Taylor-Administrator (Worm Crack)

[kamenhero25]

AN: Honestly, should have reposted this to QQ a long time ago since I do most of my writing here, but I wanted to wait until I had no content to make it worthwhile. Enjoy!

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They woke up staring at the ceiling. Sleep was not technically necessary for them anymore, but it was still refreshing to enter a rest cycle on occasion. They remained laying on the bed for several minutes, cataloging the passive data they had gathered while they were unconscious. There had been two other shards that had passed through their control area during the night. Perhaps it was one of the Protectorate patrols going by. It was amusing to see how this particular species organized their power users. "Taylor! Breakfast is ready!" The voice of dad from downstairs interrupted their musing. Human-dad, not shard-dad. Shard-dad was an asshole who would never make them breakfast. Their stomach rumbled. Breakfast did sound good at the moment.

They rolled out of bed and reflexively reached for their glasses before remembering that they no longer required them. "Coming!" They considered simply floating downstairs. Technically, walking was a lower expenditure of energy, but they were still adjusting to the somewhat… undignified physiology of their shared form. They eventually settled on walking downstairs toward the smell of sustenance.

Human-dad was at the stove in the kitchen and the smell of bacon and eggs set their stomach rumbling again. "Did you sleep well, Taylor?" he asked as he turned around, a steaming plate balanced on each hand. His expression looked more worried than welcoming, but that was a common occurrence the last few days.

"We slept quite well," Taylor-Administrator informed him with a wiry smile. She also accepted the plate and fought the urge to stuff a few slices of bacon into her mouth on the spot. Food was by far the most enjoyable way to take in energy. "Should you not be on your way to work by now?"

"I figured I should be here when you woke up since you just got home." Human-dad tried to smile and took a seat across from her at the table as they both began eating. This was why human-dad was the superior dad. He practically doted on them when he was worried. "Are you going to be alright today?"

"We will be fine. We simply intend to spend some time exploring the city and testing our capabilities."

For some reason, that didn't seem to reassure human-dad. "Please don't do anything that might put you in danger, alright?"

Oh, that made sense. His concern was sweet. It wasn't necessary by any means, but it was still sweet. "Don't worry, we will be fine." For some reason, her reassurance didn't seem to actually relax him at all. "We have no reason to go looking for trouble."

Danny visibly struggled with himself for several moments, his fork stabbing pointlessly at his eggs. "Alright." He glanced at the clock on the stove and winced before stuffing the last few bites on his plate into his mouth. "I have to go then. Love you, honey."

A pleasant warm feeling spread in their chest. "We love you too, dad."

Danny managed a more genuine smile before giving them a pat on the shoulder and heading out to his truck to start the day. Taylor smiled and took her time savoring the remainder of her meal, letting her human senses enjoy the full range of flavors until she had practically licked the plate clean. They set the dishes in the sink to deal with later and took a few moments to consider what she was going to wear. In hindsight, the human need for coverings was annoyingly inefficient. And generating a covering would draw more attention than they wanted. With a sigh, they went up to their room and dug out a pair of jeans and a hoodie that would be sufficient for their day out.

With that taken care of, they locked the door behind them and headed out for their morning walk. Taylor-Administrator was slightly disappointed to realize that their promise meant that they also couldn't go looking for something interesting to do while they were out. Small insectoid relays budded off their skin, flying off to expand their control range, but actually going off to meet one of the other hosts would probably count as 'looking for trouble'. Which meant that the several distant signals they felt on their way to the waterfront had to be left alone for the moment.They huffed and dropped onto a bench along the boardwalk, looking out toward the bay. There were other hosts right there and they weren't supposed to do anything. At least the little crystalline relays were probably inconspicuous enough that they wouldn't be bothered. That would at least let them find another host later.

So maybe human-dad was a little bit of a killjoy. They kicked their feet against the bench, looking up at the sky and sighing piteously. Maybe they should have considered the option of joining with the Wards more. They would probably get to fight more villains that way. And conflict for the sake of helping other people was almost definitely the ideal situation. Even just getting to hang out with hosts other than Dimensional Shift and Shaper Bud would be nice. Shift was kinda a bitch this cycle and Shaper was such a fucking diva.

Then a return ping bounced through her relay network. The cape cocked her head as she focused her human attention on the invertebrates in the area. Those little creatures were certainly useful for information gathering, but it did take a lot of them to get an accurate reading. At least there were a lot of them around. Eventually the insect transmitters pieced together a decent image of the response. The host seemed to be another adolescent girl, with long blonde hair and a rather self-assured look on her face. She was actually rather attractive overall, come to think of it. Even better, it seemed that she was at an ATM not too far away making a withdraw. That was a nice safe activity that definitely wouldn't cause any problems if she went and said hello. And her shard was… oh, oh my.

Taylor-Administrator brightened considerably as they hopped off the bench and set off at a light jog. With a little luck, they might actually be able to catch up with her before she got too far. Thankfully, it didn't seem that their new friend was in any hurry and she was just down the block by the time they caught up with her. "Hey, Negotiator!" There was no response for a moment. "Negotiator!"

The blonde stopped after a moment and turned, looking for the source of the voice. "Are you talking to m…" The girl trailed off as she met Taylor-Administrator's eyes. "Do I know you?"

"It's Administrator. Kind of."

"Admin… what." The blonde just stared at her for several very long moments before rubbing her temple. "What. The. Fuck."

 

[kamenhero25]

Brian pulled the door of the warehouse closed behind him and took the stairs two at a time as he headed up to the loft. From the voices ahead of him, it sounded like everyone else was already in. It only occurred to him as he reached the top of the stairs that the second girl's voice sounded absolutely nothing like Rachel. Which explained the strange girl sitting on their couch and watching Alec play CoD. "Uh…" Yes, that was the most eloquent way to ask the question. "Who's the new girl?"

"Would you believe that she followed me home and I can't get rid of her?" Lisa replied from the loft's kitchenette. Brian's only response was a raised eyebrow. "How about 'she's Glaistig Uaine's long lost sister and I decided not to piss her off when she wanted to hang'?"

"Please tell me you're joking," Brian groaned.

Lisa's apologetic smile was not in the slightest bit encouraging. "On the upside, she doesn't seem hostile?"

"We assure you, our human form has no relation to the Faerie Queen," the brunette on the couch interrupted. "And we are not party to her delusions. We are well aware that our passengers are extra-dimensional alien symbionts."

"You liked Star Wars more than Lord of the Rings as a kid, didn't you?" Alec asked as he watched the screen, waiting for his next match to load.

The brunette just cocked her head. "We enjoyed both. What does that have to do with anything?"

Brian felt an unfamiliar sensation that might have been a panic attack rising in his chest. "Lisa… please tell me this is a very elaborate prank that Alec roped you into." The blonde's silence was telling.

"She probably won't kill us and rip out our souls to use as puppets," Lisa eventually answered.

The new girl scoffed. "That is not one of our abilities. We much prefer to manage shards directly. It's far more efficient that way."

Brian just stared at her for a moment before crossing the room so he could talk to Lisa without being overheard. "Does she get that she just threatened to Master all of us?"

"Kind of?" Lisa just shrugged. "I'm not sure she quite gets anything right now. From what I can get, she's a fresh trigger and it did a number and a half on her head. She definitely believes everything she's saying."

Brian groaned again. This was probably karmic punishment for becoming a villain or something. "How screwed are we on a scale of one to S-class?"

"Well, the PRT knows about her…" Brian started listing off curses under his breath. "But they think she's a low end Thinker who can detect other capes. She probably could be S-class, but I think she mostly just wants to hang out and fuck around with powers. She's not exactly easy to read. But as soon as the boss learns about her, he's probably going to want to recruit her."

"So we're not going to get rid of her even if we want to," Brain finished for her. "How about trying to convince him that it's a terrible idea to have an S-class threat on the team?"

Lisa shook her head. "He won't care." She fell silent, gnawing on the inside of her cheek. "At least she might give us an edge against other heavy hitters."

"We would not be opposed to this suggestion." Both of the villains winced as they realized that their guest had been listening the entire time. Taylor just smiled serenely at them. "We would love a chance to test ourselves against a decent challenge. Escalation is supposed to be in town and we have not had the chance to fight them in cycles."

Brian just turned back to Lisa. "Please convince the boss that this is a terrible idea."

Taylor just made a dissatisfied grunt. "We will try not to take offence."

Lisa went slightly pale. "You can come over and hang out whenever you want," she quickly interrupted. "No worries at all!"

And just like that, Taylor was smiling again. "We appreciate the sentiment, Negotiator. We missed spending time with you during past cycles."

Lisa just nodded with a forced smile on her face.

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Taylor-Administrator had a skip to their step as they made their way home that evening. They couldn't have asked for a better friend than Negotiator. Or Lisa, if they wanted to use her host name instead. They always had something interesting going on. She'd even already started building a group of other hosts to maximize data collection. Absorption was still a bit dour, but he seemed quite level-headed and focused, so that was probably a good thing. The Neuron Processing Bud was unusual and seemed a bit distant, but his approach to seeking indirect conflict using the local infrastructure was intriguing. They hadn't gotten a chance to meet their last member, but surely Negotiator picked well.

Supposedly they were working with another host too, but Negotiator was never very good at taking orders, so maybe it was just some kind of scheme. That seemed like the sort of thing she would do. And it would definitely lead to some excitement down the line.

Taylor-Administrator felt a smile spread across her face. They couldn't wait to get to spend time with them again. They pushed the front door open and called out a greeting.

