Just a Phase [Worm]

[SensibleMalarkey]

Eye's widen in surprise. Big dopey grin starts to spread!

*looks at date*

Eye's squint. Smile drops. Approaches cautiously…

It is!! A new chapter! Holy fuck!!! The PRT's special brand of kool-aid certainly worked well on Derek. Hey, Just arrest her! Such a viable solution for making a proper heroine.

Continue to love the setup of this story. The setting of Boston, the players featured in this chapter. That Taylor is unintentionally Yoda-ing her ways to other Wards. It's all so damn refreshing.

 

[SlickRCBD]

I meant the Federal Exchange Commission, which is actually the Security and Exchange Commission... Going back to fix it...

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Welcome to Big Government. So many alphabet soup agencies that you can't keep track of them all, and your typos are likely to spell out a legit agency instead of nonsense.
I'm just surprised there isn't a Bureau with the initials B.A.D. (so it would be Bureau A[something] D[something]). I suppose there would be too many jokes about B.A.D. government.

 

[DrWhoFan13]

I'm just surprised there isn't a Bureau with the initials B.A.D. (so it would be Bureau A[something] D[something]).

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Some governments would fit under B.A.D as an acronym: Bureaucracy and Democracy.

 

[SlickRCBD]

Some governments would fit under B.A.D as an acronym: Bureaucracy and Democracy.

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Wouldn't that be more like Bureaucracy And Dictator[ship[?

 

[PostwarGryphon]

Aside from the 'Let's do what Phase is doing!' That isn't going to work out at all. They don't have as much leeway as Taylor does

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I dunno, Piggot is being Piggot, so she'll back their nonsense if it means putting the child soldiers back onto the frontline.

 

[fanjdenj]

She does that and she becomes at the very least a runaway.
Any cop that IDs her will attempt to detain her on sight.
She won't be able to get a legal job to support herself as that requires giving proof of identity and eligibility to work.
She's have no choice but to become a criminal to survive.
Once she turns 18, she could still be arrested for those crimes she commits, and the PRT would then jump on it to draft her into the Protectorate.

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all of that is contingent of Taylor caring.

cops trying to detain her on sight? Not like they can do anything to her.

Unable to get a legal job anywhere? That's true no matter what thanks to nepia five, yeah that technically only covers stuff directly related to the Parahumans power but it's probably being stretched as far as it can in universe.

and if she runs she would have already decided to become a criminal.

and while the prt would certainly be trying to find her, her being a total thinking blind spot in an orginization that is heavily over reliant on thinkers means that them finding her in the first place would be hard enough. And al of thymus ignores that they just don't have any way to hold her. The only thing I could think of is either buolshit tinker tech deus ex machina or the cage.

again sorry for the tone.

 

[Nikas_Zekeval]

She does that and she becomes at the very least a runaway.
Any cop that IDs her will attempt to detain her on sight.

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And how will they hold her when the PRT can't?

She won't be able to get a legal job to support herself as that requires giving proof of identity and eligibility to work.

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Do the local vigilante laws allow Ghost to keep cash or such?

Once she turns 18, she could still be arrested for those crimes she commits, and the PRT would then jump on it to draft her into the Protectorate.

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To quote Ender's Game? "For officers we need volunteers." Gauss and Armstrong are trying to avoid such strongarm tactics. Getting her to attend Ward tours is about as far as they willingly pushed so far.

Also US law gets funky when you are dealing with charging an adult for crimes they are accused of committing as a juvenile. One, you have the statute of limitations, there is a set time limit between the crime and charging someone for it.

Also for Massachusetts? The adult is arraigned in juvie court, where a judge determines if A) there is probably cause the defendant might have committed the crime, and B) is it in the public interest to prosecute the now adult defendant for said crimes, and transfer the case to a district or superior court.

It is probable if Taylor's 'crimes' are low grade enough, such as delinquency from school, and minor 'survival theft'? That the judge decides, "No it isn't in the public interest to prosecute this." At which point, case dismissed and they can't file on the charges in an adult court.

 

[FirstSelector]

refuses to work for them in a plea bargain

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To be honest, I imagine that they would have to send her to juvie. Bringing her back just means that insubordination has no consequences.

