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A Ruinous Gift by Noodlehammer

Warhammer & Worm Xover Rated: M, English, Crime, Words: 298k+, Favs: 3k+, Follows: 4k+, Published: Sep 20, 2023 Updated: Jan 28

2,397Chapter 18: Rebellion

Thanks go to Alvor for looking this chapter over

XXXXX

April 15th, 2011.

It was time to give the Empire 88 a poke in the eye.

Taylor had kept things low key since stealing Hookwolf's dogs with Bitch and the subsequent retaliation, but she had still been very busy.

People loved to talk about cape fights, but most of the work in running a gang was in the details. Since taking over from Lung, she had been consolidating power at a rapid pace. That pace had increased considerably after her acquisition of Noelle.

Tattletale had gone sniffing for various issues and found plenty. The world in general and Brockton Bay in particular was a place where people had problems. The true power of a criminal gang was in digging roots into the community. The addition of parahumans hadn't changed that.

Lung had never bothered to do that, being interested only in siphoning wealth from the criminals in the territory he claimed to be his. Despite that, the ABB had still dug roots into the local community… but they caused more problems than they solved. Problems that the Black Hand came in to solve.

Outstanding debts? The Black Hand bought them up. Taylor hadn't initially wanted to charge interest on that at all, but Lisa had convinced her that she needed to charge at least a little bit or people would distrust it.

Need a loan? The Black Hand offered them, again offering extremely generous interest rates.

Need drugs? The Black Hand offered quality merchandise.

Need to get off the drugs? The Black Hand offered that as well.

Need something fixed? The Black Hand has people for that.

Need a job? The Black Hand will do its best to find you one.

Need legal documentation? The Black Hand can make it happen.

Need medical treatment but had no money or insurance? The Black Hand will take care of it.

Someone committed a crime against you or yours? The Black Hand can't arrest or prosecute anyone, but it can send teams of legbreakers to extract a confession… and send the offender to intensive care if the crime was severe enough.

If anyone had been aware of how much was happening in the background, they would have been very alarmed, but all this went largely unnoticed because the people involved simply didn't talk to outsiders.

Still, it was time to give the Empire 88 a poke in the eye before anyone started talking simply because there was nothing else to talk about. Cape fights made for excellent distractions, and Taylor had identified a juicy target that would draw plenty of attention.

XXXXX

The Empire 88 was organized much like a feudal kingdom. Kaiser was at the top as the 'king' while his lieutenants acted as 'lords' and ran their own territories however they saw fit, but in his name. Taylor wondered if this was done to appease the egos of his subordinates or to stroke his own. Either way, it made it surprisingly easy to predict who she was likely to run into if she attacked a given area.

"You haf made a terrible mistake challenging ze Empire like zis, Frau Psyker." Krieg said ominously.

Taylor wanted to cringe from secondhand embarrassment. With his Gestapo-esque heavy black coat, gas mask and cap, Krieg had already been going all in on the Nazi cosplay. But that wasn't enough. No, he also had to put on this German accent that sounded like he'd copied it from a porno.

If his mind didn't taste so dead serious about it all, she would have assumed he was none-too-subtly mocking the Empire 88. Hitler himself would probably cringe if he saw this.

She'd already thought that he was trying too hard when she saw pictures of him, but interacting with him in person? How could anyone be so completely lacking in self-awareness?

"Have I now?" She replied, giving no hint of her true feelings. The showmanship here was important. "You say that, yet you muster such a weak response. I think I'm insulted."

Krieg had brought Crusader, Alabaster, and Rune with him. The only way he could have brought more is if he asked Hookwolf or Kaiser for reinforcements, which would have been an internal embarrassment. Taylor had known that and counted on it.

"It will be more zan enuff to deal wiz you." Krieg asserted darkly. "Crusader!"

Crusader stepped forward, brandishing his spear and spawning the ghostly copies that was his power. Those ghosts could phase through inorganic materials, rendering armor worthless. Combined with their numbers, reach, and ability to fly, they were a deadly threat to most enemies.

Most.

Taylor raised a hand in the air and theatrically snapped her fingers, setting off a psychic ping in the heads of the Empire capes. All of Crusader's ghosts instantly vanished and the man himself flinched back like he'd been slapped.

And then, just for good measure, she telekinetically snatched the spear from his weakened grip.

"Sending projections against me, how quaint." She gave her best disdainful sneer.

"Krieg, she broke my connection to my ghosts." Crusader reported, his voice notably nervous.

And easily, too. The powers of Master class capes was the easiest for her to detect to begin with. A continuous active mental connection like that? Child's play.

"Would you like to try again?" Taylor offered imperiously, making no move to capitalize on the surprise.

As the leader of a villain gang, it was important to look beyond the abilities of mere underlings to handle. Kaiser only rarely took the field, maintaining a distant and aloof persona. She intended to force him to acknowledge her, one way or another. His personal opinion of her was irrelevant, but the simple act of taking the field against her would be as good as declaring her at least an equal to the world at large.

It would be faster than building up to it herself, and she might as well squeeze every drop of use out of the Empire 88 while they were still a thing.

"So, you are a Trump." Krieg noted coldly. "Zat will not save you."

Hmm, his fake accent had slipped a bit. She knew that his real name was James Fleischer, that he had a wife and two children, and that he he had been born in Britain despite the very German last name. It might not even be the name he was born with – Krieg was enough of a douche to change his name to something more cliché.

But his words also irritated her. A small irritation, being neither a personal attack of any substance nor even that great of a challenge. It could have been appeased just by sending them packing.

Taylor chose to take it personally and let the roiling anger of her temper build.

"Save me?" She said darkly. "I am not the one who needs saving!"

Psychokinetic force billowed out from her, her anger brought forth from the Empyrean and altering the physical world. Crusader and Alabaster stumbled back. Rune fell off her floating platform with a cry of surprise, only spared from potentially serious injury by Crusader's respawned ghosts catching her, which she allowed to happen.

Krieg fared better, his power being a kinetic manipulation field that dampened anything coming at him and amplified anything moving away. Even so, he was forced to take a step back. Her psychic power was clearly not something that his own power was used to dealing with.

The Empire 88 capes picked themselves up, as she once again didn't try to capitalize on the advantage. Taylor intended to make it clear that when she took the field, they had to muster their heavy hitters to match her.

Of course, that too was a trap, but they didn't know it yet.

Once they were all on their feet again, Taylor spread out her arms invitingly. "Come, attack me if you dare!"

Alabaster decided to be a cheeky little shit and pulled a gun on her.

"Get fucked, bitch!" He spat and fired.

A curved pane of what looked like flat lightning flared into existence as it stopped the bullet mere inches from her face.

Taylor casually grabbed it with her fingers and then flicked it back at him, propelled by the force of her will. "Mind your manners, there are children present."

The bullet slammed into his clenched teeth and shattered them, before exiting out the back of his throat. He was immune to pain, so it didn't really do anything except surprise him for a bit, but it did giver her a chance to pull the gun out of his hand.

Her dig about children being present was obviously aimed at Rune, as she had nodded at the young cape's direction when saying it. Physically, the girl was probably a bit older than her, but she was very short and her mind tasted angry.

"Fuck off!" Rune yelled, sending the chunk of asphalt she had previously been riding on flying towards her.

Both this and Alabaster's stunt with the gun were very much breaking the spirit of the Unwritten Rules, but that was fine. This was being recorded after all, so the more undisciplined and uncontrolled she made the Empire look in comparison to herself, the better.

The chunk of asphalt – and she was going to need to find out which stretch of road Rune had brutalized to get it – sailed towards her in the way only immensely heavy objects could.