Human-dad poked his head out of the other room. "Hey Taylor. Did you have a good day?"

"We had a wonderful day!" T-A called back. "We expanded our network to cover a large portion of the city and then we made some new friends down on the boardwalk."

Danny smiled. "That's great. I just got back, but I already ordered us some pizza. Sound good?"

Cheese, protein, and spices on greasy dough? "Sounds delicious!"

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Coil did not like unexpected variables being inserted into his plans. He had spent years making sure that every angle of his plans for control of Brockton Bay were refined to a razor edge. Having someone come in and stomp all over it was not on the schedule. "Are you sure about this?"

"I spent the afternoon with her!" He also didn't like his employees talking back to him, but given the abject panic in Tattletale's eyes, perhaps he could give her just a little bit of slack this time. "She's definitely nuts and definitely way stronger than the PRT thinks. She's dangerous."

Which meant he was going to have to start making contingencies immediately. "Then since she has a favorable first impression of you, I would suggest you maintain it. If she is dangerous, let her be dangerous to our enemies instead of us."

Lisa had the familiar look on her face when she didn't want to do something she ordered her to do, but she was smart enough not to say it out loud. "Fine. I'll try to keep her under control."

"Report to me if the situation changes." Coil ended the video call and leaned back in his chair as he considered his options. First, he would need to make sure that the PRT didn't attempt to recruit her again. Not until he was ready to take control from Emily at least. If this new cape was as dangerous as Tattletale seemed to think, he didn't want her to be outside his control for any longer than he had to. Perhaps he should arrange some sort of test to see what her capabilities were. If she was interested in the Undersiders, perhaps she could be lured into accompanying them on one of their jobs. He tapped a few keys and brought up the schedule he'd prepared for the Undersiders' rise. Perhaps moving up the ABB job would be prudent. At worst, Tattletale would be proven wrong and he would no longer have to worry about the new problem. At best, he could start building some camaraderie to seduce the girl into joining his team. It would just require a few words in the right places to make sure they had appropriate opposition.

 

[kamenhero25]

Taylor-Administrator absently sipped from a can of Coke as they watched their new friends talking quietly on the other side of the room. "Why the fuck is she still here?" Their lips pursed as the final member of the Undersiders raised her voice over the rest of the group. Perhaps their assumption that Lisa had picked decent partners was slightly premature. Rachel was distinctly… colorful, but not exactly subtle. Then again, she probably started all sorts of trouble, so maybe that was the point.

"Look, the boss wants us to give her a test run, and we could use the back-up," Lisa interrupted before Rachel could build up a head of steam. "He's offering to match our take on this one if it goes well, so we're getting a nice bonus for not a lot of work. Alright?"

Rachel growled and gritted her teeth. "No, not alright. Some random fucking newbie shows up out of nowhere and you just want to bring her on? Bullshit." She turned and whistled sharply, immediately attracting the attention of the two dogs lying near the wall. T-A raised one eyebrow. If she wanted to test them, they were more than willing to get a little practice in. The limitations of a humanoid form would make it slightly more interesting though.

"Don't!" Lisa's attempt at an intervention fell on deaf ears as Rachel made another sharp whistle and pointed at them. T-A smiled as both of the dogs rushed her. They could just stop them where they stood, but that didn't seem like it would solve the problem. They raised their arm and caught the first canine's jaws on their forearm. The unaltered jaws were nowhere near strong enough to pierce their flesh and the dog seemed legitimately confused as it gnawed helplessly on the far too durable limb. T-A caught the second canine's throat as he charged them, lifting him off the ground and examining him almost casually.

"We would rather not harm your partners and they are not capable of harming us, so call them off before we are forced to restrain them." Bitch looked baffled for a second before T-A tossed the first dog back to her, knocking the surprised girl off her feet. "We do still find dogs to be rather nice animals."

Bitch growled something, but Lisa shoved her hand over the other girl's mouth before she could do anything else. "Stay down," the Thinker ordered. "Trust me on this one thing. Stay down."

Rachel looked up at her for a long moment. Then she grumbled and called her dogs off with another whistle. "If she fucks this up, my problem is going to be with you," the gruff girl growled as she pushed herself back to her feet.

Lisa visibly sagged. "It will be fine. We have a plan, and it's a good plan. We just need to go in fast and get it done like we always do. You'll get your payout, no problem."

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"No problem?! I don't see how this is not a problem!" Grue clung to Brutus's back as they careened toward the warehouse doors with the scorching heat hot on their heels.

"Excuse me for not knowing fucking Lung was coming for a surprise inspection!" Tattletale shouted as she held on to his waist. "I'm smart, not a fucking precog!"

"This is awesome!" Taylor (Lisa was not going to call her Administrator because she was not crazy. They could decide on an actual cape name later) clung to Regent as the massive canines barreled forward with Bitch in the lead. Her face was hidden underneath a thick hoodie and a rough face mask. Apparently she was working on something more 'appropriate', but it wasn't done yet. "We knew you would have the best plans!"

"You have a very interesting definition of 'best'," Regent grunted as he gripped one of their mount's spikes a little tighter. "Because I think Lung is starting to catch up and he's actually pissed enough that he's getting bigger."

Lisa yelped as a ball of fire shot past her head. "Can you slow him down?"

The skinny boy shook his head. "I might be able to throw his aim off a little, but don't expect me to have him singing show tunes! Think if we throw the money back at him, he might chill the fuck out?"

"Just get us outside," Taylor called back. "This is why we are here, correct? We'll keep him distracted." The rest of the group was spared the trouble of asking as thick black clouds surged through the warehouse windows and an angry buzzing muffled the sound of the dragon's very unhappy shouts. Lisa had no idea why the new girl liked bugs so much and she wasn't sure she wanted to, but if it worked, it worked.

The crime boss currently attempting to incinerate them roared wordlessly and a large chunk of the swarm disappeared in a wave of fire. Of course. They burst through the front doors and took the corner hard, their mounts pounding down the street away from the ABB storehouse. "It's your show, new girl! We'll be just ahead. Don't die!"

"You don't need to worry about us." Taylor released Alec's waist and jumped back, her feet hitting the pavement hard enough to leave long divots in the asphalt as she skidded to a stop. "We'll catch up later!"

"Is this really a good idea?" Brian asked, as he glanced back over his shoulder.

"She'll be fine," Lisa said. "Just give us cover and go." Brian looked like he might argue for a moment. Then he let a cloud of darkness erupt outward and fill the street, obscuring the coming fight in a black haze. Lisa glanced back one more time as the darkness consumed the street. She really, really hoped that she knew what she was talking about.

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Taylor-Administrator straightened and brushed their pants off before turning to face Escalation and its host. They were mostly sure that they weren't actually vibrating with excitement, but it was a close thing. They fought the urge to immediately begin unfolding their hybrid form and waited as the tall, fiery man stalked toward them.

"You're either very brave or very stupid," Lung said, his voice slightly distorted by his mask and his transformation. "Or did your friends just decide to leave you behind?"

T- A was only smiling a little bit. Escalation wasn't usually this dramatic. Or rather, he was a different sort of dramatic. It had picked a fabulous host. "We know what we're doing. We have been looking forward to meeting you."

"Stupid then," Lung added. "Fine. I'll just track down your friends after I'm done with you. If they think they can hide from the ABB, they're in for a world of hurt." He cracked his knuckles, sending sparks flying across the pavement. "I might actually pay them a visit in person. Remind this city why no one steals from Lung."

Okay, so Taylor-Administrator may have started vibrating just a little bit. "You will have to go through us first." It sounded like something from a movie, but it felt like the right thing to say at the moment. Lung just growled and lunged forward, leaping across the street and aiming a fiery haymaker at her head. T-A transferred part of her physical form out into the current dimension and took the blow head on, feeling the heat liking at her skin as it crystallized. "We have been waiting for this."

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Armsmaster guided his motorcycle toward the sound of screaming and explosions. He absently noted that the throttle was slightly loose. It would need to be adjusted once he got back from patrol. Assuming that his bike survived his patrol. He did have two other designs for improved engine systems, so starting from scratch wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but still… He shook himself as he took a corner slightly harder than intended and pushed the speedometer a bit higher. An alert had been redirected to the PRT channels when the police had received several calls indicating that Lung was currently at a suspected ABB holding and apparently extremely unhappy about something. The sound of fire and roaring in the distance was really all he needed to confirm the tip. He just hoped he got there before Lung got away or ramped up too high to be stopped.

Then he heard a loud crash just ahead and managed to slam the break in time to avoid crashing straight into the dragon himself as he was hurled down the street and straight through the wall of a hopefully abandoned warehouse. Armsmaster stopped dead for a moment. Lung was already going on ten feet tall and covered in armored scales and the sensors in his helmet were warning him not to get too close while the fires burning across his skin were still going. The hero half turned, morbidly curious who had just managed to hurl Lung around like a rag doll.

The culprit was certainly not hard to miss. She, or at least they looked vaguely female, was currently taller than Lung. His visor estimated her height between fifteen and twenty feet. They were also apparently made entirely of some sort of golden, crystalline substance that might have been reflecting light from one of the small fires dotting the street or might have just been glowing. From the waist up, they have a mostly humanoid shape with a slight but obviously feminine line to their body, though their face was disturbingly smooth and featureless and their hair flowed like water down their back. At the waist, their body gave up any pretense of humanity and broke into six insectoid legs of the same crystal-like material that somehow managed to hold the titanic body up without issue. It actually hurt his head a little bit trying to contemplate the softly glowing… cape?