She's have no choice but to become a criminal to survive.

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Ah yes, the "Ward-to-supervillain" pipeline

 

[Nikas_Zekeval]

To be honest, I imagine that they would have to send her to juvie. Bringing her back just means that insubordination has no consequences.

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Piggot: Wimp.

And I was asking if they at least be able to force testing anyway to figure out her power? Or is that only if they strong arm her into the Ward, and refusal is violating the plea deal?

Ah yes, the "Ward-to-supervillain" pipeline

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Something Armstrong and Gauss are trying to avoid, but not willing to do enough to actually get Taylor on board.

 

[Anor]

Missy thought Phase's overreaction was a load of shit, and as much as the others tried to hide it behind sympathetic words, they agreed.

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then we can get her back under a probationary membership

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The Protectorate should not bend over backwards for a disrespectful, insubordinate teenager!

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...*sigh*

Instead, Lisa was going to do what evidence suggested relatively few people did for Phase — ask the girl what she wanted.

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And that's why I hope Taylor will eventually team up with Lisa. Especially considering that in this story she fortunately avoided the fate of being forcibly recruited by a power-hungry sadist.

 

[ZeroK and Angel]

Glad to see one of my favorite stories back.
What I really think Derek just doesn't get, is that this is Taylor playing nice. Like, really nice, no fucks to give Taylor could, without powers, burn the organization to the ground just pulling off the mask and naming names publicly.

 

[Jen X]

Also also, 'making characters suffer so that they can be gay' is... certainly a take. Not one I've seen a lot of, though we may just read different things. Just because a character goes through shit in a story doesn't mean the author has to make them gay. And just because a character is gay doesn't mean an author has to make them suffer. Weird correlation to make, imo.

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I think the person you're quoting has just read way too many worm fanfics. Taylor's straight in canon, which, well, I'd argue certainly isn't devoid of suffering for her, and WIldbow explained that he decided not to make her gay or bi in part because of the difference in perception between queer victims and straight ones, and how their sexuality becomes a part of the metastory even if the character's preferences are unrelated. Or something like that, I forget the exact details.

For my part, I don't want romance here because I don't ever trust it to not feel forced and out of nowhere in worm fanfics. It's often along the lines of "Taylor never notices women/men, suddenly The Love Interest who's been around for a while flips the romance switch, and now she's attracted and the story takes breaks from anything relevant to show the author's projected wish fulfillment relationship"; this fic has had no presence of romance at all thus far, and I think it's best kept that way.

 

[FirstSelector]

Or is that only if they strong arm her into the Ward, and refusal is violating the plea deal?

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Sorry, let me be more clear. Taylor is ordered to power testing, she refuses. Thus, she is brought up on insubordination charges and violating her new probationary contract... only to be sentenced to either juvie or the Wards.

I would think that, in the event she took the plea deal, it would be with the intention of actually cooperating. In a world where she is forced into taking the plea deal, they quickly run into the issue of "discipline is meaningless."

 

[Melmar]

Ew, the BB Wards are the biggest brats. This is the most actually a shitty twelve year old Vista I've ever seen in a fic and it's a breath of fresh air. Hell, Vista cuts Sophia more slack in canon and Sophia's a sadistic asshole who likes to target her specifically.

Also, Nebula can go down to the store and pick up a six pack of Get Fucked. I hope one day it dawns on him just how screwed up "wHy IsN't tHiS ChIlD wE BoUgHt dOiNg WhAt wE SaY???" is.

 

[Flomulus]

The issue with Power Testing is that, no matter what a Judge orders, you cannot physically force someone to comply with it against their will. The only way to have someone undergo power testing against their will would be either a frontal lobotomy, or an outright Mastering. I have little doubt that the PRT wouldn't be willing to resort to those measures if push comes to shove, but as it stands, they lack the physical means to enforce such measures against Taylor.

Government bureaucracy, is, ultimately, reliant on a monopoly of force. Force that the PRT simply does not have. Even the bluntest instrument they have in their arsenal, Contessa, can't do shit to Taylor without risking her precious Path to Saving the World.