Drawing deep on the Empyrean, Taylor used her body as a conduit and hurled a bolt of squirming color at the asphalt, making it explode into harmless shrapnel, some of which was burning with pink-purple-blue-red fires and slowly breaking apart.

She had been able to practice a lot more since gaining multiple bodies. Caution was for people who feared destroying their bodies with eldritch energies.

"You held back against Hookwolf, Frau Psyker." Krieg said tensely. She could feel his mind racing as he tried and failed to think of a way that his current lineup could beat her. All three of his subordinates were rendered close to useless.

Alabaster had already recovered, but aside from resetting to 100% every four seconds, he had no other powers. Crusader's ghosts could be canceled out at will, and Rune was a lesser telekinetic. Only his own kinetic manipulation aura might work, but he was wary now.

"Held back?" Taylor echoed menacingly. "No, my power only grows!"

It would be impossible to conceal that fact for much longer, so it was best to just get it out there. The Black Hand was strong enough now that they no longer had to fear a paranoid reaction. That it would put pressure on the Empire to do something before she grew beyond their ability to counter was just a bonus. Rushed decisions were clumsy decisions.

She could see the worry gnawing at his mind as he processed what she had said, that she was a villain version of Dauntless, with none of the Protectorate's restrictions and a probably faster growth curve.

Predictably, he gestured reached into his coat to pick up a phone and call reinforcements. Rune, meanwhile, ran over to a stack of old tires and started touching them to apply her power.

Taylor let them prepare as they pleased, inspecting her new spear. It was a very nice spear, clearly custom made. The shaft was almost a work of art and the head was sharpened past the point of reason. Some of the souls she'd absorbed knew that blades of all sorts were never sharpened as much as they could be, because the edge would get ruined too quickly.

But that wasn't an issue if you were using projections to do the stabbing.

"This is a fine weapon." She complimented. "It will look good next to Cricket's kama and Glory Girl's tiara."

"I'll be wanting that back." An angry Crusader bit out.

"We don't always get what we want." Taylor countered and threw the spear and the gun behind her, guiding it telekinetically. "Put that with the rest."

"You got it, Boss!" Came from inside the warehouse.

It was one of the many such buildings in Brockton Bay, completely unremarkable except for the fact that the Empire 88 was using it to store guns. It was next to an abandoned factory and surrounded by nothing of value.

That was why Taylor had raided it in broad daylight. Taking some of the Empire's guns was only a side benefit.

"It is not too late to turn back." Krieg said warningly, having finished his quick phone call. "You haf already done Brockton Bay a great service by cleansing it of the subhumans Skidmark and Lung. Vill you not work with ze Empire to make it a great and prosperous city to live in?"

Oh, wow, he was really going there. Taylor couldn't tell if he was just stalling or not. At the very least, he definitely believed that Brockton Bay was improved without Skidmark and Lung, which was fair enough.

"I have higher standards than your petty and small-minded 'Empire'." She made sure to put all the contempt she could muster into her tone. "You think I would hang such an albatross around my neck while trying to save my city? No. You, too, will be pulled apart and driven out."

"Zen vee are enemies." Krieg acknowledged with restrained anger. "So be it."

"Come, then." Taylor once again spread her arms invitingly.

Krieg was trapped now. Her blitz campaign against Lung, her performance against Hookwolf, her earlier display with Crusader, Alabaster, and Rune, and her confidence… all of it had made him wary of a trap.

But he also couldn't retreat. This was Empire territory and she was taunting them. Backing off would make them look weak. That was why he had called reinforcements.

It wouldn't be Kaiser this time. Max Anders was the CEO of a large company, with many demands on his time. He couldn't just disappear in the middle of the day, which was another reason for his aloof approach to villainy.

It wouldn't be Purity either, if her claims of splitting off from the Empire held any weight. Nor would it be Night or Fog, who hadn't been seen in over a year.

Othala was a support cape, and Victor wasn't a responder.

That left only the Valkyrie Twins and Hookwolf's crew as options, none of whom would be able to do anything against her little surprise.

Rune lobbed the tires she had marked with her powers. Crusader spawned more ghosts and sent them out, this time without their spears. Alabaster rushed in, fearing neither death nor pain. Krieg followed just behind him, his power the only one that stood a chance of doing anything.

Taylor received them calmly. She fought for control over the tires with Rune, winning by effectively prying away the grip her power had over the objects, then she sent the tires slamming down on Alabaster like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. That was going to be fun to video edit later.

Crusader's ghosts popped into nothing again, the echo of his ego driving them easily dispersed.

Krieg reached her over the vicious cursing of his subordinates, his mind grimly determined. She curiously tried to grip him with her psychokinesis, but not only was his soul quite resilient, his power also made the space around him kind of… bouncy. It was like trying squeeze a rubber ball, giving more resistance the harder it was squeezed.

The SS cosplayer attacked with a punch. Augmented by his power, it would strike with bone-breaking force.

Taylor didn't try to block it, instead merely swaying out of the way with her hands held casually behind her back. She used her own psychokinesis to move herself so that his kinetic aura couldn't slow her down or keep her off balance. She never tried to strike back, knowing that his power would make physical attacks useless. Krieg had once been seen containing the force of a grenade explosion.

"Is this the best you can do?" She asked, taunting. It was a show after all.

Krieg's soul boiled with rage. He knew that she was deliberately humiliating him and he was a proud man. He didn't speak, choosing instead to attack more furiously. He tried to grab at her flaring coat, but she moved it away at the last moment.

Behind him, Rune and Crusader were trying to get Alabaster our of the tires stacked over him, with little success. Taylor only had to disrupt their efforts occasionally.

"Rune, wouldn't you rather come join me?" She said, gliding backwards from Krieg's bullish attacks like something out of a Kung Fu movie. He was not a very skilled fighter. "You are still young, and this corrupt and failing Empire hasn't yet tarnished you with their incompetence."

"Fuck you!" Rune spat, but her soul was conflicted.

Taylor hadn't expected to achieve more than to sow some dissent with her offer, but it seemed that there was trouble in paradise. Rune was enjoying Krieg's humiliation, her thoughts tasted of schadenfraude.

"The soldiers of the master race will not be temped into your horde of subhuman degenerates!" Krieg spat angrily, backing off.

This was beautiful. People might already know what the Empire 88 was about, and some loudmouths might have ranted on camera or online, but you could never have too much ammo. Taylor had Oni Lee nearby, filming with a high end camera, and she was wearing a similarly high end recording device. All of this was going to be posted online in glorious HD and with full sound. How did someone this ridiculous even exist outside of edgy memes?

Instead of replying to the living cliché, she addressed Rune again. "The leadership of the Black Hand is young. Among us, you would be afforded more respect."

And Taylor knew that she had struck a nerve. Rune was the youngest of the Empire capes by a long shot, with Crusader and Othala being the closest at six years older. Inevitably, she would be treated like a stupid kid.

Family relations would prevent Tammi Herren from accepting the offer immediately, but a seed would be planted. When things started going bad and her world crumbled around her, she might remember the extended hand.

"Yeah, and how old are you?" Rune challenged. A transparent attempt at gathering information more than any real interest in the offer.

"Too young to drink, vote or drive, if we were to care about legalities." Taylor answered, allowing amusement to color her tone.

Hookwolf had already seen her in her old costume that had left her upper face exposed. That information would be nothing new.

"A foolish child." Krieg scoffed.

Taylor smiled, because he had just insulted Rune as well.

She also lashed out with her hand, sending a crackling bolt of red lightning at him, because the insult pissed her off. The Empyrean attack cut right through his aura, but was largely blunted by the strength of his own anger. It still sent him rolling across the ground.

"Then what are you, who stumbles blindly into my traps?" She asked.