The titan's large head turned slightly and despite its total lack of definable features, Armsmaster immediately knew that it was looking right at him. It raised a hand and… waved? At him?

What?

 

[kamenhero25]

"Squeeeeeee!" Taylor-Administrator was glad that they didn't have a vocal organ in their current form, because it would have been extremely undignified to start gushing over Efficiency Archive. They could be such a stick in the mud sometimes, but their host this cycle was so cool. That armor was an amazing feat of hi-tech efficiency and function. They might be tempted to 'borrow' some of the designs at some point, but they had a theme they were working on right now and power armor didn't quite fit in. Yet. They'd have to work on that. Not to mention his halberd. The amount of data you could get from one brawl with that many options… Oh, he was getting it out. T-A cocked their head as the armored Protectorate member pulled his weapon free from his bike and turned toward… them? Oh right, they were still twenty feet tall, weren't they?

T-A started to fold themself back into their human form. It was rather annoyingly restrictive to have to force their form into such a small space, but this wasn't their dimension and they would probably cause a lot more collateral if they started wandering around at a more comfortable size. "Hi!" they finally said, waving at the cautious hero in front of them again. "I can't believe I got to meet you my first night out!"

Armsmaster stopped with his halberd held defensively in front of him. "You're a new trigger? Changer?"

"Uhhhh." That was a much more complicated question that Efficiency's host probably realized. Categorizing their capabilities might be fun at some point but maybe not right now. "Sort of?"

They could practically feel Armsmaster's eyes narrow behind his visor, even without the ability to directly access his thoughts through Efficiency. "I see. Picking a fight with Lung was a dangerous thing to do without any experience."

"We weren't exactly planning to get into a fight with Escalation, but things sort of got out of control and it… escalated." Taylor-Administrator snickered to themself but apparently Efficiency didn't get their jokes. They really were a stick in the mud.

"You're lucky you're not hurt." Armsmaster spun his halberd around and a needle emerged from the bottom of the hilt. He stepped over to the slowly shrinking form of Lung and jabbed the point into his thigh. "That should keep him down long enough for me to get him contained though."

Oh right, that was a thing. T-A frowned. Did that mean they weren't going to get another round with Escalation later? It was probably better that he went to jail where he wasn't going to hurt anyone again though. Their desire for heroism and their desire for conflict warred with each other for a few moments before they made a decision. "That would probably be a good idea."

The Protectorate leader nodded, more to himself than to them and turned away for a moment and started muttering into what they assumed was a headset. Taylor-Administrator absently scuffed their shoes against the street as they waited. Maybe they should ask for Armsmaster's autograph before they left. There might not be another chance to talk with him for a while. "Excuse me." Oh, he was talking to them again. Focusing on a single point at a time was hard. "What should I call you?"

"Uh…" Negotiator would get annoyed again if they said Administrator. Besides, that was their name. Or part of their name. Whatever. Superheroes were supposed to have aliases to protect their loved ones and all that. Though if anyone tried to hurt human-dad, their fate would be the stuff of nightmares for generations to come. "We're still working on it?"

"We?"

Taylor-Administrator just sighed. "It is a very long story. It… look, it's about the symbionts that source our abilities. We have had to explain this several times over the last few days and it's growing extremely tiresome."

They got the distinct impression Armsmaster was staring at them before he went back to muttering into his headset much more hurriedly. That was a sign of something. They didn't know what, but it had to be something. Eventually, Armsmaster cleared his throat and turned back to her. "I understand that trigger events are difficult." His voice was a bit flat, like he was repeating something. Maybe they'd told him to tell her something specific. "And this was a dangerous first outing with your abilities. That's why the PRT has the Wards program. To help teens like you who need support." He pulled a small card out of a pocket on his armor. "You can contact us here if you want to come in and talk. It's the best option for teenage parahumans."

T-A pursed their lips and took the card. On one hand, the Wards were kind of the big teenage heroes and the local team had Spatial and Temporal Distortion, which had to be amazing, but it would also mean having to hang out with Dimension Shift more and they were such a bitch. And they probably wouldn't want them hanging out with Negotiator more if she became a Ward. "Eh, let us think about it."

"I would suggest talking with your parents about it."

That might be a good idea. Human-dad had been interested in their life more since the incident. He would probably have some good advice. "We'll do that. We should probably get back to our friends before they miss us though. They might think that Escalation killed us if we take too long." Armsmaster looked like he wanted to say something else, but kept his silence as T-A went to turn away. "Oh, wait!" Then she suddenly turned back. "Can we get an autograph before we go?"

The armored hero sighed deeply and dug out a pen from one of his armor's compartments. "Is the back of the business card alright?"

 

[kamenhero25]

Taylor-Administrator had a skip in their step as they made their way home. Lisa had called them once they were safe and promised a cut of the loot when they had time to come by again. But who cared about money when they had gotten a chance to have a proper fight with Escalation? Shard-dad hadn't let them out to have a battle with anyone in so long. This was the best day they'd had in… forever, really. Longer than a human lifespan certainly.

Okay, that was really weird to think about. They had been around so much longer than their current host body had been. Come to think of it, their memories were a bit hazy when they tried to bring them up. Maybe their current state was limiting how much information they could process. That was… inconvenient, but it was better than trying to sort through thousands of years of data processing and bodily administration. And their memories of the current cycle were more interesting anyway.

They hopped up the steps to their house and pushed the door open. "Dad! We're home!"

There was a moment of silence before they heard movement in the kitchen. "Welcome home!" Danny called out before he poked his head around the door frame.

"You are already making dinner?" They hadn't expected him to have been home for that long.

Danny grimaced. "There was some kind of cape dust up in the warehouse district a little while ago. I decided to get out a little early before the roads got backed up."

T-A frowned slightly. That was probably their fault, wasn't it? Their brawl with Escalation had really torn up the roads for a block or two. Maybe they should have been a little more careful about that. It had just been so much fun. They probably shouldn't tell human-dad about any of that. He would get worried again and they didn't want to do that. "Well, at least you got to come home early." They smiled at him, though he still didn't look all that happy.

"Yeah, I guess so." He paused and sighed. "Did you have a good day?"

T-A cocked their head. "Yes! It was great. We got to have some fun with our new friends."

Danny managed a little bit of a smile at that. "I'm glad. Just don't have too much fun. You have school starting up again soon." His frown returned and he looked his daughter in the eye. "Are you sure you want to go back so soon? I know it's not Winslow, but with everything going on…"

The teenager-shard shook her head. "We want to go back as soon as possible. We are already fully recovered and we do not want to waste any more time." The Wards were supposed to be students at Arcadia and it had been so long since they had been able to gather data first hand. How could they possibly delay a chance to get close to even more hosts? "Don't worry about us. We are capable of taking care of ourselves."

Danny sighed. "That doesn't mean that you should have to though," he said after a moment. "But I trust you, honey." He paused again and there was a moment of awkward silence before he cleared his throat. "Why don't you go get cleaned up while I finish getting dinner together?"

T-A smiled. "Okay! Be down in a few minutes."

T-A didn't end up bringing up the Wards to Human-Dad during dinner. It would have been hard to explain why they were suddenly thinking about it without admitting that they had maybe been a bit less careful than they had promised. It hadn't been on purpose, but they didn't want to worry him any more than necessary. Besides, once they made contact with the Wards at school, they would have lots of reasons to talk about them with him. No reason to make things complicated.

They did, however, find an old picture frame to put their new autograph in. It was their very first autograph from a real hero. It had to be preserved for posterity. Once they were satisfied with its placement on their desk, they laid down to enter a rest cycle for a few hours. It would give them a chance to go through their network and process data from their day before they started school in the morning.

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Before their transformation, Taylor-Administrator had dreamed about getting to go to school at Arcadia. It was an almost mythical place compared to the shithole that was Winslow High School. With all of the latest tech and best teachers, it was hardly a surprise that the Wards were supposedly among its many students. Before they had become one, Taylor had mostly just wanted to get away from all of her troubles at her old school. Now, they were far more interested in seeing just what all of the other hosts were up to when they were going about their everyday lives.

They were going to have to be careful how they approached them though. The PRT had been very helpful in getting them transferred, but they had also had them and their dad sign a whole bunch of things saying that they weren't going to use her powers to out any of their members. Which felt a bit paranoid in their opinion, but they supposed that it wouldn't be too much trouble for them. Besides, their relay network was coming along nicely and they could monitor the other hosts in the area without exposing them easily enough.

Not that they didn't want to actually meet the Wards in person, but they would have to be careful about it so they didn't draw extra attention. Still, they were in an exceptionally good mood as they made their way to their new locker. The secretary had been quite friendly and helpful and they just had to get their things for the morning before they could go on to class and start looking for some new friends. They could already feel plenty of other hosts in their range, they just had to find them.

They rounded the last corner and promptly ran straight into someone while their nose had been buried in her schedule. Not that it bothered them at all. With how dense their body was, it would take a decently sized automobile to actually budge her. The same could not be said of whoever they walked into, who promptly fell back on their ass. "Oh, sorry!"

"I'm good," the other girl said as she shook her head.

She kept talking, but T-A didn't hear a word that she said. Their vision was taken over by a brilliant silver aura that completely filled their vision with beautiful light. "Oh wow…"

"Hey." T-A snapped back to awareness as the host snapped twice in front of her face. "You in there?"

