Later on Taylor puts this poster up on her wall.
Gauss later came into her room to check for escape tunnels.
The PRT keeps confiscating all of her posters, and as such she is extremely jealous that Taylor found a loophole that lets her yet away with it.
Well Taylor does have a number of fans in the independent parahumans faction so who knows what kind of fan-mail she gets these days.
I want to point out that I wasn't advocating messing with the Wards more than picking movies that have some relevance to Taylor's situation when it's her turn to pick a movie.
Parahuman powers don't get stronger over time only specific capes like Dauntless and tinkers actually grow stronger and that's just how their powers work, and while parahuman powers do increase slightly when they are back in the same situation as their triggers that is just a temporary increase and the powers will go back to their normal strength after that event. All this progressing power you are talking about is just parahumans learning more about their abilities through training, experience, and experimentation the actual strength of the power rarely if ever actually increases outside of the parahuman having a second trigger which leaves them in a worse state than their original trigger thus needing more therapy in an ideal situation. Overall, getting the help they need a parahuman is likely to live longer and learn more about their powers and as such will be better in the field than a parahuman who never receives any form of closure from their trama.
And then you have cases like in canon where Taylor's abilities explicitly just kept getting an increase in range over time, because QA is a cheating cheater who cheats.
Exactly because in the end the trigger event doesn't really matter to the Shards other than serving as a means to give the host powers, and after that any fluctuations in a parahuman's strength is dependant on if the host does things that the Shard likes which can be summed up as gets into plenty of fights and uses power creatively so it wouldn't matter if the host seeks out therapy or anything so long as they keep using their power in new ways and fighting other hosts the Shard should remain pleased with them. As for QA well she is a very special case and besides she had 'Best Host' so naturally she was going to help out Taylor as much as she could.
Canonically Weld is trusting, almost always to his detriment (except when talking about M/S protocols, there he is properly cautious). We already hear in Emma's interlude that he and the BB Wards are keeping a communication line open regarding Phase, so some updates would be logical. That said, regardless of how trusting and indiscreet Weld is or isn't, there's no way in hell Weld would talk about Taylor being suspected of becoming a vigilante on any unsecured form of communication, the chance of it being intercepted either by a bad guy (in particular in the town where Accord lives), the PRT doing a security check (valid since they are talking about confidential information in the first place) or one of the many Thinkers who are trying to poke Phase is simply unacceptable high.
I imagine Emma would find out due to internet snooping, hell she probably knows about the disaster that was the Wards base tour if she has been following news about the Boston Wards. I also feel that Emma wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut about it to certain people so there might be a chance that Taylor does see some blow back about her hobby from the ENE department kicking up a fuss rather than anyone in the Boston department doing anything about it.
Emma can be discreet, in fact the current problems wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't able to shut up since even with the school covering up the bullying she would have benn caught long ago if she was careless about who to brag about what. If Emma somehow discovers that Taylor is moonlightning as a vigilante she will keep quiet until she can speak with someone she believes can keep the secret, which at this point of time is no one, particularly not Sophia after they split due to Emma feeling remorse.
True Emma can be discreet, but she has recently had everything she has done thrown back into her face so she isn't in a good place right now and can't really be relied on to make good decisions especially inregards to things involving Taylor so a slip up is within the realms of possibility. Perhaps she tells her dad and her dad tells Danny and Danny contacts the Boston office to ask what the hell is going on, just as an example.
Alan Barnes is a lawyer painfully aware of how vulnerable is Emma's legal position at this point in time, he is the last person who wants any gossip about Taylor leaked since not only his daughter is at real risk of going to jail, but he is also at direct risk since he was the Character Witness for Sophia and at best he was a little too liberal with his praise for the girl, and at worst he outright lied under oath so having his law licence suspended or worse is a possible outcome if Sophia or Emma get in front of a judge.
Piggot is not a serious threat, she has virtually no political capital at this point of time and would get into bigger problems than Armstrong if this gets in the open.
Maybe, but also maybe not because from what I remember there isn't that much of an investigation going on only some YG people looking in and even then it is very likely the situation gets resolved in house because so far there have been no charges formally filed against Emma or Sophia due to Danny folding like a house of cards and Piggot burying the situation best she can. There is also the chance he tells Danny about it to get it leaked as a means of distracting what ever investigation away from is daughter by pointing out what Taylor is doing, and while Alan is personally ashamed of his daughter that doesn't mean he won't throw an old friend under the bus to protect her hell he might flip against Sophia if he thinks it can get Emma a better sentence if the YG does find enough evidence to go after them.
Like I said with Alan she could possibly spin as a means to distract from her own problems by trying to shift focus onto Armstrong's department due to Taylor.