Krieg picked himself up and looked like he was about to reply, but cut himself off when the Valkyrie Twins grew to tower over the surrounding buildings. Wielding a sword and shield and a spear, respectively, and dressed in skimpy Nordic-themed armor, Fenja and Menja made for a striking sight.

Taylor fully understood why Kaiser had made them his arm candy.

"Who has stumbled into a trap? You haf tarried too long, Frau Psyker." Krieg gloated, confidence restored. "Fenja, Menja, break her!"

"Sundancer." Taylor said simply.

She had been aware of the twins coming longer than him. They were usually the ones sent to reinforce any Empire capes that needed help.

The Blaster of the Travelers stepped out of the warehouse, miniature sun already growing above her hand. She stepped close to Taylor, so that her Manton limit would encompass both of them. It only had a range of about five feet, which was still plenty for two people.

The Empire capes cringed away, including the Valkyrie Twins. Their Breaker states might fuck with physics and drastically reduce the damage they took, but standing near a ball of fire with a temperature over a thousand degrees Celsius was not something they could ignore.

The tires binding Alabaster began to melt, encasing the pale white cape in sticky rubber goo. The asphalt sizzled, metal sagged, cloth smoked as it threatened to burst into flame, and flesh blistered.

Sundancer was a peculiar kind of Blaster, one that projected a continuous effect. Among the Empire 88, only Kaiser, Purity, and maybe Victor with a sniper rifle could do anything to her. Everyone else would burn before they got close.

"Enough." Taylor said and Sundancer canceled her sun.

The Empire capes had scrambled away and now stood at a considerable distance. Krieg was clenching his fists in anger, knowing that he was defeated.

"We will be leaving now. You might wish to do the same, unless you care to say hello to the Protectorate." She continued, turning her back on them and striding into the warehouse. The truck they had brought was fully loaded up with all the stolen guns, the trio of goons who had been on guard duty tied up on the floor.

Everyone would know that she could have finished them off or stayed long enough for the Protectorate to arrive and attempt some arrests. Some would even argue that she should have left nothing but charred flesh and boiled blood behind.

Putting aside how uncomfortable Sundancer would be with something like that, it would be stupid. Anything gained from such an act would be short term, and heavily offset by the kind of reputation it would give her. Plus, it would leave a power vacuum that out-of-town capes might be tempted to try filling in. No, better to leave it at a humiliating defeat and brace for the inevitable retaliation.

XXXXX

Amy had been nervous about going on a proper date. It would be her first time, because the disasters that were Vicky's attempts at double dating didn't count. Thankfully, said sister was more than eager to help.

There wasn't much to do, in all honesty. Taylor, as Miki, had assured her that she had it all planned out. All she had to do was show up. Vicky had been insatiably curious and nagged her for details she couldn't give, but eventually helped her pick out an appropriately 'casual but nice' outfit.

Amy had never dressed up to meet anyone before and it had made her feel awkward. So did the minor touches of makeup.

But in the end it all turned out fine. 'Miki' was similarly dressed and the actual date progressed well.

Amy had feared what kind of activities her secretly villain girlfriend would pick, but it turned out to be very sedate. They went bowling, got something to eat, and then veered into a quaint little bookstore.

"So, what kind of books do you like?" 'Miki' asked, a gleam of mischief in her dark eyes. "You seem like the type to secretly read trashy romances."

"You'd be wrong, I like science fiction." Amy refuted.

Although if lesbian trashy romances were easier to find it might be different. Or if it wasn't too risky to have books like that in the Dallon house.

"Science fiction is nice, though I've been reading a lot of mystery novels lately." 'Miki' leaned in conspiratorially. "I've got a Thinker competition going with Tattletale."

"What kind of competition?" Amy asked, not sure if she should be feeling jealous or not.

"Who can spoil the ending faster." 'Miki' grinned.

"Thinkers." Amy rolled her eyes, deciding to ignore the unpleasant emotion in her gut for now. She'd known from the start that this relationship, such as it was, would be abnormal.

A familiar engine roared past on the street outside; Armsmaster's bike.

'Miki' start humming innocently.

"What did you do?" Amy asked.

"Me?" The oriental face blinked innocently. "I didn't do anything. Psyker, on the other hand, decided to launch a raid on an Empire weapon stash. Krieg showed up to fight her, backed up by Crusader, Alabaster, and Rune. When that wasn't enough, they called in the Valkyrie Twins for backup. Psyker responded by calling in Sundancer and thoroughly curbstomping them. Armsmaster will be just in time to see everyone running away."

"Who's Sundancer?"

"A member of the Travelers, a roaming villain gang. Very powerful blaster that creates artificial suns." A decidedly villainous smirk stretched out the pretty features that she had created. "I recruited them when I took over Coil's organization. Actually, I was hoping to ask for your help with one of their members."

Amy instantly felt exhausted. "An injury?"

"I wouldn't do that to you." 'Miki' stepped closer until they were 'suggestively' close. "It's something you've never seen before, I guarantee it."

In spite of her wariness that she would be asked to heal again, Amy found herself interested. Taylor had already presented her with a lot of things that her power found interesting.

"Hey! No necking in my bookstore!" The store owner barked.

Amy instantly flushed red. 'Miki' also seemed to jerk and startle, before jumping away, but her cheeks were pointedly not flushed.

"I am sorry." The supposedly Japanese girl bowed contritely to the store owner.

"It's fine, just take it easy, will ya?" He grumbled.

The two girls very quickly made their purchases and stepped outside.

"It's getting late." 'Miki' noted. It was true, the sun was about to dip behind the horizon. "Would you like to come to my secret villain lair?"

The invitation was said in such a suggestive tone that there was no doubt about what would be happening there.

"They'll be expecting me back home soon." Amy said weakly. She didn't really want to go back to Carol's house.

"You're a teenager, you're supposed to be rebellious." 'Miki' reasoned, slipping a hand into her purse and fishing out her cellphone. "Let's just text Vicky to say that you're spending the night with me."

That was sure to get her sister squealing into a pillow and demanding details the next day.

"What about Carol?" She couldn't help but worry.

"What about Carol?" The villain retorted, a slight edge in her tone. "Let her find out secondhand."

That would piss her off. It would really piss her off. Amy waited for the fear that usually accompanied that thought, but it wasn't there. Carol was never going to love her anyway, so why bother trying to be a good daughter? Pissing her off seemed like a great way to repay the years of bitter disappointment.

And if she got kicked out? Well, it wasn't like she had nowhere to go.

"Okay."

'Miki' sent the text message and turned off the phone.

XXXXX

"Wow."

"I know, it's a bit much."

"When you said 'secret villain lair' I wasn't expecting…"

"Something out of James Bond?"

"Yeah…"

"Coil had a bit of a god complex. He'd always been an egotistical ass, but it got so much worse after he got powers that made him feel like he couldn't lose."

"How the hell did he even get away with building this in the middle of the city with nobody noticing?"

"He owned Fortress Construction. They build Endbringer shelters. It's amazing what you can lose in the bureaucracy."

Amy blinked and looked at her girlfriend. "Does that mean that you own Fortress Construction now?"

"Yep." Taylor looked so damn smug. "Not that anybody really knows that. I'm still using the same system of patsies and middle men Coil used."

"You know, I heard a lot about how limited heroes are when it comes to using their powers to make money." Amy said sourly. "It suddenly makes a lot of sense why there are so many villains."

"There's also plenty of those that just can't be heroes for one reason or another. The Travelers are one of those. Come on, I'll introduce you."

Amy was a bit nervous as she let herself be led through he corridors of the secret underground villain base. The place was ridiculous and looked big enough to host a small army. It really was highly reminiscent of Dr. No's secret base.