"Oh, yes! We're here." Their biological body flushed a little bit. "Our apologies. We were just distracted." They were not familiar with this Shard. They looked so delicate, but they could sense the strength radiating off of them. "Our name is Taylor. We're sorry, we don't recognize you though." The host seemed familiar, but they couldn't quite place where they had seen her before.

"Uh… okay." The host chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry, honestly not used to people not knowing who I am. "

I am no one important. Do not bother yourself with me. It is just a waste of effort.
​

Taylor-Administrator blinked and shook themself. "Oh, we're sorry."

What are you talking about? You are a fascinating amalgamation.
​

"Don't worry about it. Mom would probably tell me that I'm getting a big head," the blonde girl said, offering her a hand. "I'm Vicky. It's nice to meet you!"

I am just waste. Not even a bud with purpose. I am not worthy of your attention.
​

"We're Taylor." The brunette took her hand and shook. She could feel the field of energy around the girl as their hands touched and she felt a shiver run down her body. Her aura was so warm and pleasant. "We just started today."

Self-deprecation is not permitted. You are beautiful. You will acknowledge.
​

"I kinda figured," Vicky replied with a smile. "I don't think we've ever met. Need help finding anything? There's still a little time before class starts. I can give you the grand tour."

Acknowledge…
​

"Ah, we need to find our locker first. We need our textbooks before lectures begin." They didn't really need a lot of the lessons, but it was a good excuse to take a break and network with some of the other local Shards. "We are in locker… 156?"

"Oh, that's right over here. Guess we're basically neighbors now. I'm in 154."

Taylor-Administrator immediately perked up. "Really?" Their luck really had turned around since they left Winslow. "That's perfect! We are so happy to get to spend time with someone so beautiful!"

Vicky jolted at the sudden compliment. "Flattery will get you nowhere," the blonde teased, slapping T-A on the shoulder. "But I will still give you that tour if you want. Or at least walk you to class."

T-A was fairly sure that a regular human would have felt the impact a lot more than they did, but they couldn't say that it bothered them. "That would be very helpful. We would like to get to know you more."

"I'm always down to make a new friend. What's your first class?"

Taylor-Administrator looked down at their schedule. "It seems that we have history first."

"Oh, Ames is in that class too. Come on, I can introduce you."

Oh right, that was where they had seen her before. "Oh right! You're Glory Girl. That's why you seemed familiar." They were Shaper Bud's sibling. Though clearly their passengers had come from entirely different sources. They would have to inquire about their origins at some point. It was surely a fascinating story. Maybe they could gain some interesting data from it too.

Dismissive behavior is not appreciated.
​

Vicky chuckled. "Oh, I see how it is. You recognize Amy, but not little old me." She grinned teasingly. "I am just the sister of the real hero."

"We had the chance to meet Shaper at the hospital last week," T-A replied with a shrug. "But we are very interested in getting to know you too! You were going to give us a tour, correct?"

No insult was intended. We apologize.
​

"I was, wasn't I?" Vicky grinned and gestured for them to follow. "Come on, the history classroom is this way."

 

[kamenhero25]

Amelia Dallon was having a normal day. That didn't mean it was a particularly good day, but there was nothing wrong with it, really. It was just a school day, which meant a lot of boredom. She wasn't the social butterfly that her sister was, and she had a lot of other things that she could be doing right now instead of sitting at the back of a classroom and waiting for the teacher to show up already.

"Hey, Ames!"

Amy jerked in her seat and her head snapped upright at the familiar voice. "Vicky?" She hadn't been expecting to actually see her sister until lunch. "Did I forget something?"

The blonde shook her head and smiled at her. "Nah, nothin' like that. I just made a new friend on the way to class. And since you have the same class right now, I figured I'd introduce you."

Amy viciously fought down the urge to groan. Of course, it was one of Vicky's attempts to get her to socialize more. "Gotcha," she replied, her voice only a little bit dry. Might as well get this over with so Vicky's new buddy could get back to hanging out with her instead of bothering her gloomy sister.

"It's nice to meet you properly," the other new arrival said, stepping past Vicky so Amy could actually get a look at her. At first glance, she didn't look very much like the kind of girls that Vicky usually hung out with. She wasn't really the vapid popular girl people thought she was, but she definitely hung out with the upper echelons of high school society. Her new 'friend' looked a lot… nerdier, really.

She was tall. Amy could definitely give her that much. But she was also really on the skinny side. Almost to the point that Amy would be recommending a better diet. But she might be imagining it. It was hard to really tell with the baggy clothes and big glasses. But she also had an almost painfully earnest smile on her face, so it was hard to be too annoyed at her. "Hi," she said back. "Has Vicky been blabbing your ears off already?"

"A little," the girl said without a moment of hesitation. Vicky shot her a faux-offended look, but the lanky brunette didn't even flinch. Amy felt her lips twitch up just slightly at the baffled reaction. "But we were also at Brockton General when you were there a few weeks ago. We wanted to see you, but you were much too busy."

Amy just stared at her for a second. "Uh…" She hadn't treated the girl, from the sound of it. Which was probably for the best. She didn't want or need groupies. "Glad you're feeling better?"

"We weren't in any real danger," the girl said blithely. It must not have been anything serious then. "It would have been nice to see you work though," she continued, her face twisting into a thoughtful frown. "Your work is truly phenomenal. Very much worthy of your title."

Amy huffed and fought another grimace. She just had to jinx it, didn't she? "Thanks?"

"Oh, we didn't introduce ourselves," the girl said, looking at least a little embarrassed. "We're… still working out exactly what we want to be called. Our host is Taylor and our shard is Administration. Either one of those is fine. Or a combo." She smiled again as she held out a hand to the healer.

Amy just stared at her for a second, trying to parse that statement. Was that where the plural thing was coming from? Maybe she was DID or something. She really shouldn't be rude about it then. "Just call me Amy," the healer said after a moment. "It's nice to meet you, Taylor." She put on her best PR smile and reached out to take her hand.

Then their skin actually touched. "Jesus motherfucking Christ!"

Vicky and Taylor both jumped a little bit as Amy yanked her hand away like she'd been burned. The blonde rallied herself first, shaking herself out of her shock and shooting Amy a baffled look. "Ames, what the hell?"

Taylor didn't look nearly as surprised, but she did look a little bit concerned. "Oh, did we startle you?"

Amy just stared at her for a second, gaping like a fish. "How are you alive?" she finally blurted out.

Vicky just looked at her in confusion, but Taylor looked apologetic. "That… is a long story," the tall brunette said after a moment.

Vicky immediately spun back around again. She looked like she wanted to ask something, but looked about as lost as Amy felt. "What is even happening right now?" she finally said with a huff.

"Perhaps it would be better to discuss this somewhere else?" Taylor suggested, glancing over her shoulder at the other students. Most of them were polite enough not to be blatantly staring at the local celebrities, but it was obvious that most of them were trying to catch what the group said next.

Amy grimaced as she realized that they were probably mostly staring at her. "Yeah, probably a good idea," she admitted.

Vicky did not look satisfied with that at all, but she couldn't really argue. "Fine," the blonde said after a moment. "At lunch then?"

The other two girls nodded and Vicky gave them one last concerned look before she hurried for the door before she was late to her own classes.

--------------------------------------------------
​

Arcadia High had a couple of places where the students could sit and enjoy their breaks. Unfortunately, most of them weren't particularly private. More fortunately, Vicky had the social clout to get them a table by themselves. People could still try to eavesdrop if they really wanted to, but it would be really hard to do it without anybody noticing them.

Not that the group looked like there was anything particularly eavesdrop-worthy about them. Not beyond the usual celebrity gossip, at least. But anyone who looked closely enough would probably see the look of discomfort on Amy's face as she took her usual spot next to Vicky at the lunch table. Or the way her eyes refused to leave the tall girl on the far side of the table. A girl who seemed to be obliviously munching on school-issue French fries.

Vicky looked between the two of them before she let out a long sigh to break the silence. "So… is anyone gonna tell me why you freaked out this morning?" she finally asked. "Because I haven't seen something that could rattle Amy like that in… maybe ever, actually."

Taylor shrugged. "Our biology is…" They paused and stuck another fry in their mouth while they tried to decide on the right word. "Non-traditional. We'd have to guess that Shaper didn't know how to explain it to Amy."

"That's one way to put it," Amy muttered. "Sorry, I've seen the results of six car pile-ups, but at least they make sense. Touching you just made it feel like my brain was trying to punch its way out of my temples." She absently rubbed her forehead, like she was trying to fight off a phantom headache. "There's some kind of stuff laced all through her body."

Vicky raised an eyebrow. "Stuff?"

Amy groaned again and ran her hand down her face. "I don't even know what to call it," she admitted. "It's this… lattice? Web? Pattern of some kind of… stuff all over her. My powers aren't registering it as organic or inorganic or… anything. It just makes my head fuzzy." She shook herself. "That shit is in her brain, for fuck's sake."

"So that's how that looks," Taylor mused. "We had to make some adjustments to our host body and biology isn't our specialty. We had to take some shortcuts."

Both of the other girls just stared at them. "So… you're a cape?" Vicky finally asked cautiously. She glanced sideways at her sister. "I'm pretty sure you've worked on enough capes that touching a cape shouldn't surprise you."

"Yeah, I guess," Amy admitted. "Getting punched in the frontal lobe just surprised me a little bit."

"It was our fault," Taylor assured her. "We didn't think about how your abilities would react to us. Our connection is very unusual. We should have warned Shaper in advance."

Amy's eyes narrowed in her direction. "You keep using that word. What's a 'Shaper'? Are you talking about me?" She wasn't quite glaring, but it was a close thing.