 

[Vanbers]

Sorry, let me be more clear. Taylor is ordered to power testing, she refuses. Thus, she is brought up on insubordination charges and violating her new probationary contract... only to be sentenced to either juvie or the Wards.

I would think that, in the event she took the plea deal, it would be with the intention of actually cooperating. In a world where she is forced into taking the plea deal, they quickly run into the issue of "discipline is meaningless."

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I mean, they've already forced her into the Wards.

They like... genuinely have little to no leverage on her, is their biggest problem.

Family? She gives no fucks about Danny anymore.
Being a Hero? Ship's sailed fam, she's VERY soured on being a Hero with the PRT,
Punishment duty? Both not an active Ward yet, and technically hasn't broken a single rule. Also VERY close to her Youth Guard representative, which the PRT probably discourages for this *exact* kind of reason.
Do X or Juvenile Detention? Her power both revolves entirely around escaping things, *and* has no known weaknesses. Good luck transporting/capturing/etc. her. Also, she would 100% choose juvie over working with them, that's the degree to which they fucked up.

Any 'we're sending you to Juvie' threat is equivalent to 'you're fired, go be a vigilante on your own terms' since she can like... nigh-effortlessly escape just about anything they use to try and restrain her.

They're entirely stuck, and I love it. They burned their bridges and now realise that they *really* needed to cross that river. If they push too hard, they literally can't stop her from leaving. If they push anything less than too hard, she'll just ignore them.

I absolutely love the quagmire they find themselves in. They just... can't do anything. And just cannot grok that fact.

 

[Dradel]

Nice to see Taylor was right to not trust them even a bit.

 

[michaelb958]

They're entirely stuck, and I love it. They burned their bridges and now realise that they *really* needed to cross that river. If they push too hard, they literally can't stop her from leaving. If they push anything less than too hard, she'll just ignore them.

I absolutely love the quagmire they find themselves in. They just... can't do anything. And just cannot grok that fact.

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And, most importantly, they 100% did it to themselves. How many chances did how many of them have to make a different decision and leave everyone at least a plank on a pylon? Many. It's like painting yourself into a corner, but in 5D. It's great.

 

[lackofgravitas]

piggot should have punished sofia and emma
failing to do that soured taylor
danny was pathetic.
Boston got the shitty end of the stick and have nothing to offer Taylor without resolving emma and sophia Taylor has zero fucks to give

 

[Anti-No]

Thing is... there is a lot of things the PRT COULD do. But they are all bad or horrible options that fit more into slaver operations than a so-called law enforcement organization. And of course - a lot of people in the PRT and Protectorate are actually of the impression that they are police. That they are heroes. Or at least heroes in training. A lot of the options the PRT has would... erm... risk personel starting to question why they are working for a villain organization.

One thing the PRT could have done was actually cleaning up their act, to at least avoid similar things happening again. But that would make Earth Bet less shitty, less likely to produce capes, and as such would probably actively be shut down from the head office, for reasons only obvious to Costa-Brown.

 

[riaantheunissen]

Well, mostly. There was no way in hell she was telling them about her scars.

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Now, if Wards get regular or semi regular medical examinations, stuff like her scars should be on file... And I cannot see that medical examinations are not mandatory for teens and pre-teens that join a government controlled super team. So either Youth Guard can't get access to files, Piggot is less than concerned when it comes to the wellbeing of her Wards (supported by the original story), the medical personnel employed by the Bay's PRT are incompetents or somebody has sanitized the files provided to the Youth Guard...

"Because, if Phase found a loophole that lets her get out from under the Youth Guard's thumb, we can too!"

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Honestly, I hope they screw up so that the Youth Guard has to take a closer look and Missy's scars come out. Unpleasant, but it might be better for all of them in the long run.

 

[WindCall12]

One thing the PRT could have done was actually cleaning up their act, to at least avoid similar things happening again. But that would make Earth Bet less shitty, less likely to produce capes, and as such would probably actively be shut down from the head office, for reasons only obvious to Costa-Brown.

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Oh boy do I hate that fanon. Cauldrons problem is that there are too many triggers and they disstablize the world. The last thing they want is more unstable capes.