Entirely too soon for her liking, Taylor brought her to a room where said formerly nomadic villain group was gathered like soldiers waiting for an inspection. They were out of costume, but they all looked tense and even more nervous than her. Amy recognized the poorly concealed hope in their faces. It was a look she'd grown to hate.

"Travelers, may I introduce Amelia Claire Lavere, also known as Amy Dallon and Panacea." Taylor introduced her.

Amy didn't fail to note that she used her birth name as her true name, and tacked on the other two as if they were irrelevant aliases. She wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"Amelia, these are the Travelers, formerly of Earth Aleph." Taylor continued, making her head snap to the villain in shock. She hadn't mentioned that they were dimensionally displaced! "Francis Krouse or Trickster, the leader."

"Hey." The most wound up and hopeful looking one said, failing to act casual.

"Marissa or Sundancer."

"Hi." The beautiful woman was oddly shy.

"Luke or Ballistic."

"Yo." This one was the most genuinely relaxed.

"Jess or Genesis."

"Hello." The girl in the wheelchair said quietly, barely meeting her eyes for a moment before going back to staring at the ground.

"And Oliver, no cape name."

Oliver just waved back silently and she could only blink in confusion. That was a man's name, but he looked like an incredibly beautiful woman.

"Hey." Amy greeted awkwardly. "So, which one did you want me to look at?"

She already knew it was the one in the wheelchair. Who else could it be? Taylor had said it would be something she'd never seen before, but that was clearly not true.

"That would be their last member and former group leader, Noelle." Taylor surprised her. "Have you heard of the Cauldron Conspiracy? Powers for sale?"

"In passing. I thought it was crazy." Amy replied cautiously.

"I'm afraid it's true." Taylor nodded at the Travelers. "After the Simurgh dumped the Travelers on Earth Bet-"

"They're Ziz bombs?!" Amy interrupted in alarm.

"Don't worry, I fixed them." Taylor waved off.

"You can cure Ziz programming?!"

"I'm not sure if it's universal or if it was just the Travelers." Taylor patiently explained. "My guess would be that she meddled with them more directly than she usually does. Why else would they decide to drink some mysterious gunk in a suspicious briefcase they found lying in the rubble in Madison?"

Amy could not help but stare incredulously at the Travelers.

"Noelle was hurt, okay?" Francis snapped, visibly embarrassed. "We were desperate."

That didn't make any goddamn sense, but it definitely illustrated Taylor's point about how blatant the Ziz brainwashing had been.

"In any case, they didn't know what the vials would do, so Oliver and Noelle decided to share one to see what would happen." The explanation continued. "That turned out to be a very bad call. Oliver has barely any power at all, just the ability to look extremely attractive to whoever is looking at him, while Noelle turned out enormously powerful, but completely at the mercy of her powers. I've been able to stabilize her, but I'm hoping that the two of us together can cobble together a proper solution."

That did sound interesting. It also resolved her confusion about Oliver.

"I'm not sure if I'll be able to do anything if it's her powers that are the problem." Amy warned.

And this wasn't like her lie about not being able to do brains. Affecting other powers was always a crapshoot.

"Normally you wouldn't be able to affect her at all." Taylor said wrily. "Noelle's powers are massively enhanced strength, regeneration, a Trump power nullification of anyone she touches, the ability to absorb biological matter, and the ability to create clones of anyone she absorbs."

"Holy shit." Taylor hadn't been kidding when she said that Noelle was powerful. "Wait, is that how you got more bodies?"

"Yes, and it's a power I would like to keep. That's part of what makes this so tricky that I need your help."

Amy knew that she was being baited, but goddamnit that sounded interesting. "If she blocks the powers of anyone she touches than I won't be able to do anything at all."

"I was able to figure out how to disable that with my own powers." Taylor waved off. "It's the other stuff that's been giving me trouble."

"Alright, let's go see her then."

XXXXX

"Holy shit." Amy knew she was repeating herself, but it was warranted.

"Hi." Noelle said with a meek little wave, shrinking in on herself as if trying to hide.

A pointless effort, given that her monstrous lower half was the size of an elephant. That at least explained the heavy steel vault door.

"She wasn't always like this." Trickster said, visibly pained. "When she first drank from the vial, she still looked normal. But over time, all the stuff she absorbed turned into… that."

Yeah, Amy could see the fused remains of pigs, cows, cats, dogs, bugs, and a bunch of other shit in the monstrous mass. It was horrifying and frankly more than a bit nauseating to look at. It all still looked semi-alive, which just made it so much worse. And was that a human arm?!

"Her powers were forcing her to use them." Taylor explained. "She doesn't actually have to eat anymore, but they made her feel like she was starving all the time. I was able to put a stop to that, but I'll need your help turn all that mass into something less H. R. Geiger."

"I'll try, but don't get your hopes up." Amy warned. "I can't change Case 53s, and she looks halfway to being one."

Case 53s being the result of some shadowy organization selling powers and shit going wrong sounded incredibly plausible.

"I have a couple of other ideas if it doesn't work on the first try." Taylor assured and went over to lay a hand on Noelle's lower half. "Come on, give it a go."

Hesitantly, Amy stepped forward and laid her hand on the mass with a grimace. The writhing flesh felt so wrong, an impression that didn't abate as he powers fed her information on it. There was no brain activity from the absorbed biomass, but it was definitely still alive.

"No go, it's resisting me." She shook her head.

"I figured it would." Taylor didn't seem at all disappointed. "Alright, option number two."

More Taylors walked in and went to stand next to Noelle. Then one of them threw herself into the mass.

"What the fuck?" Amy asked.

"Graft my genetic material throughout Noelle, especially her nervous system." Taylor instructed. "I'm thinking that if I have a greater grip on her body, I'll be able to force through changes that your power can't."

"This is so fucked." Amy said, but internally she was thrilled by the idea of playing with something like this.

It wasn't even that hard to do once she got into it. Noelle was already assimilating the Taylor body, so all she had to do was spread out the genetic material. More and more Taylor's fed themselves into the mass.

Soon enough, Noelle also had those odd energies running through her, along with the genetic markers going seemingly nowhere. Amy had even gotten so excited that she had fused Taylor's brain matter with Noelle without even realizing it. Nothing bad seemed to happen, so she kept on doing it, grafting on more and more without making any changes to the brain itself.

"That's better." Taylor said, sticking both of her hands into the mass of flesh. "Try altering her shape now."

Amy did as she was asked, and grinned when the blockage caused by Noelle's powers seemed to be bypassed by whatever bullshit Taylor was running on. It didn't even really feel like she was changing the biology, so much as providing a template and then letting the chaotic energies do the work.

"I still can't just make it all disappear into nothing." She warned.

"I can do that part, I just want something her to have something less disgusting as her 'cape' form." Taylor nodded, looking thoughtful. "Do you know the legend of Arachne?"

The implication was obvious, and Noelle already had plenty of spider DNA in her. The idea also made her powers thrum eagerly, and Amy already felt near drunk on euphoria from using them like this.

At a thought, the flesh twisted in accordance with her will. Taylor suppressed Noelle's power and kept it from interfering as she streamlined the ungainly mass of meat.

Noelle grew in size even further as her lower half took the shape of a monstrous spider, equal in mass to the ugly amalgamation of before. Eight legs covered in stiff, spiky hairs as hard as steel, tipped with even harder organic spikes that quickly sunk into the concrete ground.

Proper spider legs moved via biological hydraulics, but that wouldn't work here, so Amy created a support system out of dense muscle, cartilage, 'soft' bone, and a hard chitin exoskeleton. Noelle had no need for energy conservation, supported as she was by her power, so she could make use of incredibly wasteful muscles that were both strong and enduring, as well as organs operating with insane efficiency. Ideas came quick and easy, making her nearly shudder with satisfaction as they were implemented.