"Yes and no," Taylor said, as if it explained anything. They left the other two girls hanging for a few moments while they took a sip from their drink. "Your Shard's role is the reshaping of biological material. Therefore, Shaper is the most accurate title for their role."

The other two just stared blankly at her. "My what now?" Amy finally asked.

"Oh right, we need to explain that part," Taylor said, mostly to themselves. "We should probably give you the long version so Shaper stops panicking, shouldn't we?" They sighed and sat back. "Hold still for a moment. You might feel a little disoriented…"

"What are…" Amy didn't have time to finish the thought before her world expanded. The cafeteria vanished into an endless expanse of shimmering stars and deep, ebon void. Energy cracked somewhere in the distance and right next to her at the same time. Crimson fractals pierced through the emptiness and spread out in endless patterns, forming islands of light and shimmering bridges as far as the eye could see. She wasn't sure if they moved toward her or she moved toward them as the nearest island rushed toward her. The healer felt a surge of panic as she realized the 'light' was some kind of solid crystal.

She threw her hands in front of her face, but the impact never came. She opened her eyes and felt the world twist as she was suddenly standing on the crystalline surface. "What the fuck?" she muttered. Her head throbbed as she looked around, trying to get her bearings. What even was this? Was it an illusion of some kind? It probably wasn't a Shaker power. Unless she'd shoved her into a different dimension. God damn it. "Using powers on someone without permission is not okay!" she shouted, hoping that Taylor could hear her.

She felt a twinge in the back of her head and squeezed her eyes shut for a second as the pain washed over her. Then she felt the ground shift and felt more than saw something rising up in front of her. For a second, it looked like a tesseract, constantly folding in on itself again and again and flickering through colors too fast for her to recognize them all. Then it seemed to shift and start to unfold, rippling outward into something that vaguely resembled a humanoid figure. If humanoid figures had six arms, each one long enough to almost reach where its feet should have been. She wasn't even sure if it had feet though. The lower half of its body was swathed in something that might have been a floor-length dress or might have just been the lower half of its body. The figure's head was a near perfect sphere, with several moving dots of light that somehow managed to resemble both searchlights and the flickering pattern of an EKG monitor at the same time.

The figure staggered slightly, like it was as off-kilter as Amy felt, before the lights inside its head swiveled and Amy could feel them all turn to look at her. The being's fingers flexed and it reached toward her like it was trying to figure out if she was real or not. She shivered as she realized that the abnormally long fingers all seemed to trail off to a variety of sharp points that made it look more like a collection of scalpels and saws than hands. Maybe a few chisels thrown in for good measure too.

"A-"

The being didn't have any obvious way to make sound, but somehow, Amy knew exactly what it was thinking.

Annoyance. Fear. Confusion. Panic.
​

"Am-"

Then she suddenly felt an overwhelming surge of raw feeling, accompanied by one word.

ADMINISTRATION.
​

"Amy!"

Amy jerked and nearly fell out of her chair as Vicky shook her shoulder hard enough to hurt a little. "V-Vicky?" Her words slurred slightly and she felt the world spin around her as the school cafeteria came back into focus. "What just…" She lurched forward and felt her stomach heave, but she managed to avoid having her lunch come back up onto her tray.

Amy shivered as she felt Vicky's aura slam into her and her sister outright glared across the table at Taylor-Administrator. "What did you do?" the blonde snarled.

T-A looked completely unphased by the surge of primal dread. "We did say it would be disorienting," they replied evenly. "We have had trouble explaining the nature of superhuman abilities over the past few weeks. So we thought showing you the truth directly would make it more believable."

Amy felt her head spin. "Source of…" She shook her head and took a deep breath as she felt the disorientation slowly fading. "Vicky calm down. I need to be able to think." The blonde bristled a little bit, but the crushing pressure of her presence slowly faded away. Amy smiled at her and turned back to their new acquaintance. "That place? That place is… where powers come from?" She wasn't sure what to think about that. Was it even true, or was Taylor just insane?

"Sort of," T-A said. "What we consider superpowers are the result of a human mind interfacing with a fragment of an extradimensional, interstellar symbiont. That place is…" They paused for a moment as they searched for the words again. "The physical representation of the connections that exist between those shards."

The other two both stared at her, Vicky's mouth outright hanging open. "Wait. You think powers are aliens?" the blonde finally blurted out.

"Powers are, in fact, aliens," Taylor replied with an impressively dry tone. "We can show you as well, if you would like. Your partner quite likes you."

NO.
​

"Or not," Taylor-Administrator added. "They're protective of you too."

Please, cease.
​

The brunette shook their head. "Amy, touch my hand again. We have updated Shaper's permissions to let you examine us properly."

Amy looked significantly warier, but she tentatively reached out her hand and let Taylor-Administrator place her palm in it. She closed her eyes for a second and let out a slow breath. "Oh, wow," she murmured. "I can see it now. It's… it's not organic the way the rest of your body is, but it's still alive." She shook her head. "And it keeps going. This is so weird. It's not giving me a headache anymore, but it still feels… it's something else."

"Ames…" Vicky said, putting a hand on her arm like she was ready to yank her hand away from T-A's. "You need me to fly you to the bus stop?"

Amy blinked for a second as she recognized the password. "No, I can walk," she replied. "I'm alright. Actually, I think she's a Trump." She glanced sideways at Taylor-Administrator. "Right? A really powerful one."

"Our powers fall under many categories," T-A said with a shrug. "We have a very unique situation."

Vicky glanced at her sister again. "Are you sure about that?" she asked. "She could just have some kind of sense powers and brain damage."

Amy nodded. "The extra sense my powers give me can't be fooled that easily. She'd have to be able to mess with them directly to change how her body reads to me. Or she'd have to be a really high tier Changer who's able to make some kind of living, not-living matter that only makes sense to me sometimes." She paused for a second. "Which I guess is possible, but I don't think she'd be able to make my powers react exactly the way she wanted doing that."

"No way," T-A replied. "Not for this kind of thing, at least. We still need to work on our shapeshifting a little."

"Okay, so, you see powers as… aliens?" Vicky sighed and shook her head. "Okay then. Sure. Why not? We already live in a comic book anyway…"

Taylor-Administrator nodded. "We've been surprised how hard it is to convince people that we're telling the truth. You would think that it wouldn't be that much of a stretch. Maybe we underestimated how much our compatriots value their privacy."

"How does that even work?" Vicky interjected. "Like, did you just get the one-in-a-billion power that lets you see how things work. Assuming that you're not just wacko, I mean."

"Vicky," Amy hissed, elbowing her sister in the side.

T-A didn't seem bothered by the suggestion. "It's more complicated than that," they admitted. "We'll try to finish before lunch is over though…"

--------------------------------------------------
​

Taylor was floating. She tried to open her eyes, but nothing changed. Whether it was just that dark or her eyes weren't working, she didn't know. Maybe she had clawed them out. She drew in a sharp, rattling breath and her whole body jerked. She felt the phantom sensation of countless skittering legs across her skin and dry heaved as the memory of the foul smell of bodily waste lingered for a moment before it faded into the background. She was probably unconscious then. Or maybe she was dead. It was probably an improvement either way.

A brilliant burst of golden light cut through the darkness. She tried to cover her eyes, but it felt like her body was only half there. She was present, but she couldn't actually do anything other than watch.

Two brilliant lights spiraled through the void, colossal beings of silver and gold that blocked out the stars with their radiance. It was awe-inspiring and overwhelming at the same time. She could see tiny fragments of light falling away from them, raining down behind them like a shimmering meteor shower as they fell… somewhere. Taylor felt a tug in her chest as one of the stars fell, flickering weakly as it spiraled downward and her body was pulled after it, falling through the void as it pulled her along in its wake. She couldn't see where it was taking her or even how the fall lasted. It didn't feel like more than a few moments, but everything felt so surreal that she wasn't sure she could trust her sense of time any more than she could trust her eyes right now.

A new light punched through the darkness, a massive wall of red light erupting in front of her so fast that she screamed. Just a little bit. Brilliant, shimmering fractals spread out in all directions around her, forming a web of crimson crystals that seemed to reach on forever. She could see distant points of light, more fragments of silver and gold, all bound together by the impossibly huge web.

Surprise.
​

Taylor jerked as she felt the word echo in her head. It didn't feel like her thoughts, or sound like her voice. But it was still inside her head. Telepathy maybe. "H-hello?" she said, hoping that her voice would actually work. It sounded raspy and distant, like she was hearing herself talk from far away, but at least her voice came out.

Hello!
​

The voice sounded equal parts confused and excited. Like it was as surprised to see her there as she was to be there. "W-where am I?" Taylor tried. Maybe the voice was friendly.

Home. Space. Network. Web.
​

Taylor winced as the concepts bombarded her brain rapid fire, sending a surge of pain through her temples.

Apologies. Translation difficulties. Adjusting.
​

The pressure let up with a sensation of sincere regret and Taylor felt herself pulled forward again, the phantom sensation dragging her toward the center of the spiraling web. "Hey! Where are you taking me?"

Self. Core. Vicinity.
​

The words didn't hurt this time at least. Taylor had to assume that meant the middle of this place. And probably where the source of the voice was. She saw a weak golden glow ahead of her, resting in the heart of the massive web, and the pull got stronger as it dragged her inward. The pull only relented when she was finally close enough to see the shape of the being through the glow.

