror."

"What? Why?"

"Mirror!" Her sister snarled the word as she grabbed Vicky by the back of her shirt with both hands and spun her to face the mirror.

Vicky, her mind still a bit foggy, stared blankly at her reflection for a moment before details started filtering through her morning brain. She didn't have ears. She tilted her head to the side and patted her head where her ears should have been. Nothing. Not a thing. The silly thought of "So that's why my hair kept falling forward" popped into her head along with a rising panic.

Her eyes drifted up to the top of her head. Two golden triangles of blonde and white hair stood erect on her head, twitching nervously with her mood. Ears. Fox ears. Like Taylor. Exactly like Taylor.

"Fox," she said.

"Yeah," her sister replied.

Vicky licked her lips nervously and noted that her teeth felt a bit odd as well. "I- Fox…" Her eyes dipped lower at a flicker in the mirror. Tail. She had a tail. As golden as her hair with a white tip like her ears. Her new fox ears. To go with her new… fox… tail…

"Amy, please tell me this is you," she begged, reaching back to tug on the tail.

"This isn't me," her sister said with the sort of fatalistic finality normally reserved for informing a patient of a terminal diagnosis.

"Oh…" She stared for a nervous minute before something snapped. "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

-0-0-0-0-0-

A/N: And Done~ *happy kitsune noises* almost 21k words, probably more if you include the A/N. This has been a while coming, but I was getting behind in my other stories so I needed to attend to them no matter how much I really wanted to write this. As you can see the Fluffy Tails are spreading. All hail the fluffy tails, bringers of fluffy days and good times~

and Discord links are in my signature if you want to either toss something my way or join the discussion between story releases~

Gekkou *waves fluffy tails and yawns*

note: Ello everyone~ We're back~ I hope you're having a good day, stay safe everyone~