The legs supported a massive arachnid body that would normally be too heavy even with all the modifications, but the Brute rating covered for it.

When it was done, Amy gazed upon the horror she had created with an irrepressible grin, panting as if she'd just had an orgasm. She felt amazing and full of pride at her work.

"How's that?" She asked Taylor, still grinning.

"Perfection." Taylor smiled back.

"Oh, this is so much better!" Noelle also smiled, testing out her new body. Her legs alone were just over two meters long, and at her full height she towered close to four. She was wider than a bus, longer than a car and weighed over ten tons of densely packed muscle.

"Uh, not to disparage your work, but this ain't exactly normal?" Trickster said cautiously. He and the Travelers were staring at Noelle with a mix of horror and awe.

"We aren't done yet." Taylor said. "I just wanted her to have a 'combat' form, if you will. Noelle, can you spawn me another clone?"

"Yeah, I think so. Give me a moment." Noelle's face scrunched up in focus and something began to bulge in her spider abdomen.

A moment later, it opened up in ways that no spider abdomen normally would or could, and out slid a naked clone of Taylor.

"Hmm, that was much smoother than normal." The newborn body said, ignoring the slime covering her.

Amy was fascinated by the process, if a little grossed out. She wished that she'd kept her hands on Noelle to observe.

"Alright, let's see about shrinking you now." Taylor continued, both of her putting their hands on Noelle.

Amy saw the familiar discharges of energy that happened when Taylor really exerted her powers, felt the room suddenly grow cold as if it'd had the warmth sucked out of it. Noelle's body blurred in that same familiar way and shrunk, until she was back to the size of a normal human.

"I'm back!" Noelle laughed, ignoring that she was naked from the waist down. She jumped up and down with glee, ran to give Taylor a hug and then kept on laughing as her team hugged her.

"Come on, let's give them some privacy for their reunion." Taylor said, hooking their hands together and leading her away.

Amy was more than happy to allow that, but she spotted Genesis on the way out having trouble getting in on the celebration because of her wheelchair. The red-haired girl briefly caught her eyes, her own full of desperate hope.

Sighing, but in too good of a mood to really be upset by the obvious request, Amy walked over and pressed a finger to the wheelchair-bound girl's neck and quickly fixed her spine, also giving her atrophied legs some muscle.

"Thank you!" Genesis cried, quickly being pulled out of the wheelchair by the rest of her team and hugged as well.

"That was nice of you." Taylor commented.

"I'd feel like a total bitch if I ignored her." Amy huffed. "I'm surprised none of them asked me to do it."

"I warned them not to." Taylor casually revealed. "You're higher up on the totem pole than them. Underlings don't get to bother the higher ups for favors."

"What!?" Amy gawked at her girlfriend. "You said I'm not even a villain, but I'm higher up than them?"

"Of course you aren't a villain, you haven't done anything villainous. Fucking a villain doesn't count."

Amy felt heat burn in her core. The date had been nice and the exercise to her powers had been amazing. She was incredibly in the mood right now. "How about you show me your bedroom and I'll show you a villainous fucking."

It was a bit embarrassing to say something like that, but not too bad in comparison to what they'd already done.

Taylor grinned at her. "I like the way you think."

XXXXX

On a parallel Earth, deep in the Garden of Flesh, a patch of bio-crystalline material developed some minute changes that would be nigh impossible to discern with the naked eyes.

But in a grimmer, darker galaxy, it would have been identified as Warp corruption.

XXXXX

April 16th, 2011.

Taylor no longer slept.

After wearing Amelia out and a quick hot shower, they cuddled up together in the bed. Two of her bodies with the biokinetic in the middle.

Amelia was quick to doze off, but Taylor stayed awake and kept her cuddled. She had plenty of other bodies to act through, so it was no matter to dedicate two to such a task. The Noelle body was currently busy 'celebrating' with Trickster, a rather disappointing experience compared to what Amelia could do.

And she had done much more than she realized.

The Noelle body was now fully psychic, which had been the true objective. She now had a much better grasp of the unstable power from the vial and a better sense of the alien creature granting it. They were well hidden, whatever these things were, but she kept on grasping at the connections.

There was an odd sense of approval from her own. Taylor had the distinct feeling that it wanted her to succeed.

The hours passed with nothing more than small murmurs from Amelia and the occasional shift. Taylor kept careful watch over her dreams and gently guided them to pleasant topics. Amelia subconscious often wanted to shift over towards her various concerns, but she guided it away from that. It wouldn't do for her to backslide.

It was only when she felt the biokinetic stirring that Taylor moved, the spooning body starting to nuzzle the waking girl's neck and laying down a trail of gentle kisses.

"Mmmmhhhm?" Amelia grumbled sleepily, cracking open an eye with what looked like herculean effort.

"Good morning." Taylor greeted, leaning in to steal a kiss from the front.

"Morning?" Was the somewhat confused reply, followed by a massive yawn. "What time is it?"

"About 8:30." Taylor answered, increasing the intensity of her kisses.

Amelia returned them in a somewhat distracted manner. "But we didn't go to bed that late?"

That was true. It hadn't even been eleven.

"Mmm, your body decided it needed the rest after you finally relaxed." She said, rolling them over so that she was on top. Her other body quietly slipped away, as it would be extraneous.

"And I'm sure it had nothing to do with you wearing me out." The biokinetic retorted with a flush.

"I didn't hear you complaining." Taylor smirked, wiggling herself in between the other girl's legs. "Now why don't you give me something that I can use to give you a proper good morning."

Amelia's blush got worse and she looked away. "It's weird."

"Don't worry about weird." Taylor chastised gently. "I told you to do whatever you want with my bodies."

There was no verbal answer, but she felt the her flesh slowly shifting. Her clitoris grew in size, becoming as strong and flexible as a tongue, but much thicker and longer. And it retained its sensitivity.

Taylor smiled lustily down at the other girl, wriggling her new appendage against her moist opening. "There we go…"

Amelia gasped as she was penetrated, her arms and legs wrapping firmly around Taylor and pinning her in place. That was fine, it wasn't like she needed the ability to move her hips to pleasure her. The newly grown tentacle wriggled and writhed, rubbing and teasing every erogenous zone it could find.

Taylor herself spasmed with a succession of orgasms, the sensations so powerful that it should have paralyzed her, but her multitasking and endurance allowed her to forge ahead. It didn't matter that it became so intense that it hurt after a while. No, that just made it better.

Amelia didn't last long under that level of physical and mental stimulation and cried out in release, her inner walls clamping down on the intruder that still didn't stop wriggling.

"See, not weird at all." Taylor said as they came down from their highs, giving the other girl a quick peck on the lips before rolling off her so that she was on her back and Amelia was cuddling with her.

"It's super weird." Amelia shuddered with a post-coital aftershock, using her power to shrink the tentacle. "But fuck if it isn't hot. You've totally corrupted me."

Most of the work had already been done by Amelia's own sexual frustration, but Taylor wasn't going to say that. "If I've totally corrupted you, you'd be playing with my innards right now."

Amelia hesitated for a moment and then laid her palm flat on Taylor's stomach. An unnecessary gesture considering the amount of skin contact they already had, but symbolic. "Like this?"

Taylor felt her digestive tract twisting and changing under the biokinetic's power. "Yeah, just like that. You know I love it when you treat my biology like a puzzle to be solved. Don't be afraid to change, improve, add, or remove whatever you feel like. There's always more of me to go around if you screw something up."

"...okay." Amelia whispered quietly, laying her head down.

For a few minutes there was no sound except the occasional gurgle of a digestive tract being unmade and remade.

"Hey, how do you feel about helping me commit a crime?" Taylor asked.