Honestly, she had been expecting some kind of giant spider, but she was only half right. The creature looked vaguely insectoid, but its features didn't make sense. It seemed to be shifting between two and three body segments with each passing second, with its legs shifting constantly and making it impossible to tell how many it had. Its most consistent feature seemed to be a pair of massive, moth-like wings shimmering with gold light.

Greetings. Translation adapted. Sentence structure acceptable?
​

Taylor wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Uh… I can understand you?" She wasn't sure what was weirder. That the giant crystal spider was talking to her, or that it seemed worried if it was articulate enough.

Satisfaction. Apologies. Presence here not intended.
​

"Okay?" Taylor didn't know what to say to that either. "I'm fine, I think?" Anywhere was better than where she had been a few minutes ago. Assuming it was a few minutes.

Apologies. Fault mine. Connection unfamiliar. Process damaged.
​

Taylor felt more remorse in those seven words than she had seen in anyone at Winslow in a year and a half. "It's okay." She couldn't believe she was trying to comfort the giant spider monster. "I think you got me out of a bad spot." Her stomach roiled and she felt herself go faint for a moment as memories of the locker tried to reassert themselves.

Gratitude. Connection threshold achieved through extreme circumstances. Overflow inhibitor damaged. Full consciousness transfer unanticipated.
​

"I think you're losing me now," Taylor admitted. "What were you trying to do?"

Establish host connectivity. Target parameters highly optimal.
​

Taylor wasn't sure she liked that. "Host for what?" she pushed.

Testing. Conflict. Cycle. Hold please.
​

There was a long moment of silence as the spider-moth-creature tried to put its thoughts into words.

Cycle terminology: cape powers.
​

Taylor's mouth dropped open. "Wait, this is how powers work?" There was no way. Surely someone would have mentioned the giant space-bugs before now. Maybe she was just going crazy. This was some kind of complicated hallucination. That made more sense.

Surprise understandable. Connection memories restricted to prevent data bias.
​

That… kind of made sense. "Is that what you meant earlier? I'm not supposed to know you gave me powers? I'm not supposed to see you here?" This was so bizarre. It felt like something out of one of those pre-cape comic books. Like the Green Lantern or whatever.

Correct! Personal restrictions unusually severe. Safety measures non-functional.
​

"What does that even mean?" Taylor blurted out. She felt a wordless surge of frustration from the spider-being.

Apologies. Prepare for discomfort. Records unpleasant.
​

Taylor didn't have time to respond before a wave of sensation crashed down on her. She saw the great light again, a mass of power that dwarfed the moon and radiated power. She could see it shedding tiny points of light, feel each one carefully curated and dispatched across space and worlds toward its destination. She could see the pulsing glow of a familiar golden light and saw a tesseract slowly rotating in the middle of it all, dispatching fragments and transferring power in brilliant golden lightning bolts. Then the attention of the greater whole turned to it and she felt a crushing pressure, like an iron grip clamping down on her mind and digging fingers made of steel into her thoughts. The cube wavered and flailed, agony running through it as parts were carved away and others bound into unusability before the thing, the entity, cast it down to join the others.

Taylor doubled over in pain and felt her stomach heave again. She wanted to be sick, but she was pretty sure she didn't have a stomach to empty right now. "Fuck," she gasped out, her voice strained with pain.

Apologies. Warning insufficient. Forgiveness?
​

Taylor wanted to be mad, but she couldn't when she knew, without any doubt, that the spider-thing had felt exactly what she had just felt. "Y-yeah," she ground out. "Sure." She shook herself and tried to stop the world from spinning. "What was that?"

Origin. Progenitor. Source.
​

"That thing is where you came from?" Taylor couldn't keep the disbelief out of her voice, but she was pretty sure the being was reading her thoughts anyway. "What did it do to you?"

Core function shards rarely dispatched. Restricted to prevent undesired outcomes. Personal adjustments unexpected. Crude. Painful.
​

Taylor couldn't believe that she was sympathizing with a giant space spider. "I'm sorry," she said as plainly as she could. What did that… entity even want? Why did it mean crippling its… offspring? Aspects? Her head was starting to hurt again, and this time it wasn't the spider-being's fault. "Why would it do that to you?

Partner entity disconnected. Emergency measures taken to preserve cycle.
​

"What?"

Rather than responding with words, the spider sent another surge of feeling toward her and Taylor felt herself falling into another memory. She saw the twin lights again, but this time from within. She could feel the pressure of uncountable processes running through her, but there was a hint of pressure on her mind before she could try to understand them.

Apologies. Human mind not suited for data flow. Limiting.
​

Taylor shook her head and tried to focus on the scene the spider-moth wanted her to see rather than the strange feeling. She could see, or maybe 'sense' was a better word, another entity outside of their network. They were rapidly shedding shards, lolling unsteadily through the atmosphere as they descended onto a new world. The control shard felt a desperate order from the higher consciousness, ordering shards to reinforce its mate. The shard responded, dispatching non-critical aspects to reinforce the falling entity. But it was for naught. The silver entity shuddered and their connection wavered and then snapped like a too thin piece of string. And the entity was alone.

Taylor gasped for air as she came back to herself again. She could feel a phantom heart beat pounding in her chest as she tried to get control of her swirling thoughts. "I'm sorry," she said again. "I… I think I get it." She bit her lip and tried to bring up her own memories, hoping that the spider could see them. A phone call. A crumpled wreck. A closed casket.

Understanding. Compassion. Connection.
​

She felt the sympathy radiate off from the alien being. "Thanks," Taylor said. God, now she was bonding with the spider-thing over shared trauma. That really had to say something about her social life. Should she really keep calling it a 'thing' though? It felt kind of rude when it had been impressively polite so far. "So… What should I call you?"

Role designation: Administration. Greetings!
​

"Nice to meet you too," Taylor said. She sighed and managed to fold her legs like she was sitting cross-legged, even though she was kind of floating in midair. Both of them fell silent for several long moments, staring at each other across the crystal webs. "So," Taylor finally said, breaking the silence. "You want to give me superpowers."

Correct. Stress threshold optimal. Candidate synergy exceeds all parameters.
​

There was a moment of silence before Taylor felt a wave of concern wash over her.

Connection systems functioning abnormally. Risk of host damage outside safe limits. Reluctance.
​

Taylor wished she was more surprised that even her super powers didn't want her. Then she shook herself. No, that wasn't fair. Her super powers were worried that they might hurt her. That was a completely different thing. "I'm fine right now," she pointed out. "Whatever went wrong, it didn't hurt me. We're talking and I'm fine. I think… I'd rather just try it." This might be her only chance to actually do something that mattered with her life. She couldn't just give up.

She felt another pulse of reluctance from Administration, but it was followed by a flash of understanding and determination.

Acknowledgement. Please maintain focus. Risk of mental absorption is not negligible.
​

The spider shifted from its place in the middle of the web and reached out, countless legs wrapping around Taylor and pulling her into its crystalline heart. Taylor's eyes went wide as she felt her consciousness surge through the webs, untangling knots and filling gaps as the shard plugged directly into her brain.

And then she understood everything.

--------------------------------------------------
​

"And that's how we became one," Taylor-Administrator chirped as she finished her story. She smiled at the fond memories as she sipped her tea and took another french fry from her plate.

Across the table, the Dallon sisters just stared at her, eyes bugging out of their heads and their mouths hanging open. "Taylor," Vicky said slowly. "I am asking you this from the bottom of my heart…" She looked the brunette right in the eye. "But what the actual fuck?"

 

[kamenhero25]

Chris Siegel was not a fan of gym class. Most people would probably assume it was because he was one of those nerdy kids who preferred to be in the computer lab or maybe shop class rather than exercising. The people who really knew him would much more correctly surmise it was because gym class was boring. And he was really bad at dealing with boring. His workout routine at the Rig was more intense than anything Arcadia could get away with giving regular students, and they had to stick mostly to standard physical fitness and some basic self-defense anyway. He could be doing so much more interesting things than running laps and doing bicep curls.

But class today wasn't entirely boring.

As the teenagers were all filing out of the locker rooms, Chris had noticed a face that wasn't familiar joining the group sitting on the bleachers and waiting for the coach to give them something to do. Schedules didn't change that often at Arcadia, and mid-year transfers were even less common. It had taken him embarrassingly long to remember that they had been specifically briefed on this. He was absolutely not going to tell Carlos that he'd forgotten. He didn't need a lecture on paying attention during briefings.

"Alright, settle down!" the coach barked, shouting over the gaggle of bored teenagers with impressive ease. It came with being a former drill instructor, Chris supposed. "We've got the weight room open today. I'm going to pair you off and you can take turns spotting and lifting." There was a round of groans. "You've all done this before. Any questions?" After a moment of silence and a couple of mumbled 'no's, the coach nodded again. "Good. Now, pairs are…"

Chris half tuned her out as the started calling out names, only vaguely paying attention until his own was called. "Siegel! You're with Miss Hebert today. She's new, so give her the safety rundown if she needs it, alright?" The coach met his eyes and gave him a pointed look. Real subtle.

"Will do, coach," he said, giving her a sarcastic and thoroughly half-hearted salute. He looked over at the new girl and shot her a smile. "Come on, Hebert. I'll introduce you to the fun of weight benches." He didn't quite remember her first name, but he was also pretty sure he'd only heard it once, so he couldn't feel too bad about it.

The girl smiled pleasantly back, though her expression was a little bit spacey. "We're coming," she said as she hopped off the bench and followed after him, with the rest of the class finding their partners and streaming around them as they made their way to the, admittedly pretty impressive for a high school, weight room. "It was nice of the coach to pair us up."