Now, if Wards get regular or semi regular medical examinations, stuff like her scars should be on file... And I cannot see that medical examinations are not mandatory for teens and pre-teens that join a government controlled super team. So either Youth Guard can't get access to files, Piggot is less than concerned when it came to the wellbeing of her Wards (supported by the original story), the medical personnel employed by the Bay's PRT are incompetents or somebody has sanitized the files provided to the Youth Guard...

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It's not unreasoable that the Wards would get medical checkups when they need them. So Vista stayed quiet and slipped by.

Plus even if they did see that. It would probably been a too late to do anything so lets keep quiet about it and Vista would play along.

Hell they knew Vista is not allowed into Endbringer fights and all Vista needed to do to go to one was just say that her parents changed their minds.

 

[Blade4]

Ah a update.... I see stupid people. So many very very stupid people with shockingly little ability to emphasize or put themselves in others shoes.


A Lisa that never meet Coil but thinks she can pull a traumatized Taylor and the prt not jump them like a 1 ton gorilla in power armor. Wards who just want to fight and who cares two of their own are monsters. And the boston protectorate are no better than the villains they fight.

 

[Wivk]

Derek, Derek, Derek. You are still assuming Taylor doesn't hate and distrust the Protectorate and Wards enough, to choose going to juvie over taking a plea deal. And can the PRT force power testing on a teenage parahuman who chooses jail time over a diversion into the Wards program?

And this assumes you can even hold her at all...

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If they fuck up and send her to court she will demolish them at the jury trial and be out from under their thumb. If she loses and serves her sentence she is also out from under their control. If she breaks herself out they win, so I don't think that she would do that.

 

[RogueInquisitor]

Now, if Wards get regular or semi regular medical examinations, stuff like her scars should be on file... And I cannot see that medical examinations are not mandatory for teens and pre-teens that join a government controlled super team. So either Youth Guard can't get access to files, Piggot is less than concerned when it came to the wellbeing of her Wards (supported by the original story), the medical personnel employed by the Bay's PRT are incompetents or somebody has sanitized the files provided to the Youth Guard...

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It could be that their medical information is private and privileged data that the YG can't access, with very narrow exceptions that don't apply here.

 

[The Dude]

If she breaks herself out they win, so I don't think that she would do that.

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Nah, man... if she breaks out it means she's not just out of fucks, she's so far in fuck-debt she's going to have to declare fuckruptcy.

If she reaches that point, she's going redefine "winning" as "making them pay," which is going to probably involve pulling internal organs out without breaking the skin.

 

[Praetrunco]

Honestly, you could easily argue the opposite. Gauss being a natural trigger and sympathetic to Taylor's plight (that is, being forced to work for those who she believes responsible for her suffering) and Nebula being a vial cape who just can't empathize with her situation.

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Or it doesn't have anything to do with froufrou like that logic and some people are just dicks in certain ways.

None of what Gauss has said to Taylor directly has indicated she has genuine empathy or consideration for her agency, she just actually acknowledges the core issue instead of being deflectionist like everyone else and going "Well Boston didn't put you in a locker, so we're totally innocent even though we continued doing exactly what Piggot and the ENE did right when you got here."

She does that and she becomes at the very least a runaway.
Any cop that IDs her will attempt to detain her on sight.
She won't be able to get a legal job to support herself as that requires giving proof of identity and eligibility to work.
She's have no choice but to become a criminal to survive.
Once she turns 18, she could still be arrested for those crimes she commits, and the PRT would then jump on it to draft her into the Protectorate.

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And? When I was in highschool, I knew runaways and homeless kids who had no problem surviving in cities smaller than Boston.
If she chooses.
Even with NEPEA-5, that isn't true.
False.
I think you missed all the parts where that's never happening.

I dunno, Piggot is being Piggot, so she'll back their nonsense if it means putting the child soldiers back onto the frontline.

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Except if the YG gets unleashed again, and finds her explicitly subverting them, she's in actual trouble and can't pretend she did something meaningful but in actuality lied like we saw with kitchen duty.