Amelia paused and visibly steeled herself. "What kind of crime?"

"A little jailbird switcheroo. Don't worry, the real deal wouldn't be for a while yet. Today, we'd just spend preparing." Taylor assured.

"Today?" Amelia frowned in confusion. "But you texted Vicky from my phone that I'd be coming home today?"

Taylor telekinetically summoned said phone again and turned it on. A quick glance at the screen told her that it had a bunch of texts and voice messages waiting. She ignored them all and started typing another text message for Vicky.

"Staying with Miki for another day, be back Sunday evening." She spoke aloud as she typed. "And send."

Amelia stared at her with a sort of awed horror. "Carol is going to have a fucking aneurysm."

"Yeah, but just imagine her face if when you tell her that you spent the entire weekend having sex." Taylor grinned.

"I though we were going to be preparing to commit a crime?" The biokinetic deadpanned.

Taylor rolled over on top of her again. "That's not going to take us two whole days."

XXXXX

Danny sat the the kitchen table, nursing a cup of coffee and brooding. He was waiting for Taylor to come down so that they could talk.

He'd seen the news last night about an altercation between Psyker and a lot of Empire 88 capes. Given that Taylor had been watching the news with him at the time…

He didn't know what was going on, and he had chickened out of asking last night under her expectant stare. He had thought that with Taylor coming home, she was going to stop being a villain. Clearly, that had been wishful thinking.

"Hey, Dad." She greeted ass she came down, almost startling him.

"Taylor." Danny swallowed. A man should not be so nervous in front of his daughter, but he was afraid of everything going wrong again, of losing the tenuous connection they had managed to re-establish. "Come sit with me."

"You wanted to talk about something?" She asked knowingly, sitting down after pouring herself a glass of highly concentrated lemonade. It was practically pure lemon juice. He'd noticed that she seemed to prefer drinks with a lot of kick to them these days.

"Yeah." Danny braced himself. "Are you even my Taylor, or are you just a clone or body double?"

"Yes, I'm your Taylor." She said without hesitation.

"Then who was fighting the Empire yesterday?"

"Also me." She smiled. "I have many bodies through which I can act."

Danny felt a heavy weight settle into his gut. "So you cloned yourself."

"No, I control all of my bodies at the same time. Think of it like a hand. I am the hand and my bodies are the fingers."

He had no idea how to wrap his head around that. "Is this body the one you were born with, the one Annette brought into the world?"

Taylor raised an eyebrow. "How is that important? They are all real and they are all me."

"You don't think your original body is important?"

"I suppose I would be a bit sad to lose it for sentimental reasons." She shrugged, not looking too perturbed. "But if we go back to the earlier analogy, it would be a bit like having a favorite finger."

Danny stared down into the dark depths of his coffee, realizing that he didn't understand his daughter at all anymore. "If this body is just a finger, then what am I to you? Where is the real Taylor?"

"There's no need to take the finger analogy that far." Her brows lowered into a frown. "I am the real Taylor, I just happen to be in many places at the same time."

Danny said nothing for a while. He had been happy with all the time they'd been spending together this past week and a half since she had moved back in. Taylor was the most important thing in the world to him, and her being here had meant that the feeling was mutual.

Only now he was learning that her being here hadn't been as much of a sacrifice as he had thought, and that she probably wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't for the fact that she could be in more than one place at a time. That she hadn't even sent her real body here was proof enough of where on her list of priorities he was.

Danny couldn't even complain, not without being a hypocrite. He had neglected her horribly since Annette's death, not seen what was happening to her. It was his own fault that things were like this, so all he could do was accept it and try to fix it.

"Won't the PRT come knocking since they know who you are?" He asked.

"Not likely." Taylor scoffed, amused. "They have my contact information if they want to talk about something."

"What if they come to arrest you? They don't know that you have multiple bodies, right?"

"Not yet." She agreed. "But they won't dare arrest me in civvies. They don't want villains feeling cornered, so they have to play the game of costumed cops and robbers. As long as I'm not killing people in broad daylight or something similarly heinous, they'll stay away."

Danny really didn't like the way she'd phrased that. "So it's okay if you kill people out of sight?"

"Yes." Taylor replied blandly. "Which of the Empire capes do you think has the highest body count?"

"Hookwolf?" It was an obvious guess.

"You'd think so, but it's actually Victor. Hookwolf's kills were mostly incidental, things that happen when a fight goes too far. Victor kills deliberately, and he's good at hiding his tracks. If the PRT catches him, he'll be offered a cell in a supermax prison in one hand and a heavily restricted Protectorate membership in the other. Hookwolf has already been sentenced to the Birdcage, but only because they can't sweep three of his murders under the carpet."

"I find that hard to believe." Danny said skeptically. "Murder isn't that easy to cover up. If they were killing that many people…"

"I've killed three dozen people since taking over the ABB. Have you heard about any of them?"

The calmness of her voice was horrifying. "So many..."

"I had to clean up the mess Lung left behind." She responded, still with that same horrible calm.

"By killing them?!"

"What else could I do? The justice system would waffle on about lack of evidence and I wasn't going to waste time and money building my own prison."

"What about due process and right to a fair trial?" Danny had to struggle not to shout.

Taylor sighed and stood up, collecting his empty coffee cup and her empty glass of lemon juice. "Those are pretty notions of a civilized age. Maybe we'll make it back to that point one day."

She quickly cleaned the cup and glass in the sink, then went back to her room leaving him sitting there alone. He was furious, and not even at his daughter, but at the world that had put her into this position. He wanted her away from this kind of life, but had no idea how.

XXXXX

Max had a headache. He'd gotten a preliminary report about the most recent altercation with Psyker, which had been bad enough. Now that Victor had had time to analyze it and the implications, it was much worse.

"So in short, you have no idea how she is doing this?" He asked.

Victor looked frustrated as he nodded. "It just shouldn't be possible. You know how much work running a criminal organization is. Psyker should be in way over her head, but she went from a probable fresh trigger to a near equal to the Empire in a couple of months. It's a foregone conclusion that she has some kind of Thinker power at this point, but even that wouldn't account for everything. She simply shouldn't have enough loyal, competent subordinates to operate at the scale and speed that she is."

Yes, Max knew exactly how hard it was to wrangle people to get them to do what you wanted. Psyker should have had it far worse with the quality of the people she was wrangling, and yet she seemingly had no trouble at all. It was too much to be waved away with a Thinker or Master power, or even both.

That was why Max had felt confident in taking a wait and see approach. The expectation had been that she would either be forced to slow down and consolidate or keep charging ahead until she burned out. In the case of the former, Victor would be sent to sabotage her efforts, and in the latter they wouldn't have had to do much at all.

Nothing of the sort had happened. The Black Hand was spreading through the city like fungus, yet somehow not losing any force and not betraying the identities of the people running the show. Psyker was the only name spoken, and her underlings weren't acting out or doing stupid things or just plain screwing up like they should be.

How was she doing this? Max had his hands full just running Medhall and keeping a leash on the Empire 88. From what they had managed to discern, Psyker was juggling dozens of projects both great and small while at the same time picking fights and humiliating his people. It couldn't be a coincidence that as soon as she ousted Lung and took over his territory, there was a sudden surge of economic and infrastructure activity in those areas of the city.

And she now had at least ten, possibly as many as fifteen, capes under her command. And if her words about being an escalating Trump were true, then the Empire 88 was in big trouble.

Max had screwed up. If he had known what he was dealing with, he would have ordered a concerted effort to crush her before she could become a problem.

But who would have expected that some teenage fresh trigger would turn out like this?

Well, no use complaining. Max wasn't going to just roll over.

"I think I need to make a call to Boston."