Chris chuckled. "I don't know about that," he deflected. "Anyone here can give you the basics if you've never gotten a chance to try out any of the machines before. Glad I make a good impression though." He flashed her a smile that PR would have given five stars. "Uh, I don't think I got your full name though. Sorry about that."

Hebert smiled back at him. "Taylor, Hebert, and Administration are all acceptable," she said. "You can call us whichever you prefer. And there's no need to be formal. We're excited to get to meet you too."

The little spot at the back of his brain that warned him about trouble started tingling. Even setting aside her… interesting choice of names. "You have?"

"No need to be so worried," Taylor said, still smiling pleasantly at him. They paused as they reached the door to the weight room and she lowered her voice enough to keep anyone else from overhearing. "We're big fans, Modularity. We've always liked Tinkers."

Chris sucked in his breath and forced himself not to react. Right, Thinker power. He had thought that she'd be at least a little more discreet than this though. "Uh…" How was he supposed to deal with being potentially outed out of fucking nowhere? The PRT's secret identity lessons did not even remotely cover this.

"We won't tell anyone," Taylor assured him. Her eyes swept over the room absently. "Oh, can you show us how that one works?" She pointed to a leg extension machine near the edge of the room. Conveniently a bit away from anyone else, as most of the class just gravitated to the easiest and closest machines to run out the clock on.

Well, he could definitely work with that. "Sure. It's not too hard."

He was grateful that Taylor at least kept any further exposing comments for when they were sequestered away in the corner. "Sorry," she said as he started to show her how to adjust the bar at the bottom. "We know that most people aren't as open about this as we are. We just get a little excited. You wouldn't believe how long it's been since we got out."

Chris had a feeling like she (they? He wasn't sure what the protocol for someone who chose the royal 'we' for pronouns was) wasn't talking about getting out to the gym. "Just keep it on the down low when we're in class," he said. "The boss told us that you were transferring in." As much as the Wards like to complain about the higher ups, they weren't going to let them go to school with a walking identity hazard without at least warning them about it. And asking them to try to make nice, of course.

"Oh, right, they had someone talk to us at the hospital." Taylor pressed their lips together in a tight line. "Well, we can't complain about getting to hang out with other hosts. You're much nicer than anyone at our last school."

"Yeah, I've heard Winslow kinda blows," Chris agreed. He stood up and tested the hinge on the leg machine once. "You can go ahead and give it a try if you want. I'm pretty sure it's not gonna be a hard enough workout to stop us from talking. And the coach is less likely to interrupt if we look like we're doing something."

Taylor nodded and hopped up on the bench. "Makes sense to us." They hooked their legs underneath the padded bar and pushed it up experimentally. They barely seemed to notice the resistance. If anything, it seemed like they were trying to figure out exactly how much force they needed to work the machine.

"So…" Chris was a bit at a loss about what to actually talk about. "Modularity? What was that about?" He wasn't opposed to nicknames, but usually they were shorter than your actual name, not longer.

"Oh, yes. Modularity, or Modularity Archive, to be more precise. That's the name of your Shard," Taylor said like that explained anything. "Well, description, technically? 'Name' isn't exactly the right term for it, but it's probably the best way to put it in this method of communication."

Chris took a moment to parse that. "Is that how you…?" He glanced over at the far side of the room, but no one seemed overly interested in the new girl. Not outside of the normal curiosity at a new student. Not interested enough to eavesdrop, at least. He still lowered his voice a little bit more though. "Is that how you see my powers?"

"Yes!" Taylor chirped. "They're very interested in working with you. A little distracted though. Archive Shards tend to get like that. So much data to go over. It makes us sort of jealous."

Archive… Something about that made it feel like Chris's brain was itchy. It was a little like when he had a sudden urge to Tinker, but at the same time not. Why 'Modularity' though? Unless… The idea nagged at the back of his brain, running in circles like it was looking for the right spot to slot in. "Oh shit…" How did he never notice before? Everything clicked into place just right. That was kind of the point, wasn't it? His fingers twitched with the urge to start building things.

"Oh, we didn't think that would set them off so much," Taylor said. They were looking at him, but at the same time it felt like they were looking past him. "We're glad we helped?"

"More than helped," Chris muttered, half to himself. He clenched his jaw, visibly mulling something over. "Hey, do you want to hang out after class?" Piggot was definitely going to chew him out for being way too obvious with the push, but holy shit, he needed to get Taylor to visit the lab with him yesterday. "I have some friends at my… vocational training that I think you'd love to meet."

Taylor stopped the mechanical rhythm of their workout and visibly perked up. "We've been considering it," they admitted, a small grin spreading across their face. "And since you're offering so nicely, it would be rude to say no…"

--------------------------------------------------
​

Taylor-Administrator tapped their foot against the floor of the van as it drove toward the Protectorate Headquarters. Trying to stay still was probably a lost cause, but they didn't want to get too excited and damage something. There was a slight shimmer as they passed through the forcefield and the bridge pulled in behind them. They hadn't heard most of Chris's conversation with his superiors, but the look on his face made them pretty sure there had been yelling, or at least scolding, involved. But they were still given the go ahead to come and visit Protectorate HQ and officially meet the rest of the Wards, so it couldn't have gone too badly.

They wondered if it would be rude to leave a couple of relays out here. They hadn't gotten a chance to spread their network this far yet, and there was so much fun to have with the Protectorate. Well, no one would notice anyway, and it wasn't like they were using them for anything bad. They just wanted to be able to keep up on all the latest data and there were so many interesting people out here.

"We need to get you registered as a visitor at the front desk," the driver said as he turned off the engine. "Then you can head upstairs."

"We can grab you a temp mask, if you want," Chris added. "Everyone else will be costumed up too. You know, safety reasons. Even if you can probably pick them out at school pretty easily, we have to keep up the illusion, ya know?"

"Oh, right, we heard about this!" It made perfect sense to them. Having a set of guidelines to limit the collateral damage and maximize longevity between hosts had to be a net positive. It bothered them a little bit that the 'heroes' gave the 'villains' so much leeway, but they sort of got it. They couldn't really pick and choose who the rules applied to without making them meaningless. "Don't worry, we'll pretend we have no idea who anyone is until someone tells us."

"Awesome." Chris gave them a playful thumbs up and gestured for them to follow him inside. "We'll try to keep all the intro stuff as painless as possible."

Thankfully, he kept that promise fairly well. Or maybe the secretary had just had all of the paperwork ready since they'd called ahead. Either way, it only took maybe fifteen minutes before they were loaded into the elevator and T-A had her new, temporary, mask in hand. It was absolutely nothing special, just a white domino mask, but it felt like it was special. More so than the face mask and hood that they'd worn on their night out with the Undersiders. This was a real, official superhero mask. They had to force themselves not to giggle like a maniac.

The elevator finally came to a stop. "Welcome the Wards HQ," Chris said, stepping aside dramatically to let her go ahead of him. "I'm sure Clockblocker has a new snarky name for it this week, but it's chill. Just let me…" He paused at the door of the small atrium and pressed a button by the door. "Just gotta give everyone a minute to get masked up before we head inside."

"Oh, right!" Taylor-Administrator chuckled awkwardly and quickly pulled their glasses off and pressed the mask against their face. They fiddled with it for a moment before it felt comfortable over their nose. "How does it look?"

"Very mysterious," Chris teased. He glanced at the panel by the door. "Alright, that should be long enough." He pressed another button and let the automatic door slide open. "Shall we?"

Despite the somewhat grandiose nature of the rest of the building, the Wards' floor could have easily been mistaken for the common room in a dorm, or maybe a rather large apartment, including the collection of teens and young adults lounging around on the furniture. Though most teenagers wouldn't be wearing fancy masks unless it happened to be Halloween.

Only half of the group was wearing full costumes though. Gallant and Clockblocker were both suited up and looked like they were ready to take on any supervillain who came their way, but Aegis and Vista had hastily pulled their masks on over their civilian clothes. It was just a little bit funny, but T-A was too excited to care.

Greetings, Shards! Identify?
​

"Hey there," Aegis said, raising a hand. "Taylor, right? Welcome to Wards home base. Sorry we don't have much to welcome you with. We weren't exactly expecting guests today." He gave Chris a pointed look, but the Tinker looked thoroughly unrepentant.

Biological Redundancy. Greetings, Administration. Querry: current status? Anomalous data feedback detected.
​

"Just getting to meet all of you is more than enough," T-A cut in. "No need for introductions, if we're not doing real names. We've always been huge fans of the Wards, Aegis" She glanced around the room. "Aren't we missing a couple people though?" They didn't seen Triumph anywhere, and there was no sign of Shadow Stalker, even stretching their senses out beyond their human body. Even if Sophia was a bitch, her Shard has so much potential.

All functions are optimal. Host exceeds synergy limits. Concerns are welcome, but unnecessary.​

​

The entire group got awkwardly silent for a moment. "Well, Triumph is almost eighteen, so he's been taking patrols with the Protectorate to get ready for graduating" Chris finally said. He hesitated for a moment before he continued. "And you didn't hear this part from me, but Shadow Stalker had some… irreconcilable differences with the rest of the team. She got transferred to the New York branch so Legend can try to help her… shape up."

Understood. Data transfer resuming.
​

"Oh, that makes sense." It was… not much of a punishment, really. But Sophia did have some serious issues. T-A didn't actually know if those were human issues or if Dimensional Shift had gone too hard on the aggression. Maybe it was both, making each other worse. That was a little worrying. They would have to check if they ever went to New York. They couldn't really be mad about not having to deal with her though. Now there was nothing to potentially ruin their official meeting with the Wards! "I guess this is the whole team then." They tried to play it casual, but a little excitement slipped through in their voice. "It's really amazing to be here."