Nevermind that as has been said, unlike Taylor, ENE is full of proper Wards, so they're in entirely different boats than Phase. They aren't privy to that protection, and if they piss off their boss's boss enough to get things changed so that Ghost suffers for it, what she brings about will likely make them hate being Wards just as much as her.

Assuming of course they aren't as stupid as Missy's internal dialogue was this chapter. Some of those lines were like they came from a polite Sophia.

 

[WindCall12]

Assuming of course they aren't as stupid as Missy's internal dialogue was this chapter. Some of those lines were like they came from a polite Sophia.

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Well MIssy is a bitter 12 year old who had her toy taken away from her.

 

[MovingTarget]

Also, Nebula can go down to the store and pick up a six pack of Get Fucked. I hope one day it dawns on him just how screwed up "wHy IsN't tHiS ChIlD wE BoUgHt dOiNg WhAt wE SaY???" is.

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Better make it a 12 pack

 

[tarrangar]

On other news, the BB Wards are about to do something stupid.
Taylor is in a Grey area and her power makes her untouchable, she is a Ward on paper. She has no power testing, no costume, etc, etc, etc. If they try to do what she is doing, 1 look at how they use their powers and Piggot will have their asses.
Unlike Taylor, they are full time wards and dont really have the same problems, nor the same compelling reasons (again i cant believe i am cheering for......Wait, is Gauss a Vial Cape? Because she sounds waaaaay too rational unlike Nebula) to pull an independent like she has......and shit will also hit the fan if the YG gets a whiff of the BB Wards trying to pull a Ghost.
They are going to end up with their collective lower halves in a vice grip. I guarantee that.

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There's also the bigger difference between them, namely that the Brockton Bay Wards like being Wards, while Taylor despise being a Ward, which mean that to the Brockton Bay Wards, being suspended from the Wards is a threat, for Taylor it is a reward, playing loose with the rules for a job, is much less risky when you actively want to be fired from it, as in that case, you only have to avoid doing anything that allow your employer to sue you or send you to prison, doing things that are firing offenses, but not something you can be sent to prison for, or be sued for a large amount of money for is perfectly fine, since being fired is you winning.

The Brockton Bay Wards in general don't want to be fired(or more likely suspended for a prolonged time) so their room to get away with stuff is significantly smaller, that's even moreso for Emma and Sophia, since Sophia is on probation and will go to Juvie if fired, and while I don't think Emma has been to trial, she has done things that a trial can easily send her to Juvie for, so she too need to remain a Ward to avoid prison.

Then the prt spend a few million on pr panting her as a nut job who made everything up, make it look like her actions killed a buch of people


Look I get it, the prt are the evil authority but if they go the world goes and frankly a organization in charge of saving a dying world from pepole with powers are being a lot nicer to her then I would, at this point I would ether explain that everyone that has powers has whent through something like what she did and she ether plays ball or gets removed as a threat

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Every person with power has not went though something like what she did, they have went though a trigger event like she did, but aside from villainous organizations who force slaves to trigger, having to work for the ones who caused your trigger event, is not at all common for capes.

Sure every cape has suffered, Taylors problem isn't that she has suffered, her problem is that it's the PRT that caused her suffering, and now they expect her to work from them.

Your statement is like saying, everyone in this organization has been tortured, so don't think you're special for having been tortured, completely ignoring that every other member was tortured by those the organization fight, while you were tortured by the organization, sure the others suffered as much as you, but they get to fight those who made them suffer, you're being forced to work for those who made you suffer, the 2 situations aren't at all comparable.

To be honest, I imagine that they would have to send her to juvie. Bringing her back just means that insubordination has no consequences.

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She's a minor, and it's not the military, insubordination isn't a crime, it's a firing offense but not a crime, if she was an adult, she could be sued for money for contract breaking, but minors can't be sued for reneging on employment contracts, so how would they send her to Juvie for insubordination in the first place?

They can dig up minor crimes to send her to Juvie, but unless the law is really weird in this fic, then insubordination isn't a crime outside the military, and even if the Protectorate is set up like the military, and so it's a crime for a Protectorate hero, Wards are minors, it would take a lot of law changes to make insubordination a crime for them, and doing it would exponentially increase how much the Wards could easily be painted as child soldiers.