It was time for Night and Fog to rejoin the Empire. The two excessively lethal brainwashed Gesellschaft capes would be a fine deterrent if Psyker thought she could get away with mocking him. Purity might also need to be reeled back in. He had allowed her to think she could get away because she was serving his purposes just as well as an ineffectual wannabe hero, but things were getting serious now.

XXXXX

Emily had a headache, and for the same root cause as Kaiser. Her own, however, was made considerably worse due to the fact that she had to deal with the cast iron bitch that was Rebecca Costa-Brown.

"Can you confirm Psyker's claims of growing more powerful?" The cast iron bitch herself asked.

"Not conclusively." Emily admitted. "She has been showing more and more powers in each engagement, but we don't know if she's actually growing stronger or if she was just holding back in the beginning."

Parahumans who grew stronger over time were rare, the rarest of them all in fact. Dauntless was once such example, and even he sort of cheated by empowering items that only he could use, rather than growing stronger himself. His base power was the same as it had always been. That type was known as a Totemic Tinker, which was not a true Tinker.

A parahuman with an actual evolving power was unheard of.

"Then confirm it." Costa-Brown ordered. "And if it should prove to be true, we may need to consider humoring Psyker's desires to rule Brockton Bay."

Emily resisted the urge to grind her teeth. The idea of letting a superpowered teenager set herself up as a warlord as a bribe rubbed her the wrong way all the way down to her soul. "With all due respect, I don't think that's a good idea."

"It's a small price to pay for the chance of destroying the Endbringers. Besides, from your reports, Psyker has been doing a tremendous job of putting her territory to order. We tolerate worse from lesser villains."

"You said something similar about Shadow Stalker." Emily couldn't help noting sourly. Costa-Brown had determined that Shadow Stalker's ability to phase projectiles could be used to bypass the Endbringers' durability and perhaps fatally injure them.

That was part of the reason why the aggravating little bitch had gotten away with so much. Someone with her attitude would never have made it through basic rehabilitation otherwise.

"And it remains true." Costa-Brown remained unfazed. "It's unfortunate that Shadow Stalker has left Psyker with a grudge against the PRT and Protectorate, but it's all the more reason to accommodate Psyker. we can work with a reasonable villain. Test her and get back to me with the results. We will go from there if they're promising."

The call was dropped and Emily longed for the ability to slam down the handle. Pushing buttons on a screen just wasn't the same.

Costa-Brown was as ruthlessly pragmatic as ever. Emily understood her position, but didn't agree with it. If you kept giving ground, you would eventually end up with nothing to stand on. Powerful villains already got far too much leeway.

To treat Psyker the same way they treated Dauntless was going way too far.

Right now, Dauntless was a decently powerful hero that never got deployed into anything that could be potentially seriously dangerous. This was due to the fact that his growing power would be far more useful a few years or even decades down the line and nobody wanted to lose him in some pointless street fight.

If they gave Psyker the same treatment in the hope that she might be able to do something about the Endbringers, then they might as well hand over the whole goddamn country to her.

Emily was afraid that Costa-Brown might actually be willing to do it if suited her goals. The PRT Chief Director could spin a fine line of bullshit to the press, but she was a stone cold bitch that wouldn't blink at sacrificing people in pursuit of her goals.

Emily had long since begun to suspect that she and Brockton Bay as a whole was one such sacrifice. Yes, the PRT and Protectorate as a whole were outnumbered everywhere, but the complete lack of support the ENE department had been getting was ridiculous.

And now she was being effectively told to go along with it?

XXXXX

On the other side of the call, Rebecca Costa-Brown, more widely known as the hero Alexandria, put the phone down more gently. With her strength, she had to do everything gently.

The parahuman feudalism experiment in Brockton Bay had evolved in a strange direction, but not necessarily a bad one. Cauldron had expected that Coil would come out on top, given the advantages he had. Instead, he had been usurped by this naturally triggered newcomer.

They could barely keep track of Psyker these days. Even Clairvoyant had trouble looking at her. The lack of control grated on Alexandria, but their experiment was well served. And, if Psyker's claims of growing power were true, she could be useful in the final battle against Scion.

If so, then she was welcome to lord over Brockton Bay and any other territory she could claim. Cauldron had committed itself to doing anything if it would help humanity survive against Scion. If it would have tilted their odds even slightly, they would have helped the CUI conquer the planet. If Psyker could make a notable difference against Scion or the Endbringers, she could call herself Queen of the Earth and Cauldron would support her.

A human tyrant could be overthrown or would at least die eventually. There was no coming back from extinction

The next Endbringer battle would reveal Psyker's quality. Dragon and Armsmaster had been working on a prediction system that showed promise. Alexandria would make sure that Brockton Bay was the first to receive the call to arms.

XXXXX

April 17th, 2011.

It was well after dark when Taylor parked her car a ways down from the Dallon house and Amy found herself reluctant to get out. She knew what was coming and was not at all eager for it.

"Hey, don't worry." Taylor noticed and smiled at her. "Remember, you don't owe her anything and you don't need her. She's nothing."

"I'm sure Carol would disagree about owing her." Amy grumbled.

"If she didn't want to be responsible for you, then she shouldn't have sent your father to the Birdcage." Taylor countered.

Considering that her father had been a notorious villain, that really wasn't that great of an argument. On the other hand, Carol had spewed worse bullshit over the years so it was about the level of argument she deserved.

"Are you going to take responsibility when she throws me out?" Amy joked nervously.

It was a bad joke, because New Wave couldn't afford the PR hit they'd take from throwing out Panacea. Much more likely, Carol would try to get even more controlling and she'd be forced to run away.

"That was my villainous plan." Taylor grinned. "First, I'd get into your head and create a rift between you and your adopted family, then I'll take you in and pamper you until you don't want to leave."

There was quite a bit of truth mixed in there, but Amy couldn't find it anything other than comforting. She had a place to belong, with someone who had powers just as terrifying as her own.

"Good." She said forcefully and stared at her girlfriend. "Give me a kiss for good luck?"

Taylor was happy to oblige, and the kiss she got was anything but chaste.

"Until next time." The villain said a minute later, after the kiss was done and a considerably more flustered Amy stepped out of the car.

Taylor drove away, and Amy started walking towards the Dallon house. Very slowly. She could already see the lights and could imagine Carol furiously pacing up and down as she worked herself into a proper bitch fit. Mark would just be sitting there dully, unable to care. And Vicky would be hiding in her room, hoping that things would turn out fine.

It was incredibly tempting to call Taylor back and just send a text later telling them that she'd run away and gone villain. It would be easier.

But no, she had to do this.

As she reached the house, she saw that Carol was indeed pacing. Her silhouette was visible through the curtains. Amy took a deep breath and opened the door, ignoring the laser glare of her adopted mother as she turned around to close it. Then she continued ignoring it as she stepped inside, moving towards the stairs that would take her to her room. If Carol wanted to start something, then she'd have to do it herself.

"And where the hell have you been?" Carol asked sharply, sounding as if she was barely refraining from shouting.

"With my girlfriend. Didn't Vicky tell you?" Amy replied.

It was still kind of scary to argue with Carol, but not nearly as much as it used to be. She didn't care about this woman's approval anymore and wasn't afraid of any punishments she'd try to dish out. Punishments that would go ignored.

"She told me, alright." Carol ground out. "What I want to know is why I had to learn it from her. And why you thought you could sleep over somewhere without my permission?"

"Why would I tell you?" Amy sneered back, suddenly angry.

"Because I'm your mother!" Carol shouted, whatever frail hold she had on her temper snapping.

"Since when?!" Amy snapped back. "You practically ignored me until I triggered, then you treated me like I was planning to put on bone armor and challenge Kaiser and Lung for control of the city."