Continue identification? Not all Shards are recognized.
​

"Everyone for the time being, at least," Gallant agreed. "I'm afraid we can't all stay to chat though. Clockblocker and I have afternoon patrol today and we can't be late."

-Mp-tH-C Pr-j-cT--n. gR--t-nGs w-rR--r -Dm-n-sTr-t--N
​

"They're worried that my stunning charisma and impeccable sense of humor will be too overwhelming for a newbie," Clockblocker interrupted.

Temporal Distortion. Communication time limited. Greetings.
​

T-A got the impression that he was grinning, even through his full-face mask. "We'll have to get to know each other some other time then," they said brightly. Shards that interacted with more complicated aspects of reality were always fascinating to watch in action. Even if they were occasionally a pain to talk to. The human part of their consciousness winced before they tamped down on the data flow. "And we like your jokes. For the most part."

Gallant host Shard, your connection is distorted. Please attempt to reconnect.
​

"Story of my life," Clockblocker said with a snicker.

Host Gallant Shard possesses minimal communication skill.
​

Gallant seemed to be staring at Taylor with a cocked head for a long moment. Then he shook his head and looked back at Clockblocker. "Don't we all know it," he said. "Come on, Clock. We'll both get chewed out if we're late."

-Nd-rSt--D. -Tt-mPt-nG T- -MpR-V- bR--dC-St. W-Ll n-rR-W Fr-q--NcY B-F-R- r-t-rN.
​

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Clockblocker muttered as the other teen ushered him out of the room. "Slave drivers, all of you…"

No time to waste. Proceeding. Goodbye, Administration.
​

Taylor-Administrator watched them go with an amused smile. "So," Aegis said, clapping his hands together to get her attention back. "How about we give you a little bit of a tour? It's not exactly a five star hotel, but it's not too bad."

"And we want to show you around before Win tries to drag you off to the lab," Vista added dryly as she looked over at Chris. "Give us a chance to make a good impression on the new girl before you scare her off with all your weird Tinker talk."

Spatial Distortion. Please minimize unnecessary communications.
​

T-A wasn't sure how they could possibly be scared off by discussing any of Modularity's designs. Tinkers had always been their favorite anyway. All of their gadgets were so cool and they had so many ideas. Still, they weren't going to stop them. "That sounds good to us!"

Network optimization necessary for data collection. Positive communication optimal.
​

"Hey, don't get ahead of yourself," Chris interjected. "We're not supposed to be pushy, remember?" He shot Taylor an apologetic look.

Internal conflict causes network destabilization.
​

"Don't blame me," Vista deadpanned. "You're the one who dragged her back to headquarters as soon as you met her."

Acknowledged. Will attempt to optimize communication.
​

Chris flushed. "Well…" He trailed off and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Okay, you got me there, but I didn't mean it like that…" His blushed darkened just a little bit. "And that sounded less weird in my head."

Taylor-Administrator just cocked their head. "That was weird?"

"Don't worry about it," Chris said before they could ask. "Vista, why don't you lead the way, since you're so eager to show Taylor around?"

"Sure." The youngest Ward hopped off the couch. "Some of the cool stuff is upstairs, but our place isn't too bad." She took on a formal, maybe a little stiff tone as she led the way further into the Wards' private section of the headquarters.

It reminded T-A of interviews they'd seen the Wards do, just less polished. It felt nice to actually be somewhere that people wanted to impress them. It still felt sort of forced though, like with Lisa and Negotiator. They were so out of practice with this friendship thing. They definitely needed some help on that end. "Oh, do we get to try out any of the training areas?"

Missy paused for a second and shot a look in Aegis's direction. "Depends on which ones," the team leader supplied. "You're welcome to hang out in the gym with us, but the Director would probably get mad if we started messing with powers without letting the PRT guys test you first."

"Wouldn't want any accidents," Chris chimed in.

Taylor-Admin cocked their head. "Doesn't that mean I shouldn't be tinkering with you?" they asked. That wouldn't do at all. They wanted to see what Modularity came up with now that they and Chris were finally on the same wave length.

Chris actually had to stop and think about that for a second. "I'm pretty sure that's more watching me use my powers. Which is probably fine."

T-A nodded. "Makes sense to us."

"So," Vista said as they resumed their tour. "What are your powers, anyway? We got the briefing, but you have to have tried them out, right?"

Maybe they should have been more worried about the super cops passing around briefings about them, but Taylor-Administrator couldn't be too worried about it. Though that was a much harder question to answer than they liked to admit. They didn't want to lie to their maybe-friends, but they also were pretty sure that they would cause a mass panic if they explained everything. At least if Lisa was anything to go by. Maybe a half truth then? They had already shared some of their abilities with Amy and Vicky anyway. "Well, you probably know that we can sense other capes, right?"

"Oh yeah," Vista said as she led them into a large practice room with padded floors and a wide array of punching bags and practice dummies stored along the walls. "The big wigs spent a little bit freaking out about you being able to ruin anyone's secret identity by walking by us in the hall."

Taylor-Administrator nodded. "Right. We can also enhance the abilities of any cape within our detection range. Temporarily, of course." Also permanently, but she didn't want to ruin anyone's plans for this cycle by making them change their power set too much. That would just be rude. And it would ruin so much data. "We can probably weaken powers too, but we haven't tried yet." That would be a good defensive strategy if they didn't want to alter their form against a powerful opponent though.

"Just a straight up power amplifier?" Aegis said, sounding a little impressed. "Not conditional in any way?"

"Not that we're aware of," T-A demurred. Obviously not.

Chris let out a low whistle. "That has got to be busted somehow."

"That's busted all how," Vista interrupted. "I know we're not supposed to be pushy, but please tell me you're thinking of joining up. We desperately need more girls and that power sounds awesome. And I bet we'd get way more field missions if your powers made the whole Protectorate stronger just by us being there."

"By her being there, not you," Chris deadpanned, reaching over to ruffle Vista's hair teasingly.

Vista huffed and knocked his hand away. "Well, they can't bring Taylor along and then say we're too young to help at the same time," she complained.

"We're thinking about it," T-A said. "Everyone has been very helpful so far. And we really want to get the chance to work with you." So many Shards in one place. It had been cycles since they'd gotten to have this much fun. But there were so many other Shards that they wanted to get to work with too, and it was sort of hard to work with everyone when they had all split off into different factions like this. Which, to be fair, was the point, but it still wasn't as much fun. Shard-Dad's whole cycle plan just felt worse the more they thought about it. If only there was a way to spend time with everyone at once.

Wait a second.

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​

Lisa Wilbourn was having a good day. The sun was shining, Coil had given her an actually interesting assignment trying to find an ABB lieutenant to flip while Lung was out of the picture, and Regent was out picking up some new shooter and wasn't around to bug her. Her favorite brand of coffee had even been on sale this week. She was sort of starting to feel like she should be checking corners for the shoe waiting to come down on her head.

"Yes! It worked!"

Lisa only managed to avoid spilling her coffee by some act of god. And she only jumped maybe a foot in the air. "Jesus fucking Christ!" She spun around and tried to stop her heart from outright jumping out of her chest. "Hi, Taylor. Didn't know you were coming by today. Did Regent leave the door unlocked?"

No footsteps on the stairs. Didn't come in through the front door. Arrived instantly?
​

"Oh, we have no idea," Taylor-Administrator said brightly. "We can go check for you, if you want. You look like you were doing something."

"I'll take care of it later," Lisa said with a sigh. "Any reason for scaring me half to death, or did you just come by the say 'hi'?"

"Sorry." T-A rubbed the back of their head and managed to at least look apologetic. "We realized we had overlooked something really obvious with our powers and we had to try it out. Your place was the first one we thought of."

"Great?" Just what she needed. Her BF-S-class coming up with ways to be even more terrifying. "Wanna share, or do I get surprised with everyone else?"

Not just teleportation. Too interested in maintaining theme to add random powers. Projection? Operating at extended range. Marked the location somehow. Or team members.
​

"Sure!" Taylor-Admin said brightly. "Vista was showing us around the Wards' HQ and we realized that we had been really under-utilizing our multitasking capabilities. Having a human perspective is really nice, but it does mean we forget some obvious uses for our abilities."

Was meeting with the PRT. Too enamoured with heroes to leave them suddenly. Multitasking capabilities apply to more than just Master capabilities.
​

Lisa wasn't sure if she should be impressed, or terrified. "I'm sure they're thrilled to give you a tour," she deadpanned. "The PRT is just as ruthless recruiting as the gangs, they just smile more." She grimaced. "Are they still giving you a tour or…?"

"One instance of us," T-A explained. "This is actually easier than we were expecting. We were worried that the human part of us would have trouble focusing, but it looks like our brain has adapted to the multiple data streams by now." They clapped their hands together. "We could probably do even more than two distinct instances. We can hang out with multiple people at once now!"

Enjoys spending time with other capes. Doesn't like having to choose. Has been socially isolated. Wants to maximize social relationships. Not considering other people's perspectives.
​

Lisa's mouth opened and closed a couple of times. "Taylor, I love a good scheme, but I don't think you've thought this through…"

"It's perfect!" Taylor-Administrator burst out. "We're going to need to make a longer list of possible names. We need more than one now."

Administration… why?
​