Emma isn't really in danger the way Sophia is, on account of how she isn't a probationary Ward, Sophia has already made a probationary bargain, and so if the truth come out, it's proven that Sophia can't be trusted to stick to a probationary bargain, and she need to be punished, to prove that probation isn't a get out of jail free card, it's a deal, and if you fail to live up to your half, you lose it, Emma however isn't on probation, and the crimes she committed, are within the limit of what capes will be offered probation for, so the consequences for Emma if the truth come out, is most likely just a probation agreement that place some restrictions on her.
I think the main thing that could get Emma in more trouble is the fact that she was a Ward when she commited her crimes, because its one thing for a civilian or independent hero to do what she did but its another when a Ward is caught breaking the law so the penalties are probably harsher as to set an example to others who think because they work with the Protectorate they can get away with whatever they want.
There is also the fact that when pondering the sentence the judge takes into account the motive for commiting the crimes as well as the behavior during the period, which is the reason why Emma's dad was so important as a character witness in Sophia's behalf. Commiting a crime out of sadism is a lot more serious that commiting exactly the same crime for economic reasons or in a fit of anger, also commiting a crime with a person under probation and knowingly encouraging, aiding and covering crimes that break the conditions of the probation is never seen in a good light by the DA or the judge, in particular since as a Ward part of the responsabilities are to report crimes, even off-duty, not commiting them herself.
That might make it somewhat harsher, but I still don't think they would take it beyond a long probationary term with some extra requirements, because they really want capes, and they have given capes with way worse crimes behind them probationary deals(Madcap breaking birdcage bound prisoners out.)
Yeah the motive is also important and I don't think a judge will accept 'I just wanted her to be stronger' as an excuse so she will get no points from that. But again that is all reliant on it actually going to court which the PRT is seemingly going out of their way to avoid because they know there is no positive way to spin it that makes them look good.
Madcap took a deal from Legend directly so I don't think an actual investigation or trial occured and Madcap was officially listed as missing with the rumor that the Protectorate made him disappear around the same time Assault showed up. As for the PRT's desire for capes while it may make it so they won't throw Emma out of the program I do suspect she would be in a worse position than Sophia was originally with the added fact of they now hopefully know not to make the same mistakes as they did with Sophia, but again it is Piggot's department so they might not and list it as a lack of resources as to why they can't keep a closer eye on their troublesome Wards.
She almost certainly would get a worse deal than Sophia got, but that's because Sophia got an overly generous deal, where only a single corrupt PRT agent was keeping an eye on her in her civilian life, Emma getting a harsher deal, is likely to involve more oversight, no turning a blind eye to unsanctioned patrols, and probably transfer to Arcadia, since the PRT is already watching that school much more closely than Winslow.
I remember a year or two ago that in Youtube a saw a Real Life video in which a bunch of teens accused of manslaughter after throwing rocks to a highway and causing an accident were in the court after accepting a plea deal with the local DA, it was much to their surprise that the judge, after reading their very irresponsible commentaries of how awesome had been the accident, on the way they decided to keep quiet on the accident and other factors, decided against accepting the deal and ordered that they would be tried as adults instead of juvenile court. It was obvious that both the teens and the lawyers from both sides were shocked, a stark reminder that the DA can offer only recommendations for sentencing and the last word comes from the judge.
That's technically true, but don't forget that a case can be appealed, which will be done by a separate judge, and the PRT have a lot of influence, if they fail at getting a judge that will allow a probation agreement, then they're perfectly capable of judge shopping for a judge that will.
Except that is not the Protectorate who is losing a cape but the Wards, and the Wards are not supposed to get into serious fights anyway, how motivated are going to be in the Protectorate/PRT to burn a large amount of goodwill with their preferred judges (including making an enemy of the original one) for an auxiliary that causes a lot more problems that she solves? Better yet for them to wait until she is out of juvie in order to introduce as a junior Protectorate cape than to deal with her directly for years under the watch of a YG who is already taking every possible opportunity to bench her anyway.
The problem with that is, she's already a problem case, and Juvie typically don't cause people to be more favorably inclined towards the government, so recruiting her at the end of her sentence is likely to be hard, recruiting her by offering to get her out of her sentence, has a far higher chance of working.
But to the point of wasting this amount of legal and political effort? Emma's powers are not Eidolon level, frankly are barely at Regent's known powers. They are not going to be of use against an Endbringer or an S-class threat, her background as a Ward is probably giving the legal department headaches about future lawsuits, currently her very presence in the team got the entire ENE Wards grounded by the YG as her primary victim is looking for ways to get her case to a jury as well as being a potential PR bomb that might set back the Wards Program as well as the Probatory Ward system for years.
That's not how the PRT is generally portrayed though, Emmas crimes are a good deal below the limit for what mean they wont offer probation, so they want her, they might not judgeshop multiple times for her, but they're probably going to make sure the first judge she comes before, is someone that are open for going along with Emma getting put on probation.