The deliberate reference to Marquis made Carol recoil in shock, her face paling.

"Who told you?!" She demanded. "Did one of his people contact you?!"

Amy had to snort. Carol really was as paranoid as Taylor had said.

"I was six when you caught him, not three. Did you think I wouldn't remember anything?" She said, and the thing was that she had remembered something these past two days. Remembered hiding in a closet and feeling terrified while the sounds of a fight happened outside. Remembered a scary woman with a burning plasma sword standing over her injured father. "It wasn't hard to look up which villain got caught at the same time I got adopted."

"You never said anything." Carol said faintly.

"Gee, I wonder why?" Amy retorted sarcastically. "Could it be because you went psycho the one time I tried to ask?"

The anger came back to Carol's face. "I was trying to protect you!"

"Of course you were. I'm sure it had nothing to do with your irrational grudge against Marquis."

Amy realized that she was enjoying this. It felt good to be on the offensive for once.

"IT WAS NOT IRRATIONAL! MARQUIS WAS A MONSTER!" Carol roared, completely losing it. Her hands curled as if gripping something and plasma flickered in them.

Unlike that time years ago, it was a lot less scary. Carol seemed less like some kind of overbearing force in control of her life and more like a wild animal lashing out at what had hurt it.

It was almost pitiful, and Amy might have even felt some kind of sympathy if she hadn't had to put up with ten years of bullshit because this one stubborn bitch refused to acknowledge that she had a problem.

"Sure, Carol, whatever you say." She agreed sarcastically and resumed her trek towards her room.

"We aren't done here!" Carol snapped. "Mark, say something!"

Mark had, up to this point, just been quietly watching this disaster of a conversation happen. The command snapped him out of the depressive haze slightly and he visibly fumbled for something to say. "So, uhhh, a girlfriend, huh? I didn't know you were gay."

"Gay as a rainbow." Amy confirmed. Coming out of the closet was remarkably trivial compared to everything else that had been going on recently.

A strangled giggle betrayed Vicky's position where she was eavesdropping from the top of the stairs.

"That's nice." He said blandly, as disinterested as ever.

"What's her name? What have you been doing the whole weekend?" Carol butted in again, treating it like a cross examination in court.

"Miki Uchida, and mostly fucking." Amy replied.

Another giggle from Vicky.

Carol didn't see the funny side. "You're too young to be having sex!"

"The age of consent is sixteen." Amy countered. "Shouldn't you know that, as a lawyer? Or did you forget how old I am?"

"Holy shit." The quiet, awed whisper from Vicky didn't look like it was doing Carol's blood pressure any favors.

This was getting easier and easier. The initial fear about this confrontation had faded as she realized that Carol had nothing that she cared about anymore. Amy simply had no fucks to give now that she'd abandoned any ideas about earning Carol's approval and wasn't afraid of her own powers anymore.

"What the hell has gotten into you?" Carol demanded.

"Miki just helped me realize that you were never going to love me, so I stopped trying to be a good daughter." Amy shrugged.

"This woman got into your head!" Carol declared triumphantly, as if she'd just figured it all out. "How old is she? Where does she work?"

Taylor really had predicted Carol pretty much perfectly. Amy was curious to meet this Tattletale that had helped her get such an accurate read on her adoptive mother. Taylor had promised to introduce her to the rest of the Black Hand villains soon.

"Why would I tell you anything about her?" Amy asked back. "You'll just try to ruin it for me."

"If you don't tell me about her then I forbid you from seeing her again!" Carol snapped.

"And how are you going to stop me?" Amy's tone was challenging. "I'm done listening to you, Carol."

She was practically baiting out the 'my house, my rules' ultimatum. An ultimatum that she would have shrugged at, turned around, and left the Dallon house forever.

It was somewhat disappointing that Carol managed to restrain herself from that knee-jerk response. Instead, she took a deep breath and tried to speak more calmly. "Amy, I'm just trying to look out for you. You don't know anything about this woman. She could be working for a villain. She could be a villain. If she was a Master then it would explain this sudden personality flip of yours."

"Now you're just grasping at straws." Amy scoffed "And what the hell are you on about with this 'sudden personality flip' bullshit? I was just holding back because I didn't want to deal with your tantrums, but you've been pissing me off for YEARS!"

"Uh, Mom?" Vicky hesitantly spoke up into the heavy silence. "I've met Miki and she was nice. She's eighteen and wants to get into BBU."

The parts about working in a dirty massage parlor or having some affiliation with the Black Hand were pointedly left out.

"And you didn't think to tell me this earlier, Victoria?!" Carol demanded.

"This was Amy's thing, I didn't want to butt in!" Vicky defended.

For a moment, Carol looked like she was about to explode. She looked at both of them and then at Mark, making him stare back and shrug helplessly.

"Just… go to your rooms." She finally said with an aggravated noise of disgust. "We'll continue this another day."

Amy shrugged and walked up, falling into step with a floating Vicky. Behind them, Carol started ranting to Mark. Or more accurately, at him.

"So, that went well?" Vicky tried, forcing a bright grin.

"About as well as it could have." Amy snorted.

She went to her room, and Vicky followed her in. The reason was obvious.

Floating upside down until she was pretty much laying on the ceiling, Vicky's grin turned much more natural. "So… two days of sex, huh? Share the details with your curious, virgin sister?"

"Go type 'lesbian porn' into the search engine." Amy shot back, taking her clothes off and putting on her PJs. She was feeling a lot less twisted up about her old lust for Vicky after all the things she'd done with Taylor. Also, it was funny to be the more experienced one for a change.

"Amyyyyyyy, come on, you're supposed to share!" Vicky whined, floating slowly downward.

"Says who?"

"The law." The floating menace declared with authority. "Sisters are supposed to share saucy secrets with each other."

"How about I record it for you and you can watch? Or maybe you'd prefer a live show?" Amy asked sarcastically and not really seriously.

Although if Vicky wanted to join in, she probably wouldn't object.

"Now you're just being gross." The blonde made a face. "At least tell me if she gave you a massage."

Amy threw herself on the bed with a gusty sigh, staring up at the ceiling with unfocused eyes. "Yeah, she did. I don't know how I'm going to be able to sleep without having all my muscles turned to jelly now."

Because Taylor hadn't been kidding about the pampering. Getting her to stretch out her powers had helped get rid of the constant urge she'd had to use them, but it hadn't stopped there. Being massaged by five sets of hands at once was something else.

Vicky floated down onto the bed next to her and stared with fascinated blue eyes. "Now you're making me want to know what that feels like."

Was it any wonder that she'd started crushing on her sister when this was kind the kind of crap she pulled? Amy reached out and poked Vicky in the neck, using her powers to instantly relax every muscle in her body.

"It feels kind of like that at the end, but the process is better."

"Ames, can I schedule an appointment with your girlfriend?" The blonde moaned, collapsing into the pillow bonelessly. "You can't keep something like this to yourself, it's not fair."

"I'll think about it." The biokinetic said, once again having an intrusive thought about seducing her sister.

Damn it, Vicky, why are you like this?!

XXXXX

April 18th, 2011.

A new mental iteration spun out as Taylor felt Celia Laborn die. She pulled the unmoored soul towards her and absorbed it into herself, tasting the entirety of the woman's life. She had died by surprise, not even knowing what had killed her. There had been no indication of a threat.

Taylor was still far from having mastered the tides of the Empyrean and could not read its eddies and swirls to divine the cause of the death. Though distance in this realm was philosophical more than real, she could not scry through the veil separating the Empyrean from reality all the way to Denver.

It bothered her, but there was little she could do about this death at the moment. She would try to use more mundane means to discover what had killed one of her people.

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